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With the beginning of a new season of Lost, there are a whole new set of theories to think about. This season, and this episode, is no exception. If anything, it's a confirmation of that pattern. What seems to be a flashback, with a small house and a normal life, with no one we have seen before., which led me for a moment to try and figure out what in the world was happening. Suddenly we are thrust into a book club, that gets into an argument over a book (a Stephen King book), that would apparently not be approved by someone named "Ben", and then the house shakes. Perhaps we're back in Southern California.

When everyone rushes outside, we see a familiar face at last - it's the face of Henry Gale - or at least, the person playing Henry Gale - as he comes out of his house, so maybe we're learning about his back-story, which is an interesting tactic. Then everyone looks up, just in time to see a plane break into pieces, and suddenly pieces fall into place. This isn't a flashback, at least not in the way they are typically used, but a flashback onto the island itself. This must be the camp of The Others. They live in this normal-looking village, somewhere on the island (presumably).

Whilst everone else stands around in a daze, "Henry Gale" sends Goodwin to the area of the tail section and Ethan to the area of the fuselage. Everyone is assigned to create lists "within three days". It provides the rather creepy feeling that this has all been done before, or at least they know what they need to do.

When the episode itself starts up, we're in a real flashback, this one following Jack as he tries to pick up the pieces of his life. His wife is leaving him and he's trying to determine why. Something is haunting his dreams, and when he wakes up, he's in a room that resembles the hatch, but it is different somehow.

As he wakes up, he meets the woman hosting the book club - we learn her name is Juliet, and she attempts to talk calmly to Jack, but he'll have nothing of it. She tries to get Jack to eat and drink, and even asks him to sit on the other side of the room so she can bring him some food, but Jack jumps her to try and break out. That in turn ends up badly, as he opens a hatch that floods the room with water, but they work together to shut a hatch and eject the water by way of an emergency button.

Kate, meanwhile, finds herself in a locker room with Mr. Friendly, and while she says she won't shower in front of him, he says that she isn't his type, and leaves, so sure enough, she takes a shower. When she gets out, she finds her clothes are gone, replaced with a dress for her to wear.

Once she dons the dress, she is taken to a table set up on the beach, where she meets "Henry Gale", who tells her that she is to have something nice to remember - the shower, the dress and breakfast - because the next two weeks are not going to be pleasant. Then she's taken off and we won't see her again for a while.

Sawyer has accomodations that are actually much less accomodating, and seem to resemble an animal cage of sorts. There is someone in the cage across from him, but he won't talk. So Sawyer sets about trying to figure out the contraption in his cage, and eventually manages to get shocked.

His "friend" tries to escape, and lets Sawyer out, but they are both rounded up and brought back. Once there, Sawyer manages to figure out the cage and scores himself a fish biscuit - something that Mr. Friendly says "the bears figured out in only two hours". Mr. Friendly brings another present - Kate - and Sawyer gives her the biscuit.

While all of this is happening, Jack's flashback has taken him back to try and figure out what happened with his wife, and it turns out that he suspected his father of sleeping with her because his number came up in his wife's cell phone. That may have been an interesting plot twist (an even better one would have been if it was Juliet), but it wasn't the case - there was actually just another man. So in the end, Jack finds out that he was simply left for someone else, and we all find out that Juliet and The Others know all about Jack, and they have a huge file on Jack, so it seems that they are still in touch with the outside world. Very interesting indeed.