Without a doubt, Ethan's plan was to delay their return.
And damn, did it work well. Although Lane was a strong swimmer, it still took him a long time to fish Ethan out. Then, the man pretended to be unconscious. Luckily, he had to give up his act the moment Lane started to give him CPR - Lane must have broken a few of his ribs with the first press, and Ethan was unable to endure the pain. Still, even though he quickly 'regained' consciousness, they still had to take a break for him to get changed into dry clothes and drink something warm.
