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Reason for Selection

• Miles is "special." He is associated with Abaddon, who found Locke and may be tasked with finding special people. When Abaddon defended his choices of Lapidus, Miles, Charlotte and Daniel to Naomi, he was insistent that these people be part of the mission. Like Locke, these people may have premonitions of their future. Miles seems to have premonitions (finding the hidden money of a stranger in Confirmed dead, knowing about Ben's 3.2 million dollars), and this may be why he didn't leave the island - he knew the Kahana was going to explode. Also how he knew where Karl and Rousseau's bodies were. Their premonitions may have made finding the island possible, and this was the reason Abaddon chose them.

• To gather information about or communicate with Jacob.
  • Miles has shown no interest in seeking out Jacob, which may indicate there is nothing supernatural about Jacob (see 'prestidigitation' q.v.)
    • Miles may simply not know that he was brought to meet Jacob. Abaddon may likely leave this to the Island.
• He is connected to the Hanso Foundation or is ex-DHARMA, previously involved in their parapsychology research.
  • He seems a bit too young to have been ex-DHARMA.
  • Getting Ben seems to be personal for him (ie. Ben gassed all his friends, or perhaps parents.)
• He was sent to the Island to communicate with the DHARMA members killed by Ben.
  • He is looking for the mass grave.
  • He has silently been gathering information from the dead the entire time he has been on the island. His abilities allow him to quickly assess the history of the island since the Purge, and this is why he was sent, to be an investigative historian for Widmore, whether he realizes it or not. Recall how furious he became at Ben, clearly separating himself from the crash survivors by yelling at Ben not to treat him like one of them. Clearly he knows far more about the island, Ben, and the Others than has yet been revealed.
• He was recruited as a safety measure for the team in case the monster gives them any trouble.
  • He was recruited to communicate with the smoke monster.
    • This is why he's staying on the island; he can't leave until he encounters the monster.
• The organization they are with sought him out; the photograph seen in Naomi's flashback is clearly a surveillance photo. He was investigated by the organization before being recruited.
  • Miles knows (through supernatural powers or otherwise) that there is a stockpile of money somewhere on the island. He lets Ben realize he knows by saying the specific amount.

