Confirmed Dead
Encyclopedia
"Confirmed Dead" is the second episode of the fourth season
and 74th episode overall of the ABC
's serial
drama
television series
Lost
. It was aired on ABC in the United States and on CTV
in Canada on February 7, 2008. The episode was written by co-executive producer Drew Goddard
and co-producer Brian K. Vaughan
and directed by co-executive producer Stephen Williams
. "Confirmed Dead" was watched by seventeen million Americans and received positive critical reception with reviewers praising the introductions of the new characters.
The episode marks the first appearance of main characters Miles Straume
(played by Ken Leung
) and Charlotte Lewis
(Rebecca Mader
) and supporting character Frank Lapidus
(Jeff Fahey
). The actors were given fake scenes when auditioning to limit the leak of spoiler
s and each actor influenced their character's development. Mader's and Fahey's appearances were different from the writers' original visions of Charlotte and Frank—the writers changed the characters to suit them. The role of Miles was written specifically for Leung, and the part would have been drastically altered had he not accepted it.
The narrative begins on December 21, 2004, 91 days after the crash of Oceanic Airlines
Flight 815. Flashbacks introduce the four people from the offshore freighter 130 kilometres (80.8 mi) who land on the island. John Locke
(Terry O'Quinn
) leads his group to the Barracks and begins to find out why Ben Linus (Michael Emerson
) is afraid of the island's latest arrivals.
(Jeremy Davies
) is shown crying while watching the news, although he is not sure why. Miles is a medium
who is hired by an elderly woman to remove the ghost of her grandson from her home. After conversing with the spirit, Miles finds a hidden cache of money and drugs. Charlotte is an anthropologist who finds a polar bear skeleton bearing a Dharma Initiative
collar buried in the Tunisian desert. Frank Lapidus
, an alcoholic who was originally scheduled to fly 815, phones the Oceanic hotline, and claims that the wreckage of the plane is not authentic. Finally, Naomi Dorrit (Marsha Thomason
) is shown in a posthumous flashback, criticizing her employer Matthew Abaddon (Lance Reddick
) for his choice in her co-workers.
After Daniel parachutes from a failing helicopter onto the island, he uses Naomi's phone to contact George Minkowski (Fisher Stevens
) on the Kahana, the freighter that he came from. The next morning on December 22, 2004, 815 survivors Jack Shephard
(Matthew Fox
) and Kate Austen
(Evangeline Lilly
) help Daniel find his colleagues, as the rival group led by Locke attempts to do the same. Jack and Kate find Miles, who demands to see Naomi's body, and ascertains that Locke killed her. Locke's group finds Charlotte, takes her prisoner and disposes of her tracking device. Daniel's third colleague, helicopter pilot Frank, fires a flare into the sky, leading Jack's group to him. Frank tells Jack's group that he managed to land the helicopter intact. After finding out that Juliet Burke
(Elizabeth Mitchell
) is one of the Others, Miles demands to know where Ben is, as locating him is the freighter crew's primary objective.
In Locke's group, several people become discontent with Locke's revelation that he is following the instructions of Walt Lloyd
(Malcolm David Kelley
), who had left the island a month earlier, and they also question why Ben is being kept alive. Locke holds him at gunpoint, and Ben starts to reveal information about the Kahana crew, specifically Charlotte's identity and that he has a spy aboard the ship.
While casting the "freighter folk"—the nickname that Lost' s executive producers/writers/show runner
s Damon Lindelof
and Carlton Cuse
use to refer to Daniel, Charlotte, Miles and Frank—fake names, occupations and scenes were temporarily assigned, to limit the leak of spoiler
s. After seeing Ken Leung guest star
on HBO's The Sopranos
in April 2007, Lindelof and Cuse wrote the role of Miles specifically for him, although Leung believed that he was trying out for the part of "brilliant mathematician" "Russell". The name Miles Straume was simply chosen because the writer-producers thought that "it would be cool if his name sounded like 'maelstrom
'". Had he not taken the part, Lindelof and Cuse claim that Miles would have been scrapped and a new and much different character would have been written into the story instead. Leung, who was originally contracted as a recurring guest star, was quoted as saying that "Miles doesn't know how to be social, which is great, because I don't know how to be social." Costume designer Roland Sanchez wanted to base one of the freighter folk's clothing after that of Keith Richards
, specifically a picture in which he wore a sleeveless vest, which he admired. Sanchez believed that Miles fit the haggard look and bought an Armani Exchange jacket, cut off the sleeves and added a hood and this outfit helped Leung develop Miles. Co-executive producer/writer Edward Kitsis
had been pitching the name "Lapidus" for years, finally naming an unseen character in the fourteenth episode of the third season
Rick Lapidus. Unsatisfied, Kitsis developed the character "Frank Lapidus, Helicopter Pilot". According to the show runners, recurring guest star Jeff Fahey "was the first and only choice for the role". They also commended his "intense eyes" and stated that "he has exactly the right sensibilities" for the part. Frank was not envisioned with a beard, however, the writer-producers allowed Fahey to keep it for the role. The writer-producers have said that Frank "never takes anything at face value [and is] a true conspiracy nut [who] has probably seen every episode of The X-Files
, [which will] pay off for him".
