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Lost: Homecoming

Claire: "Why would you keep me in the dark, Charlie? I'm already in the dark."

I like Dominic Monaghan a lot. I can't imagine Lost without Charlie. But for some reason, possibly because I had an alcoholic parent, I just don't have much patience for Charlie's past life as an addict. I understood what it all meant, that Charlie was learning and growing, and that his past failure with Lucy was what compelled him to shoot Ethan. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But for me, the best part of this episode was the formation of the Island Swat Team.

All the scenes with Jack, Locke, and Sayid circling the wagons, setting perimeters, and taking down Ethan were so much fun to watch. I liked that they were pulling together in a common defense instead of turning on each other. Sawyer in particular made points with me by insisting that Kate get the fifth gun; let's face it, everyone was getting muy macho, and Sawyer was the one who insisted on giving a woman a gun? I also liked him stopping Ethan in his tracks, and praising Jack for beating the crap out of Ethan. Funny how I originally disliked Sawyer. He's becoming one of my favorite characters.



How convenient for the plot – and disappointing – that they will never be able to question Ethan. Sawyer said at one point, "Now maybe somebody can tell me who or what this sumbitch is." What is the operative word. What was Ethan? He was almost robotic. His threats this time were almost identical to when he took Claire, and the way he killed Scott Jackson, with all those broken bones, was outright inhuman in the most technical sense. (How could anyone not have heard that happening?) I think Ethan was a pod person. He was a "carrier," he was "lost."

And Claire may be a pod person now, too. She wasn't acting like Claire, and I don't buy the amnesia story – it's just too convenient. (Sayid said, "The girl is pregnant. Very pregnant. Are we supposed to believe she escaped from him?" He didn't go for the amnesia story, either.) Yes, she may have escaped, and she might really have amnesia. But what are the odds?

Character bits:

Charlie's last name is Pace.

Scott Jackson, who worked for an internet company in Santa Cruz and won a two week vacation in Australia, is now dead. "Sorry I kept calling you Steve, man."

Claire is still pregnant. That surprised me.

Vincent the dog has returned.

The Jin/Sun conversation was weird, almost like they were feeling each other out. Do they both speak English, and have they been hiding it from each other as well as the rest of the survivors?

Charlie's comments about Jin being detached were dead on. The language barrier, real or contrived, has kept Jin and Sun in a world of their own.

What was on the back of Charlie's tee-shirt? "Bucket"?

Where did the four scratches on Ethan's left cheek come from? Maybe Claire is tougher than I thought. Especially if she's still Claire and was willing to play bait for real.


Bits and pieces:

— It's been "almost a month" since the crash. Ethan and Scott are now dead. I have officially lost count of how many people are on the Island. I'm sure Ethan wasn't alone, anyway.

— The guns weren't a mistake this week. Might not be true in the future, though.

— I must admit that Charlie vomiting into the copier made me laugh out loud.

— Did Ethan really come from the water? How is that possible? Did he come from the same place as Rousseau's power line? I thought Ethan just slipped past Boone, who (screwup that he is) fell asleep on sentry duty.

— Heatherton was head of the Slough paper company. I heard somewhere that this was an in-joke, the same company as The Office.

— Heatherton was in a band called "The Protestant Reformation." I thought that was funny.

— This week's Most Obvious Symbolism was probably Churchill's cigarette case. Charlie was trying to steal respectability and adulthood. And he threw up on it.

— No mention this week of the mysterious hatch. Guess they had other priorities.

Quotes:

Charlie: "Carpe diem, my friend."
Tommy: "Save your French for someone who appreciates it."

Jack: "Do you know how to handle a gun or not?"
Sawyer: "I know at least one polar bear who seems to think so."

Charlie said to the women he was picking up, "I believe in monogamy. I will not be shared like a common curry."
I wonder if Charlie really is the monogamous type?

Two for the Charlie backstory, four for the take-down in the rain. Three out of four polar bears,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

6 comments:

  1. I like the Island Swat Team as well. It was interesting to see them working as a team and not as adversaries.

    I have to say that I believe Claire's amnesia. Her terror at the beginning would have been hard to fake and she didn't seem to trip up once (unless I missed it); for instance, asking Shannon her name. But, I tend to be too trusting...

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  2. I like Dominic Monaghan a lot. I can't imagine Lost without Charlie. But for some reason...I just don't have much patience for Charlie's past life as an addict.

    Me, too. I know we're supposed to feel bad that Charlie is struggling to get on the straight and narrow, but him taking the job doesn't mean he didn't want to do her harm. It just meant he wanted the "normal" life. Lucy was just extra.

    Having said that, I'm glad he killed Ethan, who was insanely scary. Maybe Ethan is really a shapeshifting polar bear? He certainly was growling enough.

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  3. How convenient for the plot -- and disappointing -- that they will never be able to question Ethan.

    Very true. This episode was written by Damon Lindelof, and he had to do a lot of fancy dancing to stall various answers: Claire's TV Amnesia, Ethan's death, Claire and Charlie not quite connecting. This is definitely one of those episodes we can look at and say, "Wow, stalling much?!"

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  4. The episode when Ethan kidnapped and this episode were my favorites because they were the most interesting and heart pounding. I was, like you, disappointed that they didn't have the chance to beat the hell out of Ethan and get some answers. Because I have no idea why he was after Claire and why he was gonna kill everyone it took to get her back

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  5. What happens on the island this episode is INTENSE… and unlike the last episode, still holds its own 20 years on. Off island, it wasn’t as impactful to me, but unlike others, I’ve not been impacted by addiction and won’t pretend to see it under the same lens.

    Billie - I love that you called Ethan “robotic”. My son had theorized since we first saw Ethan that he was indeed a robot! He was a little crestfallen at the end, but I told him to keep right on theorizing— the wilder the idea, the better, and he might be pleasantly surprised down the road.

    Personally I loved the interaction between Jack and Sawyer over the guns. That had to be so hard for Jack to include Sawyer, but he knew it was the right decision. When Sawyer asked how much ammo, there was wonderful beat as these two previous adversaries felt each other out. Add the Kate interaction to the mix was just icing on the cake.

    On island sequences were some of the best of the season. Flashbacks were necessary but not a high point of the show by any means.

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  6. So Sawyer gave Kate a gun. Big deal. Charlie has become the first Oceanic survivor to commit murder.

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