Friday, March 21, 2008

"Meet Kevin Johnson"

Very interesting episode of LOST last night. Unfortunately now we have to wait five more weeks for the season to continue. But enough about that.

STOP READING NOW TO AVOID SPOILERS!!!!!

This was the episode a lot of people have been waiting for. We finally got to see what Michael has been doing since he left the island. And apparently, he has been re-enacting scenes from "Groundhog Day." Not being able to live with himself for killing Ana Lucia and Libby, he tried to kill himself several times but to no avail. I'll have to admit, I was very confused about the flashback for quite a while. I was pretty sure it was a flashback to the time before Michael got on the freighter, but I was doubting myself until Michael tried to visit Walt. I really liked seeing familiar faces like Libby and I loved the scenes with Tom. I've missed having Tom around!

So we learned about Michael's motivation for going on the freighter and how he got there. What I really want to know now, is who is telling the truth about the staged wreckage of Oceanic Flight 815. Unfortunately, I have this feeling that we won't know if Charles Widmore staged it or if Ben staged it until sometime in the distant future (i.e. not this season). I don't know what will happen now that Sayid has turned Michael in to the ship captain. But I don't think that this is the end for Michael. I hereby renew my assertion that Michael is the man in the coffin at the end of Season 3. That was one of my two original ideas (Ben being the other), but now I feel that it makes more sense seeing as how Michael was trying to kill himself but "the island wouldn't let him." At the time we saw Michael in his flashback, Tom told him that he still had work to do so he couldn't die. By the time Jack has his long beard in his flash forward, he wants to get back to the island, and perhaps the island doesn't want him to return. Meanwhile Michael living under a different assumed name, successfully kills himself because now the island let him as he is one of the few who knows the islands' coordinates from his time on the freighter.

And of course, the ABC promotional department dropped the ball big time...again. They promised last week that someone would die. Of course they flashed the faces of all our favorite Losties and of course it turned out to be none of them. I'm convinced that the people who do promotions for televesion don't even watch the shows. It appears that Karl is pretty dead when he is shot (?) by a sniper on his way to the Temple. Danielle was also shot but I have a feeling that she is not dead because there is still too much information that they need to reveal about her character, namely her back story. In any event, Karl is not someone who I would call a major character, so his death, although unfortunate, deserved very little hype from people who make the promos for ABC. So who is shooting? My money is on Ben although it will probably turn out to be one of the freighter people. Frank has been gone an awful long time so he probably took the chopper back to the island with some more of the commandos to try to capture Ben or Alex.

So there we will wait until April 24. It seems like a long time right now but it really won't be all that bad seeing as how we have made it thorough the long dark hiatus of last year. All in all, I really like Season 4 but I can see why the producers would not have wanted this to be the final episode of the season if they had been unable to come back from the writers strike. So I am looking forward to this new story arc and how the season will likely culminate in the Oceanic 6 leaving the island. Until then, theorize away!

3 comments:

Mommy Ferfer said...

I really enjoyed this episode and am anxiously awaiting the show's return at the end of April. My comment is on last week's episode Ji Yeon. Mike missed its original airing so I rewatched it with him and tried to pay attention to the dates on Jin's tombstone - it looks to me that his death date is the date of the plane crash so does that negate the idea that he is one of the people that dies after the crash that Jack refers to in his testimony?
Jennifer S

Wes Raine said...

Thanks for the comment Jennifer. The date of death on Jin's tombstone does indeed say September 22, 2204 (the date of the crash) so that could mean one of two things: 1) Jin died before the Oceanic 6 were rescued, but because the world believes that the all but eight people were killed in the plane crash, the tombstone reflects that date or 2) Jin's not really dead because he did not die on that date; he could be alive on the island and awaiting future rescue.

I still think that Jin is dead in the future for a couple of reasons. The first is that if Jin were actually alive on the island or someplace else, there would be no reason for Sun to go to his grave to "tell" him that she missed him. Sun and Hurley could have sat in her house and talked about it instead of putting on the show of going to the grave. Of course they could be doing it to cover their lie about what really happened on the island.

For me though, the big reason that I think he is dead in the future is more for story-telling. Last season, when the producers decided that Charlie was going to die, they realized that they had to follow through for the story line to have any emotional gravity. I feel the same way about Jin's "death." The ending of "Ji Yeon" was very shocking because of the emotional punch of the situation. If it were to turn out that Jin was alive, I feel like it would cheapen how sad I was about Jin's impending demise. I love his character, but for the sake of the story, I kind of hope that he dies heroically helping Sun get rescued.

Scott said...

We didn't get the "death" shocker we were expecting, but finding out Tom is a pillow-biter was interesting.

I think Ben had as much to do with the faked plane crash as Widmore. I'm convinced they worked together at some point, if they are still not working together. It seems too convenient that Ben and his lot lose their controlling status on the island and suddenly a boat appears that Ben is able to use to manipulate his captors to get what he wants.

I'm throwing my lot with yours: the man in he coffin is Michael, but I doubt it's a suicide. He has to redeem himself somehow, (at least partially) otherwise Jack would feel no obligation to go to his funeral. I expect a dramatic self-sacrifice.

Then again, why was neither Walt or Michael's mother at the funeral?