Season 3, Episode 16: "One of Us"

WHO ARE YOU?
We finally learn more about Juliette. I think one of the most important things we learned from her flashbacks is that she always seems reluctant to go along with the Others, but she is always able to be persuaded for the greater good. For example, when she and her sister are saying goodbye, she asks her if she thinks she is making a mistake. She obviously has hesitations about going. But her sister tells her this is something she has worked her whole life for, to go and "make us proud." Then once inside and asked to drink the tranquilizer, she is even more skeptic of all the secrecy about where they are taking her. But they come in and use their manipulation on her (this is just like Ben) to twist their words to get her to do something they want, while making her seem like she does want to do it. She clearly didn't want to go, but they tell her that it's a "special" place and that she has "a gift." They make it out like she is going to be doing these great things and that she would be helping so many people, almost guilting her into doing it. I think that deep down, Juliette really is a "good" person, so when faced with these decisions she always lets her conscience get to her and she choose to do things to help others, even if it means doing something she doesn't want to do. She grabs the tranquilizer and drinks it down, making it seem like she really wants to do this because it's for a good reason. But the doctor was very manipulative in the way he talked to her, making it sound like "you don't have to do this if you don't want to. You can leave right now." This is just what Ben does to her on the island. Even Ben's daughter Alex, said that Ben comes up with these ideas and manipulates people into making them think it is their own idea, to get them to do it. This is basically how they got Juliette to go.

DOWNTOWN
This is the song that is playing in the car radio when Juliette and her sister are driving to the lab to drop Juliette off to leave for her "six month" trip. Notice that this is also what Juliette puts in the CD player on the morning she has the book club meeting at her house (the day of the plane crash). If you listen to the words, "Downtown" is about being alone and feeling like you have no one. "When you're alone and life is making you lonely, you can always go...downtown." This is exactly how Juliette feels on the island. Even when she is with the Others, she doesn't feel a part of them. She is always asking Ben to let her go home, she doesn't want to be there. She misses her sister, and she feels very alone on the island. And now, that the Others have left her behind, she feels even more alone. Note the significance to the book "Carrie" - which was her pick for the book club meeting as it was her "favorite" book - Carrie is about a girl who has "special" powers, but feels all alone and is ostracized by society (then she kills them all! Hmmmmm, could this be foreshadowing?!!!)

I WANT TO GO HOME
The more and more we see of Juliette's flashbacks - we see that she has asked Ben numerous times to let her go home. He always says no. Just as the way they got her there, he uses his manipulation to get her to stay. He always makes it seem like he will let her go home, but she will pay a price, causing her to have to CHOOSE to stay. That way he is not forcing her. For example, when he tells her that her sister's cancer is back, he says he will let her go home if she really wants to, so she can be with her to see her die, OR she can stay and help him with "our problem." He promises her that he can cure her sisters cancer if she will stay. She doesn't believe him at first, until he says that "Jacob himself will do it" which makes her agree. Ben gives her his word, and she agrees to stay in order to save her sister. So once again, he manipulates her into staying because she has to make the choice to stay, for the greater good.

THE WIZARD
I know I have said this many times before, but the references to the Wizard of Oz are really starting to add up for me. Consider this: In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy wants to go "home," so she sets off to see this Wizard who apparently can make that happen. When she gets to the Emerald City gates, the guard tells her that she can't go in to see him - that nobody ever gets to see him, and that he himself has never even seen him. So basically this entire land believes in this all powerful Wizard when no one has actually ever seen him. Then, when Dorothy finally gets in to see him, she learns that he is a phony - just a man behind a curtain using a fake persona pretending to be great and powerful.

