Namaste!

Hello Everyone and welcome to my blog. I have been obsessed with Lost for quite some time now and thought it was only appropriate to just start my very own blog about it instead of relying on others!

So, since it's late in the game I'll just do a quick recap of the episodes so far (which you can go click through on the archives.) My plan for this blog is to watch the episode, jot down the major themes I notice throughout, recap them here, and then add my theories, predictions, and connections these theories have to the past to help everyone remember anything important they may have forgotten. (Since I'm a huge nerd.)

Friday, March 21, 2008

Episode 8 -- Meet Kevin Johnson

Hurray for the another episode of Lost! I'm going to do things a bit differently this time because once I started this entry I realized it was working for me. I'm going to write the little points about each part of the show, but when I have comments or questions I will put them in parenthesis so that it's easier to follow what I'm talking about and what my input is. Sorry, this one is kind of long, but I loved this episode and thought that so much of it was sooo important!

On the Island

1. Locke brings Miles in to a meeting of all his folks where Ben tells them that the freighter people are looking for him and once they have him they will kill everyone else on the island. Sawyer says, "So, he's one of us now?" Ben tells them that Michael is his man on the boat. They Losties say that Michael is a traitor. (tru dat.)

2. Miles explains to Locke that Ben always gets what he wants, and that means he'll get the $3.2 million if it means saving his life. (All of the exchanges between Miles and Ben seem to be building on the fact that these two organizations [whoever they are] have been competing, etc... for quite some time... they are both very familiar with one another, and know just where it's at when it comes to getting what they want from the other.)

3. Ben tells Alex, Carl, and Rousseau to go to the Temple - it's where the other Others are (haha), and it's the last safe place on the island. No one else can come because "it's not for them, it's only for us..." Alex asks if the people on the boat are more dangerous than Ben, to which he simply nods and says yes. (bad ass.)

4. Later in the jungle Carl and Rousseau get shot!!! Alex jumps up and tells them to stop, that she is Ben's daughter! WOW!! (I don't think/really hope Rousseau isn't really dead!)

On the Freighter

1. The captain beats up someone to keep him form leaving the ship, saying it's for his protection... remember what happened to Minkowski, he says.

2. Michael tells Sayid and Desmond, "I'm here to die."

3. Down in the engine room Sayid and Des confront Michael and make him tell them the truth about why he's there and what's going on.

4. After Michael tells his story, Sayid takes Jack pills, freaks out, calls Michael a traitor, and tells the captain that Michael is not who he says he is, etc... (What the hell, Sayid???)

Michael's Flashback/Story telling (Most of the episode, which was cool.)

1. Michael is off the island, tries to commit suicide, but survives and wakes up in the hospital where he sees Libby!! -- (Ok, it's not really Libby, but that gave me the heeby jeebies.) Obviously, he's not dealing with his murder very well (though he doesn't seem to see visions of Ana Lucia anywhere, perhaps cuz she sucked.)

2. He goes to his mothers house, where she tells him he can't see Walt (So, THAT'S where Walt is!) until he tells her what the heck is going on -- Walt wakes up screaming, everyone thought they were dead, now he's back and won't tell her what happened. Michael leaves, rather than tell the truth, and sees Walt in the window.

3. Then he goes and trades Jin's watch (!!!!) for a gun and bullets, and just when he's about to shoot himself TOM shows up!! (Wow.)

4. Tom tells Michael that no matter what he does, the island won't let him kill himself (ok, I thought that was an epic line! The island also didn't let Jack kill himself, I suppose, by sending that car accident his way.)

5. We find out that Michael is freaking out because he told Walt about killing Ana Lucia and Libby and now I suppose Walt doesn't want to talk to him. (The whole feel of being off the island and dealing with what happened on the island is really interesting/creepy... Michael's story in particular really did a good job of juxtaposing the two worlds -- the world of the island, which exists almost as a different reality because it is so far from the rest of civilization, and the real world where everyone on the island believes they can escape to and find peace... but, Michael's story builds on the idea that you can't really disconnect from the island... even when you are back and you think you will be able to move on... you can't escape it. That, I think, is a major theme of the flashforwards, and in this case flashback.)

