The copter crew and why they are there

I think that Charlotte C. Lewis, Daniel Faraday, Miles Straum and Frank Lapidus all had their own reasons for wanting to locate Ben or the island. They all had a motivation that Mathew Abbadon exploited, using one of Bens own tricks - "Find something they are emotionally invested in, and exploit it". This is why they seemed to Naomi as an odd choice for her team, but Abbadon knows that not only do they have unique abilities (I'll expand on that later) but they all have a personal reason to be there. Perhaps on one of Bens off-island expeditions in the past (or even into the past, but thats another debate) he hurt them either through manipulation or by causing the death of a loved one. Or.....they were all either on the Island as young children or had relatives there.

When Ben purged the Barracks, there were no bodies of children shown when we say the aftermath and they (Ben and Richard etc) removed their gasmasks. Ben has all along been adamant that he would never kill an innocent person, and is he really so evil that he would kill innocent children? Despite everything he has done, I doubt he would somehow. We now know that people can travel on and off the island, and it appears Ben has control of this. Perhaps he knew before the purge how to do this as it was something he had obviously planned for many years, and could have been easy for him to covertly investigate the process. Like a little rat lol.

So he could have sent the children of the Dharma Initiative off the island to escape the purge and a horrible death. But continued to kill their parents, or in the case of Lapidus for example who would not have been a child...killed relatives. A good enough reason for someone to find Benjamin Linus, if they are said children.

Im going to avoid any references to the name coincidences such as C.S.Lewis or the Faraday Cage as I believe these are just cute references the writers have used to add a little more intrigue, and while they may tie in with certain aspects of the plot, I dont think they are clues in their own right.

Miles:

Miles was very angry about something when he showed Juliette the photo of Ben, very angry. That was more than a "I'm being paid to find him" reaction, it was a lot darker. Seemed to me like he was ready to rip his head off. So why the u-turn? Why did he decide to blackmail him instead? Maybe Miles wants his money back......

A lot of theories have been doing the rounds about 3.2 Million being a code of some sort, and while they are brilliant theories I want to put a different angle on it.

What if it was Miles way of letting Ben know who he really is? Ben knew the personal details about Miles ie name, where he was raised etc, but did he really know who he is? Miles' ethnic background would easily suggest relatives within the Dharma Initiative as scientisits...Halliwax etc. According to the trailer for "Cabin Fever" the purge occured in 1992. I cannot find any reference to how old he is, but the actor who plays him is 38 so im assuming around this age. Which would make him around 23 or 24 at the time of the purge so he is not one of the copter crew who could have been a child on the island. But perhaps Ben somehow ripped off him or his family for 3.2 million. Thats a leap...but bare with me.

Here is the transcript of the conversation between Ben and Miles, I have added in italics what I think could have been going through their minds during the conversation, based on facial expressions and tone of voice.

MILES: (to Ben) Do you know who I am? (Do you really?)
BEN: Yes. (Your a lacky for Widmore, sent to kill me.)
MILES: Do you know who I work for? (haha really?)
BEN: Yes. (Widmore)
MILES: Then you know he's put a lot of time and energy into finding you. So now I've found you. And I can tell him exactly where you are. Or I can lie, and tell him you were already dead. I'd be willing to do that, for 3.2 million dollars. (lets see of he gets this...)
BEN: You've arranged this meeting so you could blackmail me? (WTF?)
MILES: (his lips move silently for a moment) It's extortion if you want to get technical. (Jeez this guy is slow)
BEN: 3.2? But why not 3.3 or 3.4? (thats an odd amount to ask for)
[MILES stares at BEN, and BEN realizes something.] (oh shit.....I know what that means, I extorted 3.2 Million from that guy)
BEN: What makes you think I have access to that kind of money? (how much does he know?)
MILES: Do not treat me like I'm one of them! Like I don't know who you are, or what you can do! (Im not just Widmore's lacky, I KNOW you!)

etc etc. Miles wants his money back, and aslong as he gets it he doesnt care what happens to Ben.

