Charlotte, Daniel and Miles all have previous histories involving the island. Frank was probably previously on the island in the Dharma Initiative
Frank flies planes and helicopters. It's likely that if he worked for Dharma he'd be a pilot
Frank is not on the Island in 2004 and knows nothing about what's going on there. Depending on how long he's been away from the island, he may not know that the Purge happened. It's likely that he's been continuing his duty as a supply dropper, just as Kelvin Inman continued his duty of pushing the button.
Frank is the only major character left from season 4 without his own flashback episode.
Manifest Memorization
Frank memorized the manifest so that when he arrived on the Island, he would know if he met a survivor of Flight 815.
Frank memorized the manifest because he was guilty about Seth Norris crashing the plane where-as Frank feels that he could have made it to L.A.
Frank is On Charles Widmore's and Eloise Hawking's "Team"
Frank says to Sun "they say they're the good guys... I know, I'm not buying it either." This line is significant. Either, the producers are telling us that we shouldn't assume that Ilana and Bram (and incidentally, Jacob) are "the good guys" just because they say they are, or, Frank is undercover and actually on the side of Charles Widmore/Eloise Hawking.
This could be the case because (1) he flew Widmore's helicopter to drop the freighter crew onto the island and (2) he was somehow substituted as the pilot on the Ajira flight to fly the Oceanic 6 back to the Island. Oddly, he always seems to be the guy who flies people into the island- an island that shouln't be that easy to fly into.
Widmore and Hawking aren't necessarily the same "Team"
Frank was arranged to be on Flight 316 by Widmore, possibly via Sun. This would give rise to the idea that Frank and Sun have left together on one of the three outriggers on the beach near the Hydra Station where they landed. These two are likely plotting against Ben on behalf of Widmore.
Frank said he makes the run to Guam all the time.
Candidacy
He is a candidate to become the new leader of the others.
He is a candidate to become the new host for Jacob's soul.
An episode in Season 6 will focus on his "candidacy" and give insight into Frank's life before the Freighter and between the rescue and Ajira 316, including the reason he didn't fly Oceanic 815.
The reason Frank didn't fly is because he overslept that day.
He is a candidate to become a member of the group Ilana/Bram belong to.
Ilana knows that John is dead, so she thinks Frank could be a Candidate for the new Leadership role of the others. Frank was supposed to fly 815, but he didnt. When the monster found out the pilot wasn't Frank, it became angry and killed Seth Norris, because it knew that someone else would become the new leader of the others instead of Frank. That someone is Locke.
Frank is a candidate for a Jacob-level position with total power over the island.
Jacob was the one who ordered the runway, so he clearly wanted Flight 316 to land. Flight 316's landing was what ultimately led to Jacob's death (due to Locke's possession by MIB), so he knew he was going to die. He instructed Bram and Ilana to find a successor and he brought Frank back to the island as a 'candidate' for this position.
I don't think Frank is a candidate because i think the only reason Illana says he could be is because (1)The writers wanted to through the candidates thing at us for something to dwell over in the season gap and (2) because she doesn't know what the candidates look like yet so he could be one of the 6 (Jack, Sawyer, Hurley, Sun/Jin, Sayid and obviously Locke) that she needs to protect.
Just a pilot but essential for the escape of the Man in Black
Frank Lapidus is the only one who might be able to start the Ajira plane and take off the island, after the plane has been turned around.
He is thus essential for the physical escape of the Man in Black. Ilana is fully aware of that, which is the reason why she makes sure that Frank stays with her group so the Man in Black won't be able to get off the island.
If that were true the Man in Black shows an alarming, irresponsible lack of interest in Frank Lapidus
Or Frank is not the one necesary to later help the Man in Black get off the island but Ilana and her companions
All things considered, that plane is not a viable means of transportation. If it was, Widmore's group would have dismantled it.
The Last Recruit
Flock's goal is to fly everyone off the plane. This will require a pilot. Lapidus is the Last Recruit (the last person needed by Flocke). The episode on 4/20 will be Lapidus-centric.
Frank is not the only remaining survivor who knows how to fly a plane. At some point Jack 'took a few flying lessons' but it 'wasn't for' him. (Pilot, Part 1) He may know enough to fly the plane off the island if it came down to it.
