Lost Rewatch on VHS: There's No Place Like Home, Part 2

 

Two details of the calendar that Lostipedia notes but the significance of to the context of the series rarely get mentioned.

The first is that all the action on the island in the first four seasons, from the crash of Oceanic 815 until Ben moves the island near the end of this episode take place over exactly 100 days.  (This is mentioned directly at least twice in Season Five.)  From this point forward it is going to be far more difficult to tell when exactly events in the final two seasons are taking place either on or off the island.

The writers don’t do anything by chance as we all know, so why was it that exactly 100 days went by? Well, any student of American history knows that the most significant period of change occurred in the first months of FDR’s administration which were referred to as the First Hundred Days. (Nikki Stafford herself should have remembered it considered that it was a critical part of the Mayor’s storyline in Season Three of Buffy: Mayor Wilkins actually said that just as he became invulnerable.) All Presidential administrations are compared by this metric. If there is a parallel, perhaps Darlton is using to the period when the island would undergo what would be its most significant period of transition in its long history. The fact that Ben chooses to make a seismic change in how the island ends at the climax of the episode is a direct metaphor for that fact – and given what we will later learn about who actually gave the order for the island to be moved in the first place, perhaps it was that person for whom this entire period was the most significant. Something to consider anyway.

Second, according to the calendar the Oceanic 6, Desmond and Frank are rescued on the morning of December 31, 2004 – New Year’s Eve. The date is never mentioned in the show. The context may be at the end of the year we traditionally make resolution about things we intend to change about ourselves as we enter the new year. Jack has just told everybody on the raft that they have to lie about everything that has happened to them which is significant both in that they will have to change how they behave towards the world in the future but also ignore what has happened in the last year – or more significantly more the Oceanic 6, the last hundred days.

And leading in to that fact we might as well begin at the final scene where Jack is in the funeral home, standing over Locke’s body and listening to Ben tell him what has to be done in order to come back to the island. (I’m going to just gloss over the fact that we’ve spent the entire episode being misdirected in that all of the Oceanic 6 – well not Sun – have spent the entire episode calling him Jeremy Bentham. To paraphrase Alex Trebek, “Oh the writers are having fun.” Of course when Darlton does this kind of thing and it doesn’t pay off in later episodes the Lost fan is understandably outraged. Personally, I didn’t mind that much, either at the time or later.)

Now let’s consider just how much Jack has fallen in the last three years that he seems to now be taking to heart the advice of the two men he absolutely loathed when he was on the island. Indeed, it’s worth remember the last time he saw John Locke. Remember, he was wandering around on the top of another hatch, unable to find a way in, and he had to wait for someone else to help show him what to do next. Jack does remind him of that fact at the time as well as the fact that Locke has not changed one iota ever since then.

Many mock Jack for reacting to Hurley saying that Locke moved the island with an automatic: “No he didn’t.” (Although if you want to be technical, Locke didn’t move the island; Ben did, but Hurley’s point is valid.) Jack has every right to take the moral high ground in what will be their final confrontation on the island. Locke did do everything Jack accuses him of doing and when Locke reminds him Jack put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger, Jack doesn’t bother to remind him he tried to kill him first. In fact John’s reaction of: “I was hoping we could let bygones be bygones” is particularly callous considering that Locke has gotten a lot of people killed and Jack is trying to save many of those same people.

But it is another example of Locke’s blind faith about the island coming first that he doesn’t bother to try and persuade anyone other than Jack to stay on the island. (He practically does a double take when Ben tells Jack that he can leave.) It’s possible Locke thinks that if he convinces Jack he can convince the rest of the survivors to stay; it’s more likely he doesn’t care. All he has ever cared about is the island, which is why he tells Jack that they have to lie about what happened since the plane crash.

