Lost, Episode 4.2 - "Confirmed Dead"

Here are my initial thoughts and theories about episode 2 of Season 4. I have SO much more, but I have to work in the morning and need to go to sleep. I will post additional thoughts tomorrow night!

• First of all, were those flash forwards or flashbacks? I believe they were flashbacks, that the fake wreckage and bodies (which were organized and placed there by Oceanic, led by Matthew Abbadon) were discovered mere days after the real crash. And somehow, throughout this season, we will learn how the Freighter Four gathered for this mission.

• Second of all, we now know that the island was not the only Dharma outpost. They had facilities in more than one remote locale, with hatches and stations like the Hydra (which housed polar bears…on a tropical island and in the Sahara desert). Naturally.

• Tunisia is an interesting choice for the Dharma discovery. Carthage is an ancient city and civilization, the most popular destination in Tunisia. This has to be related to the 4-toed statue and column that Locke’s dad was tied to on the island. Ben also referred to a temple last season.

BEN

Ben knows everything about the survivors and their lives before they crashed. So when will he reveal to Claire and/or Jack that they are half-siblings? Is he waiting for the opportune moment to play that card?

Does Ben truly not know what the Black Smoke Monster is? If Jacob is controlling it or involved somehow, he’d have to.

Ben seemed quite surprised to hear that Hurley knew where Jacob’s cabin was. Can only a special few actually see it? Is he now realizing that Hurley has an ability too? We know from last week’s episode that he can see and talk to dead people, but Ben doesn't...yet.

If the sonar and computers on the island have been down for a while, how has Ben’s mole on the freighter been communicating with him?

Did he have a man on the boat from the get-go of their mission, or did someone join up with the Freighter Four later somehow? Is one of the Freighter Four his mole??

Other possibilities for Ben’s man on the freighter:

Somewhat likely: Richard Alpert. We haven’t seen him in a while and he wasn’t with the Others who died on the beach. Not sure how he’d just join up with the crew aboard, but you never know.

Unlikely: Mikhail. He never dies, and he’s a communications expert.

Longshot: Michael. Yes, he was given a boat to leave for home with Walt. But perhaps Ben knew about the freighter, gave Michael the coordinates to that boat and convinced him to do some intel in exchange for saving the lives of his friends back on the island.

Whoever he was, he was probably overtaking the remaining crew at that moment in time, because when Daniel called the ship, they were adamant that Minkowski was unavailable to come to the phone. Something was off.

CHRISTIAN SHEPHARD

The freighter is called Christiane I. Come ON!

KATE

The Freighter Four studied the manifest from Flight 815. When Miles said, “You’re Kate,” I think he recognized her as a danger, because he was aware that she was a fugitive.

NAOMI

At what point after the crash of Flight 815 did she meet with Matthew Abbadon? And why would she even think there was a possibility that she would encounter survivors from that plane? She must have known that Oceanic/Matthew Abbadon had something to do with the wreckage that was found…

SETH NORRIS (FLIGHT 815 PILOT)

Why was he the pilot on that fated flight instead of Frank Lapidus?

We know that the body found in the wreckage wasn’t Seth, so who the hell was it? Where did the team behind this elaborate scheme get that many corpses?

We’ve seen the Black Smoke Monster be selective about who he/it kills, and didn’t like what he saw in Seth. Perhaps the pilot was more implicit in the crash of Flight 815 than we thought…

FIND815.COM

So I was wrong. I was quite surprised to see the integration of clues from the Find815 site in tonight’s episode (the name of the freighter - Christiane I, the Tunisian newspaper).

THE FREIGHTER FOUR

• They came prepared with gas masks, ready to purge the natives like Ben had years earlier. Yes, they were after Ben. But it seems that they too would have sacrificed the island’s inhabitants just to get to him. Remember, Ben orchestrated the mass murder just to get to his father.

• If Ben has been on the island since he was a young boy, how and why do the Freighter Four have a photo of him as a grown man in an office setting? The obvious answer is that Ben lied about never leaving the island. So why didn’t he leave on the sub when he found out about his tumor? Why wait? Did he know that Flight 815 would crash there, that his spinal surgeon would fall out of the sky? Seems more and more likely…

• So, finding Ben was a bigger priority than rescuing a large group of men, women and children who were supposedly deceased? The crew must be getting paid a hefty sum to ignore that kind of opportunity. But if rescuing the survivors wasn’t their primary mission, why were they studying the manifest?

• Who is funding the freighter and their mission? Oceanic/Abbadon? Something tells me that Daddy Widmore (Penny’s father) Mr. Paik (Sun’s dad) had something to do with the financing, or they are major stockholders in the company.

DANIEL FARADAY

They specifically did NOT show us who his girlfriend/wife was. You just know we’ve met her before.

He mentioned the light reflecting strangely on the island. Could it be that the invisible shield/barrier I insist upon every week actually exists, and there is some sort of mirror in place? They did reference electromagnetic anomalies a few times tonight, and Farady is a Physicist…

Naomi referred to him as a ‘mental case.’ Sounds like Hurley might soon have company.

FRANK LAPIDUS

Why didn’t he pilot Flight 815? We heard that he was a drunk, so that might have something to do with it. Then again, it seems that every single passenger and crew member was chosen by Oceanic for the fated flight…

After he didn’t pilot Flight 815 and it crashed, did he retire and move to the Bahamas?

CHARLOTTE LEWIS

Charlotte Staples Lewis...as in CS Lewis (Clive Staples Lewis), the author of The Chronicles of Narnia. [thanks to Eliza for correcting my original post; Lewis Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland, not CS Lewis.]

Among her first questions for the survivors - asking Claire if she had Aaron on the island. A dead giveaway that she knows about women dying during childbirth.

MILES STRAUME

Look at that name and say it quickly. Sounds like maelstrom (which is defined as either a powerful whirlpool or tumultuous state of affairs).

He communicates with the dead. That is a VERY handy characteristic to have on that particular island. Hurley can see dead people, and so can Locke. I also believe that Jack can. And there are plenty of graves for Miles to visit if he wants the truth about that place.

Locke is a man of faith and Miles is a man of spirit(s). They would make an interesting team. Let’s hope they interact in the future.

Was Miles a corrupt Ghostbuster? Did he only exorcise the ghosts of people that he somehow knew had money (hidden or otherwise) and take advantage of their surviving family members?

QUESTIONS

• Where the hell was Desmond? Jin and Sun? Rose and Bernard?

• If the Freighter Four knew about Ben, why didn’t they know about his recruits, like Juliet? Are they aware of Rousseau or Desmond?

• Does the helicopter somehow make it up and out of the island’s invisible barrier with one group of survivors, only to find out after that it can’t penetrate the shield again? Is that why there is only the Oceanic 6? Pilot Frank did mention that he only had enough gas to get them to the freighter, a one-way ticket…

CRAZY THEORIES OF THE WEEK

• They made a point to tell us about the weight limit on the helicopter. So how do you explain Hurley’s inclusion and rescue? Easy. The helicopter and freighter are a rouse; they have nothing to do with how the survivors actually find rescue. Look, it’s only Season 4. They’re not going to spend the next 2.5 seasons on flash forwards for only 6 people and return to flashbacks for the remaining group.

• None of the Freighter Four survive. Last week at the mental institution, Matthew Abbadon asked Hurley if “they” were still alive. He was asking about his crew, the ones he hired to find Ben on that island.

• There HAS to be a correlation/connection between Mrs. Gardner’s recently murdered grandson (who Miles visited) and Eko. Not only did the photo of the boy look like Eko, he was a drug dealer...shadows of future Eko.

Come visit tomorrow night for more!