A "few flying lessons" hardly qualifies Jack as being able to fly a commercial airliner off a hastily-built run-way. We know that it wasn't long enough to accommodate the planes landing.
The last recruit is Frank but in reference to being Jacob's last recruit. Frank is going to have been talked to by Jacob, but has never been talked to by The man in black. This is essential to his ability to kill him, just as it was with Jacob. Ben was able to kill Jacob because he never let him speak to him, and every other character has been spoken to (and decided to go talk to) the man in black. They are, as Claire put it, "with him" - except Frank.
Ben DID let Jacob speak to him beneath the statue: Jacob tells Ben that he has a choice on whether or not to kill him.
Frank: Dead or Alive?
He survived the sinking sub and swam to a different beach.
While Frank is not a primary character, he is not minor enough to simply be killed off camera. If he dies, it will be on camera and his status will not be left ambiguous. He is alive.
Frank still has a purpose to fulfill (flying the plane), so the Island is not done with him. Perhaps this gives him some immunity similar to that of the candidates. So even if the door knocked him unconscious and he should have died, he might have survived due to the Island magicks.
In interview with TPTB, they said Sayid, Jin and Sun were definitely dead, but there was no mention of Frank being dead. He is a series regular and is important enough to be recongized as dead by the producers. [1] Also, LOST Untangled said that everyone survived except Jin, Sun and Sayid. [2]
Claire asked: "Are they all dead?" MiB answered: "Not all of them." He only wanted the candidates to die. He may thought that Jack, Hurley; Kate and Sawyer also is dead. He knew that Lapidus didn't die.
Frank is dead.
"We didn't see his body!": We saw him get knocked unconscious in a flooding sub; what more did we need to see? Showing him again would interrupt the much more important and powerful scene of Sun and Jin's deaths.
He had a death scene almost equal to Sayid's, a series regular from day 1. Sayid's death was just as sudden and only slightly more drawn out, simply because it was a crappy way for Frank to die doesn't mean it couldn't happen.
We saw Sayid blow up. We saw Frank get hit by a door. Those are by no means equal.
Saying Frank was "hit by a door" is kind of an understatement. It would be more accurate to say "Frank was struck by a thick heavy steel bulkhead door propelled into his body with tremendous force by seawater flooding in under high pressure when the hull of the submerged submarine was breached by an explosion".
If he suddenly showed up next episode, alive, we would need an explanation of how he got out of the sub. Good writers know you don't just tell us what happened, you show us. There will be no flashback to Lapidus swimming up from the sub, unless he wrestled a Dharma shark along the way.
Since they aren't using the plane to escape, he no longer has a purpose.
However, the plane is now the only way left off of the island, barring any extremely odd methods such as the Frozen Wheel.
In his weekly podcast, Jorge Garcia claims that Jin, Sun, Sayid, and Frank all died in The Candidate.
He's actually not quite that specific. His words were "Man, that was a lot of death. Poor Sayid, Sun, Jin and Lapidus." That could easily be an intentionally misleading statement. He doesn't actually say there that ANY of those characters are dead.
No, but what else could he have meant? This is starting to turn into clutching at straws.
The ambiguity on the part of all parties makes me think he may be still alive. Why else would they skirt the question so much?
The actor who plays Frank says, "Well, he went down with the submarine. Yeah, he’s dead."
Where did he say this? Because If you show the source we could probably get the portal to say he's dead.
Frank isnt dead, hes gonna show up at some opportune moment and most likely kill Ben in the nick of time before he(Ben) kills or harms someone else. That is what a character like him is built for, the unknown/ unexpected reappearance, hes gonna be like Han Solo when he came back to help the rebellion fight the Empire
And as a secondary character he probably dosn't know if hes dead in the show yet, many a good creator of TV and movies has filmed scenes ahead of time, not used pre filmed scenes, and used financial penalty to deter there actors from revealing plot points, they only say what they are allowed to say, and most of them dont know
In . . . your . . . faces . . . ^_^ Sorry, I'm just so happy :D
Frank wasn't in the flash-sideways (afterlife) because he is too badass for death.
