There's No Place Like Home

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“There's No Place Like Home”
Lost episode
The climax of the season finale, in which Benjamin Linus pushes the large metal wheel—nicknamed the "Frozen Donkey Wheel" by the show's producers in discussion about the end of the fourth season—in order to move the Island.
Episode no.	Season 4 Episode 12, 13 & 14
Written by	Carlton Cuse Damon Lindelof
Directed by	Jack Bender Stephen Williams
Guest stars	Malcolm David Kelley L. Scott Caldwell Jeff Fahey Nestor Carbonell Kevin Durand Anthony Azizi John Terry Sonya Walger Alan Dale Francois Chau Alex Petrovitch Starletta DuPois Veronica Hamel Andrea Gabriel Byron Chung June Kyoko Lu Lillian Hurst Cheech Marin Michelle Forbes Susan Duerden Noah Craft Esmond Chung Garrett Hughes David Michael Souhil Nimeh Eul Noh Alicia Rae Joe Sikora
Production no.	412, 413 & 414
Original airdate	May 15, 2008 (Part 1) May 29, 2008 (Part 2)[A]
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "Cabin Fever" "Because You Left"
Lost (season 4) List of Lost episodes

"There's No Place Like Home" is the season finale of the American Broadcasting Company's fourth season of the serial drama television series Lost, consisting of the twelfth through fourteenth episodes. They are also the eighty-first through eighty-third episodes of the show overall. The three constituent episodes were split into two broadcasts; "Part 1" first aired on May 15, 2008 and "Part 2", serving as the two-hour season finale of the fourth season, first aired on May 29, 2008 on ABC in the United States and on CTV in Canada.^[1] The episodes were written by executive producers/show runners Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof; "Part 1" was directed by co-executive producer Stephen Williams, while executive producer Jack Bender directed "Part 2".^[2]

The narrative takes place in late December 2004, one hundred days after the crash of Oceanic Flight 815. The survivors of the crash team up with the Others, natives of the island where the plane crashed, to confront the mercenaries from the freighter Kahana, who have come to the island. Following this, some of the survivors escape the island and Ben Linus (Michael Emerson) moves the island. Flashforwards show the first actions of the Oceanic Six, those who are rescued, after returning home in January 2005, and their lives in late 2007. The cliffhanger from the previous season finale, "Through the Looking Glass," is resolved by revealing John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) to be dead and in the coffin that Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) visits in that episode. The title is a reference to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Production and broadcast of the fourth season were interrupted by the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike and following its resolution, the writers were unable to compress the remainder of season four into the five allotted episodes and the season finale was extended by one hour. Subsequently, the production schedule was compressed and post-production work was completed in three weeks, instead of the usual two months.

The second part was watched by twelve million Americans, making Lost the most watched show of the week.^[3] Both parts were met with mostly positive reactions. Matthew Fox's acting in his flashforward scenes was praised, as was Michael Giacchino's musical score. The latter part of the episode was nominated for an Emmy Award for editing, but did not win.

[edit] Plot

[edit] Part 1

In flashforwards, the Oceanic Six—Jack Shephard, Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly), Sayid Jarrah (Naveen Andrews), Sun-Hwa Kwon (Yunjin Kim), Hugo "Hurley" Reyes (Jorge Garcia) and Claire Littleton's (Emilie de Ravin) infant, Aaron—arrive in Honolulu where they are greeted by Sun’s parents (Byron Chung, June Kyoko Lu), Jack’s mother (Veronica Hamel), and Hurley’s parents (Lillian Hurst, Cheech Marin). In the ensuing media circus, the Oceanic Six give a press conference where they tell a cover story to the numerous reporters. Afterward, Sayid reunites with Noor Abed “Nadia” Jazeem (Andrea Gabriel), his old girlfriend. Sometime later in Seoul, Sun visits her father and informs him that she used the money from her settlement with Oceanic Airlines to buy a controlling interest in her father’s company because she blames him for her husband Jin-Soo Kwon’s (Daniel Dae Kim) death. Meanwhile, Hurley’s parents have thrown him a surprise birthday party and his dad shows Hurley that he rebuilt their old Camaro. Hurley is disturbed when he notices that the odometer displays the Numbers. In the final flashforward, Jack eulogizes his father, Christian Shephard (John Terry), at the latter's funeral. Afterward, Carole Littleton (Susan Duerden), Claire's mother, inadvertently reveals to him that Claire is his half-sister.^[4]

