It’s with sadness that I type these words. This is the last episode theory recap for five weeks. For those of you who don’t know Lost began its hiatus last night and won’t be back on with new episodes until April 24th. Didn’t season 4 just get started? Are there really only 5 episodes left in season 4? While I didn’t LOVE Meet Kevin Johnson, because it felt forced, I will give the episode the benefit of the doubt because it was obvious to this viewer that it was written with a heavy hand in the final moments prior to the Writers Strike. Nothing drove that point home more then watching the final few minutes thinking “ we just spent a whole episode on Michael only to dash to a chaotic cliffhanger-esque shooting with Alex, Carl and Rosseau.” WHAT!!!!! After it all set in I thought ABC probably knew the strike was looming and that Meet Kevin Johnson could very well be the last episode of Lost until 2009. ABC had to ask team Lost to advance the story to some sort of season finale moment just in case it was the season finale. I’m just glad we have 5 more episodes waiting for us in April and May.
Random Thoughts:
Miles Knows All: When Michael boards the freighter as Kevin Johnson Miles calls him out on being a liar. Miles says “your name isn’t Kevin” and “don’t worry 80% of the people on this boat are lying about something.” As we learned on island team freighter knows all about the passengers of 815. Safe to say Miles knows that Michael is in fact Michael from 815. But he doesn’t rat him out…. Hmmmmmmmm and why 80%. Such an odd number.
Water : Once again water plays a part in bad things happening on Lost. Michael makes his decision to kill himself while the faucet in his apartment is dripping water. Karl is shot while drinking from his water bottle.
Christmas Timeline: Michael’s Mom says he was gone for two months before he showed back up in New York. That jives with Michael being on and off the island. Throughout the episode we saw Christmas lights and Christmas trees and we know that on island it is Christmas time as well. Flight 815 crashed on September 22nd, 2004 and Michael left the island on November 27th, 2004. Michael and Walt’s return appears to be in real time. It also shows Michael and Walt are not home very long before Michael meets Tom and decides to be the deckhand on the freighter. We know Naomi landed on the island on December 17th, 2004 so the freighter was already offshore at that point.
Widmore is………? : Good? Bad? Or Undecided? Ben would lead us to believe that Widmore is the biggest baddie of them all, but do we really believe Ben? I think back to the Constant episode when Widmore told Desmond “ I'm not the one who hates you.” I still believe Widmore has and endgame and an agenda, but I’m not convinced his motives are evil ( at this point anyway).
Time Travel: Again we didn’t see any specific island time travel events. I was hoping we would see that Michael had time traveled but that didn’t pan out, yet. However, advances in time are still playing out. It can’t be a coincidence that Tom appears at the exact time Michael buys a gun to commit suicide. It also can’t be a coincidence that just like Ben with the tape he showed Locke, when asked by Michael for proof Tom conveniently has a folder on Widmore ready to hand over. Both Ben and Tom are ready for questions they already know are going to be asked. While we still are not sure who is doing the time manipulation and how ( is it via mind travel or actual physical time travel or both ) we do know that Ben is constantly several steps ahead and always seems to know what is happening in the future. I still think Ben has access to the future or has access to someone who does, but due to the universe course correcting he is constantly at odds with the future as he tries to change it to fit his end game.
She’s Mine!!!!!! – It became VERY clear in The Other Woman that when someone belongs to Ben they belong to Ben. When Ben spotted Alex and Karl laughing and acting like a couple he was sensing their growing love and bond for each other. Feeling Alex slipping away he quickly concocted a story and presented them with a map to the only “safe” location on the island, The Temple. Ever the manipulator Ben plays on both Karl and Rossseau’s concern and love for Alex to get them to agree to take her to the Temple (station). This was the evenings lambs to the slaughter moment. Much like he did in facilitating the death of Goodwin, because he felt “his” Juliet slipping away to Goodwin, Ben setup Karl and Rousseau. I’m thinking when Lost returns from hiatus we will find out that Karl is in fact dead and Rosseau seriously injured. I’m guessing the missing others Richard Alpert, Harper and co knew they were coming and had orders to kill everyone but Alex.
Tom (Friendly) Is Gay: The shower scene with Kate had many speculating Tom was gay and we learned tonight that he is in fact gay.
