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!
I think this is Michael's chance to test whether the island will let Tom die. But Tom tells him to feel free to use the gun to kill himself if wants to give it a try. And then he tells Michael where to find him (the penthouse at the Hotel Earl) when he realizes that Tom is telling him the truth.Back in his crappy apartment, Michael tries to blow his brains out with the gun. He pulls the trigger and the hammer goes back, but the gun doesn't fire. He verifies that it's fully loaded. There's a game show on the television in the background (we hear one question about Kurt Vonnegut), but the show is interrupted by a news bulletin about the discovery of the wreckage of Oceanic 815. Michael puts down his gun and looks stunned.
Cut to Michael knocking on the door of Tom's hotel suite. Tom lets him in, and there's a kind of sexy guy hanging out with him, named Arturo. Tom asks him to go get some air while he and Michael talk; Arturo kisses Tom on the way out. Tom tells Michael to have some of the fancy food sitting on the table: "I don't make it to the mainland too often, so when I do I like to indulge myself." I think he's talking about Arturo. Michael can't believe the Others can just leave the island at will. Tom clarifies that only some of them are able to leave. Whether that's because Ben only lets some of them leave or because some of them are actually physically unable to leave is not spelled out. Michael asks about the discovery of the wreckage. Tom tells him that the plane is a fake that was planted there by Widmore. Michael asks for proof, and Tom shows him a bunch of pictures and documents that don't actually prove anything. (Like a picture of the cemetery from which the bodies on the fake crash were stolen. Who's to say Ben didn't steal those bodies?) I guess Michael's willingness to believe Tom makes a little more sense when you consider that Tom accurately predicted that he wouldn't be able to kill himself. Michael asks what Tom wants him to do. As you might guess, Tom wants him to join the crew of the freighter, using the name Kevin Johnson. Michael can't imagine why he would go work for the Others again, but Tom tells him that it's the only way he can redeem himself for betraying his friends -- if he doesn't stop them, Widmore's crew will kill everyone on the island. Michael says that he can't go back to the island. Tom tells him that's not the mission -- his mission is to kill everyone on the boat before they get to the island. Commercials.
Hey, it's Fiji. Looks an awful lot like Hawaii.