LostEpisode 408Meet Kevin JohnsonI am feeling … let down… slightly irritated... disappointed. Definitely disappointed. I knew that this was going to happen. After
I went on and on about how brilliant the writers are, I knew it was only a matter of time before I was disappointed in something. I mean, is this
it?? Is this all that they can come up for how Michael ended up on Widmore’s boat???
As much as I have this dislike for Michael, I feel very sorry for him. Benry is right; nobody told Michael to shoot Ana-Lucia or Libby, but he was a
desperate father. I don’t have children, but I imagine that if you have a child you would do anything to keep your child safe.
And maybe if you were in an extreme situation as Michael was, you would resort to murder. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t condone what Michael has done. He did murder two women in cold blood, and he has to live with that.
And we see from his flashback, that he
cannot live with that knowledge. Our flashback takes us to a much tormented Michael who is back in the US. He tries several times to kill himself – unsuccessfully. We also find out that he has alienated Walt, who is living with Michael’s mum.
It’s only later, when the Other Tom pitches up, that we learn that Michael has probably told Walt that he’s killed Ana-Lucia and Libby. Anyway, Tom manages to recruit Michael when Michael sees coverage of the Oceanic Flight 815. Tom tells him that this is his redemption.
So, Michael sets off for Fiji, where he boards the Kahana and becomes the deckhand. A few days after they set sail, Michael tries to blow up the boat with explosives sent to him by the Others. Only… when he presses the execute button, he gets a note saying “Not yet”.
Michael eventually gets a call on the boat from someone who calls himself Walt – It was Benry. Benry instructs a very reluctant Michael to get info on the crew and then damage the radio and the engine. This is apparently what Michael does.
It takes us nicely back to the boat present day. Sayid is not too happy to see Michael again, and he wants answers. After hearing Michael’s story, he hauls him to Captain Gault and informs Gault that he has a traitor onboard. He spills the beans about Michael being a passenger on Flight 815.
Meanwhile, back in Lockington Heights, Locke brings Miles up to one of the cottages. Good to see he’s not still biting down on that grenade. I loved how everyone, while waiting for Locke, sat around Benry staring at him. Anyway. Miles tells them that they are after Benry and that they have orders to kill everyone once they have Benry.
Benry also informs the losties that Michael is his spy on the boat. Outside the cottage, Sawyer wants to know about the bribe. Miles scoffs, and says that Benry has ways and means of getting the cash.
Inside the cottage, Benry gives Alex a map and tells her that it will take her to the temple, where she will be safe. She’s reluctant to go, but Danielle persuades her after Benry says “Your mother will look after you”.
As Alex, Danielle and Karl trek through the jungle, they are suddenly attacked and Karl and Danielle are killed. Alex is now alone and she doesn’t know what to do. She stands up with her hands in the air and screams out “I’m Ben’s daughter”.
And that, my friends, is where the damned episode ends. Now we’ve got to wait a few weeks before we get to the next episode. How am I ever going to last that long???
So, the key points from this episode are:
• Michael’s guilt at having killed two women, betrayed the losties and conspiring with Ben is very apparent. Michael is a tormented soul. He cannot live with himself. And to make matters worse, Walt does now not want anything to do with him.
In what I can assume is another desperate act, Michael confides in Walt about what he’s done to get them free. As one would expect, Walt is probably horrified at the idea. Walt is only 10 years old; Michael cannot expect any other reasoning. Maybe that is what Michael wanted – his son’s scorn and disdain, because he (Michael) hates himself??
• Tom’s appearance in Manhattan to recruit Michael is interesting for several reasons. Firstly they kept tabs on Michael, which is not that unexpected. Secondly, they are very aware of who wants the island and why he wants it. They know details of his attempts to get to the island.
Now, consider this - Miles knows who Kate is; he probably knows who Sawyer, Sayid, Jack and all the other Losties are as well. They also knew immediately that Juliet was a “local”. How can they not have known that Michael was not who he said he was?? This leads me to believe that Michael is not the only spy working for Benry on the Kahana.
