So let me get this straight…there is wreckage of Oceanic Flight 815 at the bottom of the Indian Ocean? How is that possible? We have previously been told by Anthony Cooper (Locke’s father) and Naomi that back in the real world, everyone on Earth knows they found the plane and believed everyone on it to be dead. Since we all know that is simply not the case, how the hell did that wrecked plane get down there? Actually, the real question is who put that plane down there? Who could orchestrate such an elaborate hoax? Ben? DHARMA? Penny Widmore’s father? Hmmm…more on that later.

This episode was a set-up episode for what probably will be the entire story arc of this shortened season. Through flashbacks, we learned a bit about our four new players in the wild-ass game. Those being Daniel Faraday, Miles Straume, Charlotte Lewis, and Frank Lapidus. We learned that each of these people has a particular skill that would probably come in handy on the most insane island in history.

First, we met Daniel. He was bawling his eyes out while watching the news that Oceanic Flight 815 was discovered in the Indian Ocean and all are dead. When his wife/girlfriend/mom/whomever asked him why he was so shook up, he responded with, “I don’t know”. Odd? Yep. I guess that’s why you get an actor like Jeremy Davies to do this role, he personifies odd.

We met Daniel last week and he immediately identified Jack. As I said in my recap of 4.1, Daniel knew Jack on sight. Daniel, Jack, and Kate went about finding the other three passengers who were forced to jump from the “rescue” helicopter.

The next person they met was Miles Straume. In his flashback, we learned that Miles can speak to the dead. This is a skill that would probably help out on the island. Miles is apparently a bit of a hot-head because he whipped out on a gun on Jack immediately.

Next up, Charlotte. Her flashback took us to Tunisia where we find out she is some kind of archaeologist. A polar bear skeleton has been dug up in the desert and it’s wearing a, you geussed it, DHARMA collar. When she crashed on the island, she met the wrong folks. She runs into Locke and The Gang and, not surprisingly, they don’t trust her and they force her to come with them. It became particularly interesting when Ben stole a gun from that moron Karl and shot Charlotte. She was wearing a bullet proof vest…on a rescue mission? Hmmm…

Next up, Frank. Frank was just an out of work pilot chilling out when he saw the news of Flight 815. Apparently, he was supposed to be flying that plane for that flight. He was found by Jack’s group and then, we learned what they are really doing there. When Frank found out Juliet’s name, he knew she was not on 815. They immediately surrounded her and then revealed they are there for Benjamin Linus.

Lastly, we get a flashback for now deceased Naomi. We find out that she was hired by Matthew Abaddon (creepy lawyer guy who went to see Hurley last week) to go and find the island. We also get the feeling that Abaddon isn’t interested in finding any 815 survivors.

Back in Locke’s camp, Ben revealed that he too knew that they were there for him. He then proceeded to detail new arrival Charlotte’s entire life history. Then, Ben explained that he has someone on their boat. That Ben Linus! It’s a tricky fellow.

Now, I reveal my whole fake plane in the ocean theory. I believe that when Ben Linus murdered all of the DHARMA people on the island, he also found a way to get the island off the grid and out of control of the DHARMA people back in the real world. Essentially, Ben stole the island from them. This larger group, which obviously spans the globe since we saw they once had operations in Tunisia, is a large conglomerate run by some seriously devious and probably rich people. I believe they faked the wreckage in the ocean so that people would quit looking for the real Oceanic 815 and maybe accidentally find their island. Instead, Matthew Abaddon, whom I believe to be an agent of this group, hires a group of people to go find the island while the entire world is fixated on the ocean wreckage.

Hopefully, reading all of this was not a complete and total beating. I don’t plan on going on like this for every episode but I felt this one had quite a bit of stuff introduced. It was another strong episode for the evil Ben and a pretty slick introduction to some people who may be sleazier than Ben.

Batdance.