Season 3, Episode 7:
Not in Portland
In flashbacks, Juliet attempts to and eventually succeeds in impregnating her sister, who is suffering from cancer and thought to be infertile. Her ex-husband Edmund requests that she collaborate with him on her research, but she refuses, wanting to keep the matter private. Richard Alpert, one of the Others masquerading as a representative of a research company, tries to recruit Juliet, but she says her ex-husband will never let her leave. However, Edmund is hit by a bus and killed, and Juliet agrees to come to the Island.
On Hydra Island, Kate and Sawyer run off into the jungle while Jack holds Ben hostage in surgery. Juliet claims Jack is bluffing, and orders a group to chase them, so Jack outs her plan to kill Ben. Alex saves Sawyer and Kate, and agrees to give them a boat if they help her rescue Karl. They save him from a room where he is being forced to watch a brainwashing tape.
After a private conversation with Ben, Juliet leaves to help Sawyer and Kate escape, and Jack finishes the surgery. Juliet shoots and kills Pickett, and Sawyer, Kate and Karl head back to the main Island, with Jack telling Kate not to come back for him. After the surgery, Juliet tells Jack that Ben has offered to let her go home.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Afraid of Blood: Tom is very squeamish about being in the operating room to assist Jack during Ben's surgery.
- Arc Words: Richard tells Juliet that she is "special" when trying to recruit her.
- Artistic License – Geography: When Juliet opens the curtains and reveals that she and her sister are in Miami, she has a view of the Miami skyline and a plane is shown coming in for a landing. It would appear that they're on Miami Island, where there is no such airport. Miami International is about 19 kilometers inland.
- Asshole Victim: Safe to say nobody is mourning Danny Pickett after Juliet shoots him.
- Bait-and-Switch: The opening flashback appears to be taking place on the Island, with Juliet looking out over the sunrise on the beach, walking through a dingy building that looks vaguely like a DHARMA station, and even meeting Ethan Rom in the hallway, before it's revealed that she's actually in Miami.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Juliet darkly jokes to Richard about how Edmund might be more agreeable if he got hit by a bus, but is horrified when it actually happens. It's heavily implied that Richard arranged this so that Juliet could come to the Island.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Alex shows up to take out an Other with her slingshot just as he is about to shoot Kate.
- Juliet arrives just in time to shoot Danny when he has Sawyer, Kate, Alex and Karl at his mercy.
- Call-Back: Jack asks Kate to repeat the story he told her when they first met about the time he made a mistake during an operation as a way of confirming he's talking to her.
- Crazy-Prepared: Alex has a camouflaged pit dug in the ground in the middle of the jungle just in case she ever needs a hiding spot. Like mother, like daughter.
- Enemy Mine: Alex teams up with Sawyer and Kate to rescue Karl, and then Juliet helps them escape from Pickett on Ben's orders after he agrees to let her go home.
- Insane Troll Logic: Once again, Danny engages in this in his quest for revenge, as he claims that Ben would rather die than let Kate and Sawyer escape even after Juliet tells him that he ordered her to help them.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Kate threatens to shoot Aldo in the knee to make him give up Karl's whereabouts, and is so gung-ho about it that Sawyer ends up seeming like the good cop by comparison. She confirms later that she wasn't bluffing.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Jack was the only one who didn't know that they're on another island.
- The Mountains of Illinois: Right before Ed is hit by the bus, a mountain range can be seen in the distance which doesn't exist in low-lying Southern Florida.
- Oh, Crap!: Jack reacts this way when Juliet tells him they're not on the island, but a smaller island just off shore, so his friends have nowhere to go.
- Smug Snake: Edmund Burke lords his authority over Juliet at every opportunity up until he is hit by a bus, even showing off his new younger girlfriend.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: Legendary snarker Sawyer meets his match in Alex.Sawyer: This a hobby of yours, Underdog — digging holes?Alex: Yep. That and basket weaving. Want one?
- Stating the Simple Solution: Jack asks Tom why they didn't just take Ben to a facility on the mainland if they can just leave the island. Tom starts to explain that the hatch discharge disrupted their communications right before Jack accidentally nicks one of Ben's arteries.
- Surprisingly Sudden Death: Edmund is very abruptly run over by a bus while talking with Juliet.
- Title Drop: When Richard begins telling Juliet that her sister can't come because their work site is "pretty remote," he clarifies that where they're going is "not quite in Portland."
- Trojan Prisoner: Alex pretends to have captured Kate and Sawyer to help them ambush Aldo, the guard holding Karl prisoner at Room 23. Lampshaded by Sawyer:"Don't get mad at me just because you were dumb enough to fall for the old Wookiee prisoner gag."
- The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Sawyer implies this trope when he finds out Alex is Ben's daughter, not knowing they aren't related by blood."So, you're the boss's daughter, huh? I never saw that coming."
