A new LOST episode is better than no new LOST episode. Right?

Spoilers concerning tonight’s episode and other stuff below the fold.

Links and Miscellanea

• Here’s the website for Mittelos Bioscience, the Others-affiliated company that recruited Juliet to the island. Note the slogan: “Working for a Tomorrow, Today.” Contrast that with the slogan of the Hanso Foundation (“Working for a Better Tomorrow, Today”). Also, recall that “Mittelos” is an anagram for “lost time” (confirmed officially in last week’s podcast). I can’t seem to get anything on the website to load, but it is there. (EDIT: Apparently, the web pages will load correctly if you change every page’s URL to .com instead of .org) The page source doesn’t tell me whether it’s an official website or not, and a WHOIS query only reveals that it is registered through GoDaddy.com by Richard Alpert (the man who recruited Juliet was named “Mr. Alpert”), located in Multnomah County, Oregon. (Yes, that is where Portland is, even if the company’s not in Portland.)
• Tidbits from this week’s official podcast: Desmond’s time-travel flashback really happened and was not imagined (or, was at least really “experienced” by Desmond); there may be two photographs of Desmond and Penny in another iteration of Desmond’s experience (I have no idea what that means); the American spelling of “honor” on the Scot’s guard poster that Desmond sees was a production error, not a clue; when the antique shop clerk said that if Desmond does not go to the island and push the button “we will all die,” she meant everyone in the world; big-picture mythology is mapped out ahead of time, but details are worked out over time.
• The AP has been running a series of articles this season all about how LOST is failing. The latest include a couple of stories from the same AP writer, Lynn Elber. The first is a general article about shows that need to retool to survive, and includes this ominous suggestion: “Sometimes, it turns out, minor repairs aren’t enough – a series needs a whole new engine. It’s true for ‘Studio 60′ as well as NBC’s ‘Friday Night Lights’ and ABC’s ‘Lost,’ shows that either failed to gain traction or have seen their audiences shrink. All need to act fast if they want a shot at survival.” Gloom and doom. The second is even worse and includes a quote from a TV analyst saying, “‘Lost’ is the tragedy of the season. [ABC] really prematurely put the nail in the coffin. It’s too late to save it.” The last thing I want is for the network to start meddling. Hopefully, the rumors of LOST’s demise are greatly exaggerated.
• Less extreme is this article from Buddy TV suggesting “five easy ways” that LOST can improve its viewership.
• On the bright side is this article from The Motley Fool that says we can learn valuable lessons about money management by following Josh Holloway’s example. Apparently, Holloway grew up in a trailer in Georgia and lives well below his means, despite being a successful TV actor.

Observations and Speculations

• The episode’s title is a reference to both the Bible and classic sci-fi. The Bible reference appears in Exodus 2:22 and is an utterance of Moses from the time that he was living in Pharaoh’s palace: “For he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.” So I guess the analogy would be to Jack and Moses, a leader who led his people out of captivity. (Remember that Moses also killed an Egyptian and buried his body in the desert before he fled Egypt.) Also, Alex mentions Mosiac law in her conversation with Jack (“an eye for an eye”).
• It’s also the title of Robert Heilein‘s best known novel, a story about an Earthling who is raised on Mars among Martians, then returns to Earth and becomes involved in political and religious struggles. The word “grok” first appeared in this book.
• According to Isabel, the literal translation of Jack’s tattoos is “he walks amongst us, but he his not one of us.” Jack says she knows what it says, but not what it means. Yeah, me neither.
• Jack’s Thai love interest, Bai Ling, is sort of a marginal celebrity. Some know her for her uncredited role as a senator in Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith, which may or may not have been entirely left on the cutting room floor. Some know her as a former playboy playmate. To me, she’s best known as a frequent subject of Go Fug Yourself. This episode provided the fodder for several new posts at that website.
• Things we learned about the Others in this episode: Even though Ben gets to watch the baseball playoffs, the kids don’t get to watch classic 1970s TV reruns; the Hydra Station island is used for “projects,” but no one lives there; Ben is the head honcho, with the authority to commute sentences passed down in accordance with Other justice; Isabel is some sort of law enforcement/judicial officer, but has less authority than Ben; Ethan was the Others’ surgeon.
• We still don’t know what exactly Karl did, why he was selected for programming, or why he would be killed if he returned to the Others’ town. Maybe he’ll learn to cowboy up.
• Tom’s reference to glass houses leads us to believe that the Others think they may be morally superior, or at least no worse than, to the Losties. And, according to Karl, the Others give the kids a better life than that of a island castaway.
• At the beginning of the episode, Sawyer is singing “Show Me the Way to Go Home,” as he paddles the boat. The song was written in 1925 and has been performed by Dave Brubeck, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Chet Atkins, and Ozzy Osbourne, among others.
• It’s unclear why Jack is helping Juliet, except that he feels sympathy for her and perhaps thinks she’s not a bad person. Saving people is in his nature, though. Plus, she looks a lot like his ex-wife. (Query whether we’ll ever learn how Ben knows that.) And, I guess he’s glad that Juliet protected Kate and Sawyer from the wrath of Danny.
• Cindy the Flight Attendant’s cameo was confusing and not that informative. If you’ve read Gary Troup’s The Bad Twin, you know that Troup, a critic of Hanso and DHARMA, was in love with Cindy and dedicated his book to her. It was revealed in the podcasts that Troup was the man who was sucked into the plane’s jet engine during the pilot. We don’t know what Cindy meant by “to watch.” My guess is that the Others believe in public execution. We also know that the kids that Ana Lucia was looking after are alive and apparently well.
• Juliet’s “mark” appears to be a big asterisk on the small of her back. Which, I guess, makes her the Roger Maris of the Others. Just imagine the shame.

I thought this was the weakest episode of the season by far. Sure, we learned about Jack’s tattoos and what they mean. (Though technically, we only learned about some of them.) Jack’s flashback was boring, Bai Ling’s not a very good actress, and those scenes didn’t tell us much we didn’t already know. We already knew that Jack is a leader, but therefore alone. Frankly, Bai Ling’s “gift” didn’t even seem that special. The island scenes moved very slowly and seemed as if there just wasn’t quite enough plot to fill the time. I really expected something interesting to happen at the very end, some little twist to keep us interested, and was disappointed that nothing did.

Hopefully, next week will be much better and we’ll get to see some action, and also some Locke and Hurley (and maybe, we can hope, some Sayid). Every show has its off weeks. This one was LOST’s.