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Note: This blog is counting down to the premiere of LOST's final season on Feb. 2 by spending the month leading up to it racing through every one of the previous 103 episodes. We're looking specifically at Christian/religious themes, other important or interesting concepts, literary references, and the theory that it's largely been about a game in which someone has won, and someone has... LOST. To follow us from the start, click here.

You tasted like strawberries.

This is what Sawyer tells Kate the night after their first kiss (he even starts calling her a new nickname, "Shortcake" after this), while they are both caged on Hydra Island. She replies: "You tasted like fish biscuits."

Funny stuff, but like most things on this show it's got my brain working.

Many LOST fans speculate that the six seasons of the show mirror each other from the inside out. As in, Seasons 3 & 4 have similar themes and plot structure, as do 2 & 5, as may 1 & 6. Okay. There could be something to that, and as an English major I love literary structure, but I don't get too excited about what it means for this show.

I only mention that because I think something similar might be going on through the seasons with senses and perception. In Season One, eyes and sight were a huge conceit. In Season Two, there was an odd amount of emphasis placed on hearing. And here in this season's first episodes are references to tasting. Not to mention that Nikki and Paulo are introduced in these episodes, a decision which left an extremely bad taste. ;-)

Look, my brain is oatmeal right now, so I don't even know if I'll remember tomorrow that I wrote this, but if I do, I'll be eager to see if taste does come to the fore in Season Three, and whether smell and touch have anything to do with Seasons 4 & 5. Even if not, it's worth noting that Juliet hopes Jack "likes blueberry," because, well, blueberry ain't strawberry.

In the meantime, here's the stuff that matters...

LOST Season Three, Disc One:

Episodes: 3.1 A TALE OF TWO CITIES (Jack-centric); 3.1 THE GLASS BALLERINA (Sun-centric); 3.3 FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS (Locke-centric); 3.4 EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF (Sawyer-centric)

Things That Stuck Out

Island

For the third straight season, we begin by meeting someone we don't know, doing something we don't yet know how it fits into the story. Dr. Juliet Burke puts on a CD, composes her sorta-sad self in the mirror, and burns her muffins. Someone named Ethan is working on her plumbing as she readies for a book club meeting. Someone named Ben was not invited.

Turns out it's 9/22/04 again, and here we are getting yet another perspective on the events of that day (island shakes from Des not pushing the button in time, etc.). At the time, it was mind-blowing to see people come running out of a book club meeting in normal houses in a normal-looking neighborhood following what appears to have been an earthquake, look up in the sky, and there's Oceanic 815 breaking apart over their heads. This is where we learn there's a modern civilzation on the island, living in community but hidden from the rest of the world.

We see Ben dispatching Ethan and Goodwin to the respective sections of the crash, and giving them the instructions. They were to get him "lists" within three days. Ethan apparently failed to deliver one, probably because once he found there was an 8-month-pregnant woman, that got his attention.

Never noticed this before -- as we pan back from the barracks to get a view of where it sits hidden on this big island, a white dove flies up out of the trees. Intentional? Doves can symbolize anything from purity to peace to the Holy Spirit - NOT things we tend to associate with the Others, despite their insistence of their goodness. Was this an extremely subtle clue?

Jack, Kate and Sawyer have been separated. Jack's in a glass-enclosed cell (the Hyrdra station tank, where sharks and dolphins were studied), Kate's in a locker room shower, Sawyer's in an animal cage. All of them have had blood drawn. Kate's told to shower, she doesn't want to in front of Tom, who assures her "you're not my type." Yes, fine, LOST has a gay character, let's move on.

Kate's been given a revealing dress to wear that has even Tom whistling. It's for her own version of Breakfast with Ben (Jack and Locke had their own version back in the Swan), but the greater purpose is almost certainly to further stimulate Sawyer's animal instincts when they place her in the cage across from him (sure enough, it's the first thing he comments on).

