"The Other Woman" was watched live or recorded and watched within five hours of broadcast by 13.008 million viewers in the United States, ranking seventh for the week in television programs with the most viewers and achieving a 5.4/13 in the coveted adults aged eighteen to forty-nine demographic. Including those who watched within seven days of broadcast, the episode was watched by a total of 14.933 million American viewers; this number went toward the season's average. 1.439 million Canadians watched it, making
Lost the eighth highest-rated show of the week. In the United Kingdom, 1.1 million people viewed the episode. The episode brought in 691,000 viewers in Australia, placing it as the twenty-second most watched show of the night. A common claim by critics was that more was learned about supporting player Ben than Juliet, the latter of which was centered on in flashbacks. Jeff Jensen of
Entertainment Weekly praised Emerson's acting, while
SyFy Portals Dan Compora said that "The more I hate Ben, the more I realize that Michael Emerson is just a very fine actor doing his job." Oscar Dahl of BuddyTV called Emerson an acting "god" and said that while it was a Juliet-centric episode, Ben made a bigger impression on him. Mitchell received the award for "
Best Supporting Actress on Television" at the
34th Saturn Awards for her work in this episode. "The Other Woman" has been cited as the weakest episode of
Lost's fourth season. Despite his claim, Patrick Day of the
Los Angeles Times pointed out that "even this so-so episode of
Lost stood far above anything else being shown on network TV this season". He described
Claire Littleton's (
Emilie de Ravin) appearance as heartbreaking because it reminded him of how little the character had done to advance the season's plot. BuddyTV's John Kubicek said "The Other Woman" was the worst episode of the season so far because it focused on the romantic interests of major characters, while most of the show's audience watches the show for other aspects. Jeff Jensen of
Entertainment Weekly graded the episode as a "C−" and called it "the only true dud of the season" and criticised the plot. He disliked Roth's performance as "unreal", while
TV Guide's Bruce Fretts praised Roth's appearance. Maureen Ryan of
Chicago Tribune said that "The Other Woman" was predictable and reused plot elements from previous seasons.
The Star-Ledgers
Alan Sepinwall considered the episode to be the second weakest of the fourth season after "
Eggtown", criticizing the show for not previously explaining the purpose of the Tempest station and redundancy of Juliet's flashbacks. "The Other Woman" was also the subject of mixed reviews. Tim Goodman of the
San Francisco Chronicle wrote that the episode slowed down the pacing of the season, which was noticed by the audience.
Time's James Poniewozik had mixed feelings for the flashbacks, but enjoyed Ben's character development. Nikki Stafford of
Wizard "enjoyed" the "interesting" episode, although "not nearly as much" as the previous episode. She rejoiced at the return of
Tom (
M.C. Gainey) and wrote that "Locke used to be one of favorite characters, but now he's a
tool".
Digital Spy's Ben Rawson-Jones stated that "the episode came together nicely in the end, with an expected twist and a
snog, although for a great part it bordered on tedium. Juliet is a character who simply isn't interesting enough to fully sustain one's attention over a flashback. She's been so peripheral and irrelevant over this season, and it felt like a token gesture to foreground her at last. There was a nice pay off though, with a long awaited smooch between her and Jack." Daniel of
TMZ graded the episode as a "C+"; however, he wrote that "the Ben/Locke scenes were great and Juliet in a bikini did not disappoint." TV Squad's Erin Martell was "not impressed with Jack and Juliet's chemistry" and found their kiss "unconvincing". Martell commended Emerson's acting, Ben's one-liners and his "too funny for words" casual greeting to Hurley and Sawyer at the end of the episode after he is released from captivity. Verne Gay of
Newsday referred to the episode as "yet another brilliant outing by TV's best drama keeps getting better"; she was not the only critic to give a positive review.
E!'s
Kristin Dos Santos thought that the fight scene between Juliet and Charlotte in the Tempest was "awesome" and suggested that Alan Dale receive a "lifetime achievement award for his parade of marvelously malicious patriarchs", such as Widmore. Chris Carabott of IGN gave the episode a score of eight out of ten and described it as "a good episode of
Lost that has all the action, suspense and excitement that this show consistently delivers". Carabott wrote that "seeing how twisted [Ben and Juliet's] 'relationship' really is was fascinating". == References ==