There’s No Place Like Home SE4, EP 13 & 14

“Couldn’t find the anthuriums, could you?”

Let’s get this out the way right up front: I was wrong about the coffin. I freely admit it. Let’s pretend that I never pushed that theory as vigorously as I did. Can we move on please? Thank you.

Furthermore, there was a huge amount of information to disseminate for this double episode, so due to some people’s impatience (I wouldn’t want to mention anyone by name—BOBBIE) I rushed this out. Check the blog in a few days to see if there are any updates.

Jeremy Bentham comes calling
Well, here we are again, at the airport. The same place we left Jack at the end of last season. We find out right way that “Jeremy Bentham” is the person who died. We know it’s not his real name, but he’s apparently been making the rounds visiting the Oceanic Six, telling them they have to go back. He’s seen Jack and has convinced him. Jack is now desperately trying to convince Kate to go back. “You believed him?” Kate is incredulous. “You knew he was crazy!” “It’s the only way to keep you and Aaron safe.” Jack explains. Kate is livid. “You don’t get to say his name! When I’m the one that has to explain to him why you don’t read to him anymore!” She’s had it with Jack, “For three years I’ve tried forgetting all the horrible things that happened on the day we left! How dare you ask me to go back!”

An older black woman shows up at the looney bin. “Are you Hurley? Are you crazy? Are you going to do anything crazy?” Hurley doesn’t think so. Who is this woman, by the way? “You don’t know me, you know my grandson.” WALT. Walt tells Hurley, “I kept waiting for one of you to come back and see me.” Jeremy Bentham came to see him, too. “I don’t understand why you’re all lying.” Walt wonders. “We’re lying because it’s the only way to protect everyone who didn’t come back,” Hurley explains. “Like my dad?” Yeah, like your dad, Walt.

Sayid kills a man who has been staking out Hurley’s looney bin. Sayid enters Hurley’s room. “Sayid. I think visiting hours are over dude.” “I want you to go somewhere with me. Someplace safe.” Sayid suggests. “Dude, I’ve been talking to dead people for weeks now. I don’t need paranoia, too.” Bentham has been to see Hurley, too. “Bentham is dead. Let’s go.” Sayid says. “Hold on,” Hurley has one more move to make on his chess game. “Checkmate, Mr. Eko.”

Sun approaches Charles Widmore and introduces herself as the managing director of Paik Industries. Widmore pretends he doesn’t know who she is and Sun call him on it. “We have common interests, Mr. Widmore. Call me when you want to talk. We’re not the only ones who made it off that island.” I believe Sun is implying their mutual knowledge of Desmond at this point. “Why would you want to help me?” Widmore asks. Sun simply walks away. Is she going to cooperate with Widmore? Or has “Jeremy Bentham” paid her a convincing visit as well?

Kate suddenly awakens from a sound sleep. THEN the phone rings. There’s a guy mumbling in reverse on the other line. The audio of this was available on WMMR this morning it was: “The island needs you. You have to go back. Before it’s too late.” She hears someone in the house, grabs her gun and runs to Aaron’s room. Someone is in there with him. “Get away from my son!” Kate warns. The stranger looks up: It’s Claire with a warning to Kate: “Don’t you dare bring him back!” Kate wakes up in a cold sweat. She goes into Aaron’s room, kneels by his bedside and apologizes for what she is apparently about to do: bring Aaron back to the island.

I think we can discount the significance of Claire’s appearance and her stated wishes in this dream since Claire’s appearance was in a DREAM, and not a creepy Libby-like way of appearing to the wide-awake. Clearly, Aaron was not meant to be “raised by another” and needs to be reunited with Claire. Also, the Oceanic Six were never MEANT to leave the island.

Fat druggie Jack goes back to the funeral home. He breaks in to open the coffin. As he is standing over the coffin, a familiar voice says “Hello Jack.” Of course, it’s Ben. Ben asks if he came to see him. “Jeremy” has been visiting everyone. Ben tells Jack what he already knows. They have to go back. All of them. Except Jack is alienated from all of them. They won’t listen to them. Lucky for Jack, Ben has a few ideas; he always has a plan.