On December 30, 2004, following the events of "Cabin Fever", Jack and Kate follow the signal from the phone dropped onto the beach from a helicopter by Frank Lapidus (Jeff Fahey). They encounter James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway), Aaron and Miles Straume (Ken Leung); Kate takes the baby and Miles back to the beach. Jack and Sawyer meet up with Lapidus at the helicopter, but they decide to rescue Hurley, who is with Ben, the mercenaries' target, before leaving. Meanwhile, Sayid arrives at the beach on the freighter's Zodiac raft just as Kate returns. Sayid and Kate go after Jack and Sawyer, but are instead captured by Richard Alpert (Nestor Carbonell) and the rest of the Others. After imploring his crush Charlotte Lewis (Rebecca Mader) to leave the island, Daniel Faraday (Jeremy Davies) starts ferrying people to the freighter Kahana; Sun, Jin, and Aaron arrive at the boat, only to discover a large amount of C4 explosives on board.^[4][5]

Meanwhile, in their quest to move the island, Ben, Locke and Hurley arrive at the Dharma Initiative Orchid station, which is disguised as a greenhouse. Ben sends Locke to the real part of the station and surrenders himself to Martin Keamy (Kevin Durand) and the other mercenaries from the Kahana, who had previously arrived.^[4] A final montage shows the Oceanic Six and Ben in their respective predicaments.

[edit] Part 2

On the Island, Jack and Sawyer go to the Orchid station, where they are reunited with Hurley and Locke. Jack and Locke once more argue about the Island; Locke pleads with him not to leave the Island, but Jack refuses and Locke tells him to lie about the Island once they leave. Meanwhile, Keamy, the mercenaries, and their prisoner, Ben, return to the helicopter. Kate, Sayid, and the Others ambush and kill the mercenaries, except Keamy, who feigns death. In exchange for freeing Ben, the Others allow Kate and Sayid to leave the Island on the helicopter. Ben goes to the Orchid, where he advises Jack to leave the Island soon and gets in a hidden elevator with Locke.^[6]

Inside the underground chamber, Ben puts every metal item he can find into a small compartment at the back of the room, while Locke watches the orientation video for the Orchid station. On the tape, Pierre Chang (François Chau) begins to discuss time travel involving "negatively charged exotic matter" when the VCR malfunctions and the tape rewinds itself. Shortly, Keamy arrives and tells Locke that if he (Keamy) dies, the C4 on the freighter will detonate, due to a remote trigger linked to a heart-rate monitor he is wearing. Regardless, Ben kills Keamy with no remorse or sympathy for those on the boat, in order to avenge his adopted daughter Alex (Tania Raymonde). Ben then tells Locke that whoever moves the Island is forced to leave it and never come back. Ben says that he must do it so that Locke can stay and lead the Others. Ben bids farewell and Locke goes to the Others, who welcome him home.^[6]

Ben seals and then activates power to the compartment he had loaded with metal items, blowing a hole in the back of it. After donning a parka, Ben climbs through the hole and into a frozen chamber. While descending into the chamber, he falls and cuts his arm. He then turns a very large metal wheel, to initiate the process of moving the island. As he completes the rotation, an eerie sound and flash of white-yellow light soon envelope the entire island. Ben disappears, only to reappear several months later in the Sahara Desert (as seen in "The Shape of Things to Come").^[6][7][8]

