I was gonna give it 4 because if you can believe it, there are eps coming up that are even better! But I thought, dammit, screw it. This whole show deserves a 5 practically across the whole board. So I gave it 5! I don't know if I can hold back from just going crazy with 5 stars.
I really love all the new additions to the cast! Daniel Faraday definitely is a favorite. Love that guy. The other three are really great also! Lapidus is one of those guys that just seems like a good dude. Miles is hilariously snarky and has the awesome gift of communicating with the dead. Charlotte is really great, too! I really loved Rebecca Mader's character of Charlotte in Lost so I was glad when I'd heard she was joining OUaT. Unfortunately, her character in OUaT was completely awful. Hated her so much so I'm glad to be rewatching her in Lost so that I can try to erase my memories of her Wicked Witch character.
I can totally understand Charlotte's reaction. She's confused as to why they all seem to suspicious and leery and not jumping up and down with joy that they're there to supposedly rescue them. Charlotte's a great actress. I totally thought that she completely believed she was there to rescue them. Up until the end when Ben was laying out all the fine details right down to her exact date of birth when you could see on her face that there was more to them being there.
Based on the flashbacks, at least Lapidus seems like he might be there because of the Oceanic Survivors. Charlotte seems like her angle is more Dharma related since she found that polar bear and seemed to purposefully dig for something that would identify it as Dharma. Daniel seemed affected by the crash in a way he doesn't understand. He was crying but he didn't know why. Miles' flashback didn't show a direct relation to Oceanic or Dharma. We only heard the crash being talked about on the radio but he didn't seem to react to it much.
Apparently though, whatever personal reason they might have for being a part of the team, their mission is related to getting Ben.
I wonder who Abaddon is working for? He pointedly told Naomi that there were no Oceanic 815 survivors. When she asked "but what if there are survivors" the way he said "there were no survivors" makes it sound like he was ordering her to make sure there'd be no survivors. He's got to be working with whoever set up that fake crash with all those bodies. Apparently, they don't want the survivors found. But why?
I totally wonder who Ben's man on the boat is also! I don't think it's any of the people that were on the helicopter. He said he's got a man on the boat, so I'm assuming this person, whoever he or she is, is still on the boat. Is it maybe that Minkowski dude that they keep talking to over the phone? That was the other thing. Why couldn't Minkowski come to the phone that second time? They seemed to make it a point to stress that.
A few fun facts:
1. I noticed that both Daniel and Charlotte are from a place called Essex. He from Essex, Massachusetts and she from Essex, England. Both locations were specifically mentioned in this episode. Just a fun coincidence?
2. The writers made a fun callback to an episode in an earlier season. In the bedroom of the guy who was murdered, there's a poster for a band called Dirt Spigot. That band was mentioned in the episode Fire + Water. When Charlie and his brother were filming that diaper commercial, the director made a comment that he should have hired Dirt Spigot instead.
3. Daniel Faraday character was named after the physicist Michael Faraday who experimented with electromagnetism. One of his discoveries was named the Faraday Effect which was the practice of applying a magnetic field to rotate a light beam's plane of polarization. There's a scene were Daniel is looking oddly up at the light coming through the jungle and references the Faraday effect with his comment to Jack that the light doesn't scatter quite right.
4. Two Amelia Earhart references! Ben says Charlotte's exact date of birth as July 2, 1979 which is exactly 42 (one of the numbers) years to the day after Earhart was pronounced missing. The woman in Miles' flashback is named Mrs. Gardner. Gardner Island is where a skeleton was found and had been believed to be the remains of Earhart.
How amazing are these writers to go to such detailed lengths and all in one episode? God I love this show!
Favorite quotes/moments:
Miles: How stupid do you think I am?
Jack: (after his people with guns step out) I don't know, Miles. How stupid are ya?