A Tale of Two Cities

Let's talk about LOST! A Tale of Two Cities.

EYE.
A woman loads a CD into the CD player. {The CD itself has no markings on it.} The song "Down Town by Petula Clark is playing.
A blond woman wearing an orange spaghetti strap top looks into the mirror. {Uh huh.} She sets up chairs in a living room for a gathering/meeting. Then she's wearing a purple shirt with her hair in pony tail. The beeping of the oven is heard. She has burned the muffins and her left hand.
The doorbell rings.
An older woman is at the door.
The two women peek at the man fixing the plumbing underneath the house. The older woman comments about the plumbing not being fixed yet.
The man tells her, "It's a work in progress."
{All the while the song Downtown is STILL playing!}






They are having a book club meeting with six people.
Adam seems to be complaining about the book.
He claims “It's not even literature, its popcorn.”




He continues with "There's no metaphor, it's by the numbers religious hokum pokum, its science fiction.”   He feels that's why Ben isn't at this meeting; he never would have approved of the book being discussed, feeling Ben "Wouldn't read this in the damn bathroom.“
Apparently the host picks the book. The blond woman is insulted as she is the host and picked the book and this is her favorite book; Carrie by Stephen King. {I've read every King book!} She comments about sinking so low by selecting something that Ben wouldn't like…"Thinking that Free Will still actually exists". {Note: hardcover and paperback versions of the book there.}

The house starts to shake and rattle; things come crashing off the walls, etc. {We see a reflection of Adam in the mirror.}Everyone heads for safety in the doorway as per the directions/instructions from the blond woman.
The rattling stops!
They all head outside to take a look. Other people come running out of their houses.
The man working on the plumbing underneath the house is revealed to be Ethan!
Henry comes out of his house and looking up at the sky for something.
They all look up and see a plane "start" to break up overhead. {Oceanic logo}

Henry directs Goodwin to the tail section; in the water, "You can make that shore in an hour."
He also directs Ethan to the fuselage, "There may actually be survivors and you're one of them. A passenger you're in shock. Come up with an adequate story if they ask. Stay quiet. If they don't. Listen, Learn. Don't get involved. I want lists in three days. GO!"
{On your mark, get set, GO! Hmmm?!}
He asks the blond woman, "So I guess I'm out of the book club?"
This is Ben.
{Note that no one is panicking. Everyone just stands and watches. All is calm and under control.}
We get a shot of this little village; then the camera zooms out to show us it's on the HUGE Island! {Note the white bird/dove that flies up.}

Jack, looking scruffy, tired and troubled, sits in his car spying/stalking on Sarah. He’s wearing his wedding ring and drinking coffee.
In the schoolyard is Sarah where she must be a teacher. Children are playing in the playground.



Jack sits suspicious of Sarah. {There is his pager, it's says 7:15 23 am. Crossword puzzle, hospital ID badge with the super short haircut}
The song 'Moonlight Serenade' plays on the radio.
Sarah is looking at artwork with another man; she whispers in his ear. This man has a red artist's tool box. He also holds a sketch pad framed in yellow. She is giddy around this man.

EYE.
Jack wakes up!
It is dark in this "room"; he is groggy. His blood had drawn. He tries to open a door and tries to communicate through an old intercom on the wall but gets nowhere. He sees an open door. {Tempting him} He walks to it but walks right into a "glass wall". He tries to break through the glass wall but to no avail. Jack yells out for Kate!

Showers in a bathroom:
Kate wakes up and sees shoes.
Tom is there. "Rise and shine, Kate."
She asks where she is but of course he won't answer that question. Kate asks where Sawyer and Jack are. Tom offers her to "Take a nice hot shower, “Wake yourself up."
Kate won’t in shower front of him.
Tom laughs and says "You're not my type."
She has had blood drawn too. {These communal showers have lockers.}

Sawyer wakes up in a cage.
You hear the sounds of birds and a rooster, but they are not real: they are recorded and coming from speakers. We see another DHARMA symbol. {The HYDRA} A young man/teen is in another cage; he has his back to Sawyer. Sawyer asks him where they are but the kid doesn't answer.
Sawyer is curious about the large round red button that has a fork and knife symbol on it. {Food drop.} He pushes the button two times; a woman's recorded voice is heard.
The kid in the other cage tells Sawyer "I wouldn't do that."
Sawyer fluffs off his advice and hit's the button again. This time Sawyer is thrown across his cage because he was shocked, zapped with electricity!

