A Tale of Two Cities
October 11th 2006 03:49
Backstory centers on Jack.
***
The first episode of Lost season three, "A Tale of Two Cities" opens with Juliet's eye. She looks into a mirror and cries while listening to "Downtown" by Petula Clark. It seems to cheer her up. She arranges chairs in her living room. She's burned the muffins and then her hand when she gets them out of the oven. The doorbell rings and a well-dressed older woman is standing there. They peer around the side of the house and see legs poking out from under it. The woman asks if he's still fixing the plumbing. The man replies, "It's a work in progress." Juliet's one of the Others and she's hosting a book club, Carrie by Stephen King, Juliet's favorite book.
Adam complains that it's popcorn, not literature. Juliet gets angry that he's so negative about it. The lady that was at the door smiles as though she enjoys the argument. Adam says that it had no metaphor and it's religious, "Now I know why Ben isn't here. I know the host picks the book, but seriously Julie, he wouldn't read it in the bathroom." Juliet says, "Well, Adam, I am the host and I do pick the book." "Silly me for sinking so low as to pick something that Ben wouldn't like." She starts to talk about free will, indicating there is a lack of it in their community. [We later learn that Ben is fake Henry's real name.]
Here's the complete conversation at the book club:
Adam: It's not even literature. It's popcorn.
Woman: And why isn't it literature, Adam? I'm dying to know.
Adam: There's no metaphor. It's by-the-numbers religious hokum-pokum. [Woman says, "No metaphor?" while Adam keeps talking.] It's science fiction. Now I know why Ben isn't here.
Juliet: Excuse me?
Adam: I know the host picks the book, but seriously Julie, he wouldn't read this in the d*** bathroom.
Juliet: Well, Adam, I am the host and I do pick the book and this is my favorite book, so I am absolutely thrilled that you can't stand it. Silly me, for sinking so low as to select something that Ben wouldn't like. Here I am thinking that free will actually exists on... [tremor starts]
A tremor hits and the book club rushes outside. They're in a community of identical yellow houses. Fake Henry Gale runs out among others and Juliet follows him.
They look up in the sky and see flight 815 breaking up. Fake Henry calls Goodwin and asks if he saw where the tail landed and tells him he can run there in an hour. He calls Ethan and tells him to go to the beach where the fuselage landed. He tells them to blend in and act like they're in shock, come up with a story if they're asked. He wants lists in three days. [Probably the list that Ethan was supposed to make before he brought Claire to the medical station and the list that Ana-Lucia found on the Other she killed.] He turns to Juliet and says, "I guess I'm out of the book club." [It seems as though Juliet doesn't like the Others, although she is one.]
The camera pans back and it looks like the community is on the same island that flight 815 just crashed on.
Scene switch. Jack stalking Sarah. He's in his car, watching her laughing with another man. "Moonlight Serenade" is playing on the radio [The same song Sayid and Hurley picked up on their little radio last season.]...but he's only remembering. He's in a dungeon-like room. He has a bandage on his arm like they put on you when you give blood. He can't get out, then he sees an open door, but he's blocked from it by unbreakable glass. He yells for Kate, but no one answers.
Scene switch to Kate. She's lying on the floor of a shower and Tom is standing over her. She seems to have just woken up. Tom gives her a towel, shampoo, and soap. She says she's not showering in front of him and he laughs and says she's not his type. Tom leaves and Kate removes a bandage like the one Jack had on his arm.
Scene switch to Sawyer. He's in a cage, like a zoological garden. It looks old and rusty and a nearby building looks run down. We see a Dharma symbol with a hydra in it. Another cage holds a man [who we later find out is Carl] we haven't seen before. In the background, we hear lots of birds, including chickens. Sawyer looks around the cage and we see large buttons and things. He presses one with a fork and knife on it. A woman's voice says, "Warning." He presses it again and the voice repeats. The unknown man tells Sawyer, "I wouldn't do that." Sawyer snarks, "If I want your advice I'll ask for it." He presses the button again and the electrical shock throws him back several feet.
