Not like Miles is all that trustworthy, but he has spent a couple of days with a grenade in his mouth, after all.
The $3.2 million comes up again, and I’m once again left to wonder what the significance is of that specific figure. The Fantastic Foursome is not exactly a cohesive unit, what with Miles going for bribery, Charlotte and Faraday either saving everybody or trying to kill them, and Frank’s complete lack of interest in any specific plan. Based on her earlier scenes with Abbadon, I think maybe that Naomi might be the only one who actually knew their real agenda.
On the freighter, the siren that wakes Sayid and Desmond makes the same sound as the alarm that sounded in the Hatch when it was time to enter the numbers. That sound will haunt my dreams. And apparently, the Captain has some interesting ideas about keeping order. Nothing inspires loyalty like a savage beating. Looks like everybody’s still going a little crazy on the freighter, too. Not that you can blame people for trying to desert at this point. And when Sayid confronted Michael, his response really threw me. “I’m here to die.” I has sort of assumed that he was doing it to save Walt, so that is not the rationale I was expecting. *** All screecaps courtesy of Lost Easter Eggs and Dark UFO ***
So, when Benry gives the rest of the family the map, I couldn’t help but notice that the Temple is marked with a Dharma logo. This is probably not some ancient temple that is related to the four-toed statue or anything. It may not be a Temple so much as yet another Hatch. But then, the more we find out about Dharma, the weirder they get, so nothing will surprise me at this point. Now, Benry doesn’t want the Lostaways to know about the Temple. It seems to me that if he were setting a trap and he wanted everybody dead, he’d send as many people as possible into that trap. I’m not completely convinced that he planned what happened at the end of the episode. What if The Others have started getting more bloodthirsty in Benry’s absence? Seriously, Harper definitely tried to get Juliet to kill Faraday and Charlotte, and might have even wanted her to prevent them from containing the gas. Maybe Benry is the stabilizing influence over there. Yeah, think about that for a second.
When Michael came back, I was really excited, and then I remembered that I sort of hate him, so this has been a roller-coaster. I like that he’s the worst liar in the world, the way he freezes up every time he sees Sayid. Way to stay incognito, dude. Now, they went and pulled one of their tricks again, because it’s not immediately clear when Michael’s flashback is set. I mean, he’s depressed and he misses Walt. That could be any time in the last decade, you know? But it’s quickly made clear that he and Walt actually made it back from LostIsland. All of Michael’s flashbacks happen during Season Three. That does make for kind of a time crunch, since Season Three took place over about a month, so that was a busy month for Michael. Of course, time is all screwy around the Island, so he and Walt could have slipped back in time a couple of weeks on their travels. (Benry did give them a very specific compass heading, after all.) I’m just stunned that they made it, personally. I thought Michael was going to end up in the Dharma-branded belly of a hungry shark.
It’s good to see Libby, even if only as a guilt-induced hallucination. Nice touch that she was bringing Michael blankets, since that’s what she was carrying when he shot her. Also, he seems to be yet another person who comes back from the Island with a ghost. Hurley sees Charlie, Jack (maybe) sees his Dad. Of course, Michael’s craziness is understandable, what with him becoming a murderer and all.
After last week’s revelation about the fate of Jin, it really made me sad to see Michael hock it for a gun. It’s another example this season of the way that formerly important items are being cast aside. Jin’s watch was a plot point for several early episodes, and like Benry’s Red Sox tape, it’s unceremoniously dumped. I liked that Michael specified that he wanted “A gun with bullets”. No sense in trading your only possession for a gun if they’re not going to throw in some bullets, after all.
You know who I didn’t expect to see walking around in Manhattan? Zeke! (By the way, that character has been referred to as Tom, Zeke, and Mr. Friendly on this series. I always want to call him “Big Smith”, after his character on Brisco County, Jr.) First off, Zeke’s one heck of a fighter. He spent most of his Island time being the likeable Other, so when his dark side comes out, it’s creepy. This whole episode is set up to make me sympathize with Michael again, but telling his young son about the people he killed? Yeah, maybe he’s not the greatest parent ever. But you have to admit, it’s totally in character for him. Heck, I bet he spilled that little secret in the first hour on the boat. “Look, Dad! A dolphin!” “Wow. By the way, I murdered two people for you.” Anyway, this scene must happen after Jack operated on Benry, since Zeke was on the Island for that. And if I had to guess, I’d say that while Zeke was in the US, he probably made a stop to tie Locke’s dad up and bring him back to the Island. He does keep busy…
The Island won’t let Michael kill himself? Wow. We knew the Island could do some crazy things, including people alive, but Michael’s nowhere near the Island. By the way, at no point do they imply that nobody from the Island can die. And we’re not seeing that Michael has magic healing powers. It’s not like he’s recovering from a bullet wound; the gun just won’t fire. Michael in particular is protected by the Island, even when he’s not on it. Does the Island somehow know that Michael will be the one to save it? This is really interesting, and our first real proof that the Island itself can somehow control events. Yeah, I’m glad I can sit and ponder that for a month. And also, I feel like Zeke’s hotel, the Hotel Earl, is a reference to something, but I can’t get it. It’s a great name for a hotel, though.