Jack, Kate, Sayid, Sawyer, Hurley, and Frank Lapidus leave the Island on the helicopter, but discover a fuel leak on board. In order to lighten the helicopter, Sawyer jumps out, but not before whispering something in Kate's ear and kissing her. The helicopter makes it to the Kahana in the nick of time; they refuel it, fix the leak, pick up Desmond Hume (Henry Ian Cusick), Sun and Aaron and leave before the C4 detonates. The resulting explosion kills Michael Dawson (Harold Perrineau),^[9] who has a vision of Christian Shephard. The status of Jin, who is still on the boat, is left uncertain as a cliffhanger. Sawyer swims back to the Island and commiserates the destruction of the boat with Juliet Burke (Elizabeth Mitchell).^[6]

The people on the helicopter decide to return to the Island, but as they approach, they see the Island vanish in the white-yellow light. With nowhere to land, the helicopter runs out of fuel and the survivors are forced to ditch into the ocean. They drift in a rescue raft for several hours, where Hurley suggests that Locke succeeded in moving the Island, but Jack disagrees. At night, the survivors encounter a boat owned by Penny Widmore (Sonya Walger), who is subsequently reunited with Desmond. Jack then convinces the other survivors that they must lie about the Island, to protect those left behind. They arrange a cover story and one week later, they are dropped off near the island of Sumba, some 3000 miles away from where they were picked up.^[6]

In a series of flashforwards, Kate, Jack, and Walt Lloyd (Malcolm David Kelley) all recount stories of being approached by Jeremy Bentham, the man in the coffin that Jack visits in "Through the Looking Glass". Meanwhile, Sayid breaks into the mental hospital where Hurley is staying and convinces him to go "somewhere safe". Kate has a dream in which Claire tells her not to bring Aaron back to the Island. Sometime later in London, Sun confronts Charles Widmore (Alan Dale) and tells him that they have common interests involving the Island. In the final flashforward, Jack returns to the funeral parlor, where he is confronted by Ben, who says that the Island will not allow Jack to return without everyone else who left joining him. This includes the dead man in the coffin, who had been contacting the Oceanic Six under the alias Jeremy Bentham, finally revealed to be John Locke.^[6]

[edit] Production

[edit] Cast

This episode features the last appearance of Harold Perrineau as a main cast member.

The episode features the last appearance of actor Harold Perrineau, whose character Michael dies in an explosion, as a main cast member. The character of Michael was absent for the entire third season of Lost and returned midway through the fourth season in "Ji Yeon." Perrineau was disappointed that he was brought back to the show only to be killed and that Michael does not get a chance to reunite with his son, Walt, saying, "there are all these questions about how [the writers] respond to black people on the show ... Walt just winds up being another fatherless child. It plays into a really big, weird stereotype and, being a black person myself, that wasn't so interesting."^[9] The fate of Jin, who is also on the freighter when it explodes, is left uncertain. Actor Daniel Dae Kim was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol, which prompted speculation about his future on the series, due to co-stars Michelle Rodriguez (Ana-Lucia Cortez) and Cynthia Watros (Libby) leaving Lost after DUI arrests.^[10][11][12] Kim was not named as a main cast member in season five in an ABC press release,^[13] although Cuse has stated that he will continue to be on the show "in some form."^[14] This episode also marks Malcolm David Kelley's first appearance on the show since the third season, excepting a computer effects shot of the actor in "Meet Kevin Johnson". Kelley's character, Walt, was "benched" for the majority of the second and third seasons because the actor's growth was disproportionate to the amount of time that has passed on the island. The writers got the idea to show him in flashforwards in his older form while writing "Through the Looking Glass". ^[8]

[edit] Writing

Writers Damon Lindelof (left) and Carlton Cuse (right) were unable to shorten the script and the finale was extended by an hour.

