4.2

(Back to 4.1, on to 4.3, or back to index page.) 

One thing I noticed in the first episode that seems to be carrying over into the second episode… Kate doesn’t appear particularly concerned about getting arrested after she’s rescued.  (Although in both episodes there have been a few shots of Kate where it was a bit difficult to interpret how she was feeling about rescue, for the most part she seems unambiguously happy about it.)

We’re back to flashbacks again in this episode.  Not flash-forwards.

Of course, the most notable thing about the episode is the opening, where flight 815 is allegedly found.  The guy on the audio failed to spot a suitcase on the ocean floor long before he got to the airplane.  The boat that found the wreck was called “the Christiane”.  I’ve always suspected that the wreck and its discovery were faked and nothing about the footage dissuaded me from that opinion.  Later in the episode, it seems to be suggested that the wreck was physically faked, with actual wreckage and bodies, but I’m still not sold on that idea.

A physicist named Faraday.  A little too obvious, that.  I guess Desmond should have had a degree in philosophy.

The chopper went down because of an electrical storm? Was the storm CAUSED by the chopper’s approach, I wonder?

Jack plays really smart with these folks, taking advantage of Charlie’s revelation.   An indication of how unnecessary the group’s split was.

Sawyer calls John a nickname.  (Colonel Kurtz, Marlon Brando’s character in Apocalypse Now.)  Apparently he’s not completely done with those.

John seems surprised that Hurley knew about the cabin, but now Ben and John BOTH know he’s seen it.

Apparently, Sayid, at first, didn’t put much stock in Charlie’s revelation.  And now he sits on the beach and has an uncharacteristically trusting conversation with Juliet.  Interesting.

Dan admits that rescuing the survivors isn’t their primary objective.  Later it’s revealed that Ben is their primary objective.  Also later, in the conversation between Naomi and her boss, it was revealed that Naomi already suspected she’d find 815 survivors on the island.  Her boss’s assertion that there were no survivors seemed to indicate that, in his mind, the official account of the fate of flight 815 would not be disturbed by their mission.  Meaning they had no intention of rescuing any of the flight 815 survivors.  Even so… Dan seems genuine when he later tells Miles that the survivors are “good people”.  It was unclear earlier why Naomi, near death and speaking to Kate, would feel it necessary to continue to push the cover story, but apparently she didn’t want to blow its use for the team that would follow her.  Apparently the Desmond cover story was deemed most appropriate for Naomi’s mission for some reason.  Why she ventured out to the island alone to begin with, without the rest of her team, still isn’t clear.

John admits that Walt was “taller”.  My impression had been that the producers tried to cover up the fact that Walt was older by dressing him in oversized clothes and digitally altering his voice.  Is John, though, indicating here that we were supposed to notice that Walt was older? And if so… why didn’t John say he looked “older”? Why just “taller”?

Speculations that John was saved by not having a kidney were confirmed.  Which… I thought was totally awesome.

We see that John isn’t perfectly healed, but it is clear that he’s healing… and is healed enough to walk around like he’s not wounded at all.

Miles’ off-island occupation solidifies the role of ghosts in the story.  In previous seasons, the presence of Christian and Ben’s mom suggested ghosts… and perhaps Jacob’s odd characteristics did also… but Christian’s empty coffin and speculations about the mimic skills of the smoke monster rendered those speculations inconclusive.  But now it’s clear that ghosts are real in the LOST universe.  Perhaps young Ben’s ability to talk to the dead is what made him valuable to the Hostiles.  Perhaps the reason it was important that his mother died off the island was because that fact proved he’d actually seen his dead mother and not an island apparition.  Perhaps Jacob is a ghost… and perhaps the Others’ attitudes towards and treatments of the dead are explained by all of this, too.

All of this supports “paranormal island” theories, I think.

What was the device that Miles used in the room? And how does Miles stealing the dead boy’s money “free” the boy to go?

Sawyer helps Carl avoid Ben’s head games, perhaps saving Ben from being harmed or even killed by Carl, but then Sawyer falls for those games himself and asks why Ben’s allowed to live?

After Sayid and Juliet show up with guns, I really wanted Jack to say to Dan and Miles, “This isn’t your island… this is OUR island… and the only reason you’re living on it… is because we LET you live on it…”

The polar bear find in Tunisia is consistent, I think, with theories that have suggested that Philadelphia/Montauk style experiments are involved in the story.

Notice Charlotte didn’t believe that flight 815 had actually been found.  Although later she says, “I can’t believe you’re alive.”

Miles says “Oh, it can hurt…” about Sayid’s efforts to try to call someone else.

When Frank called in and insisted that the pilot of flight 815 had not been found, then we see he works for Naomi’s team, this may call into suspicion the affiliations and motives of the pilots of the actual flight.  Of course, these things have oft been questions since evidence has suggested that flight 815 was long headed in the wrong direction, unlikely by accident.

“Taller ghost Walt”… heh… again we seem to be deliberately discouraged from thinking it was actually “older ghost Walt”.  But perhaps the fact we’re discouraged from thinking it is proof that we should think it.  Don’t you just hate this show?

The team brought guns AND Kevlar vests.  Yeah… they were preparing for a fight, alright.

“Every member of this team was selected for a specific purpose…”  John has said that everyone was on the island for a specific purpose.  There are no coincidences.  Dan didn’t know why he wept when he’d heard that flight 815 had been found.  A premonition? Synchronicity at work? All of the flashbacks but Naomi’s were of the day each team member heard that 815 had been found.

It was very odd, the conversation Miles had with the boat.  It sounded like he was talking to his sister or something.  Not at all like the folks on the boat were anxious about the team and eager to hear how things were going.  How could “George” have been too busy to talk to Miles? How could the woman who talked to Miles have treated him like his call wasn’t important to her or anyone else?

Miles seems to have a personal stake in finding Ben.

“What is the monster?” This was a completely surprising question from John as far as I was concerned.  Not that I didn’t think he’d ask this question, but it wasn’t the first one I assumed he’d ask.  I’d gotten the impression he believed the smoke represented the will of the island.  But perhaps what he saw it do to Eko convinced him otherwise?

For the record… the smoke monster question would have been the first one I asked.

Ben was really playing with fire by saying he didn’t know what it was… so… was he telling the truth? I mean, you’d think if he really didn’t know and was certain his not knowing would lead to his death, he’d give whatever info he did have (“It doesn’t like the sonic fence” or “it’s a security system”) or even just make something up.  But the look on his face suggested that being shot by John would be better than what would happen to him if he explained the smoke monster.  Odd.

It was also surprising that Ben revealed that the team wanted him.  I mean… why should Ben think that John would care? By being honest with John about what the team wanted, wasn’t Ben basically suggesting that everything he’d done to prevent the boat from coming was just an effort to save his own skin? Wouldn’t that further suggest that perhaps the boat isn’t a threat to anyone BUT Ben and, if Ben’s delivered to the team, everyone else will be left alone?

Once again it’s difficult to tell what Ben’s really up to.