Meet Kevin Johnson seems to not be a fan favorite among many of our readers. However, I still stand by my opinion that it was a necessary episode and it did answer a lot of questions that were being asked – whether it was the way you wanted them or not.

The quick summary of the episode is that Michael and Walt made it safely off the island, but Michael began filling guilty about killing Anna Lucia and Libby. He tells Walt about what he did and Walt doesn’t want to see or talk to him anymore. Michael must then go on the boat and redeem himself by protecting the people he left behind on the island from the people on the freighter. Not only do we get answers to what Michael was doing during the time between leaving the island in the Lost Season 3 finale, we get some current events on the island. Lets take a look at what went down.

On the Boat

Sayid corners Michael and demands answers about why he is on the boat. Michael simply responds, “I’m here to die”. This seems like a strange response to why he’s on the boat. More on that in a few minutes.

Sayid and Desmond then corner Michael again and demand answers on how and why he came to be on the boat. The answers come in the form of a Michael flashback.

Michael’s Flashback

Michael is in his apartment writing a note to someone. It turns out that this is a suicide note to Walt apologizing for the murders he committed on the island. Michael attempts to kill himself by wrecking his car but fails to actually end his life. Instead he’s injured and wakes up in the hospital.

Upon waking up Michael receives quite a shock as the nurse walks in to check on him. His nurse is none other than Libby herself. Or at least he thought it was her. Michael seems to be haunted by what he did on the island and Libby is just his imagination and guilt kicking in.

Michael’s real nurse then comes in and asks his name, but he won’t give it to her. The reason behind this is that Michael is protecting his identity because he was on Oceanic 815. It turns out his name isn’t the only thing he’s hiding. We see Michael going to his mother’s house where Walt is staying. Apparently, Walt does not want to see or talk to Michael anymore and is staying there hidden with his grandmother.

Michael then goes to a pawnshop to trade in the watch Jin gave to him on the island for a gun. As he’s about to shoot himself, a man steps out of the darkness asking for the time. It’s none other than Mr. Friendly himself. I believe at this time the submarine had not yet been blown up by Locke and this is how he was able to get off the island and track Michael down.

He tells Michael that he needs his help and that he wont be able to kill himself because the island wont let him no matter how he tries. He tells Michael he has more work to do and to meet him at his penthouse in Manhattan.

Michael goes home with the gun, puts it to his head and pulls the trigger…BOOM. Just kidding, nothing happens so he checks the bullets, which are fully loaded. He tries again and as he’s about to pull the trigger again he see’s the news about Oceanic 815 being found at the bottom of the ocean and knows he must go see what Mr. Friendly wanted from him.

Turns out that he’s not staying solo in that penthouse of his. Tom made a reference when Kate was taking a shower that she was not his type. Just to make things a little more clear the writers of Lost decided to make it pretty clear that Tom is friendly with the boys and that he is in fact gay. There is another man there in a robe who he kisses as he leaves to give him and Michael some privacy to talk.

When Michael asks about the plane, Tom tells him that Charles Widmore put it down there to keep people away from finding the island. Tom gives Michael proof that Widmore put the plane in the ocean with purchase orders, as well as pictures of the graves that he dug up the dead bodies from in Thailand. I found it interesting that it was Thailand that was used as the place of the dead bodies. If you remember Jack was in Thailand for some time. Not sure if there’s a connection there or not.

Tom tells Michael that he must go on Widmore’s boat and kill all of the people on it in order to keep them from finding the island. Michael is given a passport with the most generic name the others could come up with to keep from drawing any unnecessary attention – Kevin Johnson. While preparing to board the boat, Michael meets Miles. He tells him he knows his name isn’t Kevin. He also simply continues by saying its OK and that the majority of the people on the boat were lying about something.

Michael also receives a “care package” from Tom. It turns out that there is a bomb in the box and he is supposed to detonate it once he is out to sea. Once the bomb is all set up Michael is about to hit the execute button when Libby appears to him again telling him not to do it. After Michael composes himself from seeing dead Libby again, he presses the button, but nothing happens. Nothing except a note pops up saying “Not Yet”. It turns out the bomb was a fake and was a test for Michael to see if he would actually go through with it.

Back in his cell, Michael is bouncing a ball of the wall constantly. This is the noise that Desmond and Sayid heard in their room that they thought was the engine. Minkowski comes in and tells him he has a call from Walt.

Michael takes the call excited to hear from his son. However, its not Walt, its Ben on the line. He tells Michael that the bomb wasn’t real because some people on the boat are unaware of what Charles Widmore is up to. He wanted to show Michael that he had mercy where Widmore will not if he finds the island. Ben informs Michael that his task on the boat is to compile a list of names of all people on the boat and give it to him when he calls again. He then is to destroy the communication equipment and to sabotage the engine so they will never find the island. Now we know what happen to the communication room and why it was destroyed. It’s also confirmed that Michael is the one sabotaging the boat engine.

Back to real time on the boat – Sayid grabs Michael and takes him to the captain and tells him the truth about Michael and says he is a traitor. To me the captain seems very unsurprised at the news but shows no real reaction. This ends the events on the boat. Lets see what happened on the island.

Current Events on the Island

Locke decides that its time for no more secrets. He calls a meeting between his people, Miles and Ben to get everything out in the open. Miles explains to everyone that the reason the people from the freighter are on the island is because they are after Ben. Sawyer is all for turning him over and being done with them, but Locke says no, and Ben informs everyone that he must stay protected because once they have him their orders are to kill everyone else on the island. Hurley is a bit skeptical of this information because Ben still hasn’t told them who his spy is on the boat. Ben then lets them all in on the secret that we have known for a while. Michael is his spy on the boat.

After the meeting Sawyer points out the fact that Locke didn’t reveal all of the secrets he’s been holding from everyone. He asks about the 3 million dollars Miles demands from Ben in exchange for his loyalty. When Locke says that since there are no banks on the island he didn’t think it was worth mentioning. Miles simply laughs and says Ben will find a way to get it. After all, he’s gone from being locked in a cell to eating dinner and now all but being protected by Locke and his people from the freighter people. This to me suggests that Ben indeed can get off the island or at least has contact with someone who can get the money to him on the island.

Back inside, Ben is watching Karl with his arm around his daughter Alex. You’ll remember how possessive Ben is of the ladies in his life and he obviously is not pleased with him touching her. He tells Alex, Karl, and Rousseau that its not safe there anymore and that they should join the rest of the others at the Temple. In the end they agree to go even though Alex doesn’t like the idea of leaving everyone else behind. Ben tells them that the sanctuary is not for everyone its just for them (meaning the others). I think this is a slight hint that Ben is still playing games against our Lost friends and that he is still in complete control of the situation.

Rousseau, Karl, and Alex begin their trip to the temple and Karl asks what if Ben is tricking them again. No sooner does he say this than he gets shot from an unknown shooter in the woods. As Alex and Rousseau are running, Rousseau also is shot. This leaves Alex who screams out not to shoot because she is Ben’s daughter and he sent is the one that sent them.

The episode ends here and we are left wonder who is doing the shooting and why. I’m guessing that it may be Richard (the never aging other), and a hostile group of others who have turned against Ben. I also think it could be the people from the freighter as we know that Lepidus was sent on a flying mission somewhere. I think his mission may have been to fly some additional freighter people onto the island.

Who do you think was shooting and why?