Lost/Homecoming

Homecoming
Season 1, Episode 15
Airdate	February 9, 2005
Production Number	114
Written by	Damon Lindelof
Directed by	Kevin Hooks
← 1x14 Special	1x16 → Outlaws
Lost — Season One

Homecoming is the fifteenth episode of the first season of Lost.

After many days, Claire is finally found. While walking in the jungle, Jin and Charlie are confronted by Ethan Rom, who gives an ultimatum: bring Claire to him or one of the islanders will die each day. A trap is set up to catch Ethan using Claire as bait, but when Boone falls asleep on sentry duty, the results are tragic.

Starring: Naveen Andrews (Sayid), Emilie de Ravin (Claire), Matthew Fox (Jack), Jorge Garcia (Hurley), Maggie Grace (Shannon), Josh Holloway (Sawyer), Malcolm David Kelley (Walt), Daniel Dae Kim (Jin), Yunjin Kim (Sun), Evangeline Lilly (Kate), Dominic Monaghan (Charlie), Terry O'Quinn (Locke), Harold Perrineau, Jr. (Michael), Ian Somerhalder (Boone).

Guest Starring: William Mapother (Ethan Rom), Jim Piddock (Francis Heatherton), Sally Strecker (Lucy Heatherton).

Co-Starring: Darren Richardson (Tommy), Eric Griffith (Buyer).

Plot Overview

The Island

• Locke carries Claire back to the caves and calls for Jack. He tells Jack she collapsed in his arms when they found her a mile north while looking for Vincent. Claire wakes up screaming, telling the group she doesn't know any Ethan. She doesn't remember any of them or anything before the crash. Charlie gives Claire her journal hoping it might help her remember.
• Sayid suggests that Ethan may have sent Claire, asking Jack how many times he's diagnosed such selective amnesia as Claire's. Jack tells him it's rare, but possible. Charlie decides to spend some time with Claire and heads off to the caves and, on the way there, runs into Jin. As they walk through the jungle, Jin is hit in the head with a rock and collapses. Ethan appears and tells Charlie he's to bring Claire back to him. If Charlie doesn't do as he says, then he'll kill one of the survivors every day until Charlie is the last one left alive.
• Returning to the beach, Charlie tells Jack and Locke what happened and that they need to go out and kill him. Locke disagrees, reminding Jack that Ethan bested him physically and hung Charlie from a tree. He suggests they tell a select few of the threat and post sentries at the beach and caves. Later, Kate tells Jack that Locke told her and others what happened. She suggests that Jack use the four guns in the Marshal's case. He disagrees, telling her he's not putting guns in untrained hands. At the beach, Locke, Sayid and Boone rig four perimeter alarms and start a rotating shift of sentries. But, in the morning, Ethan comes in from the water, past all their defenses, and kills Scott Jackson. Jack takes Locke aside to have a conversation and Locke tells him nothing has changed - they're on Ethan's turf and he has the advantage. Jack tells him he has something that can shift the advantage in their favor and shows him the Marshal's guns. He, Locke, and Sayid create a plan to capture Ethan by using Claire as bait. They ask Sawyer to help and gives him the last gun from the case. Sawyer, in turn, gives Kate the empty gun he took from the Marshal and they reload it with the extra ammo from the case. With Claire agreeing to be the bait, the group springs their trap on Ethan and Jack is able to beat him in a fistfight. But Charlie shows up and kills Ethan with Jack's dropped gun.

The Flashback

• Flashback: Charlie

In London, Charlie gets high with a man named Tommy. Tommy tells Charlie they're almost out and it's time to put him to work. At a local pub, Tommy points out a girl named Lucy Heatherton who just graduated from Oxford and lives in Knightsbridge with her father, Francis Price Heatherton, who is quite wealthy. Charlie heads over to Lucy and begins ingratiating himself with her and her friends.

Later, Charlie returns with Lucy to her father's home. She tells him he was rather proud when she told him she was going on a date with an actual rock star. As Lucy is off making tea, Charlie begins looking the place over for things to take. His eye lingers on a cigarette case that belonged to Winston Churchill. Lucy tells him her father collects items from the great leaders of the British Empire and invites him to dinner.

