Episode Report Card LTG: B- | 0 USERS: N/A YOU GRADE IT Meet Kevin Johnson
By LTG | Season 4 | Episode 8 | Aired on March 20, 2008
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.It's old home week on Lost. Sayid confronts Michael and forces him to tell the story of how he came to be on the boat. It seems that after he left the island, he destroyed his relationship with his son by telling him that he killed Libby and Ana Lucia. Despondent, he tries to kill himself, "tries" being the operative word. He survives, only to be haunted by visions of Libby and visited by a not-yet-dead Tom (who claims that Widmore is actually behind the faked wreckage of Oceanic 815). Tom tells him that the only way he'll redeem himself for his murderous ways is to destroy the freighter, preventing the Boaties from killing everyone on the island. Michael signs on to the boat's crew, and his resolve is strengthened when he sees Keamy and the other tough guys gleefully planning mayhem. Michael sets a bomb he was given by Tom, but it fails to go off. Why? Because, as Ben tells him in a phone call, there are some innocent people on the boat who don't deserve to die -- Michael's mission is to allow those innocent people to get away before killing everyone else.
After hearing this story, Sayid smacks Michael around, drags him to the captain's office, and turns him in as a traitor.
Meanwhile, on the island, Ben convinces Rousseau to take Alex and Carl to the Temple to keep them safe from the Boaties' impending attack. But along the way, they are attacked by snipers. Who kill Carl. And then Rousseau. Noooooooo!!! Alex, who clearly learned a thing or two about survival from Ben, seems to save herself from being killed by shouting out that she's Ben's daughter (and therefore a nice hostage). Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Except that when the timer gets to zero, the bomb doesn't explode. Instead, a little white flag pops up. The flag is actually a strip of paper, on which are written the words "Not yet." Commercials.Michael's in his berth, bouncing a ball against the wall. Minkowski enters and asks him if he's "going Jack Nicholson," referring to Nicholson's character in The Shining who bounced the ball on the wall while going crazy. If the choice is between Nicholson and Steve McQueen, I know which one I'd rather be. Minkowski grabs the ball and tells Michael that he has a call in the radio room. Michael assumes it's a mistake until Minkowski tells him the call is from Walt.
In the radio room, Michael asks if he can have some privacy for the call. Michael picks up the phone and says Walt's name. We hear Ben's voice telling Michael that he's really sorry, but Walt is still in New York. This may be the cruelest thing Ben has ever done. Other than massacring all of the Dharma people, I mean. Michael is kind of upset that after getting talked into killing everyone on board, the bomb turned out to be a joke. Ben tells him that he was trying to demonstrate to Michael that, unlike Widmore, he won't kill innocent people (of which there are some on the boat). Michael points out that Libby and Ana-Lucia were innocent; Ben's response is that Michael killed them, and that nobody asked him to do it. Michael asks what Ben wants him to do. What he wants is for Michael to give him a list of every person on the boat and then to disable the radio room and then the engines. Ben says that will keep everyone on the island safe. Too bad he didn't know about the helicopters. Or did he? Michael tells him he can do that. Ben: "Then consider yourself one of the good guys." Michael's tears tell me he doesn't really believe that.
And finally the damn flashback is over. Sayid and Desmond looked stunned to hear the story. Man, how long does it take to get a pressure valve? Sayid is not happy to hear that Michael is working for Ben. He's so not happy to hear it that he drags Michael into Captain Gault's office and turns him in as a traitor.
On the island, Rousseau, Alex, and Karl are trekking through the jungle. Rousseau calls for a water break. As Rousseau looks at the map, Karl looks nervous. He tells Alex he has a bad feeling, worried that Ben is playing some kind of trick on them. And then we hear a "zzzzzip" sound, and a hole appears in Karl's water bottle. Another zip, and Karl keels over. Alex freaks out, but Rousseau drags her away as bullets kick up dust around them.