Also see:
Lost Season 4 Episode Guide.
Best Lost Sites on the Web.
Lost: What we STILL don't know.
Episode summary:We're looking through an underwater probe camera scanning the ocean floor. Suddenly we see wreckage. An off-screen commentator--whoever it is operating the camera--is shocked to discover it's the wreckage of Oceanic Flight 815.
In a flashback, we see a man watching news coverage of this event. It's been confirmed that everyone aboard the flight perished. This man, though he apparently has no connection to the flight, is inexplicably overcome with emotion.
This man is Daniel Faraday, who we see meeting Kate and Jack after he's parachuted onto the island from a crashing helicopter carrying three other people.
These newcomers are also introduced via flashback. Miles Strom is a psychic of some sort, who is seen in flashback helping a woman rid her home of a ghost.
Charlotte Staples Lewis is an archaeologist, shown in flashback discovering the skeleton of a polar bear. In the deserts of Tunisia. With the remnants of a Dharma Initiative collar around his neck.
And Frank Lapidus is a pilot. In flashback, we see him also watching news coverage of the Oceanic wreckage discovery, but he calls the airline angrily saying that the pilot has been misidentified--the body they claim is the pilot's couldn't be, because that man always wore a wedding ring. Frank knows this because he's known the man for years. Also--Frank was supposed to be the pilot for that doomed flight.
In island time, we see that each of these visitors has come to the island expecting a fight. They came packing guns, gas masks and wearing bullet-proof vests. They realize the first member of their party to reach the island, Naomi, has been killed by Locke.
Jack's group of survivors eventually disarm and take control over Miles, Daniel and Frank, but Charlotte has been discovered by Locke's group.
Locke makes it clear to her that he knows she and her group are a danger--they haven't come to help, but are there for a darker purpose. He takes her prisoner as his group hikes to the Others' barracks.
Back with Jack, we learn Frank managed to land the helicopter, which lost control for some reason as it approached the island. It looks intact, meaning possible rescue for the survivors. But that's not why it's there. Miles says the real reason they've come is to get someone: Ben.
Back with Locke's group, Ben seizes Locke's gun and tried to kill Charlotte, but she is saved by her vest. Angry, Locke is about to shoot Ben when Ben reveals a litany of private information about Charlotte. Her profession, education, birth place and date, etc. He says Charlotte and the rest have come for him, and if they get him that means trouble for everyone.
When Locke asks Ben how he knows all this, Ben says he has a spy on Charlotte's boat.
Also in flashback, we see Matthew Abaddon--the man we previously saw visiting Hurley in the mental war. Abaddon had told Hurley he was an attorney for Oceanic, but here we see him meeting with Naomi, showing her pictures and files on Daniel, Miles and Frank and talking about how Naomi will lead them to the island. When she mentions the possible of encountering Oceanic crash survivors, he won't listen, steering her back to the cover story: "There ARE NO survivors."
Questions/clues/observations:* Seems like
Abaddon may be with the Dharma Initiative and he sent Naomi's team in to reclaim the island. It also seems likely that he, and whoever he represents, faked the Oceanic wreckage in order to keep the island secret from the rest of the world.
* Was the whole thing about
Naomi carrying a picture of Desmond and Penny a ruse to keep the team's real mission secret from the survivors? Who did Abaddon and the rest know about Desmond? Did Kelvin, the Hatch man, inform them about him?
* The
team members each of have key talents that seem meant to help them on the island: A psychic to deal with all the supernatural freakiness, a physicist to deal with all the scientific freakiness, an archaeologist to... I'm not sure what she's for yet, and a pilot to get them there and back again.
*
How did Abaddon recruit his team? Frank has a close connection to the Oceanic Flight, what with his having supposed to have flown it. Daniel has some sort of emotional connection to it. Charlotte is seen looking at a newspaper story about the crash recovery and not believing it to be true. And she found that Dharma bear collar. We don't see any such connection with Miles.
* Is
Ben's spy Michael?
* Hurley spills the beans that he saw
Jacob's cabin. Both Ben and Locke are shocked to learn this.
* In the previous episode, where Abaddon visits Hurley, he asks "
are they still alive?" Is Abaddon talking about his team? Other crash survivors? Both?
* Charlotte's initials are interesting:
C.S. Lewis, author of the Narnia books. In one of these, "The Lion, the Witch and Wardrobe," four children go to mystical Narnia via a magic wardrobe and spend years there. When they return, no time has passed. This lends itself to theories that something weird is up time-wise with the island.
* According to Ben, Charlotte was born in
Essex, England. In flashback, Daniel is shown in Essex, Mass.
* Daniel shares a last name with
real-life physicist Michael Faraday, who was a pioneer in the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. More on him
here.
* Daniel remarks to Kate that there's
something odd about the way sunlight hits the island. It doesn't "scatter" quite right.
* What's up with that
polar bear in Tunisia? Was Charlotte part of Dharma when she found it, or was she snooping into what Dharma is all about?
* Locke reveals to his group that he saw a
vision of Walt, and showed him that he really had been shot by Ben, but was walking around feeling fine anyway. Despite how crazy he sounds, they seem to believe Locke is for real. Will following him turn out to be a good idea?
* The ship that sent down the probe that found the alleged Oceanic wreckage was named
The Christiane, which is reminding lots of folks of Christian, Jack and Claire's dad.
* According to this ABC-posted
online story, the The Christiane was actually looking for
The Black Rock (the ancient wreck found in the middle of the island's jungle a couple seasons back) but found the downed plane instead.
* Are the newcomers an homage to the
Fantastic Four? You've got a brainy guy (Daniel), a grouchy pilot (Frank), a young hothead (Miles, whose last name "Strom," could refer to Human Torch Johnny Storm) and... I'm not sure how Charlotte parallels Invisible Woman Susan Storm.
* When Locke asks Ben what the
smoke monster is Ben say he doesn't know. So, is it something Jacob controls? Or something else?
* The
Oceanic phone number shown for family members of survivors to call works in real life. Call 1-888-548-0034 and you'll get a message saying the investigation into the crash is still ongoing and more information will be provided as available. I don't know if the messages will be updated as time goes by.
