There's No Place Like Home, Part 1 Discussion

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In this episode of the JoshMeister's LOST Podcast, the JoshMeister and other LOST fans discuss Season 4 Episode 12, "There's No Place Like Home, Part 1," the first part of the Season 4 finale.

LOST news and additional notes on past episodes:

• Jorge Garcia (the actor who plays Hurley) posted to his blog a photograph of the heiroglyphics wall in Ben's secret room that shows some of the symbols more clearly (see this post for some possible interpretations of the heiroglyphics)
• Strong evidence that Danielle is really dead comes via DarkUFO and the Lostpedia forums. Apparently, Mira Furlan (the actress who plays Danielle) asked to be written out of the show. The actress's husband stated in an interview in a Croatian magazine that his wife "got island fever ... so she made a deal with the producers to kill her character off." When asked how she was killed off, he said "Shot her. But, her character is pretty popular with fans of the series, so they [left the] possibility for [a] comeback next season."
• Also via DarkUFO, The Hollywood Reporter recently interviewed Damon Lindelof, who said that the original plan of 16 episodes for seasons 4 through 6 has been slightly modified. Since this season is actually 14 episodes due to the strike (counting next week's 2-hour finale as 2 episodes, as is customary), the next two seasons will now be 17 episodes each
  

There's No Place Like Home, Part 1 notes:

• Flashforward:
• Oceanic Six on plane, woman who represents Oceanic arrives at military base
• They all seem distraught, Sun says "We are in shock, Jack"
• Present:
• Jack and the gang on the beach debate about whether to follow the chopper or to call them via the satellite phone
• Daniel listens on the satellite phone and hears Keamy ordering Frank to put the chopper down and that they're going to The Orchid
• Daniel privately tells Charlotte that "they're using the Secondary Protocol" - "We have to get off the island. Right now."
  
• Jack and Kate go off toward the chopper, Jack starts bleeding from his surgical wound
• They run into Sawyer who warns them that Keamy shot up New Otherton
  
• Flashforward:
• The Oceanic Six answer reporters' questions at a press conference
• One of them asks Sun about her husband, and she says that "he never made it off the plane"
• One questions Kate about having a baby on the island, and challenges her that she must have been 6 months pregnant when the U.S. marshall arrested her
• After the press conference, Sayid is surprised and happy to see that Nadia was there waiting outside for him; they kiss and embrace
• Present:
• Sayid comes back to the island on a small motor-powered raft to warn the people on the beach that the men on the chopper had every intention of killing them all
  
  
• Ben tells Hurley that they're going to a greenhouse
• Ben: Moving the island "is both dangerous and unpredictable. It's a measure of last resort."
  
• Ben uses a mirror from a hidden DHARMA box to flash signals at someone off in the distance, wouldn't tell John who or why
• Who and why? Richard Alpert? Harper, perhaps? One theory is that Ben was signaling Richard to let him know that he was going to The Orchid and would need backup once he got there (hence The Others with their guns later in the episode)
  
  
• Daniel takes Sun, Jin, Aaron, and a few others back to the freighter via the motorboat
  
• Flashforward:
• Sun uses her crash settlement money to buy a controlling interest in her father's company - now she's the boss! She's angry with her father because he's the reason that Jin got on the plane.
  
  
• Hurley's dad gives him the Camaro for his birthday
• The mileage is 481516, and the trip mileage is 234.2 (The Numbers!) which causes Hurley to freak out and run down the street
• Present:
• Ben admits that he knows why Charles Widmore is trying to get to the island
• Ben spots Keamy's crew camping out at The Orchid in camouflage
  
  
• Daniel and the people on the raft arrive back at the boat, Desmond helps them, Daniel heads back to the island
  
• Sun and Jin see Michael and he hangs his head in shame
  
  
• Jack and Sawyer find Frank handcuffed in the chopper
  
• Flashforward:
• Woman tells Jack after his father's funeral that "I believe I'm the reason he was in Australia when he died"
• The woman is Claire's mom, and she tells Jack that her daughter was on the plane, and she says her daughter's name was Claire
• The woman then walks past Kate and Aaron (the woman's grandson, unbeknownst to her) and tells her that she has a beautiful baby
  
• Present:
• Michael denies that he works for Ben
• Desmond finds that the freighter is wired with lots of C4 explosives, and shows Michael, who seems surprised
  
  • Who set up the explosives? Keamy? Is that why he had the device strapped to his arm, so that if he dies the whole boat will blow up? Or maybe this was part of Ben's real plan for blowing up the ship
    
• Richard Alpert and lots of Others come out of the woods with lots of guns and stop Sayid and Kate, who were trying to find Jack and Sawyer
• The Others take Sayid and Kate captive
• Why? Sawyer and Jack had just walked by a little while ago, and The Others didn't stop them. Why stop Kate and Sayid? To protect them? To recruit them to help The Others save Ben?
  
  
• Ben tells Locke his plan for how to get inside The Orchid and walks right up to Keamy to turn himself in
  

Screenshots and Easter Eggs:


• DarkUFO's screenshots showing the Oceanic Airlines press event, including:
• The photograph that seems to show the Oceanic Six arriving on an island with someone pulling their luggage out of the water
• Maps of where Oceanic claims the plane crashed, the island of Membata where they arrived and were stranded after the crash, and Sumba, the island where they were supposedly rescued
• Dan Faraday's notebook, including:
• A page with several equations, a sketch of the Orchid Station logo, and the phrases "TimeLike FACTOR" and "SpaceLike Factors"
• Another page with diagrams and the words "Using Eddington-Finkelstein coordinates (V₁R₁) removes the singularity at R=Zm. As R gets smaller - light cones tip over"
• (For more screenshots of Daniel's equations, etc., see this post)
• Ben's trunk, DHARMA box, and mirror
  

The remainder of this post may contain spoilers.

• Official LOST Podcast:
• We'll learn more about Charlotte's character in the season finale
• As has been mentioned previously, we'll find out who's in the coffin in the finale, and also there will be another electromagnetic event that will make the sky turn purple (which I'm guessing will be how Locke moves the island)
  
• Preview:
• A man says "We're losing fuel! Do not go back to the island!"
• It looks like Kate is on a helicopter

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