Flight 815 - Found!

I've been away the past few days, so all my half-finished posts are going to have to wait for next week. In the meantime, we have this week's episode to deal with: Confirmed Dead. Sez' ABC:

The survivors begin to question the intentions of their supposed rescuers when four strangers arrive on the island.

What? That's it? Fortunately Paula has a great preview of the episode up at The Lost Elders you should check out. In addition, Ben posts a recap of the recent Jay & Jack podcast featuring Jorge Garcia, who basically said that 1) the mysterious eye in the cabin was no one we knew yet and 2) that Jacob can apparently change his appearance.

This would seem to mean that Jacob, not Smokey, is behind the primary manifestations on the island (except for Yemi). In addition, if the eye belongs to someone we haven't met yet, could it be the unknown coffin guy Jack was so broke up over in the finale, J. -antham?

As far as the title of the episode goes, I agree with Paula that it probably refers to the fact both Naomi and Penny both said last season that Flight 815 was found and everyone on board was dead. Last month's Find815 webgame (Lostpedia has an excellent summary) showed how this came about. The major points:

1) Sam Thomas, a technician for Oceanic Airlines, is the main character. He was about to propose to his girlfriend, Sonya, who was a flight attendant aboard Flight 815 when it vanished. After the disappearance of the plane, he set out to discover what happened.

2) Someone a shady corporation called The Maxwell Group (which turned out to be a subsidiary of Widmore Industries) claimed that they knew Sonya and sent Sam a picture of her. This led Sam to stow away on a Maxwell funded expedition to find the Black Rock slave trading ship in the Sunda Trench.

3) On the ship Sam meets the shady Oscar Talbot, who's employed by Maxwell Group. They finally locate the spot where the Black Rock is supposed to be located, but instead finds Flight 815, which Sam recognizes instantly. Talbot looks pleased.

4) Later, in a TV press conference, Talbot speaks on how they stumbled upon the ship and that it was "pure chance" they had someone who was "so familiar with the plane" on board. The series ends with Sam looking disbelievingly at his TV screen.

So the Maxwell Group, and by proxy Widmore Industries, appears to have organized this huge hoax to make people think everyone from Flight 815 was dead. Remember that Widmore had previously sent someone else to the island who was killed by the Others: Henry Gale. In addition, Desmond ended up on the island after participating in Charles Widmore's boat race. If Widmore knew about the island before hand and wanted to get rid of Desmond, seems to me he could have sent Libby to give the boat to Desmond and somehow rigged Desmond's maps so he'd end up on the island. Regardless, someone in Maxwell/Widmore has a strong interest in the island and doesn't want people looking for the plane. Are all the newcomers from Maxwell? I guess we'll find out tomorrow! Woo hoo!