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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!
Previously, on Lost, Walt! Waaaalt! WAAAaaaaaalt! WAAAAAAAAALT!
The Barracks. The wind is blowing ominously, but all of the speaking cast members of Locke's tribe are sitting around in a cozy cabin. Oh, hey, Ben's there too. That might explain the awkward silence. The door opens, and a bound Miles is shoved into the room by Locke. He makes a little speech about how he finally has enough information to make a decision, and that he's decided not to keep any secrets from the group. Locke tells them that he's going to have Miles tell them all why the Boaties are on the island. Miles, gesturing to Ben, "We're here for him." Hurley points out that everyone knows that already. Sawyer wonders when they're going to turn Ben over to the Boaties, but Ben tells them that once the Boaties have captured him, they'll kill everyone on the island. Miles doesn't deny it. Claire asks if Locke is seriously suggesting that they protect Ben after he tried to kill Locke. Ben also drops the bomb that his spy on the boat is Michael. Sawyer reminds us all what a sneaky traitor Michael was. I guess he wasn't watching the previouslies.
On the boat, Sayid and Desmond are sleeping in their bunks. Cue the slash. An alarm goes off, and they quickly get up and make their way to the deck. What kind of alarm is it, you ask? I think it's the "captain is mercilessly beating a member of the crew" alarm. We can see that someone has been trying to throw an inflatable boat overboard, presumably as a way of getting off the boat. Captain Gault finishes administering his beat-down and tells everyone, "Nobody leaves this ship without my say-so!" He reminds them that leaving the boat seems to be a short-cut to death, preceded by agonizing delusions and/or time travel. The captain calls for Johnson to clean up all the blood he spilled. Sayid and Michael exchange ominous glances as everyone else leaves the deck. Sayid greets Michael (by his real name, not calling him Kevin Johnson). Michael tries to ignore him, but Sayid insists on speaking right then and there. Sayid asks him, "Why are you on this boat?" Michael: "I'm here to die." Credits.
I guess the big meeting is over, because Locke is leading Miles away from the cabin. Did they decide on a course of action, or did Locke just call them together to tell them they're all doomed? Sawyer follows them and asks Locke why he's still keeping secrets. He's referring to the enormous bribe that Miles requested from Ben to tell the Boaties that he's dead. Locke claims he didn't mention it because he knew Ben was already over the limit on his ATM withdrawals and wouldn't be able to get the money. Miles laughs -- he's certain Ben will find a way to get the money. Sawyer: "And how will he do that?" Miles: "He wants to survive. And considering a week ago you had a gun to his head and tonight he's eating pound cake, I'd say he's a guy who gets what he wants." Man, we never have pound cake at my neighborhood association meetings.
Back in the house, Ben is creepily watching Alex playing with Aaron (the baby formerly known as Turniphead). Everyone else is leaving the house. There are pictures of Alex on the walls -- does this mean Locke let Ben live in his old house? Even though he knew there were all kinds of secret cubbyholes around the place? Alex, Karl, and Rousseau are the last to leave. Ben calls out to Alex as she approaches the door, and all three of them turn to hear what he has to say. Alex, by the way, is looking totally glam. It seems that she visited the Craphole Island Salon, because her hair is looking incredibly full and shiny, and her makeup is just perfect. It's too bad she used up all the conditioner and left none for Rousseau -- her hair is still looking like a nest. Rousseau doesn't think they're interested in anything Ben has to say. But after Ben gives Alex a map of the way to the temple and tells her to flee there to avoid the Boaties' impending assault, Rousseau changes her mind and agrees with him. She's swayed by the idea that the Boaties would love to use Alex to get to Ben.
It's morning on the boat. Sayid and Desmond are on the deck, where Sayid has just found out from a crewmember that Michael is in the engine room. They find him there with another crew-type dude, fixing (or pretending to fix) the engines. Sayid feeds them the line that the captain sent them to help with the repairs. Michael sends his partner off to the supply room to get a pressure valve. After he leaves, Sayid throws Michael up against a piece of machinery and tells him to explain why he's on the boat, starting from the beginning.
And now it's the mother of all flashbacks. Michael is sitting in a crappy apartment in a big city. There's water dripping in the sink; that's a sure sign of squalor and depression. There are also unwashed dishes, so we know he's really hurting. Michael is writing something on a steno pad -- maybe it's a to-do list for all the cleaning he needs to take care of. He nearly tears up when he spots a picture of himself with baby Waaaaaaalt. He tears a piece of paper off the pad, exits the apartment, and gets into a car. He turns on the radio. Hey, it's the return of Mama Cass! Instead of "Make Your Own Kind of Music," the song is "It's Getting Better." Michael pins the piece of paper to his jacket. And then he starts the car and drives really fast down the empty streets, until he comes to some kind of dock or warehouse area. He speeds up and deliberately crashes the car into a cargo container. The screen goes black for a second, and then we see the remains of the wreckage. Mama Cass keeps on singing about how things are getting better every day. I'm not sure she would appreciate this ironic use of her music. But then again, she might be too busy choking on ham sandwiches to care. Commercials.
