Anticipated events start to unfold with episode 12 (part one of the season finale), entitled "There's No Place Like Home", a multiple character-centric episode.

We finally get to see (partly) how the Oceanic 6 get off the island, that the the world is indeed still out there, and that their families are waiting for them. How we got to that point couldn't be harder to see happening.

What I Liked

Back when they introduced the whole flash-forward mentality to the show in last season's finale I didn't like it. I thought it would effectively ruin the mystery of the show. But the writers have really proven me wrong as the way they've presented the whole idea of the flash-forward is pure genius. How they manage to show us the Oceanic 6 off the Island, safe and living their lives, and yet still manage to make us care that the people from the freighter are coming to kill them all is just amazing to me. I think it comes down to the fact we've come to know and care about these characters so much over the last four seasons that any danger they face, no matter if we know the ultimate outcome or not, we still fear for them.

After Frank threw the beach group a satellite phone, the stubbornness in Jack decides, even after he's just had surgery, to go after the helicopter. When Jack and Kate come across Sawyer, Miles, and baby Aaron in the jungle, Jack again - stubborn guy that he is - decides to go after the helicopter even after Sawyer has informed him that they tried to kill everyone at the barracks. I liked the fact that Sawyer then decides to go with Jack; I kind of miss seeing them work as a team fighting the enemy.

Once at the helicopter Jack and Sawyer find Frank handcuffed to it and he soon informs them that Keamy and his team are in fact going to kill everyone on the Island. Frank says that he'll fly them to the freighter, but before that can happen Sawyer remembers that Hurley is with Ben and Locke. This brings up a good point that I have noticed in Lost as of late - Sawyer has become a far more caring person than he was in episode one. He has become the leader of sorts, and he has come to care very much about his fellow survivors, and recently it's been especially Hurley, Claire, and baby Aaron. I think it goes not against the person he is but goes to great lengths to better him, to make him a more rounded and human character. Lost finale style, there is a general sense of the characters truly caring for one another, certainly in their actions anyway.