The main question that the writers tried to both ask and answer in season four of Lost was: "Who is right about the island, Jack or Locke?"^[8] The question stems from the central conflict between Jack and Locke, who have continually fought each other over the true nature of the island, i.e. whether or not the island has supernatural powers and whether Oceanic Flight 815 crashing on the island is part of the survivors' destiny. After witnessing the island vanish at the end of this episode, Jack realizes that Locke is right.^[8] The point is further driven when Jack takes Locke's advice from their conversation and convinces the other survivors to lie about the island, once they are rescued. This is further emphasized by the fact that the same music is played during Jack and Locke's conversation and when the survivors encounter Penny's boat. Lindelof has also stated that Sawyer's message to Kate in the helicopter is a "critical plot point" in that it ultimately leads to the end of Jack and Kate's relationship once they return home (as seen in "Something Nice Back Home").^[8] In terms of plot structure, the main action scene of the episode, where the Others and the survivors confront the mercenaries, was deliberately placed at the beginning of "Part 2" so that the remainder of the episode could focus on character development. Furthermore, all of the present time plotlines are interconnected by the C4 bomb on the freighter, even though the writers themselves have called the use of the bomb as a plot device "ridiculous". It was necessary, however, in order to keep both Michael and Jin from leaving the freighter with the other survivors.^[8]

The final scenes of the episode, particularly Ben turning the wheel, Penny and Desmond's reunion and the last shot of Locke in the coffin were kept secret, in order to prevent spoilers from leaking. The phrase "Frozen Donkey Wheel" was coined to describe not only the wheel that Ben turns, but also the final scene in which Locke is shown to be in the coffin. Only six people knew that Locke was in the coffin—actors Matthew Fox, Michael Emerson and Terry O'Quinn; writers Lindelof and Cuse and Jack Bender, the director.^[8]

[edit] Writers' Strike

The Writers Guild went on strike in November 2007; it continued for 100 days, delaying production of the fourth season of Lost.

The Writers Guild of America went on strike on November 4, 2007^[15] after the writers had only finished the first eight episodes of the season.^[16] Show runners Lindelof and Cuse wanted to hold the eight episodes until they were able to produce more of the season,^[17] but ABC decided that the eight episodes would be aired from January to March, regardless of whether any more episodes were produced in the 2007–2008 season.^[18] After the resolution of the strike, ABC decided to produce five more episodes for the fourth season. This conflicted with ABC's earlier plan to broadcast seasons four, five and six in uninterrupted blocks of sixteen episodes each.^[19] Despite this, ABC prioritized scheduling Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty and Lost's returns all for April 24.^[20] The decision left the three unproduced episodes of season four "in the bank" to be used later in seasons five and six.^[21]

After the resolution of the strike, Lindelof said that the effect of the strike on the fourth season would be minimal and the season's story arc would be completed as originally intended.^[22] However, the first draft of the second part of "There's No Place Like Home," was 85 pages long, approximately 30 pages longer than a typical one hour Lost script. Lindelof and Cuse found that they could not compress second half of the season finale into one episode and actually wanted to expand it. Subsequently, the show runners went into "advanced talks" with executives at ABC and convinced them to produce one of their episodes "in the bank", thereby extending "There's No Place Like Home: Part 2" to two hours.^[23] However, this caused a scheduling problem with Grey's Anatomy and Ugly Betty, which were both already scheduled to air their season finales on May 22, 2008. To allow Lost to have a two hour finale, ABC moved it one week later to May 29, 2008 and aired both parts of "There's No Place Like Home" back-to-back.^[1][2][24] Ultimately, this left thirty-four episodes to be split over seasons five and six, which will each have seventeen episodes. ^[25] Another effect of the strike was that the backstories of the so-called "freighter folk", i.e. Faraday, Miles and Charlotte, had to be pushed back to season five. As such, the writers dropped hints to Charlotte's backstory in "There's No Place Like Home".^[8]

[edit] Filming

Actor Alan Dale was unable to travel to Hawaii so his scenes were filmed on loaction in London.

