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‘Lost’ Season Three: Ep. 16 “One of Us”

Do we trust Juliet? Was she really left behind? Or is she still a secret Other agent? Hmmm.

Sayid, for one, doesn’t trust her. He wants to know everything: Why are the Others on the island? Why are they tormenting the Losties, making lists, and kidnapping children? But first, he wants to know who Juliet is. She says if she told him who she is and all the rest, they’d kill her. Sayid says he’ll kill her if she doesn’t talk. Overhearing, Jack tells Sayid to leave her alone. He isn’t about to let anything happen to Juliet. “She’s under my protection,” he states. Jack, the White Knight.

Flashback to Juliet saying goodbye to her sister, now cancer-free and preggers, to join Ethan, Richard and the merry band of Mittelos Bio-Science peeps. It’s all very mysterious. They can’t tell her where they are going. Ethan takes her vitals, and Richard offers her OJ laced with tranquilizers so she’ll sleep all the way to the “special place” because the journey can get pretty rough. Juliet is thoroughly wary but still mightily intrigued by the concept of this place, where her groundbreaking work in fertility can be more fully utilized. She groggily wakes up in the submarine and is told by Ethan they have arrived. She climbs out, amazed at where she is—and there’s Ben to greet her.

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Later, Juliet’s in the operating room and some woman has just died on the table, complications from pregnancy or something. Juliet has been there for six months and whatever she’s tried to do hasn’t helped. She tells Ben it’s time for her to go. She hasn’t been allowed to talk to her sister all this time and wants to be with her in her last trimester, but Ben drops a big bomb. The sister’s cancer has returned and she isn’t supposed to live much longer. Now, Juliet is really mad, why didn’t they tell her? Ben says if she stays with them to finish her work, he’ll make sure her sister is cured. See, no one on the island has ever gotten cancer. Man, that guy plays some major mind games.

Three years later, Juliet is still on the island. After a romantic interlude with Goodwin (the same guy Ana Lucia shot when he tried to infiltrate the Tailies), Juliet finds out Ben has a tumor on his spine. Cancer. He told Juliet there was no cancer on the island, so he must have been lying about her sister, too, who Ben says was cured. She demands to speak with his sister, but he won’t allow it. Then she begs to go home–but that’s not happening either. Juliet isn’t a happy camper.

Then, we see Flt. 815 breaking apart over the Other’s camp from season three’s beginning all over again. Ben orders Goodwin to the Tailies, Ethan to the Losties. Ben then takes Juliet to the now defunct communication center where the now deceased Eye Patch has been monitoring the plane crash. Ben orders him to get as much information about each of the passengers as possible. Then Ben shows Juliet what she’s been waiting forever to see: A scene on a playground, where her sister is indeed alive, playing with her 2 year-old son. Apparently, Richard is on the mainland, videotaping the scene and sending it back. Ben: “I’m not a liar, Juliet.” That’ll keep Juliet on the island a little longer, I guess.

Meanwhile, back in real time on the beach, Claire isn’t feeling so hot, head pounding. Oh no, is this the beginning of the “sickness” Rousseau described? Jack, Kate, Sayid and Juliet suddenly appear, coming round the bend to the Losties camp. There’s a big tearful reunion, especially between Kate and Sawyer, and then they spot Juliet, lingering in the background. “What the hell is she doing here?” Sawyer demands.

Hurley, of course, is the first one to make friends with Juliet—or more to keep an eye on her. He doesn’t remember her from the dock, when they shocked them and put bags over their heads. “I had the day off,” Juliet jokes. Later, the Losties are arguing over why Juliet is there. Jack tells them the story about his deal with Ben, about how he was going to get them all off the island until Locke blew up the sub. And he trusts Juliet. End of story.

But suddenly Claire collapses, bleeding from the nose. Juliet knows what’s wrong with her. She explains to Jack and Kate she was brought on the island because none of the women here can stay pregnant. The fetus becomes toxic and eventually kills the woman. Kate shoots a furtive look at Sun. After the crash, Claire started showing the same signs, so Ethan was taking blood samples for Juliet so she could come up with a serum that might reverse the process. Of course, things went a little haywire when Hurley discovered Ethan wasn’t on the plane’s manifest and Ethan had to “improvise”—or that’s how Juliet describes it–namely kidnapping Claire and bringing her in for serum injections. What’s happening now to Claire is she is going through withdrawals, and if Juliet doesn’t get some more serum into her, her immune system will stop. Juliet tells Jack she knows where Ethan stashed some more and Jack believes her, telling her to go get it.

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She’s running through the jungle to find the bag of drugs, but Sawyer and Sayid are close behind–and they want her to spill the beans about everything. Or they will kill her. Juliet’s a quick one, though—probably from her years of mind games with Ben. She throws their hypocrisy in their face. If they want HER to be forthcoming, Juliet demands, then why hasn’t Sayid told everyone else just how many people he has tortured. And why hasn’t Sawyer told everyone he murdered a man in cold blood right before he boarded the plane. The Others know a LOT. She isn’t lying about the medicine and if they don’t let her go, Claire will die. That gets them. They let her go.

Juliet gets back in time to give Claire her injection. Jack tells her if it doesn’t work and Claire dies, he won’t be able to protect her anymore. She’ll be on her own. But it does work, Claire wakes up and looks to be better. Score one for Juliet. So why does Jack trust her? Even Juliet is perplexed by Jack’s unwavering loyalty. He simply says that when the sub blew up, he saw it in her eyes. She wanted to get off the island just as much as the rest of them do. Jack thinks Juliet is one of them.

Ah, but there’s one more very key flashback: Juliet and Ben, sitting in a darkened room. Ben says, “Let’s go over it again.” Juliet is to pretend to have been left behind, handcuffing herself to Kate. She’s to go back to the beach with Jack, and right about the time she gets there, Claire’s “implant,” which was put into her when she was being held, will be activated, intiating her symptoms. Juliet will ride in to save the day and further ingratiate herself. Ben then hands Juliet a gas mask and says, “See you in a week.”

It’s just as suspected. Juliet’s still working for the Other side. But I swear I can see hesitation in her eyes, especially when she’s talking to Jack. It could very well be she’ll turn the tables on Ben.

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