Here’s where I give myself some points. While Michael’s trying to kill himself, there’s a game show on the TV in the room. The questions we hear are about Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, which is about a man who becomes unstuck in time, traveling through his own life at random. Just like Desmond. More to the point, just like the reference I made in the big Desmond episode, when I compared him to Slaughterhouse Five lead Billy Pilgrim. Nice to know that the Lost writing staff also spent their college years reading Vonnegut paperbacks instead of dating.
They vaguely alluded to it last season, but now we have proof that Zeke is gay. And I don’t think Arturo is an Other. I think Zeke just makes the rounds when he visits the mainland. Now, Zeke tells Michael that Widmore staged the fake wreckage. Last week, the Captain told Sayid and Desmond that it was Benry who created the fake. Zeke does have some pretty convincing proof (and isn’t the idea of digging up a whole cemetery really disturbing?), but it’s not like Benry can’t fake some photographs. But the bottom line is, Future Sayid is working for Benry, and Sayid believes that he’s protecting his friends. That alone makes me think that Widmore really is the villain here. Sure, Benry has his issues, but what we’ve seen of the future indicates that he’s in the right. And let’s face it, whoever faked the crash really does intend to kill everybody. If you’re going to that kind of expense and effort to convince the world that some people are dead, you’re going to make darn sure they don’t show up alive and spoil everything. (My gut reaction is that Widmore wants the power of the Island all to himself, and possibly thinks it’s the key to eternal life. That’s what JJ Abrams villains tend to want. And if Michael’s inability to die and Richard “Batmanuel” Alpert’s inability to age are any indication, Widmore may be right.) *** All screecaps courtesy of Lost Easter Eggs and Dark UFO ***
There are a lot of dead characters in this episode. Zeke, Libby, Minkowski, Naomi… I think Zeke is the new Creepy Ethan. It used to be Ethan’s job to stand there to indicate that a scene was set in the past, but now we’re getting flashbacks that happen after he died. Kind of sad, really. Anyway, Minkowski was surprisingly nice. I still feel like we’re not done with him, after all the buildup they gave him. I think he’ll figure into future flashbacks. And Frank is really quite forthright with Michael/Kevin. I think Frank absolutely believes that Benry faked the crash, even if I don’t agree with him.
This next scene makes me laugh much harder than it should. I absolutely love the freighter guys skeet-shooting with AK-47’s. It’s such a weird and creepy thing to do, and it cracks me up. Especially the line: “What does it look like we’re doing? We’re shooting things.” And I’ve finally figure out who Keamy (the shooter) reminds me of – Tom Cavanaugh from Ed and Scrubs. Only he’s bulked up and psychotically intense. I really like how that’s the incident that convinced Michael that they deserve to die.
I tend to think that when Libby appears to talk Michael out of setting the bomb, she’s just Michael’s own subconscious. You could make a case that it’s Island Magic, and that it’s the Island who doesn’t want him to take out the freighter, though. Since I believe that Widmore really is the bad guy, I have to assume that the Island would want that freighter blown up. Yes, I now talk about the Island as if it were a person. I can’t tell if that means I’m crazy or insightful. Most likely, the kind of insightful that is not really distinguishable from crazy.
When he calls the boat, Benry claims the difference between himself and Widmore is that he won’t kill innocents. On the one hand, he makes sort of a compelling case (“You killed them, Michael. I didn’t ask you to do that.”), but on the other, he did gas an entire island. Unless of course he deemed the whole Dharma Initiative to be guilty. Just saying, Benry’s definition of “innocent” may be a little more narrow than it would be for other people. As if to illustrate the point, he asks Michael to make a list of everyone on the freighter. That guy loves lists! Goodwin and Ethan both made lists of the “good people” for him, and in the future, he’s got a list of “bad people” for Sayid to kill. In the past, they’ve been referred to as “Jacob’s lists”, but that’s before we knew who Jacob was. Since Benry can’t actually communicate with Jacob, I assume uses his connections to investigate everybody on the list, and then passes off his findings as being Jacob’s decree.
It seems to me that ratting Michael out to the Captain is a little rash on Sayid’s part. I know he’s not a fan of Benry’s, but he didn’t seem to trust the freighter people that much, either. Still, you can see why he’d assume that Michael is always on the wrong side. And he might just be thinking three moves ahead. And we know that it won’t be long before Sayid is working for Benry, so something between now and then is going to change his outlook.
And that brings us to the final scene. That was just unsettling. Sure, Karl has seemed like cannon fodder ever since we’ve met him, but that doesn’t mean I was ready for that. And Rousseau? That was legitimately shocking. I yelled and everything. I’m going to miss her – she was really important in terms of advancing the mythology of the show, and she was just an interesting character. Here’s hoping she pulls a Mikhail and has to die three or four times before she finally stops moving.
Announcing that she’s the daughter of Benry to an unseen gunman is either the smartest thing Alex has ever done, or the stupidest. There’s no middle of the road there.
As I said earlier, I don’t think Benry set up the ambush. For all we know, Charlotte is the one doing the shooting. Or maybe The Others have gotten bloodthirsty. Regardless, we’ve got a month to wait.
You know, Season Four has been officially awesome. Eight episodes, and all eight were really strong. Every single one either significantly advanced the storyline or gave us useful insights into character motivations. And all of them made me yell or cry a little at the end. I can’t wait for the rest of the new episodes, and I’m glad we’re waiting a month and not a full year.
All right, we’ve got a month for chatter, theories, anagrams, and all other forms of discussion. Let’s get to it!
Sincerely, Lightbulb
