4.12 - There's No Place Like Home

Title’s significance: Wizard of Oz reference (not the first).

Recap: Upon finding the helicopter’s sat phone, Jack aims to lead a group to The Orchid, which terrifies Daniel. Sawyer (with baby Aaron) and Miles encounter Jack and Kate en route, and Sawyer rubs in a little “Locke was right all along” before Jack decides to take off alone; Sawyer will have none of it. Via mirror Morse code, Ben sends a message to The Others as Daniel begins to ferry survivors off the island. At The Orchid – the location from which the island can be moved – Ben realizes he’s arrived too late; Desmond gets the freighter engines running again, but there’s some RF interference preventing the boat from monitoring the reef. Jack and Sawyer rescue Frank, who cautions a bad moon rising. Sun and Jin meet Michael on the freighter, but their reunion is cut short when Desmond discovers gobs of C-4 in the engine room. Sayid and Kate find that they’re being followed by Richard Alpert, and Ben surrenders himself to Keamy’s mercenaries.

Jack catches up with Locke at The Orchid as Desmond, Jin, and Michael examine the C-4, which they learn is connected to a radio receiver. Keamy brings Ben to the helicopter, but his people are attacked by Kate, Sayid, and The Others as Richard Alpert shoots Keamy. Locke asks Jack to stay on the island, but when Jack refuses Locke tells him he’ll have to lie as Ben returns to The Orchid; Richard gives the 815ers the helicopter. Ben gives Locke the Orchid orientation video, which suggests the station is capable of time travel; the elevator reactivates, though, and not-quite-dead Keamy joins them down in the station. Despite knowing that Keamy’s attached to a dead man’s trigger, Ben stabs Keamy to death without a care for the fate of those on the freighter; Daniel and Charlotte exchange intimate words about leaving the island, and Charlotte decides to stay. A fuel leak on the helicopter forces Sawyer to jump out in order to save everyone else aboard.

Locke rushes to save Keamy, who promises that Widmore will find Ben no matter what; unintimidated, Ben promises to find Widmore first as Keamy dies. When the C-4 gets the signal of Keamy’s death, Michael sends Desmond and Jin to get everyone off the boat. After refueling, the helicopter departs the freighter with “The Oceanic 6” aboard; Christian visits Michael and tells him, “You can go now,” as the freighter explodes – with Jin still aboard. Sawyer washes ashore and finds Juliet mourning the loss of the freighter. After blowing a hole in the Orchid test chamber, Ben apologizes to Locke for “making your life so miserable” and descends down to a hidden chamber where he finds a frozen wheel. Locke returns to Richard and The Others, who welcome him “home” as Ben turns the frozen wheel, muttering “I hope you’re happy now, Jacob” and making the island disappear from sight; with no place to land now, Frank’s helicopter crashes into the ocean, and the Oceanic 6 (plus Desmond and Frank) make it to their life raft. Soon the raft is discovered, and Jack realizes that Locke was right – they have to lie about their experiences. The boat that rescues them is actually Penny’s boat – The Searcher – this time, and Desmond promises never to leave her; he introduces the Oceanic 6 to Penny, and they devise a plan to hide the truth about their experience. They take the life raft to Membata and await their actual rescue.

In the flashforwards, the Oceanic 6 land in Hawaii and agree to speak to reporters after being greeted by their loved ones. The Oceanic 6 sell a story to reporters about washing up on Membata in the Sumatran Islands, and Sayid is finally reunited with Nadia. Baby Bump Sun (variant action figure) buys out her father, blaming him for Jin’s death, and Hurley’s folks throw a surprise birthday party for him. At Christian’s funeral, Jack meets Claire’s mother, who comes clean about Claire’s parentage. We revisit the Season Three flashforward, in which we learn someone named Jeremy Bentham is trying to bring the Oceanic 6 back to the island. Walt comes to visit Hurley in the institution and asks why the Oceanic 6 are lying; shortly thereafter, Sayid kills a man outside Santa Rosa and busts Hurley out with the news that Jeremy Bentham is dead of a suicide. Sun visits Widmore and tells him that they have “common interests.” Later, Kate dreams of Claire, who tells her not to bring Aaron back to the island. Jack breaks into the funeral parlor, but Ben’s already there waiting for him; he tells Jack that he has a plan and that all of them have to return to the island, even the man in the coffin – John Locke.

