'Lost' - "Stranger in a Strange Land"

Well, I think I enjoyed the novel of the same name a bit better. ABC hyped and hyped this episode claiming we would have the answers to three of the mysteries. Hmmm... yes, they answered the meaning of Jack's tattoo, but then brought up the possibility of another meaning.

As for the other two mysteries, I think things are a bit murky. I believe the questions where exactly do the Others really live and why do they abduct the children. Or, maybe one mystery was why Jack saved Ben. If you think anything else was remotely addressed, let me know. I may be missing something.

This episode was Jack-centric and I'm beginning to think I prefer when they focus on Locke, Sayid, Charlie, and the others who weren't captured by the Others. I like smoke monsters and giant polar bears. I'm kind of tired on the ongoing love-triangle drama between Kate, Sawyer, and Jack.

In Flashbacks
The flashback segments brought us back to when Jack was living the easy life in Phuket, Thailand. He met a young woman named Achara while helping a young boy with a kite (which Jack himself had no clue how to fly). They struck it off well together, shared a bed, shared dinners at her brother's restaurant and were having a great ol' time of life.

When he mentioned his father, she told him she didn't want to hear about him. "You are here to find yourself." And, then she told him that she had "a gift." No, not the kind of gift you give someone, more like a special power sort of thing.

Jack was intrigued by Achara's mystery and followed her to find her going into what I thought was a brothel. Hey, she was dressed hooker-ish, high-class hooker, but hooker indeed. I was wrong, though. It was a tattoo parlor of sorts. She told him that she "can see who people are" and make special tattoos for them. She refused to tell Jack "who he is," but said he was a leader and a great man who gets very angry. She reluctantly put his tattoo on him, but warned him there would be consequences.

Jack returned to the beach where he frightened the child he had helped earlier. Achara's brother and a group of men came along, looked at the tattoo and stomped Jack senseless telling him to leave the beach, leave the country.

On The Island - Kate, Sawyer, and Karl
Sawyer, Kate, and Karl were still where we last left them -- rowing to their island. Kate wanted to go back for Jack, but Sawyer nixed the Freckles... and blah, blah. Karl came to for a moment to tell them that "God loves you as he loved Jacob."

Sawyer and company land on the island to make camp overnight. Sawyer and Kate kept arguing, Karl spoke again. "You shouldn't fight. You're lucky to be alive."

They asked Karl about the Others. He told them that the Others didn't live on "that" island, they lived on this one (where 815 crashed). That island was only used for projects. When asked why they abducted the children, he told them it was to give them a better life. When pressed "a better life than whose," he told them, "A better life than yours." We found out he has no clue who the Brady Bunch were, but he did have a backyard when growing up.

Karl is bereft without his beloved Alex. Sawyer, kind soul that he is, told him to "Cowboy up!" When Sawyer told him if he loved her that much, he should go back to get her, Karl told him that if he did, he'd be killed this time.

That got Sawyer thinking about his own situation with Kate (and Sawyer). He told her she only was with him the one time because she thought he was a dead man. The main island scenes ended with Karl star-gazing and a shot of Alex doing the same -- something they used to do together.

The Other Island - Jack, Ben, and More
Jack was being moved from the dry dolphin tank area to the cages so that the Others could put Juliet in the tank. No, they're not happy that she shot the one who tried to kill Sawyer and Kate. She's a prisoner and they (Jack and Juliet) cross paths in handcuffs to their destinations.

There's a new sheriff in town and her name is Isabel. Jack later found out that Ben, if he could be, is still the leader and Isabel is just his top gun... or something to that effect.

Juliet, accompanied by guards, asked Jack if he would help Ben. Despite her own predicament, she had been asked to check his failing condition. His sutures show signs of infection and it could be life-threatening. Jack pressured her to tell him why she's in trouble and she told him she just killed someone. She asked that he attend to Ben as a personal favor. Jack doesn't want to help either Ben or Juliet, no way, no how.

Isabel stopped by his cage and started to speak Chinese. She mentioned his tattoo. Jack said that he had been lying when he told Tom that Juliet asked him to kill Ben. When asked why he was lying for Juliet, he said he wasn't. He was lying so his friend could escape.

Jack was put back in the polar bear cage and we endured a flashback incident in Thailand. Upon returning our view to the cage, it was almost like the cage was in an actual zoo with folks milling about looking at the animals (Jack).

Jack recognized some of the Taillies -- folks from the tail section of the plane who were abducted as they were being led by Ana Lucia. One of them, Cindy, spoke with him. She told Jack they were watchers, just there to watch. Um, okay. They didn't know that Ana Lucia had died. He tried pressing for more information, but she was frightened and left. One of the abducted children, Zach, turned to look at Jack while clutching his teddy bear. He looked very eerie, for the lack of a better word.
After the watchers scattered, Alex came along and broke the surveillance camera to the cage. She demanded to know why Jack saved Ben. He told her that he would answer her questions when she answered his about Juliet -- where was she, what was happening. Alex told him she had killed "one of us." The penalty would be death, an eye for an eye and all that. Jack then told her that he saved Ben because he said he would. He demanded she get him out of the cage.

He went to Ben and attended his infection on the basis of Ben saving Juliet. Ben gave a note to the trial folks and Isabel despite telling Jack that Juliet doesn't care anything about him because "she's one of us."

Jack was told by Alex that Juliet's life would be spared, but she would be a "marked woman." They branded her back with a mark sort of like this -- >|<. Juliet brought him a sandwich and told them that everyone (including him) had to head back to the other island. Isabel later came along and told him that his tattoo means "He walks amongst us, but he's not one of us." Jack denied that meaning and I have to say that something stronger had to set off Achara's brother for the beating and exile. The Others and Jack rowed out to a large ship and [Lost clunk]...

All in all, I preferred last week's episode. How about you?