Meet Kevin Johnson (Lost: Season 4 Episode 8)

My alternate title for this episode would be, "Vote Sayid 2008". He is the only one on this entire island (or freighter) that asks any questions or demands any answers! What did I say I wanted to see in this week’s episode? That Sayid and Michael/Kevin would have an
open, real and fast-paced conversation. And this week’s episode delivered!

One more thing before we get into the actual storyline…last week’s flashFORWARD/flashBACK had a lot of people calling the Lost writers sneaky and mean. I thought it was brilliant. (It’s not like they didn’t give us any clues!) This week is just another example of why the Lost writers are brilliant—the entire episode was basically a giant flashBACK. We hardly had any interaction with the Island or the freighter. And lord have mercy, did we get some answers!

Now, click on to read more…

The Island. Part 1.
Locke’s  Crew (the Nouveau Others) are
having a little meeting in Ben/Locke’s house. It’s a very uncomfortable
gathering as Sawyer, Hurley, Claire & Aaron, Alex, Karl and Rosseau
stare down Ben. Locke finally enters dragging a still tied up Miles.
Locke announces that he will no longer keep any secrets from them. He
explains/lets Miles explain that the freighter’s real mission is to get
Ben.

Everyone seems excited about this, saying things like, "Well, let’s
just give Ben to them!" Until Ben informs them that the freighter’s
orders are to kill everyone on the Island after Ben is captured.
Understandably they don’t believe him (or want to believe him) until
Ben says his man on the boat is Michael.

The Freighter.
Sayid and Desmond wake up to an alarm. They
run out to the deck and see all the crew (quite a lot more than I
thought, by the way. I think I counted 13 people.) watching Captain
Gaunt beat the heck out of someone. Apparently, he was trying to
escape. Gaunt warns them that he’s protecting them by not letting them
off the boat. He tells Michael/Kevin to clean up the mess and dismisses
everyone.

Sayid seizes his chance to talk to Michael/Kevin. Michael does not
want to talk. Sayid says, "What are you doing here?" Michael says,
"Waiting to die." (Or something equally morbid.)

Finally Sayid corners Michael in the engine room. He demands that Michael tells him what’s going on.

CUE FLASHBACK

Yes! I was so afraid this wasn’t going to happen. Now, settle in and let’s see what we’ve been missing for the past 2 seasons!

Michael is in his apartment writing a letter that is apparently
taking a lot out of him emotionally. He’s staring at a picture of
himself and a toddler-Walt. Michael gets into his car, pins the letter
(a suicide note?!) to his lapel and begins to drive and drive. He
drives straight into a dumpster and apparently dead.

(*gasp* Don’t you hate commercials? Thank goodness for Tivo. I
probably would have had a heart attack here if it wasn’t for my fast
forward button!)

Michael is in the hospital, looking very beat up. A nurse enters,
calls him by name and Michael realizes it’s Libby whom he killed on the
Island! But not really, he’s just hallucinating and the real nurse
enters. She asks about Walt (because of the note) but Michael won’t
talk.

Next we see Michael at his mom’s house. She won’t let him in. She
refuses because she says,(and I paraphrase) "I don’t know what you did
to him, but he doesn’t want to see you! I thought you were dead for 2
months and now you show back up and I can’t call either one of you by
your real name?! You tell me what happened or consider your rights to
Walt terminated." (Go, Mom!) Michael won’t tell her and walks away, but
not before seeing Walt in the window.

(Now, was that modern day "tall Walt" or was it photoshop-ed short
Walt? Or was it just a Walt look alike? Because that was weird.)

Now, Michael is trying to kill himself again. He trades Jin’s watch
for a gun and is in the alley about to pull the trigger when none other
than Mr. Friendly himself interrupts. This conversation was kind of odd
to me, too. Like they were trying to put too much into it.

Tom can see how distraught Michael is and then suddenly realizes,
"You told Walt. You told a ten year old that you killed those two
women. And now you’ve lost Walt." (By the way, did you notice how many
times the word "lost" was used in this episode? I wish I would have
counted! It was several times!) How weird is that, though? Since when
is Tom so insightful?

Anyway, Tom tells Michael that "The Island won’t let you kill
yourself because you’ve still got work to do." Wow! How many times have
we heard that? It’s exactly what Charlie told Hurley in episode 1. When
Michael doesn’t believe him, Tom tells him where he’s staying and to
come see him when he believes.

Again, we see Michael trying to kill himself and first the gun jams.
Then, as he’s about to pull the trigger the second time, a news flash
about the ruins of Oceanic Flight 815 being discovered is played on the
tv. (Who keeps the TV on when they are about to commit suicide?!) He
drops his gun and shows up at Tom’s hotel.

