the blast door map

ok, now we're starting to get interesting. the great thing about this episode is that it gives us a little timeline tracking via a scene that wasn't possible to shoot until now.. it helps reinforce that juliet was in fact there the whole time, even though the actress didn't join until season 3.

so, juliet goes to michael and gives him that last push he needs to go out and kill for ben.

and that push seems to come mainly from a fear of walt. walt. must. leave. and it's juliet who's pushing for it. what could it be?

i think this scene is necessary for a couple reasons - mrs. klugh, who was michael's interrogator in season 2's episode "three minutes," is now dead. and if we're going to deal with walt/michael issues in season 4, we need a new person among the others to fill the role of who mrs. klugh was to michael. so this scene acts as kind of a transference of action from mrs. klugh to juliet.

as we'll see soon, juliet has even been recast in the role of 'chief other to be scared by walt.'

but here's what this mobisode wants to remind us of:

• michael killed to get what he needed (which is an interesting echo of how later, juliet will also kill one one of her 'own' people (pickett) to save ben.
• walt is 'special,' which has been repeated so many times that we hardly need reminding, though we haven't seen him for a season.
• why is it so important that walt get away from the island? does he threaten something about it?

this is a great scene because it actually gives us a little piece of new information, it doesn't just underscore old events with irony (the way eps 1, 2, and 3 do), it tells us the juliet was involved in whatever it was that happened to walt while he was with the others. it makes me realize that there is a LOT of potential season 4 flashback material not only in where michael and walt have been for the past month, but also in what happened while walt was with the others. it will be great to have those questions answered. with only 16 episodes in the season, and the end date set, the end suddenly seems so close.