I Am DB

PRESENT TENSE
Forgive me for stating the obvious, but this season has been building toward an explanation of how six Oceanic 815 survivors were rescued. With tonight’s season finale set to answer that question (to an extent, at least) I’m left asking something I asked after last season’s finale as well: when will we be when the next season begins? Throughout Season Four, Island-Time has still been the present, with flashbacks and flash-forwards filing out the story. But with the rescue about to be explained, will the future become the present when Season Five comes around? Island-Time, aka The Present, is about to catch up with the rescue, so what we’ve seen as The Future is about to be The Present. Next year, what will the Oceanic Six’s flashes show us?

And what about those who remain on the island? Will we continue to see flashbacks for them? For Ben, there is plenty of story left to tell on both sides of the clock (past – his childhood friend Annie, The Purge, relationship with Richard Alpert; future – pursuing Penny, warring with Widmore, protecting the island).

I bring this all up now because the way this episode was put together, it felt to me like the flash-forwards were being presented as The Present. Plenty of episodes over the years have begun with a flashback or flash-forward before we move to the island, and this episode was similar in that it began with the Oceanic Six’s arrival home, settling on Kate before cutting to the island action. I can’t say what it is, as it may have been a completely personal interpretation, but something about the rhythm of this episode suggested to me that the post-island scenes were the present, and the characters in those scenes were flashing back to the island. I’ll see if I get that feeling again tonight. Otherwise I just wasted three paragraphs.

COMING HOME
The members of the Oceanic Six are strapped in the back of a cargo plane, about to land on a private air strip in Hawaii where they will be reunited with their families (finally the show gets to use a Hawaiian location without trying to make it look like London, New York, Los Angeles, etc.). An Oceanic rep tells them the press will be there, but that they do not have to speak. Jack tells her it’s okay; they’ll answer the reporters’ questions. The others stay silent, look skeptical. After the rep leaves, Jack says that they all know the story and it’s better to get it over with. He says if there’s something they don’t want to answer, pretend they can’t remember; everyone will think they’re in shock. “We are in shock, Jack,” Sun tells him.

The reunion scene is a touching one. I’m sure I’m not the only one who in the last four years has imagined a scene where a rescued survivor is reunited with family (though the one I had most often envisioned was Charlie and his reformed-junkie brother, or Claire going to see that brother after Charlie died). Sayid and Kate have no one to greet them, but Sun’s parents are there, as are Hurley’s. Jack’s mother, who we’ve seen only once, early in Season One, is on hand too.

MEET THE PRESS
The Oceanic rep makes a brief presentation about the circumstances of the crash and the rescue, saying that the crash site was in Indonesia. The eight survivors were carried by the current to a small, unpopulated island. On Day 103, the remains of an Indonesian fishing boat washed up on shore, with basic supplies and a survival raft. On Day 108, the remaining six survivors used that raft to travel to the island of Sumba, where they were found by local fisherman and taken to a village. A photograph showing their arrival is displayed. (Am I the only one who thinks it strange that someone in that fishing village had a camera? Maybe those places are more modern than I’m giving them credit for.)

The timing sounds about right, and would put the rescue at sometime in January 2005. And for those whose geography is a little rusty, as mine was, Indonesia is northwest of Australia; Fiji, near which the fake plane and all its dead passengers was found, is well off the east coast. In other words, the two sites are not even close. And neither of these sites necessarily come close to where the island actually is. Exhibit A…

The press questions quickly get tricky. A Korean reporter asks Sun if her husband was one of the people who died on the island. She hesitates. Jack looks at her with concern. Finally, she says that her husband never made it off the plane. Sayid answers a question about the possibility of there being other survivors still out there with a defiant, “Absolutely not.” Jack gives a look at that point, to no one in particular – a shrug that seems to say, “Well that’s not exactly true.” Another reporter questions how pregnant Kate was at the time of the crash – i.e., at the time the U.S. Marshal apprehended her in Australia. Was the arresting Marshal the only person who saw her in custody at that time, leaving no one else to contradict her claim of pregnancy?

So let’s see if the season finale explains how the Oceanic Lie is constructed, and by whom; how the Oceanic Six are convinced to play along; why they are the only ones who make it off the island; if they believe that the lie is temporary and that the truth will eventually come out, or if they expect to have to stick with this story and take the truth to the grave; and how the lie is spun in light of the fake wreckage being discovered and all bodies accounted for.

