"There's No Place Like Home" Part 2 (Season 4, Episode 13)

Will there ever be another series like "Lost"? A series that consistently entertains and surprises the viewer week after week. Where it's not-so-great episodes are better than most shows' best? A show that made me create a blog dedicated to it and for you fine readers to check out each and every week? I think not. We are really spoiled. At least we have two more years to look forward.

Before We Get to the Finale:

• If you didn't watch the rerun at 8 p.m. ET, then you didn't see the "extra footage". This occurred during the Oceanic Airlines press conference. Added in was Jack explaining that the three "survivors" who didn't make it back were Boone Carlyle, a woman named Libby, and Charlie Pace. Also a reporter asked Sayid if he was aware of what was happening in Iraq and if he was going back, to which he answered no. Also, Jack was asked about his plans and he said he wanted to have a service for his father.
• During the last commercial break of the last hour, did you catch the ad for Octagon Global Recruiting? This fake commercial offered anyone interested in "unpaid positions" to visit their website, http://www.octagonglobalrecruiting.com/ , which I of course did. It plays a video of the same ad then explains they are part of the Dharma Initiative (hence the octagon in the name - same shape as their logos). You can also submit your e-mail address (which I alsoe did) for a representative to contact you regarding an event in San Diego in late July. Coincidentally, this is also the location and date of Comic Con, one of the largest comic book/movie/TV conventions where the producers and cast of "Lost" have frequently been guests. No response yet, but I'll keep you posted.
• Finally, you may have seen where "Good Morning, America" was going to show alternate endings to last night's show. I DVRed it this morning and watched it tonight. Alternate ending #1 had Sawyer in the coffin. Alternate ending #2 had Desmond in the coffin. I'm happy they went with Locke.
  

Although not a jaw-dropping finale like last year, I feel this was a very satisfying close to another excellent season. Old questions were answered, new questions were raised (what else is new?). Exciting actions sequences balanced with emotional moments made for a full two hours. (What would they have cut out if ABC hadn't given them the extra hour?)

Best Line

• "If you mean time-traveling bunnies, then yes." Ben responding to Locke's questioning of what the Orchid Station experiments involved.
  

Did You Notice?

• I thought the "previously on 'Lost'" recap had the perfect scenes to set up the finale, especially last season's final scene continuing as this season's first scene.
• The man in the coffin has a name: Jeremy Bentham. Interestingly enough, this was a real person. He was an English philosopher and social reformer in the 1800's. Ahead of his time, he argued for equal rights for woman, separation of church and state, and the end of slavery. When he died, the real Bentham's will stipulated that his body be preserved and stored in a wooden cabinet, which he called his "auto-icon". This is not unlike Locke's Bentham whose body was stored in a wooden box, which we call a "coffin". Another interesting point is that the real John Locke was also a British philosopher, whose works later influenced other philosophers such as David Hume (Desmond Hume?) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Danielle Rousseau?).
  
• Was it foretelling that Sawyer referred to Jack as "Sundance" since later Sawyer would leap from the helicopter not unlike Butch and Sundance did off a cliff at the end of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"?
• Since the ghostly whispers occurred right before the Others attacked the mercenaries, are they the origin of them or some other, unrevealed island party?
• The fight between Keamy and Sayid was amazingly choreographed and brilliantly edited. You really believed these were two military men fighting for their lives.
• Walt (or Walt Chamberlain as I believe he should now be called) hardly even looks like the same kid from the island. Hurley summed it up nicely when he said "Getting big, dude."
• So Locke was the one who suggested the Oceanic Six should lie to protect the island. And sure enough, that's just what they did.
• I loved that Locke couldn't find the elevator because he didn't know what anthuriums looked like!
• The quick scene between Miles (a.k.a. Shorty) and Rose was priceless.
• I now believe stronger than ever that Charlotte is really Ben's childhood friend on the island, Annie. That she wanted to get back and was trying to find where she was born just confirms it for me.
• Locke's question to Ben about the "magic box" refers back to the episode where Ben had explained to Locke how he got Locke's father to the island.
• As pointed out in a previous blog entry, Edgar Halliwax is also Marvin Candle and Mark Wickmund, all presenters in the Dharma Initiative orientation films.
• The Casimir effect to which Halliwax refers is an actual term in physics. In simple terms, the Casimir effect can be understood by the idea that the presence of conducting metals and dielectrics alter the vacuum expectation value of the energy of the second quantized electromagnetic field. Yeah, right. Don't even get me started on negatively charged exotic matter.
  