Breakfast with Ben

• Under a cabana on the beach.
• He pulls out her chair like a gentleman, and lifts the dome off her food. Very polite, except...
• He also asks her to put on a pair of handcuffs.
• When he asks her to put them on tighter (clever, girl), he asks, "Please." Such a simple word, but one that was so noticeably absent from the way our Losties asked each other for things in the first two seasons that at one point Michael even made a comment about it: "We're gonna have to work on that." Another clue the Others are "gooder" than our main characters?
• He doesn't give her his name. We don't hear the name Benjamin Linus until later when he goes to visit Jack.
• He waits for her to ask about the whereabouts of her friends, eager to divine why she mentioned Sawyer's name first instead of Jack's.
• They burned her old clothes.
• Ben says the purpose of this breakfast is so she'll have a nice memory to get her through the next two weeks, which he says will be very unpleasant. But why two weeks? And what happens to them after that? They get to go back to their beach?

Over the old speakers in the Hydra, Jack hears static, and his father's voice saying, "Let it go, Jack," the same thing Christian said to him when his marriage ended. Juliet brings him the most gourmet version of jailtime bread and water ever: perfectly grilled cheese sandwich cut into 4 triangles with toothpicks and a sprig of rosemary, and a nice bottle of Dharma water. Interesting to note that as Juliet questions him, he LIES about his job and whether he's ever been married, but tells the truth about where he was flying from (Sydney) and why he was in Australia. She already knows all of the true answers and more, of course. Jack infers Juliet is a doctor, and she implies to us that his dehydration could induce hallucinations, which could explain him hearing his father's voice through the intercom.

Next time Juliet brings Jack food, he bum rushes her, gets her in a headlock, tells her to open the other door in the Hyrda. She insists she can't, or they'll die. Ben walks in, sees them through the glass. Jack says he'll kill her. Ben's amenable to that, since if she does open the door she'll die anyway. Jack - of course - doesn't believe this. Shoves her aside, opens the door... and water floods in. They "push the button" which drains the tank, and Juliet punches out Jack. She's a tough lady.

Carl's Escape: Carl (Alex's boyfriend) is being kept in the cage across from Sawyer, and keeps asking him if he might like it better with the Losties. Suddenly he's out of his cage (how'd he do it? Or was the door never really locked? Was it a trick to see if and where Sawyer would run when Carl let him out?). Juliet tazes him. Tom makes Carl apologize for involving Sawyer. It's all some of the earliest examples of just never being able to tell what's real and what's a game with the Others. We'll get PLENTY more examples of that confusion on this disc alone.

Love alert! When Kate is placed in the cage across from Sawyer, he asks if she's hungry. She is. So he tosses her the fish biscuit he worked so hard to get. She eagerly munches it (interesting that even being this hungry she never ate a bite of what Ben had offered). And THAT'S when it happens - the first time any of this trio has really had that longing look of love in their eye for another. Sawyer loves Kate. Nanny-nanny-boo-boo.

Jack is floored - as were we - to find out Juliet/the Others have a file that lists every fact about every person in his life. What is the first thing Jack would like to know? Whether Sarah is happy. Very much so.

On the sailboat, Jin's got a bad feeling about things. Believes they should pull anchor and get out of there. It's been a day since they lit the signal fire, and still no Jack & Co. Sun ends up as the deciding vote between Sayid (we stay), and Jin (we go). But because Jin is barking at her, she thinks he's wrong and sides with Sayid. They find the Pala Ferry docks, where Sayid wants to tie up the boat and light another signal fire so Jack can see it. Sayid's usually not this dumb, so there's got to be something else going on, and there is. Sayid noticed fresh tracks on the dock, and believes their friends were captured. The signal fires is so the Others will see it, and Sayid can set an ambush.

Just across the hall from Jack's holding cell is a room with monitors where Ben can see and hear everything. Ben tells Juliet, "You never made soup for me," and we get the first hint that he either has a thing for her that isn't happening, or they have a history, or both. Colleen arrives, tells Ben something he didn't know - the 815ers have a boat (hard to believe for three years while Kelvin was repairing the Elizabeth that the Others never noticed). Ben wants it, they put a plan into effect.