Rebecca Mader's audition scene was a fake flashback and she was disappointed that it was not used for the show. The character's name was spoiled months in advance of broadcast. Charlotte was originally envisioned as an American; however, the writers preferred Mader's natural English accent to her fake American accent and they changed Charlotte accordingly. Lost' s writer-producers compared Mader to "a young Nicole Kidman
". During the casting process, Charlotte was described as a "successful academic". It was falsely rumored that Kristen Bell
was offered the role of Charlotte; Bell had actually spoken to the producers about having a part, however, no role was offered to her. Despite never having seen Lost, Mader decided that she "was not going to leave [the auditioning] room until [she] made [Lindelof and Cuse] fall in love with [her]". Mader subsequently began to watch the first three seasons of Lost and was watching the fourth episode
when she received the news that she had been chosen for the role. In the next two to three weeks, Mader—who was then signed on as a recurring guest star—watched the rest of the first three seasons, watching the third season finale
a matter of hours before she began shooting her first "Confirmed Dead" scene, in which Charlotte meets Locke and his group. Mader was told little about her character by the writer-producers, except that "she was sort of like a female Indiana Jones
type". Mader has found it challenging but fun to play a character with an unknown backstory and motives. Charlotte's full name is Charlotte Staples Lewis, which is an homage to the author C.S. Lewis
, best known for The Chronicles of Narnia
and various books about Christianity
. Lewis was one of Mader's favorite authors as a child and found it "wicked" and "cool" for her character to be named after him. Mader also enjoyed that she only requires a small amount of hair and makeup done, saying that "I just wanted to rough it. I wanted to roll around in the mud with a gun." Mader claims that she has "never had so much fun in [her] life" as when she is shooting Lost. In the episode, Charlotte's birthday is said to be July 2, 1979, Mader's actual birthday. This led to a minor continuity error in the fifth season episode "LaFleur
", when Charlotte is depicted as being a little girl in 1974. Executive producers Cuse and Lindelof claimed in a podcast that the original script for "Confirmed Dead" listed Charlotte's birthday as being in 1970 and that Mader had it changed because she did not want people to think she was significantly older than she actually is. This caused a controversy when Mader later stated on her blog that Gregg Nations, the script coordinator, was the one who suggested the change. Cuse and Lindelof later conceded that she was right.
Most or all of the episode was shot from September 11 to 23, 2007 and filming overlapped with the following episode
. The Tunisian desert scene was filmed on location in Oahu
, Hawaii
, like the rest of the episode, at a stone quarry with industrial fans blowing fake sand. A typical Lost episode contains fifty visual effects
shots. Among scenes created entirely or partially with effects are the opening scene of "Confirmed Dead", which shows what appears to be the wreckage of 815 underwater and the scene from Daniel's perspective as he parachutes from the helicopter to the ground. In Frank's flashback, he drops a toy plane, which spirals into a small aquarium. This shot was not intended to use effects; however, "it's impossible to get a toy plane to spiral the way you want it to", according to supervisor Mitch Suskin. A tank with still water and rocks on the bottom was filmed and the plane was added in editing. Suskin said that creating effects for "Confirmed Dead" "was slightly too leisurely" because the episode aired over four months after post-production began.
In fall 2007, Lost' s writers presented ABC executives with the story that a salvage vessel called the Christiane I looking for the Black Rock
, among other things, in the Sunda Trench would come across what would appear to be the wreckage of 815. ABC hired the Australian company Hoodlum to design a $3 million viral marketing
alternate reality game
(ARG) titled Find 815
. Find 815 ran from December 28, 2007 to January 31, 2008, beginning with a press release issued from ABC Medianet announcing the fictitious return of the fictional Oceanic Airlines' return to business. The ARG—apparently the largest ever—followed Sam Thomas, an Oceanic technician who had lost his girlfriend in the crash, as he received cryptic e-mails from The Maxwell Group (a division of Widmore Industries, but nonexistent in Lost), joined the crew of the Christiane I and ultimately uncovered 815. Because Find 815 was produced separately from the show and without the show's writers, it contradicts events in the TV series. In "Confirmed Dead", 815 is found by a man not present in the game named Ron; Thomas is not mentioned. Lindelof and Cuse dismissed the game as not being canon
(not containing genuine information within the fictional universe
) and was largely just a bonus for fans during the between-seasons hiatus.
, Lost was watched by 1.2 million viewers—a greater audience than that of the season premiere. In Australia, "Confirmed Dead" brought in 853,000 viewers, ranking seventy-first for the week. American critics were sent screener DVDs of "The Beginning of the End" and "Confirmed Dead" on January 28, 2008 with instructions not to reveal major plot points in reviews. Among the journalists who gave vague and positive reviews were Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times
, Adam Buckman of the New York Post
, Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune
, Diane Werts of Newsday
and Tim Goodman of the San Francisco Chronicle
. According to Oscar Dahl of BuddyTV
, "Confirmed Dead" "was met with almost universal love from the Lost fan base" and according to Jon Lachonis of UGO, the new characters were well received by the fan scene.
Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger
wrote that "after an underwhelming pre-credits sequence … this sucker moved, and lots of things happened. We met our four new regulars, squeezed in useful flashbacks about [them] and even found out the real reason they're on the island. … The flipside of all this business is that 'Confirmed Dead' didn't have the same emotional resonance as '[The] Beginning of the End' … but you clearly can't have everything in every episode." Time
' s James Poniewozik said that "What amazed [him] about this episode was the economy and precision with which it introduced … the crew of the downed chopper from [the freighter]. Each got just one flashback and a little time on the island, and yet by the end of the episode, I felt I had a true handle on what they were like as individuals." Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly
thought that "Confirmed Dead" "was downright alive with fascinating new characters, mind-blowing new possibilities, and exciting new theory fodder"; however, he had heard complaints from others who received the preview screeners that they found the episode to be flawed. They considered the scene where 815 is found to be cheating the flashback formula because Daniel only experiences it by watching it on television, Frank's safe landing of the helicopter to be a mystery, Naomi's flashback to be cheating Lost rules because she is dead and Ben's manipulation of Locke to be an overused storyline. E!
's Kristin Dos Santos exclaimed "hot damn!" in response to the scene where 815 is found in the Sunda Trench. She also thought that "Juliet and Kate giggling at Jack's 'wink thing' was hilarious" and it was "awesome to see [the pilot] again". Nikki Stafford of Wizard
highlighted "watching Dan’s landing from his point of view. You can feel his panic as he's free-falling through the air, looks up at his parachute, looks down to see himself about to hit the trees… it was amazing." IGN
's Chris Carabott gave "Confirmed Dead" an 8/10, writing that it "isn't a disappointing episode by any means but it definitely suffers from being a 'setup' episode for these four new characters" and praising the new actors by writing that "Leung does an adequate job of getting Miles' arrogant brand of confidence across while Davies presents Faraday's awkward mannerisms well. Fahey's Lapidus has exceptional screen presence that even overshadows the regular cast members to an extent." Erin Martell of AOL
's TV Squad said that "Watching 'Confirmed Dead' was like watching my dream episode of Lost [because] people asked direct questions for once … [and] this episode was all about the Freighties." A day after the original broadcast, BuddyTV's Dahl claimed that "[the audience is] on an epic journey, one that has been as entertaining and engrossing as any TV series has ever been". In contrast, TV Guide
' s Michael Ausiello
of said that it "was thirty-one flavors of awesome … [however] the negatives outweighed the positives". He had problems with Claire's lack of grief for Charlie Pace
's (Dominic Monaghan
) death and Jack waiting so long to find out the freighter folk's main objective. Ben Rawson-Jones of Digital Spy
gave "Confirmed Dead" three out of five stars, calling it "so-so", but commenting that "the new revelations in the episode are fairly startling and provide a momentary distraction from the frustrations."
Lost (season 4)
The fourth season of the American serial drama television series Lost commenced airing on the American Broadcasting Company Network in the United States, and on CTV in Canada on January 31, 2008 and concluded on May 29, 2008...
and 74th episode overall of the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's serial
Serial (radio and television)
Serials are series of television programs and radio programs that rely on a continuing plot that unfolds in a sequential episode by episode fashion. Serials typically follow main story arcs that span entire television seasons or even the full run of the series, which distinguishes them from...
drama
Dramatic programming
Dramatic programming in the UK, or television drama and television drama series in the US, is television program content that is scripted and fictional along the lines of √a traditional drama. This excludes, for example, sports television, television news, reality show and game shows, stand-up...
television series
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
Lost
Lost (TV series)
Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...
. It was aired on ABC in the United States and on CTV
CTV television network
CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...
in Canada on February 7, 2008. The episode was written by co-executive producer Drew Goddard
Drew Goddard
Drew Goddard is an American film and television screenwriter and producer best known for his collaborations with Joss Whedon and J.J. Abrams .Goddard joined the crew of Lost as a freelance writer for the first season in 2004...
and co-producer Brian K. Vaughan
Brian K. Vaughan
Brian Keller Vaughan is an American comic book and television writer. He is best known for the comic book series Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina, Runaways, and Pride of Baghdad, and was one of the principal writers of the television series Lost, during seasons three through five...
and directed by co-executive producer Stephen Williams
Stephen Williams (director)
Stephen Williams is a Canadian film and television director. Williams has directed several modern day television programs including work as a regular director on the ABC drama series Lost, where he was also a co-executive producer...
. "Confirmed Dead" was watched by seventeen million Americans and received positive critical reception with reviewers praising the introductions of the new characters.
The episode marks the first appearance of main characters Miles Straume
Miles Straume
Miles Straume is a fictional character played by Ken Leung on the ABC television series Lost. Miles is introduced early in the fourth season as a hotheaded and sarcastic medium as a crew member aboard the freighter called the Kahana that is offshore the island where most of Lost takes place...
