Lost (TV Series) Stranger in a Strange Land (2007) User Reviews

He Walks Among Us But He Is not One of Us

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 1 March 2007]

Sawyer, Kate and Carl reaches their island at night, and the reluctant Kate wishes to return for Jack. Meanwhile, Jack is interrogated by Isabel about the incident with Juliet and when she mentions the meaning of his tattoo, he recalls his vacation in the paradisiacal island of Phuket, in Thailand, where he dated the sexy, mystic and mysterious local Achara (Bai Ling). Ben has an infection in his spinal column, and Jack negotiates the freedom of Juliet, who was going to be sentenced to death for Pickett's murder in the policy of "an eye for an eye" of "The Others". Later Jack recalls what happened to him when he forced Achara to disclose her innermost secret.

"Stranger in a Strange Land" is a reasonable episode based on the past of Jack in Thailand and his passion for Achara. His recollection is triggered by the question of the "sheriff" Isabel, and later with the situation of Juliet. The secret of Achara and the reaction of her brother and friends are quite incomprehensible and exaggerated. In the end, Jack has the same feeling while walking with "The Others" that he had in Phuket, of a complete stranger in a strange land. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

Note: On 7 April 2013, I saw this episode again on DVD.

Forgive the lame English!

[massoto_youko · 6/10 · 28 February 2007]

After a season of surprises and great-told histories about the characters, I do have to say that this last episode was "under the average". Opposite to the great story told in "A Tale of Two Cities", which I thought it was a awesome plot about Jack that made me like the character a lot more than I liked before, this "Stranger in a Strange Land" is all that the previous episode wasn't: emotionless, with a story not very well told and with too many things happening that lead nowhere. Now, I definitely love the show, it's one of the best on TV, and I always said to my friends that the audience was "too impatient" about the answers. But I have to say that bringing Cindy back, not showing Juliet's trial, hiding the real meaning of the tattoos (because when Achara's brother lifted the sleeve of jack's shirt, only half of it was drew) was no good for the development of the show. Generally the lack of answers is compensated by the awesome histories of the characters, but this time, the episode had no emotion at all. Even the episode "S.O.S", about Rose and Bernard is a lot better than this one. But, as I said, I love the show and I'm sure the writers are holding great surprises for the next episodes, such as the amazing "Flashes Before Your Eyes". So I don't mind forgetting this episode if the show keeps up the good work.

Beginning of the end

[drewblows · 8/10 · 19 March 2021]

Rumor has it that this episode is what finally led the heads of ABC to agree to allow the show to set an end date. It has been said that the network didn't want to kill the golden goose that was lost, which forced the writers to come up with stories (such as this one) and characters (Nikki & Paolo) that weren't well received. This episode aired 2/21/07 and the announcement (after months of discussion)of a series finale came in May 2007. It seems plausible that a stinker episode may have been written to prove a point to the powers that be.

The worst episode of "Lost"

[ametaphysicalshark · 10 December 2008]

I've been guilty of resorting to cheap insults when describing "Stranger in a Strange Land", in addition to doing things like pretending it doesn't exist, skipping it on re-watches of the season (but not this one), and acting like it is the worst thing known to man. The reality is that "Stranger in a Strange Land" is merely a hilariously poor episode which was fortunate to be positioned after two fantastic episodes. Had this come in the midst of the Hydra island pod which opened the season I wouldn't have been the only person who completely gave up on the show. It's slightly worse than "Whatever the Case May Be" and is hence the worst episode of the series. The on-island stuff with the 'sheriff' and the cow-like labels etc. is pretty outrageously dumb on its own but combine it with a flashback about, believe it or not, Jack's TATTOOS, and it gets pretty unbelievably dumb. Not worth talking about in detail.

Not the worse

[ZuniFetishWarrior · 8/10 · 22 April 2021]

I know everybody loves to hate on this episode but my opinion it's a pretty good one. The island parts are great viewing. Sure the off island story is so so but at least it's not Charlie and his lame band playing his lame music in a crib wearing diapers. My vote for the worse Lost episode is without a doubt SOS. They took the 2 most boring characters and gave them their own show. Rose is the woman you want to hold under water until she stops kicking and Bernard looks like a tard when he's running.

Strange...and not in a good way

[TheLittleSongbird · 4/10 · 16 April 2018]

When 'Lost' was in its prime, it was must-watch television. Remember first watching it, found it remarkably easy to get into, was hooked from the start and was on Season 3 by the end of one week. The general consensus is that the final season is a disappointment and cannot disagree.

Despite my love for the show, almost every show has misfires and "Stranger in a Strange Land" is one of those for 'Lost'. After such exceptional episodes in "Not in Portland" and "Flashes Before Your Eyes", "Stranger in a Strange Land" was an enormous disappointment. It is one of the worst received episodes from 'Lost' fans and often considered the worst of the show, and the negative reception is more than understandable and personally agreed with. Although "Further Instructions" was disappointing and Season 2's "Fire + Water" was plain weird, this is definitely the worst episode up to this point of 'Lost', the first rough misfire episode for me and a very strong contender for the show's low-point.

Not everything is bad. Can't fault the stylishness and atmosphere of the visuals, nor the effective use of music.

Considering what they had to work with, the acting, excepting an ill at ease Bai Ling in an uninteresting role, was pretty good. Not many standouts and there is nothing award-worthy, but Elizabeth Mitchell has the best material and she is excellent in delivering it.

