NOT Kevin Johnson

Yes, Michael’s back. The worst-kept secret in TV is finally out in the open. So, how did Michael become Kevin Johnson? Let’s discuss after the jump.

WARNING: There will be discussion about who did and did not die in tonight’s episode. You’ve been warned. No griping.

* I don’t know about you, but the second I saw Karl AKA Alex’s boyfriend on screen, I thought “RED SHIRT.” Alex biting it at the end came as no real surprise. Rousseau, on the other hand,…. As someone said to me last night, “It feels like she still had more story to tell.” Of course, as we saw tonight, being death doesn’t mean you’re gone forever from the show.

* And thus, we say, “WELCOME BACK MR. FRIENDLY!” I guess you’re not dead after all. And probably the less said about Arturo, the better.

* And we also say, “WELCOME BACK LIBBY,” even you were apparently just Michael hallucinating.

* Who else expected the captain to say, “Yeah, I know he’s a traitor.” Too bad we’ll have to wait six weeks to find out.

* When Michael tried to kill himself, wasn’t everyone expecting to cut to footage of the “sparsely-attended funeral in the apparently black neighborhood?”

* They hide Walt from appearing on this show like he was the pregnant star of a 1980s sitcom. Next, he’ll conveniently be hidden behind a giant bag of groceries.

And finally, did the end credits finally put to bed the notion of who The Oceanic Six are?

Posted by Mark Coale

47 COMMENTS

  1. Dagnabbit I didn’t watch for the end credits.

    I’m puzzled by Michael’s speedy healing and lack of any questioning by authorities (if only for insurance info!) after his hospital stay. That part was very odd.

    Overall this episode was good yet unsatisfying. This was perhaps the most straight-forward, “normal” episode yet. Every time a question about a mystery could have been side-stepped or cryptically addressed it was instead explained with a (seemingly) straight answer or even a file folder full of hard evidence. The only new “WTF?” weird item is The Island’s ability to make a gun jam thousands of miles away. The only mysteries are: what part of what Ben is saying about Widmore is a lie and who was shooting at his daughter and why? Ben is so duplicitous and viciously jealous that I’m pretty sure he set Karl and Rousseau up. His daughter is safe.

    I agree that Gault knows Michael is a spy. He didn’t look too surprised.

    Ug, now we have to wait a month.

  2. “And thus, we say, ‘WELCOME BACK MR. FRIENDLY!’ I guess you’re not dead after all”?

    I realize LOST is a bit wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey, but I thought Mr. Friendly leaves the island to recruit Michael, then goes back to the island where he ends up being shot by Sawyer.

  3. Yeah, Mr. Friendly is dead. The Michael recruiting takes place before Sawyer killed him on the beach. Remember, that was only a few days ago in show time.

  4. Anyone else catch the lame Mole reality show subliminal messages? OK, I guess I’m the only one. Did anyone care about that show the first time?

    Hey, maybe Rousseau’s still alive. I’m wondering who took shots at Alex and Rousseau, though. I’m betting that it’s the Others, commanded to take out the other two because they were “liabilities” I don’t think Ben had love for either one of them.

    I think that the captain totally knows that Michael’s a scumbag spy. Before they ended that scene, the Captain gave a look like “Yeah, so what?” Who the hell put that note under the door, anyway? Was it the doctor on the ship?

  5. I realize LOST is a bit wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey, but I thought Mr. Friendly leaves the island to recruit Michael, then goes back to the island where he ends up being shot by Sawyer.

    That was my impression, too.

    And do we know for sure that Alex died at the end? It looked open-ended to me.

  6. I realize Tom/Mr. Friendly had just taken a few punches from Michael, but I thought his twin nosebleed looked an awful lot like those experienced by Desmond and Minkowski during their time displacement experiences in “The Constant.” The shot even seemed to linger on the nosebleed just a bit.

  7. Yeah, I did expect the suicide attempt to lead us to the funeral so they got me there. For what it’s worth, we don’t know that Karl and Rousseau are dead, just shot.

  8. I was annoyed to see Rousseau (apparently) bite it. But thinking about it, her main goal has been to find her lost daughter. She did that. And we’ve seen what happens to people on the island when they make some sort of breakthrough, right?

