Changes: A Tale of Two Cities

Revision as of 01:42, 6 October 2006

For this episode's prespoilers, see: A Tale of Two Cities/prespoilers

Synopsis

The episode begins with people in a book club, in Juliet's house, who is the host. She is prepping for the party. She first puts on some music (specifically, "Downtown" by Petula Clark), looks at the mirror. She seems to be flustered by trying to keep her composure. The oven timer starts going off and she notices the oven is filled with smoke. Her muffins are burnt! She rushes over, takes them out, and burns her hand in the process. The doorbell rings, there is a woman at the door. Outside, there is a man working on the plumbing (Ethan). The two women go inside. The book being discussed is Carrie by Stephen King. One of the members of the book club, Adam, complains about Juliet's choice of this book and remarks that Ben wouldn't read it even in the bathroom.

A rumbling appears to be an earthquake (judging by the calm manner in which the party acts, this kind of shaking may be rather common) - after it ends, they run outside, where the house seems to be in a cul-de-sac community. They see the Flight 815 plane break up. Henry Gale (actually named Ben) tells Ethan Rom and Goodwin to go to both of the crash sites and act as survivors, and give him a list in three days. The camera pulls back to fully reveal that this community of houses is in a clearing amidst the jungle on the island.

Kate wakes up in a bathroom. Tom (Mr. Friendly) is there and tells Kate to take a hot shower. She says she won't while he's there, but Tom only laughs and tells her she's not his type. He leaves, and she takes a shower. When she emerges, Tom has taken her clothes and has left her a dress instead. She changes into it, reluctantly. Tom and two Others bring her to a beach, where "Henry" is waiting at a covered table with chairs, frehly cooked food, utensils, and coffee, with a pair of handcuffs on the side. He compels her to handcuff herself, and when she asks why he's doing all this, "Henry" responds that he gave her a dress to make her feel feminine, fresh food to make her feel at home, allow her a view of the beach because her friends are seeing the same beach, and utensils to make her feel civilized. He tells Kate that the next two weeks will be most unpleasant.

Jack wakes up in a holding cell. He sees an open door, but when he walks towards it, he learns there is a thick glass wall blocking his way. He begins struggling with some chains hanging from the ceiling when Juliet walks into the room on the other side of the glass. She tells him that she wants to give him food, but he must move away from the door. Jack refuses to cooperate with her and continues to yank on the chain. After a number of exchanges, Jack is seemingly convinced that he needs to eat. When Juliet enters with the food, he attacks her and drags her out into the hallway. Henry is waiting and tells him that Juliet cannot open the nearby door, or it will kill all of them. Jack throws her away, and Henry runs out of another door, closing it on Juliet. Jack opens the first door, which pours water into the hallway. Then he and Juliet manage to close the door, but when Jack turns, Juliet knocks him out.

Meanwhile, Sawyer awakes in an outdoors cell with a strange contraption inside that has a large "button" with a knife and fork painted on it. Assuming the contraption provides food, he tries to figure it out, but another prisoner in the cell opposite his tells him not to. He continues, and is shocked by electricity. The other prisoner then picks his lock and picks Sawyer's and tells him to run the opposite way. He does, but Juliet finds him and tasers him in the neck. Sawyer is returned to his cell, and the other prisoner, Karl, is forced to apologize for asking him to help with his escape. After some experimentation and with the help of a large rock he found outside the cell, Sawyer soon figures out the "gizmo" that delivers food and water. The water streams out a pipe into a trough, kibble falls on the ground, as does a large fish biscuit with the word DHARMA on it -- it's obviously "pet food." When Tom later puts Kate into the cell that Karl had occupied, he tells Sawyer that the bears figured it out in two hours, implying the cells are where the polar bears once were held.

Throughout Jack's story, he has flashbacks to the process of his divorce from Sarah. He becomes obsessed with discovering whom she is having an affair with, following her and researching her cell phone records. He begins to suspect that her lover is his father Christian, who pleads with Jack to "let it go." Jack ends up assaulting his father at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, driving Christian back to the bottle and landing Jack in jail. Sarah bails him out, imploring Jack to leave her alone.

Later in the episode, Juliet returns and reveals she knows much about Jack, who is back in the cell. She tells him how she has his father's autopsy report, his divorce record, information on his friends and family, etc. Jack only wants to know if his ex-wife is happy, and Juliet says she is. She also tells him he is being held in an aquarium tank in the Hydra, another DHARMA station, which is underwater. Jack agrees to Juliet bringing him food, so Juliet steps into the hallway, where Henry is standing, waiting. He tells her she has done a good job, and she says, "Thanks, Ben," revealing "Henry"'s real name.

Kate is brought to the now empty cell across from Sawyer's and Sawyer tries to make her feel better by joking around. She seems distraught, so Sawyer asks if she wants something to eat. Kate says yes, so Sawyer throws her the fish biscuit, which she eats pitifully.

