Wow. We got a boatload of information in this episode.
Flight 815 is found by submersibles from the search vessel Christiane in the Sunda Trench
off of Bali. The freighter people arrive and they are one freaky collection of humanity. The writers give us a sketchy background
for each through flashbacks, and good old Ben fills in the rest at the end of the episode. Man, has he pissed some people
off.
We've got Dan Faraday, the scientist/academic from Essex, Ma.(home of Woodman's!) who seems to have a tough time controlling his emotions after seeing news footage of the discovery of 815.
Miles Straume, A sleazy but apparently effective ghost buster with a dust buster.
Charlotte Staples Lewis, an anthropologist that we see find a collar with a Dharma Hydra
logo on a polar bear's remains in Tunisia. She also seems fixated on 815. We see her staring at a Tunisian newspaper
featuring the story of the discovery of the plane and her partner asks her "How many different languages do you need
to read it in before you believe it's true?".
And last but not least, we have Frank Lapidus, a pilot. Although he looks like Nick Nolte
on a bender he is actually quite sharp. He picks up on the 815 fakeout immediatlely by noticing the pilot isn't wearing
his wedding ring, and he sniffs Juliet out like a seasoned cop.
We also find out that Naomi works for Abaddon, and they are hot to find the island
and Ben. I'd bet that Abaddon is employed by Hanso, or the dark side of Hanso, Mittlewerk, and they're looking for what they
feel is theirs, the island, and for a little pay back. Ben's mutiny blew their plans all to hell and now they want his hide.
It seems they also want details, and thats why the fantastic four are part of the mission.
The ghost whisperer is on board in case the only witnesses are corpses. Who says dead men tell no tales?
Also, from their discussions it would seem that they know the island is where 815 really
ended up, and they don't think anyone survived the crash. Did they find some indication of where it really went down, a blip
on someones radar or an intercept of the mayday calls, while they were looking for the island?
There's so much to go over from this episode, but it will have to wait til tomorrow night.
In the meantime, check out the screen caps that are up so far. I haven't had much time to
look through their backgrounds, but I did notice a football poster in the dead boy's room with a 15 prominently displayed.
See if you can find anything else. You can let me know what you find through the feed back page.
Confirmed Dead - Freighters and ghosts and bears, oh my.
So, where did I leave off? Oh yeah, who sent the freighter and why.
As I alluded to earlier, I think Abaddon is working for Hanso, not Dharma. Actually, not
really Hanso either. Confused? Let me explain.
I think that way back in those hazy crazy 70's, Dharma and Hanso were partners. Hanso may
have even steered Dharma to the island. We know that Hanso's great grandfather Magnus was the owner of the ship the Black
Rock, and that he dropped off the face of the Earth after sailing east from New Guinea loaded with gold. It wouldn't be too
much of a stretch to think that Alvar might be familiar with the island.
Somewhere along the line, people in the Hanso Corporation came up with a plan to harness
the islands power for their own purposes. From the weirdness we've seen on the Hanso website it would appear that there
was a power struggle going on between Hanso and Mittelwerk. Hanso thought that Mittelwerk was evil and was up to no good.
Now here's where it gets really fuzzy. It seems that both Widmore and Paik are in buisness
with Hanso. They may both be in league with Mittelwerk and his dirty work. When Ben and the Others took over the Dharma operation
it would have put them all out of buisness. Well, maybe not all. There's a chance that at least one of the corporations is
acting independently and is financing Ben to keep the others out.
We know that Ben, or at least Richard, operates off the island. The company that hired Juliet
was Mittelos. Pretty suspicious coincidence. My bet would be that Ben is involved with Mittelwerk. Someone has to be bankrolling
him.
Abaddon seems to work for someone with deep pockets also, and wants to get to Ben in the
worst way. I'd have to say that it's probably Widmore, Paik, or both. These are bad people. Think Jin in his flashbacks
bad, and Ben is scared.
