By Jon Lachonis

Episode 407, 'The Other Woman' looks at Juliette's past with Goodwin and Ben.

Lost episode 407,  “The Other Woman” was predictably a weak follow up to the mind-rending that was “The Constant,” but still very well seasoned with a fine selection of WTFs and OMGs. The story of Juliet and Goodwin’s romance serve as the flashback portion of the episode, and while you may think that is rather yawn worthy, it does seal the deal by shining a new light on Ben’s freaky behavior.

Basically the episode is split into three interconnected arcs. In the past it is a tale of trysts in Othertown: Juliet falls for her Therapist Harper’s (played by the lovely Andrea Roth) husband Goodwin (yeah, that Goodwin) while Ben makes some slimy attempts at earning her affection. The sliminess isn’t so much as a random hand on the knee, but it’s more the awkwardness that he displays. You catch yourself saying “what a buffoon,” but the reality is Ben grew up on the island and is severely lacking in social graces as a result. Add to that the fact that he is a genocidal psychic boy wonder – or so his people think – and voila: slimy.

Even though it is a Juliet flash back it winds up saying more about Ben, particularly his sense of possessiveness and the perversions he will unleash to get what is his. At the end of the a-typical forbidden love chapter, Ben leads Juliet to a field to show her Goodwin’s body. The scene punctuates earlier pleas from Harper that the relationship, while not all that acceptable to her either, is a dangerous thing for Goodwin. This isn’t merely a chapter in Lost’s story that could easily be skipped though. Yes, Goodwin was sent to the tailsection because Ben knew he would be in danger there, but while Juliet is sobbing over Goodwin’s sunbaked corpse Ben spells it out definitively. “Don’t you get it? You’re mine!”

Ben plays a major part in the two other arcs as well. Harper shows up to send Juliet after Daniel and Charlotte. The order is presumably from Ben, but we get no direct confirmation of that. The story from Harper is that the freighties are on their way to “The Tempest,” a Dharma station, and are going to unleash poison gas and kill everybody on the island. It turns out, however, that this is not the case. The freighties are acutely aware of “The Purge” and part of their mission is to disable the gas before Ben can use it as a weapon. Mission accomplished and another problem brought into the light: Ben is interested in having weapons of mass destruction.

The flashback and the freighter adventure intersect at camp Locke. Ben is wanting his freedom restored, Locke is as skeptical as he should be, but Ben knows just what buttons to push on Locke; he offers him the identity of the man behind the freighter. He shows Locke a secret safe, pulls out a video tape, and they watch Charles Widmore (!) beat the crap out of what Ben says is one of his operatives.

So Penny’s papa, Desmond’s detractor, is after the island; to exploit it, says Ben. But is that really true? Ben, as we saw in the flashback, has a tendency to become pathologically attached to things he considers ‘his.’ Perhaps his actions over Goodwin were not so much a message on Juliet’s romantic constraints as much as a message of how far Ben will go to secure what is his. He’ll lie, cheat, and kill. So is Charles Widmore the kingpin? The Economist? The guy on the top of future Sayid’s ‘list’? Or is he, as one commentator suggested, just the “white witch” of the story? Keep on tuning in to find out.