Season
1, Episodes 15 and 16- “Homecoming” and “Outlaws”
Summary:
In
flashback, Charlie attempts a con on a wealthy woman and is discovered by her.
Claire returns with amnesia and the camp forms a plan to trap Ethan. After
Ethan covertly murders Scott, they use Claire as bait and they manage to corner
him using the guns from the Halliburton case. However, Charlie shoots him dead.
Charlie
helps to bury Ethan, and Hurley worries he has PTSD. Sawyer is convinced a boar
is personally targeting him and destroying his stuff, so he hunts it in the
jungle. Kate tags along to get him to come to his senses. He eventually decides
to let it go. Flashbacks reveal he was told that the real Sawyer was in
Australia under the name “Duckett” and Sawyer planned to murder the man. After
chickening out, he runs into Christian at a bar who urges him to go through
with what he was planning to do. Sawyer returns to kill the man but learns it
was a setup from his boss, and Duckett is not the real Sawyer.
Review:
Amnesia is commonly listed as one of the
worst plot twists that a show could pull (see: “24” season 1), and while
Claire’s lost memories are frustrating, they don’t pile on with that
development, and indeed it eventually just disappears until Libby jogs her
memory in “Maternity Leave”. Damon Lindelof once cited “Homecoming” as his
least favorite episode, at least from a writing perspective. I can see why,
although I don’t think it’s as bad as he says. The amnesia is just a way of
bringing Claire back into the fold without allowing her the knowledge of what
Ethan did to her. It’s too early to reveal all that, so they give Claire a
convenient excuse for not talking, and this also forces Ethan’s early death
before he can spill the beans. I don’t have a problem with Charlie shooting
him. He certainly has the motive to remove the guy from the picture. I just
think the flashback could have been better utilized to explain his decision to
do that.
And the Charlie flashback really is the
weak link in “Homecoming”. I guess the point of it is to be a parallel of two
girls who don’t know (or in Claire’s case, doesn’t remember) who Charlie really
is. But when compared to a murderous madman killing people on an island,
Charlie’s scam of the wealthy girl and his blunder with the copiers is just way
too low-stakes. It doesn’t jive. I’d have preferred a story that illuminated
his decision to shoot Ethan; maybe a scene in his past where he had the
opportunity to strike back at someone who wronged him but he chickened out.
Luckily this doesn’t put a damper on the episode as a whole, since Ethan’s
reign of terror is absorbing enough to carry the hour. I like it way more than
the tracking party back in “Daddy Issues”. So calm down, Mr. Lindelof, you did
fine.
A chilling opener sets the tone for
“Outlaws” as we watch young James witness his parents’ murder-suicide. We see
the feet and hear the commotion but we don’t see the crime actually happen, and
that is what the entire episode is about. Lots of stuff is heard but
not seen, referenced but not shown, and playing out off to the side. The “I
Never” scene is a standout, and perfectly blends comedy and suspense as we
start out with silly questions before going to emotional questions and
ultimately deadly ones. There’s a slight hesitation before Sawyer takes a swig
at “I never killed a man”, and even when he does you don’t know if he’s
referring to the shrimp shop owner or someone else. There’s something about
drinking games that just brings out the best in characters.
The A-story about the boar should be
dumb, but they somehow find a way to make it work thanks to Kate’s incredulous
attitude and Sawyer’s exasperation. Locke joins the party later to tell a very
sweet story about his sister and mother that borders on cheesy until he negates
it with a perfectly-timed: “Well that would be silly.” There’s something to be
said about how this episode navigates and narrowly avoids the usual pitfalls
that would come with a story about animal reincarnation and revenge. As for the
Sydney scene with Christian, it’s one of the best uses of intersecting
destinies that they put forward. We feel for Christian because we know what
he’s referencing, and so we’re inclined to trust his advice to Sawyer about
doing the thing that will ease his suffering. Even though it’s murder! I think
that conversation softened Sawyer’s actions, just a tiny bit. But this was just
a very good episode all-around, made all the more surprising since it offers
very little in the way of action or island mythology.
Connecting the Dots:
When Jin asked Sun how Claire’s baby was,
it was perhaps another reference to the couple’s fertility issues.
The woman Sawyer is making out with in
his first flash is Mary Jo, the woman who read off Hurley’s lottery numbers.
The first reference to Kate being
married. Like the toy plane, it implies more of a story than there actually is.
Christian, as we meet him in the bar,
has just been on a little mission with Ana-Lucia to try and visit Claire. The
bottle-necking of so many storylines here is amazing to witness.
We don’t get any follow-up on Sawyer’s
con buddies off the island, and that seems like possibly a missed opportunity.
If Sawyer was one of the Oceanic 6 we probably would have, but for one of those
guys to have a cameo in some other storyline wouldn’t be unwelcome.
We hear Frank Duckett whispering in the
jungle. Is it possible for people who died off-island to turn up as ghosts on
the island? Or maybe they’re attached to people who affected their life in some
way? We see Richard’s wife’s ghost, and there’s also Ben’s mom, both of whom
were never on the island. So I guess it’s possible Duckett’s ghost followed
Sawyer to the island, but it could also just be an auditory hallucination since
we never see an apparition.
Ranking:
1.
Pilot, part 1
(9/10)
2.
Solitary (8.5/10)
3.
Outlaws (8/10)
(Strong character moments elevate this one above the pack.)
4.
Walkabout (8/10)
5.
Pilot, part 2
(8/10)
6.
White Rabbit
(8/10)
7.
Homecoming
(7.5/10) (The flashback is weird, but the plan to trap Ethan is tense.)
8.
Raised by Another
(7.5/10)
9.
Tabula Rasa
(7/10)
10. The Moth (7/10)
11. Special (7/10)
12. Hearts and Minds (7/10)
13. All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues (6.5/10)
14. Confidence Man (6.5/10)
15. House of the Rising Sun (6/10)
16. Whatever the Case May Be (4.5/10)
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