>: 81 THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME
Incredible choice of opening scene. I was looking for straight Bearded Jack post Season 3 runway or something insane like the three hour after-all-this-time Christian flashback/forward or even post-future Ben, but not, not Michelle Forbes in the cockpit bringing the Oceanic 6 home. Steve Anderson made a great immediate point that that’s a hat-trick for her in terms of Greatest TV shows of all time (thinking ST:TNG and BSG, not even doffing a cap to her 24 season/day, but the point stands, if she was a backwards-talking goblin in the Black Lodge or a New Canaan devotee, that’s pretty much the only way she could have done better, at this point)(or Tony’s eighty-fourth mistress in Season Five, say). But we’re getting off-track already. On-point: Opening with this scene suggests that they really will sew up the fracture, THIS fracture with the finale. This run of forward/present. It would be incredible if Season 4 ended with the Oceanic 6 making their getaway from the torched-Island madness that Kimi and his platoon ignited, if the entire finale is a slipknot and the present tense crashes right into where this flash-forward begins, even while this mass-Oceanic 6 flash-forward that we begin with careens through every glimpse we’ve had this season and crashes right past Jack and Kate on the runway and on, into whatever insane cliffhanger that such a progression implies. That’s what I want. Sew this fold up this season and tear us a new one next time, present tense being Bearded Jack either rallying the team back, or the team already having arrived on the Island at the end of 4 and dealing with what they find, while we handle a new series of flash-forwards.
Wonderful news to have the Orchid mentioned before the title. That means time-travel is coming. And Ben will probably escape this season to jump forward to Tunisia at the top of 4.9 and wreak his double-talking madness upon unassuming armed horsemen before beating them down.
Hah, maybe the Swan’s just got me so conditioned now, cheers Skinner/Candle/Pavlov, but even Jack’s cell phone tracking the chopper has me drooling for a keyboard and button to push. Or a puzzle-cube of some sort to solve.
Man, the look on Sawyer’s face walking out of the jungle holding Aaron really says it all. And he can do so much with just a scene, Miles is Genghis and then he follows Jack, as ever, into the jungle, calling out that Jack doesn’t get to die alone. That is why I drink to the health of James Ford on a weekly basis. (when they let me)
All right, the press conference. According to Michelle’s breakdown of the crash-site, it looks like we’ve either been wrong all of this time about them crashing at longitude 4.815 latitude 2.342 or that the John/Ben/Hurley/Orchid Show does in fact move the Island northwest of Australia by Day 108.
What is the survivors’ logic in saying there were more others who died? Eight people left 815. That’s not counting Aaron. Who are the other three? Why?
Juliet telling Sayid that “Jack and Kate just went running after it”, it being the chopper that has every intention of killing us all, yeah, that pretty much sums things up too, without all that pesky Dharma/Jacob mythology. Now Sayid must run and save, too. When will Jack and Kate get their chance to torture?
Was Ben signaling Richard? Who else?
Thought that whole raft that Faraday was taking out was doomed, bombed. And then Sun got on. I am being manipulated by writers.
Great plot advancement, Sun taking over Paik-Heavy Industries. Chris Kimbley points out that the idea of her in coalition with Penny Widmore in control of their fathers’ companies represents a very interesting turn.
And Hurley runs right back to Mr. Cluck’s. Of course. Great theme for a surprise party, Mom. Also, interesting twist on the Whispers. Are they just everywhere? I’m convinced that the answer to the Whispers is one of the slipknots, some electromagnetic resonance thing that can’t be revealed until 2010. And Miz Reyes sneaks in the line, “Jesus Christ is not a weapon.” Incredible. What a shame that Cheech stole his son away, I really could have hung out with Sayid and Nadia, happy together with Hurley, for like five minutes. Even five more lines. Honestly. But we had to. The sight of that odometer was my favorite thing about this episode, clapped my hands together like an autistic genius who made all of this up in the first place right there on the spot, alternately like a pig in shit, a few picoseconds after that magical combination went up on the screen, and then tick. Tick. Tick. Everyone else was like, ooooooooh, the numbers, Hurley, right.
And then Foxy destroys that scene in which Claire’s mum lets him know the score. He didn’t have to do anything but look completely crushed, but he put it over the top, and then that somehow hopeful look at Kate at the end, like they can still beat this thing. He has to win something. At the end of all this. I don’t care what it is. In any reality. Redemption.
And Richard Alpert finally makes his on-Island return, fresh from the Temple where he’s been hanging out for the duration of this season. Are you Immortal or Chrononaut, sir? Will you please answer some of our many questions? (I’m thinking you’ve got the Adam & Eve theory that I care about most)
Ah, but there at the end, Ben gives his 355-beater to John, so he’s either going to have to get it back before it all goes down or beam over to Tunisia a bit later. I think this is misdirection, deliberate, designed to make us think that he won’t actually shift away before the curtain falls on ’08. It will be.
And I just realized, Ben is the opposite of Indiana Jones. Which seems apparent in hindsight.
The only thing about this episode, and it’s not so bad on the rewatch, when I’m not just falling off the couch in clenched expectation, is that pistol-whip at the end. It doesn’t seem to stand for as much as it should. I mean the last time they did this, it was the Raft Overture segueing into Black Smoke. Way back in Season 1, when finales could not even be contained in two-hour episodes. But Giacchino definitely for the first time this season brought the goods, that opening runway scene and then the montage/transition at the end, great themes.
The title of the episode is what gives me hope. That they’re really going to tie all this up this time. Bearded Jack’s quest for meaning. The Oceanic Six. Kimi torching the Island. Ben time-traveling to Tunisia with his 355-stick. Sawyer making his choice. Jin dying. Locke is the gaping question.
