Not in Portland: We talked about Juliet a few weeks ago, re: our first impressions of her. This episode takes what we knew about her on the Island, and flips it over, something that the writers did very well. I like to note the difference between Juliet on the Island vs. the Juliet off the Island, two very different…

The texting discussion was pretty stupid…has absolutely nothing to do with the game.

I wouldn't go that far in hating the theme, but it is being forced once again, which is a shame because I do think we have some good players this season, and the focus should be on the gameplay and not the theme.

To your point about Kate's pregnancy scare, I absolutely believe that was the reason she jumped ship. While Kate may have resorted to murder to get rid of her father (and I'm certainly never advocating that), she would never do that to someone she loved.

Maybe it's just me, but now that I'm thinking about it, Hurley always kind of kept Locke at arm's length. That first flashback with Locke, right before the show cuts to it, Hurley's saying, "Who is this guy?"

We both know why MiB didn't use Locke the way he used Christian and Yemi. He had bigger plans for him from the start, as we're reminded by the scene here with Eko and Locke, where Locke says he saw a "very bright light."

Just wanted to say first before I reply to your posts that it's a cool milestone we've reached…your comment here was #815.

I Do: Reading the Classic review again, Myles raised a very good point: if Ben has had this tumor all along, why isn't he showing any pain while he's in the Swan with the castaways? It's been a couple months since Oceanic crashed on the Island, and Juliet had just gotten the diagnosis that Ben had a tumor.

The Cost of Living: I've already mentioned in the last recap of an Eko-centric story that he makes no apologies for what he did throughout his life, which comes in this episode. Myles wrote about how Yemi's body disappearing from the Nigerian plane is very much similar to Christian's body disappearing from the coffin…

That's a nice thought about Hurley and Ben in Locke's vision. I've never considered that there's a reason why they were the only two working security; it just goes to show that there's so many little details to look out for.

Bye bye, slightly askew Stop sign!

Happy Lost Day to you as well! Since you agreed with most everything I wrote, I'll keep it short. When I said Hurley was eager to get off the Island, perhaps that's exaggerating it a bit, but the time I was thinking of was at the end of Season 4.

It is CTU, but @avclub-10d3783afeeeaf131f3cbd3a680fef99:disqus did have what it stands for correct, just the wrong order.

Every Man for Himself: So a popular recent topic for us has been that the Island is "healing" the survivors as time goes by. I said I might steal it from you, and for now, I'm looking to do that. ;-)

Further Instructions: Back at the beach, we get our first look of the season at Locke and the rest of the survivors. The opening shot was very cool, as Locke wakes up in the middle of the jungle, sees a man run past, and eventually makes his way back to the beach to form his sweat lodge. Of course, it was a reminder…

As I said above, my first reaction to Juliet was that I liked her immediately. Perhaps part of that was seeing Elizabeth Mitchell previously in Frequency and really liking that character, so that could have influenced me a bit. I know that she was an Other when we first meet her, but as you said in the other post,…

"In my view, this whole business about being "special" is a diversion."

Good point about Rachel, since Ben told Juliet that Rachel's cancer was back but didn't actually show her proof, it's much more likely that it didn't return and Ben bluffed Juliet into staying.

Upvoted for the passion with which you wrote your opinion of Juliet. I just read an article about the new show "The Good Place" on here, where the head writer of that show talks to Damon Lindelof about forming a plan for the series. As usual, the comments went bonkers with "the finale sucked", "it's about the…

I completely agree that it's time for the show's legacy to be focused on something other than the ending. It's been six years already, and hundreds and hundreds of other TV shows have come and gone. Sometimes I feel like a portion of the audience expected Lindelof and Cuse to deliver the meaning of life. An…