The Season 3 hiatus returns with the first Juliet centric, an interesting look at Juliet's volatile path to joining the Others.
In flashbacks we meet Juliet's sister Rachel, a cancer survivor rendered barren by chemotherapy. Desperate to have a baby, Rachel urges Juliet to continue with her experimental treatment and is even anxious to be her test subject. Juliet's experiments — which eventually lead to success — are what grab the attention of Richard Alpert and Ethan Goodspeed. As representatives of Mittelos Bioscience, Richard and Ethan implore Juliet to join their team for a "short time".
Fast-forward to present-day. Juliet's counting the years — yes, years — since she arrived on the island. Promises have been broken, and now we partially understand her disdain for Ben as well as her circumstances.
Through a series of intense negotiations in the operating room an arrangement is set: Kate and Sawyer will be left alone if Jack finishes the surgery as planned. They do make it off the island, but not before a rescue mission involving Karl and Room 23 and a deadly confrontation with Pickett (thanks to Juliet for the assist).
This episode was a big moment not just for Juliet but for the writing teams. They'd taken a little bit of a beating from the LOST fan base about the disparity of depth between male and female characters, so Juliet's story really started to even the playing field. Now we have a strong-willed, exceptionally talented woman who can also command attention in certain circumstances. But more importantly she also has a vulnerable side, a side we hadn't really known about until her scenes with Rachel.
Juliet would become one of the best-written female characters on the show and Not In Portland was an important first step in getting there.
I mentioned in my review of ATOTC that I loathed Juliet the first time watching the series, but after seeing real-life interviews I came to really appreciate Elizabeth Mitchell. Therefore I initially didn't appreciate the full emotional range Mitchell showcased in this episode. But alas, I was young and stupid then. Now it's a real treat to watch.
She really covers all the bases: elation over Rachel's news, shock and sorrow over Edmund's death, anxiety over Richard's recruitment attempt, defiance over Jack's threat to kill Ben. This was a character planned to a tee and Mitchell established her well-deserved place in the main cast immediately.
Major bonus points for Robin Weigert (Rachel), who gets my vote for one of the best guest actors (of those who appear on an infrequent basis). How do you walk onto the set of a series and play someone's sister so lovingly, so convincingly? Wow.
Željko Ivanek (Edmund Burke) does his usual outstanding work as a guest star. Ivanek has an amazing track record with me personally, appearing in all of my favorite shows in the last two decades: LOST, 24, The X-Files, and Frasier. It's no surprise that he slipped right into this episode and flawlessly played the creepy, manipulative ex-husband.
Nestor Carbonell (Richard Alpert) makes his debut out of nowhere, and right off the bat he projects a calm mystique, a slight hint that his billboard smile might be hiding something.
Deductions for William Mapother, who was terrible as always. I'd love to say all his bizarre, wooden mannerisms are all intentional to sell the weirdness of being an Other, but I honestly don't think that's the case. He's just that bad.
Very slight deductions for Blake Bashoff (Karl) and Tania Raymonde (Alex), who were a bit overdramatic in their scene at the boat. Raymonde would improve quite a bit over the course of her arc.
This review's already running long so I'll list what I thought were the highlights of directing/visuals:
1. Room 23. A really bizarre and mesmerizing sequence.
2. Alex's hideout. Loved the shot looking up at Danny from the pit.
3. Miami skyline. Could've done without the conveniently timed jet, but the skyline itself was nice.
4. Edmund's demise. If you ignore the fact that he somehow didn't hear a big damn bus approaching, the actual visual was effective.
5. The projector scene with Juliet and Richard. For some reason I thought it was a nice touch to have the images projected across the characters like that.
This is the first time I've closely revisited Juliet's arc since viewing the finale, and so far it's been fun to get back to her roots. The pace of this episode feels very much like pre-Hydra LOST, lots of movement across scenes and even a few advancements in the mythology.
Richard Alpert is obviously a huge addition and this was a very clever way of integrating him into the series. Room 23 is pretty significant as well, establishing a very good possibility that the Others relied on brainwashing and zealotry to maintain order in their ranks. It's also safe to assume that Room 23 is "the room" Bea Klugh referred to in Three Minutes. Poor Walt.
Even though there are quite a few Hydra scenes, I never got the sense that we were hopelessly stuck in it. Therefore I wouldn't mind watching this one repeatedly.
Some moments were far more atmospheric than others. Room 23 was definitely one of the creepier moments I'd seen in a while, punctuated by Karl's freaky neon goggles.
Robin Weigert deserves most of the credit for the emotional impact. My heart went up into my throat when she announced her pregnancy and stated she wanted to get healthy.
To some extent I think Not In Portland IS greater than the sum of its parts, simply because the establishment of Juliet and Richard was so critical to the success of following seasons. The fact that they broke up the Hydra arc in the process is the cherry on top.
