Once again, ABC's LOST has presented its fans with the gift of a well written, impeccably portrayed episode that struck the delicate balance between too many answers and no answers at all.  In my opinion, LOST 3x16, "One of Us," is one of the best – if not the best – offerings of this season. 

As the episode begins, the weary group of Sayid, Juliet, Kate and Jack is trekking its way across the island toward the beach camp.  When they cross a stream, Sayid remarks that it is getting late and that they should make camp.  Volunteering to go get some firewood, Jack and Kate leave Sayid alone with Juliet.  While Kate and Jack are in the jungle, Sayid uses his time to gain more information from Juliet.  He asks the questions that we have all asked while sitting glued to our televisions for the last 3 years.  "What are you people doing on this island?  Why are you terrorizing us?  Making lists?  Kidnapping children?"   The last question Sayid asks carries the most significance to this particular episode.  Who, indeed, is Juliet?      

In response to Sayid's questions, Juliet states that if she told him everything she knew he would kill her.  In one of the best lines in Lost history, Sayid responds "What do you think I will do if you don't?"  Fortunately, or unfortunately as it may be, Jack returns and tells Sayid to leave Juliet alone; that she is "under his protection."  This revelation obviously does not appease Sayid who, as Juliet later points out, was chained to a swing set by her people for three days.   Although Jack, it seems, has been able to forgive and forget his time spent at the Hydra. 

While in the jungle, Kate asks Jack one of the most poignant questions I have heard on LOST to date, "Do you want to talk about it?" 

Jack explains that he has nothing to talk about.  In the prospect of ‘going home', he just kept his head down and did what he was told and never asked any questions.  This provides a great deal of insight into the rest of this episode.  If Jack is able to allow himself to just ignore what has been done to him, his friends and the rest of flight 815 in order to buy a ticket off the island after being there for 80 days, imagine the entire realm of possibilities that exist for someone who has been there for three years.

We re-enter Juliet's past at a point soon after her introduction to Mittelos Bioscience, which began in "Not in Portland."  She and Rachel arrive at a gated complex as 'Downtown' plays on the radio in the background.  Juliet identifies herself to a security guard at the gate; while Rachel, noting the security cameras, remarks that they seem to be taking the whole "corporate secrecy thing" a little too seriously.  Juliet's response to Rachel is that she "is never going to fit in with these people."  Although this episode attempts to make Juliet appear as a sympathetic character in the beginning, it is painfully obvious by the end that she has learned to how fit in just fine. 

Ethan appears at the car window, and offers to carry Juliet's luggage, while Richard Alpert introduces himself to Rachel and thanks her for letting them 'borrow' Juliet for a few months.  After the introduction, Rachel and Juliet say a tearful goodbye at the gate, as they are told that Rachel will not be allowed to accompany Juliet any further because of the security issues. 

Richard takes Juliet to the wood paneled, art deco looking, [url=http://lost.cubit.net/forum/index.php/topic,4484.0.html]Herarat Aviation[/url] terminal where they are met by Ethan.  Ethan proceeds to take Juliet's vital signs while Richard pours her a glass of orange juice and makes no attempt to hide the fact that he is mixing a large amount of powder into it.  When Juliet asks what he had put in the drink, Richard tells her it is a considerable amount of tranquilizer that she will need for the intense trip to a destination that still remains unknown to her.  She starts to protest about being 'fine' with signing nondisclosure agreements and fine about not being able to speak to anyone for six months and makes it evident that she has researched Mittelos Bioscience but found no one in the medical community has ever heard of them.  But Richard calls her bluff and asks her why?  Why was she fine with doing all of those things?  Was it a matter of his manipulation of Juliet, telling that she was destined to do something great that got her to that point?  I don't think so. 

Even mild mannered Juliet is obviously capable of doing the unethical – for example using her own sister in trial of an experimental drug.  It is not a far stretch to assume that she would be willing to do other unethical or unusual things in order to forego the usual constraints on her research if given the opportunity.  I think this is a key insight to Juliet's character.  Even when Richard offers her the opportunity to change her mind, her response was to down the tranquilized orange juice in one tip of the glass.  In my opinion, she had already made her decision to go with them even though she had no idea where that might lead. 

On Juliet's arrival to the island I had two thoughts.  First, the dock where the [url=http://lost.cubit.net/forum/index.php/topic,4501.0.html]submarine[/url] was located appears to be on an inland river or cove and the high walls of the mountains behind the dock could indeed be the outer edge of the ring surrounding Othersville.  The location of the submarine dock and the distance to the water from Othersville has been an ongoing issue of debate and this episode provided us with a plausible explanation.  Secondly, the size of the submarine was much smaller than I had assumed.  This makes it more readily believable that a single C4 charge could have destroyed it.  However, it still does not explain why Locke was wet.  I am sure that even though it was mentioned – twice in this episode – as being destroyed, the debate about its destruction will continue.  As we all know that on LOST you are not dead until you are declared dead on the official podcast, even if you are buried alive!

