Megan's Minute: "Lost" Recap: "Meet Kevin Johnson" (3/20/08)

Hello ladies and gentlemen, my name is Kevin Johnson, a.k.a. Michael Dawson, a.k.a. Walt's Dad, a.k.a. the killer of Ana Lucia and Libby. Good to meet you.

We open at Lockeville in Ben's living room. Clair, Rousseau, Karl, Sawyer and Hurley are waiting there when Locke comes in with a still tied up Miles.

Locke announces to the gathering he's going to tell them everything. No more secrets.

Locke brought Miles for a visit so that he can tell the assembled...Lockevillers? Lockevillites? Lockevillians? Lockvilliagers? Take your pick---why the Fearless Foursome came to the island in the first place.

Miles obliges. "We're here for him." "Him" being Ben.

Hurley's like, yeah, and...? Tell us something we didn't know.

Sawyer's all for turning Ben over right then and there, but Locke says they can't because once the Fearless Foursome have Ben, the crew of the Mystery Freighter has orders to kill everyone else on the island.

Everybody looks at Miles and Miles doesn't deny it. Claire then says something about how now we're protecting this scum bucket? Hurley's like, why should we believe Ben when he won't even tell us who the Mystery Freighter spy is?

Ben pipes up, "It's Michael."

Sawyer like, you mean Michael, a.k.a. Walt's Dad, a.k.a. the killer of Ana Lucia and Libby, a.k.a the betraying skunk who let this plague known as Ben out on the loose in the first place? Then sold us all out so he could get off the island? That Michael??

Sawyer man, I understand your pain.

"Yes James," says Locke. "That Michael."

On the Mystery Freighter, Sayid and Desmond are sleeping when emergency sirens start going off. When they get out on deck they see Gault wailing away on a couple of his crew. Evidently they were trying to get off the ship in a rubber raft.

Gault's giving them a lecture while he pummels them. "The rule of desertion...POW... still applies...WHAP...to everyone." He punches them a couple more times. "Nobody leaves this ship without my say so."

The captain continues his heart warming pep talk about how he beat those guys up for their own protection. Remember Minkowski and how he went cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs? If you don't want that to happen to you, keep your heads until we get the engines fixed.

Gault then calls for Johnson. When Michael walks up, the captain tells him to "clean this mess up." I love how it's the only black guy on the ship who has to clean up all the bloody messes. Coincidence? I think not.

Michael's like, aye, aye, sir. After the captain leaves, Sayid goes to Michael and says they need to talk. Michael's like, can we wait 'til we're somewhere just a little more private?

But Sayid won't be put off. "Why are you on this boat?"

Michael pauses a beat and then says ominously, "I'm here to die."

Opening credits.

Locke is taking Miles back to his cage. Sawyer catches up with them and wants to know why Locke didn't mention the three million bucks Miles asked for from Ben.

Locke says since the island's Washington Mutual branch closed last week, he didn't think it was an issue.

Miles laughs. "Linus'll find a way to get it." Sawyer's like, how do you know smarty pants?

"He wants to survive," says Miles. "And considering a week ago you had a gun to his head and tonight he's eating pound cake, I say he's a guy gets what he wants." He's got a point there.

Back inside Chez Ben, the head of the household himself is trying to convince Alex, Rousseau and Karl to go to The Temple. The rest of the Others are there and Ben tells Alex it's the only place she'll be safe. If the crew of the Mystery Freighter find out she's his daughter, her life won't be worth a plug nickel.

Rousseau agrees, but before they leave Alex asks Ben if the Mystery Freighter crew are more dangerous than he is.

"Yes. But your mother will protect you."

Speaking of the Mystery Freighter, Desmond and Sayid finally get Michael alone in the engine room. when Michael sends his crew mate on a fake errand. Sayid then slams Michael against the wall and demands answers.

Flashback to Michael's crappy little apartment. Michael's writing in a notepad while glancing at a picture of he and Baby Walt. Once he's done, he goes out to the street and gets in a beat up old car. I think he's supposed to be in New York, but it's really the Hollywood version of New York via Honolulu.

Anyway, Michael starts up the car and then pins the sheet of paper he just wrote to his jacket. The radio's playing and once again it's "Lost's" favorite performer, Mama Cass. She's singing "It's getting better..."