    As soon as the three of them stopped, I realized they weren’t making it back. (I actually turned to my wife and said, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” about 30 seconds before Karl said exactly that.) Ben considers Karl a liability, and Rousseau a rival, and if he was possessive over Juliet, imagine how he feels about his adopted daughter. It didn’t even occur to me until the last line that it might be the machine-gun-wielding yahoos from the boat.

    That’s one thing about this show — it keeps you second-guessing everything, to the point where obvious things don’t make an impression, but the obscure little details do.

    And there’s still the question of who really staged the wreck. I’m leaning toward Widmore, if only because the Others actually had documentation to go with the claim.

  9. This might be looking too hard for a connection (an easy thing to do with Lost), but anyone else think that it might be intentional that Michael’s alias is Kevin Johnson and that the basketball player Kevin Johnson had jersey number 7? Michael could be considered the seventh survivor of Oceanic 815 (though he could be 8 and Walt 7, depending on order). A stretch, I think, but still..

  10. I’m bummed that Rousseau is Dead. She was the first really cool and mysterious other person on the Island and she seemed to know so much of its mythology, but the writers never thought of anything interesting to do with her.

    Plus it completes the LOST tradition of killing off potentially interesting women characters — Whas her face Barbie (i dont’ even remember OR miss her!), Ana Maria, Libby, Mrs. Klugh, Naomi, Zoe Bell. Now before you say “But lots of men get killed!” recall that the only female characters left are Sun, Kate, Claire, Juliet, Rose (a bit player) and Alex herself. Of these only Kate and Juliet have anything like central roles. The new CS Lewis character is thus far completely forgettable. Granted, Sun, Claire and Rose are pretty much quiet characters without much sense of derring-do, and that’s fine. It’s only natural that character who can do derring do, like Sayid and Desmond, get more air time. it is definitely a pattern, however, that so many potential women derring-doers, like Naomi and Rousseau, get killed off.

  11. After some be-bopping around the net, I do wonder if Rousseau is dead or just shot.

    I could see that “the Island will not let her die” thing coming into play.

  12. I have to agree, and it’s something I’ve been noticing for a while too. I also find that all the female characters are written so damn DULL. There isn’t a single Hurley or Sawyer or Locke among them. You know characters with a some spark and life. I really could care less for any of them, especially Kate and Juliet… and well, Claire too. Which pretty much covers all the central female characters.

    It’s really too bad. One of the reasons Lost was refreshing when it first aired was it’s diverse cast. But as usual, it’s just a big play pen for white males. Just like Harry Potter and everything else. Sad.

  13. Toby, I disagree about Kate, she’s easily one of the best characters on the show, and the Jack or Sawyer thing is central to the whole Lost tapestry.

    It’s notable that when the show started all sorts of personal dramas were set up — Remember Sayid and Shannon and Boone? — and now it is really a science fiction show with just enough soap opera to keep people motivated.

    Much prefer new show!

  14. I agree that less soap opera, more sci-fi = good. (I had totally forgotten that Sayid and Shannon had a thing. Boy do I not miss her).

    Since Rousseau is like a female Locke, she might pull through. I’ve heard rumours of an upcoming Ben backstory episode, so at the very least we might get filled in on her past relationship with him. The timing would be right. If she IS dead, then she’s going to haunt the crap out of Ben, you watch.

    When Rousseau, Alex and Karl stopped for their break there was a moment when I thought Cerberus (smoke monster) was going to get them. It’s overdue for an appearance.

  15. Re: Kate — well, that’s just it, it seems like the only way that a female character can be made “interesting” is if she’s the bone that two dudes can fight over. Which includes Sun too. And Juliet! Why couldn’t one of the women have had Locke’s role? Any woman that has any other agenda than choosing which guy to bone — like Rosseu — is, like you said, instantly dispatched.

    Also, I must confess, a lot of my dislike for Kate and Juliet has to do with the actors that play them. They’re so… dislikable.

    And I’m totally with you on the new show vs. old show! So much better now that it’s focusing more on the sf elements!

  16. I presumed the guy in the coffin was Locke — always unappreciated and increasingly feared. Micheal seems like a good candidate now though.

    After hearing Michael’s story, Sayid better have a darn good secret plan behind squealing to the captain. What was up with that?

  17. If anybody can grab an image of the famous coffin with someone there (Jack?) for scale, you can see what I think I originally notice: The coffin is less than six feet long. If it was Micheal in that coffin, he got chopped off at the knees.

