LOST: Confirmed Dead (But I Don’t Buy It)

So we are now two episodes in on LOST, are you still digging it? Last night’s ep was a little ‘hello my name is’ game with the rescuers or whoever the hell those people were who landed on the island. More questions were raised than answers given (not a shocker), but I didn’t really mind. We aren’t talking Nikki and Paolo here, these cats have some depth to them and hold some pretty important clues, if not all the answers to just what the heck is happening on that damn island.

The opening minutes of the show follow the path of the ROV of Christiane I, who upon exploration find the wreckage of Oceanic Flight 815 on the outskirts of the Sundra Trench, located West of Indonesia. Footage shows the full plane relatively intact – yup, the whole plane including the cockpit, the middle and the tail section. All together now…Hmmm.

The discovery of the wreckage seems to be big news around the world, and we are there when four of Naomi’s fellow “rescuers” hear the news.

Daniel Faraday from Essex, Massachusetts claims to be a physicist, and he’s not in charge of the packing. Upon hearing about the discovery of the wreckage from Oceanic 815 he had started to sob, but he doesn’t know why. While on the island he appears to be intrigued by the sun and why the sunlight doesn’t scatter on the island as it normally does. He’s kind of an odd bird but seems harmless enough (I fully expect that statement to come back and bite me in the ass someday).

Miles – just Miles (but probably Miles Straume) appears to be some kind of paranormal expert. Miles listen to a radio report about the found wreckage and learns that the pictures revealed that all 324 passengers have been confirmed dead. Miles doesn’t have much time to listen as he needs to meet with Mrs. Gardner, a woman whose grandson was murdered and is haunting her home. See Miles can communicate with the dead. Sometimes, like in the case of Mrs. Gardner, he does it for profit, while others times he just does it just to find out who killed Naomi. He’s kind of a bad ass and certainly wears the pants in La Familia de Rescuers.

Charlotte Staples Lewis appears to be some kind of archaeologist when we first meet her on a dig site in Medenine, Tunisia. She too seems mystified by the found wreckage of Flight 815. She bullies and bribes her way on to the closed dig site where discovers remains of what is revealed to be a polar bear. With just a bit of digging, Charlotte discovers a leather strap with the symbol for the DHARMA station – Hydra. When we later catch up with her on the island, she too claims to be there to rescue survivors, but the presence of a bullet proof vest (which came in handy when Ben shot her) may lead some to question if she had ulterior motives.

Frank Lapidus was deeply disturbed by the footage found of the wreckage. At first he’s saddened by it but soon becomes agitated when the news claims to show images of the decaying body of Seth Norris, the pilot on 815. Lapidus calls the Oceanic hotline set up for the families of the victims and tells them that the “person” they are showing isn’t Seth Norris. Seth always wears his wedding ring and this guy wasn’t wearing a ring. Yeah, a pretty flimsy excuse but one he feels strongly about. How does he know Seth Norris so well? They both worked for Oceanic – Frank was supposed to be the pilot on Oceanic 815.

So all the “rescuers” land on various parts of the island. Frank was kind enough to bring along a fully functional helicopter. That was nice of him. We soon learn from Daniel that rescuing the survivors isn’t their primary mission, thus supporting Ben, Locke and Too Tall Walt’s theories that not everything is on the up and up with these people. But they keep their charade going and their mouths shut until Frank learns that Juliette Burke wasn’t on Flight 815 – she was on the island beforehand. Miles doesn’t take this news well and flips out demanding to know where “he” is. Who is this “he” Miles speaks of? Well wouldn’t you know that it’s the one and only Benjamin Linus. Miles claims that Ben is the real reason they are on the island.

Just about the same time, Team Locke -with Charlotte in tow-are making their way to Jacob’s cabin. Despite being tied up and surround on all sides by members of Team Locke, Ben has managed to swipe a gun away from Charlotte and he shoots her twice in the chest. But her handy ol’ bullet proof vest saves her life. Having had enough Sawyer is ready to kill Ben but Locke insists that he is the one who has to do it. He puts the gun to the head of a pleading Ben and just before he’s about to shoot, Ben breaks like a damn. He reveals the identity of all the “rescuers” along with a lot of personal information about Charlotte, Miles, Dan and Frank. Charlotte, confused as all get out, confirms this information to be true. How does Ben know all this? He has a man on their boat? Once again, all together now…WTF?!

And this concludes this week’s episode of “I’m so confused yet entirely captivated by the series that is called LOST”.

Sooo…thoughts, theories? What’s your take on what’s going down on the island (and not to burst your bubble but you’re probably wrong).

(I’ll be back in just a few with a list of some of the questions raised during last night’s episode)