There's No Place Like Home

The Lost season finale featured fistfights, knifefights, gunfights, and a massive explosion, the Oceanic 6 rescue, the death of at least one major character (and almost definitely two others), a handoff of power over "The Others" and a whole host of brand new questions, in an annoying, exhilarating, annoying, exciting, annoying, spectacular, and annoying season four finale.  And the finale gave us more reason to really, really hate Jack, as if we didn't have enough reasons going into the episode.  If you haven't seen it yet -- and if so, what the hell are you waiting for? -- look away, because the rest of this review will be spoiler-heavy.  And if you think it was simply magnificent and didn't make your blood boil about the gaping holes in the plot logic or the way more questions were asked than answered (yet again), then you probably don't want to read on, since you probably won't agree with me.  Of course, just over a week ago, I named Lost as the best show on television, and I do stand by that.  But boy was the finale frustrating.  It was also pretty damn wonderful.  Confused?  You don't know the half of it.

First, let's get to the good stuff.  And there was plenty.  The highlight of the episode for me was the fight between Sayid and army guy Keamy, and the fact that Keamy was actually able to last a while with the awesome Iraqi was pretty impressive.  In the end, Keamy was about to kill Sayid, only to be shot (but not killed of course, even though it was at point blank range) by Richard Alpert.  The second best part was when Keamy (not dead again) took on Ben, got distracted by a confused and hapless (and annoying) Locke, and then felt the full brunt of ninja-style Ben, who killed him a second time.  And this death sentenced everyone on the freighter to their own death, as Keamy's heart rate was linked to an RF device that somehow remotely blew up all the C4 we saw in the engine room of the boat last week.  Ben's reaction to the fact that he just killed everyone who'd been going to boat to survive the island:  "So?"  Nice.  Got to love Ben.

The episode started off where we left off 2 weeks ago -- with Jack and Sawyer going to rescue Hurley, with the Others (led by Richard) kidnapping Kate and Sayid (who were going to warn Jack and Sawyer), with Ben in the captivity of Keamy's soldiers, with Daniel ferrying people back and forth to the freighter in the Zodiac, and with Desmond, Jin, and Michael in the engine room discovering the explosives.  The episode ended in a completely different place, managing to get the Oceanic 6 (along with Desmond and Frank, the helicopter pilot) all together, only to go down in a spectacular crash that nearly killed Desmond, but after which, when they all got on the emergency life raft, ruined my enjoyment of the episode with Jack's immortal line of self-serving hate, "At least we're all alive."

You see, in between, after the Others used Sayid and Kate to help them rescue Ben (setting up the Sayid/Keamy and Ben/Keamy showdowns), Jack, Sawyer, Hurley, Sayid, and Kate all boarded the helicopter with the intention of leaving the island once and for all.  EXCEPT -- there were a bunch of people still on the beach being ferried back and forth (by Daniel) to the freighter that Jack -- the supposed leader -- had promised to save.  He conveniently forgot that little factoid.  And then, when Frank realized they were losing fuel through a bullet hole created in the Others' attack on the soldiers, they were only able to land for a few moments for a quick refuel and duct taping of the bullet hole (would that even work?) because Desmond was alerting them that the ship was about to blow (due to Keamy's death setting the trigger, which was only temporarily being stopped by Michael's liquid nitrogen tank's freezing of the bomb's battery.  So they took off again, with Sun and Aaron and Desmond on board, but no one else on the ship, including the other three unknown islanders who'd been taken to the ferry, nor the ship's hapless inhabitants, nor -- and this is the important part... Jin.  Jin was with Michael until the last moments trying to save everyone else (like you know, an actual hero) and then he was sprinting (very slowly -- he's no Ichiro) towards the ship's deck when Frank lifted the helicopter away.  Sun was screaming, but Jack didn't give a crap.  When he promised to get "everyone" off the island, what he really meant was himself.  And Kate.  Who he did go back for, pulling her away from her own efforts to go back for Jin (Kate didn't really resist either, even though she made Sun take baby Aaron onto the plane as she promised to go get Jin herself, but my Kate hatred -- which is usually in top form -- had to take a backseat to the Jack hatred in this episode). 

Anyway, long story short, the Oceanic 6 were all on the helicopter, the freighter blew up in a massive explosion, and everyone on board was probably killed (including Jin and Michael, but especially Michael, who was presumably still standing in the engine room next to the bomb).  Sun loses it in a very touching display of emotion -- at least until Jack calms her down by basically telling her to shut the fuck up.  Then the fuel runs out again (I guess the duct tape thing didn't really work) on their way to the island, but everyone survives the helicopter crash (after a brief drowning scare involving Desmond -- those fucking writers knew better to kill off Desmond, but he was the only one we weren't certain had survived, so they had to make it interesting I guess... fuckers), and that leads to them all on the boat, processing the fact that freighter just blew up, killing everyone including their friend Jin, and Jack has the nerve to say "At least we're alive."  What a fucking asshole.

Okay, so in the midst of all of those shenanigans, Ben and Locke went down into the Orchid Station, learned a little about time travel (which apparently, much to Lenny's chagrin, does exist on this show), and then Ben went into this freezing cold chamber located underneath some catacombs near the Orchid, and he turned a frozen donkey wheel (which was the creators code name for the episode) and "moved" the island.  Yeah, none of that shit made any sense, but it wasn't nearly as annoying as Jack in this episode.  After the island "moved", it disappeared while the O6 were trying to fly to it (and running out of fuel), so they were sort of stuck in the middle of the ocean (no freighter, no island) when miraculously, another ship appeared on the horizon and saved them all.  But before they could board the ship, Jack tells the others (for reasons that make no sense to me at this point, and with the way I feel about Jack, were most likely illogical and stupid) that they need to lie about everything that happened on the island, thus beginning their apparent 3 year life off of the island with denial. 

The ship that comes to save them?  It's Penny's, and we get the long awaited Penny/Desmond reunion, but I've got to tell you, it was a little anticlimactic to me because I was so annoyed at Jack and still wondering why the fuck they needed to lie (which we've seen in all the flash forwards this season).  I wanted a better reason than the fact that Locke (who Jack hates and never listens to) told him to lie, or that "those who sent the freighter to kill us" would ?somehow? find their friends back on the island and kill them if they didn't lie.  There's so many questions with that, but here's just a few:  (a) how would they find the island after it's been moved?  (b) why wouldn't they kill them anyway, even if they did lie?  (c) did the freighter people really want them dead, or wasn't that just a Keamy decision -- didn't Widmore send the freighter just to find Ben? and (d) what about the fucking U.S. Army or whoever the fuck who would have the best chance of anyone of actually finding their friends and bringing them back safely, but instead Jack consigned them all to three years of no one actually looking for them and doing not a damn thing about it while back in America.  And he promised them all -- including especially Rose, Jin, Bernard, and Juliet -- that he'd get them off the island.  And then he changed his mind in one fleeting moment, convinced everyone else to do the same, and left them all to die, for all he cared.  It just makes no sense.  And yes, I hate Jack, and everyone hates Jack who watches the show, but still, it makes no sense.  And remember when he got all bitchy and fought Kate a few episodes ago and told her about Sawyer, "He decided to stay.  I'm the one who got you off the island."  Fuck that nonsense.  Sawyer jumped out of the helicopter to save Jack and Kate's asses (when it was running out of fuel).  He was be a hero.  Jack?  Not so much.  Fuckwad.

Well I probably went a little overboard with the Jack hatred, but the anger was fresh.  And really, I liked the rest of the episode.  I loved the Ben stuff (even though he was the one even more responsible for everyone on the freighter dying).  I loved Sawyer swimming to shore to find Juliet with a bottle of rum watching the smoke from the exploded freighter go up in ashes (and presumably lamenting not only her last chance of getting off, but the death of everyone on board).  I loved Daniel being the hero (and his fate remains unknown -- he was still on the Zodiac with a bunch of unknown islanders when the freighter blew up).  I loved Miles telling Charlotte to stay, and Charlotte agreeing because she's still "looking for the place I was born" (wtf?).  I loved that Sun approached Widmore in a flash forward to suggest a partnership (to go after Ben? Jack?)  I loved Sayid coming to rescue Hurley from the psychiatric hospital in a flash forward.  I loved that Hurley thought he was playing chess with Eko (nice shout out).  And I absolutely loved when Kate hit reverse on her car in the continuation of the scene we saw in last year's finale, and drove back over Jack's body five or six times until she was sure he was dead.  Oh, maybe that only happened in my fantasies.  That would have been nice though.

In the end, we did learn one big secret -- the identify of the body in the casket of last season's finale.  It was Jeremy Bentham, who we learn in the final scene of this episode, was Mr. John Locke.  So Locke is the one major character who we know for sure is dead from this episode.  Michael and Jin as well, probably, but Locke had apparently gotten off the island a month or so before the final scene (which was 3 years after the O6's escape) to ask Jack and the others to come back to the island to save their friends (since "very bad things" had been happening).  That explains why Jack was trying to convince Kate that they should go back (after he got addicted to prescription drugs) in both last season's and this season's finales, but Kate doesn't want to (citing baby Aaron) and Jack doesn't speak to any of the other O6 except Hurley, who he figures is simply crazy.  Ben shows up in the final scene, offering to help Jack get back to the island.  Whether or not his motives are upstanding obviously remains to be scene.

So what happened to everyone by the end of season 4?  Here's a synopsis:
Locke? Dead.  But they ruined his character in season 3, so I'm sure most -- like me -- were entirely unsympathetic to see his corpse.  And it's a shocker that he didn't exactly lead the Others to greatness.  The guy was a freaking idiot. 
Jin?  Presumably dead.
Michael?  Presumably dead.
Rose, Bernard, Juliet, Sawyer, Charlotte, Miles? On the island at last check, pre-"move"
Daniel?  Floating in the ocean on the Zodiac with a bunch of redshirts
Keamy?  Dead.
Richard Alpert?  Alive (since he's immortal) and still on the island
Claire?  Missing, possibly dead, appearing in Kate's nightmares
Desmond?  On Penny's boat, in deep and unabashed lurve
Penny?  Happy to see Desmond alive and well, but probably not happy with her father
Jack?  Drug addict, but off the island for the past 3 years
Kate?  Happily stealing Claire's baby and off the island for 3 years
Sayid?  Still working for Ben, off the island
Hurley?  Still crazy, but now with Sayid, off the island
Sun?  Still bitter, blames her father and one other person (Ben or Jack) for Jin's death, off the island
Aaron?  Freaky looking 3-year-old, but off the island
Walt?  Freaky looking 25-year-old after only being 10 on the island 3 years ago, but off the island
Frank?  Whereabouts unknown, on Penny's boat at last sight
And of course, last but not least, Ben?  Time traveled to the desert, killed a couple Arabs, walked into Tunisia or somewhere a few months into the future, confronted Widmore in his bedroom but inexplicably didn't kill him, hired Sayid to be his assassin (and perhaps tricked him to do so), and now is trying to help Jack get everyone back onto the island.  Who the fuck knows how.  Or why.

And I think that's everyone, and I think that's it for this recap.  Thank god there's no new episodes until 2009.  I couldn't take any more of this.

Thanks to Lostpedia for the pictures.  They are awesome.

Comments

[FBomb]

There are about 20 F-Bombs in this review. Is that really necessary?

[Bill]

I found it appropriate given the length of the post.

[LegFuJohnson]

I need to watch this again (Tuesday), as I didn't get all the Jack hate that you did... but I did get some of it.

Right, you'd think that there was a bunch of people that jumped into the ocean before the freighter exploded... but I guess I need to re-see the scene when Jack told everyone they had to lie. I did laugh when Jack said "Let me do the talking". That was funny. Since the island is gone, so would all of the magnetic properties, and those people could theoretically be found.

I can't believe everyone would go on with the idea of lying about all of this... tell the truth, no one would believe you anyway.

Michael is dead. When that guy appeared and said "You can go now", it means he could die, as Michael tried to kill himself a few times, but the gun would always jam or something.

Jin is probably dead, but who knows, when they get back to the island, who knows. And when did everyone find out Locke's name?

We know that Jack's drunken break in to see Locke was 3 years in the future, but is that also when Sayid broke Hurley out? Or when Walt visited Hurley? He said that no one had been to visit Walt, but Jeremy did. How did he know that Hurley would even know who "Jeremy" was?

And they haven't really done any time travel yet, so I'll reserve judgment, even though an island just sort of disappeared, so we'll have to see about that one. I hope they have better controls than simply a "hyperspace" on Asteroids, cause then they might end up on the Artic Circle.

[Jonatas]

he'd only been married two mnoths. Thus, the year of the dragon has nothing to do with the story IMO. In fact, I don't even think the store owner said it was the YOTD, but I could be mistaken.I believe Mike is def. in the coffin because that's why Jack was so distraught. He believed Mike could eventually recall how to get back to the island, so he wouldn't have to keep continuing to do his hope to crash by fate trips. It was in a black neighborhood, no one was at the funeral because it was an assumed identity, and hence no one knew who he was.I need a screencap of that suicide story again, because I think folks made out a John on it, and thought John Locke, but it could actually have been Johnson.I think Regina just went crazy, like a lot of other folks on that freightor. (Brandon, and whoever blew his own head off resulting in the blood stain). That would mean the affects of the island are different for everyone, and not necessarily making one prone to time travel.Still not sure if Widmore is bad bcuz if Mike is working for Ben, and he tells them not to trust the Captain I think it is because he's being manipulated once again. I hope they didn't capture Walt again, but I'm thinking they did which is why he was able to appear to Locke on top of the pit.I think Jin had to be part of the O6 story somehow because he is the father of the child, which I'm sure could be proven through testing.I think Aaron is an O6 now, because I thought we were supposed to know all of the O6 at the end of this episode? If Jin's tombstone says 9/22, he CAN'T be an O6. Thus Sun is the only one that was revealed in this episode.Sun's FF is taking place in a relatively short time frame from when they get off the island, as she is having the child. IMO Hurley had not gone into the mental institution yet. I think each FF is going in reverse chronological order from the Jack meltdown.Props to everyone who called Aaron as an O6(if it is right).[/quote]Wow, best post on here tonight. In the closing preview they mentioned some reference to Michael's son. We all know Michael will kill if blackmailed with Walt, and I think that's the easiest way for the writers to motivate him here. Otherwise, how else could they come up with a plausible explanation on why Michael left Walt all by himself? (on this boat, pretty sure no kids are allowed).I also think Michael was in the coffin.I also think Jin gives his life saving his wife and unborn child.

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