4.08 - Meet Kevin Johnson

Title’s significance: Quoting last episode’s reveal and Tom’s line about a passport, this episode reintroduces Michael into the plot as a member of the freighter crew.

Recap: Most of this episode is a flashback, showing us what Michael’s been up to since we last saw him in Season Two. Despondent over how he came to leave the island, Michael tries to kill himself but fails, hallucinating Libby at his hospital bedside. We learn that Michael has been living under a false name, leaving Walt with his grandmother. When Michael attempts suicide again, Tom appears, telling Michael that the island isn’t quite done with him. Tom contracts Michael to join Widmore’s freighter and blow it up. Just as Michael moves to detonate the explosives on the freighter, he’s stopped by another vision of Libby but learns that he’s been conned by Ben, who only wants to hurt Widmore and not the others on the freighter. At the barracks, Locke lets Miles explain the freighter’s mission – capture Ben and kill everyone else – while Ben tries to gain the trust of Locke’s team by confessing that Michael is his spy. On the freighter, Captain Gault refuses to let anyone leave the boat while Ben asks Alex to join The Others at The Temple. Sayid attempts to turn Michael over to Captain Gault (don’t be so indignant, Sayid – you’re gonna end up working for Ben, too) as Rousseau, Alex, and Karl make their way through the jungle toward The Temple. They’re stopped, though, by gunfire that claims Karl and Rousseau; shaken, Alex calls out that she’s Ben’s daughter.

Thoughts: LOST tends to do these episode-long flashbacks pretty well, and “Meet Kevin Johnson” was no exception. This episode was still very much of interest, even on rewatch, and I’d actually been looking forward to it for a while on the way to it. Michael gets a little bit of character depth, and it’s great writing how his presence on the freighter both ties into existing plotlines and explains in new material what happened since he left the island. And the final scene is so jarring – a character of such major mythological import being snuffed out by an unseen killer – that it’s chilling.

Favorite moment: The scene in the alleyway between Michael and Tom. (The Arturo scene, though, isn’t exactly something viewers will forget any time soon.)

Characters introduced (in order):

• MAMA DAWSON, Michael’s mother, now raising Walt
• ARTURO, Tom’s boyfriend

What we learned:

• Michael is Ben’s spy on the freighter.
• Michael told Walt what he had to do to get off the island.
• The island won’t let Michael kill himself.
• Tom was gay after all.
• Widmore staged the wreck of Flight 815.

Questions:

• Was it just a guilty dream, or did the island really manifest Libby to Michael?
• Who shot Karl and Rousseau?
• Why doesn’t Captain Gault seem upset that Michael sabotaged his equipment?

Things that are going to be important in Season Six:

• Widmore. Island.
• Is there really a difference between Ben and Widmore?