TRUE : Not in Portland - The Synopsis

UPDATE 20th Jan: I've just added a new article to the spoilers section HERE, which confirms this rumour.

UPDATE 18th Jan: I've taken some screenshots which appear to backup the part about Karl being in the boat with Kate and Sawyer. You can see the screenshots HERE.

Found this over a TWOP from someone who claims to have seen the episode.I'll give you a few broad strokes, but I hate to ruin the good surprises.

First off, I quite liked it. Lots of action, and flashbacks I found enlightening (although I have friends who have seen it and disagree).

Juliet: the flashbacks are hers, and the ep opens on her, giving her apparently sick sister an injection of some kind of experimental drug. Juliet is living in Miami, working in a lab for her sadistic (my word) ex-husband. She gets a job offer from a firm "in Portland" that had been impressed by the fact that she had impregnated a male field mouse. I won't give away my "holy s---" moment, but suffice to say she sells her soul to take the job. After hearing the company isn't quite in Portland, she agrees to a six-month commitment.

On the island: The clock is ticking for Ben. Kate and Sawyer run, but are pursued (that's where the shooting on the beach comes in). They escape with Alex's help. Alex promises to give them a boat if they'll help her rescue Carl; creepiness ensues. Ben wakes up and overhears some back-and-forth between Jack, Juliet and some other Other (I can never keep their names straight; sorry), including the fact Juliet had asked Jack to kill Ben. Juliet has a private chat with Ben, after which she leaves to help Kate and Sawyer escape.

In the end, Ben survives, and Jack asks Juliet what they said to each other. She says he promised to finally let her go home. She's been there 3 years, 2 months and 23 days.

That's the broad strokes anyway, and again, I liked it, even though my Lost bitterness has been pretty high this season.
Source: BoBary@TWOP

Here is another update from BoBary.The "hello" comes from Juliet to her sister (the fabulous Robin Weigert from "Deadwood").

And Juliet meets Ethan in this ep, but it's just a brief meeting. I doubt they were ever married, although they could have gotten involved. It seems like she goes straight to the island after this. Does she immediately know she's a captive? I don't know.

She's experimenting on her sister, by the way, and they are thrilled when she (the sister) discovers she's pregnant.

Jack's choice? Crap. I don't have the slightest memory of him making a serious this-or-that choice, except that when Kate and Sawyer get to the beach, and Kate radios to tell him they're safe, he tells them to take the boat, leave and never come back for him. Never.

Juliet does shoot Pickett on the beach. Then she orders Alex to stay, saying there will be hell to pay from Ben ("your dad") if he wakes up and Alex is gone. So Kate and Sawyer take Carl and hit the ocean.

Any other specific questions? I'll do my best to answer them. (Even if I do feel a little dirty about it!)

ETA: She wasn't set up by her ex. In fact, the ex is removed from the equation in quite dramatic fashion, which is why I say she basically sold her soul to these people up front.

ETA, again: My impression of Juliet is that she has grown tremendously since she got to the island. She's pretty mousy and scared in the flashbacks, even if she's breaking all the rules to help her sister. She even says "I'm not a leader" as she scurries out of a job interview. She clearly has grown into one, which means to me that her experience has not been altogether negative for her. I find that intriguing.

Another updateBud, I liked Sawyer and Kate together this ep (I usually do). The moments were "us against the world" moments. But at the end, when Jack is telling Kate never to come back, there are some meaningful Sawyer glances. (Lending credence to the Triangle Isn't Dead Yet business. Blech.)

Rocla, they do take Karl, but he's prone in the boat. You can't see much of him. They rescued him from a pretty traumatic situation — heavy-duty braining washing. He's strapped into a chair with an IV drip (pure spec: the same stuff they gave Claire to make her susceptible to suggestion?) watching a screen with images flashing on it. It seemed like "what have you done to the world? what kind of person are you?" but it went by pretty fast for me. So he's lucid but not upright in the boat.

BooNasty, I think Juliet has sold her soul because in her initial interview she said her ex-husband would have to be hit by a bus before she would be able to take the job ... and then he is. And then these people — a guy we haven't seen before and Ethan — show up in the freaking morgue to renew their offer. She must have an inkling that they were somehow involved, even if the bus seemed purely accidental.

Flubber, when we leave Juliet's sister (can't remember her name, sorry), she's gleefully pregnant. And Ethan and the other guy are promising Juliet she will be back by the time her sister delivers.

By the way, nothing is said about 9/11 at all. And there's no indication of how Ethan got involved in all this.