What I'm Watching: Lost

Lost: Season 4, Episode 8 “Meet Kevin Johnson” (A-)

This episode may well provide the most answers we’re going to get for a while. While I would have liked to know Michael got himself rescued and back to New York, Michael’s estrangement from Walt makes some sense and Tom’s appearance off the island was quite a shock. The explanation of Widmore’s motives and means for faking the Oceanic wreckage seems a bit quickly-resolved, and the lack of any supernatural component to the false wreckage is both comforting (it might all make sense!) and disappointing (it might have been so much cooler) at the same time. As far as supernatural components, Michael’s inability to kill himself provides enough of that. His mission all makes sense now, but it seems to be all in jeopardy since Sayid has revealed his identity to the captain.

The coolest part of watching all this unfold is that Sayid and Ben are working together in the future off the island – which means that Sayid, always in control and the one who knows what to do in times of crisis, was wrong. Judging from all the guns floating around on the boat, there seems to be a massacre on the island. I always presumed that a number of the Oceanic 815 passengers get left behind on the island, like Locke, and not that they were all exterminated, but now I’m starting to think otherwise.

The Oceanic Six, which ABC continues to advertise as having been all revealed (though the show's creators deny that it means anything), includes Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid, Sun, and one other person. Some might say Aaron, I might figure Michael, plus we know that Ben gets off, and I’m tempted to assume that both Desmond and Juliet make it off as well but don’t count due to the fact that they weren’t on the plane.

Next episode is going to be ridiculously exciting, especially because one of the minor, seemingly unimportant characters is being used in a major way. Things look primed for everyone to come together and all appear in the coming episodes as Ben’s daughter, heretofore barely seen or referenced, has given herself up to whoever it was who was shooting at the jungle-roaming crew. My guess would be that the shooters are people from the boat, but how did they get on to the island? Did Frank fly them? He seems well-intentioned and among the truly good people on the freighter. All I can say is that things are primed to explode, and April 24th is going to be an awesome day.