[Brennan]

I agree that Juliet is not to be entirely trusted.  In fact, I had a crazy theory about Ben and Juliet still working together against Jack in the "Will Jack do surgery on Ben?" thread, but I think it's being debunked at this very moment so I won't bother to repost it here.

Anyway, something I'll go back and see tomorrow, but I figured I'd suggest now- where is Juliet when she's holding up the posterboards?  I wasn't really paying much attention to the background, but thinking back- could it have possibly been her house back in Otherville?  That would have some severe implications if it was, but I doubt the producers would make a clue like that so obvious.  If anyone could get some screenshots up and a transcript, that'd be great.  If not, I'll try to do what I can tomorrow afternoon.

[birdless]

For some reason, I'm thinking that he mentioned that in an attempt to undo the trust that Juliet had built up with Jack. Surely Ben is aware that he can't completely trust Juliet at this point, and he needs Jack to trust him more than he trusts Juliet. JMO.

Oh yeah, I totally agree, Lady G, this was Ben's attempt to undermine the trust Jack may be heading towards with Juliet. One thing for sure, Ben ain't stupid.

[kjenkins]

Ok it's obvious there are two factions of others, there's the Danny, Adam, Tom, Denise, Benite camp and the Carl, Alex, Julliet (and I tossed in the Old Lady from the book club when I first posted this theory a couple epi's back) camp. Which camp are the good others and which are the bad others ---- that's the question right? If you figure Alex and Carl in the same camp as Julliet (Alex in the promo for next week is trying to warn the Losties and she talked to Kate at the rock pile, Carl tried to help Sawyer escape and got the crap beat out of him, etc.) then one would think that Julliet's camp is the good one and maybe Ben started out "good" but went amiss somewhere along the way. He sure ducked out of the flooding chamber on Julliet real fast --- no love lost there. The reason the asasination Julliet wants Jack to commit needs to look like an accident is obviously you're going to have a hard time winning the Benites back to your side if they think you off'ed their man. Or ... maybe someone outside both camps is watching how they play this game and there are dire consequences if you cheat (which is what Julliet seems to be attempting). Oh ... like Julliet reaaaaallly needed to convince Jack that Ben is A) a lier and B) dangerous ... I mean nothing Ben has done up to this point would suggest that lol.

[Silencer89]

i still go with the idea that ben and juliet are in this together to put jack's faith and trust to the test. perhaps.. if jack does the op successfully, they'll send sawyer and kate back home/lostville. if he doesnt then they'll remain on lostcatraz..? and if jack doesnt make the op looks like an accident then perhaps juliet will lose faith and trust in jack and perhaps get another other to send him meals .. hehe. just my 2cents worth

[Sandman2012]

i still go with the idea that ben and juliet are in this together to put jack's faith and trust to the test. perhaps.. if jack does the op successfully, they'll send sawyer and kate back home/lostville. if he doesnt then they'll remain on lostcatraz..? and if jack doesnt make the op looks like an accident then perhaps juliet will lose faith and trust in jack and perhaps get another other to send him meals .. hehe. just my 2cents worth

I don't know. It really seems as if there's a rift between Ben and Juliet. If anything, I think that Ben realized that Juliet was up to something when he found out about the x-rays she let Jack see and felt the need to say something that would cause Jack to not trust Juliet.

[Silencer89]

what if all those were just mere acts? because i believe ben is not stupid and he wouldnt put his life on the line given so since hes considered a 'leader' of the others. but wait a minute. all these we've said is only possible if jack agrees to do the op .. what if he doesnt? we know in all his flashbacks and island encounters, his attempts to save people were all failed ones only for one and that is charlie when he was hung from the tree by ethan. he watched shannon and boone die.. :X i know this sounds evil but oh well..

[HvnSntRN]

I was wondering whether Jack was doing some manipulating himself.

It's usually not possible to know whether a tumor is "aggressive" or lethal without performing a biopsy.  An x-ray will show that it is there, but will not allow for such a definitive diagnosis.

This would present an opportunity for Jack to bargain his way out of his captivity.  Make Ben think that his life is in jeopardy, do the surgery and Ben, in his gratitude would release Jack the same way that Michael was sent home.

[badfish]

Anyway, something I'll go back and see tomorrow, but I figured I'd suggest now- where is Juliet when she's holding up the posterboards?  I wasn't really paying much attention to the background, but thinking back- could it have possibly been her house back in Otherville?  That would have some severe implications if it was, but I doubt the producers would make a clue like that so obvious.  If anyone could get some screenshots up and a transcript, that'd be great.  If not, I'll try to do what I can tomorrow afternoon.

http://www.dharmasecrets.com/forum/index.php/topic,8975.0.html
It looks like her house. but waht is the implication?

[Lostfreak22]

ditto

[Steveagain]

Are the Cue cards just another part of Benry's "plan" that he may not have shared with the rest of the "Others" ?

[***VIRUS***]

dude's and dudette's common its obvious that the only woman who knockes on juliettes door in 3x01 is doing the dodgy camera work its all down to her arthritus

[dharma_infinity]

Are the Cue cards just another part of Benry's "plan" that he may not have shared with the rest of the "Others" ?

Haha, steve had to merge his own thread

At this point, I really don't think they are trying to mess with Jack anymore. What reason do they have to go ahead with that plan of theirs? After seeing Ben tell Juliet "Why did you show him my x-rays?" I think that we can be sure that Jack wasn't supposed to see those x rays. And the plan was to try and manipulate Jack into operating on Ben. And now with Juliet....Jack seems to be opening her eyes. "Some of us want a change"? Maybe Juliet has been talking with Alex? Hmmmm....

