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Lost: There's No Place Like Home, Part 1

Ben: "How many times do I have to tell you, John? I always have a plan."

This is the kind of episode I find hardest to write about: it was mostly windup, with the pitch scheduled to take place, I assume, in the finale.

The guest cast was amazing. They brought back a roomful of past guest stars: Jack's mother, whom we haven't seen since season one, Hurley's parents, Sun's parents, and even Claire's no longer comatose mother. For me, the most moving reunion was Sayid's with his Nadia, a relationship I'm more strongly invested in than Desmond and Penny, and made even more poignant by our knowledge that Nadia is going to die in just a few months.

Along with the touching reunions, we got a big emotional moment: when Claire's mother told Jack that Claire was his sister. Matthew Fox did a great job conveying some intense emotions with no words at all. I could swear I saw him thinking about all the time he had spent with Claire not knowing about their relationship, and possibly about her death on the Island, as well as his relationship with Aaron.



Another big moment was Sun taking revenge on her father by taking over his company. (That must have been some financial settlement by Oceanic. Maybe she got twice as much because there were two of them on the plane. And maybe some of the money came from Widmore, or Ben?) She told her father that he was one of the two people responsible for Jin's death. Who is the other? This is the second time we've been told that Jin is going to die, and yet, I still don't quite believe it will happen.

And we still don't know the circumstances surrounding the departure of the Oceanic Six. It seems so improbable because right now, everyone is all over the place. Jack and Sawyer off in the jungle. Sayid and Kate held by Richard and the Others. Hurley and Locke with Ben, assaulting the Orchid Station. Faraday in transit rescue mode with a boat that apparently has an endless supply of gas. Sun, Jin and Aaron on the freighter with Michael and Desmond. I honestly didn't expect Jin to make it to the freighter. The freighter that has enough C4 in it to blow a hole in the world. Does that have something to do with the thing on Keamy's arm?



Ms. Decker, the Oceanic rep, told everyone that the Island's name was Membata, and that it's in the lesser Sumba islands. Except all that was just a cover story. (Whose? Oceanic's, or whoever is controlling the Six?) We still don't know who the other two survivors were that supposedly survived the crash but died on the Island. It must be important because they keep mentioning it. All we know is that it's not Jin, Claire, or the marshal. I wonder if that particular lie has something to do with the settlement money?

When it comes to Ben versus Keamy, I'm backing Ben – even though Keamy has the guns and all the soldiers. And that's not just because Michael Emerson is a popular cast member and Kevin Durand is a guest star. I'm really curious to see what will happen when Locke moves the Island, too. Will it move geographically, or in time, or both? And what will happen to the people who are on it at the time?

Character bits:

No one was there to greet Kate, which was sad but not surprising. There was brief reference to her "legal situation."

Again, Frank is a good guy. He was the one who dropped the phone. And it got him handcuffed to his helicopter.

Sawyer called Miles "Genghis" and Frank "Shaggy."

Come on. Aaron most certainly did not look five weeks old. Plus, he appears to be ageless. Kate was carrying the same baby on the beach, when they got off the cargo plane, and at Christian's funeral, which Jack said was ten months after Christian's death. If Christian died near the end of September, we're talking mid-July. Aaron should have been nearly ready to walk at that point.


Kate claiming that Aaron is her biological son makes sense. It eliminates the possibility of custody battles and craziness. Although it feels wrong that Claire's mother doesn't know she has a grandson.

Hurley must have let his parents keep the money. Or maybe his mom. That might explain why his parents were still together.

Bits and pieces:

— The title, of course, is from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Another magical land that was impossible to find.

— Ms. Decker from Oceanic was played by Michelle Forbes of Next Generation fame, who also had a remarkably heavy guest spot on Battlestar Galactica.


— Hurley saw his numbers on the car's speedometer, and immediately felt cursed again. That was a freaky moment.

— Coast Guard #1717, Barbers Point, Hawaii. I thought it was fun that they were finally, actually, supposed to be in Hawaii.

— Sawyer referred to the little houses as "New Otherton," which we've only heard before in the "enhanced" episodes.

— The Orchid Station symbol is that swirl with the little figure in the middle. When Ben arrived in Tunisia, it was on the patch on his parka.

— The Oceanic Six were rescued on Day 108. Of course they were.

— There were two rabbits' feet. The Coast Guard co-pilot in the teaser said they needed the rabbit's foot he was holding because of the bad mojo in the back. And there was another on the key chain for Hurley's birthday present car.

