Calling Out "The Other Woman"

First of all, I'm pretty bummed that I never did get to write something about one of the best episodes ever, "The Constant." Perhaps it's best to leave that one alone anyway - there's so much to be said, that it's better left unsaid.

So, this week, we had "The Other Woman." I'll hold off on my opinion until later.

We started with a would-be trick by the writers, who tried to get us to think that maybe Juliet did leave the island. I didn't fall for it. Even more disturbing than the writers trying to trick us, was Harper's (Andrea Roth) over-cosmetically-enhanced face. I looked up Andrea Roth on IMDB - she did not always look so rubbery. She's very pretty in the pictures I saw. I feel kinda bad for saying this, but in last night's episode, I was so disturbed by the unnatural look of her face that I cringed every time she was on the screen. To make clear, she was not creepy in an actor/character sense, like Michael Emerson is with Ben - though her acting was fine. Who knows, the makeup people coulda done it to her, but either way, bad choice on someone's part. She's probably a very nice person. Normally I wouldn't feel so awful about pointing out that someone's face turns me off, but this week I apparently do.

So, enough about that. Juliet went into the jungle to find those sneaky Freighters, and started to hear the whispers. We all know by now what the whispers mean - something is going to appear. And voila! There was Harper. Here's where I started to wonder - do you only see people who don't really exist, or who are dead? It seems that Juliet knew that Harper wasn't really there. Here is where I made my first and only prediction of the night - that Harper got prego and died, and that's how Juliet and Goodwin end up getting it on.

I was so completely wrong. And DUH, I should have knowng better, given that the title is "The Other Woman." Harper knew what was going on, and really she couldn't care less, except that Ben will take it out on Goodwin. So, who is it exactly that Juliet looks exactly like? Annie? His Mom? Either way, Ben had some twisted obsession with our little Dr. Burke, and apparently still does.

John Locke, you're a fool. Though he has grown a lot in some sense, he's still plagued by the same flaws he had pre-crash. He still has a faulty sense of pride that won't allow him to see things any way but his own. (Ok, he's not the only one - Jack.) He still wants the approval/acceptance of a man who has power over him. Off-island, it was his father. Now, it's Ben. How disappointing. If Sawyer can become a man who plays horseshoe with Hurley and not call him nicknames or be a bad sport when he loses, can't John manage to get out of someone's shadow for once?

Best line of the night: "What's Ben gonna do?" - Goodwin

Jack and Juliet catch up with Kate, who was knocked out by Ginger Jones. Juliet realized she'll always be the other woman, and while Jack was distracted by Kate's head injury, she ran off to go get some water, aka find some Freighters to go kill.

Meanwhile, back at the Barracks, Ben showed Locke a Red Sox tape-turned-last-ditch-effort. Bradford Meade - I mean, Charles Widmore - is The Man Who Sent the Boat. I feel a bit dumb for not knowing this, because - duh - that's how Naomi would have gotten a picture of Penny and Des. So now, the question is - did Daddy widmore calculate every step so that Des would end up on the island, turn the failsafe key, and ultimately allow people to locate it? Ah, yes, my friends, I believe that is very probable. So who was it that Widmore was beating to a pulp on that video? And why was he doing it himself, and not having one of his goons do it? Another - when exactly was this shot, given that it had to be after he showed Jack the Red Sox game about a month or two ago...?

After all that, we flashed to a scene of Ben trying to romance - or freak out? - Juliet by having a dinner party of two. He mentions Zach and Emma, those two kids, but what they are needed for - who knows. He is still mentioning Jacob's list, and I'm wondering if there's really a list. Ben was creeping J out in this scene, and we saw more of just how obsessed he was with the doc.

In real time, J finally made it to the Tempest, which is a HUGE station with some fancy pipes and tanks in it. Daniel's a sweetie, Char, not so much. And here was where it all clicked - Juliet is still very much under Ben's thumb. Sadly, it took Charlotte kicking her around a bit for her to realize that. Side note - nothing against Kristen Bell, but so glad that Rebecca Mader plays Charlotte, because it just wouldn't have been believeable with petite little Kristen kicking ass. Unless you called her a Slayer.

Ok, here's the sucky part. Ben showed J the body of her beloved Goodwin. She asked him why he was showing her. He answered something - but our DVR messed it all up, and we couldn't hear what he said. At all. The screen was all frozen and pixillated, and the next thing we heard was Ben telling her to take as much time as she needed. Damn.

Jack and Juliet had a moment that many fans have been waiting for - awwww.

Ben gleefully carried his clean clothes to the house and told Hugo and James that he's see them at dinner. The end.

All in all, not the best this season. The reveals were not so shocking. Although, one thing I did not know was that Ben can control the whispers or the apparitions or whatever those are on the island. I'm not sure if he has done it every time we've seen them, but he sure knows how to get someone to see them.

Last, because I do need to get to work, the promo people at ABC need to get their act together. In the teaser for next week's episode, they actually said we'd see a face we never expected to see again. Come on, people! You think we all haven't been smart enough to figure out that Michael is that one on that freighter?

And with that, I close. I'm tired.