3x07, "Not in Portland"

Kubrick would be proud.

While it was a great episode, one that probably would've served as a much better ending to the fall mini-season than "I Do", I still can't help but feel this wasn't the showcase for Elizabeth Mitchell it could've been. I don't doubt we may see another Juliet flashback eventually, but this particular one seemed more about advancing the mythology of the show than about Juliet's character development. We were supposed to think of her sister getting pregnant as her "White Rabbit" moment when she finally recognizes her potential as a leader. But it wasn't properly set up enough for me to buy the pay off. I would've wanted to see more failed attempts to get her sister pregnant, more attempts in the face of hopelessness. Parallel to that, we're supposed to compare her repression at the hands of her ex-husband with her treatment from Henry. The problem is we still don't know why she's beholden to Henry in the first place. And while the Bus Gag was surprsing and quite frankly a deserving end to such a miserable man (did you catch him chewing out his mom on the phone?) it meant Juliet acquired her freedom by accident or conspiracy and not through her own strength. Granted, they could be saying she's a weak leader, with a ways still to go till she finally topples Henry, but then there'd be no reason to fear her now. There's definitely a big gaping hole here where she went from timid fertility doctor to the Girl with the Gun who turned Pickett to swiss cheese without hesitation. This episode should've plugged that hole and instead it brought it up and then made it wider.

With that out of the way, I can't say enough about the momentum of the episode... just a relentless torrent of action. The Clockwork Orange-esque brainwashing segment almost felt like a breather. And despite it being predictable, I was still caught off guard by Juliet shooting Pickett. That's all about pitch-perfect editing and directing.

Then cap that off with one of THE emotional high points of the series, Kate recounting the fear story to Jack. I'd initially thought Jack telling her to recall the story was a way to reconnect with her one last time before she'd be out of his life forever. What better sendoff than remembering that beautiful, intimate moment they first met as strangers who just survived a plane crash. In this episode however, the meaning of the story actully gets restored: It served as Jack's lifeline... you could almost see him counting to five again as he worked to save Ben. And that of course made Jack and Kate's parting even more bitter. Awesome, awesome moment.

Next week: Desmond. "3x08: Flashes Before Your Eyes"

YOUR BRAIN WILL BE FRIED. Be prepared.

Easter Eggs (and by gawd there's a ton of them):

*Brainwashing screenshots

*Time stuff: Damon and Carlton have been hinting at a "brain frying moment" and stuff about how time works on the Island. I think the two are connected (and next week we may get some further insight). There were no less than four big clues as to what we may be dealing with.

1) Mittelos: the anagram stands for "lost time". Carlton said in the recent EW.com Q&A that the anagram would be a clue about Adam & Eve, the skeletons found in The Caves.

2) The guard was reading A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. Someone at the Fuselage claims the very page he's reading is one about wormholes.

3) In the brainwashing video, there's hidden audio that if played backwards actually says, "Only fools are enslaved by time and space", a quote from the Dharmapada. I SHIT YOU NOT.

4) The x-rays the Mittleos recruiter showed to Juliet were of a 26 year-old with a 70 year-old womb. WHAT.

Add that all up and it seems to point to time moving differently on the Island in relation to the rest of the world. The nature of that difference will be a big reveal. Is time moving faster or slower? Is it looping somehow. Is it perhaps not even moving forward at all, but in stasis, in a wormhle or pocket universe where there is no time, period?

*"Not quite in Portland": I'm gonna say that Ethan and the Recruiter arranged the bus accident. It wasn't a coincidence... it was indeed a conspiracy. But does that mean that DHARMA conspired to bring anyone else to the Island? I think that's a no. There's too many variables and it's a hell of a lot easier to just ask someone to come, as they did with Juliet, than arrange for a plane crash... or as some at the 'Lage have speculated, arranged for the plane to land on the Island, only to crash because of Desmond failing to pres The Button.

*9/11: According to Lostpedia, the date of "Not in Portland" is December 3, 2004. If you count backwards to find when Juliet got to the Island it's September 5, 2001. Is it a coincidence? Will it be part of the plot (and this is keeping in mind they just brought in Brian K. Vaughan who wrote the 9/11 centered Ex Machina #1)? Or is living in a "Post-Island World" similar to living in a "Post-9/11 World"?

*Is Alex Ben's bilogical daughter?: I think Rousseau didn't give the whole story about her boat crash landing on the Island. It was strange that when she let Ben enter Sayid's custody, she told him he'd lie "a long time". How would she know? Of course it's a lot more logical to assume Alex doesn't even know about Rousseau and has been fed a lie her entire life, raised by Ben as if she were his child.

*Deadwood Trifecta: Juliet's sister was played by Robin Weigert, the third actress from Deadwood to guest. Liz Sarnoff, a prominent producer on the HBO show is now on board with LOST.

*Pregnancy Test: Her test appears to be another Widmore Labs one. Remember, these are the tests previously used by Kate in "I Do" and Sun in "The Whole Truth".