The camera finally pans out to reveal Jeremy Bentham, the occupant of the coffin: Locke. NOT HURLEY.

The Orchid
Keamy is frog-marching Ben to the chopper and he wants to know, “Why are you so important, Ben?” But Ben has questions of his own, “Did Charles Widmore tell you to kill my daughter?” Before Keamy can answer, Kate stumbles out of the jungle. She says she is being chased by Ben’s people but she shoots a meaningful look at Ben so we know she’s part of an Other plan to rescue Ben. The Mercs spread out and the Others take them out, in their creepy Other way, one by one. Kate sees her opening, tells Ben to stay close to her. They run through the jungle, Ben stumbles, and Kate comes back for him. Keamy catches up, but it’s Sayid to the rescue.

I have no words to adequately describe the badass fight that ensues, as Sayid is evenly matched with Keamy. But Keamy eventually gets the upper hand, and begins to strangle Sayid. Suddenly, shots are fired into Keamy’s back and he collapses. Sayid looks visibly shaken after the encounter. He looks up to see who has saved Kate, Ben and himself, and it’s our timely friend, Richard Eyeliner. Ben welcomes him to the dinner party, “Thank you for coming Richard.” “Don’t mention it.” Richard replies, equally polite. “Please pass the Grey Poupon.”

Sawyer and Jack eventually find Hugo hanging out in the jungle waiting for Ben and Locke to do their thing. Hugo is happy to see Sawyer. “Dude you came back! How’d you know where I was?” But he’s not so happy to see Jack—he actually seems uncomfortable around Jack.

Hurley and Sawyer are great together-they way their characters play off each other is a great source of comic relief that seems very natural and not forced. Hurley generously offers Sawyer some of the 15 year old crackers “They’re good, Dude!” Sawyer has a few and agrees. “Thanks for coming back for me.” Hurley tells him.

Meanwhile, Jack and Locke are having a confrontation. Locke tells Jack,” I’d like you to stay, Jack.” Jack wants to know why he should listen to Locke and offers much in the way of evidence, such as this relevant gem: “You knifed an unarmed woman in the back.” Locke counters, “You put a gun to my head and pulled trigger. I thought we could just let bygones be bygones. You’re not supposed to go home, Jack. Crashing here was our destiny. If you leave, that knowledge is going to eat you from the inside out.” Realizing he’s not going to sway the stubborn Jack off his course, Locke then tries damage control. “You’re gonna hafta lie. About everything that happened since we got to the island. It’s the only way to protect it.” Jack is incredulous. After everything he’s seen, everything that happens, he is still the skeptical man of science. “It’s just an island! It doesn’t need protecting!” “Its not an island—it’s a place where miracles happen.” Locke insists. “Just wait until you see what I’m about to do.” Jack, the skeptic responds angrily to Locke, “There’s no such thing as miracles!” Who are you trying to convince Jack, Locke or yourself? Ben comes upon the scene and Jack promptly draws down on him. “Nice to see you, too, Jack.” Ben remarks, then to Locke, ”Did you tell him?” Locke shakes his head. “I tried.” Ben is resigned, then gives up. Very well, then. “Kate and Sayid are waiting for you back at the chopper. Better hurry up. If I were you, I’d want to get off this island within the hour.” Ben looks at Locke and tells him they must get started. Locke lingers a moment, then delivers his parting shot to Jack: “Lie to them Jack. If you do it half as good as you do it to yourself, you should be fine.” Oooooh—SNAP!

Locke and Ben get in the elevator, effectively dismissing Jack as no longer important to their plans or the island.

Elsewhere in the vicinity of the Island
On the boat, Des, Jin and Michael are in the Room of C4. The explosives are hooked into a radio receiver that triggers remotely. Des, who knows “just enough to be dangerous around explosives” from his army days, starts evaluating the bomb and how they can dismantle it. His conclusions: no matter what they do: Boom. Boom. Boom. Michael comes up with the idea to freeze the battery while they try to disarm the bomb, knowing that when they run out of liquid nitrogen, they’ll have just enough time to fuel up the chopper…err, I mean, ten minutes to abandon ship.