Back in his dark glass cell, Jack sees a blinking red light on a video camera. {Being watched.} He climbs up thick chains and tries to pull them down.   A woman's voice tells him to stop that!
It is the blond woman from earlier; this is Juliet.
{FLASH}
Jack steps out of elevator and checks in at the reception counter at the lawyers office. Sarah is there. Jack is wearing his wedding ring; Sarah is not.    Jack has fired his lawyer.
He apologizes to Sarah "for pushing them to this place."
In the middle of his emotional "reaching out" Sarah's cell phone rings and she takes the call. Whoever is on the other end is important to her and knows why she's there; makes her giggle.
Jack seems sad/troubled by this. He wants to know what his name is.
Jack is hell bent on learning the name of the man in Sarah's life but Sarah won't give him an answer.
Yes, Jack is hurting.
Sarah walks away from him.

In his glass cell Jack is still pulling on the chains. Juliet goes over to adjust the volume on a sound/mixing board; making the microphone a bit louder. {With a touch of feedback too.} Jack asks where his friends are.
Juliet tries to calmly talk him down from the chains. She will tell him about his friends if he lets go of the chain. Juliet thinks Jack is stubborn. So, stubborn Jack keeps pulling on the chains.
{Like a child!}




Kate showers.
Her clothes have been removed from the locker room. She finds a note that directs her to put on the dress that is left for her. Kate wipes the fog off a giant mirror! {HOLY SHIT!}
Tom comes to get her, "Come on Kate, he's waiting."


Tom leads {with a few others} Kate down steps to outside.
She's led to a beach.
A beautiful Tiki like canopy covers Ben. An elegant table is set for two with a beautiful breakfast. Kate sees him and pulls away seemingly afraid to go to him. Ben is a gentleman. He tells her she must put the handcuffs on or she "don't get any coffee." {She must really want coffee because she puts the cuffs on tighter.}
Kate asks him, "What did you do with Sawyer and Jack?"
Ben comments on her choosing Sawyer's name over Jacks'.
Kate-"You don't know me."
Ben- "Of course I don't."
He tells her she can't have her clothes back because "We burned them." {Kate burned up her father.}
Kate-"Why did you bring me here? Why did you make me put on this dress? Why are you feeding me breakfast?"
Ben tells her he brought here there by the water so she would feel comforted; that your friends were looking out at the same ocean. He gave her the dress so she would feel like a lady and he wanted her to eat her food with a real live fork and feel civilized. He did all those things so she'd have something nice to hold on to, "Because Kate, the next two weeks are going to get very unpleasant."
{Comforted? As if it was home? Does Kate know who he is? Where she is? Is she going to be
{FLASH}
Jack is in his office {wedding ring on and a watch} is making phone calls to phone numbers from Sarah's cell phone. He's trying to find out "Who he is".
Jack's on the phone making up a story to the person on the other end, "She dropped her cell phone. I don't even know her last name. You're number was in her phone."
Christian {Chief of surgery} comes in. He seems troubled by Jacks new behavior.   Jack tells Christian to give him a minute; this while Jack with the phone in his hand, is scratching names off a list! Christian tells Jack he has to stop this, “It's over.”
Jack insists it's not; not until he knows his name, where he works, where he lives, when they first kissed….
Jack dials another number and Christian's cell phone rings.
It is revealed that Sarah has at least called Christian. This really troubles Jack. Christian again tells Jack to "Let this go."
Christian shares with Jack that Sarah was calling because "She was afraid for you. You were slipping. You were losing your grip! That's exactly what's happening here!"
Christian knows about being obsessive. {Yeah, So DO I! LOL!}
Jack-"Being a drunk is not obsessive." {Who is the drunk here?}
Christian-"Let it go Jack."

Jack trying to get out of his glass cell. He lets water drip into his mouth; it tastes like crap. He hears sound and voices coming from the intercom. He hears Christian say "Let it go Jack."
This startles him!
The lights go on. Juliet appears on the other side of the glass, all sweet. She brings him food and bottled water. She directs him were to sit inside the cell so she can bring him the tray. Jack is freaking about the guy who's trying to talk to him via the intercom.
Juliet informs him that intercom hasn't worked in years.
Jack asks her what the red button behind her is. She tells him it's for emergencies.
Jack-"Who's watching me?" {Fucking Finally!}
She again asks him if he'll sit against the wall; offering the grilled cheese just off the frying pan. It's cut into four, with four toothpicks. {Like it's cut for a child.}
Jack refuses the food.
Juliet asks him his profession. Jack paces in his cell and says he's a Repo man! {Wow! Different role for Jack! Is she quizzing him?} She asks if he's married and he says no; he never saw the point.
Jack-"What about you?"
Juliet again, takes control of the questioning. "When your plane crashed, where were you flying from?"
Jack-"Sydney. I was bringing my father home….Because he was dead."
{ I want to note something here. Jack just gave her a whole bunch of other B.S. answers about his life; a made up version. Why would he in a split second decide to tell her this bit about his father being dead?}
Juliet puts her hand against his glass cell and tells him he can trust her. {WTF?}
Jack softens a bit and asks her "What the hell is going on here?"
Of course she doesn't answer him; only walks away eating his sandwich. {Bitch!}
By the way, she didn't make the sandwich she just put the toothpicks in.

