4x02, "Confirmed Dead"

I really have to start getting used to these hyper-compressed episodes -- there's way too much going on every segment to keep up with and process. A number of stories that would have been set-up over six or seven episodes in Season 2 and 3 have basically been compressed into two. I think it's safe to say this episode may have topped the season premiere in the inexplicable department, but I never really felt confused. The again It's like I didn't have time to be confused. The show's relentless momentum, like The Wire at its best, makes you feel as if you're juggling a bunch of balls in the air and you don't care if and when they'll ever fall so long as you can keep it going.

On a side note, co-creator Damon Lindelof stopped by the Fuselage this evening, his first interaction with the fan base since the WGA strike began. This was part of his self-imposed "radio silence" in support of the strike. I'd take this as a very positive sign that indeed the strike is over and barring a last minute mutiny this Saturday a deal will be approved and LOST may yet be able to complete the final eight episodes of this already breathtaking season.

*A headcase, a ghost buster, an anthropologist and a drunk: these, my friends, are the newest full-timers on LOST. What was interesting was how the episode overall portrayed them collectively as screw-ups instead of the looming menaces they've been set-up to be. So will whatever tragedies befall the Island actually be their fault or will it be a complete accident? Also, between the four of them I think each is going to end up resolving some outstanding issues about the Island's make-up: the Physical Laws of the Island, the Dead, DHARMA and Why Someone Ends Up On the Island.

*For me the most interesting are definitely the headcase and the ghostbuster. First off both very quickly got their characters over almost by body language. They also hold a lot of promise: the headcase is a physicist and that may come in handy considering the Island's bizarre properties. And the ghostbuster -- that speaks for itself. Through him we may finally get an answer to how and why the dead don't stay dead on the Island.

*I'm a little less enthused about the anthropologist and the drunk but I think that's mostly because I just dug the actors who played the other two more. (And clearly Ken Leung's turn as a mental patient in The Sopranos was definitely what caught LOST's eye). The anthropologist seemed to know something about the DHARMA Initiative. I'm gonna guess we'll learn more about their experiments (and what off Island applications those may have) though her. The drunk pilot appears to be almost a control case: what happens if someone's who's supposed to be on The Island never made it, but gets a second chance. We may get a clearer picture of why our original Losties ended up on 815 by learning more about why the drunk didn't end up on it himself.

*I think if Locke keeps inexplicable leading his group all over the Island, it'll become clear very quickly why Hurley in the future thinks he made a mistake by choosing his side.

*FAKE! This was actually brought up in the previous episode thread and LOST is apparently going in the direction that many dread: that a vast and rich conspiracy has planted a fake Oceanic 815 with fake corpses in the bottom of the ocean. So who was it? The leading candidate would be Widmore, but why would he want to do this? Is it to keep people from searching for the plane and thus stumbling on The Island? And now that we know six get rescued, how will their being alive be explained to the rest of the world? Are they going to say somehow the Oceanic 6 escaped a planed that had crashed in the middle of the ocean?

*DHARMA in Tunisia? This was what really blew my mind. There's some speculation this means that what's going on on The Island is in the distant past and that it's actually located in present day Tunisia. Really, I think the simplest explanation is the right one: however Eko's drug plane ended up on The Island will end up explaining how one of the DHARMA bears ended up in Africa. I think this'll have bearing on how people get to and from The Island.

*Oh, just kill him already! So why is Ben wanted by Matthew Abbadon? And when was that picture of Ben taken? When did he leave the Island and for what purpose? Might we see a flashback off-Island with Ben?

*Where doesn't Ben have a mole? Seriously, the man's network is more far flung than the CIA.

*Name Game for the Freighties:
-Daniel Faraday: There's a physicist named Farraday who made important discoveries regarding electromagnetism

-Miles Straume: A play on "Maelstrom"?

-Charlotte Staples Lewis: Reference to C.S. Lewis

-Frank Lapidus: The word "lapidus" is hebrew for "torch" or "candle" recalling the DHARMA orientation film host Dr. Candle/Hallowax/Wickmund.

*BONUS EASTER EGG for 4x01, "The Beginning of the End": Shortly after I posted my last, recap a theory appeared on the Fuselage titled, "HO, HO, HO". Now I had also noticed how odd it was that "HO" kept appearing in the episode: Hurley sees Charlie near the ho-ho's in the store and he and Jack stop playing HORSE right after Jack got "H-O". Later I found out that in the background at the mental institute some kinnex had been assembled an "H" and "O". At first I thought this was an inside joke that according to the timeline it's December 24, 2004 on the Island. But someone also found that "HO" is the chemical symbol for an Holmium, an element formerly known only as Element X. Holmium is used to create the strongest artificially generated magnetic fields.