Great recap. I dunno if you ever got into the find815.com story or not, but the ship that found the 815 wreckage was indeed looking for the Black Rock, who's captain at the time of its crash on the island was Magnus Hanso.

LOVED this episode! Love Dan! He's such a...lovable oddball/spacecase.

People are speculating that Michael is Ben's plant. Or Minkowski. I bet it's one of them. I'm sure we'll see exactly why Minkowski couldn't come to the phone later.

Our 4 new characters all seem to have knowledge that will help us solve some mysteries. Whispers, electromagnetic anomalies, the plane crash, 4 toed statues.

I have to mention one little thing though. The picture frames around the picture(s) of the dead grandson change. Both the shot before Miles goes upstairs and after he comes down seem very deliberate. Many people think this is "proof" that Desmond altered history when he turned the failsafe key and that there's multiple realities/parallel universes. There is no reasoning with these people.

abaumga2 -
Thanks!

Good catch Merick! I missed that completely.

I don't know about the failsafe thing, but it's certainly conspicuous.

I also wanted to apologise for taking so long with this week's 'cap, but my store was busy all day Friday and most of Saturday, so I didn't get as much time as I normally do to write.

I love your recaps! Don't apologize for lateness. The wait was worth it.

I agree, there were some really lame moments, such as the polar bear collar and the ghostbuster dude, Miles, but his smart-ass attitude was entertaining. Can't wait till he meets Sawyer.....oh, and I like the nickname "Dustbuster"!

..... but the scene with Daniel at the beginning, being so upset over the finding of Flight 815 has me confused. Makes me wonder why....

.... and Ben has all the answers doesn't he..... he truly is the best character on the show and should have won the Emmy instead of Locke.

"I'd like to vote for Fantasia, please."

lol...

Ok, so what did the light comment that faraday made mean? I think that has to be some clue, but I have no clue as to what...

Great recap. Thanks for all the sidebars on the names. I guess I'm not as deeply into the mythology as I should be because when the "light scattering" comment was made I thought it was a silly joke because I said that about Hawaii when I went and the show is shot there. I hope these shows keep it coming like this!

Thanks, geewits!

As for what the light scattering might mean, since Faraday's namesake invented a "Faraday cage that keeps electromagnetic energy from penetrating it, it occurred to me that physicist Faraday might be looking for a similar effect on the island, but instead of electromagnetic energy being blocked, perhaps it's about light being blocked or filtered, making the island hard to find or detect from the outside world.

That would explain why the two Brazillian guys had to use seismic equipment (or magnetic detection or whatever the hell they were doing) to find the island. Assuming that it was the island that they found...

There should be a " after "Faraday cage".

Preview. Gotta remember to preview!

"Minkowski can't come to the phone" -- Hermann Minkowski [1864-1909] was another famous physicist, in the field of relativity. He invented the idea of four dimensional space-time. Do you hear an anvil dropping?

Hi! Great re-cap! I read that the four new characters are supposed to represent the Fantastic Four. Dan is supposed to be Reed, Miles is supposed to be Johnny, Charlotte is supposed to be Susan and Frank is supposed to be Ben. Anyway, I thought you might find that an interesting take on the name game. Lost is always tossing out random tid-bits, isn't it? :)

AlanHK -
Nice find! I never even thought to google Minkowski!

First philosophers (Locke, Rousseau, Hume) now physicists (Faraday, Minkowski).

It's almost like they're trying to tell us something...

calicobebop -
Thanks! I don't know about the FF though, but you never know. We did have the comic book in Season one...

A more mundane comment: Frank says he's studied the manifest and knows Juliet wasn't on it. There were 324 passengers + crew on the plane; that's a pretty good memory. Could be retconned as an indication he is lying, as we know they were briefed about Ben.

Thanks for the recap, GB. Gotta love that you found reading about Faraday so interesting.

I have to say, it's probably because there are only so many character types you can set up quickly, and it will probably change over the next few episodes, but I thought I was watching the Bizarro Seinfeld episode. The moment I heard Lapidus talk and he sounded just like Locke, I started seeing parallels between those 4 and the islanders: Charlotte = Kate: smart, resourceful woman who operates somewhat (or fully) outside the law. Lapidus = Locke: Mr. Rugged, a total failure outside the island but who finds a purpose in it, and works on faith (that the remains are not those of the pilot, for example). Faraday = Hurley: just your basic, lovable, can't-we-all-just-get-along nutcase. Miles = Jack: OK, I guess this one is mostly just the hair, but also a guy who demands proof and is good at his job. Of course, he could also be Sawyer, being something of a not-totally-irredeemable con man and having snark to spare. Eh, I'll go on this until it all changes next episode.

