Lost: The Other Woman

"The Other Woman" is the 78th episode of the serial drama television series Lost and the sixth episode of the show's fourth season. It aired on March 6, 2008 on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in the United States and on CTV in Canada. The episode was written by co-executive producer Drew Goddard and executive story editor Christina M. Kim, and was directed by Eric Laneuville. The narrative begins on December 24, 2004, 94 days after the crash of Oceanic Airlines Flight 815. Recent island arrivals Daniel Faraday (played by Jeremy Davies) and Charlotte Lewis (Rebecca Mader) leave the survivors' camp without notice for the Dharma Initiative electrical station called the Tempest. In flashbacks that depict events on the island, Juliet Burke (Elizabeth Mitchell) discovers that her boss Ben Linus (Michael Emerson), the leader of the island's original inhabitants referred to as the Others, is in love with her. The writers advanced several story lines with "The Other Woman". The episode furthers Juliet's back story and relationships, sheds more light on the season's new characters, and features the first appearance of Harper Stanhope (Andrea Roth). The introduction of the Tempest further develops the series' mythology, specifically the "purge". In the third season, the purge was mentioned in episode "Enter 77" and seen in "The Man Behind the Curtain". "The Other Woman" was watched by 15 million Americans and received mixed reviews. Critics from the Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly, and BuddyTV deemed it the worst episode of the season, partially due to a flashback storyline that was seemingly recycled from the third season episode, "One of Us". Another criticism was that audiences actually learned more about Ben than Juliet, despite the focus on Juliet. Emerson also received more praise for his acting than Mitchell, who plays Juliet; however, Mitchell won a Saturn Award for her performance. Positive reviews commended the action in the episode's climax.