Thursday, February 7, 2008

Lost recap – “Confirmed Dead” airdate 02/07/08 (S4E2)

We start with an underwater scene, filmed by some sort of submarine. Deep under water, the camera comes across an airplane: a whole airplane. “It’s Oceanic 815!” exclaims the off-camera voice. Dude, it’s so not. Flight 815 was splintered into at least three pieces and strewn across an evil Island. I know this because I’ve been watching since S1E1. Cut to some squirrelly looking guy, “Dan,” watching a news report of the airplane discovery and sniffling, not knowing why he’s so upset. Cut again to the chopper from last episode, in the storm and in trouble. There seem to be four people on board: squirrelly Dan, two others and the pilot. The pilot screams for everyone to bail out and someone throws Dan out the hatch. He parachutes onto the Island in the rainstorm and announces to Jack and Kate when they find him that he’s here to rescue them. I’m skeptical, not least that so squirrelly a guy can rescue anyone.

Dan, Jack and Kate walk through the wet jungle and Dan confirms that there were four folks on the chopper. They all have the GPS transponders that can be tracked on the sat-phone. Dan calls his ship and George, on board, tells him to take him off speaker-phone. Jack and Kate get suspicious as Dan, still squirrelly, turns away. Also making them suspicious is the gun he’s got tucked in his belt. When he hangs up, they keep trekking, waiting for a GPS transponder signal.

Locke leads his group east – which Sawyer questions, since the Others’ barracks are south. Locke wants to go to Jacob’s cabin because a “taller” Walt told him too. Sawyer totally scoffs and Locke says that after Ben shot him and left him for dead, Walt came to him and told him what his mission was. He shows Sawyer the bullet wound, saying he’d probably be dead if he still had a kidney there. So it was actually a GOOD thing in the long run that his father scammed him out of a kidney then. Hmm – that’s very convenient, writers. Actually, Sawyer doesn’t quite know what to say to all this so they keep walking.

On the beach, Juliet and Sayid are slightly concerned that Jack has not returned. Juliet, having lived with Ben so long, is paranoid and suggests that she and Sayid rustle up the remaining guns and go find Jack. Dan, Jack and Kate find another GPS signal: it’s Miles, crashed on the rocks on the shore. When Jack goes to see if he’s still alive, Miles has been playing possum and pulls his gun, telling them all to back off. Miles wants to see Naomi’s body. But how does he know she’s dead? wonders a baffled Kate.

Please: Sean “Puffy” Combs as the lead in A Raisin In the Sun? Give me a friggin’ break. Lost’s Vincent has more range than Puff-Daddy.

Flashback: Inglewood, California. Miles drives up, listening to a news report that all 344 passengers on Oceanic 815 are confirmed dead. He knocks on the door of a small house and an older woman lets him in. He requests $200 as his fee and goes upstairs to divest her home of the ghost of her murdered grandson, bringing a jury-rigged dust buster with him. In the dead boy’s bedroom, Miles turns on his dust buster, twitches a little, speaks to the empty room and goes straight to a hidden wad of money and drugs. He leaves the drugs, takes the large wad of cash and leaves, refunding the grandmother $100. That’s big of you, asshole. I already dislike this guy.

Flash to the Island: Miles says that “tell my sister I love her” is code for being captured and in mortal danger. He wants to be taken to Naomi’s body: he’ll know what happened, he insists. In Locke’s group, at a water break Ben tries to talk to his daughter but Sawyer intercedes. So Ben taunts him a bit instead, telling Sawyer that if they get off-Island, he doesn’t stand a chance competing against a “first-class surgeon” for Kate’s affections. This earns him a beating and almost a bullet in the brainpan. Locke steps in, saying that Ben has been on the Island longer than anyone else and has information they can use. Sawyer snarls that he bets Ben has already figured out how to get all of them … Locke has to hold Ben’s leash from now on.

While Miles communes with Naomi’s body, Kate tries to get Dan to tell them what is going on. Jack tells her to back off, giving her a little wink. The sat-phone picks up the signal of the third member of their party, Charlotte, but Jack insists that Miles and Jack put their guns down before they go any further. Feeling cocky, Miles protests until shots ring out: it’s Sayid and Juliet. Sneaky Jack – he knew they were there!