Sawyer is hard at work in his cage mastering the art of food retrieval. The kid in the other cage asks him how long a walk is it to his camp, "…Where they got you, how long of a walk was it?…. What are the people like, from your plane? {Except they weren't picked up from the camp. They were taken down with darts by the pneumatic tubes. GO BACK AND LISTEN TO THEIR DIALOG! IMPORTANT!}
The kid has picked the lock to his cage. You hear a recorded woman's voice over speakers "SUBJECT ESCAPED/Escapes"
The kid lets Sawyer out and they run!

We see other types of cages; they look like bird aviaries.

Sawyer runs into Juliet. She takes him down with a funky dart firing air taser, complete with electric voltage! Sawyer gets dragged back into his cage.
Karl has been beaten up and he's forced to make an apology to Sawyer for involving him in his "breakout attempt".

Juliet again comes to Jack bearing food and drink. She explains to him that "The drugs we gave you when we brought you here have a fairly serious side effect; Dehydration. Your head is probably sore, your throat is raw and if you don't eat or drink something soon, you're going to start hallucinating. {Is that real or reverse psychology?}
Jack surmises she's a doctor.
Juliet says "No, I'm a Repo woman."
She goes on to say "No strings attached. {Like a puppet} You don't have to answer any questions. You don't have to do anything but sit with your back up against the far wall. Let me open that door put the plate down and leave. I know it feels like your giving up, like you're losing if you do anything that I ask you too. But you're not. You need to eat. {What a good mommy. LOL} Jack gives in and sits at the far wall.
{FLASH}
Jack is tending to a patient. {The room is fairly dark} Christian is in the hallway of the hospital talking to two other doctors.
Jack's nurse is writing down his instructions. Jack sees Christian answer his ringing cell phone. Jack watches him.
The nurse questions Dr. Jack, "Are you sure he's ready to self administer his pain meds?"
Jack sees that Christian is 'tickled' by whoever is on the other end of that phone call.
Jack is very suspicious.

Christian is pulling up to the Lynford hotel; he has a ticket in his hand. Jack has followed him. {Yep. followed him!}
Jack, still wearing his scrubs, steps out of the elevator and then through double doors; heads into the room that Christian entered. The sign on the door says "Friends of Bill W".
Jack storms into the room where they're having an {AA} meeting. Christian is getting coffee.
Jacks demands to see Christian's cell phone.
Christian calmly tells Jack, "Look where you are. Just look around you."
Again, Jack demands the phone.
The woman leader of the meeting recognizes Jack and suggests Jack "grab a chair and join us." {Does Jack need this meeting too?!  Hmmm?!}
Jack freaks because they all know him. He wants to know what info his 'Dad' revealed about him.
Jack- "That your son never really had it. Not like the old man. I didn't have the will to make it work. My life, my job, my marriage! What did you tell them about my marriage, Dad?"
Jack goes on to try to belittle Christian by exploiting his drinking habits. The woman leader reveals that Christian has been sober for 50 days.
Jack wonders what helped him turn that corner. Jack accuses him of sleeping with his wife.
Christian looks hurt and in disbelief of that comment.
Christian- "Jack. I'm your father. Jack. Please let it go."
Jack attacks Christian. They fight.

Close up of Jack's eyes as we see him eying the door for Juliet's entry.
Juliet comes in and Jack attacks her! Her electric/dart taser thingy falls to the ground.
Jack asks her, "Which way out?" Jack, while holding her by the neck, demands she open the door. She says she can't.
Ben appears and reveals she's telling the truth. Jack threatens to kill her.
Ben-"Have her open the door and she dies anyway. We all do."  
Jack starts to open the door and Ben and Juliet run for safety; but only Ben escapes.
Jack's open door and floods the chamber with tons of water!
Juliet and Jack manage to close the door. She tells him to push the yellow button.
Juliet knocks Jack out! {TKO!} Jack is face down in the water.
Juliet saves him.

