What do a physicist, a ghost buster, an archaeologist and a pilot have in common? They all have really cool jobs and are part of some secret mission involving our castaways and the Others.

The daunting question for this week is: who are they and what is their purpose on the island?

After a little thinking, I’ve come up with the conclusion that they work for Dharma, the organization behind all of the cool stations on the island, whose workers were all killed at the hands of Ben, leader of the Others. After all, we do know that they are looking for Ben, and judging by their conduct I’m guessing it’s not for hot air ballooning tips.

Remember the man who visited Hurley in the mental hospital who kept asking if “they” were still alive? Well, his name is Matthew Abbadon, and he appears on the show again, this time showing Naomi pictures of the archaeologist and others, telling her that they are her crew for the mission.

We can be sure that the mission does not involve rescuing the survivors -- Abbadon tells Naomi that nobody survived. From other scenes in the show we also see that there is a giant cover up of the crash. Wreckage and dead bodies are shown, a location is given, but it’s all a hoax. Pretty sneaky.

So why Ben? Well, he is the reason all of the Dharma workers died. Perhaps Dharma and Abbadon have a little vendetta against ol’ Ben. In order to exact their revenge and cover their tracks, they would need to get to Ben and also make it so there are no survivors in existence who could snitch.

Judging by this week’s episode, we can see that this plan goes awry. Somehow, people get off the island, Ben being one of them. We also see that Sayid becomes a hit man for Ben, perhaps a means to keep his friends from the island safe (safe from what?). In the episode, we see Sayid attempting to track down and kill some big shot “economist”.

The target’s employee becomes the lover of Sayid, but she’s really a double-agent. She’s also wearing the same kind of bracelet that Naomi wore, perhaps a work-related thing. So, maybe it becomes some kind of cat-and-mouse game between Ben and the survivors and Dharma.

Only the future will tell if my humble theory is true. In the meantime, I’ll be watching…