Scene switch to Jack. Juliet interrupts Jack trying to escape with a hello. She says her name is Juliet.
* commercial break *
Flashback. Jack enters a large office and sees Sarah. She asks him where his lawyer is and Jack says he fired him. He starts to apologize for "pushing them to this place", but her cell phone rings and interrupts them. She speaks for a moment, then Jack demands to know the name of the man she's seeing. He promises her the house, car, everything if he will tell her the name. She walks away.
Present. Juliet turns a knob on an old control panel and asks Jack if she can hear him. He is trying to climb a chain hanging from the ceiling. He demands to know where his friends are. She says she'll tell him if he'll let go of the chain. He says, "Do you think I'm stupid?" Juliet has a gentle and patient look on her face and she tells him she doesn't think he's stupid; he's stubborn.
Scene switch. Kate gets out of the shower to find her clothes are gone. Locker 841 has a piece of masking tape on it that says, "Wear this." Kate puts on a nice sundress and Tom whistles appreciatively. He takes her to the beach, escorted by three Others with guns, where fake Henry is waiting under a canopy with a nicely set table for two.
Fake Henry gets up and pulls out a chair for her, seating her like it was a romantic date. Handcuffs are on the table and he tells Kate she has to put them on. Kate says, "If I don't?" Fake Henry says, "Then you don't get any coffee." She puts them on and he says a little tighter. She tightens them and asks where Sawyer and Jack are.
Fake Henry immediately starts with the mind games. "Why Sawyer?" "He's the first one you asked about." Kate tells him he doesn't know her. She asks him why he did all this. He says he brought her out there so she could see the water and be comforted knowing that her friends are looking out at the same ocean. He gave her the dress so she'd feel like a lady. He gave her breakfast so she would feel civilized and have something nice to hold on to -- because the next two weeks are going to be very unpleasant.
* commercial break *
Flashback. Jack's office at the hospital. His father walks in while Jack is on the phone calling numbers from Sarah's cell phone. Jack is still stalking Sarah. He dials another number and his father's cell phone rings. [Why didn't he recognize his dad's phone number?] They argue over why Sarah is calling Christian. "Because she was afraid for you." "Let it go, Jack."
Jack's cell. Juliet is gone. Jack tries to drink some of the water dripping from the ceiling, but spits it out. The speaker crackles and he yells into it that he can't hear them. A voice crackles through and we hear Christian saying, "Let it go, Jack."
Juliet walks into the viewing area with a grilled cheese sandwich and bottled Dharma water. She tells him he must sit against the wall and she will open the door and leave the food. Jack says he doesn't want her food and to tell the man in the speaker to leave him alone. She tells him the speaker hasn't worked for years. Jack asks what the button in the viewing area is for. She says it's for emergencies.
She asks him what he does for a living (repo man), whether he's married (no, never saw the point), and where the plane was flying from (Sydney). She asks him why he was there. He tells her bringing back his father. When she starts to ask why, he tells her his father died. She says she's sorry, then that he can trust her. When Jack asks her what is going on, she leaves.
Sawyer's cage. Sawyer is pushing the buttons. The man in the other cage gets out and lets Sawyer out. An alarm sounds with a voice saying, "Subject escaped," over and over. "Planet of the Apes" music plays in the background. [Ours, not Sawyer's.] He points one direction and tells Sawyer to run one direction and he runs in the other. Sawyer runs and meets up with Juliet, who tasers him. The Others throw him back in his cage and bring Carl (the man from the other cage). Tom tells Carl to "say it" and Carl apologizes to Sawyer for involving him in his breakout attempt. His face is pretty messed up.
* commercial break *
Jack's cell. Juliet enters the viewing area and explains that the drugs the Others gave him when they brought him there had serious side effects. He will be dehydrated and will start hallucinating. She tries to coax him into moving to the other side of the cell and letting her in to give him the food and water, promising him there are no strings attached and he doesn't have to answer any questions. He moves to one side. The cell seems brighter than before. The tiles are shiny and green. She thanks him and leaves the viewing area.