Sawyer in his cage, grabs a rock so he can try to retrieve some 'food' from the gizmo. He does and a lovely DHARMA fish biscuit is his reward; along with some pellets of food and water. Tom delivers a cuffed Kate to the other cage and locks her in.
Tom is amused that Sawyer figured out how to get a fish biscuit.
Tom-"It only took the bears two hours” to figure out how to do that. {So how long has Sawyer been in the cage?}
Sawyer is very concerned for Kate. He compliments her dress.
Kate tells him, "They made me wear it."
Apparently Kate didn't eat breakfast with Ben; she's hungry.
Sawyer gives her the fish biscuit. {He sure loves her!}

Back in his glass cell Jack wakes up.
Juliet is sitting on the other side with a huge file. Jack figures that he's in an aquarium for sharks. Juliet confirms they are underwater.
Jack is aware of the Dharma Initiative stations.
Juliet says they (Dharma) called it the Hydra.
Jack wonders, "So, you people are just whatever's left over of them?"
Juliet-"That was a long time ago. It doesn't matter who we were. It only matter who we are. {Well? Who the hell are you?} We know exactly who you are Jack Shepard."
She goes on to tell him his life story, all of it! She's reading it out of a file.
Jack- "What is that?"
Juliet, touching the file- "This Jack, is your life."
It's about his friends and his family. Juliet tells him, "It's pretty much about everything."
Jack asks about his {he was about to say wife} "ex wife".
Juliet is all to happy to share shit about Sarah.


{FLASH}
Jack is in a jail cell. His bail has been posted. {The cardboard file boxes have hand writing on them, v-64-007 division 1. Stalking. Slander. Homicide. The other box- LAPD Docket} Jack puts his wedding ring back on and hands the plastic bag to the officer.


{You can hear the over the speaker “Get ready for lockdown”}
Sarah is standing there waiting for him.
Sarah-"Your dad told me you were here. I called you a cab. So. Goodbye." {She is very shut off from him; at least "to" him.  And Christian is still looking out for Jack.}
She walks away teary eyed and Jack goes after her through double doors.
There is a man waiting by a car across the street.
Jack asks her "Is that him?"
She says it's not going to change anything. Jack demands to know. {Apparently she just isn't going to answer his question. Why the hell not?}
Sarah-"It doesn't matter who he is. It just matters who you're not. Jack, your father, when he called me to help you. He was so drunk I could hardly understand him. {It appears at this point in his life Jack has a total disgust for Christian. But he's hurting. What made Jack turn this opposed to Christian?} Look at the bright side. Now you have something to fix."
Sarah heads over to the man by the car.
Jack is left teary eyed too.

Jack is in his glass cell.
Juliet sweetly asks what he would like to find out. {Why doesn't he just friggin ask her about the damn "Island", why are they there, who they are? All kinds of stuff!}
Jack- "Is she happy?"
Juliet-"Yes Jack. She's very happy."
Jack cries.
Juliet wants to bring him food and water. Jack concedes and sits back against the wall. Juliet leaves with her file.

Outside the door Ben is waiting for her. "Good work Juliet."
Juliet- "Thank you Ben."




A Tale of Two Cities is a GREAT EPISODE!!!

Check out the book Tale of Two Cities. WOW! This is the 2nd historical novel by Charles Dickens. There are many themes in that book that fit into our story.  Two men in love with the same woman, two sides involved in a revolution, man imprisoned-released and tries to reclaim his life, trial, Jacobin Reign of Terror, two people who look the same but have different personalities.  There's even a part of the story that tells about one of the characters who sits in his room and makes shoes.

What are we seeing in this episode? Does the possibility exist that this is a look at Jack's life off/after the "Island"? Hmmm?!    The Jack we see in the Flashes could appear to be a Jack, who after a long absence tries to get his life back. But he can't. Sarah had moved on. Did something happen to change Jack's demeanor? Make him hate Christian? Make him distrust people?
This Jack is angry, un-trusting, confused, out of control and DESPERATE! Possibly a big drinker.  The Jack on the "Island" is very level headed and in control.  Okay, I know you want to say, but Karen, Christian is alive and Jack's married to Sarah. YES. If all these clues are headed in that direction, what kind of FLASH does that make this? Do I dare say...Flash Forward. Could it just be that we're seeing Jack's life-different time…But still not a Flashback. Or is Jack experiencing something, just trying to find out who HE, HIMSELF really is? Confusing, I know.
But no matter what, we can clearly see here how whatever is happening "On island" is reflected in events in the "outside world", and vice versa. Things are BLURRED!


