Lost Season 3

Disc Three
Episode 9: Stranger In A Strange Land- This episode is devastatingly slow with regards to plot development. In flashbacks, we learn how Jack received his tattoos and what they mean. While in island time, Kate and Sawyer arrive back on the main island and bicker incessantly, while Jack is moved to one of the cages due to the fact that Juliet is in hot water over the killing of Pickett. In order to prevent her from being executed, Jack makes a deal with Ben that spares Juliet’s life. This marks the beginning of a secret alliance between Jack and Juliet.
Episode 10: Tricia Tanaka Is Dead- This is a fun, light-hearted episode that is a consistent smile inducer. Hurley finds a decrepit old Dharma Initiative VW bus with a decayed corpse inside of it in the jungle and decides it would be a good thing from a morale point of view to get the vehicle running. The only person he can get to help him is Jin, simply because he can’t understand what he’s being asked. But that soon changes as the returning Sawyer learns that beer is inside the van for the taking if he helps as well. Hurley finally gets Charlie on board in an effort to snap him out of the funk he had been in lately. The result is some good male bonding and genuine laughs for the audience. This episode would seem to do nothing to advance the plot, but details from here resonate a lot bigger further on down the road. Plus, Cheech shows up to play Hurley’s dad in flashbacks. Ironically, his character’s name is Dave. If you get that reference, kudos for your useless trivia knowledge.
Episode 11: Enter 77- While trekking across the island in an effort to rescue Jack from the Others, Kate, Sayid, and Locke come across a building in the jungle. It is the Flame, or communications station. This leads to a confrontation with Mikhail, (AKA Patchy) who at first seems like a good guy but is quickly revealed to be an Other. After subduing Mikhail, Kate and Sayid search the place and find it to be wired up with C4, while Locke obsessively plays chess against the station’s computer. When he beats the game he is given a “manual override” message from Dr. Marvin Candle, telling him to press “77” if the station is being attacked by “hostiles”. In flashback, Sayid is violently and emotionally confronted by a former torture victim. Good, solid episode, with just enough forward momentum along with some new information imparted.

Episode 12: Par Avion- As the rescue party deals with Mikhail and gets closer to the Other’s barracks, Claire hatches a plan to use water fowl to carry a message to the outside world that the passengers of flight 815 are still alive. However, it seems like at every turn Desmond is there to foil her plans. This episode deftly keeps several irons in the fire at once, without giving short shrift to any of them. The security pylons are revealed, Mikhail gets “killed”, (which causes Sayid to rightfully doubt Locke’s motivations) and the rescue party comes within eyesight of Jack but don’t like what they see. In flashback, Claire proves to be just like any other survivor on the island, as her guilt and tragedy ridden past comes further into focus, plus it is revealed just how and why she is secretly related to another main survivor on the island.
Disc Four
Episode 13: The Man From Tallahassee- This is a terrific episode for many different reasons. First and foremost has to be the fact that in flashback we are finally given the backstory that leads John Locke to board Oceanic flight 815 in a wheelchair. On the island, the rescue party gets captured by the Others as they attempt to emancipate Jack, but it turns out that Locke has his own power play in mind. This leads to some great one on one scenes between himself and Ben before the shocking end of the episode that proves for once and for all that John Locke lives by only his own agenda. But of course, there is even still one more delicious twist to be had, and trust me when I say that it’s a real doozy.
Episode 14: Expose’- This serves as a stand alone episode in many regards. The Nikki and Paulo characters never sat right with the fanbase and were extremely unpopular as a result. In an effort to not only bow down to the fan’s will, but to also convey and complete a fresh storyline quickly, this episode is the result. We learn their unscrupulous backstory, see them interact with many now-deceased individuals on the island in flashback, and watch as guilt, mutual mistrust and greed becomes their eventual undoing. This could have been quite obviously filler content for the most part, but there are enough nods towards other storylines and situations that make it more than just that. On top of everything else, a great Hitchcock-ian twist at the end elevates it. Not bad, but also the most unimportant episode in the season, seeing as nothing much really happens with regards to the long term.
Episode 15: Left Behind- In flashback, Kate plays “Thelma and Louise” with Cassidy, one of Sawyer’s main past con victims. In this sequence of events, they come off as sisters in and of fate, which I’m quite sure was completely intended. Back on the island, Locke confuses our confined main heroine even further when he drops by to say “See ya. I’m hanging with The Others now”. (I’m paraphrasing) Kate gets gassed out by the Others only to find herself handcuffed to Juliet, which causes them to co-exist as they struggle to survive in the open jungle with the Smoke Monster stalking them both. In a great sub-plot, Hurley manages to out-con Sawyer into being a better individual for the betterment of everyone, if only temporarily.
Episode 16: One Of Us- How the sublime Elizabeth Mitchell didn’t receive an Emmy nomination for her work in this episode is unfathomable to me. This is a Juliet flashback eppy that shows us her early days with “Mittelos Bioscience” leading into her extreme discontent with Ben. Back on the island, as she, Jack, Kate, and Sayid make their way to the beach, Sayid wants to interrogate her but Jack will not allow it, which plants the seeds for suspicion towards him. Once they arrive at the beach, there is a joyous heartfelt reunion, but once everyone spots Juliet, all bets are off. Matters are compounded when Claire falls deathly ill and Juliet claims to be the only one that can save her. This is masterful in how it plays like Juliet is someone that can be trusted (hence the name of the episode) but at the same time gives us just as much reason not to do so, leaving the answer to the question posed completely ambiguous. Of course, this is the bread and butter of how Lost operates.
Bonus Feature: “Expose’” with commentary by co-executive producers/writers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz- Kitsis and Horowitz co-wrote this particular episode. They reveal that the origins of Nikki and her fictional TV show “Expose” go all the back to season one. They also talk about how they constructed the episode with the idea that they wanted to have the Nikki and Paulo characters fully integrated into stuff we’ve already seen, such as the crash of 815 and Jack’s “live together, die alone” speech from season one. They also talk up how excited they were to be able to bring Arzt back and have him play a pivotal role in this story. They point out all the foreshadowing that they planned storywise as well as the intentional shout outs to previous episodes. It’s also interesting to hear them speak about how they wanted to center the island part of the story on the characters we know and love, as they try to unravel the mystery surrounding what happened to Nikki and Paulo, with Hurley and Sawyer playing protagonist and antagonist. This is a very good commentary track, a whole lot better than I was expecting it to be.