Flashback. The hospital and Jack sees his father outside in the hall talking on the cell phone. He stops paying attention to the nurse or his patient. Christian arrives at the Lynford (hotel?) Jack follows him to a room (the door says "Friends of Bill W.") where several people are gathered. The leader of the group (likely AA) asks Jack to join them. Jack says, "You know who I am?" She answers yes, your father has told us a lot about you. Jack says, "Oh, yeah? What did he tell you about me?" and he runs through his litany of insecurities. The host says that Christian has been sober for fifty days. Jack yells more things that reflect on his own issues and accuses Christian of sleeping with Sarah. Christian says, "Let it go." Jack tackles his dad.
Jack's cell. Juliet opens the door to his cell and Jack grabs her, but not before the door shuts. he tells her to open the door, but she refuses, says they will die if he does. He yells at her to open the door, which has a Dharma symbol with the hydra on it, and fake Henry, standing in the viewing room, tells him they will all die. Jack throws Juliet aside and opens the door. Fake Henry runs out of the viewing room, shutting the door just as Juliet gets to it.
Water rushes into the cell and Juliet and Jack are washed away. Juliet yells to Jack to come to her. He does and helps her to shut another door. She tells him to push the yellow button, the button he had asked about earlier. He turns away from her and pushes the button, then as he turns back to her, she punches him and knocks him out and into the water. She pulls him out of the water and holds him up. She looks frustrated? Resigned?
* commercial break *
Sawyer's cage. He reaches through the bars for a large rock and gets it into the cell. He uses it to hold down a lever. He pushes the button with the fork and knife and throws something at the push lever. The voice says, "Reward." Marching band music plays. A fish-shaped dog treat-looking thing that says Dharma. Pellet food (like for hamsters) comes rushing out of the same slot. Water fills the trough.
Tom brings Kate into the clearing and puts her in the other cage, which is now vacant. Tom has her put her arms through the cage bars and he takes off the cuffs. We see her wrists; they're pretty roughed up. Tom promises to send antiseptic. Tom makes fun of Sawyer for getting a fish biscuit and says it took the bears only two hours. Sawyer frowns at him. Tom leaves and Sawyer offers her the fish biscuit. He tosses it to her and she eats it. She seems quite hungry. Tender looks are exchanged.
Jack's cell. He's hearing whales. He says it's an aquarium. Juliet verifies that they're underwater. Jack asks if it's for sharks and she says it's for dolphins, too. The station is called the Hydra. Juliet seems to indicate that there has been a break from Dharma referring to Dharma as "they". Jack asks if "you people are what's left of them." She says, "That was a long time ago. It doesn't matter who we were, only what we are."
"We know exactly who you are, Jack Shephard." Spinal surgeon, based out of St. Sebastian's hospital in Los Angeles. Columbia Med School. Graduated faster than anyone else. Married once and contested the divorce. Juliet has a copy of the autopsy report of Christian. Jack asks how she got it and she only replies that they got it. She shuts a large book and says she knows just about everything. He asks if it's about just him or his friends and family, too. She says everything. Jack asks if she knows about his ex-wife. Juliet says yes and what would he like to know.
Flashback. Jack is in a jail cell. Someone has just posted bail. The police officer escorts him out and it is Sarah. She has called him a cab, she says, and then she leaves. She rushes out the front door of the station and there's a man waiting for her. Jack asks if that's him and Sarah says "it doesn't matter who he is, it just matters who you're not". Sarah says Christian called her to help Jack, but he was so drunk, she could hardly understand him.
Jack's cell. Juliet asks him what he would like to find out about Sarah. Jack says, "Is she happy?" Juliet tells him she is very happy. She says she wants to bring him some food and water, but she needs to know that he will behave. Can she trust him? He nods yes. She leaves the viewing room and fake Henry is there. He says, "Good work, Juliet." She says, "Thank you, Ben."
Did I miss anything? Get something wrong? Let me know in the comments.
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