I think this needs to be made clear: I'm not judging Lost on a realistic scale.  All the episode ratings I give are based on the episode's strength relative to other Lost episodes.  That is, to say, Lost can't be judged like any other show.  While watching the entirety of season three over again, I enjoyed every single episode.  None of them made say, “Oh, that was bad.”  A 6/10 for an episode is equivalent to an 8 or 9/10 for any other show.  With that in mind, let's get to our latest batch of episodes.

Episode 15 - Left Behind

You sick bastards.  You loved it when Elizabeth Mitchell and Evangeline Lilly were handcuffed together, didn't you?  Rolling around in the mud, running from Smokey.  Oh yeah.  Though I have to admit this was definitely a positive, my favorite moment of this episode came at the beginning, as Locke says goodbye to Kate as he's about to go off with the Others.  He says that he was going to make a case for her to be set free, but then they told Locke about Kate's past and what she had done.  One of the biggest parts of the Others/815 survivors interactions is that knowledge equals power.  Think about what would happen if all the survivors had files on each other like the Others do.  Chaos would ensue.  Anyway, in this episode the Others leave their barracks, Locke in tow, and leave Juliet and Kate handcuffed together in the woods.  They head back to the barracks, having to avoid the smoke monster on the way.  They find Jack and Sayid and head back to camp.  Things are a bit awkward.  Back at the beach, Hurley cons Sawyer into acting nice by telling him that they're thinking about banishing him.  Sawyer trying to be nice is instant humor.  The flashbacks are cool, because Cassidy (Sawyer's con victim and mother of his maybe real child) meets Kate and the two mastermind a visit with Kate's mother.  Kate eventually gets to speak with her, but it doesn't go well.  Her mother is weak, professing her love for the man that constantly beat her. 

Rating: 6/10

Nothing major plot-wise in this episode. Kate's flashback is cool, and the hand cuffs were a nice way of forcing Kate-Juliet interaction.  Sawyer provides some nice comic relief, but overall just a pretty middling episode.


Episode 16 - One of Us

The second of the season three Juliet flashbacks.  In a nice, linear fashion, picking up where her last flashback left off, we see how Juliet ended up on the island.  Meanwhile, back at camp, Juliet sees that Claire is sick and says she knows how to help her – there's a medical stash not far from the beach that contains the serum she needs.  The flash back is cool because it shows Juliet's curiosity overwhelm her common sense in coming to the island, the futility of the pregnant patients and that great trip to see Mikhail when Ben shows Juliet her happy and with child sister.  Also, the main on-island plot is another genius Ben ploy, in which they triggered an implant in Claire that would make her sick, allowing Juliet to be the savior and gain the trust of the survivors.  The final scene, when it shows Ben explaining the ploy, was also genius.  I certainly didn't expect it, and it immediately threw out all the good will Juliet's flashbacks had accumulated throughout the episode.  Also, Juliet plain owns Sayid and Sawyer in the jungle as she retrieves the serum. 

Rating: 8/10

A really good episode that delves deeper into the mystery of Juliet, juxtaposing her early curiosity and compassion with her present (what we thought to be) cold-hearted and Ben following ways. 


Episode 17 – Catch-22

Another Desmond episode.  It doesn't really compare to the importance of his last flashback episode in which Desmond traveled time, but it's solid nonetheless.  The flashback, which shows Desmond working to become a monk in a monastery, is basically a big set-up to show how he met Penelope, but it's interesting to see that he was engaged and about to be married.  On the island is where the important stuff happens, however.  Complicated, too.  Desmond sees one of his flashes and it's the first one that us in the audience got to see in its entirety.  It involves Desmond, Jin, Hurley and Charlie walking through the jungle, talking about comic books, when Charlie gets hit in the neck by one of Rousseau's booby trap arrows.  He dies, of course.  However, also in the flash back is a red light in the sky and a parachuter hanging from a tree.  Desmond has to make a tough decision – does he sacrifice Charlie to find the parachuter, to maybe find Penelope or does he save Charlie's life through inaction?  He decides it's worth the risk and pro-actively makes the flash happen for real.  Eventually,  Charlie is saved again and, in the end, they find the parachuter.  It's not Penelope, as Desmond had hoped, but a woman named Naomi.  As the episode ends, she mutters Desmond's name. 

Rating: 7/10

As we know, Naomi is the catalyst for the rest of the third season and, presumably, the fourth as well.  We don't know who she works for yet, or why she has the picture of Penelope and Desmond.  It was a great introduction.  Also, cruelly, this episode gave viewers a reason to be optimistic that Desmond could keep saving Charlie, that maybe fate could be thwarted.  Desmond is such a great character that, even in semi-dull flashbacks, he's endearing.

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