Meet Kevin Johnson

"Meet Kevin Johnson" was certainly a strange outing in the Lost narrative. It was at times engaging, at others predictable and disappointing. It felt like an episode of a different show. A spin-off, perhaps.

But in the hour of television that we watched, how much actually happened in the story?

1) Sayid tattled on Michael
2) Rousseau and Karl were shot

That's it. The rest was a predictable flashback. How many of us Lost-lovers, when we learned that Michael was Ben's spy, didn't think that Ben figured out a way to manipulate him into getting on the boat? Michael's "revelatory" flashback felt like a chore to me.

Tada...You're in ManhattanUm...maybe I missed something. Didn't we last see Michael and Walt on a tiny outrigger, puttering away from the Island at 3.4 miles per hour? And yet, the flashback opens with Michael in a Manhattan apartment. Dis-a-ppoint-ing. Did he drive that dingy through the Island's electromagnetic bubble all the way from the South Pacific to the Eastern Seaboard of the United States? I was very frustrated that this key piece of information was withheld.

At least we found out that the passage of time was, in fact, congruent. Michael was on the Island for about two months, which is how long Big Momma said he was missing.

Remember Me?Libby popped up twice. Once in the hospital, and once on the freighter just before Mike hit "execute." Looks like the Island, or perhaps the Black Smoke, gets into your mind and then uses your memories to manipulate you...

Are we to assume that the Island somehow infiltrates the consciousness of those who walk Its wilds, and can later use Its unqualified powers within their consciousness to influence their behavior? Was that a poorly-worded sentence?

With the appearance of Libby in this episode, along with Charlie's cameo in Hurley's post-Island life, it looks like the Island's bizarre powers of manifestation are not limited to its boundaries. It appears as though the Island understands the psyche of Its inhabitants very well, and can use that knowledge to Its advantage. If It wants Hurley to come back and do It a favor, for example, It just projects Hurley's memory of Charlie into Hurley's perception of reality, and tells him "You have to go back. They NEED you." Apparently, the Island tried the same trick with Michael, attempting to stop him from setting off the bomb. But the bomb was fake! Is the Island really that dumb? I found these Libby apparitions frustrating and discontinuous.

Mr. Friendly...Very FriendlyAlso appearing in this episode was Tom, dead to us, but still alive in the timeline of the flashback. I thought his performance in this episode was a little forced, but I'm going to blame the over-expositionary dialogue instead of the actor. At least we learned the following things from him:

1) The Others are very well-funded in the Real World.
2) Some Others can come and go from the Island as they please.
3) Tom is definitely gay, explaining his "not my type" comment to Kate in season three (although Kate is nowhere near my type, either). I'm personally glad that another beloved character in fiction, like Albus Dumbledore, has come out of the closet, so that people will stop being so afraid of what they don't understand...

The Island Won't Let You
Does anyone buy this? Or do you, like me, think that Tom switched guns on Mike and gave him one without a firing pin?

One of the key themes of Lost is the dichotomy between Fate and Free Will. Do these characters have Free Will, or are there supernatural forces (Jacob, the Island, the Universe) that govern their fates?

I think that Ben uses "Fate" as an excuse. When he or his minions speak of the Island "not letting" you do something, he's really just manipulating you into thinking that you have no choice. Another character we've seen do this? Mrs. Hawking. She told Desmond his fate was to leave Penny and crash on the Island. But do we really believe that? Or was she manipulating him into making the same decision twice by telling him he had no choice?

"Ive got a bad feeling about this..."
What an unceremonious way to go, Karl (and to blatantly allude to Star Wars). However, I'm 99.9% sure that Rousseau isn't dead. She's one of my favorite characters, and still has plenty of story to tell. If Locke can get shot in the gut and be fine the next day, so can my girl Danielle.

The big question surrounding this mini-cliffhanger is, Who shot them? Are choices are twofold, I believe:

1) Ben set them up. He somehow communicated to his Other Brothers at the Temple that they should snipe Karl and Danielle so that he could have Alex all to himself. This fits into Ben's possessive streak but I don't buy it. The only reason he disliked Karl was that he was afraid Karl would knock up Alex. And that, my friends, has already happened. Remember that shot of Karl and Alex looking at Baby Aaron? Noticed how often Alex has been rubbing her tummy lately?

2) Ben really wanted them safe, but the trigger-happy tattooed militia from the freighter shot them. Remember last week, when Keamy (Mr. Tattoo) told Frank Lapidus to fire up the chopper to "run an errand"? Where else is there to go in the middle of the Pacific other than the Island? And why, 15 minutes earlier, did we get a foreshadowing glimpse of Keamy and Company shooting clay pigeons for fun?

"He's a traitor..."
I don't for one second believe that Sayid would do this. I'm a little angry at the writers for betraying his character. Sayid has always been smarter than this. Why would he be so stupid all of a sudden? Because it makes for a good cliffhanger?

However, after seeing Captain Gault's face when his saboteur is revealed, I think that Gault knew about Michael. How could he not? How could Widmore spend all this money on a crucial top-secret mission just hire a random deckhand without a background check? And how could Gault or Naomi just deliver a gigantic, mysterious steel box to his berth without taking a look inside? Maybe Gault is working for Ben as well.

Stray Observations

Tom has had some kind of martial arts training.

The Others must have a fairly large, well-organized, well-funded presence in the Real World.

Kurt Vonnegut was the answer to the question on the game show Michael was watching.

I wonder what Walt's nightmares are about...Room 23?

The password for the bomb was 71776 (July 1776).

Ben claims to abhor the loss of innocent life, yet was responsible for the Island's genocidal Purge.

Locke promises to keep no more secrets from his rebel group, and yet the only members of his camp present at the meeting were the series regulars (no redshirts, and we know from the season premiere that a few redshirts went with Locke).

April 24th
That's right: thanks to the writers' strike, we've got a month-long wait for new episodes of Lost. Five new hours before the season wraps, to be precise.

Episode 4.09, "The Shape of Things to Come," certainly looks exciting in the promos. My next post will take a look at Season 4 so far, and speculate on the biggest questions that need to be answered when Lost returns for a pitiful 5 weeks before disappearing again until next February...

In the meantime, check out this Lost-based short film that was emailed to me by a reader of the blog (rated PG-13 for language and suggestive content by...me).