LIFE AFTER DEATH
The early days of the Oceanic Six’s return seem to go well enough. Nadia seeks out Sayid and finally this star-crossed couple comes together (Shannon who?), but by and large the group is never far from fate’s reach. Hurley enters his house one day to find it deserted, and though he quickly realizes he’s the recipient of a surprise birthday party, that discovery comes after we hear a familiar whispering throughout the house which we usually hear in the island’s jungles. When his father presents him with his old Camaro, finally restored, he is excited to take it for a spin…until he spots the readout on the odometer –  481516, with a trip meter reading of 2342. This was the first time in ages the numbers had been evoked, and it added a nice “classic Lost” vibe to the episode. Hurley runs from the car and says he doesn’t want it…though he must have a change of heart eventually, seeing as he uses it to lead the cops on a high speed chase.

Sun paid her father a visit at his office, where he was upset by a business deal gone wrong. Prior to her arrival, as Mr. Paik was yelling at his people, something occurred to me that never has before, and I was embarrassed that it had never crossed my mind. Like Charles Widmore, Paik is a wealthy, powerful, sinister bastard. What if he had some connection to the Big Picture as well? The details we witnessed just before Sun showed up seemed almost too specific to have no deeper meaning. As I rolled that over in my mind, the scene played out. Seeing Sun stand up to her father and put him in his place by revealing that she used her Oceanic settlement to buy a controlling interest in his company? Well all I can say is an enthusiastic, “You go, girl!” That was bad-ass (though I was surprised the settlement was that large). In light of her revelation, and the way Mr. Paik was condescending to her when she first walked in, saying that the argument was part of his business and nothing she’d understand, I reconsidered my initial thought about his involvement in the larger events. I’m not ruling out that possibility, but after Sun showed him what’s what, I thought the argument was just there to set-up his attempt to belittle her. Still…

Another curiosity: Sun told her father that two people were responsible for Jin’s death, and that he was one of them. Who does she consider the other to be?

And then there was the post-island scene that delivered the biggest blow: Jack learning of his relationship to Claire. After spending at least a couple of years in a coma, Claire’s mother has now been awake for some time, and approaches Jack after his father’s memorial service. She explains to him that she believes the reason his father was in Australia was to see her daughter; his daughter. Jack tries to say that his father didn’t have a daughter, but the woman makes it clear that yes, he did…and that in an unbelievable coincidence, that daughter was also on Flight 815 – one of the passengers who died when the plane hit the water. She tells Jack that his sister’s name was Claire, and it’s all Jack can do to hold it together when he realizes that she was his sister, and that Aaron – who Kate is holding just a few feet away – is his nephew. Whoa.

I gotta say, I didn’t see that coming. In “Something Nice Back Home” a few weeks ago, Jack was arguing with Kate and yelled that she wasn’t even related to Aaron, after she referred to him as her son. I commented on the phrasing in my write-up, but thought that the writers were being ironic. I didn’t think he knew about his connection to Claire. I’ve been assuming that for all his success at moving on with his life and selling the Oceanic Lie, the passing off of Aaron as Kate’s daughter was the one part of the fiction that really weakened his resolve; the one part of the tale that he could never get comfortable with. But it appears that his issue all along has been knowing the truth about the baby – a fact which is easier to see now that we’ve learned of this memorial service for Jack’s father, taking place well before Kate’s trial (Aaron is still a small baby at the service, whereas he has grown noticeably by the time the trial ends – he has a head full of blond hair, is sleeping in a bed rather than a crib, and says, “Hi mommy” to Kate).

It’s also worth noting that at the beginning of the eulogy for his father, Jack says that it was ten months earlier, at the airport in Sydney, when he first wrote down what he planned to say. Ten months. If he was on the island for roughly four months, that means the memorial service is taking place six months later. So Kate’s trial must be well after that. And based on the conversation Jack had with Hurley in his room at the mental hospital in “Something Nice Back Home,” Jack and Kate probably got together sometime after Hurley’s freeway chase and subsequent return to the hospital.

So Jack knows about his connection to Claire, but he has apparently not shared his knowledge with Kate. In their argument where she calls Aaron “my son” and he points out that she’s not related to him, she shows no sign of understanding his loaded meaning, and the way she says “my son” shows total ignorance of the kid’s true relationship to Jack. When Jack and Kate speak outside of the courthouse just after her trial ends, she says to him, “I understand why you don’t want to see the baby.” But my guess is that she really doesn’t; she assumes what I did – that Jack is simply not comfortable with the Aaron piece of the Oceanic Lie.

