Juliet's research was successful in impregnating a male mouse (although in her words, not carried to term).

We know that many LOST characters have "Daddy issues", and even "Mommy issues", although perhaps those have not been discussed here as much. In any case, there are many references to parents, and children.

Then there's Rachel, Juliet's sister, who also becomes pregnant, thanks to Juliet.

Is there a parallel between the male mouse and Rachel? Is she really Juliet's brother, and Rachel had a gender change? Is that why Edmund mentioned the ethical issues?

:confused:

Is she really is that good of a Dr and Dharma needed her for their team?

Is it possible she wanted to be that good and Dharma used that to their advantage to recruit her for other purposes?

What were those injections she was giving her sister and how did it make her Pregnant? Basic biology says that there needs to be more than an injection in the stomach to cause pregnancy.

If she was taking the stuff from the Lab at the University, was it really her research? The stuff looked pretty mass produced to me... Maybe she was just willing to help out her sister and took something that she already knew would work.

On the other Hand, the Mittelose recruiter mentioned her impregnating a Male mouse... How does that connect to Rachel and those injections? :confused:

I love this possibility because it again reminds us to leave any assumptions at the door in regards to Lost. When watching the scenes with Rachel, I simply assumed she had cancer. But as pointed out in another thread, it could be possible that the fertility treatment is making her sick. (which reminded me of the blast door map reference to the remedy is worse than the disease). And Tabby, I believe it was you who brought this really smart connection up -that Rachel is in fact Juliet's brother. Sure, she has some feminine qualities such as breasts, but of course that's attainable with hormone or some such treatment. I don't know what would happen to an Adam's Apple though - I looked pretty closely and she doesn't seem to have one.

Is she really is that good of a Dr and Dharma needed her for their team?

Is it possible she wanted to be that good and Dharma used that to their advantage to recruit her for other purposes?

What were those injections she was giving her sister and how did it make her Pregnant? Basic biology says that there needs to be more than an injection in the stomach to cause pregnancy.

If she was taking the stuff from the Lab at the University, was it really her research? The stuff looked pretty mass produced to me... Maybe she was just willing to help out her sister and took something that she already knew would work.

On the other Hand, the Mittelose recruiter mentioned her impregnating a Male mouse... How does that connect to Rachel and those injections? :confused:

If she were injecting some common hormone in an uncommon manner or dose for example, it would explain why it was in the Lab. Her research very well could be the use of known materials to produce unknown results.

And basic Anatomy says that injection was a little South of the stomach.

Thanks ame en peine...I assumed Rachel had cancer, based on the head scarves and her dialogue ("now I just have to get well", etc.).

But I wondered about the male mouse impregnation, and since Edmund wondered who Juliet's "guinea pig" was and guessed it was her sister...that made me think it might be a parallel to the mouse. IOW, Juliet first experimented with mice...and then wanted to experiment with humans. And since much was made about the apparent difficulty of Rachel getting pregnant...

I like it. First, it certainly ot me thinking about if they stated that Rachel have cancer, or if I just assumed it. And the dying of cancer thing doesn't really fit.

Recently I watched a Discovery Health show where a mother gave birth to a baby that grew outside of her womb. The doctor's worry with this pregnancy was that the baby would attach itself to any organ it could find being a major health risk to the mother. The doctor also said that many men were calling him to ask if they could carry a baby. So this all fits with the Rachel is a pregnant man, and Ben's tumor was a fetus. Cool.

But what doesn't fit is why Jack couldn't tell the difference between a fetus and a tumor, and why Rachel said to Juliet something to the effect of now I just need to work on getting healthy.

The only "Rachel" that I remember was Kate's high school boyfriend's wife..."Rachel"...connection??? or mere coincidence?

One other thing..... Having "him" hairless makes us assume that it's a she - who's going through chemo. But if your theory is correct, it's also a really smart way to remove a whole layer of sexual qualities (hair, beard stubble, chest hair), adding to the ambiguity.

My husband's theory from the start was that Juliet's "sister" was really her brother who'd had a sex change. I think it fits pretty well- after all, Juliet experimented on that male field mouse. They seemed pretty confident that she would get well, so I was iffy on deciding it was cancer (although that's what I assumed at first), but then of course no matter the illness of course you are going to hope for the best. I think the sex change theory is a good one, a really good one, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's not it at all.

I also think that it could be a big deal because it's an asexual pregnancy- like those komodo dragons that were in the news last year (female dragons in England managed to fertilize their own eggs), a process called "parthenogenesis"- eggs being fertilized without aid from a male. That would tie in effectively with the Virgin Mary references and such, too.

It will be interesting to see where it all leads! :biggrin: