Season 4, Episode 12 – There’s No Place Like Home

I was reading an interview with Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse the other day, and they were talking about how they were sitting around editing the finale and wondering how they ever thought they were going to fit it into the time they had. Now I feel their pain. There was a TON of stuff going on…so much that it almost felt overloaded at times. Imagine having to shave a whole hour off of what we’ve got now.

So…where to start. We see the Oceanic 6 making their arrival at home, and we finally hear their story in full…they floated on life cushions for days until the eight survivors landed on an uninhabited island. That number fell to six before they were rescued. (Why? Why not just say that they were the only survivors? To add some credibility to the story…or is there more to it?)

Sayid was reunited with his long lost (and soon to be dead) Nadia in a very touching scene. Sun stepped up to her father and put him in his place, taking control of his company with the large settlement she received from the crash. Hurley returns home to his family, only to start to slip back into insane-Hurley-mode when he sees the dreaded numbers on the odometer of his birthday present.

In the best scene of the night, Jack finally has the funeral for his father. After the ceremony, Carole Littleton approaches Jack and tells him that Christian was Claire’s father (though she had no idea that Jack even knew who Claire was). I think that moment was the best acting that we’ve seen out of Matthew Fox yet…I loved how he had to contain his feelings about Claire, who he became close with on the island, but still emote surprise to Carole. Great stuff there.

Island stuff now…first off, let’s talk about the original search party from the freighter. I’m really liking Daniel, especially now that he’s making goo-goo eyes at Charlotte and acting all heroic, going back to the island that he is so obviously terrified of. My biggest complaint is about Miles, though. I loved his character and was really excited to see where he was going to go, but he’s basically faded into the background over the last several episodes. Bring back Miles!

As usual, Ben stole the show last night…especially considering how little he was actually in the episode. Between the 15 year old crackers and “How many times have I told you…I always have a plan” he can take simple, mundane lines and turn them into something wonderful.

I think I’ve got the moving the island thing figured out…as close to figured out as possible when it comes to Lost, that is. Back before the season even started, ABC released an Orchid Station Orientation video (check it out here), which has led many to speculate that this station has some form of time-bending properties…and with all of the time-jumping stuff that’s been going on this season, that theory has gained more and more credibility. I think we’ve been thinking “how do you physically move an island?” The question is not where they’re going to move the island to, but rather when they’re going to move the island to. I could go much deeper, but I’ll let your own imaginations do that for you.

Great setup for a finale! This episode reairs at 8/7c on May 29, followed by the two-hour finale.