"There's No Place Like Home: Part 2" was filmed in approximately three and a half weeks; filming concluded three weeks before airing.^[8] Scenes set on the exterior of the freighter were shot on an actual freighter named Kahana. Several actors and crew members stayed aboard the freighter while filming "There's No Place Like Home", as well as other episodes of the fourth season. Director Jack Bender and several others became seasick after only spending a short time onboard. The helicopter featured in several scenes never actually took off from or landed on the Kahana because the rotors were too large and would hit the boat if used.^[8] Instead, the rotors were added using digital effects and the helicopter was raised and lowerd by a crane onto the deck of the freighter while it was docked. Filming took place during this and the footage was intercut with scenes of Michael dealing with the bomb; thus the helicopter is never seen landing on the freighter.^[26] Other scenes set on the helicopter were shot on a soundstage in front of a green screen, where actress Yunjin Kim lost her voice from screaming.^[8] Furthermore, the first prop bomb was deemed to be too small and the amount of C4 was doubled, even though the original amount of C4 depicted was sufficient to blow up the freighter.^[8] The set for the exterior of the Orchid station was constructed in the Manoa valley on the island of Oahu, near Paradise Park, a defunct tourist attraction, which served as the Dharma Initiative Hydra station in the first few episodes of the third season.^[27] The exterior elevator for the Orchid station did not actually move and a camera trick was used to simulate movement.^[8] The scene in which Sun confronts Widmore was filmed on location in London as actor Alan Dale (Widmore) was appearing as King Arthur in Spamalot there at the time. Dale was not made aware of the plot of the episode, saying that "the wording, the title and all the headings on the scripts were changed. Only [he] knew they were the Lost scripts, along with the director."^[28][8] Two alternate endings were shot for the episode in order to minimize the risk of the real ending being leaked. Both versions were shown on Good Morning America on May 30, 2008. In the first alternate ending, Sawyer is in the coffin and in the second, Desmond is in the coffin.^[29] Overall, it took four editors approximately three weeks to edit the second part of the finale, which under normal cicrumstances would take two months.^[8]

[edit] Reception

[edit] Ratings

"There's No Place Like Home: Part 1" was watched by 10.962 million American viewers, of which 6.391 million were ages 18 to 49, ranking it nineteenth for the week in total viewers and eighth among viewers age 18 to 49.^[30][31] The episode was watched by 1.296 million Canadian viewers, ranking fifteenth for the week.^[32] It was also watched by 914,000 viewers in the United Kingdom^[33] and by 464,000 viewers in Australia, making it the thirtieth most watched program of the night, a feat that David Dale of The Sun-Herald thought proved that "there's hope for the world".^[34] "There's No Place Like Home: Part 2 " was watched by 12.303 million American viewers, of which 6.453 million were ages 18 to 49, making it the most watched show of the week overall and in the 18 to 49 demographic.^[35][36] The episode was watched by 1.448 million Canadian viewers, ranking second for the week.^[37] It was also watched by 1.166 million viewers in the United Kingdom^[38] and by 603,000 viewers in Australia.^[39]

[edit] Critical Response

Matthew Fox received praise for his portrayal of Jack in flashforwards.

