LOST: Meet Kevin Johnson [RECAP]

But first we have a brief (very brief) bit of plot to get out of the way. Seems that Locke has called a meeting of the 'stay here' committee, and the guest of honor is none other than Ben. Nobody seems particularly happy to be there, nor happy that Ben is out of chains and walking among them. Suddenly, Locke comes in with Miles in tow, still bound.

"You deserve to know everything I do. No more secrets," he tells them. Miles tells them what they already know, that he's there for Ben. But Ben respsonds, "Once they have me their orders are to kill everyone else." And Miles look would seem to confirm that. Ben spills the identity of his spy on the boat, and everyone is of course shocked.

Locke drags Miles back to his prison, and Sawyer catches up. He inquires about the three million dollars, and Locke didn't deem it important. In a twist of irony, Miles tells Sawyer "Ben will get the money, he's a survivor (as is Sawyer) and considering you had a gun to his head and tonight he's eating cake, it looks like he's a guy who gets what he wants."

Inside the house, there's a lot of tension going on between Ben, Rousseau, Karl and Alex. Ben gives them a map to "The Temple," where the rest of the Others are hiding out. He seems to have genuine concern for Alex, and Rousseau agrees to this expedition, if only to protect Alex.

Wellll, they take off across the jungle in search of the Temple, and while they take a break, Karl (wink) takes a bullet from a sniper rifle (nice work on the sound and timing there...) Rousseau and Alex take cover, and just as they run...

...Rousseau takes a bullet, too. I guess that's who was slated to die. Here one second gone the next. Alex puts her hands up and surrenders. "I'm Ben's daughter!" and BONK. Seemed like a silly place for the BONK but whaddo I know?

Ah but the real meat of the episode focuses around Michael, and his torment. Yeah, that's what I got from this. He's a man in hell. But that'll wait for the Analysis post.

Sayid and Desmond manage to confront Michael, er, Kevin above decks. The captain just beat the snot out of a couple of his crew, "to save them." Sayid point blank asks Michael, "Why are you on this boat?"

"I'm here to die."

Well, later Sayid and Desmond manage to corner Michael in the engine room, and put him against the wall to get the story out of him. And he tells it.

Traveling back to some point in Michael's past (or is the future? we don't know yet!) we find him sitting on a chair in a messy apartment. He's writing something on a pad of paper. He gets up and walks down the street to his car, gets in and speeds away. Driving past a group of grain elevators, we see he's at a dock someplace. He floors it, and heads towards a storage container. "I'm sorry," he says, and wrecks head on.

Michael awakes to find himself in a hospital, there's an old man on a respirator in the bed next to his. A nurse comes in. "I didn't mean to wake you Mr. Dawson, its a miracle you're alive." Then she comes out of the shadows. "You need to rest." It's Libby. Yes, that Libby. Are we in the past? What's going on!? Ah.

Then Michael wakes up for real this time, screaming. There's a different old man on a respirator next to him. A different nurse comes in. Michael won't tell his name. "You want me to call Walt?" "What?" "The note, it was written to Walt."

He's out of the hospital, and in front of a house. He knocks at the door. An older woman answers, its his mother. They talk about Michael for a bit... and about Walt. Seems Walt has been staying here, since Michael's said something to him. We don't know what. Apparently Michael and Walt's return is a big hush-hush secret, and he's not even told his mother what's happened. As he's leaving, he sees Walt in the window, who then turns away.

Then he goes to a pawn shop, and trades Jin's watch (honestly I don't remember how he got that, but it did ring a bell of some kind) for a pistol and some bullets. He rushes off towards an alley, and fumbles around nervously trying to load the gun. He puts it under his chin and closes his eyes.

"Excuse me, do you have the time? Come on, Michael."

He opens his eyes and finds Tom, Zeke, Mr. Friendly, in front of him. "How about for an old friend?"

"Manhattan, huh? We let you leave one island and you just go to another. Michael tries to shoot Tom, but misses, and Tom somehow dodges it and puts Michael down. "Are you ready to talk like adults?" Michael grabs a nearby bottle, breaks it, and points it at Tom. But Tom's already grabbed Michael's gun. Michale drops the bottle.

"Go ahead and do it!! How do you find me?" "We're the ones who sent you home, did you think we weren't going to keep tabs on you?" "Why would I help the SOB's who kidnapped my son?" "We gave him back to you in one piece, you're the one who lost him."

"You told him, didn't you. You couldn't carry the guilt, so you shared it with a ten year old kid? Is that why you want to kill yourself? Because he knows you're a murderer?"

"You can't kill yourself. The island won't let you. No matter how many different ways you try, it won't happen. Give it a shot if you don't believe me." And he hands the gun back. "You've got more work to do, Mike. When you figure that out, come see me."

