Bunny #8: The Others Test Our Castaways on "Lost"

There's a certain satisfaction one gets in being right. I hate to gloat (really I do), but seeing as I got so many emails from people saying that I was wrong, that the Others couldn't possibly be on another, separate island, I feel the need to do the written equivalent of the Snoopy dance. So, here goes: I was right!

More on that unabashed egocentricity in a bit. But before that, last night's episode of Lost ("Every Man for Himself") peeled back the layers of the onion a little more, giving a few glimpses into the belly of the beast and revealing some more intel about the Others. Since the hatch went kablooey in the season finale, it seems as though the Others have been having some problems of their own: after the firmament turned, well, purple, they went blind and now their communications are all down. Which means that they are now just as stranded and cut off from the rest of the world as the castaways. And something tells me that there might not be any more supply drops in the near future.

As suspected, the reason Jack has to scrub up is to attempt to save the life of the wounded Colleen (Deadwood's Paula Malcolmson), shot by Sun in "The Glass Ballerina." It was great seeing Jack in a hospital setting and, while I was struck initially by the way that Jack and Juliet scrubbed up in the same exact manner, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that she wasn't surgeon after all, but a fertility doctor. Seeing as training for that profession doesn't exactly grow on trees (or allow you to take correspondent classes from creepy, haunted islands in the middle of nowhere), Juliet is not island-born like Ben, but perhaps a refugee from the mainland/real world. And a fertility doctor? Tres interesant. Is that the reason why they had such an interest in Claire and her unborn baby? (Like Ben, Aaron is island-born.) And perhaps Juliet is the explanation as to how Sun and the infertile Jin have managed to conceive a child? (I still am under the belief that the baby is Jin's and not Jae's.) Jack and Juliet try to save Colleen, but she's too far gone for Jack to do anything and, when her heart stops, Jack is stunned to discover that the Others' crash cart is broken. According to Juliet, things like this don't happen to them. I was actually glad that Jack wasn't able to miraculously save her life and revive her, leading the Others to gain his trust. No, instead, they handcuff Jack to the gurney containing Colleen's corpse.

I'm loving Juliet. She's such an incredibly nuanced character. Despite the fact that Jack had a broken plate to her throat a few episodes back, she's so calm and collected around him and seems to genuinely care about him. (Sure, there was that fist to Jack's face in the same ep, but can you blame her?) When Jack tells her that, even if she had summoned him earlier, he couldn't have saved Colleen, Juliet asks if he's just saying that to make her feel better. Jack can only laugh. Um, isn't he her prisoner? Why on earth would he care about making HER feel better? Loving too that Jack is being a little more crafty and manipulative than we've seen before, pitting Juliet and Ben against one another. Juliet claims that the Others make decisions as a group; they don't have a leader. But Gentle Ben seems to be bossing everyone around, a fact that doesn't go unnoticed by Juliet, now that Jack has opened her eyes...

Speaking of Ben, it seems that the Other-Formerly-Known-as-Henry Gale has a large tumor on his spine. And who on the island is a top flight spinal surgeon with a track record for producing miracles? Why, if it isn't the Good Doctor, Jack Shepherd. Hmmm. Now that wouldn't be a reason for selecting Jack from the group and treating him to four walls and cartoons, now would it? I noticed the x-rays as Jack entered the surgical suite and was a bit thrown off by them--it's not as if they would have x-rayed the dying Colleen--but thought it was just the setting that felt off. I'm glad that Ben has an Achilles heel, but if there's anyone who can heal him, it's Jack...

While Jack gets a small taste of the real world (or as close as one can get on this island), Sawyer is quickly tortured by Ben and the Others. After attacking Ben during an escape attempt gone sour (they're watching them so the Others know to turn off the power to the cages), Sawyer is taken by Ben and made to think that they've implanted a pacemaker inside his chest, primed to explode should his heart rate reach a certain point. To demonstrate its effectiveness, Ben uses a cute little bunny with a large 8 on its back and shakes the poor thing until its heart stops. Poor wee bunny! (Don't worry on his account, though.)

