Drew Goddard and Brian K. Vaughan took on a bit of a unique challenge: a shared centric that had wasn't centered on the original Losties. Judging from the reaction to new characters Nikki and Paulo in Season 3, Confirmed Dead could've been a disaster. Luckily it wasn't.
The opening scene is great, showing the feed from a seafloor-exploring camera as it stumbles across the apparent wreckage of Oceanic 815. Cue the dramatic music and temporarily revived theories that the Losties were dead all along.
Then we start getting mini-centrics for each member of the science team. I'll briefly cover any high/low-lights.
Daniel: not much revealed here, except that Faraday's upset about the Oceanic 815 "discovery" in the ocean. I suspect they purposely didn't tell us much here because they knew Faraday-heaving episodes were coming right up.
Miles: this is just bizarre. Miles agrees to talk to a woman's dead grandson, doubles her fee on-the-fly, constructs some ridiculous Ghostbuster-style vacuum cleaner and heads up to a room for a chat with the undead. The bizarre part: no dead body is present as far as we know, which we'd later learn is a requirement for Miles' gift.
Also, there is a well-known and bizarre issue with the picture frames next to the staircase (they change before and after Miles' chat). After watching Confirmed Dead again, it's clear that they purposely focused on the frames twice — in the first shot they even pan from the entrance over to the frames. We're supposed to study it. Script coordinator Gregg Nations supposedly confirmed it as a continuity error, but I'm having a lot of trouble buying that. I'm inclined to think it was either 1) a paranormal side effect of Miles' ability that was dropped by the writers, or 2) the writers simply screwing with us.
Charlotte: she's apparently a cultural anthropologist with an intense interest in archaelogy (that's a retcon for the writers not studying the differences). The important thing is she tracks down a dig that has unearthed a polar bear. Even more importantly, there's a collar buried next to the remains and it's got a Hydra logo.
Frank: that crazy drunk missed his chance to fly Oceanic 815! Oh well, he'd make up for it by flying in the science team. He's also the first to suspect the Oceanic 815 wreckage isn't legit.
Naomi: ah hah! She reports to that mysterious Abaddon guy, who seemed adamant that — no matter what happens — there were no Oceanic 815 survivors. In other words, Naomi had a primary objective (Ben) and a cover story of finding Desmond (the copy of the Des/Penny photo was a nice touch).
All of this sets up the shuffling of multiple people from team to team as it's determined who gets a seat on Frank's helicopter. The real negotiations would start with The Economist.
Since this episode is more or less the debut of the science team, I'll briefly outline where I stand on them as actors. I won't make it a habit of breaking outside the scope of the episode at hand.
Jeremy Davies (Daniel Faraday): I realize he's a legend amongst LOST fans and I respect that. My opinion is more along the lines of "very good but not exceptional". He's outstanding when it comes to playing an awkward, fidgety geek. But that's the problem, so far that's all I've ever seen him play. When it comes to Confirmed Dead I'll simply say his extended debut was a decent one.
Ken Leung (Miles Straume): Leung is an enigma as far as I'm concerned. He does extremely well when he's able to be a complete smartass, when he can have an edge. He does extremely poorly when it comes to other reactions like genuine surprise or casual conversation. In Confirmed Dead he's luckily a confrontational badass and therefore does pretty well.
Rebecca Mader (Charlotte Lewis): a middle-of-the-road actress, no Emmys in her future (I don't think) but certainly a steady line of work on TV if she wants it. In Confirmed Dead she's surprisingly cheery; I'm not sure if the writers consciously changed her demeanor or if Confirmed Dead was just an anomaly.
Jeff Fahey (Frank Lapidus): it's hard to take Fahey seriously and that's the beauty of it. He's the perfect cast for Lapidus and he's actually quite the good actor if you're paying attention. His delivery of "I saw a cow" in Confirmed Dead continues to crack me up.
Lance Reddick (Abaddon) is another legend in the LOST community, but here again I go with "good but not great". He's very convincing as an authoritative (almost robotic) figure, but there again that's all I've ever seen him do.
I haven't yet watched the special features detailing how the opening seafloor scene was constructed but it was brilliant regardless.
The scene where Frank's chopper hits an electrical storm was satisfyingly frenetic and well-executed, especially when you consider it was likely a handful of crew members shaking a set piece and spraying water everywhere.
Another treat is the scene where Charlotte's caught in a tree and must release from her parachute into the stream below. This isn't an easy sequence to film by any means, yet it's completely smooth and fun to watch.
It's also rumored that the tiny plane in Lapidus' apartment is CGI. If that's true that's really impressive, though I don't understand how that would've been less expensive than simply shooting the descent of an actual plastic plane.
I'll two birds with one stone here: this episode holds up well BECAUSE it carries so much significance.
The mini-centrics are so diverse and so many new characters introduced that it's fun to revisit Confirmed Dead and see where they all began. It's especially fun when you know the full arc of the series and know how much some of the science team members change over two or three seasons.
And hey, if Frank doesn't land the chopper safely that has clear implications on the series finale.
There are fans out there who suggest Confirmed Dead should've been the Season 4 opener. I liked the episode a lot but I disagree with that sentiment. It was the right call to not open the season with an episode focused so heavily on new characters.
I won't pretend atmosphere or emotional impact are Confirmed Dead's best qualities, but plot diversity and brisk pacing definitely make up for any shortcomings.
On the Redux rewatch I'm really noticing how polished and energetic the beginning of Season 4 is. There would be a couple snags along the way but overall the season is pretty smooth from a technical perspective. It makes me curious if Damon and Carlton recognized the sluggish start to Season 3 (and arguably Season 2 as well) and decided they needed to burst out of the gates this time around.