Sawyer and Kate are put to work moving rocks. She's supposed to do this job in her skimpy dress and sandals. Like I said, to rev Sawyer's engine. The Others are treating them like a pair of zoo pandas to get them to mate. Alex whispers to Kate from the bushes while Kate works. All we learn is that Kate's dress is hers, that Alex is looking for Karl (Kate doesn't know who he is - only Sawyer has met him), and that Kate's "not even supposed to be in that cage." This tells me this was a change of plan. I think Ben was going to have Kate placed with whomever of Jack or Sawyer she asked about first.

Juliet "shocked" Sawyer the first time they met, and the second time you can see in her eyes she thinks he's not bad looking, and she even tosses him her canteen. He empties it. They're a long way yet from where they're gonna be. In fact, he immediately walks over and plants a big smooch on ol' Freckles, which gets him a nice beating. But he gets a gun and gets the drop on the Others. Only problem is, Juliet has her own gun pointed at Kate.

Nightime, Jin and Sayid are set up for their ambush. But the others climb onto the boat. How'd they do that without walking past the guys out onto the dock? Well, there was this little throw-away line early in the episode from Colleen: "The sub's back"...

Sun pulls a gun on Colleen when the Others board the sailboat. Shoots her. The Others sail away, Sun crawls out, jumps overboard, rejoins Jin and Sayid.

Kate and Sawyer make pillow talk across the cages about how Sawyer kissed her exactly SO the Others would fight him, and he could test who was tough and who wasn't. Unfortunately for them, their conversation can be heard. This is where Kate learns that Sawyer's real name is James.

Ben Introduces Himself to Jack

• This is 69 days after the plane crashed. Ben knows George W. Bush has been re-elected and Christopher Reeve - Superman - died
• Explains the tables were turned one week ago
• Explains why he had to lie about who he was
• He wants Jack to change his perspective (this has been an ongoing, important theme - a different point of view)
• Says his name is Benjamin Linus
• Says he's lived on the island all his life
• Asks for a TV to be brought in
• Admits, after being pushed by Jack, that, yes, he COULD tell Jack more about Kate and Sawyer, he CHOOSES not to
• Offers Jack a deal -- cooperate and we'll send you home (but where is "home" for Jack now?)
• Preaches patience (patients?)
• Says, "Yes, Jack why WOULD we be here?" to Jack's question of if they could leave they island, why would they still be there? He basically gives Jack the answer if Jack is smart enough to slow down and think out the logic: the island must BE home for these people. But all Jack can assume is they are stuck, "just like we are."
• Jack says he KNOWS Ben is lying when informed the Red Sox won the world series. Ben has already brought the TV in, knowing Jack would go this route. The images of Jack getting up, walking to the glass, and soaking up the images of the Sox winning the series are fantastic.

Locke - who we know now survived the blast - almost gets conked by Eko's Jesus stick falling out of a tree. There's new writing on it: "Lift up your eyes and look north. John 3:05." A message to Locke?

Locke has lost his voice, so sets about building a sweat lodge on the church structure that Eko was making. Plays charades with Charlie to explain that he needs to speak to the Island.

Ghost Boone Takes Mute Locke into Dreamland

• Locke needs to be in his wheelchair (impotence? requiring assistance?)
• They're in the airport
• Someone in the airport is in danger. Locke is the only one who can save them
• Charlie, Claire and Aaron aren't it. "They'll be fine... for a while."
• Sayid's taking care of Sun and Jin
• Not Hurley
• Desmond's "helping himself"
• Jack, Kate and Sawyer are with Ben, but he can't go to them yet
• He has to clean up his own mess
• Locke has to take the escalator to the next floor, where he finds Eko's Jesus stick - and Ghost Boone - bloodied. "They've got him. You don't have much time." ("They" does not refer to Others here. But bears! Locke even sees the face of a bear as he leaves the sweat lodge)

Locke and Charlie come to "what's left of" the Swan. As they track their way to Polar Bear Lair, something stirs in the bushes. Locke throws his knife... which lodges in Hurley's canteen. If the big guy hadn't been taking a drink... yikes. Hurley tells Locke & Charlie what has happened to Jack, Kate and Sawyer. Locke says Hugo should go back to the beach. He heads that way, runs into naked Desmond, who tells him not to worry about his friends, because... Locke said in his speech that he's going after them. Uh... that speech doesn't get made til later. And we are hereby introduced to future-glimpsing Desmond.

