Going into the finale, it’s really strikes me how there’s so much still to resolve. We know there’ll be a conflict with the mercenaries, an only marginally successful attempt to escape on the freight, a journey to go move the island, and all sorts of character arcs to resolve in between. And every member of the Oceanic 6 still has gaps in their off island futures to fill in. I’ve been looking forward to it a lot. Let’s get ready to tackle There’s No Place Like Home, one hour at a time.

At this stage, it is on, and every character has their mission. Part 1 doesn’t have any amazing or even hugely notable moments in and of itself, it mostly concerns itself with positioning and repositioning characters, leaving them all on the brink of the big conflict to come in Parts 2 and 3. But the storytelling is deft and the material is always involving. Jack and Kate take the sat phone and go looking for Frank, running into Sawyer and Miles on the way. Sayid arrives with the boat, and Faraday begins shuttling the Losties out to the freight. Locke, Ben, and Hurley thread in about halfway through, signaling someone (Richard?) and arriving at the Orchid. Richard then finally reemerged on this island with his famous calming aura, and takes Kate and Sayid prisoner. And Jin and Sun arrive at the freight, meet with Michael and Desmond, and discover a bomb on the boat. I think it’s the first episode of the season to not neglect any characters or locations (except Claire, who is still talked about plenty in both timelines), but every appearance is designed to move the story ever closer to its climax. It’s all handled very well.

All that and several flashforwards too, and bittersweet is the name of the game. All season, we’ve been able to infer that the characters left the island in the midst of a grand conflict, and since they’re unable to get back, all they can do is move on with their lives and keep their mouth shut. Certain things, such as Jin’s fate, are still kept close to the chest even this late in the season, but even the prospect of finally getting context for all of these mysteries is a thrilling one.

There’s the press conference which allows us a chance to fully hear the cover story, which is proceeded by a great scene of the O6 reuniting with their loved ones and followed by Sayid seeing Nadia again. The rest of the future is then spent implying just how these people could go from reasonably happy to the bleak states we’ve seen them in later. The moment in which Jack finds out that Claire is his half sister could be the moment that drives a temporary wedge between him and Kate, and the beginning of his self inflicted torment about leaving the survivors behind. Nadia’s death isn’t seen, but it’s terribly sad every time we see her and Sayid together… it’s a common’. At least Sun gets an amazing scene in which she thoroughly diminished her father, who as always can’t believe what he’s seeing out of his one good eye.

Back to the island. Now, just because they’re offscreen doesn’t mean that Keamy can’t berate Frank:

KEAMY: (over phone) I SAID put it down, Frank. (9)

Dude, Frank is so going to die in the finale, that’s why he’s not in the main cast.

And then the ending. A series of shots of the Oceanic 6 and other vital characters, all spread far and wide with only two hours left to reunite, set to a beautiful rendition of their theme song. All very nice, but I’ve been maintaining since Part 1 aired that this was basically a 24 cliffhanger without the split screens. And generally people are all “That’s nice,” or “I don’t see it.” A couple of sentences ago, did you start to anticipate that I’d re-edited and re-scored this montage in the style of 24? If not, hi, welcome to the site, very nice having you here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l88e4XjdpkI

Rating: 9/10
Ranked 4th out of 12 episodes.
Average: 8.79/10

TO BE CONTINUED… How did we manage to wait two weeks for Part 2?