Jack, Hurley, Sawyer, Kate and Sayid arrive back at the chopper to find a handcuffed Frank. “Hey Kenny Rogers,” Sawyer calls, in a nod to Steve Morrison, “Why aren’t you using the hacksaw to cut off the cuffs?” Sawyer obliges and makes short work of the cuffs. They all load on the chopper and it lifts off. Frank notices a fuel leak. At his suggestion, they begin tossing extra weight off the chopper. “Is that enough?” someone asks. Jack is adamant about only one thing: “Do not go back to the island!” Frank would feel a lot better if they were a couple hundred pounds lighter. Hurley looks guilty, but Sawyer looks like he has an idea. He leans over and whispers to Kate. She pulls back, shocked. “Why are you telling me this?” “Just do it, Freckles.” Then Sawyer jumps off the chopper, thereby ridding them of the chopper of the extra weight per Frank’s request.

Back on the beach, Daniel takes Charlotte and Miles aside to tell them that the Mercs are using the Secondary Protocol. Then he tells them to make sure that they are on the next boat. Miles looks at Charlotte after Daniel leaves. “You’re going to leave? That’s just weird, after all that time you spent trying to get back here.” Get back?” Charlotte, the poor liar exclaims, “What do you mean ‘get back’?” “Hmmm. What DO I mean?” Miles counters. Charlotte tells Daniel that she has decided to stay, “Would it make any sense if I told you I was still looking for where I was born?”

Meanwhile, back on the boat, the light turns red as Keamy dies on the island. Desmond goes on deck and tells everyone to get off the ship. But the chopper is trying to land. Desmond tries to warn them off landing, but they have no fuel. They refuel as quickly as possible. Kate tells Sun to get on the chopper but Sun wants to get Jin. Kate says to get Aaron on the chopper and she will get Jin. Then Jack comes back for Kate: I’m not leaving without you. And drags her on the chopper. Michael tells Jin that he’s going to be a father and needs to get off the ship. “I’ve got this” Michael tells him. Jin thanks Michael and finally gets topside, starts waving to the chopper—Sun calls frantically, ”We have to go back!”

Christian Sheppard appears to Michael, gives him permission to leave and the boat erupts into a huge ball of flames and promptly sinks. Sun, watching from above, goes into hysterics, calling for Jin. It appears that we may have definitely lost Michael and Jin in this explosion. I think Rose, Bernard and Daniel are on the zodiac with Daniel when the explosion happens. Their fate has not yet been revealed since they are at sea when the island is moved.

The skies part and the angels sing as the Shirtless Sawyer emerges out of the ocean, having swum in from his jump from the chopper. Juliet is sitting dejectedly alone on the beach, swigging from a scotch bottle: “What are you doing here?” she slurs. “Whatcha celebrating?” Sawyer counters. “I’m not celebrating.” Sawyer looks back over his shoulder and sees the smoke of the boat wreckage. “Is that our boat?” he asks. “It was,” Juliet answers.

The chopper is out of fuel and goes into the drink. The chopper occupants get on the life raft. Hurley asks after Aaron. Is he ok? “He’s fine,” Kate says. “It’s a miracle.” Cue Jack looking uncomfortable. Suddenly, Frank spots a light. It’s a boat. As it sinks in that rescue is imminent, Jack tells everybody they have to lie. Shortly after we see the name of the boat, The Searcher, we hear her voice and we KNOW:

This, FINALLY, is Penny’s boat.

Penny and Des are reunited. Lisa and Dana get a little misty. But Jack insists on ruining everything with his annoying unsentimentality and says to Penny, ”We need to talk.” The Oceanic Six devise a plan to use the life raft to be found on Membata and Penny’s boat takes them there. Jack asks Des to join them, since he knows “They’ll be looking for you.” Des says all he needs is Penny. Then Jack shakes Des’s hand and says; “See you in another life, brother.” And Lisa gets all misty again.