• Tom also tells Michael that he will never be able to kill himself because the “Island will not allow it”. Now this I found incredibly interesting. Benry and Locke treat the island as a living entity. And here Tom is telling Michael that his attempts at suicide will be thwarted. And it looks like Tom is right; because no matter what Michael tries, he is unable to kill himself.
First, we see him driving into a cargo container; he then tries to shoot himself twice and on the boat, he tries blowing himself as well as the boat up. Does this then mean that the island can control events and people??
• Tom gives Michael a folder on Charles Widmore. It contains receipts of dummy companies purchasing planes; images of dug up graves in Thailand, shipping logs etc etc. Michael seems to buy this story.
But is it true? Gault claims that the setup was staged by Benry, and Benry claims that it was staged by Widmore. It seems that they both have the means to make it happen. Who do we believe?
• The appearance of Libby was also interesting. Is she part of Michael’s guilty conscience?
• Sayid’s revealing of Michael to Gault. Yikes. Does Sayid have a master plan behind all this? Will he use this to get off the boat?? Or is this going to lead to the catastrophic events that lead him to be recruited by Benry?
• Who killed Danielle and Karl? Poor Danielle. I didn’t expect her to die; I honestly believed that she was going to escape with Alex. If you look at it logically, it can only one of two groups of people – the boat people or Others. I very much doubt, firstly, that it’s the Losties. They don’t go about killing people randomly, and they have no reason to kill any of these 3.
It could be the boat people, but that I very much doubt as well. It’s not impossible that some of the crew sneaked onto the island without Benry or the Losties knowing about it. But then why attack these three and not the Losties on the beach??
I think that it’s some of the Others. Why they would kill Karl and Danielle??? Well, Benry isn’t too fond of Karl and his affection for his daughter. And Danielle?? She is probably a bigger threat than we realized. The Others probably let her live on the island in relative peace when they thought she was no threat.
But why??? I have a theory. Benry says to Danielle “Your mother will look after you”. I assumed that he meant Danielle. She certainly believed that as well. What if he didn’t mean Danielle??
Harper tells Juliet that she looks just like “her” (whoever “her” might be). And we also saw that Benry had a childhood friend (Anna, I think) whose fate we are uncertain of. What if Benry means her?? What if Benry sent Alex to Anna? And they killed Karl and Danielle on Benry’s orders??
Hmmm. Clearly this episode wasn’t quite as bad as I initially thought it was. I’ve changed my mind – it wasn’t that bad. Now we just have to wait for the next episode. At least we can rest assured that out Lost fans in the US are in the same boat as us. I cannot wait! The worst thing is that we don’t even know when Lost resumes!!
In summation:
What we have learnt this week
• Walt and Michael make to the Us, and are living under false names. Nobody knows what their story is.
• Michael tries several times to kill himself
• Walt and Michael are not on speaking terms
• Tom recruits Michael in Manhattan
• Michael damaged the radio and engines of the Kahana
• Gault runs a very tight ship – going so far as to beat up one of his crew when they try to leave the ship without his orders
• Tom/Ben claim that Widmore is behind the staged flight 815 wreck.
• The island apparently can control events and people
• There is a sanctuary on the island called The Temple where the rest of the Others are.
• Somebody kills Karl and Danielle
New Questions
• Who killed Danielle and Karl?
• Why did Sayid spill the beans on Michael?
• Who else apart from Ben, Tom and Richard leave the island?
Interesting Trivia (from
this site)
• Korean inscriptions on back of the Rolex watch that Jin gave to Michael translate to "congratulations," "mutual cooperation," "business development," and "Mr. Paik.".
• The Hotel Earl, where Tom is staying, was also the name of the Hotel in the film Barton Fink , In the film, the hotel is like purgatory, a popular "Lost" theory is that the Island is purgatory.
• Kurt Vonnegut, author of Slaughterhouse Five, is once again mentioned. This time as an answer on the game show Michael is watching on TV.
• Michael hears whispers and sees Libby just before he activates the bomb on the freighter. This is the first time the whispers are heard off the Island.
Interesting Screen Caps (from
this site)
R.I.P Danielle
Off to Captain Gault
Walt. Whatever happened to "Taller" Walt?
Libby
The map to the temple
This weeks eye-candy :)