“Well, that is your name, isn’t it? Calvin Klein? It’s written all over your underwear.” - Lorraine Baines, Back to the Future

by Teresa Jusino

The folks at Lost like The Wizard of Oz. A lot. Henry Gale? Hot air balloons? “The Man Behind the Curtain”? And now, the Season 4 finale, “There’s No Place Like Home.” I’m starting to think I should be picking up on a theme here. In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy seemed to capture the theme of the story when she said: If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own backyard, because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with. Season 4 of Lost seems to have been all about getting back home. The survivors have done their time in “Oz”, and they’re looking to get off the island by helicopter, freighter, raft, whatever….

But wait. Not all of them want to leave. If Jack is Dorothy, determined to get home by any means necessary, Locke seems to be auditioning for the role of the new Wizard. Not everyone minds “Oz.” To some, like Locke, Sawyer, or Ben, it’s a better alternative than their homes in civilization. They thrive here. Heck, a while back, Walt burned the raft his father built in an effort to stay on the island. There, he had his father, and stability, and, through Locke, a chance to realize his natural potential.

Season 4 as a whole seemed to be playing with the entire notion of home. In episode 12, after Locke has left Ben in the Orchid to move the island, he goes above ground and is met by his new disciples. Richard greets him by saying “Welcome home.” Meanwhile, we know that The Oceanic Six have come back to civilization and have each made homes for themselves. Kate and Jack have set up house with Aaron. Sayid has made a home with Nadia. Hurley has returned to the home he shared with his parents, while Sun - in a glorious burst of badassery - has built a home for herself and her daughter by investing her Oceanic settlement into Paik Industries, buying a controlling interest in the company. They should all be happy now, right? Not so much, it seems.

At the end of the three hour season finale, The Oceanic Six aren’t the only ones who have gotten off the island. Glinda…er, Ben…has come to help Jack & Co. back to the island. Locke, under the pseudonym Jeremy Bentham, had already been back to civilization months earlier. His first order of business as the island’s new Wizard? Get The Oceanic Six back to Oz to repair the “horrible things” that happened, because they didn’t stay on the island to live out their destinies. We know that the island has always been Locke’s element, and his entire life has seemingly been preparation for “returning home.” But the rest of The Oceanic Six? Have their lives also merely been training until they were ready to come home? Once on the island, should they not have looked for their heart’s desire any further than their own jungle backyard?

“There’s No Place Like Home” was a great end to a solid season. There were stellar performances from the entire cast, though particular kudos need to go to Michael Emerson (Ben) and Yunjin Kim (Sun) for bringing their “A-games” to this story. This episode answered a lot of questions (Locke is Jeremy Bentham! And he’s the one in the coffin!) and resolved several key plotlines (Desmond and Penny!) while stirring up plenty of trouble that will need to be dealt with next season (soo….where is that island now?). What I loved most about Season 4 was the way it effortlessly changed the island-flashback formula, adding the element of civilization to the mix. From the beginning, this show has always felt like a film. This season felt like a 13-hour blockbuster, and I can’t wait for the sequel!

It is for this reason, the fact that Lost has become more filmic with every season, that it has become harder for me to criticize individual episodes. I know that they’re all going to add up to one, cohesive story arc, so how can I criticize individual episodes for “being filler” or “not answering my questions”?

As long as I’m writing for Pink Raygun? Snarkily.

Oh. And just because:

Tell me you don’t see the resemblance.

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TERESA JUSINO was born on the same day that Skylab fell. Coincidence? She doesn’t think so. As a writer, her work has appeared in Elmont Life newspaper, and on the sadly defunct website, CentralBooking.com. She is currently at work on a collection of short stories. As a geek, Teresa loves Star Trek, Lost, comics, and anything Joss Whedon ever touched. Also, she has a fangirl *squee-ing* crush on Brian K. Vaughan, which is now being rivaled by her burgeoning crush on Robert Downey Jr. in his Iron Man suit.