Michael wakes up in a hospital. He's got all the tubes and braces one would expect after a major accident. There's a sleeping (or comatose) man in the bed. A nurse enters and apologizes for waking him. We can't see her, but her voice is hauntingly familiar. "Hauntingly" is the operate word here -- when Michael focuses on her, he sees that it's Libby, bringing him an extra blanket to help him make it through the cold night. Michael screams and blinks -- when he opens his eyes, she's gone. Another nurse enters, but this time it's a real nurse and not a figment of his imagination. (Although they try to fake us out by making the nurse look something like Ana-Lucia). The real nurse lets him know that they get that he was trying to kill himself; she tells us that he didn't have any ID on him when they found him. And then she asks if he'd like her to call Walt. I'm sure he'd prefer her to call Waaaaaaalt. He asks how she knows that name -- it was who the note pinned to his chest was written to. Michael tells her not to call Walt, and she leaves him alone.
It's night time. Michael approaches a house -- there are Christmas decorations in the windows. An older black woman answers. It's Michael's mother. (Most of the damage from the accident seems to have healed, so some time must have passed.) Michael asks if he can come in, and she tells him he already knows he can't. He tells her he wants to see Walt, who is living with Mama. She tells him that whatever it was that he said to Walt, Walt doesn't want to see him. Michael pleads, but she hangs tough and refuses to let him in. He tries to play the guilt card by reminding her that he's Walt's father, but she trumps him by reminding him that she thought he had died in an accident and that she can't even tell people he's alive because he won't reveal where he was or how he survived. (For those who are still working on some kind of time travel or time dilation theory, she tells us that from her perspective Michael was gone for over two months.) Anyway, she's not letting him see Walt until he can explain everything that happened. But she does agree to tell Walt that Michael loves him. As Michael walks away, he looks back and sees Walt watching him from an upstairs window. When Walt sees him, he leaves the window.
Michael walks into a pawnshop and asks the guy how much he can get for his watch. The guy notices the Korean inscription and essentially accuses Michael of stealing it. But he still offers Michael $300 for the watch. Michael doesn't want cash, though -- he wants a gun. And, demonstrating his keen planning skills, he wants bullets.
Michael walks down an alley and takes the gun and bullets out of the brown paper bag he's carrying. He anxiously loads the gun and points it at his head. But before he pulls the trigger, some guy asks him if he has the time. He freaks out and tries to hide the gun, but the guy tells him, "Come on, Michael!" And then we see that it's our old friend, Tom. Commercials.
Still in the alley, Tom taunts Michael for leaving one island and going to another (Manhattan). Michael, no fool, tries to shoot Tom. But he misses, and then Tom beats him up. Michael gets in a few licks of his own (including smashing an empty wine bottle over Tom's head), but the fight ends when Tom points a gun (Michael's gun, I think) at Michael's head. Since Michael was just trying to kill himself, I'm not sure why threatening murder would stop him from fighting. But it does. There's some chatter about how Tom knew where to find Michael, and then Michael asks what Tom wants. What he wants is Michael's help. And there's some more pointless chat about how Walt won't see Michael. Tom quickly realizes it's because Michael told Walt that he killed two women and betrayed the other Lostaways in order to purchase Walt's freedom. Michael tells him to go away, but Tom tells him that the island won't let him kill himself. Michael asks what he's talking about, and Tom just repeats himself and hands the gun back to Michael. 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. A cab pulls up at the pier where the freighter is docked. Michael gets out and walks up to the boat. Minkowski greets him and asks him if he's the engineer. Michael tells him he's just the deckhand. Minkowski: "Well, we're all equals on this boat." Yes, equally liable to get beat up by the captain. George welcomes Michael aboard and sends him to check in with Naomi. They engage small talk, and then she tells him that a crate was delivered for him. Michael walks up the gangway and passes Miles. Miles tells him that his name isn't Kevin, and then reassures him that most of the people on the boat are lying about something. Michael's cell phone rings. It's Tom, calling to check in. Tom can sense that Michael is developing sympathy for the human beings he's meeting on the boat, so he lays on a guilt trip about how all of Michael's friends will die if he doesn't do what Tom tells him to. Michael commits to going through with it. And then Tom tells him to ditch the phone.
The boat's in the open water, and Michael's on the deck. He overhears Frank and Naomi arguing about who will fly the first mission on the chopper. Naomi leaves, and Frank walks over and introduces himself to Michael. As they make small talk, Frank tells Michael that he's on the boat because he knows that the plane crash was faked and he's hoping to find survivors. He also claims that Widmore also believes that the plane is still out there somewhere.
Michael is in his berth contemplating the crate, which he still hasn't opened. He doesn't seem able to work up the nerve to open it. Later, Michael is on deck doing some deckhanding. He hears some shooting, and sees Keamy and some other toughs skeet shooting with some machine guns. Having witnessed he utter brutality that is skeet shooting, Michael decides these bastards need to be stopped. So he opens the crate and finds a plastic suitcase inside. I wonder how long it will take before he works up the nerve to open that one?
Michael walks into the engine room with the case. He opens it and we see that it contains a bomb. He anxiously sets the bomb, but just before he pushes the button to start the countdown, we hear the distant strains of "It's Getting Better." Look out, it's the ghost of Mama Cass! Except it's not -- it's actually the ghost of Libby, who appears and tells Michael not to do it. He closes his eyes and she disappears. He opens his eyes and pushes the button to start the countdown. And then he closes his eyes again. Make up your mind, Michael! He whispers that he loves Walt and waits for the explosion. 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. Crouching behind a tree, Rousseau tells Alex, "Listen, I need you to take my hand. On the count of three, we're going to run. Can you do that with me? I love you. I love you very much, Alex. Are you ready?" She counts, and starts to stand up. And is shot. Nooooooooooo! Not Rousseau! (With luck, she's not actually dead.) Alex looks panicked, but doesn't move. She thinks for a second, and then stands up and announces to the shooters that she's Ben's daughter. Credits.