However, "Stranger in a Strange Land" is ruined by a story that is dull, rarely compelling, very dumb and even manages to out-strange "Fire + Water". There is no tension, suspense, tautness or even emotion here, which makes it also a stone cold experience and sometimes a confused one, everything with Achara didn't make sense or ring true to me.

Basically, it is a pointless and drawn out transition episode that does nothing to develop the characters, forward island events and actually makes one nervous about what's to follow and debating whether to bail on the show. Only Juliet is halfway interesting of the characters, sadly marred by that her story just didn't have enough to it to make it investable. The sheriff character was ridiculous. The writing is some of the show's sloppiest and blandest, was really not expecting writing this weak from a show as good as 'Lost'.

Overall, really strange and disappointing. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Boring filler episode

[annaily · 5/10 · 2 September 2023]

I agree with the sentiment that this is one of the worst, if not thee worst episode of Lost.

It is very obviously a transitional filler episode. Nothing progresses. Still don't think you should skip any episodes if it's your first time watching, but second time around, you can skip this one.

Best parts of the episode:

1. Juliet is a great character. Elizabeth Mitchell redeems this episode as much as she can.

2. Getting to see that the tail section people are alive and living with the others, seemingly happy, is a interesting moment.

Worst parts of the episode:

1. The new character "sheriff" Isabel is not compelling or interesting. Bad acting too.

2. Jack's flashbacks are boring nothingness. Who cares about jacks tattoos? I mean it's almost like they deliberately chose to do nothing with the flashbacks so that you can skip them. They could've gave the tattoo woman more agency and interesting story that ties into the overall Jack arc. But she just is good at reading people and "exotic" sexy and in love with Jack for some reason despite him being a jerk to her.

3. The flashbacks also give offensive sex tourism vibes. Jack is portrayed as irresistible to women while also being controlling and even threatening here. It's just gross and weird, and it makes you side with the men who beat him up even though it's not totally clear why they beat him up.

The tattoos neither say nor mean that...

[keyazhang · 24 January 2022]

The Chinese characters are from a poem by Mao Ze Dong (chairman Mao) and the literal translation is "eagles hitting the vast sky", and it's talking about people who have great ambitions. I understand back in the days most people watching the show probably didn't read Chinese. It does bother me a lot hearing the absurd translation in 2022.

Why?

[aliensprez · 5/10 · 28 February 2021]

This episode was already weak, but it had the misfortune of being the episode directly after "Flashes Before Your Eyes", one of the best episodes this season. First of all, Jack falls in love with every woman he meets on the show. Him and Kate kiss, he flirted with Ana Lucia in the airport bar, he married a former patient, he kissed the daughter of another patient, he has chemistry with Juliet, and in this episode, he meets Achara. It seems Jack has never met a women he didn't like. Anyways, the plot of this episode was so frustrating. It felt like Lost: Love Story. I don't care about Kate and Sawyer bickering. Karl and Alex are cute, admittedly. They even throw in some romantic tension between Jack and Juliet. The Others are completely inconsistent in their ideology. It went nowhere. The secret mystical Thailand adventure was absurd. Imagine if this story was set in Texas or something. It wouldn't work. Besides that, Jack is also making a habit of trailing women and being aggressive towards them. The meaning of the tattoo was cool, but what about the other parts of it? They weren't even on his arm in the flashback. This could've been done better.

This wasn't good. Deserves its reputation as the worst lost episode

[thefoochie · 5/10 · 17 September 2022]

I have been loving lost so far. Before season 3, the lowest score I gave for an episode was 8. Yes, I even really liked fire + water, which is tied for the lowest rated episode. That episode was very cringe-inducing and hard to watch, but that doesn't mean it's bad. This season is by far the weakest season yet, with "the cost of living" being my first 7/10 rating due to Eko's disappointing death, and this episode being my first 5/10.

However before I start criticizing the episode I wanna say that it's truly an achievement that in a show with over 100 episodes, the worst episode is only mediocre. That says a lot about the overall quality of the show. Now on to the episode.

There just isn't a lot to like about this episode, but there is a lot to dislike. Kate, Sawyer and Carl's scenes were pretty meh, the "drama" between Kate and Sawyer at the end felt forced and even melodramatic. The scenes on hydra island were a lot better, mostly due to Jack's actor's incredible acting. I don't know, there's just something about Jack's facial expressions and body language that seem so real.

Unfortunately these scenes are brought down by the new character Isabelle. For one, she's not interesting or intriguing, and also her acting was reeeally bad. The exchanges between her and jack where they talk about his tattoos were genuinely awful.

The worst part of this episode by far though was Jack's flashbacks. I mean wow, that was uninteresting. Jack's flashback episodes have been great so far, so I did not expect a jack episode to be less interesting than a freaking Rose and Bernard episode. Like why am I supposed to care about the origin of Jack's tattoos? The flashback gave him absolutely 0 development too. And his girlfriend was a terrible character too. All we know about her is she can "read people" and gives them tattoos that "define who they are." Oooh, so mysterious! No, who cares? Jack then pressures his girlfriend into giving him a tattoo and then the next day he gets beat up by some dudes and the girlfriend watches while crying. Who are these people? Why are they beating up Jack? Why can't the woman give Jack a tattoo? Why am I even expected to care? None of these questions get answered, and honestly, I hope they don't try to explain it in the future, cause I want this storyline to be forgotten completely and never addressed again.

Overall, this episode kinda sucked, and it was by far the worst episode of the series so far. 5/10. Hopefully this season improves.