Sea. 1, Ep. 15: Homecoming

"Homecoming" is the episode that features the return of Claire (remember the end of the previous installment?). Only there's a problem: she don't remember nothin' 'bout what done happened to her! But even though "Homecoming" seems like it'd be billed as Claire-centric, most of the emphasis (including the flashbacks) is placed on Charlie, who's still torn up about his sweetheart's abduction and his inability to set things straight (tuck that last nugget of info away for later).

So, here's the gist of what goes down: Ethan confronts Charlie and Jin in the middle of the jungle and demands of Charlie that Claire be returned to him. Sheesh. It appears that Ethan's more obsessive than one of Driveshaft's groupies. He claims that if he doesn't get Claire back by the end of the day, he'll kill one of the 815 survivors. And if the holdout continues, he'll keep offing them one by one on a daily basis 'til they're all dead. The icing on the cake is that he'll kill Charlie at the very end.

Of course, this means that the survivors have to spring into action to save their own. Now it's not the first time we've seen it, but this development in "Homecoming" leads to another instance of the emerging conflict between Jack and Locke. After learning about Ethan's demands from Charlie, the two debate about the best way to ward off Ethan's threat. In the end, Jack bends to Locke's will and follows his approach. They will set up a few sentries around the beach during the night and keep the rest of the people in the dark about what might happen. It appears that all is going to plan until Boone dozes off in the dark. He wakes sometime during daybreak when the alarm (a bag with bottles and cans set off by a trip wire) rattles and clanks, and he jumps into action. He's too late, though, because Ethan has made good on his threat and eliminated one of the survivors (a dude named Scott Jackson). Fortunately for us, it's no one we recognize. [Editor's Note: Although it looks like Boone is to blame, Kate remarks that Locke said Ethan came in from the water, meaning the perimeter setup was pretty much useless. I'll continue to blame Boone, though. He's a young guy. He shouldn't have fallen asleep so easily!]

In light of Ethan's success, the survivors change up their game plan. Jack tells Locke about the Marshal's guns, which will obviously provide them with a tremendous advantage. They scheme to cast Claire out as bait so that they can jump Ethan and apprehend him. Despite Charlie's protestations, they go ahead with the plot. It works perfectly. A number of them surround Ethan, and after a fist fight concludes it looks like they'll be able to bind him up and extract information from him. But then Charlie impetuously shoots their captive. Way to go, sport. Save for Sawyer's shooting of the Marshal, this proves to be the first of many deaths-by-gunfire on Lost. And I doubt that any of us would've pegged Charlie to be the first shooter.

Oh, one last note: that scene with Ethan's capture and death plays out in the pouring rain. It's the leitmotif that remains inexplicable.

Charlie's flashbacks show us that the washed-up rock star was a low-life junkie with a heart of gold. In need of cash to maintain his flow of smack, Charlie preyed on a young woman whose father had a load of dough. The plan was to steal valuables and pawn them for quick cash before disappearing for good, but Mr. Crooked Jaw fell for the lass. He even took a job selling photocopiers for her father so he could impress her. Too bad he'd already stolen from her. Otherwise he could've set things straight! Huh?! See the parallel between the on-island happenings and the flashbacks? Pretty clever writers, eh?

So that's a straightforward assessment of the episode. Doesn't look like Ethan has superhuman strength after all, otherwise those bullets might've bounced off of him. Other than that, I think the largest thing to take away from this episode is the opposing forces of Jack and Locke. They don't clash too badly here, but it's definitely an prelude of things to come as they both vie for positions of leadership.

Thanks for reading!

Sea. 1, Ep. 10: Raised by Another

The tenth installment of Lost's first season offers us a series of flashbacks centering on yet another character. Man, the breadth of personalities on this show is nothing short of amazing, and, as I've said before, it's one of the myriad reasons that people get hooked on the series.

