"There's No Place Like Home (Parts 2 & 3)"

Well, here we are...we find ourselves at the end of another season of LOST. This end is sweet but of course a little bitter. We had a fantastic season. We had a season that rivaled the first in originality and drama. We had what might be the best episode yet of the series ("The Constant") as well as some pretty interesting developments in the future for our Losties. WE learned a little more about the pasts of some of our most important characters (John Locke) while we learned about the future of Others (Ben Linus). Despite the near ruin of the writers strike, I'd say we got some of the best network television I have ever seen. And it all culminated in tonight's finale.

STOP READING NOW TO AVOID SPOILERS!!!!!

Let me begin with the extended scene from the re-airing of "There's No Place Like Home (Part 1)." As confirmed by the producers in their last audio podcast, the re-run of Part 1 contained an extended press conference scene with the Oceanic 6 and addressed the initial survivors of the crash that dies prior to rescue. In "Eggtown," Jack testified that there were eight survivors of the initial crash but only six were rescued. I, and many others, overlooked the obvious when we counted Aaron as one of the initial eight. Of course he was not born yet, so that gave us five final survivors with three that died before rescue occurred. The question of who the other three were was answered in the extended press conference. The other three survivors of the crash were Boone, Libby and Charlie. Although this was interesting and I'm ultimately glad that it was addressed, my question is: if you are going to lie about who survived but died before rescue, why would you pick the three deaths that were hardest on the Losties? I found it to be a little too cute for these three to be the other "survivors" of the crash when there were plenty of randos to choose from such as Scott, Steve, Nikki or Paulo. But enough about that!

Parts 2 and 3 of "There's No Place Like Home" were not a perfect finale to a season, but it is hard to follow-up last season's "Through the Looking Glass." I hope that the series finale of LOST is as good as "Through the Looking Glass." But I digress. This finale certainly started out with a bang as it picked up right where "Through the Looking Glass" left off. Very nice! Kate is still not convinced that they must return to the island and we still don't know who's in the coffin, but we learned immediately that his name is Bentham (sp?).

I had a bad feeling about Jin from the set-up in Part 1, but I was still convinced that Michael wouldn't be killed so soon after he was brought back to the show. But it was very cool when Christian showed up to tell him that he was done and could go. Very cool. So is Jin dead? I think so. It would be very hard to convince me that we survived that explosion and sinking of the freighter. Sad that it was, it was very necessary to complete the story arc that began in
"Ji Yeon."

On the subject of completing story arcs, I must say that this finale really tied together so many threads that were started during this and previous seasons. It was pretty amazing actually considering what we are used to on LOST. From how Ben ended up in a parka to how the Oceanic 6 finally united, this episode really put a nice bow on a whole lot of loose threads.

Speaking of loose threads, how about Desmond and Penny finally reuniting? I guess we couldn't expect Desmond to die or else there is no sense of urgency in Ben's threat to Charles Widmore that he would kill Penny in retaliation for killing Alex. I was glad to see Desmond and Penny finally getting back together, but it was not as compelling as their phone call from "The Constant."

In an interesting scene relatively early in the episode, Hurley is visited by a teenage Walt. Boy has Malcolm David Kelly grown up. I have been re-watching Season 1 lately and he seems so young compared to the Walt that we saw tonight. The sad part is that he asked Hurley about his dad. It wasn't sad at the time, but by the end of the episode, it was pretty clear that Michael wouldn't be going home to Walt. So what does this mean for Walt? Is his story over now that Michael is dead? I don't think so. I think that Walt will be playing a part in the future of LOST. Maybe even as a character that we know as Matthew Abaddon!

Sun has taken her position in Paik Heavy Industries very seriously. She even made that trip to London to meet Charles Widmore. But was it all about business as usual. I think that it is pretty clear that Sun has plans to use Paik Heavy Industries, with the help of Widmore Industries, to find the island.

Sayid rescued Hurley from the mental instituation to take him "someplace safe." Hurley even asked if they were going back to the island. Sayid assured him that they weren't. So what gives? Is Sayid planning to keep them from getting back to the island? If so, why? It would seem that all of the Oceanic 6 have a reason to go back.

For most of this season, I have been wondering what would finally "spook" Kate into realizing that the island still had power over her. It finally happened towards the end of the episode when she awoke in the night to find Claire in Aaron's room. Freaky! So Claire seems to be carrying on the Shepard family tradition of visiting/terrifying her kids. But the odd thing is that she told Kate not to bring Aaron back to the island. Why not?

Maybe it has something to do with all the bad things that happened on the island after the Oceanic 6 left. I suppose we will find out more about that in Season 5. But no discussion of this finale would be complete without mentioning the obvious. The big twist at the end. The identity of the man in the coffin...the man who met with the Oceanic 6 before his "suicide." The man who's funeral was attended by no one. The man who Jack and Ben both had to see after hours. A man who couldn't possibly be off the island...John Locke. So did he move the island like Ben causing him to also be banished forever. It's no wonder that Jack wanted to kill himself when he learned of Locke's death. I'm sure he was Jack's only hope for return to the island. Oh, this eight months will be fraught with speculation. But before I miss LOST too much, I plan to savor this season as I watch the episodes again and wait for news from the LOST panel at Comic Con. It will be a long hiatus, but we survived last year and together, we can survive this year!