Locke saves Eko from the polar bear with a torch and a can of hairspray.

Desmond and Hurley talk about having turned the failsafe key. Desmond speculates that it must have detonated the magnetic anomaly, causing an implosion.

Locke lets Charlie know that he saw Boone, who told him to clean up his own mess. They both agree that this means that if Locke had kept button pushing like Eko said he wouldn't have had to rescue him. Charlie guesses that Locke's had a few too many messes to clean. More stuff in common between Locke and Jack, the Faith worldview and the Science worldview. Both tend to be always solving and always creating problems at times.

Locke gives the speech Desmond already knew about, how they're going to find their friends. Cool scene, especially as we see Desmond throwing rocks into the ocean as he gives it. Only bad part? Nikki and Paulo have just been introduced right as he gives it.

Desmond has foreseen that lightning will strike Claire's shelter, so he rigs a lightning rod out of a golf club (a 5 iron he got from, ick, Paulo).

Sawyer, who we learn is 35 years old (born 1969), tries setting a trap for Ben, but not only has Ben been able to see and hear everything, he's a master with that light-saberish telescopic baton of his. The Others make him believe they've installed a pacemaker in his chest that will kill him if his heart rate gets high enough to fight, escape, anything. Jack, in his cell, hears the sounds of Sawyer's struggle piped in, surely on purpose. In a way, the Others did Sawyer a little bit of a favor relationally with the Pacemaker Gambit. When Pickett beats Sawyer in front of Kate, asking her repeatedly if she loves him, Sawyer can not fight back, and she doesn't know why. So to get Pickett to stop, she's forced to admit that yes, she does love him.

We overhear Tom saying that since the sky turned purple, all the Others' modes of communication are down, and they can't get them back, even after two days.

Over Jack's intercom we can faintly hear two Others talking. One says, "You know what he's doing to Karl?" Apparently Karl's escape attempt was real, and later we do find out what he's receiving as punishment -- "the room." Just like Walt was threatened with by Miss Klugh.

Jack is brought in to help save Colleen, but later he tells Juliet she was as good as dead when she was placed on the table. Nothing could have been done. Discerns that he was brought in there for the very purpose of viewing the spinal x-rays he saw. "Those X-rays are of a man in his 40s, with a very large tumor on L-4 vertebrae. And I just happen to be a spinal surgeon. So you tell me - who am I here to save?"

We find out Juliet is a fertility doctor. "I'm not used to death."

Ben takes Sawyer for a walk. It involves a steep climb. Ben here exposes the ruse of the pacemaker, and shows Sawyer the bunny alive and well (though he admits there's no way to confirm it's the same bunny). Then he shows Sawyer the big reveal: TWO ISLANDS. Ben says the island they're on - the one we refer to as Hyrda island - is about twice the size of Alcatraz. Up here, though he's still mean and creepy, Ben does expose truths - about Sawyer being unable to run anywhere, about the second island, about Sawyer's feelings for Kate, about him being an excellent con man. And some of those are for Sawyer's benefit. It almost feels ministerial? Can I really be saying that?

Off-Island

First flashback image of Season Three is of the passenger seat in Jack Shephard's car. On which sits:

• His hospital ID
• His pager, reading 7:15:23 a.m.
• A completed crossword puzzle, in which, albeit upside-down, several answers can be read, including: "Essential Facts," "Necessary Evils," "Vital Statistics," "Prenatal," "Oven," "Heroes," "FAQs," and "Etal," which would be "Late" backwards (that Time concept again, and the word Charlie wrote on his fingers).
• We also hear "Moonlight Serenade" playing on Jack's car radio - the SAME song Hurley and Sayid picked up under the stars in Season Two using the radio Bernard brought back from the Arrow station. Any connection? Doesn't strike me as something Jack Shephard would have in his iPod, especially as he sits stalking his cheating wife. She's a teacher, and she's apparently in love with an artist (the guy carries a flip pad for watercolors), and seems happy.