"Raised by Another" shines the spotlight on the adorable Aussie and mother-to-be Claire. It opens with her in the midst of a terrible dream. She wakes in the middle of the night and hears a baby's cries. She wanders around, finding Locke sitting at a table. He's dealing cards (probably tarot cards) and he tells her that "everyone pays the price now" because she gave her baby away. As he looks up at her from the card table, we see that his eyes are two different colors: his right eye is black and his left eye is white. And like good Lost students, we'll take note of that. Departing from here, she continues to follow the cries of the baby. They lead her to a bassinet in the jungle which contains bunch of blankets. She sifts through the blankets to get to the baby, but there's nothing in them except blood. She screams, and her shrieks in the dream carry her back into reality where she continues to scream. Charlie tries to console her, but he's not very effective. Now, here comes the twist: the blood she had on her hands in the dream is present in reality, too! Spookiness, right?

The haunting dream sets the tone for the remainder of the episode, which has some other freaky-deaky stuff. On the island, it mainly has to do with Claire getting attacked by some unidentified assailant with a long syringe. Sadly, we won't find out who the culprit was 'til season two. But of course, we should know that it was Ethan. Remember? He was tryin' to make sure Claire delivered a healthy baby, 'cause it probably would've been the first one delivered on the island since Juliet delivered him in 1974 (season five).

Ah, yes. Ethan. He's another freaky-deaky part of the episode. Good ol' Hurley decides to keep a record of everyone on the island, and his episode-long efforts culminate in the discovery that Ethan wasn't on Flight 815. In the final scene, Ethan's got Charlie and Claire alone and cornered in the jungle. Viewing this for the first time, we don't know what's gonna happen. We don't even know if Ethan has bad intentions. But we find out soon enough!

So, someone's trying to do something to Claire's baby, we just don't know much more than that. What of the baby, though? I thought you'd never ask, dear reader! That's where the flashbacks come into play. And, you guessed it: more freaky-deakiness.

Turns out Claire got pregnant when she wasn't expecting it. Baby-Daddy was all about it in the beginning, but then he decided he didn't want any part of it, so Claire was going to deliver the child and give it up for adoption. That is, until she visited some Australian John Edward who kept giving her different stories regarding the future of the baby. At first he declined to give her any reading because something he saw spooked him (he later claimed that he saw a "blur," which was a bad sign). At a later reading, he told her that she couldn't give the baby up for adoption and that she was the only one who could raise the child. According to him, the baby needed Claire's good energy incorporated into its life. Disregarding the psychic's admonitions, she attempted to give the baby up to some lucky couple. She reached an agreement with a husband and wife and was about to sign the child away when some greater force intervened. The pen with which she was prepared to sign the contract didn't work, nor did a second pen. Holding a third pen, she hesitated and backed out of the deal, going back to the psychic who had told her that he had some sort of a solution to her problem.

Get on the plane to Los Angeles, was the solution the psychic offered. He told her that there was a willing couple there, but that she had to take a specific flight. Oceanic 815 to be exact. While recounting the story to Charlie, Claire realizes that the psychic probably foresaw the crash of the plane on the island and told her about the Los Angeles plan so that she'd be stranded halfway there with no alternative but to raise the child herself.

So, the big questions posed in this episode about Claire and her baby (Aaron) are yet to be answered. There's been no sign of Claire since the fourth season, but the producers have said that the mystery surrounding her will be addressed in the final slate of episodes. I have to say that it's a storyline that I'm looking forward to for next year. Claire's not among my favorite characters, but everything with her has been so weird since Keamy's troops attacked her island house in the fourth season. She up and left Aaron and then was chillin' out in Jacob's Cabin with the specter of Jack's father. Awesomely spooky, if you ask me.

And why's Aaron so important? What's happened to him since Kate left him with his grandmother before returning to the island? Why was it so important that he not be raised by anyone else but Claire? Has he been imbued with special powers because he was born on the island? And what was the blur in the psychic's vision? Smokey?

The questions, my friends, pile up. And there'd better be some good ones about Claire and Aaron in the sixth season. I'm sure there will be.