Thoughts: Damon & Carlton return, and boy do they return. This was a three-hour tour de force, closing the stories of the freighter and the Oceanic 6 but opening up about eight billion new storylines. I really wish I could have watched it all in one sitting, but the thing was three hours long as it is. The thing I really loved about this episode is how the action never really seemed to let up and how the whole affair had a dire sense of urgency about it. While sealing a lot of storylines (I feel like I write this for every finale), there’s a whole new set of questions just waiting to be answered, but this is for sure one of LOST’s finest hours and may even make this season my favorite of all.

Favorite moment: For the first part, Hurley tears into the Dharma crackers as Ben remarks, “You know those are fifteen years old?” (That, or Hurley’s mom reminding him that “Jesus Christ is not a weapon.”) As for the second part, it’s Rose sassing Miles about the peanuts – “I’m gonna keep my eye on you, shorty.” Or Ben’s simple response when Locke informs him that he’s just doomed everyone on the freighter – “So?” Of course, the last second reveal that Locke is in the coffin pretty much knocks the episode out of the park.

Characters introduced (in order):

• KAREN DECKER, Oceanic representative

What we learned:

• Aaron is considered part of the Oceanic 6.
• The Orchid is a Dharma greenhouse doubling as an experiment site for space and time.
• The Oceanic 6 story involves washing up on Membata, claiming that Jin died on the plane, that Aaron is Kate’s son, and that there are no other survivors.
• Moving the island is “a measure of last resort.”
• Sun now owns Paik Industries.
• Ben knows how Widmore knows about the island, but he isn’t telling.
• Claire’s mom is out of her coma.
• Jack learned about Claire’s parentage at his – their – father’s funeral.
• Aaron is the person that is waiting for Kate.
• According to Miles, Charlotte was on the island before.
• The Orchid is built over a cache of negatively-charged exotic matter.
• The Orchid time-traveled bunnies.
• Keamy’s device monitors his heart-rate and is connected to the C-4 transmitter.
• Charlotte implies she was born on the island.
• Michael’s work is finished – he dies saving the people on the freighter.
• “Whoever moves the island can never come back.”
• Ben was transported to Tunisia after moving the frozen wheel.
• Penny rescues the Oceanic 6.
• John Locke is the man in the coffin.

Questions:

• Sun blames her father for Jin’s death, but she blames one other, unnamed person – who?
• How does Widmore know about The Orchid?
• Who’s Jeremy Bentham?
• When was Charlotte on the island before that she’d want to come back?
• Can The Orchid really time-travel bunnies, or was Ben just yanking our chain?
• What did Sawyer whisper to Kate?
• Where is Sayid taking Hurley?
• Is Jin really dead?
• What “common interests” do Widmore and Sun have?
• How does Ben know about the frozen wheel?
• Why can someone who moves the island not return?
• Where did the island go?
• Why the sudden reversal of position on Aaron being raised by someone other than Claire?
• Why didn’t Claire have her normal accent in Kate’s dream?
• We can assume that Desmond stays with Penny, but how does Frank fit into the story the Oceanic 6 sell?
• Will Jack and Frank ever see each other again?
• What bad things happened after the Oceanic 6 left the island?
• How did Locke get off the island?
• How did Locke die?

Things that are going to be important in Season Six:

• Jack hasn’t met Claire since he found out about their relationship. How’s that going to work?
• Christian appears in this episode to tell Michael that his work is done. Noting the fact that Christian wears two different outfits at different times, are there “different” Christians, and if so are they on opposing sides? What exactly IS Christian’s function – is he a mouthpiece for Jacob, the island, or someone else?
• By the end of the episode, Locke is calling the camp of The Others “home.” Special, chosen, or manipulated?