Who do you love? Here it is, the Episode 1 write-up.
SPOILER ALERT!!!! If you haven't seen the episode and don't want anything ruined then stop reading until where I quote Spec at the bottom.
This will be given out of order from the show in order to keep the three main character stories together and be less confusing. In other words, I will tell Kate's whole part, then Sawyer's, and finally Jack's. It provides better continuity.
As usual I will put my thoughts in
blue
Episode 301: A Tale of Two Cities
This is Jack-centric (well, the flashbacks are)
Introduction: The Village
We see a blonde woman that we have never met before getting ready for the day. She starts by putting in a CD and playing "Downtown" by Petula Clark. Something seems to be bothering her and has her on the verge of tears, but we don't know what. Suddenly a smoke alarm starts going off and she looks in the kitchen to see muffins burning in the oven. As she tries to take them out she drops the pan and tries to catch them with her unprotected hand. She drops the pan and falls to the floor clutching at her burned hand. While sitting there the doorbell rings. She opens the door to find an older woman standing there, who looks immediately concerned at the sight of the blonde woman with her hand wrapped. The woman explains that she burned her hand, and her muffins. There is a noise to the side and the old woman looks over to see a man working in a crawl space under the house and says, "He still hasn't fixed your plumbing?" The blonde woman says no and then invites her in.
Next we see a group of people in what appears to be a book club meeting in the blonde woman's house. A man is going off about how the book in question isn't even literature. The older woman from earlier asks why and the man goes on to say how Ben wouldn't have selected this book even for toilet reading. The blonde woman jumps in saying that the host gets to choose and this happens to be one of her favorite books. When she waves it about we can see that it is "Carrie" by Stephen King. She goes on to say that she is glad it is a book that Ben wouldn't have chosen.
At this moment the house begins to shake, as if in an earthquake. Everyone takes cover under doorways until the shaking stops and then steps outside. We see it is what appears to be a friendly looking suburban cul-de-sac. All the neighbors are stepping outside as well and we see Henry Gale coming out of a house. Suddenly there is a rushing sound from above and everyone looks up. It is Oceanic Flight 815 and it is breaking apart in mid-air. Henry quickly yells for Goodwin who comes running up. He tells him to go to where the tail section landed, he should be able to get there in a few minutes. He then yells for Ethan and tells him to find the fuselage. There may be survivors and they are both to join them and come back with lists in three days. Both men go running off. Then Henry looks over at the blonde woman and sees her holding her book and says, "So, I guess I'm out of the book club." Then we zoom out and see that this suburban cul-de sac has no roads and is actually a circle of houses nestled in the middle of the jungle on an island.
Everyone take a second to say, "HOLY 🤬!" Got that out of your system now? Good. Let's move on.
Kate's Story: Last Chance to Feel Human
Kate wakes up lying on a bathroom floor. She stands up and looks around to find Tom (aka Mr. Friendly aka Zeek) and he tells her to take a hot shower. He even gives her a fresh towel, soap, and shampoo. Kate says she won't do it while he's there and he merely laughs at her and says that she isn't his type and then walks out. After Kate finishes her shower she walks out to the locker where she had put her clothes to find them missing. She begins yelling but then notices a locker with a note saying "wear this." When she opens the locker she finds a white, floral print sundress.
Once Kate has finished getting dressed and looks pretty Tom show back up and tells her to come with him. He leads her down to the beach where Henry Gale is waiting at a table with a beach umbrella. When she sits down he forces her to put handcuffs on and makes sure she puts them on tight enough.
She really hates handcuffs. On the table in front of her is a fresh breakfast, which Henry offers her to eat. Kate asks why he is doing this and he explains that he wants her to see the beach and be comforted , knowing that her friends were looking at the same beach, he wants her to wear a dress so that she can feel like a woman, and he wants her to eat a freshly cooked meal with utensils so that she can feel human because the following two weeks are going to be rather uncomfortable.
Sawyer's Story: Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage.
Sawyer wakes up in an outdoor cell, which is across a walkway from another cell, which holds a young kid. Sawyer tries speaking to the young kid, but he just looks back at him and then turns back around. Sawyer then looks around his cell at an odd machine that has multiple buttons. One button has a fork and knife symbol on it. Sawyer pushes at the symbol and a speaker overhead says warning. Sawyer pushes it a second time and the warning message rings out again. Sawyer gets ready to push it again when the kid tells him that he wouldn't do that. Sawyer makes a smart remark and then pushes the button a third time, receiving an electric shock that knocks him backwards.
