LOST - Confirmed Dead

Yet another "wow" episode of LOST last night. While we didn't find out who else comprises the "Oceanic Six" (teaser for next week says we'll find out about one more member in the next episode...), we did get some info about the alleged "rescuers." And we're back to flashbacks--but with the new cast members.

Apparently, the freighter people are part of a team put together by one Matthew Abaddon (he was the guy who visit Hurley in the mental institution claiming to be an attorney for Oceanic airlines) and headed by the now deceased Naomi--who, by the way, doesn't have a sister. That was a code to warn the others from the freighter she was in danger. Anyway, we were introduced to each of the "rescuers" via flashbacks this episode. First was Daniel Faraday of Essex, MA--who was overcome when footage of the submerged Oceanic 815 wreckage was broadcast on TV. Yes, Naomi wasn't lying. They found the remains of the flight in the ocean and there were no survivors. Daniel is a bit twitchy and talkative and apparently is a physicist. Maybe he's an expert on time loops and doppelgangers.

Next up is Miles, from Inglewood, CA--a ghostbusting exorcist type who is surly and trigger-happy. Miles talks to dead people and his communion with the very much dead Naomi cleared Jack and Kate of her death--although Miles was not about to put his gun away. Jack tells him he should because his friends are pointing guns at Miles' and Daniel's heads to which Miles says, "How stupid do you think I am?" At that moment Sayid and Juliette and company appear with guns drawn and Jack replies, "I don't know. How stupid are you?"

With Miles and Daniel disarmed, the survivors start to track down the other passengers of the chopper. We flashback to Charlotte at an archaeological dig in Tunisia. But the bones are not of a prehistoric dinosaur, but instead a polar bear! Ah yes, the infamous polar bears. Digging through the rubble, Charlotte locates a collar with a DHARMA Hydra symbol on it. So now we know it's the DHARMA initiative that the "rescuers" are seeking...

It's John Locke and company who stumble upon Charlotte--while they are on their way to Jacob's cabin. (Sawyer asks Locke who he is taking his instructions from and Locke replies, "Walt." Is Walt back then? Would that mean Michael is back as well?) Charlotte seems quite innocuous but John is not convinced. He tells her she's coming with them and when she protests that they should stay put so "they can find us," John replies, "We don't want to be found." Meanwhile, Jack and company have picked up Charlotte's transponder signal on the phone. When they track it down, they find the transponder attached to Vincent's collar. Jack says, "Locke's got her."

The last member of the team is Frank Lapidus, whose flashback takes place in the Bahamas. When he sees the footage of the Oceanic 815 crash remains, he calls the survivor hotline and insists that the person identified as the pilot, Seth Norris, is not the shriveled body shown in the footage. Does that mean someone other than Seth Norris was the pilot--or that the found wreckage is part of some conspiracy hoax and those perpetrating it forgot to add details like Norris' wedding ring? (The picture of the live Seth Norris looked nothing like Greg Grunberg. Maybe without the mustache...)Also, Frank claims HE was supposed to be flying Oceanic 815 that day. Frank is the chopper pilot and, despite the electrical storms, he managed to land the chopper safely. (It occurs to me that not many survivors can fit into the chopper at one time. Could the Oceanic Six be the first and only batch of survivors who made it off the island via the helicopter?)

Frank sends up a flare that Locke's camp sees but instead gets him found by Jack and company. In a conversation with Juliette, he asks her name. When she tells him, Frank says, "You weren't on that plane." He relays that info to Miles, telling him that Juliette's name wasn't on the flight manifesto and that she's a native of the island. This is when Miles reveals the purpose of the mission--which Daniel admitted earlier that "Rescuing you and your people...can't really say it's our primary objective." Turns out their primary objective is finding Benjamin Linus.

Ben is causing a bit of trouble in John Locke's camp. Sawyer wants to get rid of him, but John tells him that "Apart from his mouth, he's harmless..." to which Sawyer replies, "His mouth put that hole in your gut?" That Sawyer--always a comeback! Later, Ben manages to wrangle a gun and shoot Charlotte. Fortunately for Charlotte, she's wearing a bullet-proof vest. When John is about to shoot Ben, Ben tells him that he shouldn't because he has information, he has answers. So Locke asks Ben about what almost every LOST fan wants to know--the smoke monster. But Ben doesn't have that answer--but he knows Charlotte's full name and the name of every team member and what they want. "And what do they want?" says a surly Sawyer. "Me, James" is Ben's answer. According to Ben, he knows this because he has a man on their boat. And who would that be? Minkowski? Regina? We know that these two remain on the boat--are there more?

So we've got a plane full of crash victims at the bottom of the ocean, a physicist, ghostbuster, archaeologist assembled as part of a team to find Benjamin Linus and six Oceanic 815 survivors who make it off the island. But, will we ever find out about the smoke monster? Hurley said in last week's episode, "It wants us back." Could "It" be the island? And is the smoke monster the manifestation of "It"? Again, check out screencaps for more details and the episode recap at Lostpedia and the Dueling Analysis over at Celebritology.