My take on it is that Juliet didn’t get gassed. She dragged Kate out into the jungle and handcuffed herself to her. She was only pretending to be asleep. She knew the fence was off because she either turned it off herself, or found it off when she dragged Kate out.

I think her plan was to get Kate’s trust so that she would have another person on her side. She didn’t want to be left alone, so joining up with the Losties was better than staying at the Barracks by herself.
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My current suspicion is that Juliet and Kate were purposely dragged out and cuffed together to give Juliet a chance to gain her trust. That much would make sense. What doesn't make any sense is Kate being completely unphased by the fact that the two of them were dragged into the jungle but Jack and Sayid were left where they dropped (how did Juliet know to find Sayid?). Why does Kate not question this at all?

Why doesn't anyone ever question anything? Why didn't Kate and Sayid grill Alex's boyfriend. Why doesn't anyone ever ask, "What the fvck is the Dharma initiative?" Above all else, that's becoming the most implausible thing about this show and it's really starting to grate on me.

And yes, I call shenanigans on the Sawyer thing.

ETA: What JW said, that was my other theory on Kate and Juliet. Which, of course, still leaves her loyalties ambiguous as she could be trying to gain their trust for one of many reasons.

Is it too much to think that after 3 months on the island, some of the characters might be changing? I don't see it as so far out of character for Sawyer to see that given his situation, faking nice isn't going to cut it this time. If something goes bad, he has nowhere to run off to, which up to now I'm sure he did on a regular basis. I doubt he stayed anywhere more than 3 months at a time.

He thought he was facing living without food or shelter. He would have at least TRIED to turn on the con-man charm. I don't buy for an instant that, as good a con man as he was, that he had no clue how to make a woman with a baby smile. I'd buy the episode if he tried that for a while until people saw through it. But to make it out that he is completely incapable of getting people to like him turns him into a thin caricature instead of a believable character.

I guess I'm just not as nitpicky. Oh well, I enjoy watching and don't sweat the details.

Sorry, didn't mean to offend you by not agreeing with the writing choices.

?Question...is Juliet still working for Ben or not?

If she is; why do they need her at the Beach with the other Losties? Seems to me they could have gotten anyone from the beach that they wanted using Micheal. The only person on the beach I can think of that would not have gone off with Micheal to rescue Walt would be Claire.

So; if Juliet is still working for Ben....what does she want with Claire? Aaron, would be the obvious answer. Fertility doctor and a baby born on an Island that doesn't have a high birth rate. Is she being sent there to study Aaron....or to protect him?

Assuming time is shifting, or what have you ie: Desmond and his flashes.....could Aaron be Jacob? Ben? Christian?

I think Juliet might be a plant for the Others. It's hard to tell at this point.

I think the difference is that the castaways KNOW he's an ass. It's probably harder to turn on the charm, and be believable, if you're aware that people already know what you're capable of.

I imagine pre-island, if he was trying to scam Claire, pretending to love a baby might not have been so hard. But pretending to care about a baby when he's already been heard talking about how he could give a fig about them? Well...I didn't find some of that part of the episode too hard to swallow.

That people would turn to him as a leader? That I find hard to swallow.

I enjoyed the episode because I do like the actress who plays Juliet (have since I saw her in Gia) and I do like her character. Not sure she's trustworthy in general, but I understand why Jack trusts and cares for her.

But like you I can't stand that the characters don't ask questions. They don't, I guess, because the producers aren't willing to answer them. But it makes their characters look really, really stupid.

And though I get that Kate would want to beat Juliet up because she lied to her, beating her up earlier in the episode because she's *jealous* of her connection to Jack was just stupid and nasty. Not necessarily out of character, I guess.

But he seemed utterly confused when Hurley told him that Claire would like it if he gave her a blanket. Not, "She won't buy me being nice," but, "Huh? Why would I give her a blanket?" For me, when they are going at great lengths to drive home the implication that everything on the island is happening, that everyone person who is there is there, because of who they are and what their character is, I don't think I'm that off base in expecting some logical character progression. The show is all about character. It just felt incongruous, exaggerated and thrown in for comic effect. Much the same way I felt about the exaggerated, "They're so focused on the diamonds that they are completely flippant about finding another freaking hatch!" from the Paolo/Nikki episode. I felt they sacrificed character for a gag.