Abilities

• He never seemed to sense Jacob, indicating he is not a spirit, or that they are not omnipresent on the island.
  • If he really can communicate with spirits, it's likely only in close proximity. He needed to be taken to Naomi's body before he could "speak" with her.
  • His powers are the opposite of Desmond's - Desmond sees the future, Miles sees the past. This is how he "knows" what happened to Naomi and can "see" Danielle and Karl. Much like Desmond, his powers only work when he is in the appropriate surroundings (i.e. Desmond could have had premonitions about anything in the world, but instead they all pertained to Charlie).
  • We don't know if he has sensed Jacob yet or not. Nothing has been shown one way or the other.
    • This leads to his confusion of Charlotte being on The Island before. His sense of the present can be confusing to him at times.
    • He's not confused at all. He clearly knows that Charlotte has been on the Island before.
• His ability could be connected to the Whispers. If the Whispers are spirits attempting to communicate, perhaps Miles can hear them all the time or whenever he wishes to. Off the island, he needs special equipment to stir them up, but because the island is special, he can hear them without it. The other people on the island only hear them when they want to be heard, or possibly when their conversations become so animated that they become loud enough to hear.
• He is a fraud. Like Malkin, he gathers intelligence and exploits people for it. At the end of the apparent exorcism, he had a change in heart, and gave back some money, demonstrating that he may not be just a greedy fraud.
  • He was able to find exactly where the dead person was hiding his money within seconds when he had no way of knowing this.
  • Any knowledge he gains from Naomi's body was gained forensically, when Jack and Kate are distracted by Daniel. He deduced that she died from a knife to the back - thrown with skill from a distance. Kate specifically told Miles that Naomi was killed by "a man named John Locke." Miles is already familiar with Locke (and his knife-throwing abilities) through Locke's multiple dealings with law enforcement in the state of California.
    • It would be difficult to explain how he knew about Karl and Rousseau.
• His "abilities" stem from a background in forensic science/law enforcement. They are not supernatural.
• He uses the air-cooling device to create a temperature differential, drawing in warmer air from outside of the room and revealing the location of the air vent - the circulating air causes the bag of money to move.
  • He only talks to himself because he's worried the woman may be listening.
• On the island, he holds his gun with two hands, fixed on his target (Jack) as someone with some weapons training would. Naomi confirms that he has no military training, but she doesn't mention anything about police training. He also uses police jargon - "hands where I can see 'em!"
  • Or everything he learned about police training/jargon he learned from watching bad cop TV shows & movies where they use lines like "hands where I can see 'em!". In this case, Miles is likely a big Expose fan.
  • More likely that Miles could communicate with Libby's ghost who is haunting Michael - that's how he knew Michael wasn't Kevin Johnson.
• Miles is technically a 'fraud' but is not aware. He sincerely believes he has 'the gift' but it will be determined later that all his knowledge is based on deductive reasoning by his unconscious mind. All or most of his presumed supernatural ability will be found to have a sound and rational explanation.
  • The writers will never flat out rule one way or the other: the viewer will be left deciding for themselves whether or not Miles is the real McCoy.
• Miles is trained in FACs, meaning he can interpret even the tiniest facial reactions. He knew Michael was lying by watching his face.
  • • While there are arguments for him having no powers, this does raise two questions. The first is, why did he talk to the 'ghost' in his flashback? Perhaps this was to amuse himself and pass the time so the grandmother wasn't suspicious, but if he were to do that he wouldn't likely have risked talking about such a dangerous subject. Also, why did the shelf in the room shake? He asked the 'ghost' where the money was and the shelf shook, revealing where it was (behind it in the baseboard. This, while not proving he has powers, does show that there is more chance he does than he doesn't.
• His power appears to be very similar to that of Harry Keogh, the main character in Brian Lumley's Necroscope series.
  • Unlike Keogh, however, Straume has only been shown using his abilities for material gain, whereas Keogh uses his powers to ease the suffering of the dead and become enriched by their considerable knowledge and experience.
• Miles and the grandson were somehow connected before the episode he was introduced. This explains why Miles knew what he was asking about in the first place when he asks "where is it".
• He clearly has supernatural powers, including the ability to communicate with the dead. He "saw" Danielle and Karl being killed as he unearthed their graves. He knew where their graves were because of his powers. He knew that Charlotte had been on the Island before. He clearly knew that something was suspicious with Claire, that she in fact died when her house was attacked. When someone said she was lucky to be alive, he said, "I wouldn't be too sure." He watches her carefully after that, leading Sawyer to give him a "restraining order," but Sawyer doesn't understand his intentions are only to observe her. He knows many secrets of both the living and dead, and this has been demonstrated many times.

General

• The name Miles Straume is a word play on "maelstrom." Damon Lindelof said:: With Miles Straume, we just thought it would be cool if his name sounded like maelstrom.
  • Unfortunately, this means that they need a good explanation for why a Chinese American guy has a last name like Straume. Hopefully it works into the story that Miles was adopted if they want this to be credible.
    • There are many explanations for this: 1) Born to a biracial family (probably the least likely), 2) Changed it himself, or 3) Family either changed the name when moving to America (many family's do this or was forced to do this) or Family changed it to fit in with a name.
• When he steals the money, he is really a good man. He made a deal with the ghost to give the money back to the original owner.
  • The original owners are junkies. He may use the money for a noble purpose but he won't be returning it.
• He is not noble, and very greedy. He steals the money from the house, goes to the Island because someone offered him a 'lot of money' and is willing to lie to them if he gets $3.2M.
• He uses his talents to make money. Isn't that what we all do?
• A connection between Miles and Pierre Chang could exist, based on the Dharma Booth Video. If Miles is the crying baby in the video, and if Pierre Chang is his father, then he is angry with Ben because of Ben's role in the purge.
• He was born a few years prior to the purge and is back on The Island to find his father Pierre Chang and his mother Lara Chang and kill Ben, because Ben killed his parents.