At the hotel we see Tom and Arturo (his lover?) eating. Tom
dismisses Arturo so he can talk to Michael. This conversation was great
because you have to remember, the last thing Michael saw of the Island
was the freaky purple-electromagnetic-anomaly with The Others all
dressed up like vagabonds and his friends blindfolded. So, to see Tom
in a nice hotel eating food has got to be a shock.

Tom shows Michael some receipts (why are receipts so convincing? I
could have made those!) of Widmore’s that prove he planted the plane
and all the dead bodies. Tom convinces Michael to join the Widmore’s
freighter, so he can stop it from reaching the Island and killing all
of his friends (the Losties). How is he supposed to stop it? Oh, by
killing everyone on the freighter, of course.

This whole thing is about Michael redeeming himself to the Losties.
I don’t know. It just doesn’t make sense. Why does everyone so freely
believe Ben & his party? Why would you just leave your son (with a
grandmother he doesn’t even know) and go to Fiji to get on a boat and
kill everyone…why would that redeem what you’d done before? Michael
is obviously desperate, so I guess that’s why he’s willing to do it.

He reaches the freighter and is introduced to the people we already
know (and have seen some die): Miles, Naomi, MInkowski, etc. Michael
isn’t friendly and is obviously terrified of what he’s come to do. He
has been given a box that he does not want to open. When he finally
does, it reveals a bomb. He sets it up in the engine room, presses the
button, says, "I love you, Walt." and closes his eyes to die with the
rest of the freighter.

Nothing happens.

Oh, except a little flag pops up. With a piece of paper rolled around it. That says, "NOT YET."

How sick is Ben?!

NOT YET?!

Michael goes back to life on the boat as a freaky hermit. Minkowski
approaches him and tells him he has a call from Walt. Michael is
shocked and when he arrives to the communication room, discovers the
call is actually from Ben. Ben (pre-beat down from Jack & Locke)
says, "Did you really think I would kill innocent people? I just did
that to show you that I am different from Widmore who will kill
everyone on the Island." Ben then asks Michael to get a list of
everyone on the boat, disable the communications room, then the engine
room and wait.

Michael agrees.

CUE MUSIC TO SIGNAL REAL TIME.

Sayid throws Michael up against the wall and says, "So, you work for
Benjamin Linus?" Michael concurs. Sayid then drags Michael up to
Captain Gaunt’s room. He tells Gaunt who Michael is and what he’s doing
there. Gaunt stares.

Nice, huh? See, this is why Sayid should be president! He gets
things done! He may or may not trust Michael, but the best thing to do
is to get these two opposing ideas (Widmore’s man and Ben’s man)
together. Now the question is will the writers let us see what happens
next? I doubt it.

The Island. Part 2.
As the little Other party is broken
up, Ben gives Alex a map to The Temple, the only safe place on the
Island, where all the other Others are. (Supposedly. I don’t believe a
drop of anything Ben says.) He pleads with Alex to go there with
Rosseau. Rosseau agrees. So, the two of them and Karl head to the
Temple. As they are walking, Karl and Alex share a little cutesie
conversation and right in the middle, Karl is shot in the chest.
Rosseau drags Alex away kicking and screaming. She grabs Alex’s face
and says, "He’s gone. Please trust me. I love you very much." (Or
something sweet like that…at least sweet for Rosseau.) On the count
of 3 they are going to get up and run. 1, 2 and 3, they get up to run
and Rosseau is shot in the chest! Alex is terrified then finally stands
up in surrender and yells "I’m Ben’s daughter! I’m Ben’s daughter!"

And that, my friends, is how it ends.

In Conclusion.
That was a big episode, huh? It was weird
because although it had lots of scenes and lots of stuff happened, it
was still kind of a "small" episode. I liked it though, because we
FINALLY know what happened to Michael and Walt. I was beginning to care
less about them, so I’m glad we got the whole story at once.

Answers/Closure We Got.
Michael & Walt’s story.
Locke’s crew knows what he knows.

Questions We Have
My main question is the whole Widmore vs
Ben thing. Did Widmore put the plane in the bottom of the ocean? Or did
Ben? And this question brings loads more—why? how do they know each
other? why are they blaming each other? who’s more dangerous?

Best Irony of the Night
Sayid getting irate that Michael works for Ben. (Don’t get the irony? Refresh your memory.)
Seriously, how great is that? And if Michael was willing to work for
Ben because of Walt, what in the world would make Sayid do it?

Things I’d Like to See Next Week
I’ll say it every week till it happens: A Locke FLASHforward.

Best Line of the Night
Sorry, I couldn’t get any exact quotes. My daughter commandeered the Tivo this morning for Little Einsteins.

That’s all I’ve got, Losties. Did I miss anything? What was your big revelation of the night? Talk amongst yourselves…

(and while we’re waiting for Lost to return in April, you can come commiserate with me at ohamanda.com)