Season 4 Episode 2

Season 4 Episode 2 – Confirmed Dead
Freighter-ites Flashback

So someone went to a lot of work to stage the wreckage of Oceanic Flight 815. Now Mr. Ben Linus is very serious about keeping everyone on the island and everyone else away. It sure would make sense for him to set this up.

Daniel Faraday
We first see Daniel watching the discovery of the fake 815 on TV in Essex, Massachusetts. Daniel finds this very upsetting but claims even he doesn’t know why. During casting this character was named Russell. "Russell Faraday" is an alias used by the primary villain at the end of Stephen King's The Stand. Michael Faraday was a famous British chemist and physicist of the 19th century. He studied electromagnetism (one of the supposed properties of the Island) and observed the effect magnetic fields can have on rays of light (something Daniel appears to comment on).

Miles Straume
We first see Miles in Inglewood, California where he’s seems to be able to communicate with the dead (although sometimes for his own benefit). As Miles pulls up to Miss Gardner’s house we hear on the radio “… authorities are confirming all 324 passengers dead.” Seems Miles has a buddy at the police station (I wonder if his buddy knew Ana Lucia?). After over charging Miss Gardner, Miles heads up to the dead boys bedroom and has his spirit tell him where the drugs and money are. He takes the money, but feels guilty when he looks at the dead boys pictures on the wall. He returns 100 dollars to Miss Gardner. Here is the boys photo, I have a feeling we’ll see him again. This picture compares him to a young Eko... look similar but way too soon to make any predictions there.

Charlotte Staples Lewis
Charlotte’s first appearance is in Medenine, Tunisia where she reads in the paper about the finding of Oceanic 815:
Translator: “How many different languages do you have to read that in before you believe it’s true?”
Charlotte: “How many different languages are there?”
Guess she doesn’t believe it. In Tunisia Charlotte finds the skeleton of a Polar Bear wearing a collar that has the Dharma Hydra logo on it. Ever get the feeling the Island may not be far from Tunisia. We learn a lot more about Charlotte later from Ben. Charlotte’s name is taken from Clive Staples Lewis, most famous for writing the Chronicles of Narnia.

Frank Lapidus
Well it seems Frank is running a little shop in Eleuthera, The Bahamas. The sign on his window says Caribbean Dreams. Since he’s a pilot perhaps he is giving helicopter tours. It seems Frank was also a pilot for Oceanic 815, but Seth Norris took his spot for him the day it crashed.

Frank: “Because I was suppose to be flying 815 on that day.”

Frank calls 1-888-548-0034 (call it, see what happens… I did). He says that because Seth has no ring on, it’s not him. If we go back to season one, we can indeed see that the pilot is wearing his wedding ring.

Naomi Dorrit
Low and behold Naomi is working with Matthew Abbadon.
Naomi: “This is a high risk covert op in unstable territory. It’s dodgy enough without having to baby-sit a head case, ghost buster, anthropologist and a drunk.
Abbadon: “To be fair he’s also a pretty good pilot.”
The two argue about survivors of 815 but it seems clear they both know there will be some. It also seems when Abbadon asked Hurley “are they still alive” he may have been referring to his crew not the Losties. I get the feeling that the Freighter-ites aren’t 100% sure of their mission but I’m pretty sure Naomi was.

Back on the Island the date is December 23rd, 2004.
Like all vehicles that get close to the island the helicopter spins out of control dumping 3 off its four passengers. Daniel calls George Minkowski on the satellite phone. George isn’t a big fan of the speaker phone.

Locke still loves the rain and can still predict the weather. We notice that both Locke and Ben are shocked that Hurley seems to know about Jacob’s cabin.

Sayid: “Juliet you lived amongst the Others. Why would Ben say the people coming here intend to do us harm?”
Juliet: “Because he’s a liar and he’s trying to scare us. That’s what Ben does. Or because the people coming here intend to do us harm.”
Great help

Jack, Kate and Daniel find a crate from the helicopter. Seems it has a gas mask; I recall Ben wearing one of those.
Dan: “I’m not in charge of packing… rescuing you and your people… can’t really say it’s our primary objective.”
This character is awesome.

Seems losing that kidney wasn’t such a bad deal for Locke after all.

Miles: “ … remember when she said ‘tell my sister I love her’? That’s what we’re supposed to say if we are captured and have a gun to our head.”

Ben still cracks me up…
Ben: “Carl!!.... now if you are going to sleep with my daughter I insist you call me Ben.”
Sawyer calling him Yoda made me chuckle too. Ben also plants the seed that Sawyer is better off on the island then getting rescued.

Locke: “Let’s execute him right here right now in front of his daughter.”
As we know Sawyer has some issues about parents getting killed in front of their child.

Dan: “The light… strange out here isn’t it. It’s kinda like it doesn’t scatter quite right.”


Couple more funny quotes:
Jack: “I don’t know Miles, how stupid are ya?”
Miles: “You guys were on Oceanic 815??? WOW!!... better?”

Frank sees one of Mikhail’s cows. But he proves he is a pretty good pilot, landing the helicopter on the island.

So, why is Charlotte wearing a bulletproof vest???

So who is Ben’s “man” on their boat?
Miles: "Ragina its Miles. I need to talk to Minkowski.”
Ragina: “Minkowski can’t come to the phone right now.”
Miles: “its important go get him.”
Ragina: “Miles he can’t come to the phone right now.”
Miles: “Have him call me we he can.”
Ragina: “I gotta go.”

Ragina seems a bit preoccupied. Is she the mole? Is Minkowski? Or perhaps someone else … it’d be cool if it was Michael (we do know he’s coming back this season).

When it becomes clear Juliet wasn’t on 815 Miles lets the cat out the bag.
Miles: “We’re here for Benjamin Linus.”

This picture of Ben sure wasn’t taken on the island. Guess he lied again.

The final scene
Locke: “What is the monster?”
Ben: “What?”
Locke: “The black smoke? The monster? What is it?”
Ben: “I don’t know.”
Locke: “Goodbye Benjamin.”
Ben: “ Her name is Charlotte Lewis. Charlotte Staples Lewis. Born July 2nd, 1979, Essex, England (2 different Essex’s in one show???). Parents David and Jeanette. Eldest of three all girls. She was raised in Brownsgrove. Did her under graduate studies at Kent. Took her PhD in cultural Anthropology at Oxford. She’s here with two other team members and a pilot. Their names: Daniel Faraday, Miles Straume, Frank Lapidus. Your instinct was right John, these people are a threat. And if you shot me you’ll never know how great a threat they were. Because I know what they are doing here. I know what they want.
Sawyer: “What do they want?”
Ben: “Me James. They want me.”
Locke: “How do you know all this?”
Ben: “Because I have a man on their boat.”

Next week:

The Economist - Sayid Centric

Will Sayid be our next member of the Oceanic 6

Click here for a preview

"You can go now"