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Lost Season 1 Episode 15

Homecoming

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AIRED: 2/9/05

The happiness of Claire's return is short-lived as she is suffering from amnesia and Ethan returns to the Survivors' camps, demanding that he get Claire back or he will kill the rest of the group, one by one. Flashbacks in this episode feature Charlie's new romance with Lucy Heatherton but Charlie is only using her to satisfy his drug addiction.moreless

FAN RECAP

Fan Episode Reviews (34)

One of the worst episodes of Lost!!!

6.0

By Dante_Edy, May 25, 2011

Why the writers feel the need to do another episode centered in charlie and in his flashbacks? This episode was mad for charlie fans, that is for sure.

Claire is back, and of course, you want to know what happened to her, and you think for a moment, that maybe her flashbacks will reveal that, however......claire has amnesia.

It is very convenient that she loses her memory, just when the audience wants to know what it goes on, but the writers thought that it would be better to maintain the audience guessing, that way you have one more reason to see the next episodes, maybe they forget that we already have a long list of mysteries.

Even ethan sole porpose in this episode serves only to fill this episode. And since the producers want to keep the secrets, charlie kills ethan, of course, that way will be impossible to know anything right now.

Charlie flashbacks...well...they don´t deserve a opinion, were Useless.moreless
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Awesome.

10

By Sarah_LOST, Oct 12, 2010

Claire is back among the survivors, but the last thing she remembers is the flight. Ethan confronts Charlie, threatening to kill the other castaways one by one until he gets Claire back. Despite security measures, Scott is murdered. With the guns from the briefcase and Claire as bait, Jack, Kate, Locke, Sayid and Sawyer set a trap. The trap works, and Ethan is captured. Although the plan is to keep Ethan alive, a vengeful Charlie kills him. In flashbacks, Charlie tries to get drug money by stealing from a rich girl. Claire is back, and can't remember who anyone is. I love the way Charlie is with Claire so cute. I love it when Sayid, Jack, Charlie and Locke are talking about Claire it's so cool. The scene when Ethan get's jin and Charlie is awesome! I also love the scene where Jack, Kate, Locke, Sayid and Sawyer trap Ethan but using Claire as bait - but Charlie has other ideas - awesome storyline though!moreless
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A good episode...

9.0

By Jacob316, Feb 19, 2010

After the missing Claire returns with no recollection of what has happened since before she boarded the doomed Oceanic flight 815, Jack and Locke formulate a plan of defense against her kidnapper, the mysterious Ethan (guest-star William Mapother), who threatens to kill off the other survivors one by one unless Claire is returned to him. Meanwhile, the disappointment Charlie feels when Claire does not remember him triggers recollections of a woman he had let down in the past. A good episode that sees Claire return this storyline could have been fleshed out a bit more. There was a great action scene in this episode.moreless
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The Charlie and the Amnesia

9.0

By Rufam, Dec 28, 2009

These are the two factors that prevent the survivors from actually abstracting some honesty from Ethan. On the one hand, although Claire's back, her unexplained AMNESIA means that she doesn't recall any of the events prior the crash and on the other, CHARLIE shoots Ethan before Sayid can practice his best torturing techniques on him. But the heaviest hand is the third one, on which we hold Jack, somehow still existing. -

This is one of the greatest episode of the season containing one of the most action-packed sequences of the whole series. Of course, I am talking about the trap the survivors had prepeared for Ethan, whith Claire being the bait, and Charlie's angry blaze-up leading to Ethan's death that followed. The flashbacks revealed nothing special about Charlie, but yet, they weren't boring and provided a small comic relief to a generally heavy-handed episode. However, Claire's amnesia seems a little too convenient as a plot device.moreless
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Claire's not the only one to come back

8.5

By DavidB226Morris, Mar 01, 2009

Normally, a homecoming is a symbol of a joyous occasion, but as this the case with so many things that have happened on Lost, it's quite the opposite. Because no one is sure how Claire escaped, especially in her condition, so there is an unspoken fear of her that gets even greater as the episode progresses. Claire is in little better shape, since her mind has somehow completely erased every memory she had since the plane crashed a month ago. Before she was calm laid back and friendly, now she's scared, paranoid and wary of others. The only one who remembers is Ethan, and he's certainly not going to share anything he knows. When he makes his reappearance near the end of Act One, he intends to make sure she comes back.

