Observations From The Pearl Vol 3

***Talking about "Lost" Joe. They have to shoot ol' Yeller at the end of the movie****

Confidence Man
Bamboo under your fingernails...
that does not sound pleasant.
This episode got me thinking. Now that Jack/Sawyer/Kate are MIA w/the Others, who’s going to be the person to step up and become the leader for the survivors of 815? Sayid seems to be the natural choice, but there’s always the Locke X-factor.
This is the episode where we find out about the letter Sawyer carries around that’s written for the real Mr. Sawyer. And with that, I offer up my theory:
Eventually we’re going to find out who the real Mr. Sawyer is (although probably not this season), and it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s someone we’ve already met. With that in mind, we’ve already met one other confidence man in the course of the show:
John Locke’s father.
How cool would that be?

Solitary
This marks the first appearance of Danielle Rousseau.
I’ve always been surprised just how little the show has delved into Rousseau’s past. She’s spent 16 years on the island, and all we really know is that she was shipwrecked, her crew got sick, so she killed them, and the Others stole her daughter.
The first thing I was planning on bringing up in this section was in regards to the cable Sayid finds that goes into the water. I was planning on hypothesizing where the cable leads to in the water. Specifically if there is an underwater Dharma hatch (presumably the Hydra). But then the season 3 premiere aired and pretty much answered that question (although I still wonder if it’s located where the cable is).
The end of this episode also introduced “The Whisers”. What’s causing this is anyone’s guess. The most logically thought is that it’s the Others, but I’m not sure if that fits. If you separate the channels on the whispers, here is what they are saying:
Male Voice- "Just let him get out of here"
Male Voice- "He's seen too much already"
Male Voice- "What if he tells?"
Female Voice - "Could just speak to him"
Male Voice- "No"

Raised My Another
Claire’s flashback episode. I like her bits with the psychic, especially that he knew the plane would crash. Over the last couple of season I’ve found myself more drawn to the unexplainable stuff then with the stuff that’s had totally logical explinations.
This is Ethan Rom’s big appearance (and in case you hadn’t read it yet: Ethan Rom is an anagram for “Other Man”), and he is one evil mother@#$%er...
Watching this episode, one big question jumped out that I haven’t seen an answer to:
What’s with the shot that Ethan sticks in Claire’s belly? We’ve seen that the others are pretty big on giving shots, and I’m really curious as to why. We’ve had Claire in this episode, Desmond in the hatch doing his daily dosage (of a drug called CR 481516-23 42), and then in the Season 3 premiere, all of the losties woke finding they too had been administered shots. Does this have to do with the “sickness”? The producers have hinted at some kind of sickness and have said “it causes people to go crazy”. What that means is anyones guess. We’ll just have to wait and see on this way.

All The Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues
This episode is primarily remembered as the episode where Lock finds the hatch...although that’s not so much of a mystery anymore.
Couple of interesting things here:
I think it’s interesting we hear the monster right before Ethan shows up. Which raised a question in my mind: What are the Other’s relationship with the monster? Do they control it? Or does it just roam around on its own? They had to have dealt with it in their time on the island, but in what capacity is anyone’s guess.
The other thing that jumped out to me is how freaking strong Ethan is. He simply manhandles Jack when they fight (And I think I remember an episode where he lifts Charlie up with on arm). His strength is clearly inhuman. So why is he different? Is he genetically altered or something?
Time will tell (hopefully)....