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Lost
Not
In Portland
original airdate: 02-07-2007
Last
week we discussed the emergence of Jacob in the mid-season
closer, "I Do."
This week, let’s take a look at some of the smaller
morsels from the mid-season opener, "Not in Portland."
After six episodes of Jake-Kate-Sawyer drama on the Hydra
station island, it was refreshing to get something different,
something…new.
Sort
of. You see, the drama in the Hydra station still takes
up a good chunk of the stage here, but the game has changed,
slightly. The trustworthiness of Juliet up to this point
has been suspect, but in flashbacks, for the first time
in the series, we get to look into the past of an Other,
and we learn the Juliet’s motives may be driven more
by personal ties than anything else.
Juliet
was a fertility doctor before arriving on the island, and
her flashback reveals several interesting tidbits about
her involvement with the group on the island, and possibly
her motivations for wanting Ben killed. The big question
on everyone’s mind when she approached Jack with her
proposal to kill Ben on the operating table was, “Is
this another setup?”
To understand
the complexity of what was being proposed, we had to go
through the ruminations and mind games spun by Ben when
he claimed to be Henry Gale, the prisoner in the Swan station.
So here Jack is, facing another Other with
a proposal, and he, along with us, can’t tell the
ceiling from the floor. But this time we have the edge,
it would seem. We learn about Rachel, Juliet’s cancer-stricken
sister whose chemotherapy has rendered her infertile, and
Juliet’s quest to find a cure that will allow her
to conceive.
 After
last week’s dig into the biblical implications of
the name Jacob, it would be ignorant not to point out that
the name Rachel is also tied biblically to Jacob. Rachel
was Jacob’s favored wife, but she, like Juliet’s
sister, had difficulty conceiving a child. Whether the Jacob
and Rachel of Lost are actually connected remains
to be seen, but it could be more metaphor for the pregnancy
obsessed Others on the island.
Juliet interviews with a Dr. Richard Alpert
of Mittelos Bioscience, and a few interesting details emerge.
She’s shown a series of slides and her determination
is that they depicted the barren womb of a 70-year-old female.
Dr. Alpert informs her that these were taken from a 26-year-old,
and that he needs her talents to discover why.
We ultimately
learn that Mittelos’ desire to acquire Juliet’s
talents knows no boundary, as the sole person tying her
down is run over by a bus, just as she had jokingly recommended.
Alpert visits Juliet in the morgue alongside a familiar
face and known Other – Ethan. So, who is Dr. Alpert,
and what tie does Mittelos Bioscience have to Dharma and
the island?
Who
Richard is remains unknown, but the ties to Dharma and the
island seem to be growing in number – fertility research,
Ethan, and not to mention that Mittelos is an anagram for
“lost time.” Add to that list the appearance
of Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time
in the hands of an Other named Aldo, who’s found holding
a post outside of a building that houses the mysterious
room 23.
Sawyer,
Kate, and Alex enter room 23 in search of Karl, whom they
find bound to a chair in front of flashing projected images.
One immediately recalls the Ludovico technique of A
Clockwork Orange fame, but when you break down the
images in play you can start to unearth further ties to
fertility, Jacob, and time. An ultrasound and the image
of a bird’s nest suggest some fertility programming,
and a slide depicting a yellow-carpeted staircase with the
words, “God loves you as He loved Jacob” gives
us the tie-back to our mystery Other.
The
references to time, however, are the most haunting. Images
of various antique coins, a 1921 silver dollar, a wax cylinder
on top of a slew of CDs, and a wood stove all appear with
the accompanied text, “Everything Changes.”
Each image reflects a time long past, and the programming
elicits the desire to accept change. For those looking for
the religious tie-in, the 1921 silver dollar features the
old US slogan, “E Pluribus Unum,” meaning, “from
one, many.” This slogan was later replaced with “In
God we trust,” but the inclusion here suggests more
than just change.
Who
is the one they wish to distinguish here? Is it Jacob? Could
Jacob be the way of the past? Is someone trying to brainwash
the “many” into forgetting about the “one?”
Only
time will give us the answers, so for now we have no other
option than to continue to mull over the details during
the off-season. Join me next week as we take a closer look
at time in relation to Desmond’s head trip in "Flashes
Before Your Eyes."
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