6. Michael leaves Tom, who give him the address where he is staying. At home, Michael sees news footage of Flight 815 being discovered in the Sundra Trench (that's what it's called right?), and decides to go back to see Tom. (Ok, so, lets think for a minute... in the flashbacks of the freighter people, we also saw them seeing the footage of this wreckage for the first time. This means that the plane was found some time during Season 3, and the Freighter people left soon after it was discovered... I don't know what that matters yet, but by showing Michael watching the news off the island it was definitely helping aid in the creation of some kind of time line of events... I'll think about that more later.)

7. Tom says that Widmore put the boat down there (so, one side says it was Widmore and one said says it was Ben), dug up corpses in Thailand (yikes), and put them far enough down that no one would recover them. He says that the black box will probably never be recovered either. (Ok, so my question at this point is -- why does the captain of the Freighter have the black box? If he claims that Ben put the wreckage there, how did he get it? Who were the people who found the wreckage in the first place, do we know that yet?)

8. Tom tells him that Widmore's people some how found the coordinates to the island (When Desmond made the hatch implode, I'm assuming) and are going there to kill everyone on the island. Michael can redeem himself for his sins if he kills everyone on the freighter and prevents them from getting to the island.

9. In Fiji, Michael - equipped with his new passport making him Kevin Johnson - arrives at the freighter and meets Minkowski, Naomi, and Frank. Frank asks Michael if he's heard of Flight 815 (har har) and says that the wreckage was not real and that's why he signed up (I think that Frank is a good guy, and is in over his head!)

10. The package that was left for Michael turns out to be a bomb... when he goes to set it off, with the infamous Execute button, a note pops up that says "Not Yet" (creepy, and wreaks of Ben!)

11. Michael gets a call from Ben (it looked like he was in his secret room with all the passports??) who tells him he won't kill innocent people and that some of the people on the boat are innocent... He tells him to get a list of all the names, disable the radio, and then disable the engine so they can't get to the island... "Then you can consider yourself one of the good guys." (I just got this crazy thought that maybe the people/company/whatever that Ben works for is called the good guys, and that is why he always says that... not because they are actually good. I know that is an odd long shot, but with Lost, you never know! I had this image a sign or a van or something with a logo that says "The Good Guys" on the side of it, with a cartoon picture of an island... :)

Sooo, that's that. Please post your comments!! I really liked this episode a lot!!

14 comments:

Conolly said...

I just have two thoughts about the episode for now. First, in last week's episode, didn't we see that Frank's helicopter had left the ship again? I was wondering where it had gone. Perhaps Frank, or someone he took with him, flew back to the island to take Alex hostage and they were the ones that shot Carl and Rousseau?? Now that they have Alex, they can hold her for ransom and threaten Ben. However, she's not really Ben's biological daughter and Ben doesn't seem to really be close to anyone so does he truly love Alex as his own daughter? Did he know they would be attacked on their way to the Temple and purposely let them go? Is he just using Alex as part of his master plan? Getting rid of Carl and Rousseau was just a bonus?

Secondly, when Michael meets Miles on the freighter in Fiji, Miles can tell that Kevin Johnson isn't really Michael's real name. He says that it's ok and that 80% of the people on the boat are lying about something. Was the "80%" just a figure of speech? We know Miles has weird powers and I guess he can read minds or auras or whatever he does - so does he truly know the identities and motives of everyone on board the freighter? If the 80% was for real, who are the people that are genuine? Frank?

Erin said...

It is certainly possible that Ben doesn't care about Alex getting caught and did send the three of them into a trap... He put the idea into Alex's head that they would want her since she's his daughter.

Also, I think Miles was probably being literal because he's not the joking type... I think Frank is for real... I wonder who else is.

jbBeans said...
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jbBeans said...

I totally wrote a comment last night but I don't know why it's not here...

