"Not In Portland" -Episode 3.07-

Greetings!

Ah, how good it feels to be writing about this again. I have sorely missed the weekly dose of our favorite show and am more than happy to again be giving my time to dissect these new episodes.

The rest of this season will be full of new twists, turns, revelations and of course, questions. But by the end of season 3, I think there will be some closure to the Others, why they are there, and why they do what they do. Remember how foreign the hatch was at the beginnig of season 2? Well I believe we will reach a similar sense of closure with the Others as we did with the hatch as the end of last season.

Okay, now to the episode...

"Not in Portland"

1) The first Other flashback — Juliet is, in fact, a fertility doctor. But not just any fertility doctor, she is apparently one who is leading new research and one who is highly demanded (at least by Mittelos). She
successfully impregnated a male mouse, and her sister as well. (You probably won't hear that last comment in any other context.) So what exactly does this treatment consist of? How long had she been injecting
her sis with that juice? Should Juliet have been more concerned with trying to get her sister healthy first before impregnating her? Why was her research so radical? Is it possible that Rachel was a man at one point?

As usual, lots of questions raised... But I think there are two main things to take away from this first Juliet flashback — one, we know why Mittelos/Hanso/the Others wanted her (her successful experiment was a large part of this) and second, the flashback was to show us how Juliet has transformed from an emotionally weak follower to a ruthless, coldblooded leader.

(Also, did anyone notice the Oceanic plane landing as Juliet opened the window to show the Miami skyline? Did anyone notice the bus waiting just about 100 yards down the road while Juliet spoke with her ex? Sneaky, sneaky Mr. Hanso...ahem, I mean Alpert)

2) Mittelos — What exactly is Mittelos? Why exactly do they want Juliet? I think it is safe to assume that she was brought to the Island shortly after her meeting with (creepy) Ethan and Jason Alpert to do some sort of fertility experiment. Who's womb was shown to Juliet in her interview? A 26-year-old with the womb of a 70-year-old? Was this women/is this
woman on the Island? Hmmm... And apparently he was right, they do extensive recruiting — Ethan and Dr. Alpert set up close to Juliet and her sister to get the inside scoop. But what is the connection between
Mittelos and the Others?

I read that the creators said this episode would feature an anagram meaning something very important. Many people believe that Mittelos is it. Mittelos can be rearranged to read "Lost time" or "Time lost." Some
believe that this is referencing the "jump the shark" moment that is supposed to occur this season...possibly some sort of time traveling/time manipulating/time folding allusion. Others believe it is simply another red herring meant to lead our attention away from what is really going on. Either way, the Mittelos dudes were creepy, they killed
Edmund Burke (in my opinion) and they took fair Juliet away from her sister and into the clutches of Ben.

3) "I'm Tom, by the way" — I don't know about any of you, but Tom is starting to grow on me. He's been labeled "the Hurley of the Others" because everyone seems to like him. Kinda hard to believe that not too
long ago he was the creepy bearded dude that told our LOSTies to stay away. How could anyone be scared of Tom? Funny too, how he was so disgusted by blood, haha.

4) The boss's daughter — I think this was the most we have seen of Alex in the entire series. Clearly there is a rift between her and the rest of the Others but I'm not sure for what reason, other than that her and Karl probably do not agree with what the Others are doing. She was called Ben's daughter in this episode, but I don't necessarily think that means she is his biological offspring. Rosseau's Alex was taken when she was a baby and so she was probably raised by Ben and the Others. Then again, who knows if and when Rosseau is telling the truth?

5) Jack — What else needs to be said? Love him or hate him, he's keeping this story going. I love to see Jack in control...even if he doesn't know how to use his inside voice. Since Jack has completed his end of the bargain, will Ben let him go "home?" Or did his little outburst during the surgery ruin that chance for him? It will be interesting to see how Jack is treated now since he saved Ben's life. I hope he'll get some say in matters, but something tells me that's not going to happen just yet...

6) "At the end of the hall, Room 23" — Woh, what was that room where Karl was being held? I totally reacted the same way as Sawyer...totally entranced. Was this a way to brainwash or reprogram Others who have disobeyed? Or was it simply punishment? Did Sawyer see something in
particular that caught his attention or was he just caught off guard? I'm sure that in due time, the people who are more obsessed with LOST than I am will post every frame of that video Karl was being shown.
And you know I'll pass the links along...

Also, Kate did not seem to be affected much by the weirdness of this room. Is it possible that she has been in there before and knew to look away in order not to be taken by the video? She did look awfully rough when she came back from her breakfast with Ben. I remember Walt saying that he did not want to go back into "the room" when he was being taken away from Michael at the end of season 2. Maybe Walt has also been inside this place?

7) Yay, Pickett's dead! — If you hate Juliet, you had to at least like her during that second when she shot that bastard. That might be the one character I will not miss! Oh wait, make it two. (...Ana Lucia...)

Okay well that's all the time I have for this week. I'm sure there's a lot I missed so please feel free to write back and get the discussion going. I didn't have much time to edit so hope you can make sense of my blathering.

I am really looking forward to the rest of this season and I think it will rise above anything we have seen yet. I am waiting on the edge of my seat for the "jump the shark" moment!

Namaste.

SFO