"Confirmed Dead" (Season 4, Episode 2)

This episode should have been titled "The Fantastic Four" because of its introduction of the four new characters and the fact that it was so fantastic! This was what I was expecting last week. A show that gave us so much new information that only resulted in a new set of questions. Who are these new people? Why is there a plane that looks like Oceanic 815 at the bottom of the Indian Ocean? And what the heck is the skeleton of a Dharma Hydra Station polar bear doing in a desert in Africa? That eerie opening sequence of the drones searching the ocean floor set the mood. This was also the first time the show departed from some established patterns. Instead of focusing on one character's flashbacks (or flash-forwards for that matter), we had four. Five, if you count Naomi's with the increasingly creepy Matthew Abaddon. And that was the first time a dead character has had a flashback. (Nikki and Paulo were merely unconscious when we saw their's.) This show also featured on-screen location names in each of the flashback's establishing shots (Essex, Massachusetts; Inglewood, California; Medenine, Tunisia; and Eleuthera, Bahamas). In the past, a landmark or spoken line revealed the locale. It was obviously important that we realized these four people came from all over the world.

The Fantastic Four - Now this is how you introduce new characters successfully. (Nikki and Paulo from last season being the unsuccessful way.)

• Daniel Faraday - What a great, frenetic character. Why was he so visibly upset over the discovery of the apparent crash of Flight 815? Was it significant we didn't see the face of his wife? In the world of science, Michael Faraday was a physicist who contributed to the field of electromagnetism - something the island has exhibited - and lends his name to the Faraday Cage, which is an enclosure that blocks out electrical fields.
  
• Miles Straume - Ghostbuster with a Dustbuster. Sarcastic and perfect foil to Daniel. Why is someone who can commune with the dead needed for this mission?
• Charlotte Staples Lewis - Award-winning anthropologist. Did she buy her way into the closed dig site because she knew what she would find there? Is it a coincidence her name is C.S. Lewis, the same as the author of "The Chronicles of Narnia"? Is Ben's box that brings people to the island really a magical wardrobe? Ben claimed to be Henry Gale; could this be an alias for her? Will it turn out she is actually Ben's childhood friend from the Dharma village he grew up in? Is she actually Ben's "man on the boat"?
• Frank Lapidus - He was supposed to be the pilot on doomed Flight 815? Can't wait to see why that didn't work out. I'm thinking some drinking may have been involved. Lapidus is also the name of a kind of granite.
  

Best Lines

• "It was Walt. Only . . . taller." Locke explaining his encounter with Michael's son, who obviously experienced a growth spurt since his last appearance on the show.
• "Karl. Now if you're gonna sleep with my daughter, I insist you call me Ben." Ben chiding Alex's boyfriend after he called him Mr. Linus.
  

Did You Notice?

• The opening sequence of the underwater discovery of the supposedly sunk Flight 815 plane by the ship Christiane I carries over from the on-line interactive experience from the www.flyoceanicair.com website that started earlier this year. The ship had actually been looking for the wreckage of sunken trading ships, specifically the Black Rock.
  
• As the chopper is spinning out of control, Charlotte can be heard asking for her "vest", referring to a bulletproof one. Miles ends up giving her his. Good thing no one shot at him!
  
• Locke seems to be one again with the rain, enjoying its cleansing properties and being able to know when it will stop.
• The look on Hurley's face when he realized he shouldn't know about the cabin was priceless.
• Sawyer referred to Locke as Colonel Kurtz, which was Marlon Brandon's allegedly insane character from "Apocalypse Now".
• Why does the chopper team feel there may be a need for gas masks? Do they know of Ben's past gas antics?
• So if Locke had not donated his kidney to his no-good con artist father back in Season 1, then Ben's bullet would have killed him? Coincidence?
• I loved gun-toting Sayid and Juliet's surprise appearance.
• The photo of Oceanic Air pilot Seth Norris was the same man we saw in the very first episode who got killed by the smoke monster except with a moustache.
• Could the clay-colored cow that Lapidus saw have belonged to Eye Patch? He did have cows outside his abode before Locke blew it up. Or did the Island just feel that Lapidus needed a boost of energy so it sent him a Red Bull?
• Abaddon was pretty adamant that "there were no survivors". I'm guessing he won't be too happy when the Oceanic 6 show up.
• Locke asks the question we've all had since the pilot: "What is the monster?" Too bad Ben didn't know. Or does he?
• Could Ben's "man on the boat" be the same someone who left the island and who we know is returning to the show after an absence and likes to yell "Walt!" a lot?
  

The Numbers - 2 3 4 5 6 8 10 15 16 23 42 108

• The remote operating drones were 5,000 meters beneath the surface.
• The Christiane I had been scouring the surrounding waters for 2 months.
• There were 2 remote operating vehicles.
• There were 4 people on the chopper.
• Miles wanted $200 to "clean" the grandson's room.
• A football poster in the grandson's room has the number 15 in it.
  
• The phone number for families of the Oceanic 815 passengers was made up of several of The Numbers: 1-888-548-0034. Try calling the phone number. It's real!
• The chopper's tail had N842M on it.
  

Previews - Next week's "The Economist" promises to reveal another member of the Oceanic 6. I'm thinking it will be Sayid as he is featured in a number of the upcoming scenes.