FOLLOW THAT COPTER
Now that we’ve covered the future – or is it the new present? – let’s look at the old present…or rather, the new past. In other words, the island and the freighter. Despite having his appendix removed less than two days earlier, Jack is determined to follow the chopper using the satellite phone that was tossed out (he assumes by Sayid and Desmond). Faraday uses the phone to call the one being tracked, and they overhear Keamy ordering Frank to set the chopper down and telling his men about their deployment to The Orchid. Juliet doesn’t know what The Orchid is (which seems a little odd considering her time as an Other. I think she’s done playing both sides, so her ignorance seems genuine.  Given The Orchid’s implied power, perhaps it wasn’t a Dharma station to which Ben easily shared access). Faraday, on the other hand, does know what The Orchid is. When he overhears Keamy, he tells Charlotte with deep concern that Keamy is using the secondary protocol, and that they have to get off the island as soon as possible.

Why do some people know about the secondary protocol while others don’t? Keamy knows about it, but Gault did not. Faraday knows about it, but Charlotte doesn’t. Why is that? In his notebook, Faraday has a drawing of The Orchid logo, surrounded by various equations and the words, “Space Like Factors.” What does he know, and why don’t others in seemingly equal positions know it too?

Juliet tries to make Jack stay and rest, but Jack is in full-on hero mode, saying that he promised to get these people off the island and that he has to go after the copter. She storms off, and after telling her he’ll see her in a few hours, he and Kate lock and load and head into the jungle.

COMINGS AND GOINGS
In the jungle, Jack and Kate encounter Miles and an Aaron-toting Sawyer. He explains that they “lost” Claire – that she walked off in the middle of the night, left the baby behind and that they spent a day looking for her unsuccessfully. Jack and Kate don’t know what to make of this, as Sawyer hands Aaron to Kate. When Sawyer learns they’re after the copter, he tells them what Keamy did to New Otherton. Still, Jack feels he can’t turn back, saying that he put Desmond and Sayid on that copter. It was his call, he says…which is interesting because, no, actually, it wasn’t. Sayid and Desmond each made their own way onto the copter – Sayid to learn more about the people on the freighter, and Desmond to get answers about Penny. Jack had nothing to do with it. Was this sloppy writing, or a deliberate move to showcase how deep Jack’s hero-complex runs? I’m going with the latter. Either way, after some fun, old-school bickering with Sawyer, Jack moves on. Sawyer goes with him, and Kate, Aaron and Miles head back to the beach.

Soon afterwards, Sayid arrives on the island in the freighter’s zodiac raft. He tells everyone that he needs to ferry them off the island in groups of six, because Keamy’s team is going to kill everyone. Juliet tells him that Jack and Kate thought he was on the chopper and went after it. Kate arrives with Aaron and Miles, and offers to help Sayid track Jack and Sawyer. She hands Aaron to Sun, and goes back into the jungle with Sayid, who has left ferrying duty to Faraday. Sun and Jin are in the first group to leave (so Jin gets off the island. Hmm…) Even icy Charlotte looks concerned for Faraday as he heads off with the first group.

When they arrive at the freighter, Desmond helps them all aboard (and seeing Sun holding Aaron, doesn’t think to inquire about Claire. I’ll chalk that up to the fact that there’s kind of a lot happening at that moment). Faraday heads back immediately, and Sun and Jin are met by a shocking site: Michael. He explains to them how he got back to New York. Following Ben’s bearing took him and Walt to an inhabited island where he was able to sell the boat and buy fare back to New York, where they couldn’t tell anyone who they were. His explanation fills in some holes…and frankly, fills them in quite shoddily. Is this really all there was too it? Michael explains it almost dismissively. I feel like there should be more to it, and I’m not sure if that’s just me looking for mysteries where there are none (could you blame me?), or if we’re really meant to take it at face value, as if Damon and Carlton have heard fans ask the question and threw this in as an attempt to settle the issue. Either way, when Sun asks if he’s now working for Ben, Michael gets immediately defensive, and says he’s not working for Ben, but is trying to make up for what he did; trying to help them. That may be true, but given your actions Michael, you don’t get to be defensive. You haven’t earned back anyone’s trust just yet, so settle down.

Desmond, meanwhile, has made a grim discovery. He runs to fetch Michael, who follows him – with Sun and Jin right behind – into a room that is wired with enough C4 plastic explosives to blow the ship sky high. Now we know what that device on Keamy’s arm was. (Can I get an “Oh shit,” please?) Jin tells Sun to leave the room, so she heads back out on the deck, with a loaded, fatalistic glare back at the door closing behind her. Are Jin and Desmond going to die trying to dismantle the explosives? I can’t decide if I think Jin is really dead or not. On the cargo plane home, Sun did not seem as upset as I’d expect her to be if he were truly gone, so that gives me hope. On the other hand, would she be any less upset if he was alive but she had to leave him behind, knowing it was unlikely or perhaps even impossible that she’d ever see him again?