It's worth noting that while Jack does exactly what Locke tells him too, their reasons completely reflect the kind of people they are. Locke says that they have to lie to protect the island. Jack’s reason for lying is more rational. Widmore did send a team of people to try and kill them all, and the world does believe Oceanic 815 is as the bottom of the ocean with everybody dead. (Of course when the survivors tell their stories, not one reporter asks the obvious question about the inconsistency of that fact but I’m guessing that’s why Oceanic paid out that huge settlement in the first place.) Jack, in his haphazard but rational way, wants to protect the people he left behind. All Locke cares about the island…at least until we get to the Orchid.

Now let’s look at this from Ben’s perspective. It has been hard to comprehend much of Ben’s actions on the island in the season finale compared to in Season 3. He spent the last three seasons making sure the survivors stayed exactly where they were, but the moment that Richard tells him that Kate and Sayid agreed to help rescue him in exchange for their freedom, he just says: “Fair enough.”  Kate is astonished when she hears that and justifiably so. Both Locke and Jack are amazed when Ben basically says the same thing.

Then Ben and Locke go down to the Orchid. Ben is completely businesslike, again having no patience for any of John’s understandable questions and hands him another Dharma training video. Locke, as always, immediately puts in the VCR and watches it and barely raises an eyebrow as Ben does everything he’s being told not to do. And then Keamy comes back down the elevator.

And can I just say that if Martin Keamy is representative of the kind of help Charles Widmore hires, then the island was never really in any danger. Yes, I grant you he’s a ruthless, monstrous, killing machine and Sayid was very lucky to escape from him alive. But he’s also one of the most clueless and unaware characters in the canon. Think about it. He just saw his entire team get killed. He was lucky to escape with his life. The helicopter has left the island so he has no way of getting back to the freighter. He has lost. And yet in denial of all sense, he goes right to where he knows Ben will be. He berates Richard for shooting him in the back, as if doing so in the heart would make a difference. He tells Ben that he has wrapped himself to a dead man’s trigger  and if he dies, the freighter will explode. You know, the freighter that Ben seemed willing to blow up to protect the island two weeks ago. Then he reminds Ben yet again that he killed Alex.

It's telling that Locke immediately tries to negotiate –  much as he might want people to stay on the island, it’s another to kill them as they try to leave. But Ben comes out of the locker like a demon and stabs Keamy fatally. His reaction when Locke tells him that he just killed everybody on that boat is chilling, and its just as frightening as he watches Keamy bleed out with indifference. He wants to make sure he gets the last word at the man who destroyed his life.

All of this is, however, is negated by something that is very clear at the end. Ben knows that his time on the island is over. There’s genuine sorrow in the last moments with Locke, and its clear he believes he will be leaving the island forever. Emerson has been magnificent all season but there is something so wrenching as he walks down the field of ice all the way to the Frozen Donkey Wheel. (Ben clearly knew about it from the Orchid; how he knew this moved the island we will never learn.) The moment he stands before it and says: “I hope you’re happy, Jacob” shows a man who has sacrificed everything for the island and now sees he is about to lose it all forever.

Of course, we’re not inclined to have that much sympathy for him because five minutes earlier we got the firsthand view of the consequences of his rage. We probably knew the moment we saw the C4 at the climax last week that the freighter was doomed. We might not have known the details but you probably had a sinking feeling that the only reason the Oceanic 6 survived was because they managed to be the last people off the freighter before it blew up. (Maybe that’s why I was not as disappointed as those who thought there was a more intricate explanation as to how the Oceanic 6, who were scattered all over the place throughout the season, ended up being rescued.) And, in a rare change for Lost, the simplest explanation is the one that pans out. Of course, it doesn’t change the fact as to why it was those six.

The most meaningful sacrifice was Sawyer, who over the course of Season 4 has clearly shown the most character growth. He went from being completely cold-blooded in the killing of Tom to being part of the group and willing to protect others, particularly Hurley and a futile attempt to save Claire. The action he took as the helicopter seemed about to crash into the ocean was purely heroic in a way that not even Jack has managed to do.