How do they know what Ben and the Others did? One or both of the jilted companies have probably
been investigating what went wrong for quite a while. The picture of Ben that Miles had could have been taken during
a surveilance operation. The clothes Ben has on in the picture are vintage disco duds, indicating it's not a recent photo.
Also, although I think the Dharma Initiative itself is no longer in operation, there must have been some of them that
weren't on the island at the time of the attack and messages may have gotten out. Abaddon could also have backtracked to Ben
through Mittelos or Hanso.
As I said before, Abaddon probably hand picked the freighter four because he wants information
as well as Ben's hide. Each one is there to figure out a different part of the puzzle.The Physicist to figure out what
makes the island so hard to find, the anthropologist and the ghost buster to gather information about the island's natives
and the coup.
They were probably carrying the hazmat gear because either they were unsure of what
they might run into or they intend on giving Ben and his followers a taste of their own medicine. The four may be an advanced op team and an airborne assualt could be waiting on their signal.
Perhaps now that they don't have their protective gear with them they will need to bug out
before the assualt begins. That could explain the reason only six make it off the island. Like last call in Saigon, whoever
gets on the chopper first gets out. The rest are left to fend for themselves in the coming onslaught. If you were one of the
six that got out, you'd probably experience a few pangs of guilt once you got home.
Anyway, enough conjecture about the freighter, it's time for some conjecture on the bear.
We know Dharma was raising polar bears outside of their natural environment. They may have
been genetically altering them to live in warmer weather. We also know from the Lost Experience that Hanso had operations
in Africa. The altered bears could have been brought to Tunisia as part of the ongoing experiments, died there, and been covered
over by sandstorms. We don't really know the scope of the archaeological dig and the leather collar was in realatively good
shape.
If the remains in the dig turn out to be from a time before Dharma, we might be
seeing evidence of the rabbit experiments at the Orchid Station. Dharma or Hanso may have found a way to transport the bear
through time and space, placing it in the desert in the past and seeding history, so to speak. If the transport is succesful
and the bears thrive, the proof would be instantaneous. Polar Bears would be part of the Tunisian natural fauna and they would
have dramatic proof that they could not only change history but also alter the balance of nature. Whoa. That would be scary.
Ok, that's enough for now. In the coming days we'll get into Hurley's new found ability
to see Jacob and Locke's apparent uneasiness with it. Think about this in the meantime:
Has the cabin always been hard to find, or has Locke done something like removing the ash
circle to cause it? Let me know your thoughts.
Confirmed Dead - The green eyed monster...
Locke seems a little too interested in how Hurley might know where the cabin is. Ben does
too, for that matter. Both men seem to want to believe that only they alone can see and hear Jacob. He's been Ben's bread
and butter, so to speak. The main reason he held sway over the Others was that he alone relayed
orders from the "Great Man". Locke came along and threatened that.
I think Ben's jealousy of Locke at the end of last season caused him to act uncharacteristically
and was the beginning of his loss of control. He tried to kill Locke once he knew Jacob spoke to him. His last question to
Locke said it all, "What did Jacob say to you?".
Locke is of the same mind. He's felt like the chosen one since shortly after he arrived.
He had real issues with Jack being the leader in those early days. Ben saw it and used it to help him make his escape from
the hatch. Now he's finally large and in charge, and he finds out Hurley may have seen Jacob, or the cabin at least.
That's gonna get his brain percolating.
I think this little group is going to implode very soon and it won't be pretty. Could be
the reason Hurley tells Jack that he wished he had stayed with him in his flash forward last week.
As for the cabin seemingly hoppin and boppin around? Yes, I think that's partly due to Locke.
I think that whether he disturbed the ash ring or not, Jacob, or whatever power that controls him, is feeding off of Locke's
energy, or perhaps off of his jealousy.
I look forward to finding out more tomorrow night. I've been avoiding the spoilers this
season as I tend to go into the new episodes with preconceived notions after reading them. I've found I enjoy the experience
more when I'm surprised.
