Season 4, Episode 12:
There's No Place Like Home, Part 1
At the beach, the survivors use the phone Lapidus dropped to call him, and hear Keamy telling him to take him to the Orchid, a DHARMA Station. Daniel tells Charlotte that they need to get off the Island immediately. Jack and Kate meet Sawyer and Miles, with Kate taking Aaron back to the beach, and Sawyer and Jack heading for the helicopter. Sayid arrives, and gives Daniel the Zodiac before heading after Jack and Sawyer with Kate. Daniel takes Sun, Jin and Aaron on his first trip to the freighter, where they are reunited with Michael. Desmond discovers that the freighter is rigged with C4.
In the jungle, Ben finds a stash of supplies, and uses a mirror to send a signal to the Others. Jack and Sawyer find Lapidus and the helicopter, and head to the Orchid to rescue Hurley. Sayid and Kate meet Richard and a group of Others. Ben, Hurley and Sayid arrive at the Orchid, but Keamy is already there. Ben surrenders to Keamy to allow Locke to get inside the Orchid.
In flashforwards, the Oceanic Six land at a U.S. military base, with Jack, Sun and Hurley being reunited with their families. At a press conference, they lay out their cover story, claiming that Aaron is Kate's son, and that there is no chance of any other passengers being alive. Afterwards, Sayid meets Nadia. Sun confronts her father over his treatment of Jin, and tells him she has bought a controlling share in his company. Hurley's dad shows him that he fixed his old Camaro, and gives it to him as a birthday present, but Hurley freaks out when he sees the mileage is set to the Numbers. At a memorial for Christian, Jack meets Carole Littleton, who tells him that Claire is his sister.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Big Damn Reunion: Jack, Sun and Hurley all get these with their families after the Oceanic Six land, with Sayid and Nadia also having one later on.
- Blatant Lies: Jack claims that the very obvious patch of blood forming around his surgical wound is discharge from his body fighting an infection. Kate doesn't buy it for a second.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Jack uses Sawyer's "son of a bitch" when he finds out that Hurley is with Ben, and will be killed when Keamy's men find them.
- The Dog Bites Back: Sun uses her settlement with Oceanic to buy a controlling stake in her father's company, getting back at him for his treatment of Jin.
- Foreshadowing: Ben's statement that moving the Island is "dangerous and unpredictable" sets up the events of Season 5.
- Godzilla Threshold: Ben tells Hurley that the reason he hasn't already moved the Island is because doing so is dangerous and unpredictable. However, with Keamy planning to torch the Island and kill anyone in sight, moving the Island is their only option to stop him.
- Immediate Sequel: The flashforwards of this episode take place immediately after the main storyline in the following episode, showing the Oceanic Six returning to the United States along with the first few months as they readjust to civilization.
- Incredibly Obvious Bomb: The bomb on board the freighter is basically a gigantic pile of C4 connected to a maze of wires. Enforced by the show's creators, who stated that although the props department researched the correct amount of C4 needed to blow up the freighter, the resulting bomb was not impressive enough, and so they requested that it be doubled in size.
- Innocently Insensitive:
- Jack tells the rest of the Oceanic Six they can pretend to be in shock to avoid answering awkward questions about the Island. Sun rightfully points out that they are in shock.
- Hurley's parents somehow think it's a good idea to throw him an island-themed birthday party after he's just come home from being stranded on an island for over 100 days, with his dad even cracking jokes about it in front of him, Sayid and Kate.Sayid: Interesting choice of theme.
Hurley: Yeah, my mom... really doesn't get it, Dude.
David: Hey! How's everybody doing? What are you talking about? Building a fire or huntin' boars?
- Internal Reveal: Jack finds out that Claire is his half-sister, and that Aaron is his nephew, when Claire's mother attends Christian's memorial service.
- Lucky Rabbitsfoot: One of the pilots on the flight carrying the Oceanic Six to the airbase is clutching a rabbit's foot, pointing out that they need all the luck they can get with these passengers on board.
- Metaphorically True: The Oceanic Six's entire cover story:
- They admit to having been stranded on an Island, but claim that it was an island called Membata, near where the fake wreckage was found.
- They state that Boone, Libby, and Charlie survived the crash and died later, with Boone dying from internal injuries suffered in the crash, Libby dying later, and Charlie drowning. They neglect to mention that Boone's injuries came from a different plane crash, as he fell off a cliff in the beechcraft, they fail to mention a cause of death for Libby at all, and they don't describe the circumstances of Charlie's drowning, namely that it was in the Looking Glass.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Daniel freaks out when he hears that Keamy is headed for the Orchid, and tells Charlotte that they need to get off the Island straight away.
- In the flashforwards, Hurley gets behind the wheel of the car he and his dad wanted to restore, and has a mental breakdown when he sees the Numbers are prominently displayed on the odometer.