A brief consideration for something that is practically used as a throwaway: How did Claire get away? If Ethan is an example of how strong the Others are (and evidence would seem to bear this out) he has superhuman strength, fights like a trained marine, is wily, and seems omniscient. Are we supposed to believe that somehow a nine months pregnant , frail little woman managed to fight her way clear of a large collective of Others? Given what we know about them, no one willingly walks away from any of them. Furthermore, later evidence would indicate that if you stay with the Others for a period of time (two weeks is probably long enough according to canon), you practically become indoctrinated into their group. How come it didn't work for Claire? The obvious answer to both those question would have to do with her pregnancy. Is there something about this still unborn child that the Others are weary of dealing with? Is it possible that her personality has connected her somehow to the island in ways we don't understand? This is less of a concern to the castaways, because we see this through the eyes of Charlie, who has been nearly as crippled as everyone else by what has happened. He's been despondent over how he could saved her, now that's she's back he's getting a second chance. For once the flashback seems a little superfluous as it doesn't really tell us anything about Charlie we didn't know before (he was a junkie and he wants to feel useful) but we do get the idea that he wants to take care of people and keeps failing at it. The fact is he's never been taken care of by anyone, and he doesn't know how to9 do it.

This leads to a confrontation with Ethan, which is a demonstration of how the group strategizes under pressure. Sayid, Locke and Jack are essentially the triumvirate of decision makers. Kate attempts to help, but her advice is ignored until the situations gets worse (after Scott is killed). Sawyer is a "soldier" who is willing to come along and do his duty, but is not considered capable enough to be part of the planners. For that matter, you wonder if his inclusion of Kate with the group was more of a way to score points with her then it was to actually bring about success. And Charlie is seen by the decision makers as too emotionally involved to be a part of the ambush. Every time he objects to something, he's overruled by those who seem to know better, even though they're improvising as well.

The trap that is set ends up working, and we learn a couple of things before the climax. Jack is becoming increasingly angry at the Others attacks on him, and it evokes a savagery that we wouldn't consider him capable of.. It is clear from the way things were set up that Sayid was planning to torture Ethan after they captured him, despite whatever crisis of conscience he had in 'Solitary'. But all of this is rendered mute because Charlie picks up one of the fallen guns and blows Ethan away. He says that it had to be done, and that they probably wouldn't have gotten any information out of him. What we learn of the Others in Season 2 would seem to bear this out, but the fact remains is that Charlie has probably just put everybody else in greater danger. He just doesn't know how bad things will get.

There are other little things that are going on in this episode that show certain evolutions of the characters. When Ethan attacks Jin and Charlie at the beginning of the show, he uses a slingshot and his fists. Later episodes will demonstrates that the others clearly have more access to better weapons, and since the act was essentially over there was no sense in playing games, so why not just use a gun? Perhaps the brutality he used in killing Scott (or Steve, or whatever, this is one mystery I'm not touching with a 42 foot pole) was to demonstrate how powerless the islanders are against him, but they already know that based on what happened to Charlie, so why bother? Furthermore, considering that Ethan was pretty smart, he did seem to fall into an obvious trap. Was there a secondary protocol that we were not aware of? This seems a little unlikely, but considering how important Ethan was to the Others, why continue to keep him in play? In castaway related news, Jin seems to be becoming more suspicious of his wife and the people he's camping with. When Claire is brought into the caves, he asks Sun what is going on, as if he suspects that she knows more than she is telling him. He also seems concerned about whether Claire's baby is all right, more so than some of the others in fact. There actually is a backstory here, but we won't get to it for a little while.

