Lost, Ep. 4.02: Confirmed Dead
By potatobiker on Feb 8, 2008 in Tee-Vee
I know I just love this show and love is blind, but holy Tunisian polar bears, this is the greatest show!
Summary: Jack and Kate help Daniel find the rest of his crew, finding out tidbits of information along the way, picking up gun-wielding Juliet and Sayid, speaking to Naomi’s spirit (!), and finding out the copter still works…
Meanwhile, Locke’s group treks across the island heading to Jacob’s cabin. They pick up Charlotte Lewis (CS LEWIS??) on the way and send Vincent back to Jack with her beacon. Ben gets a couple of beatings from Sawyer before admitting that the freighters are there for HIM!
In flashbacks, we get quick vignettes of who these freighter people are, and find out that Naomi was hired by Abbadon to get them on and off the island safely…but why are they there?
The questions and thoughts section will probably not be as filled out as it should be since I will DEFINITELY have to watch this one like 4 more times…
The new guys:
Daniel Faraday (Faraday cage?), physicist from Massachusetts, cried inexplicably when seeing the televised footage of 815 underwater.
Miles Straume, ghost whisperer from California. That’s right, he talks to dead people. He’s listening to radio reports that the bodies on 815 will not be recovered.
Charlotte Staples Lewis (Yep, that’s so a CS Lewis ref), an anthropologist who recovers a polar bear skeleton and Hydra collar from the sand in Tunisia! She reads the reports about 815 as often as she can. She says she’ll have to read it in every language before she believes it.
Frank Lapidus, the pilot who was supposed to fly 815. On television, shots of the pilot’s body are shown, and Frank knows the body is not his friend’s. He calls Oceanic to tell them…
Naomi and Matthew Abaddon: Abaddon hires Naomi to pull off a covert op on the island with these insanely inexperienced people…
Questions/Thoughts:
- What the hell is the connection with these people? Why and how were they dragged into this? And how do they all know about Ben? What is his importance to them? Clearly, Charlotte had knowledge of Dharma or…SOMETHING, since she was not utterly confused by the discovery of the polar bear in Tunisia.
- The picture of Ben…where was that taken? What is he doing? Has he been off the island more than we think he has? Or is it a “different” Ben?
- A frakkin’ ghost whisperer?? I would have NEVER thought that these were the people on that freighter. It feels good to know the writers are smarter than me.
- What exactly was the thing Miles had at Mrs. Gardeners house? Just a white noise machine so she couldn’t hear him? Probably. I’ll find out later…for now, that was just the coolest, weirdest thing… So, also, Miles is kind of scummy if he talks to ghosts just to steal their stashed stuff…
- Charlotte was wonderful. She was so honestly excited by everything. Not surprised, but just totally thrilled! And then she was so “oh shit” when Ben calls her out on all of it.
- Frank’s best line: “I got struck by lightning. I saw a cow.” HAHA Also, his voice is too similar to Locke’s.
- Locke admits to everyone that he got his orders from Walt. As Sawyer says, “Taller ghost Walt” HAHA
- When Locke says they are going to Jacob’s cabin, Hurley says it was back there. Locke has a delighted look that Hurley has seen it and Ben has a horrified look! Awesome! Hurley is special!
- Locke shows off his wound and in the best, most clever little bit of the night: “Went in one side and out the other. I’d probably be dead if I had a kidney there.” HA!
- Miles insists no one say his last name and when Sayid offers to call someone else Miles says “Oh, it CAN hurt” to call someone else…
- Ben shoots Charlotte! But she’s wearing a vest! How frakkin’ incompetent IS Locke??
- Why couldn’t Minkowski come to the phone when Miles called?
- Why did it matter that Juliet wasn’t on the plane? That she was a “native”? They really freaked out about that! Poor Juliet! I don’t want Jack to leave without her!
- Seeing Sayid in the cockpit of the helicopter made me realize mom really might be right: He’s swiping that plane…
- Locke: “What is the smoke monster?” Ben: “I don’t know.”
- Ben has a man on the boat! What? Who? How? Minkowski?
A million more things…no time! Gotta work!
potatobiker | Feb 8, 2008 | Reply
I knew I’d forget something:
GAS MASKS!!!
Locke predicts the weather!
Juliet:”He’s a liar and trying to scare us, or they intend to do us harm”
I was right, Naomi sent a CODE.
