Lost: Not-So Fantastic Four

After the terrific Season 4 premiere, there was bound to be a sort letdown of some sort sooner or later, right?

Still, just because I didn't love "Confirmed Dead" (actually, I didn't even LIKE it that much) doesn't mean that the episode didn't serve its purpose. Obviously, introducing characters to an already-large cast is tough (especially on this show — Nikki/Paolo, the tail section), but last night's episode also sought to quickly establish, not one but, FOUR different backstories of people who seem destined to become very important to the show as we look forward.

So while, this episode was pretty disorienting (not new to "Lost" watchers) and may not have been the most satisfying, I can acknowledge that it was essential.

We opened with the wreckage of Oceanic 815 being found by a salvage craft called the Christiane I and an overly emotional reaction by a man we'll come to know as Daniel Faraday — the very same man who parachuted onto the island at the end of last week's episode and who was met by Jack and Kate.

Faraday (pictured, left, played by Jeremy Davies) was my favorite of the new additions last night, and it was probably due to his quirky performance (why the hell was he wearing a tie?). I like that there's something off about the guy, which probably helps explain his overly emotional reaction to the wreck being discovered. I liked him enough to almost forgive him for being such a punk in "Saving Private Ryan".

The physicist (though he doesn't like to be pigeonholed) was with Jack and Kate when they found the least likable of the new additions, Miles Straume (played by Ken Leung almost as irritatingly as he played a mental patient on "The Sopranos").

At least Leung had a good reason to be huffy, having been given a distress signal by the sisterless Naomi. Though he's kind of an asshole, he had, by far the most intriguing backstory, as he appears to be some sort of "Ghostbuster"/con artist (a lot of those around) with a genuine ability to commune with the dead. Leung played this abrasive character very well and I'm interested to find out more about him.

Finally, the castaways-who-sort-of-want-to-be-rescued met up with Frank Lapidus (played by Jeff Fahey) who, we can tell by his scruffy beard and Hawaiian shirt is a drunk. He was also the man who was supposed to be piloting flight 815 the day it crashed. He recognized that the body of the pilot recovered by the salvage vessel did not belong to actual pilot Seth Norris — played by Greg Grunberg (Heroes' Matt Parkman) with a mustache (!) so people wouldn't scream out, "that's Matt Parkman!"

Lapidus was piloting the helicopter when there was some sort of electromagnetic disturbance Island seems to have that effect) and everyone bailed. Still, Lapidus was able to land the chopper safely and, the moment where the helicopter was revealed, intact, at the bottom of that hill was pretty chill-inducing.

I haven't forgotten about Charlotte Staples Lewis (played by Rebecca Mader), the enthusiastic archeologist who had the bad luck of landing closer to Locke than to Jack. Through her flashback, we saw that she discovered the remains of a polar bear in an African desert with a matching Dharma collar. Though I found her to be the least interesting new actor last night, her character will probably turn out to have the biggest impact.

It didn't look like that would be the case when Ben took Karl's weapon and appeared to gun her down. Fortunately for her (maybe a little TOO fortunately), Charlotte was wearing a vest and she survived.

Just because we spent a lot of time meeting new characters, doesn't mean that there wasn't enough going on with some of our favorites.

My third favorite thing was a quick, throwaway moment — Locke and Ben's reaction when Hurley made a passing mention of knowing where Jacob's cabin was. They each seemed genuinely offended.

My second favorite thing was the not-so-subtle hints at how our castaways are acting like the Others. The most obvious example was Jack using the old Zeke/Tom trick on Miles and telling him they had guns pointed at their heads. Even though he DID give Kate the signal (it was nice to see a playful Jack for a change) I thought he was bluffing until Sayid and Juliet showed up — the latter also went on to make Kate a bit jealous.

My favorite thing about last night was Sawyer, after insisting to Locke that they kill a captive Ben, saying "It's only a matter of time before he gets us, Johnny, and he's already figured out how to do it." I 100% believe him. Though he was far from the focal point, Josh Holloway had another strong episode as Sawyer. Loved the scenes with Ben pushing his buttons about not being as good a person (and as viable a candidate for Kate) as Jack. Look for things to come to a head in a big way between Jack and Sawyer, as well as Kate and Juliet sooner rather than later.

Of course, the big revelation at the end was that the freighter folks are not there to rescue the castaways (not a surprise), but instead they're there for our buddy Ben Linus.

I'm not really a huge fan of this "twist." The scene with Ben avoiding a bullet from Locke (and sort of playfully refusing to answer what the Monster was) by promising him more Island secrets has been done over and over on this show. How many times can Locke fall for it?

One thing I did like was the scene with Matthew Abbadon (Lance Reddick is deliciously creepy in this role) and the idea that whatever organization he's with seems to have staged a fake crash site with fake dead passengers to fool people into thinking our castaways are dead. I can't wait to find out why.

Apparently, Ben has a "man" on the boat, though I'm thinking it's probably a "woman" and it's Charlotte. Other than the purge when he killed his dad, the Others don't seem big on killing people. He knew Locke was missing that kidney when he shot him, so maybe he also knew Naomi would be wearing that vest (he's always ahead of everyone else).

Anyway, that's my guess. What'd you think of this episode? Where the hell did Vincent come from? How will Michael be reintroduced (could HE be the man on the freighter)? If the mission was to get Ben, how did Naomi get a picture of Desmond? Finally, is there any chance the "backstories" we saw last night (except for Naomi's) were flash forwards? (I know it doesn't make much sense, but I'm not putting anything past this show.)