Confirmed Dead

Confirmed Dead aired on February 7, 2008. Stephen Williams directed, and Drew Goddard wrote it with Brian K. Vaughan, the comic book writer behind Y: The Last Man, in only his second Lost script.

Where things stand: the survivors have split into two camps over whether to trust the freighter people. One side wants rescue badly enough to take a chance on strangers, and the other has learned the hard way that strangers on this Island are rarely what they say. Everyone is waiting to see who actually turns up.

That gets answered in one line: the freighter team arrives, a physicist, an anthropologist, a ghostbuster and a mercenary. This hour belongs to the newcomers, so the backstory is about people you have never met. Do not worry about keeping them straight right away. The show takes its time with each of them, and the job titles are a good place to start.