Episode 408 - "Meet Kevin Johnson" and Arturo

Michael's return explained! The appearance of no fewer than four dead characters!! Tom's orientation confirmed!!! All this, plus a bit of fresh death, in "Meet Kevin Johnson."

Freighter Time
This episode had a fairly unique structure to it. Although bookended by island-time sequences, virtually all of the action consisted of Michael's relating his story to Sayid and Desmond in the first (to my recollection) instance of a Lost flashback actually being narrated from one character to others.

On the freighter, Desmond and Sayid are awakened by sirens. They emerge on deck where Captain Gault is beating two men. "The rules of desertion still apply to everyone," he announces to the assembled crew. "I'm not beating these men to scare you. I'm beating them to save your lives." He orders "Johnson" to clean up the aftermath. Sayid makes a beeline for him, and pointedly says, "hello, Michael." Over Michael's protestation of "not now," Sayid demands to know why Michael is on the boat, even as the captain appears to take an interest (from afar) in the interaction. "I'm here to die" responds Michael. Hello - shadows of Dr. Evil? "No, Mr. Powers, I expect you to die!" Just me? Nobody else? Come on, throw me a freakin' bone, people...

Later, Sayid and Desmond join Michael in the engine room to "help" with the repairs. Michael sends off the other crew member who was present to fetch supplies, and Sayid demands to know how Michael came to be on this boat...

Flashback - Michael Dawson in New York City

In a dilapidated apartment, Michael wrote something on a notebook. He looked longingly at a photo of him with baby Walt before turning on some Mama Cass in an old green Cadillac. Michael pinned a piece of paper to his jacket (which we would later learn was a suicide note addressed to Walt). Michael then drove at high speed to the waterfront, where he apologized out loud (like Jack, on the 6th Street Bridge in Los Angeles in "Through the Looking Glass"), before plowing headlong into a cargo crate. Later, Michael awoke in the hospital when a nurse came in...and that nurse was...Libby??? Ah, just a dream. Only Michael was in the hospital. On any other show, Michael's occasional Libby apparitions would be just his guilty conscience following him around (and, hence, the suicide attempt). But on Lost, visions are never "just" visions. Unless they are.

The "real" nurse who then came in noted that Michael had no i.d. on him, but asked if he wanted her to call Walt (the adressee of his suicide note), but Michael said no.

Later, he knocked on the door of his mother's house late at night. He asked if he could come in, but his mother would not let him see Walt. She didn't understand how he and Walt could be alive given the reports of everyone dying on flight 815. They were apparently going by different names now (and, I bet, Michael's was something like Jonathan "L___tham"), but Momma wouldn't let Michael see Walt until he explained where they were for two months. Refusing, Michael instead he just asked her to tell Walt he loves him. Walt, briefly, looked down from the upstairs window, but then turned away, as though disgusted.

This scene taught us a few things. First of all, it would appear that theories that Ben somehow sent Michael and Walt back in time (hence - taller ghost Walt) are incorrect. After all, Momma's perception of how long they were gone, and her recollection that they were on flight 815, tell us Michael and Walt returned to New York just a little after they left the Pala Ferry dock. We also began to suspect, which would later be confirmed, that Walt knows exactly what his father did to obtain his freedom...

Michael then went into a pawn shop and offered Mr. Paik's watch (which I guess he still had after his Season 1 spat with Jin) in exchange for a gun. Michael then took the gun into an alley, loaded it frantically, held it to his chin......only to be interrupted by...Tom! "Excuse me sir, do you have the time?" asked the man who once prompted Michael to so famously scream, "Waaaaaaaalt!" "Come on Michael, how 'bout it for an old friend?" So Tom, like Ben and Richard and Ethan, has spent time off-island? Michael attacked, but Tom took him down pretty easily. "We're the ones who sent you home Michael," reminded Mr. Friendly, "did you honestly think we weren't going to keep tabs?" Tom then realized the source of Michael's despair - he had told Walt what he did to Ana Lucia and Libby. "I got some bad news for you amigo," smiled Tom. "You can't kill yourself. The island won't let you."

Whoah! Hold on - the island won't let you? Tom's later explanation that something will get in the way of an attempt to escape service to the island via suicide sheds some light on Jack's near jump. It appears now that the island caused the minivan accident that turned Jack from would-be flood channel splat to second-time hero. For me the big question is just how does the island extend its influence so far? And, for that matter, what does it want from Jack and Michael?

