The Tail Section

For an episode that focused more on character than on mythology, "The Other Woman" still left readers with plenty to theorize about.  TTS visitors have spent the past few days discussing the mystery behind the whispers, who Ben’s man on the boat might be, who Juliet resembles, and what Widmore has to do with everything.  Here are some of the more intriguing theories:

Submitted by Dav

I think the whispers have to deal with people who are time un-stuck.  When Juliet was in the jungle and heard the voices Harper appears.  She then tells Juliet exactly what’s about to happen in the future.  To me, introducing this character and then having a scene w/ her like this was a device to reinforce what we saw last week, which is that people can travel back to a previous consciousness and seek someone out - say a constant - and talk to them to adjust the future.  Clearly Harper came from out of nowhere and advised Juliet on something so she could affect the future.

Submitted by John

The whispers are audible representations of thoughts emulating from the person that is seemingly teleporting to a location.  In the past, hearing the whispers has always meant that the Others were around…but they always suddenly appeared.  They came out of nowhere, like they wished to be somewhere and there they were.  This makes perfect sense when you think about what Harper said about "Ben is exactly where he wants to be".  Why?  Because Ben can be wherever he wants to be…and talk to whoever he wants to talk to…just like he instructed Harper to teleport to Juliet and warn her.  The voices have to be brain noise or thoughts that become audible as the teleporting Others break through the time barrier or physical barrier of some kind.

Submitted by el scotto

Did anyone notice the frame of photos on the wall in Ben’s house as Locke was headed to the safe?  The collection of photos looked like a family - and it sure looked like there were two little boys in several of the photos.  Perhaps they are of Ben and a cloned brother?  I still think that Ben has an evil cloned twin that is trying to kill him.

Submitted by Franky

The man being beaten by Widmore could probably be Mikhail.  Might explain how he lost his eye due to Widmore’s punishment.  The person that was recording was most likely Richard Alpert, not the guy getting beat up.  Remember that in one of the episodes of Season 3 when Juliet was watching her sister on TV with her sister’s son at one point Ben directs Richard to pick up the newspaper to show what day it was and then we see a newspaper on the camera.  So if anything, Richard Alpert was the man recording.

Last note also is I think Harper wasn’t really Harper but instead it was the island itself trying to protect itself from Faraday and Charlotte.  The island thought it was going to "die" and felt threatened with Faraday’s and Charlotte’s presence at that particular station and formed itself into someone familiar that Juliet knew.  Much like Yemi with Eko, Walt to Locke and Shannon and Boone to Locke.  How else would you explain Harper standing right behind Juliet in a matter of seconds and in another matter of seconds she’s gone just like that right after Jack turns around?  Harper most likely is dead.  The island only probably manifests itself into people that are dead just like Ben’s mother, Yemi, Boone.  Now, could this mean that Walt is dead? Might explain why Michael stayed on the freighter being there was no point for him to go home now.

Submitted by Elessar

If Widmore is responsible for the freighter folk, that might go some way to explain why Naomi had a photo of Desmond and Penny - it could be Widmore’s only photo of Desmond, and he wants him to be killed. Alternatively the photo was Faraday’s.

It’s possible however that Penny is searching for the island, unaware that her father is as well.  Or maybe Charles found out that his daughter was looking for Desmond and at first sought to stop her, but then soon realized the potential of the island and now wants it for himself.  Based on that, I suspect the guy being beaten up was one of the Portuguese folk from the very end of the Season 2 finale.  He was working for Penny, and Charles now wants to hijack his daughter’s mission.

Submitted by Gary

When Harper said "you look like her" could she be referring to Ben’s MOTHER?

There was a photo or a painting or something, and someone on another site said that possibly that was his mother in the picture, and someone commented that it looked like Juliet.

Could there be a "Norman Bates" type obsession with his mother, as he’s grown up?  Just from memory I don’t remember her looking much like Juliet (not blonde, for the main point) but a nonsense theory regardless.

Submitted by Ed Holden

Who does Juliet look like from Ben’s past?  We’ve already had one comparison of Juliet to another female character in Lost, delivered by Juliet herself.  When she was holding Jack in the Hydra, she made the comment that she looks like Jack’s ex-wife, Sarah.

So while I also thought of Annie immediately when they mentioned Juliet looking like "her," a while after watching the episode I wondered … who was Sarah seeing after she left Jack?  She was hesitant to tell him what his name was.  We did see a man, but we never saw Sarah and that man kiss, and Sarah never confirmed for Jack that he was the person she was seeing.  I never thought it mattered much.  But whoever she was seeing, she’s pregnant with his child in the flash forwards.  And we know Ben has left the island many times.

Posted by Darel

Ben’s man on the boat is none other than time-traveling Ben himself.  No way Ben would have trusted Michael enough, nor would the freighties trust some moist dude they just fished off a dinghy.  This way Ben doesn’t even technically need to "be" there so no one has to trust him, there’s very little in the way of infiltration, just some surveillance.  Perhaps Ben’s mastery of time travel includes invisibility and bilocation - his consciousness is always monitoring the boat, but not manifesting.

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