Then it seems very likely that Jin is dead too. It’s not quite as obvious as some of the other deaths that have taken place among the regulars, which is why many of us still had reason to hope at the end of the season that Jin was still alive. It’s more important for the series, however, that we believe Jin is gone. Yunjun Kim rarely gets credit for her work on Lost but her performance in the finale was worthy of an Emmy nomination, if not the prize. From her frantic shouts for Jin as the chopper leaves the freighter, the primal scream she gives when it explodes, the frantic shouts as she calls for them to come back, and the catatonia she slips into for the rest of the episode (in the final scene you almost wonder if she’s said a word in the last week) it is a stunning performance. And all the more contrasting with her flashforward where she talks to her daughter over the phone and then boldly and calmly walks up to Charles Widmore and confronts him. We’re not sure what she has to say when she says: “We have common interests” but the coldness in her voice almost seems to give Widmore pause.

Juliet doesn’t have many moments in the finale, but when we see her in the last scene getting drunk on Dharma rum, her performance is perfect tragicomedy. It’s not just that she thinks she can never leave the island, it’s that she now thinks that everyone who she helped send there is dead too. I have a feeling she’s trying to numb the pain – which is why she’s going to need to sober up quick.

The freighter folk all seem scattered too. Frank managed to get back to safety with the Oceanic Six and for all we know, we may never see him again. (Jeff Fahey was not a series regular in Season Four so it wasn’t impossible.) Miles, for whatever reason, chose to stay on the island despite Dan’s warning. Were the dead on the island telling him that there was a fate worse than death or did he just not have enough confidence that the mercenaries could be killed? There’s more to Miles’ story, of course, but it contradicts why he came to the island in the first place. Charlotte is a different matter. She makes it clear to Dan that the reason she wants to stay is because she was born on the island and given the fact she seemed very familiar with Dharma from her flashback that makes a lot of sense. Dan clearly wants to get off the island as fast as possible and when the island is moved we think there’s a possibility he and the other passengers may be in a similar position to the Oceanic Six.

As for the rest of the survivors, well, a lot of the background characters are dead now, either they were blown up on the freighter or killed at the massacre of the Barracks. There are clearly some still alive but given that the show didn’t care much about them before except as cannon fodder, it’s unlikely we were going to see much of them. At this point the only characters whose fate is still unknown are Bernard and Rose and whatever happened to Claire. The fact that the show made it clear Emilie De Ravin was not going to make an appearance in Season Five but would be back for Season Six led to much speculation – which wouldn’t pay out.

But what does pay out – pays out big time – is the moment of rescue. Because it turns out that the boat that ends up being the salvation of the Oceanic 6 belongs to Penny Widmore. (Fittingly it is called the Searcher.) In an episode filled with tragedy and death, the fans of Lost really needed this moment.

I certainly wasn’t expecting it. I wasn’t sure Desmond was going to make it off the freighter alive. After all, this was Peak TV: love stories had gone out of style, death was the primary driving force. So when Desmond hears the name “Mrs. Widmore” and blinks, and then we see Penny,  the viewer blinks as much as Desmond does. Everything that has just happened to Desmond – everything that has happened on the island – goes away as he sees Penny. Both of them blink several times not sure of what they’re seeing. And then they start running to each other. The moment where they embrace and kiss is two full seasons in the making and as Desmond’s love theme soars, we are witness to what was one of the great moments in the history of television. In a show where almost every character is lost spiritually and emotionally, where every character has lost someone important to them, Desmond has got back what he has lost – and Penny has found what she was looking for.

I have to tell you I was truly hoping that this was the end of Desmond’s arc and we never saw him again on the show. I admit it was unlikely – given how important time travel seemed to be to the show, how critical Charles Widmore was, and most importantly the fact that Ben had made it clear he was going to kill Penny – but I wanted to hope that when Jack told Desmond, “See you in another life”, it was closing the book on this arc of the show. I realize now it was essential for how the final seasons played out but I held on to this belief as long as I could.

We leave the Oceanic 6 as they are finally returning to civilization and we know already how this turns out. Which brings us back to Jack. While all of the survivors are just as broken as he is by the time of the final flashforward, he’s the only one who clearly wants to go back to the island. Sun has her daughter and is living for revenge. Kate still has Aaron and she seems to have gotten a message from Claire telling her very clearly not to “bring him back.”  Hurley might have wanted to go back to the island once, but when Sayid comes to liberate him from Santa Rosa he seems very reluctant about the idea. And while we think Sayid is still acting as Ben’s operative, we also know Sayid has no reason to go back to the island.