Many of us have been speculating that the reason that they took the children and essentially shanghaied Juliet was because the Others were infertile.  And although there still remains some speculation about the exact nature of their inability to bear children, this does seem to be the case.  However, we find out subsequently that Juliet's attempts to impregnate the women on the island have been much less than successful; resulting in the deaths of the women she was experimenting upon.   During a conversation with Ben approximately six months after her arrival, Juliet tells Ben that she wants to go home.  Ben proceeds to produce a dossier on Rachel and tells Juliet that Rachel's cancer has returned.  He makes a deal with Juliet that if she stays and helps them to conceive and bear children he will cure Rachel's cancer.  

We know that being on the island has had a positive effect on Rose's cancer.  Could it be that there is some kind of energy on the island like the one spoken of by Isaac of Uluru in "S.O.S" that can cure cancer?  If so it would explain why Ben looks confused and terrified to learn that he has a spinal tumor later in this episode.  Ben tells Juliet that Jacob said he would take care of the issue himself and makes it seem as though refusing would question her faith in Jacob.  Just who Jacob is remains one of the biggest mysteries of LOST this season.  In my opinion we can be relatively sure that Jacob is indeed "Him."

Three years later, we find Juliet and Goodwin sharing a bed and a bowl of ice cream.  This seems to be an answer to another speculation – were Ben and Juliet intimately involved?  Later, Juliet finds Ben's tumor on an X-ray and confronts him.  How can he possibly have the ability to cure cancer if he has it?  Juliet calls him a liar.  The next day, Ben attempts to prove that he is not a liar by allowing Juliet to view live footage of her sister and her now 2 year old nephew, Julian. 

Meanwhile, back at the beach, Charlie is alerted by a screaming Aaron that something is not quite right with Claire.  At first, she just complains of not feeling well, but later she says that her head is pounding and as newly minted leader, Sawyer, rushes to her aide and volunteers to get her aspirin.  Sawyer looks up just as Jack rounds a big bush and utters the words that make me glad that LOST moved to a 10 pm time slot – "Son of a bitch!"  The reunion scene is very touching and I am sure a great number of female hearts leapt when an obviously relieved Sawyer took Kate in his arms and held her tightly against him.  Suddenly this tender moment is interrupted by the appearance of Juliet; leading Sawyer and viewers alike, to ask what is she doing here?

Shortly after their return, Hurley is sent to keep an eye on Juliet.  His interaction with her reminded me of the way he reacted to Michael after he found out that Michael shot Libby.  He demonstrates to Juliet, in a matter of fact manner, that he has neither forgiven nor forgotten what The Others did to him and his fellow passengers.  Even though he drops his guard briefly with Juliet's "I had the day off" joke, he lets her know in no uncertain terms what happens to Others who enter the camp with malice in mind. 

Later, A visibly ill Claire appears during the 'what to do with Juliet' town meeting causing them to divert their focus.  Juliet calls Kate over and says that she can help Claire because she is the one who made her sick.  Juliet tells Jack and Kate that Claire's illness is due to a latent reaction to a medication in her blood stream.  A medication that she designed and Ethan administered after taking blood samples from Claire.  Naturally, she is the only who can 'cure' her.  Just like the lies that Mikhail told in "Enter 77" and "Par Avion," I believe that there is a grain of truth to them. 

As Juliet tells Jack that every pregnant woman on the island dies, Kate turns to look at Sun.  Of course, she is referring to every pregnant woman except Claire (as long as we are not counting Rousseau).  She refers to Claire as their "control case" which I believe is one of those grains of truth.  Juliet is able to 'cure' Claire with an injection of a yellow liquid.  Sometime afterward, Jack brings Juliet blankets and one of the never ending supply of tarps and it is clear they will allow her to stay.  As Jack says, she is now, "One of Us."

However, in the end we see that we have all been played once again by Ben and Juliet in a plan laid out to insinuate her into the beach camp for some unknown reason.  We learn that Claire's mysterious illness is just an activation of a device implanted within her to cause her symptoms allowing Juliet to fix Claire and become a hero.  We learn what many of us have suspected - that Juliet was left behind for a purpose. 

How can she remain loyal to Ben given all he has done to her?  How do we know she is not loyal to Jack?  I believe the answer harkens back to the very beginning of this episode.  Juliet is loyal to Juliet.  Jack was absolutely right, her only goal is to get off that island and she will do whatever is necessary in order to make that happen.  This single minded determination makes her neither one of us, nor one of them, but a power to be reckoned with in her own right.