Back at the Orchid
When they arrive at the Orchid Station, deep, deep within the core of the island, Locke is more annoying than a three-year-old with his questions: “Is this the magic box? What’s all this stuff for?” “Silly Dharma experiments.” Ben dismisses as he hurriedly prepares to do whatever it is he’s going to do. So, like an impatient parent, Ben sits Locke in front of the TV to watch a video, except it’s not “The Little Mermaid.” “Why don’t you watch this very informative video and I’ll take care of some business,” Ben suggests. On the screen is our old white-coated Dharma doctor friend with yet another name: Dr. Halifax He starts babbling on about the “Casmir effect” time and space experiments while placing a white rabbit in the “vault” and moving it into the future (ala Daniel Faraday and his mouse experiment) “Metallic objects must never be placed inside the box,” he warns. In fact, he’s very adamant on this point.

Meanwhile Ben is busily filling the vault with every metal object he can find.

Just when it starts getting good, the tape stops and begins rewinding. Locke asks Ben, “Does this mean what I think it means?” “If you mean time traveling bunnies, then yes.” The elevator begins moving and Ben asks for his weapon back. Who is coming down?

Like Glen Close in Fatal Attraction rising from the bathtub, Keamy steps out of the elevator. Keamy is still alive, thanks to the miracle of his Kevlar vest. “ Are you down here, Ben?” He taunts. “Crouching in the dark?” He lifts his arm up and finally explains what that device is strapped to his (nicely developed) arm: Its a heart rate monitor with what’s known in the Merc business as a “Dead man’s trigger” “If my heart stops beating, this will send a signal to the radio device that I have hooked up to a roomful of C4 on the boat.” Ooooh! So that’s what it’s for! “Think I’m bluffing? Think about how your daughter looked as she bled out after I shot her in the head.”

Locke walks out to confront Keamy. “My name is John Locke and I have no conflict with you and neither do the people on that boat. Let’s talk.” Keamy, no fan of diplomacy, has no intention of sitting down and negotiating with Locke. Suddenly, also like Glen Close rising out of the bathtub in Fatal Attraction, a wild Ben runs out with a knife and stabs the crap out of Keamy, screaming, “You killed my daughter! You boiled my rabbit!” As Keamy buys it, the trigger on his (nicely developed) arm starts beeping. Locke: “What did you do? You just killed everybody on that boat!” Ben looks non-plussed. “So?”

Still full of questions, Locke needs to know why Ben killed Keamy when he knew that killing Keamy would set off the C4. “Sometimes good command decisions get compromised by irrational emotions. I’m sure you’ll be much better at command than I am.” Meanwhile, Ben has finished filling up the recycling bin. “If I were you I’d duck.” The vault is apparently some sort of a microwave oven, since it reacts he same way as tinfoil when cooked: it starts smoking, then explodes, creating the big hole that leads to the heart of the island.

Ben then gets a parka and Curious George wants to know why. “Because I’m going someplace cold.” Locke wants to go too, but Ben says no: “Jacob wants me to suffer the consequences. Whoever moves the island can never come back.” As Ben gets ready to leave, he pauses to shake hands with Locke, “I’m sorry I made your life so miserable.” His farewell/apology seems touchingly sincere. Locke is bewildered. “But what will I do?” “They will tell you things and then they will follow your every word. You’ll find your way, John. You always do.” Ben tells him, then disappears into vault.

Locke, meanwhile goes off to join up with the Others. Richard Eyeliner is there to welcome him, “Welcome home.”

Ben crawls through cave and down a hatch. He come to some glass, labeled, “Do not break unless there’s an emergency.” He breaks the glass, descends into another very cold cave. The ladder breaks and we find out how he cut his arm when he shivers awake in the desert wearing a parka. There is a big wheel, looks like the spokes of a compass. There is apparently ancient writing on the pillars around it prompting speculation that the island may be either Atlantis or an alien spaceship. Ben tells Jacob “I hope you’re happy.” Then struggles to turn the wheel. As it begins to move, the mysterious humming, which we haven’t heard since Locke failed to press the button in the Swan hatch, begins.

Everybody looks to the sky, the people on the chopper are getting ready to land on the island, when there is a bright flash of light; then nothing.

Dude. The island is gone.

So where do we go from here?
Our last two seasons will most likely revolve around the Oceanic Six working with Ben’s ideas on how to get back to where they once belonged while Locke discovers the secrets of the island. Somehow, something terrible has happened because the Oceanic Six left and Jack is responsible. They must put it right.