Vincent again makes an appearance when something bad happens, this time reemerged seconds before the body of Scott is pulled out of the water. Furthermore, considering everything that Boone has been through in the last few episodes, he doesn't seem to have gleaned much of the survivalist instinct from Locke, considering how quickly he falls asleep while on duty. I guess that's what you call foreshadowing.

This is a shocking episode of 'Lost, not so much because of who dies, but who ends up killing him. The Others are going to disappear from the scene for a while, but it's going to become clear that they are gone, and definitely not forgotten. More pressing problems are going to occur, and they're going to make the troubles with Ethan, seem literally like child's play.moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Daniel Dae Kim	Jin Kwon
Terry O'Quinn	John Locke
Harold Perrineau Jr.	Michael Dawson
Emilie de Ravin	Claire Littleton
Matthew Fox	Jack Shephard
Naveen Andrews	Sayid Jarrah

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Darren Richardson	Tommy	Guest Star
Sally Strecker	Lucy	Guest Star
Jim Piddock	Frank	Guest Star
Christian Bowman	Steve Jenkins	Recurring Role
William Mapother	Ethan Rom	Recurring Role
Dustin Watchman	Scott Jackson	Recurring Role

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (11)
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- When Charlie select Drive Shaft's song "You, All, Everybody" from the jukebox...the number of the song is 314. 3+1+4=8. 8 is one of The Numbers.
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- Black and white ("Lost"'s recurring theme):
  
