Confirmed Dead (7 Feb. 2008)

The surviving members of the supposed "rescue team" are scattered around the island after a helicopter problem. However, once they are located, they reluctantly reveal that they are indeed not there to rescue them.

Director:

Stephen Williams

Writers:

Jeffrey Lieber (creator), J.J. Abrams (creator),

Stars:

Naveen Andrews, Henry Ian Cusick, Jeremy Davies

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Naveen Andrews	...	Sayid Jarrah
Henry Ian Cusick	...	Desmond Hume (credit only)
Jeremy Davies	...	Daniel Faraday
Emilie de Ravin	...	Claire Littleton
Michael Emerson	...	Ben Linus
Matthew Fox	...	Jack Shephard
Jorge Garcia	...	Hugo 'Hurley' Reyes
Josh Holloway	...	James 'Sawyer' Ford
Daniel Dae Kim	...	Jin Kwon (credit only)
Yunjin Kim	...	Sun Kwon (credit only)
Ken Leung	...	Miles Straume
Evangeline Lilly	...	Kate Austen
Rebecca Mader	...	Charlotte Lewis
Elizabeth Mitchell	...	Juliet Burke
Terry O'Quinn	...	John Locke

Storyline

Four members of a supposed "rescue team" arrive on the island and are forced to bail out. They include scientist Daniel Faraday whom is found by Jack and Kate's group as well Miles Straume, a "spirit talker" and they try to find their grounded helicopter and their pilot, Frank Lapidus. Research specialist Charlotte Lewis is found by Locke, Claire, and their group where Ben knows Charlotte and that they are not here on the island to rescue them. At the beach camp, Sayid is also wary about the rescue people whom he suspects are there to mean them harm. Also, backgrounds are shown of the four "rescue party" members, Faraday, Charlotte, Miles, Frank, and Naomi and how they were recruited by a shady "third party" to find the mysterious island.

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Plot Keywords:

helicopter | group | gas mask | stretcher | bloody face | 

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English French

Release Date:

7 February 2008 (USA)

Filming Locations:

O'ahu, Hawaii, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bad Robot, ABC Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

43 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

We now learn that Frank Lapidus was supposed to be the pilot of Oceanic flight 815, not Seth Norris, the pilot who was killed by the Monster.

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Goofs

Charlotte, hanging in a tree, releases her parachute and plunges into a pond so muddy as to be opaque. The next shot shows her underwater in a crystal clear pond, perhaps even a film production tank. In the following shot she surfaces again in the muddy pond.

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Quotes

woman: How many different languages do you have to read that in before you believe it's true?
Charlotte Staples Lewis: How many different languages are there?

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Crazy Credits

The producers gratefully acknowledge the cooperation of the people of Hawaii and their Aloha spirit.

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Connections

References Ghostbusters (1984)

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Soundtracks

"Main Title"
Written by J.J. Abrams

User Reviews

A bravura piece of genre storytelling

"Confirmed Dead" is a bravura piece of pure genre storytelling, and there's nothing else to it. "The Beginning of the End" put everything in place for the rest of the season, and "Confirmed Dead" had the goal of pushing the story even further, really introducing us to the world of season four, and introducing us to the 'freighter four', if you will, and accomplished its goal very well.

The episode flashes back to the freighter four, Daniel Faraday, Miles, Charlotte, and Frank Lapidus all around the time the wreck of Flight 815 was 'discovered'. Daniel's is still the most interesting and enigmatic flashback (Miles' is just confusing and bewildering), simply because I just don't know who that woman is, don't understand why he was crying, and am also connected to him emotionally more than any of the other freighters. Charlotte's dig in the Tunisian desert was definitely a 'what the hell?' moment and is still a lot of fun. I like my polar bears to be skeletons in a desert a billion miles from where they're supposed to be, they're more interesting that way. Frank Lapidus was supposed to fly 815 eh? Interesting. I don't think there's more to him as a character, but we will probably see a Daniel flashback and a Charlotte flashback in season 5.

Naturally there is not much depth to the proceedings, but the action/adventure stuff on the island is pure adrenaline, Miles' awful couple of lines of exposition excluded, and it's just a bravura piece of storytelling in just about every way, and genuinely suspenseful at times. I'm kind of surprised that this episode holds up on repeat viewings, but it really does. It may not be up there with the show at its absolute peak, but it's definitely a great episode in its own way.