Juliet Burke
Template:Infobox Lost character Dr. Juliet Burke is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost, played by Elizabeth Mitchell.
Fictional character biography
Prior to her arrival on the island
Before coming to the island, Dr. Juliet Burke resided in Miami near her sister Rachel's apartment. Juliet was working for her ex-husband Edmund Burke (a name the creators acquired from famous eighteenth-century philosopher, Edmund Burke) as a fertility scientist at Miami Central University; there, Edmund bullied an acquiescent Juliet and flaunted his sexual conquests. Despite her docile nature, Juliet, alluding to her ends justify the means philosophy, was performing unauthorized and potentially unethical experiments on her sister. In 2001 she was approached about taking a job with Mittelos Bioscience, an apparent front company for the Hanso Foundation, which she refused. Saying her ex-husband would never allow her to leave, Juliet joked that the only way she would be able to leave would be if he was hit by a bus. When she returned home, her sister revealed to her that she was pregnant. Juliet went back to tell Edmund the results of her tests. In the middle of a sentence, Edmund stepped off the sidewalk and onto the street only to be hit by a bus. Edmund died from the injuries, and the representative from the company who had interviewed her earlier, Richard Alpert, showed up at the morgue with Ethan Rom. They expressed their condolences and again asked her to join their company.
On the island, prior to the crash
Unlike the rest of the Others, Juliet does not seem to have the same reverence for Ben. On the day of the crash, a distraught Juliet attempts to pull herself together and prepare to host the Others' book club meeting in her home, which Ben did not attend. During the discussion of Carrie (Juliet's favorite book), Oceanic Flight 815 crashes; she and the other Others witness the breakup of the plane in the air above them and watch the pieces fall toward different parts of the island.
Following the crash
In a flashback from "Exposé", along the timeline of "The Hunting Party", Juliet and Ben enter the Pearl station, where they watch Jack from one of the monitors. Juliet questions Ben's motives for the planned kidnapping of Jack, to which he reveals his methods of persuasion. They leave shortly after, leaving behind a radio, picked up by Paulo.
Juliet interrogates Jack in "A Tale of Two Cities" when he is brought into captivity, presumably under Ben's orders. Ben later implies that he selected Juliet to question Jack because of her resemblance to his ex-wife, Sarah ("The Cost of Living"). She also recaptures Sawyer during one of his failed escape attempts.
Her role as Jack's interrogator is continued in "The Glass Ballerina," in which she brings him homemade soup (Ben later complains that she never made soup for him). Additionally, she oversees Kate and Sawyer as they break and haul stones. When Sawyer steals a rifle from Pickett, however, she holds a gun to Kate, and successfully gets Sawyer to put down his weapon. Sawyer pointedly contrasts Juliet with the other guards, saying that she would have had no problem shooting Kate while the others had little or no combat experience.
During another visit to Jack ("Every Man for Himself"), Ben interrupts and orders Juliet to come with him (to assist the injured Colleen) just as she is discussing with Jack the egalitarian power structure in the Others' community. Ben wishes for her to conduct surgery on Colleen, which she does, successfully removing the bullet but failing to stop the internal bleeding that had accompanied the wound. She brings in Jack telling him she is not a surgeon, as he is, but a fertility doctor, so she is inexperienced with the procedure. Colleen flatlines despite Jack's efforts, and is unable to be revived because the only defribrillator had been broken. When Jack tells her that Colleen was "dead before they laid her on the table," Juliet asks him if he is just saying that to make her feel better. Jack pointedly tells her that he has no interest in making her feel better, and then confronts her about the X-rays of a middle-aged man with a spinal tumor he has seen in the hallway.
Juliet attends the funeral of Colleen ("The Cost of Living"), and later visits Jack, continuing what appears to be a friendly relationship. However, her final visit is to deliver a serious message. While she tells Jack he must remove Ben's tumor for the good of the Others, a silent videotape shows Juliet holding cue cards that read the direct opposite, instructing Jack to ignore everything she says and "accidentally" kill Ben in surgery. Juliet tells Jack via the cue cards that Ben is a liar and a dangerous man. When Jack finally decides to do the surgery, she assists him until he suddenly uses Ben as a hostage to secure the release of Kate and Sawyer ("I Do").
In "Not in Portland", Juliet - proceeding under the assumption that Jack's hero-complex will prevent him from allowing Ben to die - tells another Other to bring back Kate and Sawyer and, if he has to, kill them; in retaliation, Jack tells Tom that Juliet instructed him to kill Ben. Jack and Juliet argue for a moment before Tom, citing Juliet's admission that she is not a surgeon and, therefore, cannot aid Ben, sends her out of the OR. Not a minute after Juliet leaves, Ben regains consciousness and requests to speak to her in private, claiming that he is cognizant of the situation. Jack (in a reference to the Season 2 episode, "Three Minutes") lets Ben speak to Juliet for 3 minutes and after their talk, Juliet tells Jack that he should finish the operation because she is going to help Kate and Sawyer escape. Though Juliet later tells Jack that Ben offered her freedom from the island (she claims to have been kept/imprisoned on the island for 3 years, 2 months, and 28 days) in exchange for his life, it is unclear if this is the truth or not. Juliet locates the "fugitives" using Ben's monitors, and, after concluding that Danny is going to kill Kate and Sawyer, she shoots him through the chest 3 times. Juliet then allows Kate and Sawyer to escape with Karl, but requests that Alex remain with her on "Alcatraz" island. In "Stranger in a Strange Land", Juliet is arrested and tried for Pickett's murder by the Others, under the supervision of the Others' 'sheriff' Isabel. Jack refuses Juliet's request for help in escaping punishment, but attempts to lie to Isabel about the plot to kill Ben in order to protect Juliet. The Others ultimately sentence Juliet to death, but Jack convinces Ben to commute the death sentence, and Juliet is instead marked in the small of her back with some kind of brand as punishment for her crime (The "Brand" is actually a Rood, an inversed ancient crucifix that was burned or carved on those during the Spanish Inquisition to be marked as heretics and outcasts of the church). After enduring this punishment, Juliet agrees to work together with Jack to make sure Ben keeps his promise to send both of them home.
They return to the barracks, and prepare to leave the island in the submarine. However, hours before they are set to leave, Locke, Sayid, and Kate appear, and Locke destroys the submarine with the C-4, preventing Jack and Juliet's escape ("The Man From Tallahassee"). She later brings food Kate, who tries to assault her, but is quickly overpowered, and Juliet leaves unharmed. The next day, in "Left Behind", Juliet is knocked out with nerve gas while in her kitchen, and awakes in the jungle handcuffed to Kate. The two bicker about their plan of action, resulting in Juliet's shoulder being dislocated. The two soon encounter the smoke monster, and are chased through the jungle. Eventually, Juliet frees herself from Kate and uses the surrounding pylons to escape the monster. Kate, angry that Juliet had the key all along, storms off. The two eventually find the camp again, and Juliet leaves to release Sayid. The four meet up and decide to return to the beach, including Juliet, much to the dismay of Kate and Sayid.
