Lost: Season 3, Episode 1: A Tale of Two Cities Review

A Tale of Two Cities

Original Airdate: October 4, 2006
Story: J.J. Abrams & Damon Lindelof
Writer: Damon Lindelof
Director: Jack Bender

When I got the season two DVD set, I re-watched the season premiere, “Man of Science, Man of Faith” (unfortunately I haven’t had time to watch more). What really got my interest was how clueless I really was as to what was the big picture for the hatch. After seeing this season premiere, I wonder when this season wraps I’ll feel the same way on a repeat viewing. That’s probably the hardest thing about reviewing serialized television.

While season one focused heavily on the characters, there was plenty of setting up for future seasonal themes. The hatch became a central piece of the second season and they introduced that halfway through the first season. This season The Others have the focus. Their influence has been there since Claire’s abduction, which coincided with the discovery of the hatch. With Henry Gale’s, now called Ben, introduction midway through last season, we were due to learn a lot about The Others. Before then, the encounters we had with The Others had been in passing if we ever saw them.

Like last season, there is a lot of ground to cover, as the castaways are dispersed all over the island. Had they incorporated all of this into the episode, there would’ve been little breathing room. So like last year, they’ll spend an episode to cover one or two of these aspects until ultimately they’re reunited, which is probably the best decision. Hopefully we won’t see too many backtracks that don’t reveal much like last time. It is a little frustrating not to see a follow up of the two biggest cliffhangers, what happened to the hatch and what is Penelope doing, but it wouldn’t have fit the story in this episode.

The opening, with Juliet in a suburban-esque neighborhood that turns out to be the living quarters for The Others, draws comparisons to last season’s opening of Desmond in the hatch, where we don’t know who this person is (she looked like Penelope) or where we were. With that expectation, it isn’t as shocking as Desmond being in the hatch, but that’s expected when that device is used again. Shock value aside, the ability for The Others to live in this suburban replica is interesting. The hatch was able to have various conveniences of the modern world there, but Otherville’s community outdoes whatever technological advances the hatch had.

While The Others were unaware of Flight 815’s crash until it hit the turbulence, there is a protocol for when new people come to the island and it is enacted within seconds. The first assumption is that this isn’t the first time they’ve done this, but why? Was there a previous group of hostile people? At this point, they can’t keep too many of these secrets much longer. The reintroduction of these elements seems to bring that promise.

It is interesting how well the infiltrators obeyed Ben’s demands. We didn’t see Ethan on the island until the episode before he took Claire. Goodwin, however, didn’t have the luxury of a large group of survivors to blend in with and as we saw in “The Other 48 Days”, was one of the primary leaders of The Tailies. Also, while Ben told them he wanted lists in three days, Tailies were abducted in the first night. We still don’t know what the lists or the infiltrators real mission was, but hopefully we’ll understand what it was by the end of the season.

With that introduction, they move to explain what happened to the three captives. While it would’ve been nice to see more from the rest of the cast, this season’s theme demanded a focus on The Others and those captured for the first episode, like the hatch did in “Man of Science, Man of Faith”.

Some complained that Jack’s subplot not revealing much that we couldn’t figure out already, but it added more than some may have been willing to admit. This episode feels like a logical bridge between “The Hunting Party” and “White Rabbit” flashbacks. Perhaps Jack’s lack of faith in his father caused Christian to fall back on his demons, resulting in the botched surgery that cost him is livelihood and brought both of them to Sydney. Jack’s stubbornness over wanting to know the name of Sarah’s lover draws parallel to his current resistance to The Other’s plan. As the series enters its third year, one has to wonder what they’re going to do for new flashbacks as these storylines seem to have resolved themselves.

Jack’s anger and frustration over not knowing the identity of Sarah’s other man reminds me of the angst of some disgruntled critics. Starting around midway through the first season and exploding in the second were these “fans” who slammed every episode for not having some earth shattering revelation on the level of “Walkabout”. People on their blogs and message boards have been demanding major answers that the series isn’t ready to reveal. Essentially, this episode tells them to chill out for now. As said on JJ Abrams other show, Alias (whose fate hopefully won’t be shared by Lost’s), “truth takes time”.

What is interesting about this captivity is that Jack is kept by himself in the underwater hatch while Sawyer and Kate are kept in the cages outside. We’ll probably not find out why they wanted these three anytime soon, but we can deduct that Jack serves some purpose separate from Sawyer and Kate. We also can’t take The Others’ word that Hydra is underwater. Jack could be stored in the Hydra tank near Sawyer’s cage. The water that flooded the tank could be from another tank and not the ocean.

Karl, Sawyer’s first neighbor in the bear cage, felt like a plant. Considering there is so much invested in these new arrivals, having only Juliet apprehend Sawyer with a taser with no sign of The Others’ muscle until Sawyer’s down is a bit unrealistic. Also, how would Karl know about a plane? I’m a bit surprised master con-man Sawyer didn’t catch that tell. If their mission is to break Sawyer by humiliating him and taking his power away, this is certainly effective.

Kate’s situation is rather odd. Unlike Sawyer, who comically has to figure out how to use the (polar?) bear cage’s device to give him a Dharma biscuit, or Jack, stuck in a dank underwater (or is it) hatch, Kate has a nicer experience. She gets to shower, put on a nice dress and eat breakfast by the shore. However, she is made to wear handcuffs during breakfast, and when she is thrown in with Sawyer, she has suspicious bruises on her wrists. What did they do to her from breakfast to her reunion?

Juliet is an intriguing new addition to The Others. It’s clear there is some intimate history between her and Ben. Considering her state at the beginning of the episode, they might’ve broken up shortly before the plane crashed. This break up hints at bigger divisions within The Others’ camp and the persistent theory that there are other Others (I like the term “Neithers”).

Juliet implies that The Others may not be related to Dharma at all. In her conversations with Jack, she also touches upon an element central to Lost, the concept of change and redemption. Some, including Jack, assume that these people are remnants of Dharma, or possibly the human experiments. But as we saw with the four toed statue, this island has been busy long before Dharma showed up. We still don’t have any clear direction where The Others came from, but it seems like this season will be largely about them.

This solid premiere does a good job of setting our expectations for the season, at least as far as the three captives and The Others are concerned. While the back story may be seen as redundant, it works well along the storyline of Juliet breaking him.

Overall Score: 8/10