Michael looks determined as he speeds up. All of a sudden he's at the docks and guns the car down the length of a pier. Looking totally agonized, but determined, he says "I'm sorry" right before slamming the car head on into one of those humongous freighter containers.

And that car radio must be made of titanium, because Mama Cass continues to sing, "getting better everyday...better everyday..." while a freighter steams slowly by in the background.

I've seen that scene several times now, and I still cringe right before the car hits that container.

Poor Michael. I know he's a murderer and everything but, to paraphrase Sugar in "Some Like It Hot," he's always getting the fuzzy end of the lollipop.

Cut to the patented "Lost" eye opening closeup shot. This time the eye belongs to Michael and he's in a hospital. He's not in great shape, but despite his best efforts, he's alive. A nurse walks in and with his eyes half closed Michael asks her what happened.

The nurse tells him he needs rest and "It's a miracle you're alive." Michael opens his eyes fully and focuses on the nurse...Libby!

"It's a cold night," she says. "I bought you some extra blankets." Michael starts yelling and he wakes up.

The real nurse walks in and tells him the same thing Libby did. He's lucky to be alive. The note pinned to his chest was addressed to Walt and the nurse wants to know if he wants her to contact him. Sadly, Michael says no.

It's Christmastime when Michael knocks on a door. It his mother's house and he wants to see Walt. Well Mama Dawson has a thing or two to say about that, and while she does, she conveniently fills in some plot points as well. Mama Dawson thought Michael and Walt were killed in the plane crash when all of a sudden they show up on her doorstep. But she can't call them by their real names and she can't tell anyone they're alive.

Mama Dawson doesn't know what Michael told Walt, but he doesn't want to see his Dad, and barely talks to her. And he often has terrible nightmares where he wakes up screaming. So until Michael can explain what happened, he can stay away.

Michael's about to walk away down what's supposed to be a street in Queens, New York, when he turns and sees CGI Walt at an upstairs window. When CGI Walt sees Michael look up, he moves away from the window.

After pausing the shot of Walt in the window, on second thought, I don't think he's a CGI Walt at all. I think he's a cute black kid, short enough to be the height Walt's supposed to be, wearing a wig and makeup to make him look more like the real Walt (Malcolm David Kelley).

Cut to Michael in a pawn shop trying to pawn Jin's gold watch in exchange for a gun. After he gets one, he doesn't waste any time. He goes straight to an alley, takes the gun out of a paper bag and puts it under his chin. He's startled when a guy walks out of the shadows and asks the time. Flustered, Michael puts the gun away and says he doesn't know the time and by the way, could you leave me alone so I can blow my head off, please?

"Come on Michael, how about for an old friend?" And into the light walks...Tom!

After the break, Michael's just as shocked to see Tom as we are. Not to mention, he's all cleaned up, hair cut and coiffed, and in some spiffy clothes.

"Manhattan, huh? We let you leave one island, you just go to another," Tom says. Heh.

Not really in the mood for joking, Michael tries to shoot him and when that doesn't work, gets a couple of good punches in. Tom finishes it when he gets hold of the gun. Michael tells him to shoot, but Tom won't do it. Tom talks about how they've kept track of Michael and though Michael is still understandably pissed over that little incident of Walt's kidnapping, Tom's like, we gave him back in one piece, you're the one who "lost him."

Then something occurs to Tom and he asks Michael if the reason he wants to kill himself is because he confessed the murders to Walt and that's why Walt wants nothing to do with him. Michael doesn't answer but we can see Tom is on to something.

Tom tells him Michael he might as well give it up because the island won't let him kill himself. He has more work to do, and "when you figure that out, I'm in the penthouse at the Hotel Earl." Tom's moved up in the world from the backwoods island hobo we first met.

Back at Michael's apartment a game show is playing on television when he decides to test Tom's theory. He puts the gun to his head and pulls the trigger but nothing happens in spite of the fact that the gun's loaded. He's about to give it another try when a news bulletin comes on television that the "wreckage of Oceanic 815 has been found."

An incredulous Michael hustles it over the Hotel Earl and finds Tom all tucked in nice and cozy with Arturo. Tom sends Arturo out for some air so he and Michael can talk and it's obvious Arturo and Tom are, wait for it...lovers!

