I think I must have missed the evidence pointing this way last season… Could somebody fill me in on why this would be the case?
Jack’s dad went to Oz to see his daughter when he pickled himself. The daughter was never shown, but the mom was, and she looked a heck of a lot like Claire.
On the other hand she had personal information about Jack that indicated that they had contact with the outside world to get it. She knew about his marriage (though she was using the wife as an obvious manipulation), what hospital he worked at, and what he specialized in. The autopsy report was the only piece of information she mentioned that would have to be from after the crash. You’re right that it doesn’t really have to be the report, but dramatically the scene doesn’t work if it isn’t since at that point they had switched to using personal information about Jack to manipulate him.
My feeling is that the producers have a general long range plan layed out (though not set in stone) for the big issues and as long as they see cancellation coming we’re going to get their answers for them. They are fleshing those out by adding a lot of little mysteries that may or may not be adequately explained. And it doesn’t help that the paranoid atmosphere in Lost makes people see mysteries where there may be nothing. My take on the CD, for example, was just that they wanted to use the music but didn’t want to pay for the rights to show the alblum art.
I wasn’t much impressed with the show either. I haven’t watched all the shows, I did watch all of season 2 since Iris was into it, and was liking it, but this one was kind of slow. I think it’s the same complaint I’ve had about the other shows too, they don’t always seem to go anywhere. I’m hoping it gets better.
The runtime of the show, *sans * commercials, was the standard 42 minutes and some odd seconds. Just as it is with any one hour network tv show produced in the U.S.
I’m pretty sure the bandages on Jack and Kate’s arms were to draw blood. Juliet’s comment was “the drug you were given…”, no indication that it was an injection. Plus, a sedative isn’t going to need to be injected into the vein like that. It’s a classic drawn blood indication.
I think that’s the most important think we are to take away from this ep. We’ve been told before that the Others are interested in Jack and Kate for some reason but not Sawyer. The fact they went out of their way to show the bandages on Jack and Kate and not Sawyer tells me they want us to know that those two were tested but Sawyer was not.
If I remember correctly they drew blood from Walt and Claire too. The fact is some of these characters are important test subject it appears, Sawyer isn’t one of them. This is why he was tossed in a cage an wasn’t interrogated or manipulated like Kate and Jack. True the fake prisoner and skinner box might play the same role, but Jack and Kate are certainly getting all the important attention.
I’m wondering if they are hoping to get Kate and Jack to reproduce. They took note that Kate asked about Sawyer first, and that seemed important. By placing Kate into the cage opposite him, they might be forcing her to betray him and destroy any possible romance they have. The net effect would leave her with Jack.
Also, I’m 95% sure that the Steven King book Juliet was holding outside the house after the earthquake was not Carrie. It was a white cover with bluish lettering. It was also bigger than the other book. I’ll rewatch to confirm, but it seems appropriate that she’d be interested in The Stand since it feels entirely appropriate to this TV show.
Ya know, at first I thought the bandages were for whatever drug they gave them to knock them out and get them to the Hydra starion. I figured they didn’t give Sawyer anything because they probably just knocked the guy out. After all, everybody takes a swing at him. That’s what you do with Sawyer. 
On the other other hand (snerk), that info could have been gotten from Kate, who may have already begun her difficult two weeks.
It wasn’t thick enough to be The Stand. I thought the back of the dust jacket was white and the front was dark, with King’s name at the top. That didn’t start to happen – the name over the title – until later.
She says it’s her favorite book, so it can’t be Tommyknockers. That’s nobody’s favorite King book. 
Tommyknockers fits with the hatch though, and people being made to act for others.
The talk about metaphor and religion (or something like that) made me think the book was Carrie. I can see Carrie being someone’s favorite King book, especially if that someone feels like she’s different, or thinks she’s being manipulated, or wants to manipulate others.
The cover doesn’t look like my Carrie, but it could have been a later printing.
Or maybe it was just a shout-out to King.
There are already pictures out clearly showing someone in the book club holding a copy of Carrie while in the house.
Found this on the TiVo Community board
Exhibit A - http://www.pbase.com/ldkronos/image/68035431
Exhibit B - d-stephenking-carrie.jpg photo - Ronald Frazier photos at pbase.com
Gonna have to sink this, sorry. They did show Kate and Jack ripping away the bandages, but not Sawyer - but that doesn’t mean he didn’t have one. Go to the ABC.com Photo Gallery and check out photo 17 for A Tale of Two Cities. Sawyer’s on the ground and the bandage is clearly visible. It’s there, he just didn’t bother with it. Now, whatever meanings that might have, I couldn’t begin to say.
Wasn’t the guy lied in the bed that Jack was standing over whilst he was watching his Dad on the phone one of the others (the old guy with silver hair)? Also, I’m pretty sure that Jack’s Dad is in on the conspiracy and on the island. We’ve already seen him on the island, his coffin is empty, his voice came through the speaker and the whole reason Jack was on the flight was because of his Dad.
Excellent detective work.
Couple of things, mostly just confirming what other people have already said:
-You can definitely see “Carrie” on another person’s book cover in the house
-The episode was 42:15 long - at least my copy is. That’s without commercials but with the “Last time on Lost…” thing at the start.
My prediction this week is that we will find out that Kate was forced to choose between Jack and Sawyer. The producers want us to think she chose Sawyer, but we’ll find out that she actually chose Jack. She just has to betray Sawyer in some way to be allowed to be with Jack.
Oh, oh, OH!!! I can’t believe I forgot this!
Did no one else notice that, as Jack was opening the Big Giant Door O’ Death, the sounds it made were EXACTLY the sounds made by the Tree-Crushing Security Smoke System?! Go give it a listen and tell me if I’m wrong. I just watched again, and I’m more convinced now. I don’t know what it means - maybe the TCSSS is run by hydraulics?
Were there just more, shorter, commercial breaks than usual or something?
BTW What’s your source on this info?
-Kris
That cage didn’t look too clean. If I thought I might have an open wound under that bandage, and I were in an old zoo pen like that, I don’t think I’d remove the bandage either.
I also thought Sawyer’s “how many bears?” question wasn’t a bad one. It wasn’t a question about their brainpower, but about how to weigh down that switch while hitting the other two switches. Would have been much easier with a helper. Did that get anybody else feeling like they were playing a Zelda game, though? Sawyer as Link…a bizarre thought.
In the photo slide show that BayleDomon mentions, who is that little girl sitting in the room with Jack on slide 33? I don’t remember that from the episode.
Me either. Could they be yanking our chain with that image?