— Mr. Cluck's chicken and the statue of Jesus were back. Hurley's surprise birthday party had a tropical island theme. Funny, as well as wildly inappropriate.

Quotes:

Jack: "They'll think that we're in shock."
Sun: "We are in shock, Jack."

Sawyer: (to Jack) "Hold up. You don't get to die alone."

Female Reporter: "You look pretty healthy, having been on an island for over a hundred days."
Hurley: "Is that directed at me, dude?"

Ben: "We're going to move the island."
Hurley: "Right. And how are we going to do that?"
Ben: "Very carefully."
Dangerous and unpredictable, a measure of last resort? Oooh.

I'm going to hold my rating until the two-hour finale, which airs in two weeks, and an hour earlier than usual,

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

8 comments:

  1. rewatching Lost, as mentioned before.
    What struck me here was Claire's mom comment to Jack "I thought you needed to know".

    Why, for fraks sake? I mean, if his sis was still alive I understand that, but now? It feels only selfish to tell someone, you had a sis cos your dad cheated, but oh btw not now anymore cos she is dead..

    Imo she only unburdened herself...

    Billie, it is really fun to read your reviews after every ep, and knowing whats to come, how right you were on certain things ahead of time (and of course, sometimes not)

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  2. Thanks so much, Aly. Lost was such a rollercoaster for me. At this point, I'm not sure I could handle rewatching. It'd be interesting to see how many times I blew it, theory-wise. A lot, I'm sure. :)

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  3. Yeah several times (kate being pregnant comes to mind). But also a lot really ON, actually. Already in season 1.
    You are one smart cookie ;)

    If you do rewatch, count those traffic accidents :P

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  4. What an opening to an episode! I cried through all the reunions, but especially Sayid and Nadia. Just beautifully portrayed by both of them. And, how lovely when Hurley (ever the great guy) brings Sayid over to meet his parents. Very sweet moment.

    I'm kind of with Aly about the motivation behind Claire's mother's telling Jack the truth. The look in his eyes as it dawns on him and the way he looked at Aaron just broke my heart. It made me feel less bad about the fact that Claire's mother didn't know she was looking at her own grandson.

    Sun is badass! What an act she must have put on all those years and how wonderful to see the effect that the Island has had on her. I can't believe that the same woman who crashed all those months ago would act in quite the same way. I am concerned, however, that her anger, grief and need for revenge is going to have the same kind of effect on her as it has had on Jack or Hurley.

    I was interested in the others that they chose to name: Boone, Libby, Charlie and, of course, Jin. Was it purposeful that they chose people that they know are dead? Except, we don't know that Jin is dead, do we?

    Finally, can I just say what a hero Sawyer is turning into? Carrying the baby through the jungle and then not allowing Jack to keep going on his own. I'm sorry he's not part of the six, but I assume we will discover why very soon.

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  5. I wonder how they decided to pick the people that survived the initial crash. Boone, Libby, and Charlie are interesting choices. But, like Chris said, it's probably because they really are dead. It's just one less thing the Oceanic Six need to pretend.

    I'm interested to see how all of this plays out. We know who gets off of the island (including Ben), but they're really taking their time to explain it to us.

    I wonder how they plan on making Aaron seem two months younger than he really is. Hopefully he won't be in the spotlight so much.

    This episode didn't give very much information. It was all buildup, as you said.

    Libby

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  6. I've suspected this for a while now, but I think the Netflix episodes are slightly edited. Unless I really missed an entire set of dialogue, I don't think there's any mention of who else survived the crash in this episode. (Although, of course, I remember learning about that when I watched the show the first time.)


    I also was pretty sure that Greg Grunberg had a cameo in the Season Two finale, but that wasn't in the Netflix version. However, I might have just seen a clip in a deleted scenes feature. Although I don't think that was it.

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    Replies
    1. I’m watching it on Hulu now and also missed the part where they talked about who died. Don’t know if it got edited out as you said or if it’s a coincidence we both didn’t hear it.

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  7. Amazing season finale. The Giacchino's score "Something nice back home"is fsntastic.
    I loved Oceanic Six's arrival,so moving.
    I loved Jack and Sawyer tracking together.
    I loved Christian's funeral and Jack's reaction. Obviously he was going to start a romance with Kate.
    I loved the press conference,the beginning of the lies' castle.
    I loved the reunion between Sayid and Nadia.


    ReplyDelete

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