Jack comes to a divorce proceeding without a lawyer - he fired him, because he doesn't want a divorce. But he's williing to give her one, PLUS the house, the cars, everything, just to know the name of her lover. He's kinda obsessed with knowing, because he can't figure out what makes another man preferable to him. He even spends work hours trying to play private investigator. When he discovers that his father and Sarah have called each other, he flips out (we've also been predisposed to believe he could be right, since Christian wanted to use the name "Sarah" as Ana-Lucia's alias when he purchased her services as a bodyguard).

Jack's obsession leads him to confront his father during an AA meeting. He's arrested for causing a ruckus, fighting, and his bail is posted by Sarah as her goodbye. She tells him it doesn't matter who the other man is, it only matters who he is not. And that now, "at least you'll have something to fix." That's, um, gonna kinda sorta be the theme of why Jack is kept in captivity where he is, too.

Sun broke a glass ballerina as a girl, lied to cover it up, even knowing that someone else (the maid) would pay unfairly for her crime. She's been quite skilled at lying since then. Her next flashback confirms that. Here Season Two ended with us believing what she told Jin - that she'd not been with another man! But there's a naked Jae Lee in bed with her! Now, she DOES tell him she "can't," and that the problem is that she's married, so it's possible nothing has happened. But if that's so, how unfortunate that right after Jae Lee asks her to run away to the States with him, and while they're both all nekkid, Sun's father busts into the room. I tell you, if there's another actor who can play a cootie-ish Korean bastage better than the guy who plays Sun's dad, I don't want to meet him.

Mr. Paik wants Jin to kill someone (we, but not Jin, know it is Jae Lee). Jin was willing to "deliver a message" (a.k.a. beat this person to a pulp), but not to kill. He tried to quit, but was told, "This man has stolen something from me. My shame is your shame. Restore our family's honor." Jin does not know the specifics, though. When Jin attacks him, Jae Lee can only assume he knows that he's been with Sun. Jin lets him live, tells him to leave the country. As Jin leaves the hotel, Jae Lee kills himself by jumping from his (2nd floor???) window onto Jin's car, where he dies, holding the necklace he had bought for Sun.

Locke is living in a hippie-ish commune, probably after Helen left him. He picks up a hitchhiker, Eddie, and brings him back. He also carries a buttload of registered guns in the back of his pickup. Mike and Jan are the owners and parental figures of the commune. They eat together and pray before meals and everything. Locke's not amused by Eddie saying that everyone in the commune wants a daddy. Mike and Jan discover that Eddie is an undercover cop. They're getting ready to clear out and getting plenty mad at Locke for having been the patsy when Locke, sounding very much like Jack, says, "I can fix this." When he and Eddie go hunting, and Locke gets the drop on him, it's not really about protecting the family. Locke's just angry about being suckered and wants to know why him. Because he fit the profile of being "amenable for coercion."

Sawyer spent time in prison, having gotten caught for the scam he pullled on Cassidy. In the joint, he meets a man named Munson in prison who ripped off the government for $10 million, but they never found it. The warden is clearly after the cash, but Sawyer's gonna out-con him for it. The warden congratulates him at the end, for having, "lied and cheated your way out of prison." Not a bad trick. Sawyer gets a reward from the IRS he has put in an Albuquerque bank for his daughter Clementine (at right). Cassidy visited him in jail and told him about her.

• Paths Crossing Off-Island: no instances I noticed on this disc
• Appearances of the Numbers: 4 triangles in Jack's yummy grilled cheese; 1516 is Jae Lee's hotel suite, which is a little weird since Jin clearly got off the elevator on the 2nd floor ... Jin beats him; 8 straight games the Red Sox won to win the ALCS + World Series ... 8 is painted in black on a white rabbit (there's rabbits again) used by Ben; Munson's prison number is 248; 23-C is the unit where Sawyer informs the feds Munson's stolen money is.
• Deaths: Jae Lee, Sun's lover, by suicide. He lands on Jin's car; Colleen, an Other, Pickett's wife, shot by Sun.