Things to Note…Questions to ask…
* Locke suggests popcorn to Desmond in Live Together Die Alone.
* Real plane "Crash" or image projected on a HUGE screen?   Hologram?  Or is it not even really there? What?
* Ben only sends spies to two of the sections of the plane. Yet we know the plane was in three sections. The tail, fuselage and front/nose {Where the pilot and Charlie's drugs were.}
* When the plane "crashes" Ben is giving direction and motivation as if he's the director of a "play".
* Ben and his role with the "crash"... Is this part of an exercise? A project? A learning drill? A game.
* The same song on radio as the day Hurley and Sayid make the radio.
* The drugs that the Others give the Castaways really knock them out! They don't even wake up when they get blood drawn or transported.
* What's with all the coffee in this episode? Coffee is a stimulant.
* Could the "whispers" they hear in the jungle be coming from speakers or when they are half asleep; semi-conscious?
* We don't find that Sawyer had blood work done. Why?
* Sawyer has to figure out how to get food. Jack gets food handed to him! Is Jack privileged or special? Kate has breakfast with Ben.
* Could Ben know all of them? Know they were "arriving" on the "Island"?  Ben knows lots! Love that!
* Jack says to the person on the other end of the phone in the FLASH that "I don't even know her last name…Sawyer tells Jack in a past episode "I didn't even know her last name." When talking about Ana Lucia.
* Jack calling Sarah's cell phone numbers. Jack dials Christian's number. JACK DOESN'T KNOW HIS OWN FATHERS CELL PHONE NUMBER! This is a number he is unfamiliar with! Do you know your families cell numbers? Unless Christian is really a representation of Jack. How's that for thinking outside of the LOST box?!
* THE LYNFORD. Could that be someone we meet in the future? Lyn Ford? Could it be a connection to James Ford? Am I just messed up in the head?
* Christian sober for 50 days. Did all their lives change 50 days ago? Christian sleeping with Sarah? No! Jack must have a big reason for not trusting and believing anything Christian says or does. Again...Unless Christian is really a representation of Jack.
* Cell- Jail cell- Cell phone
* Women in leadership.
* Jack's 'glass cell' is underwater.
* Jack a Repo-man. Juliet a Repo-woman.
* "Get ready for lock down" is heard in Jack's "off Island" cell.   Could this be where Jack was during the lock down on the "Island" in the episode "Lockdown"?

Vocabulary and Research...
* A Cage, barred enclosure, cell, jail cell, confine, pen.
* Repo man: Repo agent, a job which entails the retrieval of collateral or outstanding rented or leased objects.
* Here's some fun! Jump to the future…Repo! The Genetic Opera! is a rock musical movie , based on a play. To be released on April 25, 2008. That's cute huh? hehehe!
* Aviary: is a large enclosure for confining birds. Unlike cages, aviaries allow birds a larger living space in which to fly and simulate a natural environment. Large aviaries are often found in the setting of a zoo.
* HYDRA: 1). a persistent or many sided problem that presents new obstacles as soon as one aspect is solved.
2). Is one of the Saronic Islands of Greece.
3). Hydra is the largest modern constellation, at 1303 square degrees. Despite its size, Hydra contains only one reasonably bright star, Alphard .
4). is the outer-most natural satellite (moon) of Pluto. The Hydra-Centaurus Super-cluster, or the Hydra and Centaurus super-clusters, is a super-cluster in two parts and the closest neighbor of Milky way's Virgo super-cluster.
* The song Downtown was composed by Tony Hatch.
* Some words in Jacks crossword puzzle. A few are a play on familiar words. So look carefully!
Ensemble, Required….., Poe, Boon, Clef, Area, Sit, Heroes, Aces, Time, Atom, Usually, Embark, FAQS, Omelet, Mode, Flue. Prenatal, Necessary evils, Ear bone, Apt, Oven, Vital statistics, Teem, Bore.
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A Tale of Two Cities that pretty much says it all!  Two cities, a revolution, two men in love with the same woman, an imprisoned man trying to reclaim his life...to find himself...Maybe…

Love to all who are "LOST"™


Disclaimer: I never claim to know everything about the show and my thoughts by no means make me right! The things I share here are my views and/or opinions. I don't claim to catch every single detail either! You all know I hate spoilers! And I stand clear of reading certain sites as to not take me off my own course of research. The one thing I don't need to do here is rehash all of the obvious clues from an episode, we all know what they are. Understood? Good! Let the fun begin! I'll only note things that I know come up as clues later, but need to be noted when they first show up and things I find that will be of importance! It will get very exciting as we progress into the story.

Posted on MySpace November 18, 2007