S4E8 - Meet Kevin Johnson

So, Michael goes through all of that mess, killing Ana Lucia and Libby, freeing Ben, leading Jack/Kate/Sawyer/Hurley into an ambush, getting off the island safely with his son, but then feels guilty about what he did (and rightly so), but is going to essentially throw all of that away by trying to kill himself. What an idiot. I don’t know why the island would even bother to keep him alive.

Want to know what his note to Walt said?
“Dear Walt, Sorry I’m such a lame-wad. Love, Dad.”

Granted, life on the lam probably isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, just ask Kate, but even SHE knows the value of life (even if it’s just the value of staying alive for someone of whom you are a pseudo-parent). You don’t see her getting off the island and finally being free of the charges against her only to go home and pin a note to her shirt addressed to Aaron saying she’s guilty she left everyone on the island behind in order to save her own sorry butt so she thinks it’s best to just sign off early and leave him to fend for himself, parentless. Nope. She’s all like, “Cool, I’m not a wanted felon anymore, now I get to stay home and play mom.”

Perhaps I’m being unfair as Kate likely doesn’t kill anyone in order to save herself, but then again, there is definitely the impression that they leave folks behind (presumably “alive”) to their own fates for whatever reason. The preview for the rest of the season even suggested that we’ll see how the Oceanic Six escape, though I wasn’t expecting that reveal so soon. Makes you wonder what the last two seasons will look like.

Anyway, there didn’t seem to be that much surprise in Michael’s flashback. It did fill in the expected gap of how he came to be on the freighter, but I don’t feel there was anything too shocking or new in that. We did see Tom off the island, which was mildly interesting, but not much else. It was curious to hear Tom’s side of the story, about how Widmore was the one that staged the wreckage. At this point, I’m not sure which side to believe, but if anything, Ben has earned more doubt points than anyone else on the show.

And speaking of which, that brings us to the death(s) at the end of the episode, which is what I had the most problem with. As for Carl, whatever… you could totally see Ben’s wheels turning when he saw how “familiar” he was being with Alex. I don’t doubt that Ben cares for his fake-daughter in a way and I can understand his concern about her having any kind of close relationship, especially when the promise of her getting pregnant on the island means certain death, but for all of his talk with Michael about not wanting to harm any “innocent people”, I TOTALLY think he lead Alex, Carl, and Danielle into a trap. Now that he’s free, he could have easily radioed ahead to his people at the Temple and said, “Hey guys, hope things are okay without me. FYI, I’m sending my daughter your way so if you could just knock off her boyfriend and mom when you see them, that would be great. Later, gator!” Now I’m not positive if that’s what the deal was, but it does seem super convenient, don’t you think? I can’t think of who else could be responsible, anyway. All of the freighter folks are accounted for, except for the chopper pilot that went on a “secret mission”, but that doesn’t seem to be his style.

Anyway, my biggest complaint was Danielle being shot. Of course we’re not positive she’s dead, but she certainly looked it. I feel like there was SO much flashback potential with her. Think about it, we would get to see how her research vessel came to crash or get stranded there, we’d see how the others managed to take Alex in the first place, and the biggest mystery in her past was the “sickness” that she said effected the entire science team she was with. I think she even suggested that she had to kill them all or something. If we don’t get to see that, I will be hugely disappointed. Not that she can’t work into someone else’s flashback somehow, but even so, her death didn’t honor how cool her character was (or could have been if they had bothered to develop her).

One thing I will say, Danielle and Ben were having a fierce staring contest right before they made the decision to leave for the Temple. I can’t remember the timing of her pregnancy or if they even explained that—you would think that if she met Ben and did the hoky-poky while on the island then she would have died like all the other pregnant women—but I wouldn’t be too surprised if they work out some way for Ben to be Alex’s real father somehow. Maybe not, because I think I remember Danielle alluded to the fact that she had to kill Alex’s “father” due to the sickness. Alas, we may never know. Arggghhh.

No more episodes until late April. Maybe that’s good. I feel like I need a mental break.

Later, gator.