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Written by: Carlton Cuse, Damon Lindelof
Directed by: Stephen Williams
Flashback: The Oceanic Six return to civilisation.
Island Life: Ben and Locke prepare to move the Island before Keamy kills everybody on it. The Islanders start to make their way onto the boat.
Verdict: This show is currently firing on all cylinders, then finding a few more cylinders so that can fire on them too. Another episode that’s so edge-of-seat you’ll need to get the sofa re-upholstered. There’s less in the way of tantalising new info (or infuriating new mysteries) as action takes over, with various plot strands hurting towards the climactic events in the season finalé. The islanders start to be ferried to the boat; Keamy and his mob try to reach the Orchid station to implement the secondary protocol; the crew on the boat discover that it’s packed full of explosives... there’s hardly a chance to blink let alone breathe. The multi-character flashforward gives the Oceanic Six some powerful character moments, especially Jack learning that he’s Aaron’s uncle – a very poignant moment. Even Daniel comes into his own (even if his heroics may be based on self preservation) though Charlotte remains annoyingly underdeveloped.
Day: 99-100, 29-30 Dec 2004
Cliffhanger: Ben gives himself up to Keamy and his team of meatheads so that Ben can get into the Orchid Station.
The Numbers: References go into overdrive this episode: the mileometer on Hurley’s car is registering 4815162342; the Oceanic Six lie that 8 people survived the initial air crash; they also lie that they were rescued 108 days after the crash (108 is the sum total of the numbers); two kids at Hurley’s birthday party are wearing T-shrts with the numbers 23 and 42 on them; the crackers which Hurley finds are 15 years old.
Trivia: Membata, island where Oceanic claim to have been stranded, is Indonesian for “doubt” or “uncertainty”.
They’re Back! Finally, the Others make a reappearance, led by Richard Alpert (looking not a day older than when he visited Locke as a child in the last episode). We were wondering what had happened to them.
Geronimo: A Geronimo Jackson record sleeve can be seen at Hurley’s party.
References: The name of the episode is yet another reference to The Wizard of Oz. Remember, when Ben was first introduced he claimed to be called Henry Gale (Dorothy’s Uncle in the film) who arrived in a balloon. There was also an episode called “The Man Behind the Curtain” (season three) and another, “Not in Portland” (also season three) seems to be a paraphrase of the quotation from the film, “Not in Kansas.”
Best Line:
Journalist: "Considering the ordeal that you’ve all been through, you look pretty healthy having been on an island for more than a hundred days."
Hurley: "Was that directed at me, dude?"
Dave Golder
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