413 – There’s No Place Like Home (part 2)

Review:

A recap of this episode would be insanely long, and if you read the last one then you’ll know that it won’t really make sense anyways.  The problem I have with analyzing this episode is that I already did that.. for a month.  I referred readers to my coverage last time and I’ll do it again.  Go here if you want to see all that I said about this episode back in June.  (Note:  I wrote all that jazz way back in June, so I may have changed my mind about a lot of those ideas.  Just don’t hold me to any of the crazy things I said back then.)

But let’s get on with it.

Technically the most important things to happen in this episode are:

-The Oceanic 6 get away

-Ben moves the island

-and Locke is the man in the coffin

All great things, they’ll have a huge bearing on the rest of the show, and especially season 5.  But, to be completely honest the reason why I’ll give this episode a 10.0/10.0 is because Desmond got back with Penny.  I know that it would be just as good without that scene, but that’s the most significant thing in my mind

10.0/10.0

412 – There’s No Place Like Home (part 1)

Review:

(I spent a long time reviewing this episode and the next one after this season ended way back in June of 2008.  You can find all the coverage under the tag “season 4 finale“.)

This is the annual set-up episode for the finale.  This year things are much crazier (you could probably say that every year).  It’s hard to even list everything that happens in this episode.

Jack and Kate head into the jungle to follow the helicopter.  They meet Sawyer, Aaron and Miles.  Jack and Sawyer continue and Kate goes back with Aaron.  They meet Sayid who arrives on the beach with a little zodiac.  Daniel, Sun, Jin and Aaron go on the zodiac to the Freighter.  Kate turns around and goes with Sayid after Jack and Sawyer.  Meanwhile Ben, Locke and Hurley are racing to The Orchid station, trying to get there before Frank and Keamy.  Ben makes a pit-stop to contact Richard.  Keamy beats them to The Orchid.  Jack and Sawyer find Frank, then decide to chase after Locke and Hurley.  Kate and Sayid run into Richard and they all head in an unknown direction.  On the Freighter, Desmond, Jin Sun, Aaron and Michael discover a stash of wired explosives.  And in the very end Ben surrenders to Keamy.

Whew.  And that’s only what happened on the island.

Off the island we get some filler flashforwards (not in a bad way though).  We see the Oceanic 6 right after they were rescued.  We see their press-conference and see some of the foreshadowing for past and future flashforwards (whoa, that was a perplexing sentence!).  Hurley gets his old car back and is reminded of the curse of the numbers.  Sayid reunites with Nadia.  Jack finds out that Claire was his half-sister at Christian’s funeral.  That’s about it.  These flashforwards seemed to be mostly just to fill in some of the blank spots and they also showed some of the happiness and relief that the O6 felt soon after they were rescued.

This episode was incredibly paced.  It’s true that it’s just a set-up for the finale, but what a great setup it was.  9.0/10.0

411 – Cabin Fever

Review:

This episode is another one of those insanely mythologically driven episodes.  It’s mostly about Locke looking for Jacob’s Cabin but it also shows Locke’s life and some stuff on the Freighter.

On the Freighter we see Keamy prepare to carry out the Secondary Protocol.  He also kills the doctor and scares everyone else.  Sayid goes back to the island on the little Zodiac.  Desmond decides to stay on the Freighter.  Michael tries his best to save everyone on the island from Keamy.

In Locke’s flashback we see Richard stalking Locke, trying to recruit him, presumably to go to the island.  In the first instant Richard observes Locke as a baby.  In the second he tries to test him, Locke fails.  In the third test Richard invites him from afar and Locke is too stubborn to accept.  In the end it’s the opposing side (I assume) that gets to Locke.  Abbadon visits Locke and encourages him to go on a Walkabout, if that solves Locke’s problem then Locke would owe him one.  Scary stuff.

On the island Locke tries to track Jacob and his cabin.  Horace visits him in a vision and tells Locke that if he finds Horace he will find Jacob.  This leads Locke to the Dharma Ditch and a map to the Cabin.  Locke find it and is met with Christian.  Christian tells Locke to move the island and Claire smiles.

This episode has almost all of the power players in the show.  Locke, Ben, Richard, Abbadon, Christian, Jacob.  The only one missing is Charles Whidmore.  That makes this episode good.  Also the fact that it deals almost exclusively with the mythological side of the show makes it tops.

10.0/10.0

410 – Something Nice Back Home

Review:

This episode seems to be to speed things along.  Most of the action happens off the island.  It seems like they wanted to get most of the Jack Kate relationship stuff out of the way before the finale.

On the island Jack has an appendectomy.  Juliet comes to terms with the obvious fact that Jack doesn’t love her.  And Jin finds out that Charlotte can speak Korean and tells her that she has to save Sun.

On the other side of the island Sawyer is leading Miles, Claire and Aaron back to the beach.  On the way Miles treats Claire strangely, they meet Lapidus, Keamy and his men, and Claire sees Christian and follows him off into the jungle.  Sawyer is left with Aaron.

Off the island we see Jack settle down with Kate for about a week, and then he self-destructs.  He starts seeing Christian and he has a disturbing visit with Hurley.  Kate on the other hand appears completely different, she is content and is more than happy to settle down with Jack.  Unfortunately she is sneaking around behind Jack’s back and he doesn’t like that.  Kate confesses that she’s doing something for Sawyer and Jack leaves her in a drugged-up stupor (is that even a word?).