  When Jack takes Locke to the suitcase full of guns, he is wearing a black t-shirt, while Locke is wearing a white one.
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- Before Sawyer gave Kate a gun, the Losties had 4 guns. 4 is one of "The Numbers".
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- Goof: At the end of Ethan and Jack's fight, when Jack hits Ethan for the last time, there's a jelly yellow thing on his right cheek, probably mudd or something like it. After that, Jack gets off of him and Ethan's face is clean.
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- Island events in this episode take place on October 18th and October 19th 2004.
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- Numbers: 4
  Locke says they should have 4 booby traps around camp. Ethan has 4 scratches on his face.
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- During Jack and Ethan's fight, you can clearly see that the man Jack tackles is not William Mapother, but a stuntman.
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- The copier Charlie was trying to sell was C815, which is the same number as the flight number of the plane. Also, 8 and 15 are two of "The Numbers".
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- Another point: for apparently never having fired a gun before, Charlie has some pretty damn accurate shooting---six shots, in rapid succession, all striking directly into the middle of Ethan's chest from about 20-25 feet. While naturally good aim IS something a person can possess, it seems implausible that Charlie's aim, for an apparent first-timer, is that good.
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- When Charlie doesn't answer when he is asked if he can fire a gun, everyone thinks that he can't handle the weapon. However, when we see him just after he has shot Ethan, Charlie is holding the gun correctly, as if someone taught him how to properly stand, hold, and fire a handgun at some point. Why wouldn't Charlie have mentioned he had learned to use a gun before?
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- In the ending, right after Charlie shot Ethan, you can see the sun shine through the clouds. In a closer look you can see the sun is shining in a different direction through the clouds. Is that possible, even if the sun is straight above the clouds?
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QUOTES (17)
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- Locke: Okay, Jack, we tell everyone. But, you want to protect them, you need to start thinking defense.
  Jack: We move everybody off the beach, back up into the caves.
  Locke: What if Ethan isn't alone? What if he delivered his threat so that we would gather like sheep to the slaughter in a confined space where they can roll in and take us all in one fell swoop?
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- Locke: Jack, I'm not a cold man. I feel for the loss of one of our own, but nothing fundamental's changed. Wherever he is, wherever he comes from, we're on Ethan's turf. He has the advantage. To him we're nothing more than a bunch of scared idiots with sharp sticks.
  Jack: What if I told you I had a way to get the advantage back?
  Locke: Then I would ask - what way might that be, Jack?
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- Kate: Maybe it's time you use that key you've been wearing around your neck. There are 4 nine millimeters in the Marshal's case.
  Jack: Uh-uh. No. I hand them out, someone hears something out in the jungle and gets scared, the chances of us shooting each other are much higher than of us shooting him.
  Kate: We're beyond sharpening knives here, Jack.
  Jack: I am not putting guns in untrained hands.
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- Charlie: Oy, Jin. You heading back to the caves? (Charlie greets Jin in Korean and Jin returns the greeting.) Safety in numbers, right? Of course, you have no idea what I'm talking about. How nice it must be to not be involved in the bloody insanity that surrounds us at every turn. It's quite beautiful, really. You take care of your wife. Everything else is someone else's problem. No need to be involved in the decision-making process. No tree-shaking behemoths, French transmissions, just sweet, bloody ignorance.
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- Claire: Who is he, Ethan?
  Charlie: Ethan? Ethan's the bad guy.
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- Claire: Why would you keep me in the dark, Charlie? I'm already in the dark.
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- Tommy: When do you start this job?
  Charlie: Monday.
  Tommy: Today's Friday, isn't it? After a weekend without a fix Monday should be bloody wonderful. Let's see how the future treats you then, hey Charlie.
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- Ethan (to Charlie, about Claire): You bring her here. If you don't, I'm going to kill one of them. And then if you don't bring her back before sundown tomorrow, I'll kill another, and another, and another. One every day. And Charlie, I will kill you last.
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- Charlie: ...I wanted you to think I could take care of you.
  Lucy: You'll never take care of anyone.
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- Charlie (to Claire): Don't worry, you want to close your eyes. I'll be here all night. I won't let anyone get to you. I won't leave you Claire. Promise!
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- Sawyer: So Steve drew the short straw, huh?
  Hurley: Dude, that was Scott.
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- Locke (about the guns): Well doctor, you've been holding out on us.
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- Claire: I remember peanut butter. Why do I remember peanut butter?
  Charlie: It was imaginary peanut butter actually.
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- Sawyer: I took this off the Marshal, back in the old days, you remember him don't you?
  Jack: Yeah, I remember him. You shot him, and missed.
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- Boone (about Ethan): Do you think he's around?
  Locke: I sure hope not.
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- Charlie: You boys talk about Claire all you want. I'm actually going to go spend some time with her. I get the impression she might still be a tad upset.
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- Jack: Do you know how to use a gun?
  Sawyer: Well there's one polar bear that seems to think so.
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NOTES (4)
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- International Airdates:
  - Denmark: April 15, 2005 on Kanal 5
  - Greece: August 22, 2008 at 23.00 on ANT1
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- Christian Bowman (Steve) and Dustin Watchman (Scott) play the pair of Scott/Steve. Hurley says that Scott got killed, but the two actors have confirmed that it was actually Steve. This confusion will become a running joke over the next two seasons.
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- On the night of the 9th February 2005, the episodes "Homecoming," of Lost and "Nocturne" of Alias aired for the first time. Both of these episodes were directed by Kevin Hooks.
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- A Charlie centric episode.
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ALLUSIONS (2)
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- Sawyer: Where did you get the hardware, Hoss?
  
  Sawyer is calling Jack Hoss, referring to the character Hoss Cartwright from the show Bonanza. Hoss always looked after little Joe as an older brother should do.
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- Lucy: He's probably up in Slough buying a paper company.
  
  This is said by Lucy, Charlie's woman-friend in the flashback sequences. She is referring to her father's whereabouts.
  
  The BBC mockumentary The Office takes place in Slough. The company that the characters work for is called "Wernham Hogg", a paper merchant, managed by David Brent, played by Ricky Gervais.
  
  Ricky Gervais, co-creator and star of The Office, appeared on an episode of Alias and is friends with JJ Abrams.
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