Themes Established or Revisited

1. Free Will. Juliet uses the term to explain how she chose a book Ben wouldn't have chosen.
   "What'd you tell 'em about me, Dad? That I didn't have the will to make it work? My life, my job, my marriage?" -- Jack, interrupting the AA meeting. Poor guy. What Christian PROBABLY told the group is similar to things he told Sawyer - how proud he is, etc. - but Jack's tantrum prevents him finding that out.
2. Trust (again). Juliet tells Jack he can trust her. It's funny how people think "trust" means "will always tell me what I want to know," but that's not logical. Juliet puts is more akin to "I'm not going to hurt you" ... Later she asks, "Can I trust you, Jack?" She can, yes, because she has just given him something he wanted to know - about Sarah (these Others are smart, they know or learn what breeds trust in each individual person) ... Sayid, and especially Sun, learn to trust Jin's instincts from now on (not like the dude didn't learn nuthin' from being a bad bad man) ... Ben asks Jack to trust him, and in return, Ben will take Jack home.
3. Lies (again). Jack interperses truths with lies as he answers Juliet's questions ... Sun's flashback is about how she became a liar.
   Sun: Why are you lying to me, Sayid?
   Sayid: What would you know of lying, Sun?
   "Tell me the truth for once in your life!" -- Kate, to Sawyer. Pot, meet kettle.
   "Congratulations, Ford. You just lied and cheated your way out of prison. You're a free man." -- the Warden.
4. Right vs. Wrong. Sun sides against her husband - who is proved right - just because he raised his voice - which to her was "wrong."
   Jae Lee: What's wrong?
   Sun: What's wrong is I'm married.
5. Home. Where is it, what is it, how does someone define it? If it just means going back to your old life, why do we yearn for it so much? ... Locke listens to "Feel Like Goin Home" in his flashback ... Jack is promised a trip home from Ben.
   "That over there? That's your island. The one you've come to know and love." -- Ben, to Sawyer
6. Family. "Mike and Jan... talk about how we're family, but your family's got too many secrets" -- Eddie, to Locke ... Ghost Boone told John he would "get the family back together again."
7. Fixing (again). Sarah tells Jack that the bright side to their marriage ending is he has something to fix again ... Locke tells Mike and Jan he can fix their Eddie problem ... Desmond tells Claire he can fix her roof, though there's not anything wrong with it - yet.
8. Every Man for Himself vs. Live Together Die Alone. Which one wins out? Is Sawyer right (he says "Every man for himself" at least 3 times in the episode of the same name), or are Jack & Kate? Where's the greater truth?

The Game

Kids play ball in a playground across the street from where Jack is watching Sarah.

Sawyer figures out that in the cages, getting something to eat (mmmmm, fish biscuits) is a matter of solving a puzzle.

"I know it feels like you're giving up, like you're LOSING if you do anything that I ask you to do." -- Juliet, to a caged Jack. She even gives him the easiest of rules - "No strings attached, you don't have to answer any questions, you don't have to do anything." But these are not rules Jack likes to play by, and Ben knows it.

"Look at the bright side." -- Sarah

Locke plays charades with Charlie to get him to understand while he can't speak. "As amusing as 'the mute game' invariably is..." -- Charlie

Sawyer was quite a talented boxer during his days in prison.

Paulo busies himself hitting golf balls into the ocean.

"If you don't help me, the warden'll get it all. He'll win." -- Munson, to Sawyer. And with that, Sawyer's con game is on. Munson thinks it's all his idea.

Black-&-white: first shot of Jack's flashback is of a completed newspaper crossword puzzle and accompanying Bridge column ... young Sun's glass ballerina in the opening shot of 2.2 ... the face of the metronome in the very next shot ... the No. 8 bunny Ben uses to trick Sawyer ...

Religious References

"Here I am thinking that free will still actually exists on this... [trails off]." -- Juliet. This is one of the first meaningful lines, both of the season, and that we ever hear from Juliet. And her story arc as we know it certainly does end with an act of free will.

Locke finds Eko's cross as they hunt for him.

Praying over supper at the commune, Locke thanks God for helping him stop being angry, and helping him find a real family.