Clues

During the "Previously on Lost..." recap before this episode, we see the scene at the Pala Ferry pier from Live Together, Die Alone where Henry says "They're coming home with us," in response to Hurley's question. However, rather than using that actual dialog, you can see that Henry's line has been dubbed over, and he now simply says "They're coming with us." This was, perhaps, done to belie the surprise of the Dharma homes in the first scene, or at least keep that connection from being made before the surprise is revealed.

The song Jack listens to in his car radio while watching Sarah at her school is Moonlight Serenade, the same song Hurley and Sayid picked up on the radio in "The Long Con."

The CD That Juliet places in her stereo is actually a dualdisc CD/DVD with the serial of "JN 94743". This serial belongs to the album "Okemah and the Melody of Riot", by artist "Son Volt"^[1]. This album was released in 2005. The CD is taken from the jewel case for the album "Speaking In Tongues" by artist "Talking Heads".
- Which would not work, as the plane crashed in September 2004... Now the question is, is it on purpose (as to does the DI have access to "prereleased" CDs) or just a simple error?

The song Juliet listens to as she gets ready for her book club meeting is Downtown by Petula Clark.

The novel being discussed by The Book Club is Stephen King's Carrie.

During Jack's first flashback, the time on his pager is 7:15:23AM

The cage in which Sawyer is imprisoned appears to be a larger version of the original Skinner box, a simple contraption of levers and buttons in which experiments were performed with chickens to demonstrate the psychological theory of positive reinforcement and punishment. B.F. Skinner, the father of behaviorist psychology and inventor of the box, was mentioned in the Swan Orientation Film.

When Jack is playing with the telecom button the voice of his father comes on saying, "let it go."

The nurse that was in the operating room with Jack is the same nurse that looked after Locke after he donated his kidney.

On Jack's crossword puzzles, the the words are "raft", "bore", "heroes" and "oven" (Julia burned herself on one).