The next day at dinner, Lucy's father, Frank, tells Charlie he's the most impressive person they've ever had dinner with. He mentions he was once in a band, but gave it up when his wife was pregnant with Lucy. He wanted to be more practical, more responsible. He asks about Charlie's band, but Charlie tells him his brother just had a daughter and it's been over a year since they were together. He thinks Drive Shaft might be dead. Later, Charlie meets with Tommy at a pub and tells him he accepted a job offer from Frank to sell copiers. Tommy reminds Charlie he's been letting him get high on his own stash of heroin in exchange for Charlie stealing something of value that can be pawned off.

Three days later, and without a heroin fix, Charlie is readying himself for his first day with a job. Lucy buys him a suit and tells him he'll do great, that she believes in him. As she head off to get him a briefcase, Charlie steals Churchill's cigarette case. She returns and drives Charlie to his meeting. At the meeting, Charlie tries to demonstrate the abilities of the copier. But, flustered and experiencing the effects of withdrawal, Charlie throws up on the copier. He returns to Lucy's home and tells her he made a mistake. She tells him her father's sales manager came to her house to return the cigarette case that the EMT pulled from his suit pocket at the hospital. She tells him he's a liar, but asks why he took the job. Charlie tells her he wanted to be respectable - he wanted to think that he could take care of her. Lucy tells him he'll never take care of anyone.

Notes

Mysteries

• How did Claire escape from Ethan?
• What happened to Claire while she was gone?

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Claire returns to the group.
• Jack reveals the contents of the Marshal's case.

Characters

• Claire returns, but she can't remember anything from the point of the crash.
• Ethan Rom is killed by Charlie.

Trivia

Behind the Scenes

• Missing Scene: A promotional photograph was released for this episode showing Locke, with drawn knife, grappling with Ethan in the rain. This is presumably from a deleted scene.
• Ratings: On its original airing this episode scored 19.49 million viewers for ABC, being the highest rated scripted series of the night.

Allusions and References

• Strawberry Fields: A tattoo on Charlie reads, "Living is easy with eyes closed." This is a lyric from "Strawberry Fields Forever" by the Beatles.
• The Office: When Charlie is at Lucy's house for the first time, he asks where her father is. She tells him "he's buying some paper company up in Slough", a reference to The Office.

Quotes

• Boone: She didn't say anything at all about Ethan?

Locke: Apparently she doesn't even remember Ethan.

Boone: The guy pretends to be one of us, he drags her into the jungle for almost two weeks. She doesn't remember him?

Locke: Apparently.

Boone: You think he's around?

Locke: I sure hope not.

• Charlie: Oh! Seriously, ladies, I demand you stop buying me more drinks. I'm a man of high moral standing. Your obvious plan to take me home and ravage me will not work. Saucy sirens. I believe in monogamy. I will not be shared like a common curry.

Lucy: Are we that obvious?

Charlie: Dreadfully. Call yourself ladies? Jane Austen would be ashamed.

• Ethan: Charlie, I want her back.

Charlie: What? I...

Ethan: I want you to bring her back.

Charlie: What did you do to her? What did you do?!

Ethan: You bring her here. If you don't, I'm going to kill one of them. 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'll kill you last.

• Hurley: I thought those guys had the full-on perimeter set up.

Kate: Locke said it didn't matter. He came in from the water.

Hurley: You sure it wasn't an accident? I mean, maybe the guy just drowned or something.

Kate: His neck was broken. Both his arms. All the bones in his fingers...

Hurley: Yeah. Okay. Got it.

Sawyer: Guess old Steve drew the short straw.

Hurley: Dude, that was Scott.

• Hurley: Scott Jackson worked for an Internet company in Santa Cruz. He won a sales prize. Two-week Australian vacation, all expenses paid. He was a good guy. I'm sorry I kept calling you Steve, man. Um... Amen, I guess. I don't know how to end these.
• Locke: Jack, I'm not a cold man. I feel for the loss of one of our own. But nothing fundamental's changed. Whoever 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 that I had a way to get the advantage back?

Locke: Then I would ask, "What way might that be?" [Jack shows him the Marshal's gun case] Why, doctor, you've been holding out on us.