Lost: Season 4, Episode 2 "Confirmed Dead" Review

 "I saw a cow."

-Frank Lapidus

"Confirmed Dead" starts off with the discovery of the wreckage of what appears to be Oceanic 815 and what seems to be every body accounted for.  While watching the news footage, Daniel Faraday (Jeremy Davies) gets very upset, but isn't sure why.

The flashbacks continue to introduce us to people from the freighter.  Next we meet Miles Straume (Ken Leung) who can speak to the dead and helps put spirits to rest.  

Then we meet Charlotte Lewis (Rebecca Mader), an anthropologist who travels to a dig in Tunisia, where the bones of a polar bear have been discovered.  She sees that it has a collar with the Dharma logo on it and seems to recognize it.

Next is Frank Lapidus (Jeff Fahey), who, while watching footage of the wreckage, is shown what appears to be the body of captain Seth Norris (Greg Grunberg), but Frank sees that the body is not wearing a wedding wing and realizes that it isn't Seth.  He calls up the hotline to let them know and reveals that he was originally supposed to fly Oceanic 815.

Finally, we get a scene between Naomi (Marsha Thomason) and Matthew Abaddon (Lance Reddick) as he briefs her on her expedition crew.  He is very insistent with her that there are no survivors of Oceanic 815, which she doesn't buy.

On the island, Jack (Matthew Fox) and Kate (Evangeline Lilly) meet up with Daniel.  Since the helicopter passengers were all wearing GPS tackers, they can use the satellite phone to track down all of them.  After finding a box filled with gas masks from the chopper, Daniel admits that rescuing the Oceanic 815 passengers isn't their primary objective.  They find Miles who holds them at gunpoint and demands to be taken to Naomi's body so he can confirm Kate's story, which he does.  Sayid (Naveen Andrews) and Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) arrive and force Miles and Daniel to give up their guns.  Sayid tries to get information out of them, but Miles is very uncooperative.

Charlotte is found by Locke's (Terry O'Quinn) group, who treat her with suspicion.  Locke takes her GPS tracker and ties it to Vincent, so they won't be able to track her down.  Charlotte tries to leave the group, but Ben (Michael Emerson) steals Karl's (Blake Bashoff) gun and shoots her.  Charlotte survives thanks to her bulletproof vest.  Locke decides to kill Ben, but Ben spouts a ton of information about Charlotte and her team and their mission: to find Ben himself.  He knows all this because he has a man on the freighter.

After finding Vincent and realizing they won't be able to find Charlotte immediately, Jack's group finds Frank and the only slightly damaged helicopter.  When Frank learns Juliet's name, he lets Miles know she was not on Oceanic 815 because he memorized the passenger manifest.  Miles starts demanding to know where Ben is.

What Works:

The best part about "Confirmed Dead," is that it introduces the greatest television character of all time, Frank motherf**king Lapidus!  Frank is the absolute best and shines with every single line of dialogue he is given.  He is also the most criminally underused character on the show, so believe me when I say I will take every opportunity I can to sing his praises.  I will try to restrain myself from awarding him the Platinum Polar Bear every single episode from here on out, but no promises.

In all seriousness, "Confirmed Dead" does a great job of introducing us to these new characters, all of whom are very exciting and unique.  Daniel is such an oddball and throwing him with the overly antagonist Miles is great.  Charlotte is another ultimately underused character, but her first episode is very memorable, especially with her interactions with Locke.

This episode is the first to gives us a really good reason to be wary of the freighter folk.  Before now, we have had only the word of Ben and a cryptic message from Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) as reason to not trust them.  Now we have their very bizarre behavior, especially from Daniel and Miles.  Why do they have gas masks?  What are they really up to and why are they so cagey about giving up information?  It adds a lot of intrigue to the show and makes it clear that this rescue won't be as simple as Jack thought.

One thing that really sticks out to me from the first time I watched this episode is; where did these bodies come from?  This episode doesn't dwell on it, but leaves you to think about it for yourself.  How did this plane get there and where did all these bodies come from?  Chills.

Finally, Locke and Sawyer (Josh Holloway) have some great interactions in this episode as Locke explains  that he is getting his instructions from "tall, ghost Walt" (Malcolm David Kelley).  Sawyer's reactions to Locke's nonchalant explanations are hilarious.  I also love how Locke explains that Ben shot him and that the only reason he survived is because he is missing a kidney where the bullet went through.  More chills.

What Sucks:

My only real problem with this episode isn't really with the episode, but how the show is going to handle these new plot threads and characters going forward.  This season was severely effective by a writers' strike, and some of these new characters, especially Charlotte and Frank, got the short end of the stick, where we never get anymore flashbacks for their characters.  This episode has a lot of exciting setup, but there is a lack of payoff in the future that brings the episode down a bit.

Platinum Polar Bear:

That Platinum Polar Bear goes to the most competent character of the episode.  For "Confirmed Dead," this is going to my boy, Frank Lapidus, for landing the helicopter in the thunderstorm mostly unscathed as well as casually figuring out that Juliet wasn't on the plane.  He memorized the entire manifest!  This is Frank's first time winning this award and it won't be his last if I have anything to say about it.

Verdict:

"Confirmed Dead" is an episode all about setup and it does a great job at it.  All of these new characters and plot points are really intriguing and gives us some excellent conflict and a nice dose of paranoia.  I just wish the show had done a better job at wrapping up this stuff in future episode.  Regardless, "Confirmed Dead" has still got it going on.

 9/10: Great