ABC/MARIO PEREZIf you haven't seen part one of Lost's season-ending "No Place Like Home," board the nearest flimsy watercraft and get out of here. If you're caught up, grab the nearest mirror, 15-year-old saltines and and binoculars, and click in to join the party!
WHAT WE LEARNED
Giant Piece of Puzzle Missing! I know we never really know what's going on, but to me the giant elephant in the living room of this episode are the massive and blatant lies of not just the Oceanic Six but the Oceanic Airlines lady. Well, I guess the lying makes sense, but I don't understand how the O6 get from our Island to that uncharted desert isle in the Sunda archipelago. Are the Oceanic Airlines people in on it at all? Or are the Six pulling the wool over their eyes as well? The Michelle Forbes character seems relatively straightforward—maybe a little fishy, but more in a corporate flack way than a giant global conspiracy kind of way. I do hope the leap from our Crazy Island to the Indonesian islet is explained soon, because it's driving me nuts!
Buddy Cop Series? Sweaty and dirty Jack and Sawyer on Island missions together is so hot it almost burns my eyeballs.
Noor Abed Jazeem! Andrea Gabriel and Naveen Andrews have great chemistry. Seeing Sayid and Nadia together like that—awww, she came looking for him!—makes me want to personally kill whoever ordered Nadia's death, except that doing it myself would take away Sayid's chance to do so, and it is his right and privilege to end his wife's killers. And yes, this show has made me utterly bloodthirsty, but I don't care. At its heart, Lost is a character study, and after all this time, I feel so attached to these people that I take their wounds and pain personally. Charles Widmore and all his accomplices can go straight to hell.
Fourth Party? Am I crazy, or did Michelle Forbes' Dekker character nod to an unseen someone in the cockpit of the transport plane?
Sunshine, You Rule: What's that zany misspelling the kids use on the Internet when someone totally beats down someone else? PWNS? Yes, that's it. So, yeah: SUN PWNS PAPA. You go, girl. And all in the name of her husband, our beloved Jin. She's a good wife, and she's going to be a brilliant corporate raider. No doubt, too, Paik Corp.'s ties to Widmore will come in handy when it's finally time to save her baby daddy. Meanwhile, we must ponder: Who is the other person who helped kill Jin? Is it Sun herself, taking responsibility for his death, or is it someone else? If it's someone else, god help them. Daddy gets to live because he's Ji-Yeon's grandfather, but this other person probably won't be so lucky...
Claire's Mom Is Conscious! Wowza. The reveal to Jack (and presumably the bystanding Kate) that Claire was his sister was nicely done indeed, not least because it came with a bonus reveal: Claire's mom came back to life, out of her car-accident coma, sometime between the crash of Oceanic 815 and the rescue! I think last we saw Mama Littleton, Claire was heavily pregnant and visiting her comatose mother so they could watch nature programs together. What a difference a few months make! And of course now we have another mystery to unravel for seasons five and six: What does Jack think about the fact that Claire is his sister?! Because that kind of news is what's known around my house as a kick in the pants. By the way, mad props to Matthew Fox for the way he played Jack's shock at the fact that Claire is his father's secret Australian love child.
Aaron-Related Lies: Did the O6 purposefully lie to the world about Aaron's parentage so they wouldn't have to give him back to his relatives? That's kind of sneaky and rotten, but maybe there are extenuating circumstances? Like they have to take care of the baby because they don't believe anyone is prepared to do what needs to be done? (What needs to be done?!) For that matter, Kate really takes to the lie that Aaron is hers. When and if Claire is recovered, returning Aaron to her custody is going to be excruciatingly emotional and painful for everyone involved. This show is mean!
The Circle Is Closed: Have Sawyer and Jack officially changed places now? Jack is swearing Sawyer's favorite epithet, "Son of a bitch!" and Sawyer, for his part, is saying stuff like, "Hold up! You don't get to die alone," which sounds to me very much like an adoption and extension of Jack's motto for the survivors, "Live together, die alone."
Chaniel? Danlotte? The look that Charlotte gave Daniel as he zoomed off the beach broke my heart a little bit. I think our cranky Charlotte has finally come around to the charms of our physicist friend. And let me be the first to say, "Awww..."
Magic Mirror People? Ben was signaling to someone on that mountaintop, but which someone? Is it the people who are wherever it is that Harper hangs out? Is it Richard Alpert's people, or is it some other Island organization?
Splody Boat: Michael has the Ben-supplied suitcase bomb, plus there appears to be a wall of C4 plastic explosive in the cargo hold of the freighter. Is there any way that ship doesn't turn into a fireball by the end of the two-finale? And what does that mean for Michael, Desmond and Jin?!
I'm Calling It Now: I predict that Nestor Carbonell will be a series regular in season five. I have no spoilers, I just get the feeling that Richard Alpert has a lot of story to tell us about our Island. For that matter, I suspect the Orchid Station is going to be around for an equally long while.
Quotes of the Night:
- "John, how many times do I have to tell you?! I always have a plan." —Ben
- "Jesus Christ is not a weapon." —Mama Reyes (one of the great underappreciated comic characters of Lost)
- "The only good thing about a wake is the free booze." —Dr. Christian Shephard
WHAT LIES AHEAD
I found out earlier this week what happens in the finale and in a series that is continually shocking, I have never been quite so shocked. Check back Monday in the Watch With Kristin Show for more...