Later we see Sawyer trying to work other parts of the machine by stepping on a lever on the ground and trying to reach across to pull on a lever hanging from the ceiling. The kid in the other cell is suddenly asking him about where his camp is, how far it was to get here, etc. Sawyer turns away for a second and looks back and the kid is out of his cell and running up to Sawyer's cell where he picks the lock. An alarm begins going off saying that a subject has escaped. Sawyer runs out and the kid tells him to run one way while he goes the other way. Sawyer takes off running but eventually runs into the blonde woman. When he tries to get away she pulls out a tazer and knocks him out with it. Sawyer is then drug back to his cell where Friendly Tom comes up with the boy, who he introduces as Carl and then forces to apologize to Sawyer for involving him in his escape attempt.
Later we find Sawyer reaching through the bars of his cell to get a large rock so that he can use it to work the strange machine in his cell. He places the large rock on the lever on the ground to hold it down and takes his shoe off. He then walks to the food button and hits it, creating the warning message. He then throws his shoe to hit the lever hanging from the ceiling. Circus-type music begins playing and a pink, fish shaped thing with DHARMA stamped on it comes out a slide underneath the food button. Sawyer picks it up and looks at it when what appears to be dog food comes out of the slide as well. Sawyer seems upset but then tries the pink biscuit. He seems somewhat disgusted by its taste and finds himself relieved when his water trough begins to fill. He starts drinking the water when Friendly Tom comes up with Kate and places her in the opposite cage. He has her stick her hands through the bars and removes her handcuffs. Her wrists have been scraped badly.
What caused this? It is worse than just normal wear. Tom sees this and says that he will get her some antiseptic. Sawyer makes a smart comment
(I forget what exactly) and Tom notices that Sawyer had figured out the machine. He says, "Hey, I see you got a fish biscuit." Sawyer tells him he figured out their contraption. Tom tells him that the bears did it in two hours. Sawyer then asks, "How many bears were there?"
After Tom walks away Sawyer asks if Kate is OK. She appears to be upset and Sawyer makes a few jokes that finally get her to smile. He then asks her if she's hungry and she nods, so he tosses her the remaining half of the fish biscuit, which she takes a bite of and then they just look at each other.
Jack's Story: Issues, Issues, Issues
Flashback: Obsessed much?
We see Jack sitting in a car watching a schoolyard where we see Sarah, his wife. She is laughing and joking with another teacher and Jack definitely appears to be jealous and upset.
Later we see Jack meeting Sarah in what appears to be an office of some sort where she asks where his lawyer is and he informs her that he fired him. Jack makes it obvious that he wants to get back together and reconciles their differences; Sarah won't have any of it. Jack then pushes her to tell her the other man's name because he wants to know who is with his wife. Sarah refuses to answer him and walks out.
Next we find Jack at his office in the hospital calling a list of numbers from Sarah's cell phone bill, attempting to find out who her new man is. Jack's father, Christian, walks in and asks Jack what he is doing, telling him that he needs to let it go. Christian tries to explain that he knows something about obsession
(He must watch Lost) but Jack tells him there is a difference between being obsessed and being a drunk. Jack dials the next number on the list and Christian's cell phone begins to ring. Jack starts asking him why Sarah would be calling him and Christian says that she was worried about Jack. Jack refuses to believe him and Christian tells him he needs to let it go.
Later we see Jack working on a patient in the hospital when he sees his father getting a phone call in the hallway. Jack pretty much forgets about his patient and follows his father where he goes to a hotel. Jack follows him in and to a room where it turns out that he was attending an AA meeting and had supposedly been sober for 50 days. Jack continues to argue with him and it eventually turns violent.
Jack is apparently arrested for the aggression and Sarah shows up to bail him out because Christian called her. Sarah tells Jack that she called Christian because she though Jack needed help and his father would be the best person for this situation. As she leaves Jack follows her out and sees her leave with a man, who is definitely not his father.
Jack's Main Story: How to Break a Man
Jack wakes up on a metal table. He begins trying to check doors and walls for a way out. He even pushes the communication button, but it doesn't seem to work. He looks at the opposite wall and sees an open door and begins to walk towards it, but walks into a glass wall. He tries kicking it but it just won't break. He stands there yelling for them to let him out.
Jack continues to look for a way out when he notices chains hanging from the ceiling. He climbs on the table and grabs on to the chain and starts pulling on it.