The Lost Flashback of the Week belongs to Sawyer, as we learn that he was incarcerated after he conned Cassidy (Kim Dickens) in "The Long Con." He ponies up to a plot device from Prison Break played by Felicity's Ian Gomez (how great was it to see Javier back in a J.J. Abrams show?) in order to discover the whereabouts of $10 million which he uses as leverage to commute the last six years of his sentence. Once again, Sawyer has managed to con his way out of punishment. But that commission he gets for stabbing Mr. Plot Device in the back? He arranges to have it placed in a bank account in Albuquerque for his newly discovered daughter, Clementine. Wait, Sawyer has a daughter? I was v. surprised by Cassidy's reveal of Sawyer's offspring but not by his reaction. The last thing Sawyer has ever needed or wanted has been to, well, be needed or wanted. But, still, the thought that yet another castaway has a child (they seem to be slowly multiplying) is an interesting twist...

Was anyone else really upset by the scene in which Colleen's husband Danny smacked up Sawyer and forced Kate to say that she loved him? And then was even more upset when Kate admitted that she only said it to get Danny to stop before he killed Sawyer? Oh, Freckles, you just don't get it, do you? Also loved the invocation of "Live Together, Die Alone," which was of course the title of the Season Two finale. Kate could have escaped but she stays behind for Sawyer. Maybe she does have feelings for him, after all.

The Lost Literary Allusion of the Week belongs to John Steinbeck's classic Of Mice and Men, which is itself an allusion to that Robert Burns line of verse, "The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley." (Or in English, "often go awry.") Both Sawyer (shown reading the novel in, fittingly enough, prison) and Ben refer to the novel at various points, with Ben quoting a passage at length; it's Sawyer who fails to recognize it. But it's especially fitting this week that the novel is alluded to, given Colleen's death. In the book, Lennie unwittingly commits homicide and, while Sun did shoot Colleen, it certainly wasn't in cold blood.

What's up with Desmond's new "gift"? I'm still not totally convinced that he has foresight or if time was folded back on itself and he already experienced the future. He's savvy enough to build a lightning rod after Charlie (the territorial fool!) won't allow him to fix the roof of Claire's shelter and minutes later the skies open up and, wouldn't you know it, that homemade lightning rod gets zapped. Curious.

That bunny that Ben tortured? Well, he's still alive, courtesy of a sedative rather than a pacemaker implanted in his chest. If you're going to flip a con man, the only way to do it is to con him. And Ben wanted to make sure that Sawyer could be docile if he needed to be. He takes him on a stroll to the very edge of the cliff and shows him another island across the blue expanse of the ocean. That's the castaways' island. There is no running for escape, because there is no way off the island. (Hence, Henry's insistence that they capture the sailboat ASAP in "The Glass Ballerina.")

So while gloating isn't the most attractive quality, I can't help but smile at the fact that I was right after all about their little geographic setup. It also explains why the Others have been so careful about making the castaways think they lived in some crumbling fishing village than a suburban planned community. But then again, I've also long thought that there were two groups of Others, something that hasn't yet been disproved. Where, after all, are the children?

Next week on Lost ("The Cost of Living"), the island grows restless, a delirious Eko experiences some unique visions, Locke takes Nikki and some castaways to the Pearl where they see a terrifying one-eyed man (Colonel Tigh?) on the monitor (remember the glass eye?), and Jack continues to pit Juliet and Ben against one another. Can you believe there are only two episodes to go?

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Survivor: Cook Islands (CBS); My Name is Earl/The Office (NBC); Smallville (CW); Ugly Betty (ABC); Desire (MyNet)

9 pm: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS); Deal or No Deal (NBC); Supernatural (CW); Grey's Anatomy (ABC); Fashion House (MyNet)

10 pm: Shark (CBS); ER (NBC); Grey's Anatomy (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: My Name is Earl.

On tonight's repeat of the third season premiere ("Very Bad Things"), Earl takes Joy's side when she and Darnell have a fight. Ouch. Something tells me this will not end well for Darnell or Earl.

8:30 pm: The Office.

On tonight's repeat of the third season premiere ("Gay Witch Hunt"), Michael outs grouchy and gay Dunder-Mifflin employee Oscar and there's a wacky (and out-of-place) flashback revealing what really happened to Jim and Pam after their climactic kiss.

10 pm: Calendar Girls on BBC America.

Catch this 2003 Brit flick starring Helen Mirren and Julie Walters as members of a group of older women who decide to pose nude for a calendar in order to raise money for a local hospital in this true story. And, oh, there's Life on Mars' Philip Glenister!