This Daniel's Plan (Mr. Bojangles, Jerry Jeff Walker)

Daniel: Hey there. Are you Jack?
Jack: Yeah, I'm Jack. Who are you?
Daniel: I'm Daniel Faraday. I'm here to rescue you.
- Confirmed Dead

Daniel Faraday is just about as confusing to Jack as he is to Frank.  Here's Jack trying to figure Daniel out to the tune of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Mr. Bojangles.

This Daniel’s Plan

I met a man named Daniel in the pouring rain,
Perplexed and wet
With shaggy hair, a skinny tie and shaky hands.
A friend or threat?
I wondered why, I wondered why
His eyes were darting around.

He landed in the jungle, and he knew my name:
“Are you Jack?”
I heard the words but barely dared to dream
We were heading back.
Back to our lives, back to our lives.
But we couldn’t go just yet.

I soon began to think that Daniel had us tricked.
He said so, too.
I got depressed when he confessed that he’d told a lie:
“I’m here to rescue you.”
But still he was kind, soft-spoken and kind,
And he seemed glad we were found.

Who is this Daniel?  Who is this Daniel?
What is this Daniel’s plan?

Now, I suppose what Daniel knows is far beyond
The normal scope.
I gotta thank that pilot Frank, ‘cause he tipped me off.
I’m not a dope,
So it hurts my pride, it hurts my pride
Thinkin’ that he’s too smart for me.

But Faraday’s gonna find a way to let us leave
Although he lied.
I don’t know what he’s here for, but I do believe
That he is on our side.
What’s in his head?  Don’t know what’s in his head,
But I trust his expertise.  He’s...

Different, this Daniel.  Dizzy ol’ Daniel.
What is this Daniel’s plan?

Mr. Bojangles

Way Over (Overs, Paul Simon)

"Half the stuff he says goes way over my head; the other half goes way, way over." - Frank, The Economist

Frank Lapidus is appropriately named, because he's always a straight shooter, and in season four's The Economist, he's certainly not too proud to admit to Jack that he and Daniel aren't exactly operating on the same wavelength. Here's a little reflection to the tune of Simon and Garfunkel's Overs.

Way Over

Frank: Don’t ask me, “What’s Faraday’s deal?”
He goes way over, over, over
My head, Jack.
I’ve said, Jack,
That regular guys simply can’t keep track
Of the crazy things he has in his noggin.

It’s clear to me that he’s smart.
He makes me nervous, he’s so jittery.
Although you just met him yesterday,
You can see his mind’s always far away.
And I’ve got no clue what he has in his pack.

Daniel: Pack the bearings that I gave you.
Frank, I know they’ll save you.
Better be prepared for
Nasty weather…

Frank: I don’t get Faraday.
But I am glad that we’re stuck with him.
Without his expertise, I don’t know what we’d do.
And yet, at the same time, I don’t mind tellin’ you
The stuff
He tells me goes way over.

Overs

Please Kill the Girl (We Kill the World, Frank Farian / Giorgio & Giusela Sgarbi)

One of my favorite songs growing up was Boney M.'s We Kill the World (Don't Kill the World), an epic Save the Earth song that is both ominous and inspiring. I've been rewatching the early episodes of LOST's fourth season, and when I revisited this song tonight, I thought it might make a good vehicle for Charlotte's ordeal in Confirmed Dead and The Economist.

Mostly, I stick pretty close to the script, I think; the main change is that I imagine Daniel, who I've always thought of as a Man of Faith as well as a Man of Science, praying for her safety from a distance, and I imagine Jacob watching over Daniel and wanting to offer him some reassurance.

Please Kill the Girl (Don’t Kill the Girl)

Ben: (spoken) I see chaos, despair and chaos.
I see mercenaries on the rise.
This girl, this girl…

Coming to destroy.
She may be acting coy,
But she is in the know.
Many years ago,
I kicked her leader out
And now it’s turnabout.

John: We’ll take her hostage
And we’ll get some answers.
This girl, this girl.

Charlotte: What is wrong with you?
What did I ever do
To make you all so mean?
If I hadn’t seen
This with my own two eyes,
I’d not believe it, guys.

John: We’ll take her hostage.
We’ll get some answers.

Ben: If you don’t watch your back,
This girl’s team will attack.

Please kill the girl
(Daniel: Not her!)
Ben: Kill the girl
(Daniel: Not her!)
Ben: She’s one of them, we ought to condemn her.
Please
(Daniel: Protect her!)
Ben: Kill the girl
(Daniel: I love her!)
Ben: Kill the girl
(Daniel: I need her!)
Ben: She’s one of them, we should condemn her.

Sawyer: If this is the fault
Of taller ghostly Walt,
I wonder if we are
Traveling so far
And cooking up a scheme
Because of Baldie's dream.

John: We’ll take her hostage
And we’ll get some answers.

Ben: If you don’t watch your back,
This girl’s team will attack.

Please kill the girl
(Daniel: Not her!)
Ben: Kill the girl
(Daniel: Not her!)
Ben: She’s one of them, we ought to condemn her.
Please
(Daniel: Protect her!)
Ben: Kill the girl
(Daniel: I love her!)
Ben: Kill the girl
(Daniel: I need her!)
Ben: She’s one of them, we should condemn her.

Ben: Please
(Daniel: Protect her!)
Ben: Kill the girl
(Daniel: I love her!)
Ben: Kill the girl
(Daniel: I need her!)
Ben: She’s one of them, we ought to condemn her.
Please kill the girl!

Hurley: Don’t kill the girl.
Do her no harm.
Though we have cause for alarm,
Don’t kill the girl.
Let her take flight.
Hey, we’re the good guys, right?