(played by Ken Leung
Ken Leung
Kenneth "Ken" Leung is an American actor best known for his role as Miles Straume in the ABC television series Lost and roles in such films as Shanghai Kiss, Rush Hour, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Saw.-Early life:...
) and Charlotte Lewis
Charlotte Lewis (Lost)
Dr. Charlotte Staples Lewis is a fictional character on the American Broadcasting Company television series Lost, played by Rebecca Mader. Charlotte is introduced in the second episode of season four and is a cultural anthropologist on a mission to the island where Oceanic Flight 815 crashed...
(Rebecca Mader
Rebecca Mader
Rebecca Leigh Mader is an English actress. She is known for her roles as Morgan Gordon on All My Children and Charlotte Lewis on Lost.-Career:...
) and supporting character Frank Lapidus
Frank Lapidus
Frank J. Lapidus is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost played by Jeff Fahey. Frank is introduced in the second episode of season four as a pilot hired on a mission to the island where Oceanic Flight 815 crashed. He aids the survivors of the crash against mercenary Martin Keamy ...
(Jeff Fahey
Jeff Fahey
Jeffrey David "Jeff" Fahey is an American film and television actor. He has portrayed Captain Frank Lapidus on the ABC series Lost and the title role of Deputy Marshal Winston MacBride on The Marshal.-Early life:...
). The actors were given fake scenes when auditioning to limit the leak of spoiler
Spoiler (media)
Spoiler is slang for any element of any summary or description of any piece of fiction that reveals any plot element which will give away the outcome of a dramatic episode within the work of fiction, or the conclusion of the entire work. It can also be used to refer to any piece of information...
s and each actor influenced their character's development. Mader's and Fahey's appearances were different from the writers' original visions of Charlotte and Frank—the writers changed the characters to suit them. The role of Miles was written specifically for Leung, and the part would have been drastically altered had he not accepted it.
The narrative begins on December 21, 2004, 91 days after the crash of Oceanic Airlines
Oceanic Airlines
Oceanic Airlines and less frequently Oceanic Airways are fictional airlines used in several films and television programs.The most famous use of this brand is in the TV show Lost, where Oceanic Airlines is featured branded with a highly-stylized logo depicting an Aboriginal dot painting that...
Flight 815. Flashbacks introduce the four people from the offshore freighter 130 kilometres (80.8 mi) who land on the island. John Locke
John Locke (Lost)
John Locke is a fictional character played by Terry O'Quinn on the ABC television series Lost. He is named after English philosopher John Locke...
(Terry O'Quinn
Terry O'Quinn
Terry O'Quinn is an American actor, most famous for playing John Locke on the TV series Lost. He made his debut in a 1980 television movie called F.D.R.: The Last Year. Since then, O'Quinn has had minor supporting roles in films and TV movies such as Young Guns, All the Right Moves, Silver Bullet,...
) leads his group to the Barracks and begins to find out why Ben Linus (Michael Emerson
Michael Emerson
Michael Emerson is an American actor who is perhaps best known for his roles as Benjamin Linus on Lost and fictional serial killer William Hinks in The Practice.-Early life:...
) is afraid of the island's latest arrivals.
Plot
The episode's five flashbacks focus on the reactions and activities of the Kahana crew after Oceanic 815 is discovered. Daniel FaradayDaniel Faraday
Dr. Daniel Faraday, often referred to as Dan or simply by his surname, Faraday, is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost played by Jeremy Davies. Faraday is introduced in the season four premiere as a physicist, suffering from memory loss, and is part of the team aboard the ...
(Jeremy Davies
Jeremy Davies
Father Jeremy Davies , an English Roman Catholic priest whose parish is based around Old Hall Green, is a former doctor and also a leading exorcist....
) is shown crying while watching the news, although he is not sure why. Miles is a medium
Mediumship
Mediumship is described as a form of communication with spirits. It is a practice in religious beliefs such as Spiritualism, Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candomblé, Voodoo and Umbanda.- Concept :...
who is hired by an elderly woman to remove the ghost of her grandson from her home. After conversing with the spirit, Miles finds a hidden cache of money and drugs. Charlotte is an anthropologist who finds a polar bear skeleton bearing a Dharma Initiative
DHARMA Initiative
The Dharma Initiative, also written DHARMA , was a fictional research project featured in the television series Lost. It was introduced in the second season episode "Orientation". In 2008, the Dharma Initiative website was launched. Dharma's interests were directly connected with fringe science...
collar buried in the Tunisian desert. Frank Lapidus
Frank Lapidus
Frank J. Lapidus is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost played by Jeff Fahey. Frank is introduced in the second episode of season four as a pilot hired on a mission to the island where Oceanic Flight 815 crashed. He aids the survivors of the crash against mercenary Martin Keamy ...
, an alcoholic who was originally scheduled to fly 815, phones the Oceanic hotline, and claims that the wreckage of the plane is not authentic. Finally, Naomi Dorrit (Marsha Thomason
Marsha Thomason
Marsha Lisa Thomason is an English actress, who is known in the United States for playing Nessa Holt in the first two seasons of the NBC series Las Vegas, for her recurring role on ABC's Lost as Naomi Dorrit, and for playing FBI agent Diana Berrigan on USA Network's White Collar.-Early...