  18. Yeah, I thought that was pretty douche-baggy of Sayid too. And is it just me, or is Sayid becoming a one-note character?

  19. I thought I read somewhere that the producers said it was a normal sized coffin, but I can’t find the reference on a quick google. The Lostpedia entry confirms it IS someone we’ve seen before. Making it a short person would be too obvious, since that leaves Walt (and he’s sprouting up).

    I think it’s Ben.

    Someone needs to start a pool.

  20. “I realize LOST is a bit wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey, but I thought Mr. Friendly leaves the island to recruit Michael, then goes back to the island where he ends up being shot by Sawyer.”

    I was on board with that too, but it’s occurred to me that something’s wrong in the time line.

    Michael left the island on the day the sky went purple, and we’ve been told that since that day the Others haven’t been able to return to the island once they’ve left it. If that’s not a lie, then there’s no way Tom/Mr. Friendly could have had his New York escapades and then come back.

    That’s not the first time this season I’ve seen what looks like a contradiction and though you can’t just take that at face value with Lost, I’m starting to wonder a little. Before you know it, I might just refuse to press the button or something. And you know how THAT works out.

  21. Was it that they couldn’t leave or that they couldn’t communicate? The communications fault was later revealed to be a lie of Ben’s to cover up the jamming at the Looking Glass station.

  22. The theory below is SPOILER-ish (if it’s true):

    The fact that Michael couldn’t kill himself disproves the whole “the island is a manufactured timewarp meant to save humanity from the world ending in 2015” or whatever. There is DEFINITELY a mystical element to all of this.

  23. Kelson said:
    And there’s still the question of who really staged the wreck. I’m leaning toward Widmore, if only because the Others actually had documentation to go with the claim.

    Of course, the Others would still have that documentation if Ben staged the wreck. If I remember correctly, all those invoices were connected to shell companies, so nothing definitively said Whidmore did it. Y’know, unless you trust Ben/Tom’s word.

  24. I definitely think Rousseau is not dead–with Carl, they very carefully showed prominent bullet hole in chest, blood, etc. With Rousseau she just kind of recoils and hits the ground; you see her back, but no stain, no holes. It’ll probably be some sort of graze or something–“I must have blacked out.” Remembering that this is a semi-cliffhanger before six weeks of no Lost, I think it’s pretty fair to say that all is not as it seems. Surely Rousseau and Alex will bond in “A World Without Carl.”

  25. “Was it that they couldn’t leave or that they couldn’t communicate? The communications fault was later revealed to be a lie of Ben’s to cover up the jamming at the Looking Glass station.”

    You might have it there – I can’t remember if the Looking Glass was the source of the beacon, but that sounds about right.

    On the other hand, how the heck could Ben hide the fact (from the other Others) that the submarine was missing for all that time?

  26. The leaving/communicating after the purple light hatch explosion was something Ben said, so you have to lump that in with every other ambiguous, potentially false thing the man says, which means it is probably something to keep an eye out for.

    We certainly could have done with more Walt. I want cool awesome pyscho-power Walt by the end of the season. You know, the Walt that controls the smoke monster.

    I think part of the problem with the female characters is they seem to be taking care of the male characters more than pursuing their own agendas. Juliet was on the hunt in her episode, but that was interspersed with scene’s in which she was dallying with Godwin who wanted to get away from his shrew of a wife, so her aggressive actions were somewhat diminished. I agree we need to see the female characters just doing their own thing a bit more.

  27. The shortage of strong female characters seems to be “balanced” with a shortage of fluffy/pretty male characters. Yeah, it’s superficial of me, but I hate seeing a bit of male eye candy snuffed out like this. Boone’s dead, Paulo’s dead, Charlie’s dead, now Karl’s dead. Even the cute young Others tend to get knocked off. It’s almost like Logan’s Run in reverse: no one in the Males-18-to-30 demographic is allowed to live.

  28. Those of us who were at the Lost panel at 2007 SDCC will recall Harold Perrineau saying, in response to a question about who’s in the coffin, that the article Jack reads in the paper said something about the man leaving behind a son. A pretty strong hint.

    The funeral was only attended by Jack. It was someone both Jack and Kate knew, but not someone any of the Oceanic Six was interested in wishing farewell. Michael Dawson is dead, “Kevin Johnson” is alive (in present “island time”) and is not one of the Oceanic Six.

