'Lost' Season Three Premiere

Tonight was the night - the eagerly anticipated season premiere of Lost.

And now, I think I'm more lost than I ever was before. No polar bears, no dark wisps of smoke, and a focus on only those held captive by the Others (Jack, Kate, and Sawyer) with no other folks other than the Others and flashbacks to Jack's father and wife.

The show opened in a very un-Lost-like state. It could have been Nebraska on a lazy Sunday afternoon. But, these weren't your normal Pleasant Valley Sunday friendly neighbors. No, they were the Others! They have normal homes, a normal-looking rural sort of neighborhood. A woman chose to play a CD with Petula Clark's song "Downtown." (What's it all mean?) And, they were holding a fairly normal activity -- a meeting of a book club. The book club leader, addressed as Julie by another, defended the choice saying, "This is my favorite book!" An older man thought the book literary trash. "It's by-the-numbers religious hokum-pokum."

The book in question? Stephen King's Carrie, in hardcover. I had to freeze-frame my tape, see that its title was short and began with a "C," then look for covers online as it doesn't match my own original paperback of the book from 1973. But, that's what it was, for sure... a hardcover edition released in 1974, of Carrie. What's the significance of the book? Well, I don't know. I figure it must have some meaning or they wouldn't have shown a traceable book cover. Of course, Carrie was the outcast girl who wreaked havoc on her high school.

The Others, Henry, in particular, look a lot younger than they did in previous episodes. His hair is a healthy dark brown and there aren't the deep lines in his face. Oh. And, Henry's name is Ben. The woman running the book club made a comment about being foolish enough to "pick a book Ben wouldn't like." So, Henry/Ben has some power. The book club meeting was interrupted by what looked like an earthquake, but was the magnetic forces which caused Oceanic Flight 815 to crash. All of the Others, who seem like normal ol' people, ran out and watched it split into three parts falling over the island.

Ben assigned Ethan (remember him?) to join the survivors (if any) of the fuselage crash site and to be one of them. "You were on the plane," he said. He told him to listen, learn, and not get caught; he wants lists in three days. Others were assigned to find the other two parts of the plane.

"So, I guess I'm out of the book club."

Then it cuts to "present day" and Jack, Kate, and Sawyer are each held captive in separate areas. Sawyer is in what is later revealed to be a bear cage complete with a tricky way to obtain a fish biscuit and water. An older teenaged boy is in an adjacent cage. The teen warned Sawyer not to play with a button and Sawyer being Sawyer just had to play with it... and got blown across the cage. Later, the boy would help Sawyer escape. Don't get excited, his escape didn't last long. He was tasered and brought back to the bear cage.

Kate's scene begins in a shower room similar to ones in gyms. Hey, wait! The public shower played a part in Carrie! Nope, no dirty pillows. An older man we previously knew as Zeke attended to Kate and gave her a towel, soap, shampoo, and a dress to put on afterwards. She feared he would leer, but he told her that she wasn't his type. Don't ask. I don't know what his type would be. All dressed up and no place to go? Nope, she had a date with Henry. Ben. Whatever. A breakfast by the sea, accompanied with a warning from Ben. "The next couple of weeks are going to be very unpleasant."

What's up with Jack? Well, he's in what's revealed later to be an undersea, but dry, dolphin pool. Book Club Julie, who introduces herself to Jack as Juliet, is his watchman. He tried to escape, too. Juliet told him that his dehydration will eventually cause hallucinations and we went through a series of flashbacks. Scenes of his wife with another man (no, get your minds out of the gutter) and his father ran on and off through the show. His obsession with finding out his wife's lover even took a turn at accusing his father, cracking up, getting busted, and generally going berserk. Odd.

When he attacked Juliet and tried to escape, Ben/Henry warned him that if he opened a door, they'd all die. He went ahead and opened it. Nope, they didn't die! But water rushed in and that's when he figured they were under the sea. Juliet calmed him with a file which she claimed was "his life." She told him several facts about his background and told him Sarah (his ex-wife) was happy.

Meanwhile, after breakfast Kate was put in an adjacent bear cage to Sawyer. He shared a fish biscuit with "Freckles."

Tonight's episode is on the ABC website if you missed it. But, now we have a bunch of new mysteries and no answers.

• Why was Julie/Juliet crying as she listened to "Downtown"?
• What is the significance of the Carrie novel, if any? How did they get several copies of it?
• How did they get vehicles? How come their houses are stocked with food and have electricity? Where did this stuff all come from?
• Those bear cages are pretty big. Could one have been the domicile of a certain gigantic polar bear from the first season?
• Bear cages and dolphin pools? How do they work in with DHARMA? Or the Hanso Foundation?
• How long have these people been on the island? Many are childbearing age. We know they've stolen children. Why are there no children?

The only thing I really learned tonight was that Ethan was indeed an Other and assigned to blend in with the survivors. That and the fact that Jack acted like a real jerk about his wife's marital fling. No, I'm not suggesting he just accept it, but he went over the edge.

Oh, heck. I'm Lost.