Season 3, Episode 19: "The Brig"

Ok, ok...pretty good episode - if not a little predictable. I mean really, did anyone here really think that it was Ben that was under that hood? And moreover, was anyone surprised to learn that Cooper was the cause of Sawyer's tragic past? Me neither...but hey, I still found it pretty entertaining.

Let's start at the top of the show and talk about the Other's camping trip with Locke in tow. Ben mentions that they are going to an "old place" to hide out for a while so that - presumably - Juliette can be left behind / hunt for preggies among the Losties. Once we get to tent city, we see a couple things. First off, while Locke helps the flight attendant with her rinky A-frame tent, we see that Ben has had a camping mansion erected for him in about five minutes (with bookshelves ta boot!). Next, and more importantly, the place where they are squatting does in fact seem to be "old," as Cooper is tied to some sort of columnus ruin and other relics are scattered about the area. The only reason I mention this is that this site could have been built by the same folks that built that four toed statue that we saw in the last episode of Season Two. And it could help prove that in some shape or form, folks have been on this Island for quite some time. Worth noting. (And I didn't even go into the slaves from Black Rock - the ship. Who knows how long people have been on this Island.)

And, briefly, what's this shit about having to kill someone in order to pass the "Other Test?" That doesn't seem to jive with the whole, "we only take the good people" mantra that Ben and company have been living by now for a couple seasons (and setting a great example for the kids, eh?). Sure, Locke's got some daddy issues, but I just don't see how killing Cooper will resolve them. What I thought was interesting about the whole process was the conversation between Richard and Locke. Richard gives Locke Sawyer's file and leads him down the path of having James do his dirty work for him. While Richard claims that he's going behind Ben's back on this one, I'm thinking that Ben was behind the whole thing. In the end, I don't think Ben necessarily cared who killed Cooper, he just wanted to make sure that it SEEMED like he forced Locke to follow his orders. As we've seen in the past, Ben cares more about having the appearance of power than actually following through with his ultimatums.


Let's shift to Cooper. I'm not going get into the whole "they're NOT dead, the producers have said so" argument again, but I did think that Cooper's understanding of his situation was quite interesting. Think about it, this guy knows he's an asshole. He has no presumptions that he lived a noble life helping others or whatever. He was a scumbag. Therefore, when he got into an accident and blacked out in the ambulance only to come out of darkness in a dark, dank, hot room only to see his DEAD son in front of him - well, I'd think that I was in Hell, too. I thought it was a cool way for the writers to keep this little debate going, even though it almost like they're just fucking with us at this point. But again, in my opinion it's not Hell, and they're not dead...but I still liked the idea.


Finally let's get to the cliffhanger. Juliette wants to tell Kate a little secret, but Jack decides the time is not right. What's going on here? I'm thinking of a couple different possibilities. First off, Juliette has told Jack that she's still working for Ben and that they are planning to double cross him when the Others come to collect Sun and any other pregnant Losties. But if this were the answer, wouldn't Jack want to tell the camp so that they could prepare for this upcoming raid? Another option is that Juliette wanted to tell Kate that with the sub destroyed, there is no way off the Island (meaning: don't get your hopes up about this pilot and her claims of rescue). But this seems unlikely as well since we have to believe that Juliette is still working for her freedom at this point, which would mean that there still must be a way to get off (and remember, Michael and Walt were sent off on a raft, but who knows where they ended up). To be honest, I'm not sure what to think about this one...I welcome any thoughts you might have below.


Here's a few Easter Eggs, but nothing crazy this week:

The "Sawyer File" that Richard gave Locke was in French. Prop Error?

The "Columnus Ruins" ... did I make up that term? Spell check says so, but I like the sound of it ....



And a final update that we learned late last week, Exec Producers Lindlehoff and Cuse have successfully negotiated an end date for the series. There will be 48 more episodes planned that will run over the course of three 16 episode seasons. This is great news as now there is a hard date set for the writers to implement the ending that they have envisioned from the start without needing to artificially extend series with fluff. Also, each season will start in February and run through May without repeats. The only part that sucks is that we will have to wait for Feb 2008 for the start of next season. But according to the preliminary reports, the finale this season is supposed to mind blowing enough for us to not even notice the break!

Till next time....