LOST Recap- Juliette comes to the rescue

This week we follow the sordid path of obsession that led Ben to keep Juliette his personal prisoner on the island.
Flashback to Juliette on the island pre-crash. We discover that the “others” had a therapist on the island. As Juliette explains, “it’s very stressful being an other.” The only problem was, that the therapist Harper happened to be married to Goodwyn, who just happened to be shtuping Juliette on the side. We then learn that Harper warned Juliette to stop her extra-curricular activities with Goodwyn, for fear that Ben would harm Goodwyn. Flashback to the plane crash, and Ben sending Goodwyn to infiltrate the survivors after the crash. As you may or may not remember, Goodwyn took a spear in the chest (compliments of Ana Lucia) in season two.

Back in present-time (sort of.) We discover that Dan and Charlotte (folks from the helicopter) have run off, but we aren't really sure why. Jack, Sun, Jin and Juliette split up into the forest to chase after them.
Juliette suddenly finds herself in the forest, surrounded by the infamous whispers. Suddenly Harper appears out of thin air and tells Juliette that Dan and Charlotte are going to the main power station where they will release poison gas and kill everybody. Ben needs Juliette to go to the station and stop them. "How?" Juliette asks. "With your gun," Harper responds.
Jack comes upon them and Harper tells Jack to take his gun and help Juliette.
Then, Harper disappears, amidst the mysterious whispers once again.

Kate happens upon Dan and Charlotte and finds them armed with guns and gas masks, only to be hit over the head and knocked unconscious by Charlotte.

Meanwhile, back on the ranch, Ben convinces Locke to let him out of the basement so he can show him something.” That something is surveillance footage of a man killing one of Ben’s followers in an alleyway. Who is the man? Why his last name is Widmore- as in Penny- as in Desmond’s girlfriend. That’s right, Penny’s dad, the guy who we saw buying up auctioned artifacts from the island last week? It turns out it’s his boat off the coast of the island; it’s his helicopter, and it’s his money funding the people who are now on the island.
With this new revelation, Locke agrees to let Ben out of his cell, under an agreement that he will stay close by, Ben gives Locke a file on everything he has gathered on Widmore thus far…or at least all he’s gathered that he’s willing to share. Locke then asks who is the guy on the boat, Ben tells Locke he’ll need to “sit down for this…” and then we cut to commercial.

Juliette finally gets to the power station and discovers Dan in full hazmat gear and gas mask, appearing to be releasing the poison gas. When confronted, Dan tells her he’s trying to render the gas inert, or non-toxic, so that it can never hurt anyone. After a scuffle with Charlotte, who explains that Ben has already used the gas against people once and he’ll certainly do it again, Juliette decides against shooting, but waits to see what happens. They in fact were telling the truth.

So we discover that once again, Ben was trying to take people out, how he got word out to Juliette is still a mystery. He is still able to manipulate folks to bend to his evil whim, and perhaps the folks from the chopper aren’t so bad after all.

Of course, as in every week, many questions still remain. What is Widmore’s ultimate plan, and what does he really want with the island? Does he want to exploit it as Ben says, or does he have another goal altogether? Where did Harper come from, and why is it that whenever we hear whispers in the forest, a person appears out of nowhere? We know that Harper wasn’t just a figment of Juliette’s imagination, as Jack saw her and spoke to her as well. Perhaps the whispers are part of a teleporting thing, much like when Desmond was traveling around in time?
Remember, the island isn’t really “an island,” but rather in some kind of parallel dimension, so reality isn’t really reality.
And I think the question everyone wants to know, who is on that stupid boat? My prediction? It’s Locke. I used to think Michael, but now I’m thinking Locke, which is why Ben tells him to sit down. This can be explained by the parallel dimension stuff.

And that’s what I have thus far. I’ll read up on the LOST boards tomorrow and see what else I come up with later, so check back.