Now, in reference to LOST, Ben is "the Wizard." As we have seen time and time again, he is the man behind the curtain, so to speak. He is pulling all the strings, setting everything up and puppeteering this whole thing. Manipulating people into doing things. He comes across like he is the leader, and everyone looks up to him and does as he says. Now, we also have this "Jacob" that we have heard of so many times before. Jacob's list. Ben promising Juliette that Jacob will cure her sisters cancer. Yet, we have never seen this Jacob. Here is what I think...I think that Ben made up the idea of Jacob to give the Others someone to look up to. They need to believe in some higher and greater being. They don't want to think that it is Ben who is calling all the shots. So Ben has created this all powerful "Jacob" (i.e. the "Wizard") who we have never seen before yet everyone believes in him and believes that he is great. He needs to give them someone to believe in, someone greater than him. When Ben first promised Juliette that he would save her sister, she didn't believe him. But when he said that Jacob himself would do it, she trusted him. Ben said to her, do you have faith in HIM? I think that Ben had to create the idea of this greater being so that when the Others couldn't look to him, they had someone else to look up to, to believe in, just as in the Wizard of Oz.

PREGNANCY RESEARCH
When Claire unexpectedly gets sick, Juliette jumps in and says she knows why. She explains that no pregnant woman is able to live on this island. Until Claire, any woman who was pregnant died. Juliette created a medication that when given by injection to Claire, saved her life during her pregnancy. She explained that Ethan infiltrated their camp to give the injections to Claire, and that when everyone found out he wasn't on the plane, he had to improvise which is why he kidnapped her. But she insisted that was never part of "the plan." It seems the Others always have a very specific plan for everything that they do, which Ben typically orchestrates. But Juliette says she can help Claire if she can get the medications to her. She asks Jack to trust her, and he does. Only when she goes to get the medications, Sayid and Sawyer ambush her and try to get her to tell them everything. She pulls it around on them and gives them a little lesson about telling the truth. She asks Sayid why he was not so honest about his torturing days, and she reminds Sawyer about the innocent man he shot the night before getting on the plane. She pulls a Ben on them, manipulating them. She tells them that if they do not let her go, Claire will die, and that neither one of them needs any more blood on their hands. This seems to work as they both are stunned that she knows about the guilt they hold for their past sins.

ONE OF US
Jack tells Juliette that the rest of the survivors have agreed to let her come up and live with them in their barracks, after she saves Claire. He tells her that she really is "one of us," because he can tell that she wants to get off this island more than anything. (That would also explain why Locke is now an "Other" - because he does NOT want to get off the island.) So, it seems that the two groups are made of those who want to get off the island and those who do not (the Others).

As we see in Juliette's final flashback, however, she has a conversation with Ben marking out the plan for her to pretend to be left behind so she can go back to the beach with the survivors. Of course, it was all a plan, orchestrated by Ben. So, Juliette set Jack up, gained his trust, and manipulated everyone into trusting her (after she swooped in to "save" Claire.) Even though it appears that she is working with the Others and she is in on this whole plan, I actually think that Juliette really is not doing this out of some evil plan to help Ben and to spy on them, but merely because she TRULY wants off that island, and she will do anything Ben asks her to do in order to go home. During their conversation, she says to him "I know you want me to go to their camp." BEN wants her to go. She will do whatever Ben wants, not what SHE wants. Then he asks her if she is okay, and she has this blank stare for a long time, and says "I'm fine." She seems almost lifeless now, like a prisoner who just does what she is told until she can leave.

Ben proved to her that he can be trusted. He wanted to make it clear to her that he is not a liar. Her sister really is alive, free of cancer, and has a healthy two-year-old child, that Juliette helped to create. Ben made good on his promise. He gave her his word. Now he told her that she can go home, once her work here is done. So, she will do anything he asks her to do in order to finish her work there so that she can go home. She really believes that once she does whatever Ben wants her to do, he really will let her go home. As we have seen so far, Ben does keep his promises. And as he explained to Locke, it is very important to him for his people to have that trust in them, and for him to always stay true to his word. For example, he promised Michael he would let him go, and he did. Then he made a deal with Jack, and he was going to let him go had Locke not blown up the submarine. Ben basically makes deals with people - that if they will help HIM out - he will grant their wishes. Once again, we have the Wizard of Oz here. Dorothy, the scarecrow, tin man and lion each have one thing - one "wish" - that they want more than anything - and they go to the Wizard to have him grant that one thing. And for Dorothy - she just wants to go "HOME." Which is the same thing that Ben (a.k.a. "Henry Gale") is promising each of them - that he will let them go home.