Patrick Kevin Day of the Los Angeles Times praised Michael Giacchino's musical score,^[40] writing that "I'm reminded of the heights of emotion this series can evoke."^[41] Jarett Wieselman of the New York Post thought that the finale's split and two-week break was "not cool", but asked "how brilliant was Sun's smackdown on her bad daddy?".^[42] Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger wrote that "when Lost is at its best … it manages to balance revelations … with great character moments. I don't know that I'd put this one in the pantheon (again, a lot of it was set-up for … [Parts 2 & 3]), but it was definitely in the spirit of what I love about the show."^[43] Kristin Dos Santos of E! praised the chemistry between Naveen Andrews and Andrea Gabriel, who play Sayid and Nadia, respectively.^[44] Chris Carabott of IGN gave the episode a 7.9. He commended the music and called it "a good opening to what should be an exciting season finale"; however, the lack of suspense in favor of set-up was cited as the reason for the modest rating.^[45] Dan Compora of SyFy Portal called "Part 1" "an excellent setup episode [with] fast pace, important revelations, and nearly a full utilization of the cast". Compora decided that "certain characters work much better in very small doses … a little bit of [Hurley] goes a long way [and] it was nice to see Jack featured without completely dominating an episode."^[46] Oscar Dahl of BuddyTV summed up Part 1 as "very good", but said that the opening flashforward in which the Oceanic Six are reunited with their families was anticlimactic and "although each flashforward scene had minor and major revelations, it felt patched together and a little sloppy, like Lindelof and Cuse had all this ground to cover in their quest to link all the action up to the final scene of season 3 … That said, the flashforward scenes all played out exceedingly well."^[47] Daniel of TMZ welcomed the return of Richard (on the island) and gave the episode an "A", saying that it had "more than a few fantastic scenes. All the flashforward scenes tonight were right on the money as far as I was concerned."^[48] Jay Glatfelter of The Huffington Post "really liked this episode" and concluded that it "definitely showcased the new breath of life the fourth season gave to the show."^[49]

Matthew Fox received much praise for his performance in the scene in which his character Jack reacts to the revelation that Claire is his half-sister. Jarett Wieselman of the New York Post called this "brilliant acting",^[42] while Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger said that "Fox played Jack's anguish beautifully" and called this scene a contender for "Fox's single best moment in the history of the show".^[43] Kristin Dos Santos gave Fox "mad props" and Chris Carabott of IGN said that "Fox hasn't been given much of an opportunity to stretch his acting muscles this season but he gives a great performance [in this scene]."^[45]

Robert Bianco of USA Today said that "a great season of Lost ended with a suitably great finale, which … ended with the … whoa-inducing discovery that Locke was the man in the casket. Didn't see that coming—and I can't wait to see what this terrific TV series has coming next."^[50] Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe wrote that "the episode was dynamic and busy enough as it relied heavily on action-adventure… but the finale wasn't as mind-bending as [the third] season's farewell, during which we received the show's first flash-forward."^[51] Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger enjoyed the triple-length "There's No Place Like Home", but ranked it in the middle of his list of the season's episodes from best to worst and decided that "'There's No Place Like Home" (both parts) played fair with the audience 100 percent, answered [many] questions … and yet … I feel ever so slightly disappointed by all of this." He also found the special effects "looked much shoddier than usual" and praised the score.^[52] Frazier Moore of the Associated Press thought that "it might be the most rewarding, deliciously challenging episode in the history of this mystical ABC serial."^[53] Dan Compora of SyFy Portal wrote that "Part 2" "was perhaps the most action-packed, meaningful episode of television I've watched all year. The pace was excellent, and the revelations were plentiful." Compora also wrote that "though the pace was considerably slower, the finale delivered in a big way … it was [not a letdown, being] well written and well directed in its own right."^[54]

[edit] Awards

The second part of "There's No Place Like Home" was nominated in the category of "Outstanding Single-camera Picture Editing For A Drama Series" for the 2008 Creative Arts Emmy Awards,^[55] however it lost to the pilot episode of Breaking Bad.^[56]

[edit] Note

A. ^{^}  Prior to being broadcast, "There's No Place Like Home: Part 2" was known as "There's No Place Like Home: Parts 2 & 3" in ABC's press material. The home release of season four, as well as ABC's official Lost website[1], refers to it as "There's No Place Like Home: Part 2". Furthermore, the home release states that are fourteen episodes in season four and "There's No Place Like Home" is counted as three episodes.

[edit] References