They're not bad; they're just drawn that way.‏

I don't think there is one thing that I disliked about last night's episode.
It answered questions, created some more, developed characters and featured
the best acting I have ever seen on Lost. Honestly, I know I've gushed about
Elizabeth Mitchell in previous emails, but she's really, really good.
(Especially after last week's average episode centered around the decent
acting of Evangeline Lilly.) Those couple of scenes with Ben - the first
with the news of his tumor and then in Mikhail's bunker - were riveting.

And even after the reveal at the end of the episode, I'm still with Jack (I
don't think I've ever said that). To an extent, I trust Juliet in a way that
I never trusted Henry Gale. (I call him Henry Gale because I think Henry and
Ben are two very different characters.) While I think they are setting up
Juliet as Henry Gale 2.0, ultimately, I think she's not really on Ben's team
or Jack's team; she's on Juliet's team.

And related to Juliet's motives, what if Jack is in on it too? Or what if he
was brainwashed a la Karl in Room 23? His explanation to Kate about keeping
his head down and doing what he was told seemed odd to me. I mean Jack's
never been Sayid with the questions, but I find it hard to believe that he
was there for days and never asked any questions to Juliet or Tom. Also,
it's gotta be at least 2 months since Claire's abduction and he didn't
question Juliet on the withdrawal symptoms. An episode that makes Jack
interesting again is something special.

So according to Juliet, women who get pregnant die, but Ben (or Jacob) can
seemingly sure cancer. And Juliet's there to fix the pregnant women dying
thing, and has had success only with Claire. But the Others still want
pregnant women, so does that mean that Kate could be pregnant? (As in they
orchestrated her and Sawyer's 'incident')

Is Sun's life in danger? Technically, if Juliet is telling the truth and if
Sun conceived while off the Island, then she's in the same boat as Claire
was. But if Jin is the father and they conceived on the Island, what does
that mean? Is the cure of cancer related to the decline in heath caused by
pregnancy?

Could there be another spy in the camp? Obviously, we don't know why Juliet
has infiltrated the castaways, but one guess would be because Sun is
pregnant. Who knows about that? Sun, Jin, Kate, Sawyer (he gave her the
pregnancy test) and maybe Jack.

Wouldn't it be awesome if Juliet killed Charlie? Or even better, if a
brainwashed Jack did? That would just turn everything upside down. Whatever
happens with Juliet and Jack, I think last week setting up Sawyer as leader
of the camp will become more important.

If I was stuck on the Island of Tortured Souls with those castaways, I'd
wanna be good friends with Sayid. Does anyone besides Ben have better
instincts then that guy? Especially during the last few episodes, they've
been focusing on what a great judge of character he is, especially compared
to everyone else. I wonder if that will become more important, or if it is
just there to reinforce his character.

I liked Batmanuel in the previous episodes that he's been in, but I thought
he was especially good last night. He's a different kind of creepy. Not
Ben-creepy or Ethan-creepy, he's got this smarmy nastiness about him that
really came across well last night. His nonchalance at telling Juliet that
he just put tranquilizer in her OJ was perfectly played.

While I never really had a problem with the first 6 episodes of the season,
I think that, regardless of how you feel, it was all worth it for that great
reunion scene. I especially enjoyed Sawyer and Jack reuniting. (And I think
Sawyer's description of Ben as a "bug-eyed bastard" was pretty apt.)

What may go down as my favorite line of the season: "I had the day off."
(Juliet to Hurley)

Is Jacob real? Is he a 'deity' of Ben's creation that everyone thinks is
real? (Maybe it's an acronym: Just Another Codename Of Ben's)

What I keep coming back to is Ben's line to Michael at the end of last
season: "We're the good guys." I obviously don't really know what that
means, but I do believe that Ben really believes it. While the Others may be
manipulative and potentially dangerous, I think they have (Ben has) a good
reason for not giving full disclosure. Since the beginning of this season, I
have been given no concrete reason to believe that the Others are as EVIL as
the castaways seem to think they are. Sure, they are cryptic and mysterious
(and the show wouldn't be as awesome if they weren't), but what bad have
they done to the castaways? All the bad that has happened has been the
castaways doing, one way or the other. The Others? Not so much.

Ethan - If Juliet's telling the truth, by kidnapping Claire he saved her
life.

Pickett - He seemed kinda mean, but he was out for personal vengeance and
was motivated by anger.

Goodwin - He was just gathering information.

Mikhail, Ms. Klugh, Batmanuel - I have yet to see them do anything terrible.
If anything, they were/are just acting the part given to them.

Tom - Pretty much all smoke and mirrors with him, since he seems to be the
nicest of all the Others.

Henry/Ben - His manipulations have lead to some poor outcomes, but he wasn't
holding Michael's hand when he shot Ana and Libby.

Juliet - I think she's more of a victim, so I don't even consider her an
Other.


Oh, and does anyone else think that Juliet did not get to the Island via the
submarine? That might just be my latent conspiracy theorist talking. I feel
like I have to question every answer the show gives me.