Episode 12 - There's No Place Like Home (1)
30 March 2012
Present: Jack and Kate set off in search of the chopper. They run into Miles and Sawyer. Kate takes Aaron back to the beach while Jack and Sawyer continue on. They find Frank who offers to fly them away but they go off to rescue Hurley. At the beach Sayid arrives with the boat but heads off to save Jack with Kate. Daniel realises that the island may be about to be moved and begins ferrying people to the freighter. That includes Sun and Jin who take Aaron and are reunited with Michael. He and Desmond discover a huge amount of explosives on the boat connected to devices sending out a signal. Ben tells Locke how to enter the Orchid station while he hands himself over to Keamy.
Flashback: In flash-forward we see the Oceanic Six arriving in Hawaii. They meet their families, including Nadia and then face the press. They stick to their lies and head back to their lives. We see Sun buy a controlling interest in her father’s company, Hurley seeing the numbers in his car and Jack giving his father’s eulogy. After the funeral Claire’s mother reveals to Jack that his sister, Claire, was on the plane with him.
The Good: This definitely feels like the setup to a season finale. Though that implies some limitation in this episode, it is also a compliment. The pieces are all put in place for what should be another fantastic final two hours. The montage at the end of the episode is very effective at showing the jeopardy which the characters are in. The discovery of the explosives which are presumably linked to Keamy is a sensible plot twist and makes him look even smarter and more ruthless.
In flash-forward we get some really nice scenes. Seeing the Oceanic Six getting off the plane is an emotional moment (see Best Moment). It is in many ways how we assumed the show might end one day and even with the impending doom hanging over them it still feels significant. Many will enjoy Sun’s girl power moment despite my reservations (The Bad). The return of the numbers in Hurley’s car is excellent. They were such a significant story and their reappearance shows that they still play a role in the story. It is also a creepy moment and Hurley plays it with great seriousness. It seems like the first indication that the Oceanic Six were not meant to leave the island. Jack has two particularly good moments at Christian’s funeral. The first is his line to Kate that he had a lot of practise at giving eulogies. In a show with so much death, it can become easy to gloss over it. Even this tiny reminder of the loss and tragedy of death is good to see. His acting is again very good as he reacts to the news that Claire is his sister and therefore Aaron is his nephew. It’s not easy to portray the shock and thought process that that revelation would cause but he does it very well.
Ben and Hurley have proved to be an amusing duo and the line about the fifteen year old crackers is funny. Hurley’s parents are also fun as ever with the island themed party a really nice idea. It’s nice to see the actual moment when Sayid is reunited with Nadia. It’s also interesting to see the Others come to the rescue at the end of the episode. Now that they are fighting Keamy it would seem they will finally be the good guys Ben always claimed they were.
The Bad: The flash-forward have some questionable moments in them. As I have mentioned before Nadia’s return really means a lot less because we learn of her death (409) before we see her reunion with Sayid. Kate carrying Aaron to both the press conference and the funeral is a bit odd. It is forgivable because her need to bond with him would be so great. However if the press conference is plausible then the funeral isn’t. It must have been held at least a few weeks after they return and surely by then she could have found someone to look after him for a couple of hours. The fact that Kate was meant to be six months pregnant when she was arrested should also have raised eyebrows as presumably the Marshall’s records made no mention of it whatsoever.
The funeral itself is also questionable. Jack says it was ten months ago that he was planning his father’s eulogy. A joint funeral for him and Christian would surely have been held in the meantime as he was presumed dead. So most people have had ten months to get over Christian’s passing and yet they are all solemnly sitting at his funeral. Presumably this was a special memorial service for Jack’s sake, which is fine. But wouldn’t such an event have been a private affair? Would they really have told enough people for Claire’s mother to have discovered it was happening? Of course this is nitpicking and a few careful explanations could make it seem more understandable.
Sun taking over her father’s company also seems a bit implausible. Paik Heavy Industries looks like a multi-million dollar company and if so would need an incredibly rich buyer to purchase a controlling interest. Surely Sun wouldn’t have that much money from her settlement? The men talking to Mr Paik talk about someone using five different banks. I suppose Sun could have attracted some heavy investors or even used money from her fellow survivors. However it all feels a bit convenient and designed to present Sun with a happy “ending” to her story. Mr Paik is also essentially a thug who used Jin to beat and kill people. I know Sun is his daughter but I would be worried about messing with him.
Back on the island it seems strange that Kate doesn’t argue with having Aaron foisted on her. She was already on her way to the chopper, so why doesn’t she hand him back to Sawyer and tell him to go to the beach? Sawyer doesn’t mention all the dead survivors who went with Locke. You would think all of them would have been familiar to Jack and their deaths should have been acknowledged in some way.
The Unknown: Why do the pilots say that the Oceanic Six are bad mojo? Is that a general suspicion about crash survivors or do they know something? Who is the other person responsible for Jin’s death (as Sun says)? Does Kate know that Aaron is related to Jack? How does Daniel know about The Orchid? Is that something he learnt about and has subsequently forgotten?
Best Moment: As the Oceanic Six leave the plane they see Sun and Hurley’s parents and Jack’s mother. The scene is filmed in slow motion as it attempts to capture the emotion of the moment. Sayid and Kate are alone with no family there to greet them. Suddenly a meaty arm lands on Sayid’s shoulder and Hurley introduces him to his parents who hug him. It’s such a caring moment that it really touched me and makes Hurley impossible not to like.
The Bottom Line: Many of my problems with this episode may get cleared up as the finale unfolds and perhaps beyond. Really this is a decent episode and it more than fulfils its task of setting up the season finale which as you would expect looks both exciting and intriguing in equal measure.
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