[Tandarie]

The show tie it is that in this episode Jack and Juliet were both branded. Jack with his tattoo that says "It means He Walks Among Us But Is Not Of Us" and the branding of Juliet which means the same thing to the others. 

[mygr8lyf]

NICE connection...Duh!  now that you said it, that would be very oblivious...her branding means that she is not one of us (other) and shouldn't be trusted?   But why put it on her back, where no one can see it (not even her)?

[E gratis?]

I agree that that is, indeed, the connection.  But, damn!  I was hoping that the tattoo would actually tie into the mythology of the show.

And you ^^ up there, I got this from Wiki....

Historical Use

1. Marking the rightless

2. Human branding...

As punishment
Brand marks have also been used as a punishment for convicted criminals, combining physical punishment, as burns are very painful, with public humiliation (greatest if marked on a normally visible part of the body) which is here the more important intention, and with the imposition of an indelible criminal record. Robbers, like runaway slaves, were marked by the Romans with the letter F (fur); and the toilers in the mines, and convicts condemned to figure in gladiatorial shows, were branded on the forehead for identification. Under Constantine I the face was not permitted to be so disfigured, the branding being on the hand, arm or calf.

The Acts of Sharbil record it applied between the eyes and on the cheeks in Parthian Edessa at the time of the Roman Emperor Trajan on a judge's order to a Christian for refusal to sacrifice, amongst other tortures.

The mark in later times was also often chosen as a code for the crime (e.g. in Canadian military prisons D for Desertion, BC for Bad Character, most branded men were shipped off to a penal colony). Branding was used for a time by the Union Army during the American Civil War. Surgeon and Oxford English Dictionary contributor William Chester Minor was required to perform human branding on deserters at around the time of the Battle of the Wilderness.

The canon law sanctioned the punishment, and in France, in royal times, various offences carried the additional infamy of being branded with a fleur de lys, also galley-slaves could be branded GAL or later, when the galleys were replaced be the "bagne"s TF (travaux forcés, forced labour) or TFP (travaux forcés à perpetuité, forced labour for life)until 1832. In Germany however, branding was illegal.

Like other judicial mutilations, it was sooner abandoned to flogging and similar corporal punishments which at worst only cause stripe scars on the sorely punished backside.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_branding

and here's what wiki has to say about the fleur de lis...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleur_de_lys

The mark that Juliet received looked like a 6-pointed FDL (instead of 3); maybe the others have adapted it for their uses and it indicates something else to them..

As a religious symbol it may represent the Holy Trinity, or be an iconographic attribute of the archangel Gabriel, notably in representations of the Annunciation.[2] It is also associated with the Virgin Mary, the goddess Isis, and Mary Magdalene.

... this seemed interesting to me.  Maybe there are 6 members of some sort of Holy something or other...also, just a thought...

I'm thinking that she will never be able to leave the island now.....

[nadders]

With regards Jacks Tattoo,
At the beginning of the episode the sheriff woman tells Jack that his tattoo is IRONIC. Think about what she tells him it means at the end. 'He walks among us but is not one of us.' That would suggest to me that in fact Jack is an 'Other' without realising it.

Just my take on things and reading between the lines.

Nadders

[purenrg]

Am I going to be the first nitpicker to point out that Phuket (where Jack was staying) is in Thailand and the girl and everyone around was speaking Thai... then when the 'Sheriff' was reading his tatoos she said it was Chinese i.e. not Thai and not in fact even technically a language... in Thailand you would normally get a tatoo in Thai ... and if its so important to her people then why are they not talking Mandarin to one another... hmmm... am I being too keen?!

I hope Lost starts to pick up a bit cos I am desperate to have not wasted life on this programme!!

Peace

[phishergirl]

Am I going to be the first nitpicker to point out that Phuket (where Jack was staying) is in Thailand and the girl and everyone around was speaking Thai... then when the 'Sheriff' was reading his tatoos she said it was Chinese i.e. not Thai and not in fact even technically a language... in Thailand you would normally get a tatoo in Thai ... and if its so important to her people then why are they not talking Mandarin to one another... hmmm... am I being too keen?!

You aren't alone, I noticed it too.  Chinese isn't a language.  I wasn't really satisfied with the answers to the tattoo story anyway, I wanted to know more about her "gift." 

[E gratis?]