What did Ben get out of conning Sawyer into beating him half to death? Is he trying to make sure Sawyer goes to the other camp for some reason?
Matthew/Naomi argument: “there were NO survivors” “But what if there are” “there are none” “but what if..”
And hey, if they want Ben, Jack will take them there. No problem. Hence, the groups reunite, giving Hurley the chance to get off the island…
potatobiker | Feb 10, 2008 | Reply
Something more detailed about Charlotte:
CS Lewis is of course, most famous for his Narnia books. In Prince Caspian (traditionally the 2nd book) the 4 children have been away from Narnia for a year when they are standing on a train platform and suddenly appear in a woody area.(I reread the first couple of chapters for this, but the rest is from memory, so any AVID Narniites feel free to comment further!) They walk thru it to a beach to some water. They play in the water (first thing Charlotte does!), then walk the perimeter, discovering they are on an island. They walk back into the woods, where they finally find some ruins. After a bit they discover it’s the castle they ruled in last year, but that in Narnia time, it’s been hundreds of years since they ruled.
Is this finally confirmation of my (and others’) long-held theory that time passes differently on this island than outside it? Is this also a hint that maybe Charlotte has been here before?
potatobiker | Feb 10, 2008 | Reply
And oh yeah, Locke was apparently NOT the person in the cabin! Then I revert back to the Hurley looking at Hurley idea or Mikhail…
potatobiker | Feb 10, 2008 | Reply
AND the footage at the beginning was NOT the same footage from the ARG. That was kind of annoying. The ARG was good quality and it bothered me that the discoverers didn’t even have Australian accents (like Sam) or sound like Talbot or anyone that we saw. The camera angles weren’t even really the same. What was the point of the ARG showing us this stuff and intro’ing these people if they weren’t even involved? Of course, depending on how many timelines…who knows…
But in better news, in the pilot episode, the Pilot IS wearing a wedding ring. Frank Lapidus is correct! That’s NOT Seth Norris. But it IS a photo of Greg Grunberg with a hilarious mustache. Sweet.
The photo on the wall in Gardeners house, I’ve been looking at it and I don’t think it is Eko now. But it looks really really close. I assume it was her grandson, but they sure showed it a lot for someone we don’t know…maybe it is someone we don’t know yet…?
potatobiker | Feb 10, 2008 | Reply
What was the box in the ocean during the ROV footage?
And I want to emphasize again…Who is running this show? Why did they choose these 4 people to send to the island? Why did these people agree to it? What did they agree to? What are they supposed to do there?
potatobiker | Feb 10, 2008 | Reply
More stuff after talking to mom:
Charlotte is already some sort of undercover person, since she had to pay her way into the polar bear dig…
Why was Miles hired (by whomever)…possibly because he comes out saying that some 815 ghosts are telling him what really happened maybe?
Why did Ben antagonize Sawyer? To turn Sawyer and Locke against each other? The two main leaders?
Daniel points out that the light doesn’t quite fall right in the woods…he’s a “physicist”… maybe he can tell the lightwaves are bending wrong because of a strong magnetic, synthetic, or crazy dimensional reason…
Miles mocks Sayid: “Oooh, you’re all alive, blahblahblah” Clearly he and all the others fully expected to find them alive. (Which leads to the fact that Naomi knew it was possible…I’ll get to that soon)
Mom also says that she believes Miles is in the future when Hurley sees Charlie (I didn’t see him, but that doesn’t mean anything). It would make sense that the ghost whisperer would be there when Charlie is there…
Abaddon tells Naomi “Get them in, get them out, without getting them killed.” What could these people need to do in there quickly without getting killed themselves. He doesn’t consider them totally expendable.
But he DOES consider the 815ers expendable. In fact, the insists there ARE no survivors despite Naomi knowing for certain there are. Meaning, KILL them. Make sure there are no survivors??
Why doesn’t he consider these 4 expendable? Why send them in there just to kill everyone? There are a million reasons to NOT send these 4 people. They are not killers, for one. They are specialists. The reasons for being here are big but obviously they are not expected to stay long. Why these 4 just to get Ben?