Locke apologizes to Eko for ever doubting him, and for giving up on his faith in the island (several times I've wondered why he ever would in the first place, when he's seen miracle after miracle, but this is no different than the children of Israel in the wilderness). It rings as if Eko is taking confession. Eko even informs Locke he can still SAVE his friends, and he will find them. And he confirms that Locke is "a hunter," a term that would only be known to someone with access to Locke's flashback memory. Locke turns his back for a second. Turning back to Eko, he finds that Eko is out cold.

Mysteries or Questions Since Solved

• Where do the Others get their dossiers of complete and total information on every 815er? Are they the CIA?
• What is the project Kate and Sawyer are put to work doing where they clear rocks?
• Whose X-rays are they, and does Jack do the surgery?

Mysteries or Questions Still Needing Answers

• Did Jack really hear Christian through the Hydra intercom telling him to "let it go"? If so, how?
• Did Locke just hallucinate his vision of Boone, or, as John said he needed to speak to "the Island," was this Smokey taking the form of Boone (since we think Smokey can appear like those who are dead on the island)?
• Why is Desmond physically okay, but not a shred of his clothes survived the hatch implosion?

Add to the LOST Library:

• "Downtown," by Petula Clark. "When you've got worries all the help and the hurry seems to help, I know." Only thing is, Juliet can't GET downtown. Doesn't look like New Otherton has one.
  Carrie, by stephen King. It's Juliet's favorite book. An Other named Adam says it doesn't qualify at literature, just "by-the-NUMBERS religious hokum-pokum; science fiction" (sound like a description of a show we know?). Adam says Ben wouldn't read Carrie on the toilet, which is interesting since when Ben was in captivity in the Swan and Locke brought him The Brothers Karamazov, he asked, "Don't you have any Stephen King?"
• A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens. Title of the first episode of Season Three. Dickens' Our Mutual Friend played a prominent role in the final episode of Season Two. Two Cities is known for it's opening line: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
• "Feel Like Goin Home," by the Whiteley Brothers. Locke plays this in his truck.
• Geronimo Jackson (again). Eddie the hitchhiker is wearing this shirt when he arrives at the commune. He says they're alright.
• Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck. Sawyer read it in prison, and quotes it to Ben. A few minutes later, Ben shoves an even bigger and better quote from it right back at him ("A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody... I tell you the truth, a guy gets too lonely and he gets sick"). Parallels what each of them do with cons. "You're pretty good," Ben tells him. "We're a lot better." Pretty clear who are the mice and who are the men right now. As to the lonely/sick part of the Steinbeck quote, it's almost like loneliness was "the sickness" all along...

Excellent Lines

Humorous

Tom: Hey! Got yourself a fish biscuit. How'd you do that?
Sawyer: Figured out your complicated gizmos, that's how.
Tom: Only took the bears two hours.
Sawyer: How many of 'em were there?

"You're not taking drugs, are you John? I only ask because of the strict zero-tolerance policy you've enacted, and I wouldn't want you to have to start punching yourself in the face." -- Charlie

"Bear? Is that you?" -- Hurley, hearing noises in the bush.

It's not a line, but it's a classic scene when Sawyer - seeing Kate change clothes - finds his heartrate getting too high. He dumps a bucket of cold water over his head.

More Meaningful (and double-meaningful)

Jack: This was a Dharma station, wasn't it? So you people are just, whatever's left over?
Juliet: Well, that was a long time ago. It doesn't matter... who we were.
Early in Season One, Jack said nearly the same thing to Kate when he told her he didn't care what she did that got her arrested. It's also very Christian in theology, PROVIDED there has been a saving, repentative, change, such that, yes, even mass murderers like Ben could be forgiven. But without that, Juliet's theology is skewed. Yes, we must leave the past behind, and all we have is right now. But stain is stain.

"If they get past you, that means my husband is dead, and I won't care anymore." -- Sun. A little foreshadowing for how she turns into the person my friend Scott refers to as "Black Hole Sun" in Season Five.

"I am not the enemy. But if you shoot me, that's exactly what we'll become." -- Colleen, to Sun, who does shoot her. And kills her.

"If you trust me, I will take you there myself. I'll take you home." -- Ben, to Jack. If this is foreshadowing, it foreshadows not Jack going back to LA as one of the Oceanic Six, it foreshadows Jack coming back to the island as he partners with Ben to make it happen. By extension we can infer that the islad IS "home."

