'Lost': There's No Place Like Home, Part 2&3

Boy, it feels like we just started this We Have to Go Back campaign, doesn't it? Doesn't it? OK, maybe not so much. It's been a seven-month trek, filled with enough drama to fill a mystical Island. And by "drama" I mean "typos." My bad on that front. I blame the Army of the Dark for those, and the Army of the Light for somehow keeping me on the path when giving up seemed like a tantalizing option. But here we are, at the end of our long off-season journey. Just a little bit farther to go, Lost fans. Well, 4,000 words more to go, but still, who's counting?

It's the beginning of the end, people. No, not the episode "The Beginning of the End," but rather the first hour of the 3-hour Season 4 finale of Lost. And personally, I feel a little like Jack. I'm tired, sweaty, semi-delusional, stubbly, and bleeding from my right side. Let's just hope I'm not lying on the floor stinking of alcohol a few years from now ruing the day I ever took on this task. But I'm gonna push that fear aside for now and deliver the penultimate edition of the"We Have to Go Back" series for you all. After this...just one more to go.

In even-numbered seasons, it's easy to forget that John Locke is supposed to be one of THE iconic figures in the Lost universe. In odd-numbered seasons, he's a hunter, a fighter, a joker, a smoker, a midnight...well, you get the point. But in Seasons 2 and 4, he's domesticated, trapped not by a wheelchair but by the creature comforts he longed to shed. In this episode, you learn exactly why it's so hard for Locke to embrace his true nature. Because, after all, he's been fighting against it his entire life.

This episode gets a bad rap, and I'm not sure it's justified. It's almost never singled out amidst Season 4's general brilliance, acting somewhat like the Jan Brady of the season. It's not "The Constant," but it sure as heck isn't "Eggtown." While it's easy to pile on Jack for the boneheaded things his future self does in this episode, a second viewing reveals a great deal about the nature of "fate" in the Lost universe.

Normally I like to wittily set up these recaps. But know what, Lost fans? I'm too gosh darn excited. I just wanna jump into this, Kris Kross-style. But, like, with my pants facing the right way. I'm just a traditionalist like that.

Oh, Michael. Michael Michael Michael. I wanna like you, I do, but you make it so hard. You remind me of something an ex once said to me: "I'm trying to love you, but you're in the way." Sounds about right, at the expense of potentially TMI'ing myself right there to make the point. It's also the last episode of Lost filmed before the writer's strike, so note the almost leisurely paced nature of the storytelling compared with the narrative frenzy of the season's last five episodes.

A lot of people pretty much lost their minds while watching this episode, but not in a good way. They mostly felt betrayed by the "cheating" involved in the off-Island narrative. Personally, I felt misled, but then again, the show's SUPPOSED to mislead you. If you could see the end coming a mile away, it wouldn't be Lost, would it? If that bothers you, focus on the on-Island activities, which are Season 1-esque in their attention to character. That will get you through to a certain someone's big return to the show.

Normally, I hear "Juliet flashback" and start breakdancing with Lost joy. So when I learned originally that I'd get a Juliet-centric AND a new Dharma station, let's just say I popped AND locked in the week leading up to it. And yet, what we got was merely a solid, not mind-blowing, episode. Does the episode hold up free of the burden of expectation, or does it still suffer in comparison to the rest of Season 4's high quality of episodes? Let's find out.

I remember thinking quite clearly, the night this episode aired, "I feel really lucky to be alive to witness this." It's hyperbole, of course, since it's just a television show, but it was also one of the most creative and emotional piece of popular culture I'd ever witnesses. And so it meant both nothing and EVERYTHING at the same time, and generally left me in awe of Lost (again) and privileged to have a forum in which I can discuss the show.

I think if there were a Top Ten list of places I'd least like to visit, Eggtown would have to be somewhere on that list. It's a place where little of interest happens, and what does happen stretches credulity to its absolute limit. While I'm not a Kate hatah, no Kate-centric ep has ever thrilled me. Or even particularly interested me. And this is the worst one of all. Hang in there, Lost fans. We're one ep away from greatness. We just gotta get through this one first.