) is shown in a posthumous flashback, criticizing her employer Matthew Abaddon (Lance Reddick
Lance Reddick
Lance Reddick is an American theater, film and TV actor and musician born in Baltimore, Maryland. He starred in The Wire as Cedric Daniels, appeared in Oz as Detective Johnny Basil and appeared in the fourth and fifth seasons of Lost. He now has a prominent role in Fringe...
) for his choice in her co-workers.
After Daniel parachutes from a failing helicopter onto the island, he uses Naomi's phone to contact George Minkowski (Fisher Stevens
Fisher Stevens
Fisher Stevens is an American actor, director and producer. His most recent successes include the 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for his film The Cove and 2008 Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature for his film Crazy Love...
) on the Kahana, the freighter that he came from. The next morning on December 22, 2004, 815 survivors Jack Shephard
Jack Shephard
Dr. Jack Shephard is a fictional character and protagonist of the ABC television series Lost played by Matthew Fox. Lost follows the journey of the survivors of Oceanic Airlines flight 815 on a mysterious island and their attempts to survive and escape, slowly uncovering more of the much broader...
(Matthew Fox
Matthew Fox (actor)
Matthew Chandler Fox is an American actor. He is mostly known for his role as Charlie Salinger on Party of Five, and for portraying Jack Shephard on the supernatural drama television series Lost.- Early life :...
) and Kate Austen
Kate Austen
Katherine Anne "Kate" Austen is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost, played by Canadian actress Evangeline Lilly. She is the de facto female lead...
(Evangeline Lilly
Evangeline Lilly
Evangeline Lilly is a Canadian actress, best known for her role as Kate Austen in the ABC drama, Lost.-Early life:...
) help Daniel find his colleagues, as the rival group led by Locke attempts to do the same. Jack and Kate find Miles, who demands to see Naomi's body, and ascertains that Locke killed her. Locke's group finds Charlotte, takes her prisoner and disposes of her tracking device. Daniel's third colleague, helicopter pilot Frank, fires a flare into the sky, leading Jack's group to him. Frank tells Jack's group that he managed to land the helicopter intact. After finding out that Juliet Burke
Juliet Burke
Dr. Juliet Burke is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost played by Elizabeth Mitchell. Her character was introduced in the third season premiere.- Prior to arrival on the island :...
(Elizabeth Mitchell
Elizabeth Mitchell
Elizabeth Mitchell , is an American actress/modelwho is known for her roles as Dr. Juliet Burke on ABC's TV series Lost and as FBI agent Erica Evans on V. She has starred in such films as The Santa Clause 2, The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, and Gia.-Early life:Mitchell was born Elizabeth...
) is one of the Others, Miles demands to know where Ben is, as locating him is the freighter crew's primary objective.
In Locke's group, several people become discontent with Locke's revelation that he is following the instructions of Walt Lloyd
Walt Lloyd
Walter "Walt" Lloyd is a fictional character portrayed by Malcolm David Kelley in the American ABC television series Lost. The series follows the lives of over forty survivors of the crash of Oceanic Flight 815. Walt is introduced in the pilot episode as one of the survivors aboard the plane, which...
(Malcolm David Kelley
Malcolm David Kelley
Malcolm David Kelley is an American teen actor. He starred in the 2004 film You Got Served as "Li'l Saint". He also appears in the television series Lost as the character Walt Lloyd. A regular cast member in the show's first season , he has appeared only occasionally since due to a dramatic...
), who had left the island a month earlier, and they also question why Ben is being kept alive. Locke holds him at gunpoint, and Ben starts to reveal information about the Kahana crew, specifically Charlotte's identity and that he has a spy aboard the ship.
Production
Show runner
Showrunner is a term of art originating in the United States and Canadian television industry referring to the person who is responsible for the day-to-day operation of a television seriesalthough such persons generally are credited as an executive producer...
s Damon Lindelof
Damon Lindelof
Damon Laurence Lindelof is an American television writer and executive, most recently noted as the co-creator and executive producer for the television series Lost. He has written for and produced Crossing Jordan, and wrote for Nash Bridges, Wasteland, and the MTV anthology series Undressed...
and Carlton Cuse
Carlton Cuse
Carlton Cuse is an AmericanEmmy Award winning screenwriter and producer, most famous as executive producer andscreenwriter for the American television series Lost for...
use to refer to Daniel, Charlotte, Miles and Frank—fake names, occupations and scenes were temporarily assigned, to limit the leak of spoiler
Spoiler (media)
Spoiler is slang for any element of any summary or description of any piece of fiction that reveals any plot element which will give away the outcome of a dramatic episode within the work of fiction, or the conclusion of the entire work. It can also be used to refer to any piece of information...