Yea, the whole tattoo thing was ambiguous and therefore disappointing to me.  Chinese? Whatever.  And, frankly, I don't give a rat's ass about the new woman introduced, unless, of course, she turns out to have had a sex-change operation and 'used to be Him'......   IMO, it's just another thing/person/situation/puzzle and we won't get any answers for a long long long time....boring.....   I want to know and I don't want to wait find out until the last epi...I honestly don't think I'm going to stick around that long if they keep dong this...

So I guess I give a 2, mostly for Sawyer's wise-cracks...he was in great  form!!

EDIT: ...and another thing... if that epi was their idea of showing '3 Mysteries Revealed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!', then I' really  going to 'jump the ship'; I can't even be bothered to even think about what they are....let me see, Jack's tattoo; no real answers...Cindy and the little girl stolen, can't even remember her name let alone that I dont' even care what it is any more, and,again, no answers and last, but not least, oh yeah, they never siad what the third one is...someone remind me, please?

[phishergirl]

They never expressly said what the 3 things were.  I'm in the camp of "there were no three answers."  We didn't really find out what happened w/ the kids, just that they're given a better life.  Huh?  That's an excuse for kidnapping??  Jack's tattoos are only partially answered, and ambiguously at that. 

I have to say, though, just for the sake of confession...that during the cheesy ending montage, when they showed Karl looking at Ursa Theodoris, "The Teddy Bear," and Alex also looking at the stars, I cried a little bit.  Damn estrogen and its stupid stupidness.  I felt all Romeo and Julietty for a second.  JULIET?  OMG.

[E gratis?]

Snap out of it!!  **E slaps Phishy metaphorically across the face, ala Scarlett and Rhett**     That was cheesy!!....and the music???  OMG, what are they thinking?  How do you spell 'jump the shark' in Chinese???  Ursa Theodoris, indeed....

[suprak]

was just reading the forum when I remembered a part of the episode. Remember when Jack is in the cage outside, he gets curious by the big red button? Did you notice how he pressed it only twice? Unlike Sawyer who kept at it 'till he was shocked ...

means nothing out of the ordinary, just amusing

[phishergirl]

was just reading the forum when I remembered a part of the episode. Remember when Jack is in the cage outside, he gets curious by the big red button? Did you notice how he pressed it only twice? Unlike Sawyer who kept at it 'till he was shocked ...

means nothing out of the ordinary, just amusing

I was SO wanting to see him get shocked, too.  What a letdown.

[E gratis?]

LOL  I'd forgotten about that!  Ha!

'Warning'...'Warning'....
Jack: Hmmm....maybe not...

...it just occurred to me, anybody think he heard, on the walkie when Kate and Sawyer escaped, what happened when Sawyer hit it three times and he's just preparing for someone else to come into the cage?  Of course he couldn't know that a head had been what was triggering the warning signal, but I think he must have had some kind of idea...maybe?  Or is he just a wee bit smarter/cautious than Sawyer?

[Flippy]

I'm really pissed at Sawyer for letting Karl go, we could have gotten some answers from him.

[Rob G.]

Yea, the whole tattoo thing was ambiguous and therefore disappointing to me.  Chinese? Whatever.  And, frankly, I don't give a rat's ass about the new woman introduced, unless, of course, she turns out to have had a sex-change operation and 'used to be Him'......   IMO, it's just another thing/person/situation/puzzle and we won't get any answers for a long long long time....boring.....   I want to know and I don't want to wait find out until the last epi...I honestly don't think I'm going to stick around that long if they keep dong this...

So I guess I give a 2, mostly for Sawyer's wise-cracks...he was in great  form!!

EDIT: ...and another thing... if that epi was their idea of showing '3 Mysteries Revealed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!', then I' really  going to 'jump the ship'; I can't even be bothered to even think about what they are....let me see, Jack's tattoo; no real answers...Cindy and the little girl stolen, can't even remember her name let alone that I dont' even care what it is any more, and,again, no answers and last, but not least, oh yeah, they never siad what the third one is...someone remind me, please?

Oh come on, E.  You have more posts than I do.  You're in it for the long haul and you know it.  You're the bended-knees bitch of the writers and producers just like me and all the other longtimers here.   

[suprak]

Does anybody else feel like when the survivors ever get a chance to ask a question of the others they always ask the most uninteresting ones? Like when Jack was talking to Ben's "daughter".