Claire: Don’t kill the girl.
Though Charlie died
To warn us who was inside
That boat out there,
He’d shake his head
And say to spare her instead.

Daniel: Don’t kill the girl.
I love her so,
Though I’ve not yet let her know.
I’d trade my life
To keep her whole.
I’d trade my very soul.

Sayid: I’ll save the girl.
Miles, please come with me.
Frank: There’s a chopper spot for you if
You set her free.
Jack: Help save the girl,
‘Cause I don’t trust John.
Remember, Kate, whose team you’re on.

Jacob: Daniel, I know that this is hard.
But keep the faith and be brave.
When she returns, you’ll be her guard.
Her life is yours to save.

Hurley: Don’t kill the girl.
Do her no harm.
Though we have cause for alarm,
Don’t kill the girl.
Let her take flight.
Don’t kill the girl,
This girl.

It's No Happy Valentine's Day For Sayid

Last Valentine's Day brought one of LOST's most romantically charged episodes with Flashes Before Your Eyes, in which Desmond got a mysterious second chance to get things right with Penny but still wound up just as miserable before. With The Economist, it's Sayid's turn, but oddly enough, Nadia is not the object of his affections in this deeply disturbing flash forward. She's not mentioned at all, so we have no idea whether she and Sayid have even seen each other since his rescue. Sayid is one of the few people on the island who has someone he desperately wants to get back to, so it's rather disappointing for me to think that the two of them wouldn't end up together, especially since his devotion to her is what got his friend killed.

But even more distressing is Sayid's line of work. I've yet to see a flash-forward that hasn't depressed me. Jack's a drunken, drug-riddled basket-case. Hurley is paranoid and back in the loony bin. Sayid is... a professional assassin. Working for Ben. Ooookay. Of course, we know that he has a violent side to him, forged largely from his military experience. We've seen Sayid kill before. But I didn't want to see it again. I was especially troubled by his cold execution of his fellow golfer in the first flash-forward scene. At least when he kills Elsa, it's in self-defense, and he is really broken up about it. That seems much truer to his character. I can, unfortunately, buy Sayid as a killer, but not an unrepentant one.

What dastardly deeds could the people on this list possibly be up to that would be enough to convince Sayid to annihilate total strangers at Ben's word? What changed between them that this man Sayid tortured, tried to kill and always regarded with deepest distrust would now be able to give him orders? I don't know. I'm less bothered by their alliance than by Sayid's role in it. Actually, it was something of a relief to see Ben alive and well, though I can't place this episode on the flash-forward timeline, so maybe it could still be him in the casket. At least I know he's not going to wind up getting beaten to death by Sawyer, Jack or some other castaway. He still claims to be on their side even in the future, but his methods are as dubious as ever.

Speaking of dubious, it was downright crummy of John to use Hurley to trick Sayid and the gang. I liked how Hurley stood up to him in the beginning of the episode, objecting to any ill treatment of these strangers. He wanted to preserve his own life but not endanger anyone else's in the process. Big-hearted Hurley... That's why I love you. But John managed to manipulate him into being the bait for his unsuspecting friends, knowing that he was the last person they would suspect of foul play. Was it this incident in particular Hurley was apologizing to Jack for? I think it's likely. I also think that what he told them about John going off the deep end was a reflection of his feelings.

I liked Frank and Daniel even more this episode. They both come across as genuinely caring about Charlotte as well as each other. I don't know what Daniel is up to with those weirdo experiments, but he seems really worked up over something. Watching the enhanced version of Confirmed Dead cleared it up for me that Frank was definitely supposed to be the pilot of 815, which is very interesting. I think he's got my favorite line of the season so far with his exchange with Miles in that episode. (M: Where's the helicopter? F: I saw a cow!)

It looked to me like Elsa was wearing the same bracelet as Naomi. Were they tokens of some secret organization of which they were a part, or was it just a coincidence that reminded Sayid of Naomi? His relationship with Elsa was all very James Bond-ish. He even looked a bit like him, so suave and debonair, and apparently he and she were both spying on each other. I think he fell for her; it would appear that perhaps she didn't, though she sure covered it up well until the very end. Evidently Sayid lied about not understanding German because when he shot her, it seemed more a reaction to what she said than to the fact that she shot him. Of course, he was lying about all sorts of things, and the less Elsa knew about him, the better.

It's nice to see Sawyer getting his snark back. That stuff about Ben's little piggies was pretty funny, and he and Kate had some good back-and-forth. I really liked their conversation, and I agree that Sawyer doesn't have much to go back to, except of course for a daughter, but he doesn't seem to want anything to do with her. Besides, I would think somebody would have figured out by now that he killed Frank Duckett, so Kate wouldn't be the only one in chains upon her return. I'd think she would want to stick around too. How does she manage to avoid prison?

It was great to see Desmond bursting into the clearing and seeing that chopper. I think he's pretty desperate to get off that island any way he can, but more than that, he really wants some answers as to how Naomi knew about him. It seems that Daniel and Frank are hiding something on that score, though Frank doesn't seem to mind bringing Desmond along on the chopper. I got a kick out of seeing Des all suited up as the co-pilot. He looked quite at home in that position. If I were Frank, though, I wouldn't count on him being of much help on the way back, if he returns - Desmond can't seem to do anything all the way. I thought that Sayid's trick for getting on the helicopter was pretty clever, and I love that he and Desmond are going to be in cahoots now. They haven't spent much time together up to this point, but I think they could make a pretty good team.

Tomorrow we get another member of the Oceanic Six, which means another flash-forward, which will probably be depressing again. Woo hoo. But it will also no doubt be enlightening. And maybe Sun, Jin, Rose and Bernard will reappear on the island; I hate to see them so underused. Here's hoping!