Lost: Season 4, Episode 12 "There's No Place Like Home, Part 1" Review

 "Hold up!  You don't get to die alone."

-James "Sawyer" Ford

The first part of the season 4 finale starts in a flash-forward with the Oceanic 6 landing in Hawaii after being rescued.  Jack (Matthew Fox), Hurley (Jorge Garcia) and Sun (Yunjin Kim) are all reunited with their families, while Sayid (Naveen Andrews) is finally reunited with Nadia (Andrea Gabriel).  At a press conference, they tell a very different story than what actually occurred.  They say they crashed in the water  with three other survivors, Boone, Libby, and Charlie, who all died on the Island and Kate (Evangeline Lilly) gave birth to Aaron on the Island.

Months later, Sun manages to take over her father's company and tells him that she hold him responsible for Jin's (Daniel Dae Kim) death.

At Hurley's birthday party, his father, David (Cheech Marin), gives him the fully restores Camaro they used to work on together.  Hurley sees the speedometer is set to the Numbers and runs away. 

At his father's funeral, Jack is approached by Carole Littleton (Susan Duerden), Claire's mother, who tells him the truth about why his father was in Australia and that Claire is actually his half-sister.  Jack is horrified to realize that Aaron is actually his nephew.

On the Island, Jack and Kate set off after the helicopter, but run into Sawyer (Josh Holloway), Miles (Ken Leung), and Aaron.  Sawyer tells them that Claire vanished.  Kate, Miles, and Aaron head back to the beach, while Jack and Sawyer move on to the helicopter.  They find Lapidus (Jeff Fahey) handcuffed to it and agrees to fly them to the freighter.  Lapidus tells them the mercenary team is waiting to get Ben (Michael Emerson) at the Dharma Orchid Station.  Since Hurley is with Ben, Jack and Sawyer go after them.

Kate, Miles, and Aaron get back to the beach as Sayid arrives with the Zodiac raft.  Kate and Sayid go after Jack and Sawyer, but are soon captured by Richard (Nestor Carbonell) and the Others.  Daniel (Jeremy Davies) starts ferrying people to the freighter.  His first group includes Sun, Jin, and Aaron.  He gets them to the freighter, where they are reunited awkwardly with Michael (Harold Perrineau).  They are quickly alerted to a massive bomb in the hold of the ship, discovered by Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick).

Ben, Hurley, and Locke (Terry O'Quinn) make their way to the Orchid, but discover the mercenaries have made it there first.  Ben tells Locke to find the real Orchid station underneath the fake one before giving himself up to the mercenaries, where he is knocked out by Keamy (Kevin Durand).

What Works:

My absolute favorite part of this episode is the ending montage sequence.  It gives us an excellent cliffhanger to the danger all of the Oceanic 6 are facing.  The music is incredibly ominous and some of my favorite work from composer Michael Giacchino.  It, like the rest of the episode, does a fantastic job of setting up the rest of the finale.

This episode is pretty much one massive cliffhanger.  Ben is captured, Sayid and Kate are captured, and there's a bomb on the freighter.  I remember being out of my mind with excitement the first time I watched this episode and it still manages to get me pumped up even when I know what happens.

The flash-forwards are excellent across the board.  Everything with the press conference is fascinating as we still don't know who is actually dead and why they have to lie.  It makes your mind run wild with possibilities.  

We also get to see some fantastic acting from both Yunjin Kim and Matthew Fox.  It's awesome seeing Kim finally confront her father and put him in his place.  Fox is incredible without saying a word as he reacts to what Carole is telling him.  His final look at Aaron to end his flash-forward is incredible.

The best part of the flash-forwards is Hurley's.  Throwing an island-themed surprise party for him is one of the funniest things in all of Lost.  We also get a nice moment between him and his father, a rare occurrence on this show, only for the curse to rear it's ugly head with a heart-breaking regression for Hurley.

What Sucks:

This episode is all about setting up the final part of the finale.  It does a great job at that, but this episode does suffer a bit because of its role.  Not much actually happens on the Island in this episode.  It's all setup and I think there's a ceiling for how high a setup episode can get.  Fortunately, this episode hits that ceiling.  

Platinum Polar Bear:

The Platinum Polar Bear goes to the most competent character of the episode.  For the first part of "There's No Place Like Home," I'm giving the award to Michael...I guess.  There really aren't many good options here because not much happens on the Island.  Michael does end up fixing the engines, which allows the freighter to start moving closer to the Island.  Granted, he's the one who broke the engines, but he's fixing his mistakes, so that's something.  I don't feel strongly about this one.  This is Michael's 2nd time winning this award, which ties him for 13th place with Rose, Ana Lucia, Ben, and Lapidus.

Verdict:

As far as setup episodes go, this is about as good as it gets.  Not a ton happens, but it gets me really excited for what is going to happen next.  The cliffhangers are stellar, the music is amazing, and the flash-forwards are fantastic.  This episode has absolutely got it going on.

 9/10: Great