Ghost Boone informs Locke: You'll speak when you have something worth saying. So we of course track what those words will be. And they are: "I'm going to save Mr. Eko's life." Aw, we already knew that! I was hoping for something more profound. Here's a theory: why all the fanfare over saving Eko's life? Isn't the show just going to kill him off soon? Ghost Boone surely knew that, right? Just as he knew Charlie would only be safe "for a while" and other facts. This is why I think Ghost Boone was Smokey. Smokey is the one who kills Eko. So it wouldn't be very good for him if the polar bears do it. So he gets Locke to save Eko... so that HE may kill him.

"John's a very special guy." -- Mike the hippie. It's clear why Locke stays at that commune. He's always wanted to hear these things.

Sawyer: If you want me dead why don't you just shoot me and get it over with?
Ben: Because we're not killers, James.
This doesn't strike me as a lie. Ben really believes this. But how can he? He kills and has killed with impugnity.

"I don't know what they've done to you, but I know that you're scared enough to lie about it. And that scares me more than anything they may have done to us before." -- Kate, to Sawyer

"The only thing we put inside you was doubt." -- Ben, to Sawyer. Doubt is indeed kryptonite to a "Confidence Man."

Characterization

"I don't think you're stupid, Jack. I think you're stubborn." -- Juliet. One of the first things she ever says to him, indicating she knows more of him than just the two minutes he's been jumping around his cage like an angry animal.

Jack graduated Columbia med school a year faster than anyone else.

Colleen said she knew who Sun was, and that Sun was not a killer. Well, guess you can't learn everything from a dossier, Others.

It surprised Sayid to see that Jin very much knows how to use a gun. He later apologizes, asks Sun to communicate that next time he will listen to Jin. He's guilty of not assuming that someone else is as much a bad mamma jamma as himself.

Locke is a bit of a hypocrite. We know how he felt about Charlie's drug abuse, but Locke has not only used psychotropic drugs on Boone, he now uses them on himself, AND he lived knowingly in a cannabis compound. What Locke would say, though, and there's perhaps even some merit to it, is - where legalities don't apply - there's a huge difference between use and abuse. Between using plants for a purpose and using them for the high because you've let them master you.

Sawyer's bothered by the idea of Ben having killed a bunny, but this is the same guy who just a few episodes before mercilessly crushed a frog for no good reason at all. What gives?

"You work so hard to make her think you don't care, that you don't need her." -- Ben, to Sawyer, about his obvious feelings for Kate.

Opening & Closing

3.1 Open - Eye opening! We haven't seen this since Desmond's eye in the first image of Season Two. We also saw Jack's eye as the first shot of Season One. This time, we're being introduced to Juliet. Who, in contrast to Desmond picking out a record, picks out a CD. "Downtown," by Petula Clark.
3.2 Open - White crystal ballerina twirling and spinning against a black background.
3.3 Open - Locke's eye opening! He's alive! Laying bloodied and bruised in the long grass. Sees a naked Desmond running around confused.
3.4 Open - Blue sky, beautiful beach, swing around to show Desmond, now looking AWAY from the sea, but still staring - at Claire and Aaron beneath their shelter.

3.1 Close - Ben's creepy bug-eyed face staring straight ahead. He has just watched Juliet earn Jack's trust and soften him. "Good work, Juliet," he says. "Thank you, Ben," she says. This is the first time we've heard Ben's real name; we also are disappointed to find out Juliet's another of his pawns.
3.2 Close - Jack's face, considering Ben's offers and deal to be taken home.
3.3 Close - Hurley stares confusedly at Desmond, who stares out to sea.
3.4 Close - "Come on, let's get you back to your cage," says Ben. Slowly, Sawyer, from atop Hydra Island, starts marching back.

Probably Unimportant, But I've Always Wondered...

Try adding these numbers up: Jin gets off the elevator at the 2nd floor, the suite he enters is Room 1516 (first floor?), and after he leaves Jae Lee jumps to his death and lands on Jin's car. Okay...