One of the more impressive things about Lost, and something that can be difficult to explain to people who don't watch the show, is the fact that the writers manage to add new characters every season despite the fact that the show is about a bunch of people stranded on an island. Two episodes into season four, we already have five new characters to deal with. Since this might be confusing, I've put together the following handy guide, which summarizes the traits of each new character in relation to characters from the Disney cartoon series TaleSpin, which I'm sure we all remember very well.
Frank Lapidus / Baloo Bear
Frank Lapidus is a former commercial airline pilot who later became a slovenly pilot-for-hire. Baloo once owned an air cargo company, but later went to work as a slovenly pilot-for-hire. Both pilots appear rough around the edges, operate out of idyllic locales (the Bahamas in Lapidus' case and Cape Suzette in Baloo's case), and find themselves in the midst of unexpected adventures involving an island -- Baloo often visits Louie's island, and Lapidus will spend season four getting into trouble on The Island until he gets killed (that's a prediction, not a spoiler).
Daniel Faraday / Wildcat
Faraday is a physicist (named after Michael Faraday), and Wildcat is a mechanic, the two fields being related enough for the purposes of this exercise. Both are lovable, bewildered, somewhat bumbling, and speak with affected mannerisms. Faraday's beard is reminiscent of Wildcat's over-sized chin. It would not be at all surprising to see Faraday break something in the near future.
Miles Straume / Kit Cloudkicker
Miles and Kit are both sarcastic and aggressive. Kit is a former air pirate, and Miles' career as a ghostbuster appears to be tinged with some degree of criminal activity. Miles can talk to the dead, and Kit is an orphan, meaning his parents are dead. Kit often refers to Baloo as "Papa Bear," while Miles referred to Jack as "Handsome" during their first meeting, indicating that both characters are prone to using homoerotic nicknames with other men.
Charlotte Lewis / Rebecca Cunningham
Charlotte Staples Lewis (that's C.S. Lewis, for those of you keeping score at home) and Rebecca Cunningham are both pushy, pain-in-the-ass know-it-alls that I want to punch.
Matthew Abbadon / Shere Khan
Matthew Abbadon (if that is his real name), like the tycoon tiger (tycer?) in Talespin, is a mysterious, menacing, seemingly powerful guy, who is able to push others around with reckless abandon (or abbandon, or abbadondon). It would please me to no end if Abbadon is later revealed to have a coffin-shaped desk chair, but I'm not counting on it.
Next up, I'll do my best to shoe-horn the tail section characters into the complex Darkwing Duck omniverse.
This is fantastic, and makes me really want to watch some Tailspin episodes.
I continue to have no interest in watching Lost.