To be honest, I wasn’t that enamored by this week's episode. It was really great to see Walt (or at least a brief glimpse of him) and so many dead faces from the show’s past (like Libby and Tom), but in the end it was just too much Michael. I know I’ve said this before, but in the first season Michael was one of my favorite characters, that is until he turned into a whiny, sniveling creep who was willing to murder two innocent women to get his son back. Watching Michael last week in “Meet Kevin Johnson” really made me dislike him. The guy made his bed and now it's time to sleep in it.
What is interesting about this episode is that it is the first instance where a Flash Back is actually a story being told to another character. As the story unfolds it turns out that Michael’s Flash Back was his retelling of his experiences off the island to Sayid. This makes me wonder if we are to take Michael’s Flash Back as fact or is it his interpretation of what occurred. If it’s the latter then can we assume that maybe parts of Michael’s Flash Back are a lie constructed as some sort of elaborate plan by Michael and Ben? This is the first time I’ve ever questioned a Flash Back’s validity, and I’m assuming we won’t know if what Michael is saying is truth or fiction until much later on.
As for Walt, I really can’t believe Michael told him about murdering Ana Lucia and Libby. But, it does explain how Michael could have left Walt so soon after doing such horrible things to get him back. I’m just hoping that when the show catches up to the Flash Forwards either at the end of this season or sometime next season the show will be able to explain Walt’s growth spurts and he’ll rejoin the cast as a main cast member.
Did it seem strange to anyone else how quickly Sayid blew the whistle on Michael and ratted him out to Captain Gault? I know he’s angry at Michael for killing Ana Lucia and Libby, as well as deserting his friends from Oceanic flight 815 on the island, but it seems out of character for the normally reserved Sayid. I find it especially unsettling considering Sayid and Desmond already have their suspicions as to the mission of the freighter’s crew. I hope Sayid hasn’t played his hand too soon and that Michael’s return won’t be cut short due to his deception.
It wouldn't surprise me if this was some elaborate plan by Sayid to get closer to the Captain to find out what is really going on. In the back of my head I still sort of think that Sayid is already working with Ben after his meeting with Ben and Locke earlier in the season. It was a little odd that Captain Gault didn’t really seem that shocked or surprised as to the news of Michael being a spy for Ben. I wonder if this mean's Gault believes Sayid or if maybe he knew Michael was a spy all along.
My last thought on the episode before moving on to the Lost Wednesdays segment of this post is the connection between Tom’s explanation to Michael about how the island won’t let him commit suicide because the island isn’t done with him yet and Jack’s Flash Forward from the season finale of Season 3. As you all might remember we found Jack about to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge in Season 3's season finale, but he's stopped by the sound of a serious car crash on the bridge. I’m guessing that the real explanation for the crash, at least in the minds of the Others, is that the island wasn’t going to let Jack die because he had unfinished business and so the island caused the car wreck. I guess I buy the island having the power to effect things even back on the main land because it's pretty hard to argue with Michael’s gun not firing.