s. After seeing Ken Leung guest star
Remember When (The Sopranos episode)
"Remember When" is the eightieth episode of the HBO television series The Sopranos. It is the third episode of the second half of the show's sixth season, the fifteenth episode of the season overall. It was written by Terence Winter and was directed by Phil Abraham...
on HBO's The Sopranos
The Sopranos
The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
in April 2007, Lindelof and Cuse wrote the role of Miles specifically for him, although Leung believed that he was trying out for the part of "brilliant mathematician" "Russell". The name Miles Straume was simply chosen because the writer-producers thought that "it would be cool if his name sounded like 'maelstrom
Maelstrom
A maelstrom is a very powerful whirlpool; a large, swirling body of water. A free vortex, it has considerable downdraft. The power of tidal whirlpools tends to be exaggerated by laymen. There are virtually no stories of large ships ever being sucked into a maelstrom, although smaller craft are in...
'". Had he not taken the part, Lindelof and Cuse claim that Miles would have been scrapped and a new and much different character would have been written into the story instead. Leung, who was originally contracted as a recurring guest star, was quoted as saying that "Miles doesn't know how to be social, which is great, because I don't know how to be social." Costume designer Roland Sanchez wanted to base one of the freighter folk's clothing after that of Keith Richards
Keith Richards
Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine said Richards had created "rock's greatest single body of riffs", and placed him as the "10th greatest guitarist of all time." Fourteen songs written by Richards and songwriting...
, specifically a picture in which he wore a sleeveless vest, which he admired. Sanchez believed that Miles fit the haggard look and bought an Armani Exchange jacket, cut off the sleeves and added a hood and this outfit helped Leung develop Miles. Co-executive producer/writer Edward Kitsis
Edward Kitsis
Edward Lawrence Kitsis, also sometimes credited as Eddy Kitsis, is an American screenwriter and producer, best known for his work on the popular American television series, Lost and Once Upon a Time.-Life and career:...
had been pitching the name "Lapidus" for years, finally naming an unseen character in the fourteenth episode of the third season
Exposé (Lost)
"Exposé" is the 14th episode of the 3rd season and 63rd episode overall of the American Broadcasting Company 's serial drama television series Lost. It was aired as on ABC in the United States and on CTV in Canada on March 28, 2007...
Rick Lapidus. Unsatisfied, Kitsis developed the character "Frank Lapidus, Helicopter Pilot". According to the show runners, recurring guest star Jeff Fahey "was the first and only choice for the role". They also commended his "intense eyes" and stated that "he has exactly the right sensibilities" for the part. Frank was not envisioned with a beard, however, the writer-producers allowed Fahey to keep it for the role. The writer-producers have said that Frank "never takes anything at face value [and is] a true conspiracy nut [who] has probably seen every episode of The X-Files
The X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
, [which will] pay off for him".
Rebecca Mader's audition scene was a fake flashback and she was disappointed that it was not used for the show. The character's name was spoiled months in advance of broadcast. Charlotte was originally envisioned as an American; however, the writers preferred Mader's natural English accent to her fake American accent and they changed Charlotte accordingly. Lost
Nicole Kidman
Nicole Mary Kidman, AC is an American-born Australian actress, singer, film producer, spokesmodel, and humanitarian. After starring in a number of small Australian films and TV shows, Kidman's breakthrough was in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm...
". During the casting process, Charlotte was described as a "successful academic". It was falsely rumored that Kristen Bell
Kristen Bell
Kristen Anne Bell is an American actress. Although her first film role was an uncredited appearance in Polish Wedding, Bell previously acted in stage and musical productions. In 2001, she made her Broadway debut as Becky Thatcher in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer...
was offered the role of Charlotte; Bell had actually spoken to the producers about having a part, however, no role was offered to her. Despite never having seen Lost, Mader decided that she "was not going to leave [the auditioning] room until [she] made [Lindelof and Cuse] fall in love with [her]". Mader subsequently began to watch the first three seasons of Lost and was watching the fourth episode
Walkabout (Lost)
"Walkabout" is the fourth episode of the first season of Lost. The episode was directed by Jack Bender and written by David Fury. It first aired on October 13, 2004, on ABC. In the episode, flashbacks reveal John Locke's plans to get to Australia and participate in a walkabout tour...
when she received the news that she had been chosen for the role. In the next two to three weeks, Mader—who was then signed on as a recurring guest star—watched the rest of the first three seasons, watching the third season finale
Through the Looking Glass (Lost)
"Through the Looking Glass" is the third season finale of the ABC television series Lost, consisting of the 22nd and 23rd episodes of the third season. It is also the 71st and 72nd episodes overall. It was written by co-creator/executive producer Damon Lindelof and executive producer Carlton Cuse,...
a matter of hours before she began shooting her first "Confirmed Dead" scene, in which Charlotte meets Locke and his group. Mader was told little about her character by the writer-producers, except that "she was sort of like a female Indiana Jones
Indiana Jones
Colonel Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., Ph.D. is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Indiana Jones franchise. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg created the character in homage to the action heroes of 1930s film serials...