I have no clue what he was hoping to achieve. He keeps trying until a woman's voice asks him to stop. He looks up and the blonde woman from the book club steps through the door on the other side of the glass. She tries to convince him to stop yanking on the chain, but he seems pretty insistent.
Later Jack tries to drink some water dripping from the ceiling, but spits it out as if it tastes bad.
Saltwater? Then he hears something over the communications box that says, "Let it go." Jack jumps runs to the box trying to talk to whoever is on the other side. The blonde woman comes in and begins asking Jack questions. Jack argues back at first by telling her that whoever is on the other side of that box needs to leave him alone and she tells him that it hasn't worked in years. She then tries to get him to tell her about himself and he lies, claiming to be a repo man. He asks her who she is and she says that her name is Juliet.
It's about time we got that.
Next we see Juliet come in with some food, a grilled cheese sandwich. She offers to bring Jack the food if he promises to be good and sit against the far wall so she can bring it in through the door. Jack tries arguing with her and getting more information from her but she just says that she was a repo woman. Jack then asks about a button on the wall behind her and she says it is for emergencies. This goes on for a bit and Jack continues to be stubborn, so she leaves, eating the sandwich as she goes.
Juliet returns later with more food. She tells him that he needs to eat and drink as the drugs they used on him can dehydrate him and make him hallucinate.
Is that why he heard the voice over the communications box? Jack reluctantly agrees and sits against the far wall. When Juliet leaves the viewing room to walk around to his door Jack gets up and as she opens the door he charges, slamming into her, knocking the plate to the ground where it breaks. Jack grabs a sharp piece of the plate and puts it to her throat. They go out the door and Jack tells her to open a hatch, but she says if she does they will die. Jack threatens her but Henry Gale walks in and says that she is right. Jack says he will kill Juliet unless they open the door and Henry simply says OK, we all die if she opens the door. Jack throws Juliet to the ground and begins turning the wheel on the hatch and Juliet tries to run but Henry leaves, locking the door behind him. Jack gets the hatch open and water comes pouring in. Jack and Juliet struggle to get to their feet and get into the viewing room where they shut the door and Juliet yells for him to push the button. Jack does and a whooshing sound can be heard. As Jack gets his balance Juliet punches him hard, knocking him out.
When Jack wakes back up he is back in his cell and Juliet is on the other side of the wall with a folder open in front of her. Jack looks around and says that this is an aquarium for sharks. Juliet says that it is, and dolphins too.
Two things here. 1: This explains the DHARMA logo on the shark's tail. 2: Why do you need a communications box in a shark/dolphin tank that works both ways? Jack guesses that they are underwater and Juliet says they are and it is the hatch called the Hydra. Jack asks about DHARMA and Juliet tells him that it was a long time ago. When Jack asks if they were DHARMA Juliet tells him that it isn't important who they were, but who they are.
Juliet then goes on to tell Jack that she knows everything about him. She flips through her folder reading of different things, such as graduating from medical school a year early, details of his marriage and divorce, his father's autopsy record, even where Sarah is now.
More information than Jack has told anyone on the island. This has to be from non-island contacts of some form. Jack asks what the folder is and she tells him that it is his life. Jack asks if it tells about where Sarah is and who she married and Juliet says that it does. Jack only has one question, "Is she happy?" Juliet says that she is very happy. Jack's head drops.
Juliet then tells Jack that he needs food and water and if he will be good and sit against the wall she will bring it to him. Jack does so, never raising his head.
She has finally broken him. When Juliet walks out to come around to Jack's door Henry is standing there and says, "Good job, Juliet." Juliet gives him a look and in a negative tone says, "Thank you, Ben." Then Ben (Henry Gale) gets one of his looks.
END
I think I messsed Jack's timeline up a bit, so please forgive me. Work has been busy, and I have been trying to plan my fantasy football team, plus I have friends coming in from out of town. So, it ain't perfect but all the details are there.
I am not doing the list of questions here, but I will Monday. Most of them are in blue in the write-up.
With regards to the others knowing all about the Losties could this be the work of the black cloud/monster/cerberus or whatever its called's doing?
I would say yes, but Jack's folder had details about things he wouldn't know, such as exactyly what happened with his father and how Sarah is doing.
We did see the black cloud show parts of eko's past when he confronted it and I do remember somebody in the lost forums on GTP (i think it was Foolkiller) saying we would get an explanation about the monster in the coming episodes.
Take any rumor I pass on with a grain of salt. I have decided to assume the writers/creators can be lying at any time or they change things and no longer meet their promises.
