Fair warning: if you don't like unfiltered criticism of LOST you should probably skip ahead to Flashes Before Your Eyes. To paraphrase Ben's words to Kate, "The next few reviews are going to be very unpleasant."
The opening sequence of A Tale of Two Cities is a mixed bag. On the one hand the introduction of Juliet is great, showing a woman who's clearly struggling to keep her wits. Her stereo plays "Downtown", its cheerful tone contradicting the somber expression on her face.
Problem #1: we've seen this trick before. It was the Season 2 opener when we had no clue who we were watching and there was an uplifting song in the background. This time we already knew the Losties were taken captive and had every reason to believe we'd be seeing the Others' headquarters very soon.
The ground rumbles and groans, prompting Juliet, Ethan, Ben, Goodwin, and many others to rush out to the courtyard. Oceanic 815 splits into pieces in the sky above them, Ben issues swift surveillance instructions, and Juliet looks conflicted. Here! We! Go!
Problem #2: the best part of the episode's already over at this point.
After a brief flashback in which Jack stalks Sarah in the creepiest possible manner, we see him wake up in an empty room with a glass partition. He finds chains dangling above him and does what anybody would do in that situation — yanks them as hard as he can, and for no apparent reason.
Meanwhile, Kate's forced to take a shower and change into a dress. She meets Ben at the beach for a non-meal, Kate asks a bunch of questions that go unanswered, and then Ben issues a threat.
Meanwhile Part II, Sawyer wakes up to find himself in a cage. A teenage kid (Karl) in another cage won't talk to him, so Sawyer does what anybody would do in that situation — he tries to figure out how the feed dispenser works.
Let's go back to Jack, who's still in the glass box. He's now met Juliet who, with her trademark perpetual smirk and gentle voice, attempts to earn his trust. Jack decides he's going to send a message, and he does it by... yanking the chains again. Hard, mind you. I don't think my description's doing any justice to how hard he's yanking that chain.
Perhaps if I illustrate the action with some dialogue:
JACK: Tell me where my friends are!!!
JULIET: I will -- if you let go of the chain.
JACK: You think I'm stupid!
No, it's not you. The above exchange is as awkward as it looks and it needs a serious rewrite.
Let's go back to Sawyer, who's inching closer to figuring out that pesky feed dispenser! Eh, let's not.
Let's go to a Jack flashback, where he's now calling numbers from Sarah's cell phone log. Looks like they were flirting with Jack's reputation like they had with Charlie in Season 2.
Sawyer has now scored himself a fish biscuit and some fresh water. Kate is escorted into a separate cage, Sawyer turns on the charm by throwing the biscuit over to her.
Let's return to Jack in the glass box, skipping the excruciatingly long dialogue scenes with Juliet. He attacks her as she enters his half of the room, but he only gets so far before he encounters Ben. Jack defiantly opens one of the nearby doors, flooding the chamber and nearly killing all three of them. Jack is returned to his glass box.
If it seems like I just gave you a play-by-play summary of the episode instead of analysis, that's intentional. I think the above speaks for itself to be honest. A Tale of Two Cities is an uninspired, depressing, dialogue-saturated episode that frankly doesn't even feel like LOST.
I need to address one thing about Elizabeth Mitchell here first so I don't repeat myself in future reviews:
On first watch I absolutely could not stand Juliet. Her condescending smirk, her disinterested blinking of eyes, her biting sarcasm, everything about her irritated me. At one point I wondered how I'd even endure Season 3 knowing she was given a prominent role.
And then it happened. I saw a few interviews with the real-life Elizabeth Mitchell and she was incredibly sweet and humble. Suddenly the joke was on me, and I was embarrassed that I'd assumed Mitchell and Juliet were one and the same. My appreciation of her acting went through the roof and I've loved her character ever since.
With that off my chest, I can tell you that she was definitely the highlight of ATOTC. It probably helped that she had the luxury of being in multiple locations, but even if she hadn't, she hit the ground running and stood toe-to-toe with the LOST veterans from the very start.
I can neither praise nor judge Fox, Lilly, or Holloway for their performances because... well, because they were stuck in a damn cage or box for the entire episode. It's true that sometimes I like "bottle" episodes which enhance character development, but 1) that "bottle" typically contains two or more established characters, and 2) they're almost never used for a season opener and for good reason.
Deductions for Stephen Semel (Adam), who is great as a LOST film editor but has no earthly business making a cameo. His dialogue was so wooden in the "book club" scene that I was already getting antsy about a potential drop in the show's quality. Luckily those fears weren't warranted in the long run.
The opening sequence is typical Jack Bender quality, gracefully moving us through the progression of Juliet's hectic day until a strange force shakes her home and interrupts the book club.
The CGI of Oceanic 815 breaking apart in mid-air was extremely well done, a visual that's almost always included in tribute videos and recap episodes.
Then it gets uncharacteristally dull. Don't get me wrong, I'm not expecting a prisoner chamber to be an amusement park, but to have so many long scenes in a glass box is the very essence of dullness.
The cages outside weren't all that compelling to look at either. At one point Sawyer attempts to break out with Karl, only to be shocked and dragged back to his cage. During said dragging, the camera is placed right in front of Sawyer in a bizarre, uncharacteristic point of view. It's almost like Bender grew so bored with filming cages he started to experiment.
I'll just establish this once: if I were to watch the whole series with a LOST newbie, the first thing I'd tell them is "hang in there" during early Season 3. The good news is the season is really amazing after a very slow and repetitive block of episodes.
Anyway, ATOTC doesn't do well at all in the rewatchability department, even with the significance of introducing Juliet and the Hydra station.
In terms of significance, I'm obligated to throw in some bonus points for Juliet's introduction.
It's pretty tough to establish any kind of atmosphere when actors are frozen in two or three places for 90% of the episode. Sometimes you can overcome such obstacles with extremely compelling dialogue, but ATOTC didn't even have that much going for it really. Most of the conversation between Juliet and Jack was expository with a little bit of sarcasm thrown in for good measure.
I would say there was roughly zero (0) emotional impact, unless frustration and confusion count.
In fairness to the LOST writers and producers I understand this was also a challenging time behind the scenes. Negotiations were underway with ABC to determine the duration and scope of the series, so until that was finalized it was tempting to freeze characters in their respective settings.
But at the end of the day I must rate the episodes based on what I saw and how I felt, and there were very few positives to take away from ATOTC.