    Last night’s episode made it clear neither Walt nor Michael’s mom wants anything to do with Michael, so they wouldn’t be at his funeral. The guy in the coffin is most likely “Kevin Johnson”.

  29. Michael will probably bite the dust, but be redeemed when his actions help save the other 815 survivors. So I just can’t see kate being *that* repulsed by the notion of Jack attending Michael’s funeral. But Ben’s been yanking everyone’s chain back and forth since he first showed up and Kate may not believe he ever intended anything other than harm. But we’ve seen his post-“rescue” relationship with Sayid, indicating he’s still working to protect the island and everyone still there. So Kate would still still hate him, unless she has some personal knowledge of those efforts. (It appeared Future-Sayid is not exactly Ben’s fan either.) As for Jack going to the funeral home, we know that at this point (several years after the “rescue”) that Jack has plenty of reasons to think he may have been wrong not to listen to Ben. That’s pretty much what last year’s finale was all about.

    Anyway, I don’t Ben will be with the group that returns to the island.
    I think he’s in the coffin.

  30. Re: coffin size — Upon further review, I believe two things:
    One, I still think the coffin I saw on the original airing looked too small for Micheal.
    Two: LOST is put together using CalvinBall rules, which in this case makes the coffin any size required at the time the denouement occurs, and therefore, the size of the coffin can’t be a clue. The set designer just went cheap that day.

  31. I believe that the looking glass mainly worked with satellite connections and gps, so that the island couldn’t be located. Ben didn’t have trouble connecting to the ship and talking with “Kevin”, and he must have talked with hm before the looking glass was shut down, because he was with Jack and others when the looking glass was deactivated. But the satellite phones didn’t work.

    As for Mr. Friendly, he’s dead, but the whole timeline should suggest that he managed to come back with the sub before Locke finally blew it up. It was Christmas time when Michael was in the hospital, so Mr Friendly met Michael shortly after that.

    I doubt that Rousseau is truly dead, the island wouldnt let her die so easily. As for the shooter, I see two options: There’s Mikhail, but how would he know who to shoot? The second option is the assault team from the ship. The helicopter was gone, so it would make sense that a team was sent to finish the job, and as such, kill everyone they came in contact. But since Alex shouted being Ben’s daughter, the assault team could use her to get information. And it would make for a nice plot twist.

  32. The coffin looks too small for anyone except Walt, and it surely isn’t Walt in there.
    Perhaps Ben is destined to lose his legs in some post-“rescue” incident?

    The Verizon mini-episodes can be easily found on YouTube. I was VERY surprised at one in particular that features the moments just before Jack awakened at the beginning of the premiere:

  33. We see what we want to see. Some see Juliet as a weak character only defined by her relationship with Ben/Jack, while I see a strong female in a difficult situation who is willing to do what it takes to get home. While some might make reactionary lists of females who have died while discount the ones to have lived as either defined by their men or as bit players or people who aren’t liked, others look at the list of females killed and note a large number of bit players there too, while a list of the men who have died include a fair share of major characters (Boone, Charlies, Eco…).

    We see what we want to see. While some might look at Mr. Friendly’s partner and write: “…the less said about Arturo, the better,” I see that line and wonder just why the writer thinks that. Knowing this blog I’m sure I’m reading too much into it, but it’s hard to take it seriously when someone talks about how poorly females are treated is willing to discount Mr. Friendly’s new gay love because “the less said… the better.”

    Then again, we see what we want to see.

  34. I hadn’t heard about Michael returning, but I expected some sort of time jump early in season 2 when I realized how slowly the show was proceeding chronologically while Walt was growing. I figured some years would pass so that he could be used when he was older.

    What’s the confusion surrounding the Oceanic Six? It’s Jack, Kate, Sun, Sayid, Hurley, and Aaron.

  35. I would say naomi is not dead, she will come back in the finale, I’m quite sure of it !

    naomi was the leader of the infiltration group, and the only person with military training among them. and her military training probably enabled her to play dead till the time when she comes back and change the rules.

    besides Sayid’s insistence on removing her body to the ship might indicate that she’s got something to do on the ship, otherwise the writers would just forget about her, or let her be burried in the island.

    and not to forget the “tell my sister I love her” trick which indicates that her acts might not always mean what they seem at the first glance.

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