Tom returned the gun to Michael and dared him to try again, then said he'd be at the penthouse of the hotel Earl. Michael went home and tried...but the fully-loaded gun would no longer fire. As he tried again, Michael saw the video of the recovered flight 815. Suddenly, he knew his murder not be found out. He then went to see Tom, who was with his lover, Arturo(? Ah ha!)

We finally have confirmation of what Tom meant when he told Kate she was not his type...

Tom said some of the Others could come and go to the mainland as they pleased. (I wonder how this happens, and makes a particular Other worthy of such a right? We know Juliet could not, but Richard, Tom, Ethan, and Ben all seem able to come and go. Theories?) He explained that Charles Widmore staged the plane crash because he didn't want anyone else to find the island by looking for the wreckage of the plane. As proof, Tom showed Michael a dossier containing a picture of 324 dug-up Thai graves, and the Widmore Corp. purchase orders for the plane and equipment to place it in the ocean.

Ok, so we now have our second, mutually-exclusive explanation for how the fake flight 815 got to the bottom of the Sunda Trench. Although Tom's story certainly seems to be backed up by more evidence than Captain Gault's, consider this...the empty grave photo doesn't exactly show Widmore with a shovel. What's more likely - the Others took the picture themselves when they robbed the grave, or they obtained the photo after learning that Widmore did?

Tom told Michael he needed to get on Widmore's freighter, as Kevin Johnson, a deckhand. Tom said helping out like this would be Michael's only chance at redemption for the double-murder he committed that ultimately cost him his relationship with his son. But, to achieve his redemption, Michael would have to kill everyone on board the freighter.

Later, in Fiji, "Kevin Johnson" got out of a taxi to board the ship. He was greeted by Minkowski, then checked in with Naomi, who pointed out a crate that had arrived with his name on it. As Michael, er, Kevin, made his way onto the freighter, he encountered Miles, who reported knowing that Kevin wasn't who he said he was, but then explained this by stating nobody on a freighter like this is (yeah, right).

Seriously, what's the deal with Miles? While it's understandable he may have ghost-whispered with Libby or Ana Lucia to learn that Michael was not who he claimed to be, all indications have been that he needed to be near the body or the spirit of the departed to commune with them. So did he really have no insight into Michael, or is there more to this encounter yet to uncover?

Later, Michael watched as Frank lost an argument with Naomi over which of them should be the first to pilot a helicopter to the island (offhand, I'd say Frank was right). Frank then introduced himself and told Michael he joined the crew because he believed, as Widmore did, that the found flight 815 was bogus, and he thought this mission would enable him to find survivors.

I really want to like and trust Frank. Unlike Miles, who seems completely self-serving, Daniel, who seems fairly indifferent to others (in comparison to his interest in studying the island) and Charlotte, who seems to full-on into her mission, I truly believe Frank when he told Sayid that he wanted to help. But there's still some doubt (more on this later).

Still later, Michael saw Keamy, Omar and others skeet shooting off the deck - with automatic rifles! When Michael said he thought this was supposed to be a rescue mission, they just looked at him and laughed.

This prompted Michael to, at long last, open the crate. When he did, he found a bomb concealed in a toolkit. Convinced that Tom was right, and that everyone on the boat had to die to prevent an attack on his former comrades, Michael took the bomb to the engine room, overcame much inner conflict, and pressed the "execute" button and watched the timer count down to zero, only to have a flag pop up with a message. Michael read the scrap of paper, which said, "Not Yet."

Later, Minkowski told Michael a call from Walt had been patched in for him. Michael took the call, only to find the voice of Ben on the other side. Apparently, the bomb was just training Michael to accept that he must do something terrible to those on the boat. Ben coldly reminded Michael that the murders of Ana Lucia and Libby were his own decision (i.e. the Others only told him to free Ben and bring Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sawyer - the double-homicide was his own improvised means of doing it). Ben then told Michael there are actually innocents on the boat he did not want to kill, and noted how this set him apart from Widmore, who intended to kill everyone on the island. Ben then instructed Michael to make a list of everyone on board, provide that list to Ben, and then destroy the radio and sabotage the engine (the aftermath of which we've already seen). Finally, Ben assured Michael that doing all this would make him one of the "good guys."