Its also worth talking about his unique abilities, talking with the dead. We have seen this many times now so I dont think it is just a cute twist, I think it tells us a lot about Miles' history. Perhaps he is related to Halliwax - his son perhaps? Maybe he did spend time on the island as a child and as a result has developed this ability, but left long before the purge. Or maybe he was there as an adult and happened to be off-island when the purge occured. I dunno....but it seems likely his abilities are connected to the island and/or Dharma in some way.

Charlotte:

Charlotte according to Ben: "Her name is Charlotte Lewis! Charlotte Staples Lewis. Born July second, nineteen seventy-nine, Essex, England. Parents David and Jeanette. Eldest of three, all girls. She was raised in Bromsgrove. Did her undergraduate studies at Kent. Took her PhD in Cultural Anthropology at Oxford. She's here with two other team members and a pilot. Their names Daniel Faraday, Miles Straume, Frank Lapidus.

She bares a striking resemblance to Annie. Though the ages dont match to allow Charlotte to actually be Annie, Annie would be about Bens age and could easily have had a child in 1979 when she would have been in her mid to late teens. Perhaps she was sent off island when she became pregnant (by Ben?) to protect her and her and her baby, and went on to have 2 more children with Charlottes (step)father. Annie is a shortened variation of the name Jeanette, or her mother could have changed her name on leaving the island as we have seen Ben and Micheal do.

Annie: Notice the green eyes, freckles, and pale skin which indicates the red-head gene, even if her hair isnt as red as Charlottes.


Charlotte:


Theres definitely a resemblance between the actors which may not be a coinicdence.

Wether she is Annies child or not, she definitely has some kind of connection to Dharma. Why was she so pleased to find the Dharma logo on that polar bear in Tunisia, and how did she know what it meant? She seemed to be intentionally looking for the bears collar as if she knew it would have one which isnt exactly normal. And then when she got to the island and landed in the water - I thought she seemed almost ecstatic to be (back?) there. Why did she refuse to believe 815 had been found....did she know that on the course it was on it passed near the island, and did she know that other vessels had disapeared in the same area - ending up on the island? That girl has a massive chip on her shoulder and seems very determined and stubborn, but we haven't seen yet to what end. Even after she helped Dan to neutralise the gas she still doesnt seem satisfied with her mission. So what are her motives? Revenge? Is Ben her real Daddy? Did her mother tell her of her life on the Island, what it was, who Ben was, and did this spur Charlotte on to find it - even influencing her career choice? Or had she visited the island as a child and connected with it? Questions questions....curioser and curioser.

Daniel:

My favourite of all the copter crew, love the fact that he is an intelligent man with memory problems. I think those memory problems are a direct result of his earlier experiments and his lack of head protection - as pointed out by Desmond. I think he cried at the wreckage footage because somewhere in his subconscious he remembered meeting Des and knew that something wasnt quite right, that something about the wrecakge effected him, but he literally didnt know why. He couldnt recall. There was no glimmer of recognition when he first met Des. Anyway...I think the only reason he is there is due to his expertise in time-travel, electro-magnetism and the risks involved. Perhaps Abbadon and/or Widmore knew of his research and its effect on him and wanted him there for those reasons. His personal motivation is experimentation and adventure.

Frank:

I dont think Frank knew anything about the island or Widmore or Dharma. All he knew was that he was supposed to be flying a plane that was lost, and when it was recovered he clocked straight away that it was a fake. He strikes me as a bit of a conspiraloon, the type of person who could be found in a bar, holding court over the latest alien abduction conspiracy When he called the hotline he had no idea that he was drawing attention to himself. The guy on the other end of the phone sounded a lot like Abbadon to me - he has a very unique low tone to his voice. Perhaps Abbadon realised that here he had a pilot - which he was in need of - who wanted to find the plane and who needed to be taken into his lot to avoid Lapidus going public with his certainty that the wreckage was a fake. When Frank met Micheal on the boat and told him about the wreckage being a fake, he seemed convinced they were there to find the plane and that Widmores crew were the only oens who believed him. His motivation was to find out what happened and solve a mystery - he had no idea why he was really there.

To summarise - I dont think any of them knew why they were really there. They each have their own reasons and motivations which have been exploited for Widmores gain, and I think this bunch will become strong allies of Jack and co, eventually.

This is an excellent observation. I think you hit the mark on all points,

Thanks, I forgot all about this one lol

I missed it on my various stops at the site. It is a good one.