Is the freighter going to blow? Is Faraday going to have to start taking people back to the island? Will that explain why some people, like Rose and Bernard, remain on the island? Sawyer specifically chooses to stay, or so we’ve been told, but are people who had a choice in the matter a minority? I still can’t fathom how Jack, Kate, Sun, Hurley and Sayid could be talked into leaving everyone else behind. Is Widmore responsible for their rescue and the Oceanic Lie? Does Ben orchestrate it? Is Oceanic itself complicit in the conspiracy?

Back on the island, Jack and Sawyer find the copter. Frank has been handcuffed to it, but they set him free and he’s prepared to fly everyone off the island…until Sawyer realizes that Keamy’s crew is headed for Ben, and that in Frank’s words, “nothing good” is in store for anyone who’s with him: namely Hurley. Jack and Sawyer now must go after their friend.

Kate and Sayid, meanwhile, find themselves ambushed by Others – led by Richard Alpert. We haven’t seen most of the Others since Ben and Alex set off for the radio tower at the end of Season Three. They’ve apparently been hiding out in The Temple, whatever that is. Is that where they are now marching Kate and Sayid? For what it might be worth – probably nothing – they’re dressed in their “jungle chic,” which was their most oft-seen costume in the Season Two days.

MAN WITH A PLAN
In the previous episode, Ben was feeling like his time as a leader was over, but he was back in charge after Locke told him that Jacob’s instructions were to move the island. This sets Ben, Locke and Hurley on a course for The Orchid, which Ben describes only as a greenhouse. He says the process of moving the island is “dangerous and unpredictable. It’s a measure of last resort.” Hurley raises a good point: if the island moves, won’t Keamy and his people move with it? Ben says yes, they probably would – a problem that he’s working on.

On the journey, Ben stops and uncovers a hidden box that contains binoculars, a small mirror…and 15 year-old Saltines. He holds the mirror to the sunlight and makes some kind of signal up toward the trees off in the distance, on higher ground. A similar signal is sent back. “Alright” says Ben, “now we can go.” What was that all about? Was that The Temple? Was Ben communicating with Richard, telling him to take a crew out into the jungle and see what or who they find? Was his message – which he refuses to share with Locke – something to protect his own interests, or do I dare to say that it was also aimed at protecting those with him and all others on the island?

They finally arrive outside The Orchid, but see that Keamy’s men are already there, much to Ben’s frustration. So Ben gives Locke instructions on how to get into the greenhouse and find the elevator that will take him down to the actual Orchid station. And to cause a distraction that allows Locke to do this, Ben marches right down to the greenhouse and hands himself in. Before he goes, Locke asks him what he’s going to do. Ben turns around and looks at Locke like he’s an idiot. “How many times do I have to tell you, John? I always have a plan.”

THE COFFIN
Whew. What does the season finale have in store for us? Among other likely surprises, we’re supposed to learn who was in the coffin that Future-Jack visited in the Season Three finale. Who could it be? Several people in this episode were left in a position that could spell their end, but none of them seem to fit with the puzzle pieces that were laid out last year: someone whose death would merit a mention in the paper; someone who neither Kate, nor anyone else, would have a desire to pay respects to; someone whose death would hit Jack hard at a time when he’s hell-bent on returning to the island; someone who would be in a funeral home in what looked like a lower income, dirty L.A. neighborhood. Could it be Ben? Not unless this takes place after Ben stitched up Sayid’s arm in a Berlin animal hospital. Locke? That would mean he’s off the island – and getting written about in the newspaper. This doesn’t seem likely. Michael? Again, why would his death make the news? Besides, Michael is from New York, not L.A. Maybe it is someone completely out of left field; someone we thought was a friend, who has committed some yet-to-be-seen treachery, such that nobody except Jack cares to see them anymore. Or maybe, as I had considered in an earlier write-up, the death is a ruse and the body inside the coffin is not who Jack thinks it is. Maybe Ben fakes his death. Jack didn’t look at the body, so he wouldn’t know for sure who is in the casket.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Aside from the coffin revelation, this episode surely has a death or two in store for us, as well as a kiss that is supposed to be quite the shocker. Also, word is that we’ll see the pilot of Flight 815 in a flashback (could we learn how and why Frank was supposed to be flying the plane that day?). And I wonder whether or not we’ll see Claire again, or if we’ll have to wait until next season for more information about her move to Jacob’s cabin. Will Abbadon show up? How about Naomi?  We’re only hours away…

Tonight’s Episode: There’s No Place Like Home (Parts II and III)