First off, I was wondering about Ben and whether or not he intended for all of them, including Alex, to get shot. I wouldn't put it past him, but then again...

Clearly, Walt's not the pipe-banger on the boat. Now we really don't know who it is...

I am intrigued by Charlotte, the archaeologist, and want to know more about her. I know she wasn't in this episode, but the question regarding who's good and who's bad from the boat makes me wonder. She knows about Dharma, as per her polar bear in the dessert discovery, so yeah.

Lastly, I noticed that Michael's crash suicide song is by Cass Elliot of the Mamas and the Papas. This is the same as Des's hatch wake-up song, "Make Your Own Kind of Music." Interesting... I love when TV shows make seemingly benign songs kind of freaky.

I guess that's it for now. Another good episode (although The Constant will always be one of TV's greatest episodes ever for me :)

Erin said...

All good points my dear jbbean. Charlotte is very interesting indeed. I'll have to do a post about her during the break before next episode.

I did notice the song, and it really is creepy... I thin Lost came make anything creepy though.

I also thought that the fact that we were seeing a flashback into a time that we had already seen (since Michael's flashback was happening during season 3 on the island) was really cool and also creepy. I know I mentioned this in the blog already, but I think they did such a good job of making us feel the difference between the island and off the island, but that once you've been there, you cannot disconnect yourself from it.

Oh, and I totally messed up and said that Sawyer said, "So he's one of us now," but that was Claire... not that it makes a difference.

Conolly said...

I was thinking about how the island won't let people die if it doesn't want them to - like Jack and Michael. It made me remember the episode a long time ago when Desmond was talking with the old lady. She was saying something about how certain things are inevitable and you can't stop them. I forget her name and she hasn't been in the show since that episode (unless that was her walking past Jack when he was prisoner in the Hydra station). This comment is kind of useless because I can't remember any of the specifics, but does anyone know what I'm talking about? Is there a connection between what the old lady was saying to Desmond and the fact that Michael and Jack can't kill themselves? Was it the episode when the hatch exploded and Desmond was knocked out?

jbBeans said...

Conolly, I like your comment about the ring lady. I love any excuse to put off writing a paper, so I found some stuff on that episode. A very detailed recap is here:
http://lost.about.com/od/fullrecapsseasonthree/a/3x08recap_4.htm

and a little note about that lady (Ms. Hawking): http://lost.about.com/od/secondarycharacters/p/hawking.htm

Some significant things in that one were that Des went to ask a physicist friend named Donovan about time travel. That was also when he asked Mr. Widmore if he could marry Penny and there are references to sailing and ship captains... a recurring thing with Widmore.

I guess what that tells us is that if your death is inevitable and you can't change it because the universe "course corrects," then the inverse seems to be true--if you're trying to kill yourself and you're not supposed to die just yet, then the universe (or the island) will correct that too. Somehow the island seems to bring people closer to this reality. There are just so many questions here about changing the future (since we're supposed to think that you can't change the future). I guess the island (through the time travel) somehow lets you become instrumental in how the universe course corrects.

Erin said...

Guys --

I really think (and I think I've mentioned this before), that the Desmond going back in time after the hatch exploded episode, is sooo important. It is the first taste of time travel, far before we knew that time travel would indeed become such an important part of the plot. It also introduced the idea of not being able to change the future for the first time, which we know is also a vital part of the story.

And, jbbeans, good call on the idea that if you can't stop someone from dying, you also can't die until it is your time.

It seems that each person who died on the island must have died for a reason... like Locke said about Boone being a sacrifice that the island demanded. So, that idea of the island running the show has been around for a long time... and how it regulates who dies when... this might also be connected to the whole concept of people being on "The List."

LUCJA said...
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LUCJA said...

