LIVE "One of Us" Post-Show Commentary and "Catch-22" Spoilers

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This week, Josh is joined by several LOST fans to discuss "One of Us" LIVE after Wednesday night's show on the U.S. west coast (Pacific time zone). Starting at 1:01:16, we also discuss spoilers for next week's Desmond-centric episode, "Catch-22." Contributors to the discussion include Kylene, Big-O, Master Nak, OceanBeach, and Amanda. (1 hour, 16 minutes)

*UPDATE, 17 April 2007*
Here are some (pretty extensive!) notes from the live podcast:

• Juliet apparently took the sub to the island
• Perhaps all those who have been recruited by The Others have come to the island on the sub
• If they legitimately take people to the island on the sub, maybe the purpose is to keep anyone else from following them and finding the island
• This was not mentioned in the podcast, but a lot of people are saying that we don't know for sure if that's how she got there; she woke up in the sub and was already there, but some viewers have pointed out that the sub didn't look wet like it should have if it just surfaced
• Mikhail had been monitoring the outside world at the Flame Station
• Ben tells Juliet that Rachel's cancer returned, which he says he learned from Mikhail
• Apparently, Mikhail had been at The Flame for a while
• We see later in the episode that Mikhail has video connections to many places in the world
• Richard Alpert has apparently been off the island several times; he was off the island when the plane crashed
• Ben asked him to get back to the island as soon as possible; why? We never saw him again until Locke came after Ben
• This may also indicate that Richard has an easy way to travel to and from the island (or, of course, he may have just taken the sub)
• Master Nak points out that if John Locke's father, Anthony Cooper, was brought to the island by Richard Alpert, then this would have had to take place before the implosion of the Swan Station because it knocked out their navigational equipment, which according to Mikhail made it impossible to return to the island
• How would they have known to bring Anthony Cooper to the island at that time? Or is this another indication that there may be a much faster way to travel between the island and civilization?
• Josh said the fact that Ben didn't seem upset about the sub may indicate that Ben knows of some other way off the island; he always has tricks up his sleeve
• Big-O speculated that Richard Alpert may have just returned in the sub with Locke's dad right before we first saw Richard on the island (although this would mean that the sub was somehow able to find its way back to the island)
• Ben told Mikhail to research the passengers and find out information about the survivors
• How would they have known that Sawyer had killed someone the night before? If he had been caught, wouldn't he either have been in an Australian prison, or sent back to the U.S. with an Air Marshal? (Maybe there was another Air Marshal on the plane that we don't know about.)
• We finally have confirmation that The Others really didn't know who specifically was on the plane until after it had crashed; this seems to debunk the theory that there were "Other Recruiters" working to get certain people onto the island
• However, caller OceanBeach speculates that Jacob may have arranged for Dr. Jack and pregnant Claire to come to the island. This would support the Other Recruiter theory and would explain why Claire's psychic, Richard Malkin, changed his mind about what Claire should do with the baby, and why he was so adamant that she must take that specific flight
• Josh revisits the fact that although The Others on the island seemed surprised about Flight 815 falling from the sky, they (at least Ben, Ethan, and Goodwin) seemed to be familiar with the protocols for handling the situation, since Ben immediately sent them to get "lists" and they both knew what he meant
• Ben mentions Jacob again, saying that Jacob will personally make sure that Rachel's cancer is cured
• Josh speculated that we're going to learn more about Jacob this season
• Big-O pointed out that everyone who seems to know Jacob reacts the same way when he's brought up; they're genuinely respectful, almost
• Master Nak speculates that perhaps some of The Others who have this strange respect of Jacob worshipful
• Juliet tells Sayid that if he knew everything she knew, he'd kill her
• Jack is awfully arrogant about Juliet being "under my protection"
• We find out that Juliet is a mole
• We don't know why yet
  
• Why did they show us at the very end of the show that Juliet is a mole? We didn't know Ben was an Other for quite some time
• Ben said "see you in a week," so she's not planning to be there very long (presumably until the end of Season 3)
  