• I think when "Lost" finally ends, a detective show featuring Sawyer and Frank Lapidus has potential.
• I really believe the writers missed a great opportunity for Hurley to say something comedic with the whole issue of the helicopter having too much weight on board. "I knew I shouldn't have eaten all those crackers."
• I have to believe Sawyer asked Kate to check on his daughter, Clementine, right before he jumped. The same request that would later lead Jack not to trust her.
• Sayid's mention of Bentham's supposed suicide confirms what could be gleaned from the newspaper obituary that Jack had in last season's finale. Close inspection of a still frame showed that it read Jeremy Bentham of New York hanged himself in his downtown Los Angeles loft.
• Does Sayid really not intend to take Hurley back to the island but instead to someplace safe? If he's still working for Ben, I would think not.
• So Hurley was playing chess with Mr. Eko? He's been visited by Charlie. I guess anything is possible.
• The whispers could be heard prior to the freighter's destruction.
• When Christian Shephard told Michael "you can go now", my initial thought was that he was going to transport him to safety. However, everyone I spoke with today felt he was telling Michael he was no longer needed and it was time for him to die. An interview with the actor at www.tvguide.com pretty much confirms this. He's done. Gone. Off the show. Much to the actor's surprise, in fact. Unless this is the producers' way of preventing another leak like when it was found out that Michael was returning this season. We'll see. I might just be right after all.
• The actress who plays Sun did a tremendous job of portraying the anguish and helplessness of losing Jin. Hard to believe this same character was not so long ago ready to flee to America to escape him. The island does have a miraculous effect on people.
• As for Jin, I guess it's still possible that he survived the explosion.
• I'm still not sure if I know who Sun holds responsible for Jin's apparent death. She blames her father and one other. I believed it could be Jack for leaving him behind, then I thought for sure it was Charles Widmore since it was his boat, but then I thought maybe Ben when Sun seemingly made overtures to Widmore to team up.
• So Charles Widmore and Sun's father, Mr. Paik, are old golfing buddies. Coincidence?
• My new monthly skeleton theory is that the Adam and Eve skeletons found in the cave in Season 1 are Sawyer and Juliet.
• It is obvious Ben was handing over the mantle of island caretaker to Locke, although begrudgingly so. I can't help but wonder if Ben was the Others' second choice from the start and it should have been Locke all along. If only he hadn't chosen the knife when Richard Alpert came to see him in his foster home.
  
• The ice cavern had hieroglyphics on the pillar where the lantern was similar to what was inside the secret room in Ben's closet.
• The show's producers always give a code name to the season finale. This year it was "Frozen Donkey Wheel". Who would have guessed that's exactly what it would have been?
• Ben's departure from the island sent him almost one year into the future as we saw in the earlier episode when he landed in the Tunisian desert with Halliwax's parka on, his torn sleeve and bleeding arm, and a puff of cold air breath as he landed.
• The purple sky and high-pitched sound were identical to Season 2's finale when Desmond was prevented from entering the numbers in the hatch. My co-worker Scott has a theory that the number entering was linked to the frozen donkey wheel and maintained the balance of the island's machinery.
• So what happened to Faraday and his raft of survivors when the island vanished? Were they carried along to wherever or whenever it went? Will we see him finally come ashore alone, gnawing on a leg bone? The others were all extras after all.
  
• Apparently, the island was looking out for baby Aaron when the helicopter crashed. Either that or his turnip head acts as a flotation device.
• The late night caller on Kate's phone when played backwards says "The island needs you . . . You have to go back before it's too late." Spooky, but if this was just a nightmare, then not so much. Same goes for creepy Claire and her dire warning not to take Aaron back.
• It was so wonderful to see Desmond and Penny reunited at last. It's not every girl that has her own tracking station. Probably got it for her birthday.
  
• I loved Jack using Desmond's signature line "I'll see you in another life, brother".
• Okay, this bothered me. During the Oceanic Six press conference, we saw an enlarged
• photo of the survivors bringing their raft ashore at the tiny fishing village with the locals helping them. Last night, we saw this event actually happen. Who took the picture?
• The song playing in Jack's truck as he approached the funeral home was "Gouge Away" by The Pixies. Unlike other musicians featured on the show, they have not died in a plane crash. Yet.
• Did Ben look younger and healthier to anyone else? Or was it just the fact that no one has been beating him up lately?
  
• We got the answer of who's in the coffin: Locke a.k.a. Jeremy Bentham. But now new questions arise: Why did Locke leave the island? According to what he told Jack, bad things happened after Jack left. Was it the survivors' unwillingness to return that led to his suicide? But I thought the island prevented suicides as it did with both Michael and Jack? Was it really suicide as Sayid questioned? If not, then who killed him?
  
• As soon as I saw Locke in the coffin, I immediately was reminded of Jack's dad. Does this mean if they get him back to the island, Locke will be up and about again? Alive and well?
  

The Numbers - 2 3 4 5 6 8 10 15 16 23 42 108

• Kate said Jack called her for 2 days straight to convince her to go back to the island.
• Kate also said she spend the last 3 years trying to forgot the horrible things that happened on that last day.
• Desmond had 6 months of explosive ordnance disposal training in the army.
• Faraday told Charlotte and Miles that he was leaving in 10 minutes.
• The Orchid was Station 6 of 6 Dharma Initiative locations.
  
• The time traveling bunny had a 15 on it.
• The time was 8:15 when Sayid killed the man in the car.
• Sayid told Hurley that Jeremy Bentham had died 2 days ago.
• Lapidus estimated there was 4 to 5 minutes of fuel remaining in the helicopter.
• Michael said there was 5 minutes worth of liquid nitrogen left in the tank.
• Ben said Richard and the Others would be waiting for Locke 2 miles east of the Orchid.
  

And so, my fellow Lost and Founders, another season has come to a close. I wish I had my own frozen donkey wheel so I could move ahead 8 months for the premiere of the second-to-the-last season and see what these "few ideas" Ben has for getting them all back to the island and if "all of them" includes Walt Chamberlain and Desmond and Kenny Rogers, I mean Frank. Until then, Namaste.