If you'll remember, we got a big old foreshadow of this during the third season when Tom takes Kate out her cage so she can take a shower before meeting with Ben. During that scene Kate tells Tom she's not going to undress in front of him. Tom chuckles and says something about how he doesn't swing that way. (I'm still two "Lost" recaps behind, so I don't have time to dig out the DVD and get the exact quote, but I will, if asked.)

Anyway, since Tom and Arturo were about to tuck into some room service, Tom offers Michael food, but the only thing Michael wants is to know why his plane is at the bottom of the ocean. Tom explains that Charles Widmore staged the wreck so no one would look for the real plane and hence the island. When Michael demands proof, Tom hands him a folder." It has pictures of the cemetery in Thailand where the "wreckage corpses," were dug up, paperwork to prove Widmore bought a plane and then paperwork to prove he "crashed it."

What Tom wants is for Michael to join the crew of Widmore's Mystery Freighter in Fiji as a deckhand. He convinces Michael that the only way to redeem himself is to stop Widmore from finding the island and killing everyone on it. Tom tosses Michael a passport with his own picture in it. "Meet Kevin Johnson." Kevin Johnson's mission? To kill everyone on the Mystery Freighter.

Cut to Fiji and the docks. The first person Michael meets is the late, great George Minkowski. George tells him to check in with Naomi and after he does, she tells him the crate that was delivered for him will be sent to his berth.

Michael's cellphone rings and it's Tom. The crate was sent by him. He guesses Michael's hesitant now that he's met a couple of the people on the Mystery Freighter, but he warns Michael if he doesn't complete his mission, Jack, Sun, Jin, Sawyer, et al will die. How will he explain that to Walt?

Once out at sea, Frank introduces himself to Michael after having a verbal tussle with Naomi. When Michael says he joined the crew for some adventure, Frank's like, I'll give you adventure. The "wreckage" of Oceanic 815 they found is a fake and the owner of this boat, Charles Widmore is looking for the real wreckage and real survivors if there are any.

Further out at sea Michael's swabbing something when Keamy and some of the other mercenary crazies start skeet shooting with sub machine guns. Michael's appalled and says something about thinking they were on a rescue mission. Keamy tells him, "Don't you have something to mop up?"

Any doubts Michael had before about killing the crew are now gone. In his cabin, he opens the crate and takes out a steel briefcase. When he gets it to the engine room, he discovers it contains a bomb. He punches in a code and is about to hit the "Execute" button, when Libby appears.

"Don't do it Michael," she says, before disappearing again.

Scared, but undeterred, Michael goes back to the case and pushes the button. He says "I love you Walt " as the countdown clock goes from ten to zero. Except, when it gets to zero...a lever with a message pops up. He reads the message and it says in big black letters, "Not yet."

After the break, we join Michael in his cabin. He's bouncing a ball repeatedly against the floor and the wall. I say he's doing a Steve McQueen from "The Great Escape," but Minkowski thinks he's doing a Jack Nicholson from "The Shining."

Minkowski tells Michael Walt's on the line in the communications room, except when Michael gets there, it's really Ben on the line. Michael's confused and angry. Ben's surprised he actually activated "the bomb," but explains "the bomb" was a fake to prove to Michael that unlike some people---Charles Widmore---Ben won't kill innocent people.

What Ben wants is a complete list of everyone on the boat and then for Michael to disable the communications equipment and then the engines. When Michael agrees to do it, Ben says, "Then consider yourself one of the good guys."

Michael drops his head in his hands and cries.

Flash forward to Sayid, Desmond and Michael. Sayid asks, "You're working for Benjamin Linus?"

When Michael says yes, Sayid grabs him by the throat and takes him to the captain. He spills everything he knows about Michael and finishes by saying, "he's a traitor." Uh oh.

On the island, Rousseau, Karl and Alex are in the jungle and stop for a drink. Karl's suspicious that Ben's playing them, but Alex thinks he was sincere about trying to keep her safe. Suddenly, a bullet goes through Karl's water bottle with a whoosh. Then one goes through Karl's chest and he's dead.

Rousseau grabs a distraught Alex and drags her behind a tree. We still can't see who's shooting. Rousseau tells Alex she loves her and on the count of three they're going to run. I wasn't quite sure why this plan was supposed to work, but Rousseau gives it a try anyway, and as soon as she moves on three, she too is shot dead.

Alex, terrified, jumps up and screams, "Wait, wait, don't. I'm Ben's daughter! I'm his daughter!"

Boom....Lost!