Follow along! The episode guide for “Homecoming” is in Finding Lost, pp. 94-98.Chah-lie’s second flashback is a heartbreaker… this one speaks to the heart of what Charlie is all about. All his life he’s been told he can’t take care of anyone, when all he seems to DO is take care of everyone. He threw his sobriety away to help Liam, he made him what he was, and now he’s trying to save Claire. But it always ends badly when Charlie manages to screw up somehow. I LOVED his character in this ep. That photocopier scene is yet another comedy classic from Dominic Monaghan. And the scene of him at the dinner table explaining that there’s been a problem with royalties while finally admitting to Lucy’s father (and himself) that DriveShaft is over, is very poignant.
Fun things I noticed:
• I remember at the time wondering that if the last memory she had was the plane, is it possible she died in the crash and we’ve always been looking at ghost Claire? Pregnant ghost Claire? Hm… people have always theorized that Claire may be dead at one point or another, and considering her recent disappearance…
• Someone asked in a previous episode why I didn’t point out Ethan’s superhuman strength. I talked at length about it in my book and I’m trying not to repeat what I said in the book here, but that’s definitely something that all of the Others possess – even Juliet lays a smackdown on Kate in Left Behind that is superhuman.
• Jin and Sun once again refer to the survivors as “others” followed immediately by a scene where Claire does the same thing.
• I still love the little in-joke about Ricky Gervais’s The Office, when Lucy says her dad’s buying a paper company in Slough. Teehee!!
• I still love how Sayid looks at Boone hesitantly when Boone steps up to volunteer as sentry (and the fatherly way Locke says he believes in him…)
• As I explain in my book, it’s actually Steve who dies… Scott is standing right there at the funeral.
• I think this might be the only time we see a flashback that cuts right back to a character (without a whoosh) making some reaction to what they just remembered. Charlie’s face is CLASSIC.
• I STILL can’t figure out why it took a full minute for most of the people with guns to make it over to Claire. If she was never in any danger, why does Jack go mano-a-mano with Ethan without anyone rushing in to help?
• I think I said this in my book, but Penny also lived in Knightsbridge, like Lucy. However, what I didn’t notice earlier was when Charlie’s standing on the doorstep, it looks like the country behind him. Correct me if I’m wrong, anyone reading from London, but isn’t Knightsbridge that area right around Harrod’s, and all of it is city blocks?
Things that have new meaning:
• Charlie deems Ethan the bad guy: even from the beginning, people are either good or bad, and that’s the only way they’re characterized. Yet in the season 2 finale, Ben defines the Others as the good guys.
• When we later see Ethan – as a hardworking doctor who was sent on a mission by Ben – his creepiness and threats in this episode seem a little baffling. Were the writers simply still trying to figure out what to do with the Others?
• Locke and Jack argue about whether to tell everyone or not. Jack’s reactionary, Locke says let’s stop and think for a bit. This conversation mirrors the one Sawyer has with Jack at the end of “Namaste,” where he tells him that Jack’s reactionary leadership led to the deaths of many people, but instead Sawyer thinks things through first.
• Jack puts his hand affectionately on Claire’s shoulder as he leads her away… almost in a brotherly sort of way…
