“The Tale of Two Cities”
They weren’t kidding when they said, “Don’t miss the first five minutes” of Lost’s season three opener. Holy crap.
It starts off in what looks to be a flashback. We’re used to those, right? This time it’s an unknown woman, preparing for a party in her house but looking rather forlorn about something. She even burns her hand taking muffins out of the oven. Turns out it’s a book club meeting and a heated debate erupts over the choice of book. Something about how “Ben wouldn’t read this book in the bathroom,” to which the woman, who picked the book, says, “Well, I am the host of this party and excuse me for thinking we still had some free will on this…” but before she can finish her sentence, the entire house begins to shake, as if an earthquake is happening. Ok, so maybe we’re in California?
Think again. As everyone runs outside, it still looks like a typical neighborhood in Anytown, USA—until we see the artist formerly known as Henry Gale run out of a house and everyone looks up to see our Lostie friends’ plane break apart in the air. Henry orders Ethan to go to where the mid-section crashed, while he sends Goodwin to the tail section. As we pan out, we see that this little makeshift suburbia is nestled in the middle of the island. THE island.
Meet the Others.
Dharma Initiative leftovers who somehow made a life for themselves in this god-forsaken spot? Possibly. But there’s no way we’re getting all the answers in this episode. Jumping ahead, the action picks up where it left off last season. Jack, Kate and Sawyer have been drugged and taken by the Others–and each find themselves in very different places.
Seems Jack is in an underwater tank. He meets Juliet, the woman who was throwing the book club party and who apparently knows everything there is to know about Jack, even how desperate he was to find out who his ex-wife left him for (he thought it was his dad but that’s not the case). How does Juliet have all this information? No clue, but it’s obvious the Others are connected to the outside world in some fashion. Jack tries to escape the underwater hatch, of course, but finds out the hard way exactly where he is. Here’s a good question: Where does the electricity come from?
Sawyer is placed in an outdoor cage. Everything around him is in disarray, which means at some point, the cages must have housed animals but now they are all gone. Well, we know about one polar bear, right? Anyway, Sawyer has some company in an adjacent cage, a young kid who tries to orchestrate a break out, but it doesn’t go so well. After the escape attempt goes awry, the kid is taken somewhere else, and Sawyer gets thrown back into the cage. At least he figures out the trick in getting a giant Goldfish cracker to drop from the rusted bin in his cage.
Kate wakes up in a locker room of sorts. Tom, aka Zeke, tells her she can take a shower if she likes and when she gets out, her clothes are gone. All she finds is a pretty sun dress to put on. Then Tom tells her to follow him and leads her to the beach, where Henry Gale is waiting, seated under a big umbrella, with a huge breakfast on a table in front of him. He offers Kate a small respite because he guarantees the next few weeks are going to be unpleasant. She refuses, so, she ends up in the cage next to Sawyer without eating any eggs and bacon.
Oh, and we find out Henry Gale’s real name is Ben.