And all of this means that Abaddon, Naomi, Charlotte, all have reason to believe that 815 was NOT found at the bottom of the ocean, that in fact it is on THIS island (how do they know about the island?), and that in fact many people will likely be alive. How do they know this? Did Daniel, Frank, and Miles know beforehand? Frank studied every detail, but why would he have thought what he knows now?
ninjanun | Feb 11, 2008 | Reply
Dude, you are obsessing WAY a LOT on this, but you are obsessing (it appears) in a vacuum. You should subscribe to some LOST podcasts, and half your speculations will be subdued. Two I particularly enjoy are “the Lost Podcast with Jay and Jack” and “The Lost Initiative,” which is led by two females. Jay and Jack’s podcast is even more popular than the “official Lost podcast” and is very well-produced. They’ve even interviewed Jorge Garcia a few times, and have a new segment featuring the actor who plays “Arzt.” They don’t give major spoilers (just light ones, such as which character the next epi will focus on), and they do a good job of discussing the major themes and mysteries on LOST. Check it out!
potatobiker | Feb 11, 2008 | Reply
Thank you for the advice, but I already know of the podcasts. I don’t really like listening to things as much as reading them, so usually I read the transcripts. You seem to think that my obsession is cause for worry or correction, but I insist it is not.
I obsess over the show because I LOVE to obsess over the show. It’s tons of fun to me. I read tons of blogs, websites, contribute to forums, I know all about the Lost universe. I own like 10 books on the subject and have read all kinds of essays and theories on just about every aspect of it. I’ve followed the ARGs, and reveled in knowing every spoiler for every episode. I decided this year to not read as many spoilers and podcast transcripts because I ended up knowing too much and wasn’t able to have as much fun speculating.
I LIKE to delight my mother with hours of discussion about the most minute of specks of dirt on “dead guy 1’s” collar.
ninjanun | Feb 15, 2008 | Reply
I didn’t mean to imply you were OVER-obsessing; just that for all your obsessing, some of it seemed wayward. I definitely got the impression that you didn’t know about the podcasts, and since you don’t listen to them, that would explain that. I like the podcasts b/c they seem to cull the best from the blogs and forums, and often can find quotes directly from the producers/writers that dispel a lot of the more off-base assumptions.
ninjanun | Feb 15, 2008 | Reply
I didn’t mean to imply you were OVER-obsessing; just that for all your obsessing, some of it seemed wayward. I definitely got the impression that you didn’t know about the podcasts, and since you don’t listen to them, that would explain that. I like the podcasts b/c they seem to cull the best from the blogs and forums, and often can find quotes directly from the producers/writers that dispel a lot of the more off-base assumptions. I just thought you could obsess more efficiently if you had more info at your fingertips.
ninjanun | Feb 15, 2008 | Reply
Ack, sorry for the double-post. The 2nd one has the added sentence at the end where I sum up.
Oh, and the two podcasts I listen to make it clear when they have spoilers, and even markers in their podcasts so you can skip ahead….or they leave them to the end, so you can just cut out early. I’ve remained virtually spoiler-free since I first started watching, yet my Lost afterglow is enhanced by all the easter eggs and in-depth knowledge I cull from the podcasts.
Of course, I have a lot of time to listen to podcasts (housecleaning, working on projects, riding the bus), and very little time to read, so there’s a difference between us.
potatobiker | Feb 15, 2008 | Reply
Yep, I have no time to listen to anything. But I read the easter egg sites and forums. As far as some of my thoughts being “wayward,” let’s just be honest: It doesn’t matter. I read the interviews with “Darlton,” etc. and I have heard their “dispelling” of the “off-base” theories. And sometimes they are lying or change their minds (in the beginning they said no paranormal stuff, then no dead people will come back). Technicalities, though. I typically speculate on things that they dispel because it is just FUN to. It doesn’t matter if it’s a waste of time or seems “off base.” It’s just FUN to play “what if…”
Like I said, previous years I spent reveling in the easter eggs and podcast transcripts, and interviews and spoilers. I didn’t want to go that way so much this year. I wanted to speculate a bit more “in a vacuum” as you say. I know you meant well and wanted to give me advice, but in doing so, I felt like you kind of implied I was uneducated about something that I actually know more about than probably anything (except My Little Ponies, of course!). I’m sure you didn’t mean to, and I didn’t mean to take it that way, so I’m no longer going to.
So…are we still adorable friends? Cuz I’m pretty sure we could wear some of the same clothes