Theories

The Others have had no contact with The Swan, they had no part in bringing down Flight 815.
The Others have direct contact with the outside world.
- DualDiscs weren't invented until March 2004, and the Others posess one.
  - The DualDisc was in a CD case that did not even match the album name on the case (or the Dualdisc in question either).
    - Since the only way to tell it's a Dualdisc is from looking up the serial number, it's entirely possible that that disc was chosen at a prop because the text is small enough that they assumed it would be unreadable. The prop was probably just intended to represent a CD (one with indistinguishable writing since they may not have known for sure what song would be playing at the time of filming - same probably goes for the CD case).
- They are capable of digging up Christian's autopsy report.
  - They claim to have the autopsy report but Juliet actually revealed no information to Jack that hasn't already been revealed on the island.
- Their clothes are kind of modern and not, like many other things on the island such as the computers, the music they listen to etc., back from the 1970s
  - In the same vein, at the book club the edition of Carrie (originally published in 1974) many members are reading is a paperback edition first published in 2002.
The others are not using their contact with the outside world to leave the island.
- They all have terminal diseases and are kept alive by the Island's healing properties, or have proved themselves to be imune to the "virus" and thus are kept on the Island as a "guaranteed survivor group"
  - Disease may be related to the "virus"
  - Kate, Jack and Sawyer have been injected with something that will make them sick or put them through a sort of detox for the next two weeks.
  - Sawyer is never specifically shown to have removed his band-aid, therefore Sawyer may not have been injected with the same thing that Kate and Jack were injected with.
    - The wounds on their arm could simply be from a blood sample being taken for testing, since the three do not seem to be acting differently, at least as of yet.
      - Juliet told Jack that he was given a drug that would cause dehydration so it is likely that the wound is from the administration of that drug
        The "drug" was what Jack was shot with as they were running away from the Others in "Live Togther, Die Alone". The wounds are from blood samples.
    - This will make them compatible with the status of the others (either sick and tied to the island or imune to the virus and part of the "survivor group")
Utopiaville seems to already have some sort of ideological split between Juliet and Ben.
- This is reflected early in the book fight (where Adam objects to reading a book that Ben wouldn't like).
  - Juliet seems to enjoy the fact that she is doing something that Ben doesn't like.
- Likewise, we see a split when Ben is quite willing to save himself, and leave Juliet.
  - He also does not object when Jack says "I'll kill her."
Ben leaving Juliet to drown was an act in order for Juliet to gain Jack's trust.
Utopiaville seems to be laid out in a way that emphasizes community.
- Could be designed as a "safety community" isolated from the world, meant to be able to survive the end of the human species and thus defeat the numbers.
  - May need genetic diversity (due to unplanned loss of some of its members)to sustain survivability and thus Losties are being added to the community based on genetic profiles.
- We've seen no roads.
- The housing that we've seen is not communal (everyone seems to have their own place) but Juliet and Ben houses are directly opposite from each other.
- These could be the Dharma Initiative's Barracks.
- Ben tells Ethan and Goodwin to run to the crash sites suggesting there is no other mechanized transport other than the boat.
Dharma was experimenting with sounds on dolphins.
- The Hydra has a detailed sound system.
The Polar Bear seen in Season 1 is one of the bears which Tom tells Sawyer about.
Jack's father is still alive.
- Jack hears someone saying "Let it go Jack" which was the same thing that Christian Shepherd was telling him throughout the flashbacks.
  - Jack identified the body personally, and Juliet told him the injection would cause him to become dehydrated, which, in turn, would cause him to hallucinate.
    - Or that could be a way for people to justify that Christian isn't still alive, but that Jack is just hearing things. Why trust what the Others say? Christian's body was never found on the island? Or was his body found by the Others and taken somewhere for some reason?
The Others are playing mind games on Jack.
- The Hydra is not real, or they are not currently in it. My original theory was that Jack was in the Hydra, while Kate and Sawyer where back on The Island. Then they realized that Juliet was seen walking in the jungle (And tasering Sawyer...) after she had left Jack. This means that either the whole island is underwater, Jack really is somehow separated, or they are playing with Jack's mind. I assume the latter is correct.
- It didn't take the others that long at all to lead Kate to the breakfast on the beach, so the above ground part of the Hydra station must be extremely close to the water. Juliet could easily have gotten there in time.
- The Hydra facility can be for all animals, on the shore of the island. And Jack is being held in the underwater part, or the “hydro station” part of The Hydra. It seems it is not very close to the Other's village also.
- Juliet does not actually have a file on all the details of Jack's life. She manipulated a few known facts to make it seem so.
- These facts could also have been gained by the Others spying via the Pearl. We know somebody was there due to the still-burning cigarette.
  - Was it Benry who was spying? (was he caught before the pearl was found or after? If after, was he caught because he had to make a quick escape?)
The printout that Juliet has on Jack's life is a result of the lists Ben has Ethan and Goodwin get. They infiltrate the camp, get the names, and Ben researches the information.
Kate, Jack and Sawyer were injected with a "truth serum" or something of that sort that allows the Others to ask them questions while they are under the influence/unconcious. This allows the Others to learn more about each of them, their history, the camp in order to gain an upper hand. Juliet had all the information on Jack's life...at least what he could share with them. And the Others have tricked Jack into believing "they know all".
- Although, Jack blatantly lies to Juliet when he says he's a repo man whose never been married, even though it is apparent that she sees through it.
  - Juliet asking these questions could be a test to see if Jack is still under the influence of the drugs they gave to him. One might assume that if you were captured and of sound mind, you might not provide truthful answers upon first being asked.
The radio waves that Sayid and Hurley were able to pick up on their short wave radio (in the episode The Long Con) are actually the waves being emitted by the radio station that Jack might be listening to (WXR) . This, in conjunction with Jack being able to hear his father's voice through the intercom in his cell, perhaps points to the possibility that the island is able to capture certain information about the Losties. This information is what might have been used to create the dossier Juliet shows to Jack.
When Ben/Henry tells Kate that the next two weeks will be unpleasant, he may be referring to things that will happen as a result of the activation of the fail-safe and subsequent discharge, rather than something that the Others are going to do to her.
On abc.com, in the photo gallery, there is a picture of jack lying down with a young girl standing in the corner,could this be one of Jack's hallucinations? (This however does not seem to be seen in the actual episode)

This may have been a scrapped concept for the episode, as some production shots from late September showed Jack saving a girl at a playground. Numerous pieces were also cut from Sawyer's "cage" scenes that were shown in ABC's sneak preview to save time.

Tom and Ben both do a very subtle "Namaste"-style bow during the episode.
- Tom does it in the shower-room when he tells Kate that she's not his type. Ben does it at the very end, when he tells Juliet that she did a good job.
  - Could mean that the Others were once Dharma workers, and still bow out of habit.

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@@ Line 32: / Line 32: @@
 [[Kate]] is brought to the now empty cell across from [[Sawyer]]'s and Sawyer tries to make her feel better by joking around. She seems distraught, so [[Sawyer]] asks if she wants something to eat. [[Kate]] says yes, so [[Sawyer]] throws her the [[fish biscuit]], which she eats pitifully.
-==Trivia==
+==Clues==
 * During the "Previously on Lost..." recap before this episode, we see the scene at the Pala Ferry pier from [[Live Together, Die Alone]] where [[Henry]] says "They're coming home with us," in response to [[Hurley]]'s question.  However, rather than using that actual dialog, you can see that [[Henry]]'s line has been dubbed over, and he now simply says "They're coming with us."  This was, perhaps, done to belie the surprise of the Dharma homes in the first scene, or at least keep that connection from being made before the surprise is revealed.