type". Mader has found it challenging but fun to play a character with an unknown backstory and motives. Charlotte's full name is Charlotte Staples Lewis, which is an homage to the author C.S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
, best known for The Chronicles of Narnia
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven fantasy novels for children by C. S. Lewis. It is considered a classic of children's literature and is the author's best-known work, having sold over 100 million copies in 47 languages...
and various books about Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
. Lewis was one of Mader's favorite authors as a child and found it "wicked" and "cool" for her character to be named after him. Mader also enjoyed that she only requires a small amount of hair and makeup done, saying that "I just wanted to rough it. I wanted to roll around in the mud with a gun." Mader claims that she has "never had so much fun in [her] life" as when she is shooting Lost. In the episode, Charlotte's birthday is said to be July 2, 1979, Mader's actual birthday. This led to a minor continuity error in the fifth season episode "LaFleur
LaFleur (Lost)
"LaFleur" is the eighth television episode of the fifth season of ABC's Lost. The 94th episode of the show overall, "LaFleur" aired on March 4, 2009 on ABC in the United States, being simulcast on A in Canada...
", when Charlotte is depicted as being a little girl in 1974. Executive producers Cuse and Lindelof claimed in a podcast that the original script for "Confirmed Dead" listed Charlotte's birthday as being in 1970 and that Mader had it changed because she did not want people to think she was significantly older than she actually is. This caused a controversy when Mader later stated on her blog that Gregg Nations, the script coordinator, was the one who suggested the change. Cuse and Lindelof later conceded that she was right.
Most or all of the episode was shot from September 11 to 23, 2007 and filming overlapped with the following episode
The Economist (Lost)
"The Economist" is the third episode of the American Broadcasting Company's fourth season of the serial drama television series Lost and 75th episode overall. It was aired on February 14, 2008 on ABC in the United States and on CTV in Canada. The episode was written by co-executive producers...
. The Tunisian desert scene was filmed on location in Oahu
Oahu
Oahu or Oahu , known as "The Gathering Place", is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous of the islands in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital Honolulu is located on the southeast coast...
, Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, like the rest of the episode, at a stone quarry with industrial fans blowing fake sand. A typical Lost episode contains fifty visual effects
Visual effects
Visual effects are the various processes by which imagery is created and/or manipulated outside the context of a live action shoot. Visual effects involve the integration of live-action footage and generated imagery to create environments which look realistic, but would be dangerous, costly, or...
shots. Among scenes created entirely or partially with effects are the opening scene of "Confirmed Dead", which shows what appears to be the wreckage of 815 underwater and the scene from Daniel's perspective as he parachutes from the helicopter to the ground. In Frank's flashback, he drops a toy plane, which spirals into a small aquarium. This shot was not intended to use effects; however, "it's impossible to get a toy plane to spiral the way you want it to", according to supervisor Mitch Suskin. A tank with still water and rocks on the bottom was filmed and the plane was added in editing. Suskin said that creating effects for "Confirmed Dead" "was slightly too leisurely" because the episode aired over four months after post-production began.
In fall 2007, Lost
Exodus (Lost)
"Exodus" is the first season finale of the ABC television series Lost, consisting of the 23rd through 25th episodes of the first season and the show overall. The episodes were directed by Jack Bender, and written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. "Part 1" first aired on May 18, 2005 and "Part 2"...
, among other things, in the Sunda Trench would come across what would appear to be the wreckage of 815. ABC hired the Australian company Hoodlum to design a $3 million viral marketing
Viral marketing
Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses...
alternate reality game
Alternate reality game
An alternate reality game is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants' ideas or actions....
(ARG) titled Find 815
Find 815
Find 815 is the second alternate reality game for the American Broadcasting Company's serial drama television series Lost. It began on December 28, 2007 and concluded on January 31, 2008 with the premiere of the fourth season of Lost...
. Find 815 ran from December 28, 2007 to January 31, 2008, beginning with a press release issued from ABC Medianet announcing the fictitious return of the fictional Oceanic Airlines' return to business. The ARG—apparently the largest ever—followed Sam Thomas, an Oceanic technician who had lost his girlfriend in the crash, as he received cryptic e-mails from The Maxwell Group (a division of Widmore Industries, but nonexistent in Lost), joined the crew of the Christiane I and ultimately uncovered 815. Because Find 815 was produced separately from the show and without the show's writers, it contradicts events in the TV series. In "Confirmed Dead", 815 is found by a man not present in the game named Ron; Thomas is not mentioned. Lindelof and Cuse dismissed the game as not being canon
Canon (fiction)
In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
(not containing genuine information within the fictional universe
Fictional universe
A fictional universe is a self-consistent fictional setting with elements that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed or fictional realm ....
) and was largely just a bonus for fans during the between-seasons hiatus.