Your point about suspension of disbelief and the old dustbuster is very funny. I was fine about ghosts (after all, Christian is walking around on the island,) but the giant four-toed statue really bothered me. I'll take time travel, teleportation, ghosts... but please, aliens are a bit much. Maybe it was just a leftover defective prop from The Lord Of The Rings that was offered to them for free, so sure, why not use it?

As to the Fantastic Four, I also read about it in the Entertainment Weekly TV Watch. They made the point (I think) that the FF is not really relevant to Lost, but that the Lost writers threw the references there purely out of playfulness. Which is cool with me. And which is why I read that and your posts, so I can catch on stuff that would never have occurred to me.

Oh, and I almost forgot, if you like Jeremy Davies, I just saw Rescue Dawn, which is a very good movie, with very good performances, among them Mr. Davies, looking, oh, I don't know, 40 pounds lighter? and giving us a completely different take on a (justifiably so, poor guy) nutcase.

sayhuh -
I stay away from other recaps until I get mine posted, so the FF thing didn't enter my field of vision until I'd finished.

Considering my comic book fetish, that's surprising, but it never crossed my mind. Forest for the trees, I guess.

I think I was too busy trying to remember where I'd seen Miles (X-Men 3)to note the FF references.

As for the ghosts/aliens thing, I'll take aliens over ghosts any day. I'm not remotely convinced that the apparitions we've seen are ghosts or even ghostly.

I'd be MUCH happier with a nano-tech or other technology based explaination than something about ghosts, spirits, or lost souls.

I still view Lost as a science fiction show first, with more s/f elements than a supernatural ghost show, although the addition of Miles and his apparent abilities certainly brings that into question.

I'm really hoping they don't go down that road. A supernatural explanation may be what some viewers are looking for, but not this one.

Talking to sayhuh about the ghosts vs. aliens thing got me thinking.

I wonder how many fans feel like I do and how many don't mind if ghosts are an element in the show.

I added a poll at my blog (the comment section won't let me post a URL, so just google my handle and you'll find my blog) to see what everyone thinks or hopes is going to turn out to be behind all the wierdness in the jungle...

Thanks for a wonderful recap; I love that it is back!!

When Hurley found the cabin and Locke was inside, there was no conversation shown about it between those two--did I miss something????

oh yeah and Jeremy Davies in the TV remake of Helter Skelter--he was a pretty good Manson. I almost can't think of him as anyone else now. Though he was pretty damn terrific in Rescue Dawn!

I Heart Lost.

So far, season 4 has me seriously confused. Since last year's season finale, I've caught up on seasons 1-3. That means, all of this stuff is fresh in my mind but I'm still lost (no pun intended).

Why not kill Ben (although I love him)? Even if he knows stuff, it's not stuff that the Losties can't find out by...say...interrogating the newbies.

And what does "I have a man on their boat" mean?

(((C.S. Lewis? You're kidding, right? I mean, if her name was Phillipa Pullman, maybe, since we already have polar bears...)))

Bloody brilliant my friend. I think I'm pretty observant and catch a lot of things when it comes to this show but you are constantly amazing me with the things you catch that I just know will come in handy later. Much props.

Thanks to all the kind posters and an apology for the delay in getting this week's recap posted.

I had a crazy busy two days at Greybishop's Books (Not a good thing for recap writing or recap readers, but a good thing for a small business owner!) and just no time to put fingers to keys.

I promise to post it tomorrow, and look forward to some interesting discussion!

GB

It's official. Either my memory is too good or I pay waaaay too much attention to other people's opinions about TV.

In last week's recap of Lost, you wrote:
"I don't think that the writers have ever had anyone else get "lost" during the show, even when Walt has wandered off or when characters have gotten turned around in the jungle. I have to wonder if it's significant that they actually had a character use the word. Of course, it's just a single word so I might have missed it being used once or twice in three seasons."

I'm reading your retro-recaps of season 1 (episode 9) on your blog and you wrote this: Hurley: "Dudes. Listen. Our lives suck. Everyone's nerves are stretched to the max. I mean, we're LOST on an island. Running from boars and monsters... Freakin' polar bears!"

So basically, your diligence in recapping Lost provided the research to answer your own Lost question. How cool is that?

Carry on...

I feel like I'm going mad, because no-one else seems to have mentioned this:

Miles Strom = Maelstrom

Big whirlpool, sinks ships, Edgar Allan Poe, etc? Surely this is Lost territory too? I'm going to leave it to someone else to offer an explanation though...