The only sticking point is Claire. She seems to be dead, has given every indication of it. And yet Desmond’s visions, which haven’t cheated us yet, have her getting in the chopper with Aaron, if Chahlie sacrificed himself, which he did. Needlessly. Claire on the chopper does not seem likely now. Which does not, at this time, make sense.
It seems, optimistically, that with two hours you could actually crash all of these things into one another, and even blast the narrative forward into my sweet bearded friend motivating them all back to the only place that matters, wherever it even happens to be.
I have been growing hair on my face. For this convergence. Tonight. It’s all going to make sense for a few seconds, and then spin us around, careening toward the worst dangling suspense yet, the thing that matters most. And always, the message.
We have to go back.
Enjoy it while it lasts.
Wonderful news to have the Orchid mentioned before the title. That means time-travel is coming. And Ben will probably escape this season to jump forward to Tunisia at the top of 4.9 and wreak his double-talking madness upon unassuming armed horsemen before beating them down.
Hah, maybe the Swan’s just got me so conditioned now, cheers Skinner/Candle/Pavlov, but even Jack’s cell phone tracking the chopper has me drooling for a keyboard and button to push. Or a puzzle-cube of some sort to solve.
Man, the look on Sawyer’s face walking out of the jungle holding Aaron really says it all. And he can do so much with just a scene, Miles is Genghis and then he follows Jack, as ever, into the jungle, calling out that Jack doesn’t get to die alone. That is why I drink to the health of James Ford on a weekly basis. (when they let me)
All right, the press conference. According to Michelle’s breakdown of the crash-site, it looks like we’ve either been wrong all of this time about them crashing at longitude 4.815 latitude 2.342 or that the John/Ben/Hurley/Orchid Show does in fact move the Island northwest of Australia by Day 108.
What is the survivors’ logic in saying there were more others who died? Eight people left 815. That’s not counting Aaron. Who are the other three? Why?
Juliet telling Sayid that “Jack and Kate just went running after it”, it being the chopper that has every intention of killing us all, yeah, that pretty much sums things up too, without all that pesky Dharma/Jacob mythology. Now Sayid must run and save, too. When will Jack and Kate get their chance to torture?
Was Ben signaling Richard? Who else?
Thought that whole raft that Faraday was taking out was doomed, bombed. And then Sun got on. I am being manipulated by writers.
Great plot advancement, Sun taking over Paik-Heavy Industries. Chris Kimbley points out that the idea of her in coalition with Penny Widmore in control of their fathers’ companies represents a very interesting turn.
And Hurley runs right back to Mr. Cluck’s. Of course. Great theme for a surprise party, Mom. Also, interesting twist on the Whispers. Are they just everywhere? I’m convinced that the answer to the Whispers is one of the slipknots, some electromagnetic resonance thing that can’t be revealed until 2010. And Miz Reyes sneaks in the line, “Jesus Christ is not a weapon.” Incredible. What a shame that Cheech stole his son away, I really could have hung out with Sayid and Nadia, happy together with Hurley, for like five minutes. Even five more lines. Honestly. But we had to. The sight of that odometer was my favorite thing about this episode, clapped my hands together like an autistic genius who made all of this up in the first place right there on the spot, alternately like a pig in shit, a few picoseconds after that magical combination went up on the screen, and then tick. Tick. Tick. Everyone else was like, ooooooooh, the numbers, Hurley, right.
And then Foxy destroys that scene in which Claire’s mum lets him know the score. He didn’t have to do anything but look completely crushed, but he put it over the top, and then that somehow hopeful look at Kate at the end, like they can still beat this thing. He has to win something. At the end of all this. I don’t care what it is. In any reality. Redemption.
And Richard Alpert finally makes his on-Island return, fresh from the Temple where he’s been hanging out for the duration of this season. Are you Immortal or Chrononaut, sir? Will you please answer some of our many questions? (I’m thinking you’ve got the Adam & Eve theory that I care about most)
Ah, but there at the end, Ben gives his 355-beater to John, so he’s either going to have to get it back before it all goes down or beam over to Tunisia a bit later. I think this is misdirection, deliberate, designed to make us think that he won’t actually shift away before the curtain falls on ’08. It will be.
And I just realized, Ben is the opposite of Indiana Jones. Which seems apparent in hindsight.
The only thing about this episode, and it’s not so bad on the rewatch, when I’m not just falling off the couch in clenched expectation, is that pistol-whip at the end. It doesn’t seem to stand for as much as it should. I mean the last time they did this, it was the Raft Overture segueing into Black Smoke. Way back in Season 1, when finales could not even be contained in two-hour episodes. But Giacchino definitely for the first time this season brought the goods, that opening runway scene and then the montage/transition at the end, great themes.
The title of the episode is what gives me hope. That they’re really going to tie all this up this time. Bearded Jack’s quest for meaning. The Oceanic Six. Kimi torching the Island. Ben time-traveling to Tunisia with his 355-stick. Sawyer making his choice. Jin dying. Locke is the gaping question.
The only sticking point is Claire. She seems to be dead, has given every indication of it. And yet Desmond’s visions, which haven’t cheated us yet, have her getting in the chopper with Aaron, if Chahlie sacrificed himself, which he did. Needlessly. Claire on the chopper does not seem likely now. Which does not, at this time, make sense.
It seems, optimistically, that with two hours you could actually crash all of these things into one another, and even blast the narrative forward into my sweet bearded friend motivating them all back to the only place that matters, wherever it even happens to be.
I have been growing hair on my face. For this convergence. Tonight. It’s all going to make sense for a few seconds, and then spin us around, careening toward the worst dangling suspense yet, the thing that matters most. And always, the message.
We have to go back.
Enjoy it while it lasts.
posted by rb at 3:00 AM
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