Lost: Strangers In a Strange Land

I'm really trying to get caught up so please bear with me with all the posts.

This episode brought us back to the major pre-Desmond island events. In exchange for helping Ben get well, Jack requests Juliet’s execution be staid. Ben submits, but brands Juliet. And they all begin to sail back to the Island. Kate and Sawyer get back to the original Island with Karl, but they fight the whole time.

Jackbacks: Jack visits Thailand to find himself, and hooks up with a crazy sexy non-tattoo artist who ’sees who people are’ and, against traditions, tattoos Jack (at his coercion) with who he is: “He walks among us, but is not one of us.” But, Jack insists “that’s not what it means.”

I still don’t like Bai Ling.I don’t think Jack would have hooked up so pointlessly with someone for such a long time. Hence, his stalkage AGAIN. He MUST have more control.He only got a piece of the full tattoo.Bai Ling, in Thailand, gave him a Chinese tattoo? Jack’s known all along that he’s a leader, an angry reluctant born leader. He ‘forced’ Achara to tattoo it on him so he’d never forget.

Jack/Juliet: They make perfect sense as a couple, but is any of it still a ploy? The goal all along was to get Jack to go for Juliet. Now he seems to be. Is that part of the Others ploy or part of Jack’s ploy? Or is it honest to goodness aloe-spreadin’ love?

Killing and the Others: Apparently it’s terrible to kill one of your own. So eye for an eye. Juliet kills Danny, she should be executed. But they seem to have no problem threatening to kill anyone else. And apparently killing Karl is OK.What the heck did Karl do?? He was caged, then brainwashed for who knows how long, and who knows what else. And Alex and Juliet were clear that Ben would kill him.

Now we know Cindy and the children are “better off.” And clearly they were there to watch Juliet’s execution. Which of course, didn’t come to pass. But creepy that they want the children to watch trials or executions or whatever. But they gotta learn NOW, right?Poor Emma, asking about Ana-Lucia. More “God loves you as He loved Jacob.”

New creepy character: Sheriff Isabel!

The Others have several boats! Surely that wasn’t the same tugboat Michael and Walt left in. So I’m guessing since there was a ferry system, they had more than one ferry.Turns out Ethan was their good doctor. So why did Ben send him to explore the losties?

Kate likely really did only sleep with Sawyer because she thought he was a dead man. I think she would have waffled for much much longer, and possibly never chose, under normal circumstances.

Yeah, I get it: Juliet and Jack are both marked people now. Was that part of the ploy too? Would she be willing to go that far? If it really is that she’s marked, then what does that mean, and why do they do it? Why in a nonvisible place? Why THAT mark? Does Danielle have that mark too?? EH??