Lost Season Three Premiere

So we now know the name of the man that paraded around as Henry Gale. He's Ben. And apparently he doesn't like Stephen King.

The Lost season premiere begins with a book club, making you think it is someone's flashback. But since we don't recognize any Flight 815 survivors, you can only assume it is a flashback of one of The Others. Before an argument over the choice book, a Stephen King novel, can break out, an earthquake shakes the house, stopping Juliet in mid rant. As soon as the tremors stop, they run outside.

Outside is when we discover it isn't a flashback, but where The Others live. We see Ethan crawl out from under a home and Ben (The Other formerly known as Henry Gale) run out of another house. It's a cute looking neighborhood and could be any suburb in America. That's when we realize the show is backtracking to the day of the plane crash as we see a plane breaking apart in the sky. Ben demands Ethan and Goodwin investigate the crash and pretend to be survivors so they can return with lists in three days. Something about seeing their clearing in the middle of the island makes the whole island looks so much larger than it has the past two seasons.

Jack wakes up in a sort of observation room with a glass wall. After yelling for Kate and trying to escape, Juliet appears and introduces herself. Telling him he is stubborn, Juliet comes off as patronizing, but I quite enjoy that as I've never liked Jack - he is too whiney and holier than thou for my tastes.

Interspersed throughout this episode are flashbacks of Jack's life when his wife wanted a divorce and he discovered she had a new man. He, quite understandably, was going pretty crazy and trying to figure out who was replacing him. While not the most compelling flashback, it did cut nicely with what was going on present day on the island.

So Juliet tries to bring Jack some food; but he has other ideas, tackling her and trying to escape. A rather soggy attempt, Jack soon realizes he's being held in a Dharma hatch underwater -- an aquarium of sorts - called The Hydra. Upon questioning about being what is left of Dharma, Juliet simply says it was a long time ago. But she does have a lot of information about Jack that is rather suspicious. The Others obviously have easy contact with the outside world so I doubt the rumors about the island being invisible to those not on the island is accurate.

Kate wakes up in a locker room of sorts with Zeke providing her with all the essentials to take a shower. Once she is finished, she finds a dress to wear as her own clothes are missing. Man is she one ripped chick! Anyway, she is lead to the beach where Ben wants to have breakfast with her to give her something nice to remember. Apparently the next two weeks are going to be quite unpleasant.

Sawyer wakes up in a cage, as if he is an animal in some sort of crazy zoo. Across from him is a cage with another man in it, who from first glance looks like trouble. In the cage with Sawyer are some levers and buttons that obviously will send him food, if he figures out how to make them work. The troublemaker cage dweller escapes letting Sawyer out - obviously using him as bait to help his own escape attempt. Both are caught; while Sawyer is returned to his cage, the other man (his name is Carl) is made to apologize before being led off into the jungle. Moments later Kate is put in the cage across from Sawyer. He's obviously glad to see her, as she is to see him.

If there were bears in the cage before Sawyer, as Zeke seems to suggest, it makes me wonder if they were Polar Bears. And since The Others obviously have technology at their fingertips, I hope music is going to be a bigger role like it was in the first season before Hurley's discman died. I also wonder what they injected into Sawyer, Kate, and Jack.

If it only takes Juliet one punch to knock Jack unconscious, he obviously isn't as tough as he wants everyone to think he is. I do wonder why he is being held away from Kate and Sawyer. But everyone being in cages reminds me even more of The Magus by John Fowles. To me, that is the closest I can come to a similar story, be it on screen or in print.

I appreciate learning more about The Others and where they live on the island. I also really enjoyed watching Jack getting punched. I did kind of miss the Flight 815 survivors, but the previews for next week suggest we'll see them next Wednesday. I sure hope so because I'm achin' for some more Sayid.