Season
4, Episodes 1 and 2- “The Beginning of the End” and “Confirmed Dead”
Summary:
Desmond
returns to the beach to warn about the freighter and to confirm that Charlie
died. They all head out to reconvene with Jack’s group, but Hurley gets
separated and encounters the cabin with Christian inside. Naomi has mysteriously
disappeared and she is tracked into the jungle where she grabs the SAT phone
and gives the proper coordinates for her people to find her. Eventually all of
the castaways reunite at the cockpit wreckage, and Jack fights Locke over his
actions. Those who don’t trust the freighter head with Locke to the barracks,
while the others join Jack at the beach. After they all disperse, Jack and Kate
see a helicopter drop another parachutist towards them. In flash-forwards,
Hurley is revealed to be a member of the “Oceanic Six” and is arrested for
speeding. He sees visions of Charlie and is placed back into the mental
institute. He receives a visit from Matthew Abaddon offering to upgrade him to
a better facility but Hurley is skeptical of him. Jack comes for a visit and
Hurley apologizes for “going with Locke”, and believes they need to go back.
Daniel
Faraday weeps as he watches footage of the locating of Flight 815. Miles Straume
visits a woman’s house to communicate with her dead son to find hidden money.
Charlotte Lewis arrives in the Tunisian desert where she finds a polar bear
skeleton with a DHARMA collar. Frank Lapidus sees footage of the bodies in the
plane wreckage and calls the news station to tell them that it is not the body
of the real pilot. Matthew Abaddon gives Naomi instructions to take the four
team members to the island. In the present, Faraday asks Jack and Kate to help
him locate the other team members. They find Miles who angrily demands to be
taken back to Naomi’s body, and confirms that they weren’t the ones who killed
Naomi. Sayid and Juliet appear with guns to neutralize Miles. Locke’s group
stumbles upon Charlotte and take her with them, and Ben tries to kill her.
Frank, after landing the chopper, fires a flare gun which draws Jack’s group to
him. Frank learns Juliet was not on the plane, prompting Miles to ask where Ben
Linus is. Ben tells his group the names and info of the four team members,
claiming they are looking for him, and that he knows this because he has a man
on their boat.
Review:
Finally, a premiere that does not focus
on Jack. In fact, we finally have a premiere that does not leave out a segment
of the cast, which is nice after an extra-long off-season hiatus. Hurley is an
unconventional choice to kick-start a season, but through him we are thrust
into this new mystery of who the Oceanic Six are. This is the weakest intro
scene of the six seasons, but the flash-forwards (no longer being disguised as
flashbacks) give us a new purpose, as these off-island diversions are no longer
character-driven but plot-driven. Hurley gets roped into the cabin weirdness
for some reason, I guess to set up helping Locke later in the season, but both
Locke and Ben have been to the cabin before and Hurley only finds it by luck. Whatever
gets you to the point your plot needs you to go, I guess. It adds some new
clues to the puzzle of the cabin. And “Lost” rarely has outright cheesy moments
but Hurley jumping into the water is one of them.
I’m also not a fan of Naomi’s sudden
revival and her sneaking off into the woods (seriously, no one saw her leave in
that wide open area?); it just seemed like the writers realized they needed her
for a little extra information to send to the freighter. You could chalk it up
to the island’s healing properties, i.e. Mikhail, but it just seemed sloppy. I
also find it hard to believe Jack would actually pull the trigger on Locke in
front of the entire camp. Even if he thought it was justified, how do the
people not see Jack as a psycho murderer after that? What happened to “do no
harm”? The final beat of Faraday popping in and asking, “Are you Jack?” is a
little surreal, since he’s the first real character to drop in from the outside
world already knowing who they are (Naomi technically knew about them but kept
it quiet at first). With a connection to the “real world” already established, our
characters don’t seem so lost anymore. Although that will eventually change
again.
“Confirmed Dead” exists almost
exclusively to introduce the four new characters, and amazingly it works. That
amount of introduction should overwhelm us, but because it is done in stages,
and the characters are so distinct, it never seems like too much to swallow.
Faraday and Frank are early favorites and are established as outcasts of sorts.
Miles is not as likable, but still distinctly drawn. Charlotte, on the other
hand, is a little bit bland, although her flashback is the most intriguing. The
Naomi flashback informs the audience that this four-person team is not the true
enemy, which allows us to relax and enjoy them. Further, introducing each of
them with their own little mystery helps integrate them into the fabric of the
show better than, say, Nikki and Paulo.
Ben’s declaration about a mole on the boat
loses most of its impact because not only was Harold Perrineau credited each
episode like everyone else, there was also extensive coverage about him
returning prior to the season. So that twist is blown. Not necessarily the
show’s fault. Beyond that, there’s really not much else developing between the
rest of the characters, as they spend the whole time running around and
collecting the new team. But this is certainly the best introduction to a group
of characters after the pilot. Interesting, diverse, and relevant – almost a
series of vignettes strung together rather than a full episode.
Connecting the Dots:
Knowing that Abaddon works for Widmore,
it shades in his interactions in these two episodes. His role as Naomi’s
superior makes sense. As for Hurley, it’s probable that he was going to be
taken to Widmore and forced to confess what he knew about the island.
The cabin moving around is something I
can dig no further on. The eye is a little interesting because we clearly see
Christian (i.e. Smokey) in the chair, so who could the eye be? If it’s true
that he appeared as multiple members of Emeka’s gang in “The Cost of Living”,
then maybe it’s explained away by having him take multiple forms at once? I see
little reason why he would want to lure Hurley to the cabin though.
One of the whispers at the cabin says, “You
have to believe it’s me, Nikki.” I presume that means it’s Nikki speaking, and
not Nikki being spoken to. Either way, one of the most concrete pieces of
evidence yet for the whispers being dead people.
I’m not totally sure why Faraday cries
while watching the 815 “wreckage”. Maybe he had studied DHARMA up to this
point, and it’s possible Desmond could have mentioned it while he was
time-shifting, but I don’t believe anything is confirmed.
Jack finds a gas mask in the chopper.
Widmore knew the Others had gassing capabilities from the Tempest (used in the
Purge) and came prepared.
Locke was shot in an area where his
kidney should have been. Another reason for him to think everything in his life
was part of a plan, driving him towards his destiny.
Charlotte was happy to find the DHARMA
collar because she has been searching for clues to her childhood in the
Initiative. She must have learned at some point that Tunisia was connected to
the group.
The polar bear skeleton was in Tunisia
because DHARMA used bears to turn the donkey wheel, which warped them to the
Tunisia exit point.
Ben’s “man on the boat” is Michael.
Ranking:
1.
Confirmed Dead
(9/10) (Great intros for the new characters, with a ton of new threads to
explore.)
2.
The Beginning of
the End (8.5/10) (Finally a premiere that services all of its characters, and
the promise of a new mystery in the Oceanic Six.)
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