New Characters Provide Strong Start to Lost Season Four

With the introduction of four new characters and a possible new villain, Lost Season four is off to a great start. John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) is leading a small group of Flight 815 survivors across the island to avoid being rescued by the mystery ship that mysterious Naomi Dorrit (Marsha Thomas) came to the island from. From the beginning fans have wondered whether Naomi was trust worthy and things became even more mysterious when she revealed, near the end of season three, to Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick), Charlie (Dominic Monaghan), Sayid (Naveen Andrews), & Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) that the plane they crashed in was supposedly found submerged off the coast of Indonesia.

She then proceeded to tell them that every single passenger was found dead inside it. In the second episode of season four, which premiered on ABC on Thursday February 7th, 2008, we actually got to see the plane being found by ROVs searching for buried treasure. We then see our four newest characters, who were coming to rescue Jack and his crew at the end of the last episode of season three, off the island and get to know a bit about them. We start out with the first newcomer Jack meets. He goes by the name Daniel Faraday (Jeremy Davies) and from the first moment we see him he's a complete mystery. While he's watching the news report about the discovery of the plane and its passengers he's visibly upset. He cries and his, we're assuming, wife or girlfriend asks him why he's so upset. His only response is "I don't know".

His behavior when he meets up with Jack and Kate becomes even more curious. When they find the second member of the rescue team they are presented with another mystery. As Jack reaches down the help the person, who appears to be injured, he is startled as the newcomer jumps up and points a gun at him. His name is Miles (Ken Leung) and he is apparently some sort of freelance Ghost buster. Which begs the question "What is a guy who can see, and apparently get rid of, ghosts doing on an island that seems to be run by a ghost named Jacob?". It's a little too coincidental if you ask me. The new comer Miles demands to be taken to Naomi's body so he can determine if Kate is telling the truth about how she died.

While those four are making their way to Naomi's body we meet the third member of the rescue party. Her name is Charlotte (Rebecca Mader) and when we go into her flash back we find out she's an archaeologist and we watch as she identifies the fossilized skeleton of a polar bear in Tunisia an African country that is part of the Sahara Desert. She then digs up a collar with the DHARMA Initiative logo on it. Strangely instead of a single cobra in the middle of the DHARMA pentagon there is what appears to be a six headed snake in its place. It raises big questions including "How old is the DHARMA initiative and what is it they really do?"

Charlotte is found by John Locke and his group. She starts questioning how they survived. How many of them made it and her questions make John very suspicious. He tells Hurley to stop answering her. When she tells them all to sit tight and her people will be along soon to rescue them John tells her that's not going to happen. She is shocked to learn that they don't want to be found let alone rescued. Her transmitter is tied to Vincent's collar and he is set loose to keep her team from finding her. We then return to Jack and Kate. They are being held at gun point by Daniel while Miles talks to Naomi's ghost. When he confirms the story they told him was true he still doesn't trust them.

That's when Jack breaks the news to Miles that they're surrounded and he needs to drop the gun before things go bad. Miles doesn't believe Jack and surprisingly warning shots are fired and Sayid emerges from the jungle followed by Juliet. Miles and Daniel give up their guns and become the prisoners. That's when we flash back and meet the fourth and final member of the "rescue" team. He watches the footage of the plane being discovered underwater and he realizes the body they are saying is the pilot, Seth Norris (Greg Gunberg of 'Heroes' fame), is not actually him. He calls the hot line and tells them that. When asked how he knows Seth Norris he reveals that he was supposed to fly the plane that day.

We flash back to the island and see him struggling up a hill where he stops and fires a flare gun. Locke's team sees it and when Charlotte threatens to go and find her team Ben grabs Karl's gun and shoots her. That's when she reveals she came wearing a bullet proof vest. It makes you wonder just what these people wanted to find the island for and what they were expecting to find when they found it. Frank Lapidus (Jeff Fahey) shows Jack his perfectly intact helicopter and we see the relief in joy in Jack's face when he realizes he's going home.

We flash back to Naomi talking to the strange thin man that visited Hurley in the insane asylum in a flash forward from this seasons first episode. The thin man is the one who recruited Naomi and put together the team of Miles, Daniel, Frank and Charlotte to find the island in the first place. While treating Frank's wounds Juliet answers his questions and Frank announces that she is not from the flight. Miles gets upset and demands to know "where is he?". Jack asks who and Miles reveals that they're on the island to find Benjamin Linus (Michael Emerson).

We then look in on Locke's crew where it looks like Ben may get executed after all. He saves his life by revealing all the information he has on Charlotte who is shocked that he knows as much as he does. He also reveals Mile's last name as being Strohm. When he's asked how he knows all that he revealed he tells them all that he has a spy on their boat. It raises many more questions while answering a few questions. Many theories have buzzed the Internet since the show first started, and that won't stop until everything is revealed which hopefully won't be anytime soon as I do not want to see the show end right now. As for who the spy on the boat is and who the man in the coffin at the end of season three is well...I think they're the same person. I honestly think that both the spy and the dead man are Michael Dawson (Harold Perrineau).

That's just my thought on the topic. We've all got our own theories and we'll never really know until the writers decide to tell us. If this show isn't proof that writers are the single most important people in the industry I don't know what show is. I look forward to seeing the third of eight episodes to come this season. I wish they'd been able to film more episodes before the writers strike but I'm happy with what we got. The previews for the next episode are all saying we'll find who the fourth of the six people who left the island is and maybe get more answers to our questions.