Freighter Time

Sayid considers Michael's story, then quickly decides how to react. Wrenching Michael's arm behind him, Sayid (with Desmond behind him) marches Michael to the Captain's quarters, where Sayid reveals that Michael is an 815 survivor, the saboteur, and a spy for Ben Linus.

Island Time - Team Locke

At the Barracks there is a gathering of Team Locke (Karl cleans up nicely; Hurley does not). Sawyer eyes newly-freed Ben suspiciously. Locke brings in Miles, his hands still tied. Locke says he's coming clean, and he brought Miles to share why the boat people are here. Miles says they're here for Ben, which Sawyer is all for. Ben explains Locke's claim that they can't just turn Ben over because Miles's follow-up orders are to kill everyone else on the island after he has Ben in custody. Ben then reveals Michael to be his spy to the group, prompting Sawyer to remember just how mad he is that Michael got to go home as a reward for killing and selling out several of his comrades. Sawyer follows Locke and Miles out of the meeting. Sawyer, unmoved by the supposed complete honesty Locke promised, demands to hear about the three million Miles demanded. Miles laughs when Locke dismisses the notion as impossible. "Linus will find a way to do it." Miles points out Ben's new situation - eating pound cake as a free man days after being held at gunpoint - as proof that Ben gets what he wants.

Ben asks Alex to stick around after the meeting. He gives her a map to...the Temple (a DHARMA station?) and says they need to go there. Ben says it's a sanctuary were only Others can go (even though Karl and Alex didn't know about it previously). Ben assures Alex the freighterites are more dangerous than he is, but Danielle would protect her and Karl as they made their way there.

Finally, we hear about the Temple again. I for some reason had assumed the Temple would be more linked to the four-toed statue and less to DHARMA, but I'll await passing judgment until we see it.

At the end of the episode, Alex, Danielle and Karl stop for a rest and some water. Moments after Karl utters the Star Warsian "I have a bad feeling about all this," he is shot dead.

Danielle runs to protect Alex and tells her she needs to leave her boyfriend's body to get to safety. She assures Alex that, as her mother (albeit an absentee for 16 years), she does love her, and tells Alex they need to run. Suddenly, Danielle, herself, is shot, and falls to the ground.

Alex, assuming the hositilities are from the freighter people, holds up her hands, and announces she is Ben Linus's daughter.

And that's where the episode ended.

So, some thoughts on this final scene. First, when the promos promised someone would die, I (and Jeff Jensen at ew.com) instantly thought "Karl." The poor former video torture victim's only real purpose in the show was as a wedge between Alex and Ben, so he was a goner. Sure, last week's episode suggested Jin, but since Team Jack was conspicuously absent from this episode, that just wasn't going to happen.

But Danielle? No freaking way. She has been such an awesome (albeit side) character. Although being reunited with Alex was pretty much her only desire in life, and, once fulfilled, watch out, I find it hard to believe that her story is over. For one thing, we've been promised her flashfack would come at some point (although, as we've seen with Libby, it's possible to learn a great deal about characters who have died through the flashbacks of other characters, like, oh, Ben?) Still, I really hope she survives this shocker.

But now the real questions - who shot them, and did Ben know it would happen when he sent them to the Temple? On the first question, there are three possibilities - 1) Keamy (who we can assume returned to the island with Frank when the chopper disappeared from the deck of the freighter); 2) the Others, who don't want unplanned visitors at the Temple; and 3) someone we have yet to meet. Ben's warning sure points us to number one, and, given the number of characters we already have to deal with, I'd say three is somewhat unlikely. But did Ben deliberately send Karl and Danielle into an Other sniper trap? Think about it - he was desperate to keep Karl away from Alex lest he impregnate her, and Alex had already chosen Danielle over him as a preferred parent after she learned that Ben had lied about her death. We also know that Ben is more than capable of sending a perceived rival for someone's affection off to die (i.e. Goodwin). So the question remains - did Ben intend for his two biggest rivals for his daughter's love to die when he sent them to the Temple, and, if so, was their getting shot the result of instructions Ben gave his people, or something he knew would happen (through a Desmond-like flash?) when they encountered the freighterites?

So that's it, Lostophiles, not just for the episode but for the pod of 8. Lost is taking a break for the next five weeks or show before returning, one hour later, on April 24 with five back-to-back episodes to finish out the season. But don't worry - I'm sure I'll have more to talk about in this space between now and then.

Namaste!