Lost clues "Stranger in a Strange Land" Episode 3.9

Synopsis:

In a flashback, we see Jack living on a beach in Thailand, where he carries on an affair with a woman, Achara, who evidently has the ability to mystically "read" the true character of a person and, for a living, tattoos these descriptions onto her clients.

Although Achara says it is against her custom to mystically tattoo an outsider, Jack--drunk, suspicious and jealous--forces her to do it for him. We learn his tattoo says "He walks among us but he is not one of us."

In the present time, Jack agrees to help treat infections that have resulted from Ben's surgery. In exchange, the Others agree not to execute Juliet, who they now realize, wanted Ben dead.

Sawyer and Kate arrive back on the main island and Sawyer releases the outcast Other, Karl, as they make their way back to the beach camp to rejoin their fellow plane crash survivors.



Clues, observations, speculation:

* Lots of meanings can be read into Jack's tattoo. Does it mean he's a leader? That he's not supposed to be on the island? That he was fated to end up as the prisoner of the Others?

* Or, is Jack this "Jacob" the Others refer to? Their society seems to be organized along the lines of a cult: very insular, looking at outsiders with suspicion and derision, having it's own rituals and beliefs. Maybe they'll end up thinking Jack is some sort of prophet or messiah figure.

* In Thai, Achara means "pretty angel."

* What are we supposed to make of Achara's comment that she has no interest in his father? Does it simply mean she doesn't care about his past, or does she know something about his dad?



* Karl is stumped by Sawyer's "Brady Bunch" reference. Although the Others apparently have backyards (and we've seen their suburban-style village) they don't have cable. We're led to believe, in fact, that Karl was born on the island. Ben, in an earlier episode, says he's lived on the island all his life. If Alex is his daugher, and Danielle the Crazy Frenchwoman is Alex's mother, that means Ben and Danielle got together after Danielle's arrival on the island. What's the story there?

* Karl says the Others' village is on the main island. The smaller island, where Jack is being kept is for "projects."



* What is the role of Isabelle, the enforcer who puts Juliet on trial? She answers to Ben, but what's the heirarchy among the Others? And is Ben really the head honcho?

* What does the mark branded on Juliet's back mean? How are people treated amongst the Others when they're branded this way?

* According to Ben, Ethan Rom was the Others' surgeon.

* How was Cindy the stewardess "turned" by the Others? Was she brainwashed? Or is she just convinced they're good folk even though they kidnapped her and the flight's children and killed a buncha people? I'm thinking brainwashed or "indoctrinated" in some fashion.

* Why were Cindy and the other Others watching Jack like a zoo animal? Out of curiosity or is he thought of as somehow special?

* Cindy thinks Ana Lucia is still alive.

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