Slapinions

This was the last pre-writer's strike episode and serves as a mini-cliffhanger for the season.

It was a solid, straight-forward action episode without a lot of hidden meanings, unless I was too dense to pick up on them.

The show chronicled some of Michael's post-isle life, which in this case goes from the day he left the island after betraying his friends to his arrival on the freighter in late December, a period of perhaps 30 days.

(btw, just in case I've never mentioned it. The show is set in the South Pacific. It is 'now' approaching Christmas 2004. . . will the Tsunami play a role in the show?)

He is distraught with guilt over his murder of Ana-Lucia and Libby, and separated from Walt after the disclosure of his actions drove the boy away

.

Walt now lives with his Grandma, who mentions that Michael and Walt now live under assumed names without mentioning the crash.

Because of this stress he tries time and again to kill himself, failing every time.

Enter Tom, aka Mr. Friendly, aka, my favorite Other, who tells him that the Others have been monitoring the pair and that he will always fail to commit suicide because the island won't let him.

Since Tom seems to be telling the truth, it appears the island is sentient and has the power to stretch its reach across an ocean.

Later, Michael meets with Tom at the Hotel Earle (the name for the manifestation of hell in Barton Fink) where he convinces him to board the freighter under an assumed name - and kill everyone on board.

Two things here:

1. Tom is 'outed' as homosexual, something he hinted at when he rebuked Kate a season or two ago

2. Tom presents 'evidence' that Widmore staged the 815 crash site. Whether he's being honest or not, and I vote 'no', this fills in some holes in the story - like where the bodies came from. Note also that the quiz show answer, right before the 'special report' about 815, was 'Kurt Vonnegut' - a reference to Slaughterhouse Five perhaps?

So Michael, now known as Kevin Johnson, boards the ship. Despite initial misgivings after getting to know the crew he goes ahead with the plan to blow up the vessel. When the counter reaches zero on the explosives a simple flag pops up with a note saying 'not yet'.

He is later contacted by Ben via radio and agrees to do his bidding and become 'one of the good guys'.

Thus, we learn who destroyed the radio room and compiled the info on board; we also 'learn' that Ben uses the lists to determine who are the 'innocents'.

Sayid, learning of Michael's new allegiance, turns him in to the ships captain as a traitor. I suppose we're supposed to smirk at Sayid's stance, given that he's later to become Ben's pawn, but what stuck in my mind was the captain's reaction. Ten to one he's in on the deal.

On the island Locke makes a feeble attempt to appear like a decisive leader, and Ben convinces Alexandra, Karl, and Rousseau to make a run for the 'temple sanctuary'.

Apparently it was a trap, and Ben willingly fed his daughter to the beast. Karl is shot dead, Rousseau is also shot (although we see no blood, so we don't even know it was a bullet that knocked her out, or that she is, in fact, dead). Alex makes an attempt to surrender, although we don't learn if it was successful or not.

So much for Ben being such a good Dad. I guess Alex was no longer an 'innocent', huh?

A good episode, but nothing overly stellar.

 I look forward to the new episodes in late April. Thursday's are gonna be mighty boring without Lost to look forward to.

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• #1 Comment from charismaticwink 
  3/21/08 12:02 PM | Permalink

  LOST has been losing me as a viewer - it's just become one big and confusing mess, and I do sometimes wonder if the writers' throw any and all ideas into a pile, and pick out a few for each episode.  I like the show, and I, still, watch it in hopes of finding out ANYTHING AT ALL.  
  
  Liked your autopsy of the show, though - it helped!