There’s No Place Like Membata by J.Wood

How many times do I have to tell you, John? I always have a plan. -- Ben

You can almost hear the writers in Ben's voice, letting the audience know that something big is coming. With the extra hour added for the finale, it seems the job of "There's No Place Like Home, Part 1" is to finish setting up everything that will be overturned in the next couple of hours.

We see how the Oceanic Six make it off the island — we're not sure how they got on the Coast Guard plane to begin with, but we see them edgy and getting their stories straight during the flight. The Oceanic representative, Karen Decker, has the story all set to present; they made it to a nonexistent island south of Sumba, Indonesia, called Membata. Membata-bata is actually the Indonesian word for "ambivalent," a perfect adjective to describe the O6's demeanor after rescue. None of them seem too convinced about what they're doing, and the press are pretty dogged about getting to the bottom of their story — and that's how you know this is fiction; if this were the real world, the press wouldn't have worked to ask such tough questions, and whatever Decker said would be good enough for them. One thing we do know about the story: They claim 316 passengers initially died, eight made it away, and two of those died. We still don't know who those two supposedly were, or how they supposedly died; (DHARMA) shark attack?

One of the least convinced of the O6 acts with the most conviction. After the survivors disembark and are reunited with their families, Sayid and Kate stand out for not having anyone there to greet them, but Sun stands out for not even looking at her father, Mr. Paik, until she informs him later on in the episode that she's bought a controlling interest in Paik Heavy Industries. She blames Mr. Paik and one other for the death of Jin. Her claim raises some questions: Who is the other person she blames, did that person work with or for Paik, and why is she willing to become a corporate raider for the man she was about to leave four months earlier? Sun seems to know something Paik and the audience don't, but here's a suggestion: The Orchid Station and Paik Heavy Industries logos are rather similar. Both have a tripartite structure in the center that winds out into a spiral. It'd be interesting to learn if some of the equipment used down in the Orchid Station was made in Korea.

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