There's No Place Like Home - Part One

Lost - Episode 4.12

It's hard to review an episode like this. This is the first part of the final three hours for the fourth season of Lost, and as a result, there is a lot of chess piece movement so all the characters are where they need to be for this arc's resolution. Interestingly enough, the writers have positioned the cast in such a wide separation, that I have no idea how this is going to happen.

We know who will get off the island. The opening of the episode re-enforces this by revealing the details of the Oceanic Six's (Jack, Kate, Sun, Sayid, Hurley, and Aaron) return to civilization. We also know that they aren't telling the truth about their survival. Luckily, the press start to fish out some of the plot holes that are fairly evident. If Aaron is really Kate's child, then she would have been six months pregnant when she was in custody with the U.S. Marshall. Hurley is surprisingly overweight for a guy that has spent months on a tropical island.

Given the placement of the Oceanic Six on the island before the rescue at the end of this episode, I'm wondering how the hell they end up in the same place to be rescued? Sun has Aaron and is on the freighter deck, while Jin, Michael, and Desmond are down below disarming a bomb. Kate and Sayid are in the hands of Richard and the Others. Jack is off with Sawyer and Frank at the helicopter, not far from the Orchid Station, and Hurley is right outside the Orchid Station with Locke. Jack, Kate, Sayid and Hurley are close enough that I can see them potentially getting off in the helicopter, but Sun and Aaron are five miles off shore. It's going to be an interesting two hours in two weeks, to say the least.

Questions, questions, questions:
1. How's Ben going to get out of this one? Even Locke was skeptical about Ben's "plan". To tell you the truth, Ben sort of came off as a caricature when he told Locke that he "always has a plan". Not that there was anything wrong with Michael Emerson's delivery, but the line was written in a way that Ben didn't seem like the bad ass we got to see in "The Shape of Things to Come". The line bordered on cliche. However, I have every confidence that Ben will pull off something spectacular and position himself to be able to teleport to the Sahara Desert.

2. How is the island going to get moved? We know it involves the Orchid Station. Also, given the time theory involvement, will time off the island spent by the Oceanic Six move at a different pace? Will years off the island seem like months on the island?

3. What will be the circumstances that will keep everyone else from leaving the island? This might not be too hard to suss out. Events will conspire to put the Six together and they might be the only folks that are alive and off the island when it moves. I think any nameless Losties on the freighter are going to get blown up. I bet Desmond and Jin will somehow live as a result of some noble sacrifice by Michael.

Then there are the few that would choose to stay. Rose's cancer has been halted due to the healing properties of the island. Her husband Bernard would understandably want to stay with her. Locke's destiny is intertwined with that of the island. Sawyer has nothing worth going home to and has actually become a leader and has found people he cares about on the island (though the two people that he's the closest to, Kate and Hurley, leave).

And least I forget...
4. What about the goddamn four-toed statue? That one was for Allison.

On a side note, Michelle Forbes makes an appearance as the spokesperson for Oceanic Airlines. She's been getting a lot of work lately (Lost, Battlestar Galactica, In Treatment). I wish she had a regular series to star in, though. I think she's awesome.

7 out of 10