The episode was jam packed with developments.  The flashforward was very interesting and Claire disappearance is still on most of our minds.  The episode doesn’t really stand out as one of the best of the season but it still was very good and there was nothing about it that I disliked.  7.5/10.0

409 – The Shape of Things to Come

Review:

This episode is insano.  This only the second Ben episode and already his episodes are the best.  No one else has such informative flashbacks/forwards, and no one is in the middle of things like Ben.  It’s hard to believe that he is just a supporting character.

On to the episode.  This episode has completely different interpretations now that season 4 is done.  Ben’s flashback is suddenly logical and understandable.  Now that we know exactly what preceded this flashforward we can understand his actions.

As for the actions on the island…well there is too much to say.  Ben controlling Smokey, Alex dying, Claire “dying”, Sayid coming under Ben’s control, Daniel lying, Jack nearly “dying”, Ben conversing with Mr. Whidmore; it was so much insanity that it’s hard to keep track of it all.  I don’t want to go too deeply into it here (keep reading if you want to see me go too deeply into it) but I just want to say that this episode will likely be the basis for many more storylines in the future.

10.0/10.0

408 – Meet Kevin Johnson

Review:

I like the format of this episode, very little B-story, all Michael.  They did add a beginning and an end, but I believe that they were afterthoughts following the writers strike.

This episode was primarily about Michael and what happened to him after he left the island.  Surprisingly it wasn’t all rainbows and happiness.  He suffered just as much off the island as he did on it.  And for the second time he submitted to Ben.  All in all it was a good flashback.  It really reminded me of Three Minutes, the season 2 episode.  It seems like the writers like to tell Michael stories all at once rather than slowly revealing them.

But that wasn’t really what I cared about in this episode.  The craziest thing to happen in this episode had nothing to do with Michael, it was Rousseau and Karl getting shot.  That shocked me to my core.  I really didn’t see it coming and I am still surprised that it actually happened.  These deaths along with Alex’s death are what made season 3 shocking.

8.5/10.0

407 – Ji Yeon

Review:

This episode is essentially a continuation of D.O.C. with some fun Freighter activity thrown in.  Sun decides that she doesn’t believe what Juliet told her in that episode and she wants to go to Locke’s camp.  Juliet stops her by telling Jin that Sun cheated on him.  Bernard tells Jin that wives are always right and Jin eventually agrees.  They decide to stay with Jack and try to get rescued.

In the flashforward Sun delivers her baby.  In the parallel, but unrelated flashback, Jin buys a stuffed panda bear.  Sun mourns Jin’s death.  All very sad stuff.  I wasn’t angry at all with the writers tricking us like this.  I thought it was terribly clever.  Apparently other people don’t share my enthusiasm for this kind of trickery.

On the freighter Desmond and Sayid hear Charles Whidmore’s side of the argument about the fake 815 plane.  And they meet little ol’ Kevin Johnson.  That’s right, it’s the return of every ones favorite panic eyed villain, Michael!  It’s unfortunate that word got out about his return, it would have made for a great reveal.

The episode wasn’t bad, the extra trickery in Jin and Sun’s flashback/forward was the shot in the arm that their flashes needed.  And it’s always fun to see old freinds return.  7.5/10.0

406 – The Other Woman

Review:

This episode and the next one are probably the least important out of all the season 4 episodes.  They are the closest thing to filler that we will probably see.  But that doesn’t mean they are bad episodes.

This one deals with Juliet and Ben’s relationship.  We get to see Juliet’s third, and likely final, on-island flashback.  This fills in the blanks in the last flashback.   And while this episode is good because it shows what a terrible and at times frightening time Juliet had on the island, it also shows a lot of Ben’s power.  We see him get revenge on Juliet for not falling in love with him, we see him assert his authority over her (in one of his creepiest scenes ever), and we see what Charlotte and Daniel feel about him.

Charlotte and Daniel take up most of the story on the island.  They strike out on their own on a mission to protect themselves and everyone else on the island.  They disable The Tempest station so that Ben can’t use it again to kill everyone on the island.

A few of the lines caught my attention.  Claire mentions the Hot-word “hostile” in reference to Locke’s group, this could be foreshadowing for season 5.  Ben and Juliet talk about Jacob’s list.  And Harper says that Juliet looks just like her.  All potentially important stuff.

6.5/10.0

405 – The Constant

Review:

I cried the first time I watched this episode, and I cried again when I rewatched it this time.  This episode is glorious and a half.  It manages to mix intense and confusing sci-fi with a perfectly written love story.  Wow, I can’t tell you how much I love this episode.

And not only that but it includes all of my favorite characters.  Desmond was my first favorite character and his love story with Penny was my favorite storyline.  Then Daniel came along and I questioned my complete loyalty to Desmond.  Now that Desmond and Penny’s love story is mostly over Daniel is my favorite character but I still love them all.

I also love sci-fi themes and I love how these writers do it.  They insist on making it logical, which is reassuring and entertaining at the same time.  It’s all great fun.

I also found out a lot by rewatching this episode.  Like Locke’s possible fate, and the importance of nosebleeds.

If I could give it more than 10 I would.  10.0/10.0

404 – Eggtown

Review:

This episode is dull.  It’s very necessary, but it’s quite boring.  It does answer the question from the end of season 3, how did Kate get free of those pesky murder charges?  But beyond that Kate’s story was dragged out.

I did like three scenes in this episode though.

The first one was the part with Diane speaking to Kate.  I believe that Diane is a vitally important character and finding out that she’s stayed alive, miraculously, was quite interesting to me.

The second one was when Miles talked to Ben trying to get money out of hm in exchange for silence.

The third was the memory game that Charlotte was playing with Daniel.  I find that scene to be extremely important and I’m sure it will have a big bearing on Daniel’s season 5 storyline.

But I can’t ignore that this episode was sub-par.  4.0/10.0