If you listen to podcasts and interviews with the head writers of "Lost" recorded before season three's opening six-episode mini-season/pod the intention behind those episodes becomes clear. They were excited to do a pure action/adventure story, a captivity/escape tale much like films and television they grew up with and enjoyed. We got something in that vein, but it never really came together, never blossomed into anything more than cheap, predictable melodrama. What's most remarkable about "Not in Portland", in many ways the final chapter of the Hydra island pod of stories (since "Stranger in a Strange Land" doesn't exist), is that it represents the Hydra island storyline FINALLY becoming what the writers must have had in their heads while planning it out.
"Not in Portland" doesn't lack some brilliant character-based writing, particularly for Juliet but also for Jack and even Ben, but it also doesn't lack the sort of thing the entire Hydra island pod should have had: loads of well-executed action within the established genre format of the jungle captivity/escape story. I can't think of anything that could have been done better here- "I Do", the previous episode, milked everything for cheap soap-opera tension. "Not in Portland" features very similar situations with lives hanging in the balance, dramatic attempts at escape, 'shock moments', etc. but it's all in the great "Lost" tradition of keeping everything deeply connected to the overall story and to the characters and mythos of the series. Everything here is worthwhile. Kate and Sawyer's escape and Ben's surgery are handled superbly, with a shift of focus in the writing to Juliet, already a compelling character, and in this episode proving to be one of the show's most intriguing and conflicted characters.
The flashback sees Juliet attempting to get her sister, who has cancer, pregnant through experimental science. Due to previous experiments and presumably this as well, The Others (naming themselves 'Mittelos Bioscience) led by Richard Alpert attempt to recruit Juliet and bring her to the island. This sort of thing can go horribly wrong if done without subtlety and grace (*cough*"Cabin Fever"*cough*), but it's all very strongly-written here by Carlton Cuse and Jeff Pinkner.
A massive return to form after an uncertain (to be kind) start to the season, this 'spring season debut' introduces us to the superb bulk of season three which would keep us on the edge of our collective seat until the spectacular, jaw-dropping audacity of the finale.
"Not in Portland" doesn't lack some brilliant character-based writing, particularly for Juliet but also for Jack and even Ben, but it also doesn't lack the sort of thing the entire Hydra island pod should have had: loads of well-executed action within the established genre format of the jungle captivity/escape story. I can't think of anything that could have been done better here- "I Do", the previous episode, milked everything for cheap soap-opera tension. "Not in Portland" features very similar situations with lives hanging in the balance, dramatic attempts at escape, 'shock moments', etc. but it's all in the great "Lost" tradition of keeping everything deeply connected to the overall story and to the characters and mythos of the series. Everything here is worthwhile. Kate and Sawyer's escape and Ben's surgery are handled superbly, with a shift of focus in the writing to Juliet, already a compelling character, and in this episode proving to be one of the show's most intriguing and conflicted characters.
The flashback sees Juliet attempting to get her sister, who has cancer, pregnant through experimental science. Due to previous experiments and presumably this as well, The Others (naming themselves 'Mittelos Bioscience) led by Richard Alpert attempt to recruit Juliet and bring her to the island. This sort of thing can go horribly wrong if done without subtlety and grace (*cough*"Cabin Fever"*cough*), but it's all very strongly-written here by Carlton Cuse and Jeff Pinkner.
A massive return to form after an uncertain (to be kind) start to the season, this 'spring season debut' introduces us to the superb bulk of season three which would keep us on the edge of our collective seat until the spectacular, jaw-dropping audacity of the finale.