Episode Report Card LTG: A+ | 2 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT What Is The Monster?
By LTG | Season 4 | Episode 2 | Aired on February 6, 2008
Flashback! (I know some people think these might be flash-forwards, and I acknowledge that's a possibility -- but it seems highly unlikely to me, as Naomi knew about the discovery of the wreckage before she arrived on the island, and each flash-whatever scene in this episode is keyed to the discovery of the wreckage.) Miles parks in front of a cute bungalow in a modest-looking neighborhood while someone on the radio talks about the discovery of the wreckage. Miles takes a small suitcase out of this trunk, and knocks on the door of the house. A middle-aged black woman opens the door. He introduces himself as Miles Strong (or "Straum," maybe?) and reminds her that they spoke on the phone. She lets him in; as he enters, the camera pans across a photo hanging on the wall of a young black man. Miles asks the woman (Mrs. Gardner), "Which room is it?" She tells him it's upstairs, and he tells her he gets paid in advance and that the price is $200. So far, he's sounding like a prostitute. She points out that he quoted her a price of $100 (so make that "a cheap prostitute"), but he tells her the price went up after he learned that her grandson was murdered. That seems to make sense to Mrs. Gardner, and she fetches the cash -- which he crassly counts in front of her. He unpacks a small vacuum-cleaner-looking thing from his suitcase and tells her not to enter the room, regardless of what she hears. And then he heads up the stairs.
Miles enters what appears to be a young man's bedroom -- lots of football posters on the walls, and a bunch of trophies on a shelf. He plugs in his little machine, and it looks an awful lot like a Dustbuster, modified so that a little wheel starts spinning around when it's turned on. Miles sits on the bed, and looks around. He starts acting like a junkie going through withdrawal, and then says, "You're not doing your grandmother any good staying here, man. You're causing her a lot of pain. I want to go downstairs and tell her you've gone, but the only way I'm going to be able to do that is if you tell me where it is. So where is it?" There's a rattling sound in the wall, and Miles pushes a bookcase aside. In the vent behind the bookcase, he finds a brown paper bag containing a wad of cash and some drug-looking powder. He pockets the cash and returns the powder to its hiding spot. I have to say, I can accept a lot of crazy things on this show -- buttons that have to be pushed or the Earth is destroyed, tropical polar bears, a monster made of smoke -- but the idea of a guy who actually speaks with the dead is not on that list. There's a reason I don't watch Medium or The Ghost Whisperer and Her Amazing Breasts. Miles unplugs his machine and opens the door. Before he goes, he turns around and says, rather curtly, "You can go now."