Sometimes It's Better To Be Lost

SPOILER ALERTS!

Last night, Mrs. Bartender watched the final 3 episodes of season 2 followed by a late night viewing of the season 3 premier. The show continues to intrigue me even though I'm not sure that even they know where it's heading. Last night only featured 3 of our original castaways, and it appears that we may not even learn the fate of another crucial trio--Locke, Eko, and Desmond--next week. We did learn a little more about Jack as well as Kate and Sawyer but most of all we learned something about the Others.

--First, was that Lost or desperate Housewives at the start of the show. (Nice mirroring between the opening scene and the premier of last season.) We now know that the Others are suburbanites (on a fricking big island). Why? Were they abandoned here earlier? Are they part of the DHARMA initiative? Or not? Clearly Kelvin, who stated he was part of DHARMA, was not plugged into this society. Moreover, Ben/Henry Gale is their leader but is he "him," the leader to whom he and others have referred?

--The Others clearly have contact with the outside world. How else to explain all of the information they have on Jack (and presumably the rest of the survivors). This would explain the lists that Goodwin (and presumably Ethan) made of the survivors.

--As the season finale made clear (we think) and as reiterated last night, it appears happenstance that flight 815 crashed on the island. As opposed to the theory--a la Locke--that they were brought there for a reason, it appears random due to Desmond's not entering the numbers. (Granted fate could work in deeper ways, but this appears not to have been planned.)

--Nice shout out to Steven King, a big fan of the show. I think he'll enjoy being mocked. I think the book group was reading Carrie. A book about psychic powers, interesting.

--Jack is one messed up guy. Was he sad when Juliet told him that Sara is happy? I think so--as Sara herself observed, he is always looking for something to fix, and she doesn't seem to need fixing (assuming Juliet is telling the truth--big assumption). And now we can see that Jack can blame himself for his father's resuming drinking/killing a pregnant woman/losing his medical license/drinking himself to death in Australia. Or did he drink himself to death? Juliet has the autopsy (she says).

--As for Sawyer, it seemed very obvious that the escape was a ruse. In fact, I thought they were going to "execute" the guy that "freed" him.

--Finally, the show continues to intimate that there is some huge psychology experiment going on, but why? From the "observations" from the Pearl of the Swan that were actually an experiment of their own (sorry, Locke) to what is now being done to Jack, Sawyer, and Kate, this has been a constant theme. Ben/Henry and Juliet both appear to be psychologists and we also know that Libby claimed to be one. What is the purpose of all of this?

As always, Lost leaves me with a lot of questions but a looking forward to next week.