Reception
"Confirmed Dead" was watched by 15.292 million American viewers live or recorded and watched within six hours of broadcast, ranking Lost seventh in the weekly chart. It was watched by a total of 16.963 million viewers, including those who watched within seven days of broadcast; this number went toward the year-end season average. The episode received a 6.5/16 in the key adults 18–49 demographic. In Canada, it ranked sixth for the week with 1.702 million viewers. In the United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Lost was watched by 1.2 million viewers—a greater audience than that of the season premiere. In Australia, "Confirmed Dead" brought in 853,000 viewers, ranking seventy-first for the week. American critics were sent screener DVDs of "The Beginning of the End" and "Confirmed Dead" on January 28, 2008 with instructions not to reveal major plot points in reviews. Among the journalists who gave vague and positive reviews were Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, Adam Buckman of the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
, Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
, Diane Werts of Newsday
Newsday
Newsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
and Tim Goodman of the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
. According to Oscar Dahl of BuddyTV
BuddyTV
BuddyTV is an entertainment-based website based in Seattle, Washington, which generates content about television programs and sporting events. The website publishes information about celebrity and related entertainment news through a series of articles, entertainment profiles, actor biographies and...
, "Confirmed Dead" "was met with almost universal love from the Lost fan base" and according to Jon Lachonis of UGO, the new characters were well received by the fan scene.
Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger
The Star-Ledger
The Star-Ledger is the largest circulated newspaper in the U.S. state of New Jersey and is based in Newark. It is a sister paper to The Jersey Journal of Jersey City, The Times of Trenton and the Staten Island Advance, all of which are owned by Advance Publications.The Newark Star-Ledgers daily...
wrote that "after an underwhelming pre-credits sequence … this sucker moved, and lots of things happened. We met our four new regulars, squeezed in useful flashbacks about [them] and even found out the real reason they're on the island. … The flipside of all this business is that 'Confirmed Dead' didn't have the same emotional resonance as '[The] Beginning of the End' … but you clearly can't have everything in every episode." Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
thought that "Confirmed Dead" "was downright alive with fascinating new characters, mind-blowing new possibilities, and exciting new theory fodder"; however, he had heard complaints from others who received the preview screeners that they found the episode to be flawed. They considered the scene where 815 is found to be cheating the flashback formula because Daniel only experiences it by watching it on television, Frank's safe landing of the helicopter to be a mystery, Naomi's flashback to be cheating Lost rules because she is dead and Ben's manipulation of Locke to be an overused storyline. E!
E!
E! Entertainment Television is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by NBCUniversal. It features entertainment-related programming, reality television, feature films and occasionally series and specials unrelated to the entertainment industry.E! has an audience reach of...
's Kristin Dos Santos exclaimed "hot damn!" in response to the scene where 815 is found in the Sunda Trench. She also thought that "Juliet and Kate giggling at Jack's 'wink thing' was hilarious" and it was "awesome to see [the pilot] again". Nikki Stafford of Wizard
Wizard (magazine)
Wizard or Wizard: The Magazine of Comics, Entertainment and Pop Culture was a magazine about comic books, published monthly in the United States by Wizard Entertainment from July 1991 to January 2011...
highlighted "watching Dan’s landing from his point of view. You can feel his panic as he's free-falling through the air, looks up at his parachute, looks down to see himself about to hit the trees… it was amazing." IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
's Chris Carabott gave "Confirmed Dead" an 8/10, writing that it "isn't a disappointing episode by any means but it definitely suffers from being a 'setup' episode for these four new characters" and praising the new actors by writing that "Leung does an adequate job of getting Miles' arrogant brand of confidence across while Davies presents Faraday's awkward mannerisms well. Fahey's Lapidus has exceptional screen presence that even overshadows the regular cast members to an extent." Erin Martell of AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
's TV Squad said that "Watching 'Confirmed Dead' was like watching my dream episode of Lost [because] people asked direct questions for once … [and] this episode was all about the Freighties." A day after the original broadcast, BuddyTV's Dahl claimed that "[the audience is] on an epic journey, one that has been as entertaining and engrossing as any TV series has ever been". In contrast, TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
Michael Ausiello
Michael Ausiello is an American television industry journalist and actor. He was a Senior Writer at TV Guide and its companion website, TVGuide.com. On May 28, 2008, Ausiello left TV Guide for Entertainment Weekly and posted his first blog for Entertainment Weekly on July 2, 2008...
of said that it "was thirty-one flavors of awesome … [however] the negatives outweighed the positives". He had problems with Claire's lack of grief for Charlie Pace
Charlie Pace
Charlie Hieronymus Pace is a fictional character on ABC's Lost, a television series chronicling the lives of plane crash survivors on a mysterious tropical island...
's (Dominic Monaghan
Dominic Monaghan
Dominic Bernard Patrick Luke Monaghan is an English actor. He has received international attention from playing Merry in Peter Jackson's adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and for his role as Charlie Pace on the television show Lost....
) death and Jack waiting so long to find out the freighter folk's main objective. Ben Rawson-Jones of Digital Spy
Digital Spy
Digital Spy is a British entertainment and media news website. According to Alexa Internet traffic statistics, as of February 2011, Digital Spy is the 93rd most popular website in the United Kingdom, with an overall Alexa ranking of 2,088....
gave "Confirmed Dead" three out of five stars, calling it "so-so", but commenting that "the new revelations in the episode are fairly startling and provide a momentary distraction from the frustrations."