S04E12: 'There's No Place Like Home: Part 1'

Watching Lost can be extremely infuriating and frustrating at the best of times. Yet it's an indication of the show's quality when you find yourself plunged into deep anguish because a cracking episode has the audacity to end abruptly. The first part of the fourth season finale is a prime example of this.

Just what is the utterly compelling Ben Linus's grand plan? Presumably it involves his mysterious use of mirror signals to summon his fellow Others, but given Lost's love of twists it's perfectly possible that the island's polar bear will teleport into the Orchid and maul Charles Widmore's mercenaries to death. As ever, the interaction between Locke and Linus in the build-up to the cliffhanger is a joy to watch, as the latter worms his way into the crash survivor's consciousness.

The decision to depict the return of the Oceanic Six in the future provides an inspired opening to the episode, and adds a couple of pieces to the jigsaw. There's clearly plenty of heartache and revelations in store for the Six, but there's one particularly outstanding scene in this episode. It occurs when Claire's mother reveals the truth to Jack about his half sister. The shock and pain is etched on Jack's face, yet he has to suppress any outpouring of grief because of the cover story surrounding the plane crash. To further heighten the drama, Claire's mother passes by Aaron in Kate's arms, not knowing that the baby is actually her grandson.

There's one slight gripe about the episode though. When Daniel ferried back six people to the Freighter, half of them were total unknown random crash survivors. It was glaringly conspicuous that these folks were expendable extras and it's a shame that Lost couldn't have added more scope and at least given everyone some kind of minimal presence in previous episodes.

However, like Sayid and his little boat, the next episode cannot wash up on our shores soon enough.


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