My First Rewatch - Not In Portland
Not In Portland marks an awkward transition of Juliet's character from a sociopathic killer that even Sawyer was wary of to a hapless victim manipulated by the Others. Unlike most of the characters on LOST, Juliet is fairly straightforward for the most part - she's not a schemer or particularly prideful. Her motives are almost exclusively centered around getting off the Island.
It's a credit to how captivating and enigmatic Mitchell's performance is that not a lot of people seem to notice the complete U-turn Juliet's character took from the early season 3 episodes. Juliet in the Hydra arc(even parts of this episode) was utterly ruthless, willing to murder innocent people unnecessarily and psychologically torment Jack. The justification that it's all in the hopes that Ben would finally let her leave the Island aren't really enough for me. If she was there longer, say ten-twenty years, maybe.
But wouldn't Juliet first go through the long process of realising she's in a cult, trying to force Ben's hand in whatever way she can and being generally spiteful towards the obviously deluded people keeping her prisoner? Wouldn't she want to prevent any of the 815 survivors from ending up in the same situation as her? Her lack of empathy towards them completely mystifies me. Also, has she tried to find Jacob on her own to get out of Ben's grip?
I feel like there's so much about Juliet that the writers just straight-up never explored. We know from these flashbacks that she was generally a timid person, married to a manipulative dick(an obvious Ben precursor). Probably got married fast because of her parents issues that The Incident briefly brought up.
But the actual transformation of Juliet the quiet lab scientist to Juliet the "Danny! BAM BAM!" is ridiculously undercooked. In all of her flashbacks set on the Island from this point onward, the idea seems to be that Juliet's turning a blind eye to all of the weird Others stuff because she clings to the hope that Ben will set her free. So I'm supposed to buy that she went all Severus Snape in the two months the 815-ers spent on the Island? Weak.
My issues with Juliet's characterisation aside, the episode is fantastic. Action-packed, emotional, and I love the sheer weirdness of Room 23, the room that captured everyone's imagination(especially Sawyer's lmao, I love how he's just staring at the screen like wtf).
Notes:
*Richard! Three cheers for our favourite Norman Bates cosplayer.
*Why would Juliet want Kate and Sawyer recaptured? She could've just delayed and let Ben die as she originally intended.
*Ben waking up in surgery is a nice, creepy, slightly supernatural moment. I also love how it leads to Tom's "Shephard said he's a spinal surgeon, not an anasthesiologist." line. You thought you could hide your Star Trek reference under verbose dialogue??
*Only Ben could still manipulate people whilst having his back open and bleeding out.
*I adore Tom and Jack's relationship.
*Tom just randomly saying "They've got history" might be the best expositional line of all time.
*"We want you to lead a team of highly trained people." Nice salesman talk there Richard. More like "we want you to lead a psychotic surgeon and literally nobody else qualified to hold a scalpel".
*Why is Juliet the only one who thinks of using the cameras to find Sawyer and Kate?
*Karl and Alex have zero chemistry.
Overall, Not In Portland is a classic episode of LOST, I just wish the setup of Juliet's character was better handled. It's not this episode's fault, though.
Posted Jun 4, 2020, 11:41 PM UTC