Michael and Walt Made It Home: Although they didn’t fill in enough of the gaps for this viewer we do know that Michael and Walt set sail for New York and made it to New York.
Theory Of The Week: To preserve the balance of the island some sort of eye for an eye relationship between life and death is at play. If you kill someone on the island you must die on the island or payback the island in some way. I’m not going so far as to say you owe the island your soul, but I feel like it’s the universe that won’t let you die off island. The universe will course correct any death you might have until your death debt has been repaid. Maybe that means in the broad stroke of things that the island is the “universe”. There is no life, there's no death…. There's only….. Lost.
Looking at the Losties who have made it off the island.
Michael murdered Anna and Libby on the island and can't seem to die off island. Libby is haunting him in his visions.
Hurley murdered Pryce by running him over with the van and is alive off island. He’s now in a mental hospital where he feels safe but is being haunted by sightings that seem real ( to him ) of Charlie begging him to come back to the island because “they need him”.
Sayid has murdered several people on the island and was shot off island yet is still alive.
Kate has not killed anyone on the island to this point and appears to suffer no island/universe off island effects. She is also in no hurry to get back to the island.
Jack has not killed anyone on the island but it appears he CAN NOT die off island. What is his island debt? Does he kill someone prior to leaving the island? He's in a HUGE hurry to get back to the island.
We know someone is in the coffin and my best guess is that person is Michael. If my theory holds he somehow repays his debt to the island to be able to die in the real world off island.
Theory Of The Week Part II: Imagine having at your disposal a bounty hunter who couldn’t die? We know Sayid was shot but maybe he can’t die off island as well because his “universe debt” ultimately needs to be paid on island. That means Ben has a military trained torture expert who can’t die at his beck and call doing his bad deeds.
EMP Theory Update: Now that we know who the Oceanic Six are – Jack, Kate, Sayid, Hurley, Sun and Aaron I need to update my EMP theory. For those who don’t know my theory in a nutshell is that since Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid and Sun were outside the immediate area when the EMP( hatch explosion) went off they are able to leave the island and suffer no effects because they wouldn’t need a constant. Although not a part of the Oceanic Six this would apply to Michael and Walt as well because they too were outside the EMP blast area and are off island. HOWEVER, my theory doesn’t explain Aaron. He is off island and appears to have no “cabin fever” type effects that we have seen. So how do I explain Aaron? My theory states that without a constant you can’t leave the island if you were exposed to the EMP. My thinking is at this point Aaron CAN’T have a constant because he only knows one time and more importantly one place, the island. Better put if he goes off island with anyone they are his constant connecting the island and the “real world” and that this person would keep him safe. My theory being Kate would be his constant. This would explain her DEEP need and connection to be around him.
Last But Not Least An Idea To REALLY Wrap ( or Warp) Your Mind Around: We found out in Meet Kevin Johnson that Michael is indeed Ben’s man on the freighter. But if Michael isn't Ben's real man on the boat. Obviously Michael was feeding Ben intel, but I still believe Ben has access to events in the future so it struck me as Sayid was turning Michael into Captain Gault that maybe it was all a giant plan mastermind by Ben.
My idea goes something like this.
Assuming Ben has seen into the future somehow he needs to get a man inside team Widmore to bring Widmore down.
Michael is met by Tom and given the identity of Kevin Johnson and is off to Fiji to be the deckhand. Michael is supposed to wait 2 days and then blow the boat up. Michael goes to hit the execute button two days later and receives a note that says not yet. If the ultimate goal is to destroy Widmore’s boat and crew why wait? Hmmmmmm.
Maybe Michael wasn’t given a real bomb because Ben and Tom know Michael can't die off island. Maybe he is only on the boat to delay the boat by damaging the engine and knocking out the radio. His ultimate and unknown goal is to delay them and not destroy them and himself. But why delay them and not destroy them? My hunch is so Sayid can arrive on the boat. Sayid being Ben’s “real” man on the boat.
Once on the boat Sayid turns over Michael to Captain Gault. Did that exchange just buy Sayid trust from the Captain? Did Ben just get a man one step closer to team Widmore? Hmmmmm
Five Weeks!!!!!! Uggggggg
