Well we finally hit our first down episode of Lost this season. The only plus I give to “The Other Woman” is that it definitely moved the overall story line along and gave the audience some vital information as to what is going on off the island. This wasn’t the Paulo/Nikki episode that really was a total stand alone episode that brought nothing to the overall mythology of Lost. Also, it was nice to see Tom, a.k.a. Mr. Friendly, and Goodwin again in Juliet’s Flash Back. Its funny how detested these two characters were in their first appearances in Seasons 1 & 2, but as we’ve gotten to know them they have really become likeable additions to the island. I guess who are the bad guys and who are the good guys on Lost really is all about perspective.
I also loved how fleshed out the back story of Juliet and Goodwin’s relationship turned out to be. I honestly thought the scene of Juliet and Goodwin in bed in one of Juliet’s previous flash backs was a throwaway scene and a way to bring Goodwin back to the show. It’s nice to see how far in advanced the Lost writers planned some of these minor details out. What I thought was a really nice added bonus to last week’s episode was how much we learned about Ben in Juliet’s flashback. To use the world creepy to describe Ben just no longer cuts it.
Michael Emerson has taken this character to a whole other level. With Emerson showing Ben’s almost puppy dog love for Juliet at first in the dinner date scene and then showing how psychotic Ben is by setting up Goodwin to die and basically admitting it to Juliet over Goodwin’s dead body, we have now all come to learn that if there is one person on the island no one can trust its Benjamin Linus. Jack better watch out then because obviously Ben will go to any length to keep Juliet on the island and out of another man’s arms. What’s scary about this to me is what does he have planned for Loche with this new arrangement of theirs, and more importantly, what sick game is he playing with Sayid in the Flash Forwards? Obviously there is more to their arrangement than meets the eye.
While I think we all knew there was more to Charles Widmore after his cameo in “The Constant” two weeks ago but faithful The Blot Says… reader D. Greene was positive we’d find out more in “The Other Woman,” and you know what, he was right. The best scene in the show was definitely the video tape of Charles Widmore beating one of Ben’s operatives in an alley. I think we could all tell there was something brewing behind Widmore’s calm demeaner, especially after seeing so many scenes of him berating Desmond, but this shows a new dimension to his character. Obviously he wants the island and it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if he was the reason Desmond crash landed on it.
I thought it was a nice touch by the show’s writers to have the scene recorded over the Red Sox championship videotape from last season. It’s funny how that 2004 World Championship keeps popping up on the show. I believe we find out the remaining members of the Oceanic 6 this week. I’m assuming “The Other Woman’s” first scene was included to throw us off into thinking she was a member, but since it ended up being a Flash Back I guess we can infer she is not part of the Oceanic 6.