[dharma_infinity]

When Juliet was playing the "movie" for Jack, one of those cards said "Some of us want a change". Could this possibly mean that Juliet and Alex have recently talked about this, or have been planning something like this for awhile now? Because Alex has always seemed to resent the Others and what they do, and now Juliet is starting to show similar signs. With Ben getting the surgery done, Juliet and Alex would have the perfect opportunity to get rid of Ben and make it look like an accident.

Spoiler (hover to show)

And Alex appeared in the "I Do" promo getting grabbed....could they be on to her and Juliet?

[Brennan]

First off, I'm going to assume for the time being that Juliet isn't commuting to work.  This seems unlikely IMO because Otherville was in the middle of a crater far away from the Hydra Island and she seems to be visiting Jack to bring him food at least once or twice a day, not to mention that she oversaw things with Sawyer before and was there at the arrival of Colleen, and her farewell ceremony, and anything else I'm forgetting.  It just seems like a lot of trouble to go back and forth so often.

Combine this fact with the fact that she's wearing the same shirt (which she has not worn any day that we've seen her in the Hydra yet!) and I think it's a good guess that this video was created a long time before it was shown to Jack, before Juliet even knew that Jack would be operating on Ben.  And this opens up a whole can of worms.

Juliet knew that Jack was going to operate on Ben after he was brought to the Hydra.  She either knew this because:

1) Ben told her the same plan that he told Jack had been "shot to sunshine" (I guess he's not a big believer in Hell)- the one where they break Jack down until he's on their side and wants to save Ben.  Juliet made the video so that when the time came for him to do the surgery, she would have it ready.  Stick with me here, as I take this theory and further divide it into two sub-possibilities, dealing with why Juliet saw Ben's X-rays.

     a) It was a true accident.  Juliet really wanted Colleen to be saved and she truly forgot that Ben's X-rays showing the tumor were hanging up in the operating room at that time.  Even though it was by accident, it helped only to speed up her plan since Jack's knowledge of the tumor caused Ben to confess, ditch his plan, and beg Jack to save him, promting Juliet to use her pretaped video right away.
     b) Juliet heard about Colleen being shot and realized that if she hurried to make sure that Ben's X-rays were visible, it would speed up her plan to get rid of Ben, giving her more time to remake the Others the way she wants them to be.

2) Now what if Juliet and Ben have been planning this all along?  She could've had the tape preprepared because it was a part of the plan and she wanted to get it ready a long time ago.  The scene with the video, even if only watched and listened to from the view of the camera, would still seem oddly suspicious to me.  For instance, what if Jack hadn't yelled about watching the video?  How would Juliet have explained the lack of volume?  If she was simply assuming that she knew his character well enough to know that he would reject the movie, that was a big risk on her part, though I suppose it's possibly that she thought it was worth it for her cause.

Also, Jack keeps looking at the video while Juliet's talking to him.  Wouldn't it occur to Ben (if he's watching from the video cameras) that Jack shouldn't be paying that much attention to a movie he didn't even want to see in the first place?  Plus Juliet's lines seemed a little odd and conflicting: that Jack has free choice and should still operate on Ben?  That means that she's saying that he has the choice to "betray" his people, but it seems like a strange way to go about making this point.  Maybe Ben won't notice, or maybe he will, but I think that Juliet was being sloppy, either by accident or because she knew it was all part of their plan.

So if they have a plan together, what is it?  Here's what I think:

My personal crazy theory of the day?  I know a lot of people will come to this conclusion, so I'll be the first to suggest it: It's all a setup (I know what you're all thinking- "yeah, right, and that bird just crapped gold").  Jack's going to operate on Ben (or maybe someone who looks like Ben?  But no, Jack would notice) and do something that should cause him to die, but somehow at the last moment, the Others will take Ben's "body" into another room whether they have a bunch of real surgeons (like the ones from the Staff) who bring him back to life.  That or Ben sacrafices himself for the good of the Others, but that doesn't really seem to be in his character.

Then, with Juliet (now a good friend of Jack's) as the new leader of the Others, they will have the loyalty of the Losties and be able to persuade them to do whatever it is they wanted them to do in the first place.  Thus, the entire mini-season is basically just one big long con (not exactly an actual "long con" like sawyer does, but a long "con") on the Other's part to get the Losties to join them.

I think that, whether or not that plan is the one they are really using it would be a good one, if they could manage to pull it off.  And if I could think up a plan like that, hopefully a brilliant man like Ben and a brilliant woman like Juliet ("brilliant" seems to be a frequently used adjective on the show, used to describe both "Him" and Ben, maybe one in the same) and/or a room full of brilliant writers like the ones on Lost can at least come up with something that good, or better, to prove us all wrong.

Also, in support of my theory, I'd like to point out that Ben is lying about his religious feelings to either Locke or Jack.  It's entirely possible that the "God can't see this Island" line was just to mess with Locke's mind even further, but if it wasn't, then it seems like the line about God giving Ben a spinal surgeon who fell from the sky was just manipulation against Jack.
 

[birdless]

...I'd like to point out that Ben is lying about his religious feelings to either Locke or Jack.  It's entirely possible that the "God can't see this Island" line was just to mess with Locke's mind even further, but if it wasn't, then it seems like the line about God giving Ben a spinal surgeon who fell from the sky was just manipulation against Jack.

Good catch! Don't know what it means, yet, but good catch!