Lost: Season 4, Episode 6 "The Other Woman" Review

 "It's very stressful being an Other, Jack."

-Dr. Juliet Burke

"The Other Woman" picks up in a flashback.  A week after arriving on the island, Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) starts seeing a therapist, Harper Stanhope (Andrea Roth). They don't really get along.  As Juliet struggles to adapt to the island and the deaths of her patients, she starts having an affair with Harper's husband, Goodwin (Brett Cullen).  This makes Ben (Michael Emerson) very jealous because he has a crush on Juliet.  Ben sends Goodwin on his fateful mission to infiltrate the tail section survivors, where he is ultimately killed.  Ben brings Juliet out to see his body, which crushes her and Ben tells her she is his.

In the present, Daniel (Jeremy Davis) and Charlotte (Rebecca Mader) go missing.  As Juliet searches for them, she runs into Harper, who gives her a mission from Ben.  She says that Daniel and Charlotte are on their way to the Tempest Dharma Station to release poison gas to kill everyone on the island.  Juliet's mission is to kill Daniel and Charlotte.  After Harper vanishes, Juliet and Jack (Matthew Fox) go after them.

Along the way, they run into an unconscious Kate (Evangeline Lilly), who was knocked out by Charlotte.  Juliet continues on alone and makes it to the Tempest.  She holds Daniel at gunpoint to get him to stop and ends up fighting Charlotte.  They claim they are not trying to deploy the gas, but render it harmless.  Juliet decides to trust them and Daniel succeeds in making the gas harmless.  When Jack and Kate arrive, Juliet tells Jack that he should stay far away from him because Ben could come after the doctor and kill him.  Jack is unafraid and kisses Juliet.

At the Barracks, Locke (Terry O'Quinn) and Ben continue to verbally spar with one another as Locke tries to get information.  They make a deal; if Ben tells Locke the information he wants and can prove it, Locke will let him live in one of the houses.  Ben reveals that Charles Widmore (Alan Dale) is behind the freighter and Ben says Widmore wants to exploit the island's resources and will kill everyone on the island to make it happen.  Ben gives Locke a file of information on Widmore and the name of his man on the freighter, which we don't hear.  In return, Ben is allowed to move into one of the houses.

What Works:

The best part of this episode is Michael Emerson, for sure.  He gets to show off a very wide range of emotion in this episode.  In his scenes with Locke, he's pretty much entirely calm and in control, but when we see him showing Goodwin's body to Juliet, we get to see just how unhinged this man really is.  We all know Emerson is one of the best actors on Lost and this episode is just more evidence to that point.

I actually really liked most of the flashbacks in this episode.  The love triangle between Ben, Juliet, and Goodwin is interesting and really shades in some of the scenes between them in previous episodes.  It's also interesting that Juliet always sees herself as the other woman.  It's a heartbreaking character trait for anyone who is a fan of Juliet.

All of the scenes between Locke and Ben are fantastic, as per usual.  It's nice to finally get an information dump as Ben has been holding a lot of information from us all season long.  We finally have some answers and the reveal that Widmore is behind it all is chilling and really intriguing.  Granted, not everything Ben is telling us is true (shocker), but it's still a nice amount of information delivered to us in scenes between two of the best actors on the show.

Finally, while I have some issues with the A plot of the episode, I did really like the final scene between Jack and Juliet and it sometimes makes me wish they had gotten together for the long run.  The fight between Juliet and Charlotte is also well done with some awesome choreography.

What Sucks:

As I said, I have some issues with the A plot here.  Daniel and Charlotte have been very secretive about what they have been up to all season, which is fine on its own, but it turns out they were just trying to turn off the dangerous nerve gas that Ben used to wipe out the Dhama Initiative.  Why not fess up to that?  If they had just explained themselves, no one would have had a problem with that goal.  Hell, Jack and Juliet probably would have gone with them to help in anyway they could.  It just feels like sloppy writing and secrets for the sake of having secrets.

The other major problem with this episode is everything involving Harper.  On paper, this would have been a totally fine episode introducing her character, but she never shows up again for the rest of the show.  Some more conflict between the Others would have been interesting, but it doesn't go anywhere.  Plus the way she disappears leaves a lot of questions.  Was she a ghost, or the Man in Black, or was it actually Harper being a sneaky ninja?  I don't know.  If we had gotten to see Harper again, at the Temple or something, this wouldn't bother me, but we don't.

Platinum Polar Bear:

The Platinum Polar Bear goes to the most competent character in a given episode.  For "The Other Woman," I am giving this award to Benjamin Linus for manipulating Locke into letting him out of the basement and into a house of his own.  He also pretty ingeniously got Goodwin killed off.  This is Ben's 2nd time winning this award, which ties him for 11th place overall with Rose, Ana Lucia, Juliet, and Jin.

Verdict:

I know "The Other Woman" is not a particularly well liked episode, but I really enjoyed it.  Michael Emerson is fantastic, the flashbacks and B-plot are solid, and even the A-plot has some good moments.  The stuff with Harper ends up being a wasted opportunity and the writing for Daniel and Charlotte is sloppy, but overall, this episode has still got it going on.

 8/10: Really Good