No the only one who wants to go back is Jack and he wants to go back so badly that he doesn’t even blink when Ben tells him that all of them have to go back. And I think it has less to do with trying to fix things on the island as to the fact he doesn’t have anything left here to live for. We already know that Jack was suicidal, we know his career is in ruins, we know he screwed up his relationship with Kate and Aaron. We know he stopped caring about people before this; Ben reminds him of that fact in the final scene. Jack is broken beyond repair and he may really think the island is the only place left for him. That it might not be what any of his friends want doesn’t matter to him.

So much so that he’s willing to listen to Ben or even notice when Ben basically tells him he’s coming along. I don’t know if Ben has been planning to get back to the island all this time or whether he has just recently seized the opportunity. (Later episodes make me lean towards the latter theory.) I do think that Ben has only been watching the Oceanics all this time not to protect them but to serve his own interests. I think from the moment he landed in the Tunisian Desert; he has been biding his time waiting to make a move. He is using Locke’s death as a fulcrum. (Which is the definition of hypocrisy as you’ll see.)  Ben knows he can’t convince the others to come back willingly as we’ll see Locke hasn’t been able to do the same. Ben is hoping (unreasonably as it turns out) that Jack can convince them to go back to the island that he spent 100 days trying to get them off. (Considering Kate’s reaction at the opening, that seems a big ask.)

All we know for sure is that at the end of There’s No Place Like Home, the survivors are more scattered than they’ve ever been – not just physically, as was the case at the end of every previous season,  but emotionally. Just getting the Oceanic 6 back in the same place, let alone on a plane heading towards the island seems an impossible feat. The fact that we don’t even know where the island is any more means that finding it will be harder to believe. We don’t know how many of the regulars are still alive by the time we’ll get back to the island. And most importantly we don’t know why John Locke, who in his last scene on the island seemed about to take his rightful place as leader of the Others, ended up in a coffin under the name Jeremy Bentham.

That in itself seemed the biggest shock at the end of Season Four. How could John Locke, who seemed to be the most critical character to the entire series be dead with two full seasons to go before the end? Well, the entire fanbase went into some form of denial. The major theory going forward in the aftermath of the finale was that Ben had told Jack to bring Locke’s body with him because if they did, John would be resurrected. The fact that Locke seemed to have been dead for days and embalmed did little to dissuade fans from this fact. I myself was just as certain that death was not the end for Locke and that the show would still have plans for him in Season Five. I was right about that much, but, to paraphrase the man himself, about so much else I was wrong. To be fair, the show managed to handle this part of Locke in Season Five perfectly; the writers made some missteps the rest of the way, but how they handled both Terry O’Quinn and John Locke in the final two seasons was far from one of them.

We did know going in to the fifth season that the characters were all going to end up back on the island at some point in the next season. The how and the why was going to be the major sticking point. What we did not know going into the fifth season was that the most critical question would be ‘when’. And it was in part because of that, that I feel the penultimate season of the show would be its greatest.

 

Note: My major problem with this episode is how it seems to finally erase Michael from the board. I think that his purpose was to make sure that the Oceanic 6 got off the island; as we’ll see in the final season, four of those characters were critical to the end game. But it doesn’t change the fact that the treatment of Michael was cruel. Harold Perrineau publicly expressed unhappiness about Michael’s death at the end of the season and it was a shabby treatment of his character.

I now feel this was yet another example of the toxic behavior behind the scenes when it came to the treatment of characters played by actors of color. And worse still, not only was did not the final time we’d see Michael, the treatment of him in the final season really seems like the actors are punishing his character from beyond the grave. I honestly think they are doing so for the sole purpose of getting revenge on an actor who badmouthed the show. And I’ll be honest, it’s for that reason I had my biggest problems with the series finale. (But one thing at a time.)