Flashback: Tunisia. A redheaded British woman, Charlotte, seemingly an archeologist or paleontologist, whatever, busts into a dig. There’s an animal skeleton there: not a dinosaur but a bear, a polar bear. And when she digs conveniently into the dirt next to its neck, Charlotte pulls out a collar with a Dharma Initiative logo on it – looks like a hydra. Flash to the Island: Charlotte is stuck in her parachute lines, suspended above a pool of water. She cuts herself free (to very dramatic and annoying music) and drops into the pool. When she comes up, she finds Locke et al waiting for her.

Charlotte and Locke’s group take turns asking each other questions. Everyone is very suspicious of everyone else. Charlotte is quite surprised when Locke tells her that they don’t want to be found by her team. Jack, Kate, Juliet, Sayid, Dan and Miles tromp through the jungle. Sayid tries some non-invasive interrogation and Miles gives him a bunch of lip. They get another reading from Charlotte’s GPS, this time moving really fast as though she’s running. They all start running too; the music gets excitable; and the signal gets closer and closer … and it’s Vincent, with the GSP transponder tied to his collar. He sits down and gives himself a little scratch. “Locke’s got her,” mutters Jack.

Flashback: the Bahamas. Some beach-bummy looking guy drops a toy airplane into an aquarium. The plane flips as it falls through the water and lands on its back on the bottom, looking not at all like the supposedly found Oceanic 815, which was filmed lying on its belly at the bottom of the ocean. Another news report about the found 815 is also on the television and Beach Bum watches it closely. He then calls the Oceanic hotline. He says that he knows the man who was piloting Flight 815, that he always wore his wedding ring (and all the obsessed Lost fans immediately go back to Season 1 and pause their DVDs whenever Greg Grunberg’s left hand comes into view) - the pilot’s body shown on the television footage did not have a wedding ring. The hotline operator wants to know how he knows anything about anything; Beach Bum says that he was supposed to be the one flying 815 that day.

Flash to the Island: Beach Bum is the helicopter pilot. He drags himself up an embankment and finds a steer which moos at him before moving off, neck-bell clanging. That was random. Beach Bum tries his sat-phone but it’s busted so he sends up a flare instead. Locke’s group sees the flare. Charlotte wants to go after it, saying she came here to rescue the Losties. Locke says no way, they’re sticking with his agenda (and Sawyer snarks that who are they to argue with “taller ghost Walt.” Ha.) Charlotte and Locke argue until BANG! someone shoots her in the chest. It was Ben, having snagged a pistol from oblivious Carl. Sawyer tackles Ben and pounds on his face some more. Locke checks Charlotte: she’s alive, wearing a bulletproof vest. Lucky. And paranoid. Meanwhile, Jack’s group has found Beach Bum. His name is Frank. He actually managed to land the helicopter on the Island without crashing it. Jack, Kate and Sayid think this is most excellent.

Flashback: Naomi is getting her mission parameters from the purported Oceanic lawyer who visited Hurley in the nuthouse in last week’s flash forward. Naomi seems to be military or at least ex-military, and she scornfully describes the team on her “high risk undercover op in unstable territory” as “… a head-case, a ghost-buster, an anthropologist and a drunk.” The lawyer tells her to suck it up: everything relies on her to get them in, get them out, and keep them from getting killed. Oops.

Flash to the Island: Sayid has checked out the chopper and says it can fly. Miles calls the ship on his sat-phone and the woman who answers the phone is distinctly uninterested in talking to him right at this moment. Nonplussed, he hangs up. Juliet cleans up a wound on Frank the pilot’s head. When he asks her name, she tells him and he shouts to Miles that Juliet was not on the plane: “She’s a native!” Miles gets VERY excited by this. He waves a photograph around and shouts, “Where is he? You want to know why we’re here? I’ll tell you: we’re here for Benjamin Linus. Now where is he?”

Well, Miles, currently Mr. Linus is getting his ass kicked by Sawyer somewhere in the jungle. Sawyer is itching to shoot Ben but Locke says it’s his mess, he’ll clean it up. He tells everyone who doesn’t want to see this to clear out. When Claire protests, Locke asks her to think if one of the bullets Ben shot at Charlotte had hit her or the baby. Claire stops protesting. Ben opens his beady eyes wide and says he can give them information. So Locke immediately asks him what the black smoke monster is. HAHAHA! Ben looks at Locke like he’s lost his mind and sighs that he doesn’t know. What he does know is ALL about Charlotte and her team members and that they are a big threat. The ship is not here to rescue the Losties – it is here to find him. A quick look at Charlotte confirms that Ben is correct. How does Ben know all this? Well, he’s got a man working for him out there on that ship, of course.

Next time on Lost. Previously on Lost.

No comments:

Post a Comment