• Why is Juliet still cooperating with Ben? Because she still thinks he's going to let her leave the island if she follows his orders?
• Big-O asks: Is Juliet one of the ones Ben told Locke about—one who's not fully committed?
• There's an obvious mark or symbol on the tree where Juliet picks up the medicine
• This is not exactly the same symbol as on Juliet's back; see the Lostpedia articles for Juliet's mark and Tree mark.
• Women are unable to give birth on the island; their bodies attack the unborn child as a foreign object, and the women also die
• Juliet says that nobody else had even given birth on the island before Claire, but Danielle claimed to have had Alex on the island about 16 years ago
• What does this say about Danielle? Big-O asks, was she in cahoots with The Others at that time?
• Does this mean that Sun and her baby are at risk? Are they the reason that Juliet infiltrated the survivors' camp?
• When and where did Juliet learn her skills? Before the island, she was a very timid person, and now she knows some sort of martial arts (as we saw when she took down Kate), knows how to handle a gun, and is exceptionally good at conning people
• OceanBeach offered the theory that Juliet may actually be a mole for the Hanso Foundation, which started the DHARMA Initiative; this is rather interesting to me, because it would explain why Juliet was so eager to go with Mittelos Bioscience even though she couldn't even find anyone in the medical community who had heard of the company
• Ethan also seemed to have almost superhuman strength when he fought Jack in the rain and when he (as far as we can tell) singlehandedly strung up Charlie
• This episode confirmed that Goodwin was a doctor (or some sort of medical professional), and we saw Ethan in scrubs during the same surgery
• Josh pointed out that since many of The Others in the background at Otherville looked like college students, maybe they were all med students who had been recruited by The Others
• Josh pointed out that the lines between The Others and the DHARMA Initiative are becoming more distinct all the time; we now seem to know the primary motivation of each group
• The Others' primary objective (or at least a major objective) seems to be to make it possible for their women to be able to give birth and survive afterward
• Another of The Others' objectives (or at least one of Ben's objectives) is apparently to rid the island of the DHARMA stations; he seemed to have conned Locke into destroying the Swan Station, and he didn't seem very upset about the loss of the Flame Station
• The DHARMA Initiative's main objective (as we learned from the LOST Experience) is to predict and prevent the end of the world
• What are Juliet's motivations?
• Is she still working for Ben simply because she believes he'll let her go home?
• OceanBeach suggested that perhaps Ben might have sent Juliet to find out why Rose's cancer seems to have been cured by the island in contrast to his unexpected development of cancer after growing up on the island
• Josh pointed out that Rose's healer, Isaac of Uluru, may have explained this discrepancy; different places have different effects on people
• Big-O speculated that perhaps the island is punishing Ben, and is refusing to heal Ben because of his lack of reverence for the island (or because Ben is "cheating," to use Locke's terminology)
• Amanda speculated that Juliet's motivation may have something to do with Jack; perhaps he'll go back with her
• OceanBeach added that probably the best way they could lure Jack in would be from a medical approach. To work from that theory, perhaps Juliet will tell Jack about her research and he will be interested in going back with her and helping her for Sun's benefit
• Is she only acting out Ben's plan on the surface, while really intending to be loyal to Jack and the other survivors? (Personally, I doubt it. I don't see what would motivate her to switch sides other than as a way of repaying Jack for saving her life. We know Juliet's morals are questionable since she shot and killed Danny Pickett in cold blood without showing any remorse, so it seems highly unlikely that she would befriend the survivors for moral reasons)
• Big-O commented about Ben's indignation when Juliet accuses him of lying, when we know that he's a liar
• He lied to Sawyer about the alleged deadly device implanted in his chest
• He lied to either Locke or Jack about his belief in God's ability to know what's happening on the island
• When Ben was still known as Henry Gale in the Swan hatch, he told Locke, "God doesn't know how long we've been here, John. He can't see this island any better than the rest of the world can," indicating that he didn't believe that God knew about their circumstances
• By contrast, Ben told Jack, "Two days after I found out I had a fatal tumor on my spine, a spinal surgeon fell out of the sky. And if that's not proof of God, I don't know what is," which indicates that he believes in God's omniscience extends to even the island
  
  The remainder of this post may contain spoilers.
  
  
• After "One of Us," the preview atypically was for the next five weeks instead of just for next week's episode
• The announcer said, "Something is coming to this island. Is it salvation, or is it annihilation?"
• There are helicopter sound effects and we see some kind of battle; Hurley appears to have a gun, there was a close-up of an arrow that looked like one of Rousseau's
• Locke will be back; Sawyer attacks Locke and holds a knife to his throat and shouts something unintelligible, and we hear Sun say "How do we know he isn't working with them?"
• The scenes with Locke won't be until episode 19 (two weeks from now), based on what's been revealed in The Official LOST Podcast
• The Desmond parts of the preview are probably all from the next episode, which is Desmond-centric
• Amanda said she saw the acronym "S.O.S." in black-and-white, as well as the book "Catch-22" in Portuguese
• I didn't mention this on the podcast, but that may indicate that we'll once again be seeing the Portuguese-speaking men from the listening station, who so far we've only seen briefly in the last couple minutes of the Season 2 finale
• Other fans have speculated that a new character who will be introduced on this episode (perhaps Naomi) may read Portuguese
• The official ABC synopsis for this week's episode, Catch-22, is as follows: "Desmond coaxes Charlie, Hurley and Jin on a trek across the jungle after experiencing one of his future-prophesizing "flashes" -- but is he purposely placing Charlie's life in harm's way?
• Meanwhile, Kate turns to an unwitting Sawyer after seeing Jack alone with Juliet."
• Desmond's girlfriend, Penny Widmore, will return in this episode
• There will also be a new character introduced named Naomi, who is apparently a parachutist. According to executive producer Carlton Cuse, "She does not appear in a flashback, she is not an Other, and she is not one of the survivors of Flight 815."
• Kristin from E!Online speculates that Naomi may be an underground (subterranean) character
• Does she live in the tunnel system, as seen on the blast door map?
• This might be a foiler rather than a spoiler
• In Issue #10 of LOST-The Official Magazine (the May/June 2007 issue), co-executive producers Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis revealed that we'll soon find out "what's going on with Penny and Desmond. You know what we started in the finale of season two? We'll continue to explore that. Plus, there's another big revelation on that front coming up pretty soon." (courtesy of SpoilerFix)