life in the state of nature is nasty, brutish, and surprisingly easy on the hair.
S3 is all about the social contract, about how to define "we." "We" is not dependent on the mere fact of shared species and geography - the Others share the island with the survivors but they deliberately hold themselves apart. After a lifetime of feeling isolated because of his ability, Desmond only knows how to charm people from arm's length and so he remains an outsider. And however it's made, "we" is conditional. Locke slips easily into reclusehood. Sawyer worries about Hurley's threat of exile - both that the other survivors really would do it, and that it would be bad for him. Even Jack's place in the community is shown to be falliable when he returns from his captivity and everyone assumes he's been turned.
The Initiative seems to be an experiment in trying to impose all facets of life from the top down, in a wonderfully meta turn to the psychodrama. Their own little Stepfordized town has all the modern comforts, planned and uniform. They work to isolate one or another strain of human experience or need, and then do everything they can to try to deconstruct and harness it.
This puts Juliet in a strange insider-outsider place. She's superficially assimilated; however, Ben's tight hold over her shows that they're both aware of her uncertainties, and also gives her some antagonism against him that serves as a touchstone for her independent identity. This makes Juliet the most dangerous manipulator of the bunch, because there's a thread of sincerity in her words and actions: Ben knows she wants out, and so the missions he gives her all have some element of wish fulfillment. She really does want to help Sun and protect Kate from the wild animals and get off the island, and all of that makes her look like her affiliation with the 815 survivors is genuine.
I'm totally here for the not-quite-Stockholm-syndrome relationship she has with Jack. Most people would be susceptible under the circumstances, but Jack latches in with all his terrifying intensity because Juliet lets him see just enough of her ~damage. IMO it's not just that she needs fixing, but that he can tell it's actually a lost cause and he's most comfortable setting himself up to fail. That angle of his storyline is a great setup for the flash forward (?) in the season finale, where he's shown to have finally dug his way out of a hole just to find himself floundering without that sense of purpose.
I am NOT HAPPY with the turn Sun's pregnancy has taken. Not so much that she's pregnant and clearly not sure about it for a lot of reasons, because I think that rings very true, and it's still a pretty rare thing for female characters to be allowed to show unhappiness about pregnancy. But it's really uncomfortable for me the way no one ever openly acknowledges the possibility that she might not want to carry to term. Kate's wordless empathy is a powerful moment, but still wordless. And it goes from contrived to infuriating when there's a whole episode about how pregnancy is always fatal on the island and Juliet keeps referencing all the other patients she "lost" like "oh, nothing we could've done!" I mean, I could've easily bought it if she'd SAID "Ben is a fascist who wouldn't let me do lifesaving abortions" but she didn't because apparently even that is taboo. And Sun actually ends the episode saying she's HAPPY because a death sentence is preferable to survival due to socially unsanctioned jizz. WHY.
Ummm, what else, because I want to start S4 right now. Kate is everyone's fierce guardian angel, <3. Locke remains hilariously narcissistic. Oh and apparently they're all dead, WHY THE FUCK NOT??!
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