Back in his apartment, Michael's got the TV on. He puts the pistol to his head and pulls the trigger. CLICK. Nothing. Something about Kurt Vonnegut and a protaganist was on the TV (presumably something about Slaughterhouse Five...) when its interrupted by a news bulletin. Oceanic 815 was found at the bottom of the ocean. Michael is obviously stunned.

And winds up back at the door of Tom. "I didn't expect you that fast." "So you people can just come and go?" "Some of us." "You want to tell me what my plane is doing at the bottom of the ocean?"

Tom tells Michael all about Widmore's plan to find the island, and to kill everyone on it.

"So did the bullet bounce off your skull or did it just jam on you?" Michael tells him to prove what he's just said. Tom throws him a book, containing documentation on Widmore's actions in creating the fake crash.

"Your shore leave is over." And Tom tells Michael that he's being sent to Fiji, to join up with the freighter crew. "You want to redeem yourself, this is your only chance." "I can't go back to the island." "I didn't say you were going back to the island. You're going to kill everyone on the boat."

The next time we see Michael, he's getting out of a taxi on the docks in Fiji. He meets Minkowski and Naomi, who is checking people in. "One of these crates came for you, I'll have it delivered to your berth." Sure enough, there's a crate marked Kevin Johnson, which makes Michael very nervous. "Your name isn't Kevin," a voice says. Michael turns around nervously. It's Miles. "Don't worry, most of the people on this boat are lying about something."

His phone rings. "Get your care package?" It's Tom. Wait a day or two until you're in open sea and then you're good to go. The only way to save your friends is to man up and do your job. Or do you want to explain to your kid how you let them all die." He tosses the phone in the water and carries on.

And, so, out on the ocean, Michael is leaning on the rail, taking in the lack of scenery. Frank approaches him, having just had an argument with Naomi. "So what's your story? How did you end up on this tub?" "Just looking for a little adventure." "Well how do you like this for adventure? You ever hear of Oceanic 815?"

"Yeah."

"What would you say if the plane in that trench wasn't 815? You know those nuts who think the moon landing was fake? This is like that, except for real. The owner of this boat believes me. Imagine if we found some of those people alive." And Frank walks away, leaving Michael speechless.

Later, Michael is staring at the key which opens the mystery crate, contemplating whats inside. There's a commotion of automatic weapons fire above, and he goes to check it out. Some of the crew is trap shooting with their automatic weapons(!) and Michael nearly gets himself into it with them.

He goes back to his cabin and opens the crate. There's another black hardshell case inside of it. He opens that, to find a tool kit. In the partition below is several blocks of Comp-B explosives and a detonator mechanism. He carries it into the engine room, punches in a code, and hovers his finger over the 'Execute' button. (Rather Swan-hatch like, don't you think?)

Just then he hears some music, the same music that was playing on his car stereo before his head-on with the container. "Don't do it, Michael." He turns to see Libby, who's gone again in a flash. (Yes, *again!*) He hits the execute button, waits the fifteen seconds.

And nothing happens. A little lever pops up, with a note wrapped around it. "NOT YET," it says.

Still later, Michael is bouncing a ball against the wall, Steve McQueen in The Great Escape style. Minkowski comes in, and compares it instead to Nicholson in The Shining. (I think the McQueen comparison is better!) There's a radio call for Michael. From Walt.

Michael dashes into the radio room. "Walt?!"

"I'm so sorry Michael, he's still in New York." It's Ben. "So I'm afraid you're stuck with me. Are you still there?"

"You put me on this boat, talk me into blowing it up, and when I push the damn button, a flag popped up!!" Surprised, Ben replies, "You actually activated the bomb?" "It's not a bomb, its a joke." "There are people on board who are innocent, who have no idea what their boss is capable of. I had to show you the difference between him and me. I will not kill innocent people." "Ana Lucia and Libby? They were innocent!" "You killed them, Michael. Nobody asked you to. What wouldn't a man do for his son."

"What do you want from me?" Ben orders him to build a list of everyone on the boat, disable the radio and the engines, so that the boat will not reach the island. "Will you do that for me?" "Yeah." "Then consider yourself one of the good guys, Michael." Realizing he's sold himself to the devil, he puts his head in his hands.

"So you're telling me that you're working for Ben?" Sayid asks Michael, down in the engine room. "Yeah." Sayid gives him a blow to the gut, and drags him off towards the captain's cabin. "This man is not who you think he is. He's a survivor of 815. He's a traitor."

YIKES. Figures after last week and my gripe about the non-character-based episodes that they'd come back with a 1-2 punch like this. Thank you!! It did seem like kind of a strange place to leave us hanging before the break. At least its a short break this time. Lots to talk about in the Analysis, coming soon.