Isn't Frank the guy who recognized the pilot in an earlier episode, when they originally showed all the people seeing the news about Oceanic 815 being found, and said I know that pilot is not who you claim he is cause I knew the pilot of Oceanic, I was supposed to pilot that flight, and he never took his ring off, or whatever?

wow, great connection with the song jbbeans, the Cass Elliot song of the Mamas and the Papas also played in another totally unrelated moment of the show ( I swear, but now can't exactly remember when)

Also, when Michael talks to his mom, she says you were gone for two months and then you reappear blah blah blah... does anyone know how long he was gone island time?

Also, there was so much hinting at Walt's super powers in earlier seasons, and lately to Hurley's, I want to know more about those.

jbBeans said...

Yeah, Frank was the guy who knew the pilot in the recovered wreckage was fake. And remember Daniel Farraday when he watched it on TV? He started to cry...

The other Cass Elliot moment is in that episode where Desmond first goes back in time with the ring and everything--before he goes back to the island again (back to the future?) he's in the bar and he hears a song ("Man of Science, Man of Faith"!) on the jukebox that he'd played in the hatch and says, "I know this song" etc. etc. That's all in the episode recap I posted previously....

I also wonder about the people with 'special powers.' Walt... but then even Shannon. Boone kept saying that she was special. I guess it could have been because he was in love with her, but she was also the first one to see Walt. I don't know. I just trust that they'll address these things again. They don't just throw things in and then never get back to them.

Erin said...

Lucie -- Frank is that pilot, which is one of the reasons I think he might be a good guy who got into this mess for good reasons and doesn't realize what's really going down.

Also, I totally agree about Walt's "powers." He's definitely connected to the island in a big way I think, and the Others seemed to want him not just because he was a child - since he mentioned when they let Michael see him that they had been making him do puzzles and stuff (though, maybe this is what they do with all the kids)

Here's a question - if much of the show is bases on the premise that the universe course corrects and you cannot change the future, than how much space is left for free will? Ben says that he doesn't kill innocent people, but could he mean that he only kills people who are supposed to die, much like Locke believed Boone was supposed to die. And, when Michael killed Libby and Ana Lucia, wouldn't it follow that because he killed them that the universe meant for them to die, and would have in some other way if Michael hadn't done it?

The whole idea of not being able to change the future starts to get confusing when you think about how far that actually goes in directing the actions of people. Do people who are "connected" to the island, like Walt and Locke and Ben (maybe) know who is and is not supposed to die. Are the people who are quasi brought back to life by the island those who died before their time - is that part of the course correcting?

Are the people who are healed by the island only done so for the purpose of accomplishing something? Will they return to their original state once that "mission" is completed? Is this why Ben got a tumor? Was it the island's way of telling him his time is running out as leader because he's begun to abuse is power?

I hope that Rousseau ends up being someone healed by the island because of her greater purpose there or her connection to it.

Does this idea also have something to do with "the sickness?" Does it only kill people who are supposed to be dead and spare those who are meant to live... or is the saving/healing aspect of the island connected to the sickness aspect? Is it all one force (like Jacob perhaps) that is moving everything along.

I just get this vibe that even though the island is in some sense part of the real world, since the writers have said it's not another dimension, etc... that it is some kind of separate entity that drives what happens on it, and perhaps off of it... like it's more deeply connected to the events occurring in the universe because of the high level of electromagnetism, etc...

So it's almost like a microcosm of life where the whole idea of people being almost like puppets to fate becomes more evident because the "invisible hand" of the island is more obvious on the island than it is off the island -- but that (as we saw with Michael not being able to kill himself) it still can drive events that occur off of it.

Ok, now that I sound like a freshman philosophy major in a smoke filled coffee house, I'm going to stop. :)

Conolly's brother said...

this is a response to conolly's march 24th comment. remember when boone died and loche was pounding on the hatch and later on in desmonds flashbacks that he was going to kill himself but he heard locke and desided not to or whatever? maybe that was the island using Loche to keep desmond from commiting suicide. does that make sence?

Conolly's brother said...

but for all we know, this whole, island-doesnt-let-you-kill-yorself-thing is false and Mr. Smiley or whatever the heck his name was somehow knew Micheal would buy that gun and made it so it would jam