"Lost"
Meet Kevin Johnson (2008)

Director:

Stephen Williams

Writers:

Jeffrey Lieber (creator) and
J.J. Abrams (creator) ...

TV Series:

"Lost" (2004)

Original Air Date:

20 March 2008 (Season 4, Episode 8)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

Michael's journey from escaping the island to working as Ben's spy on Widmore's ship is revealed, as well as his mission. Ben tells Danielle and Alex to leave Locke's camp and go to the island temple, but they are ambushed on the way.

Plot Keywords:

Flashback | Freighter | Shoot | Death | Family Relationships

Cast

Naveen Andrews	...	Sayid Jarrah
Henry Ian Cusick	...	Desmond Hume
Jeremy Davies	...	Daniel Faraday (credit only)
Emilie de Ravin	...	Claire Littleton
Michael Emerson	...	Ben Linus
Matthew Fox	...	Jack Shephard (credit only)
Jorge Garcia	...	Hugo 'Hurley' Reyes
Josh Holloway	...	James 'Sawyer' Ford
Daniel Dae Kim	...	Jin Kwon (credit only)
Yunjin Kim	...	Sun Kwon (credit only)
Ken Leung	...	Miles Straume
Evangeline Lilly	...	Kate Austen (credit only)
Rebecca Mader	...	Charlotte Lewis (credit only)
Elizabeth Mitchell	...	Juliet Burke (credit only)
Terry O'Quinn	...	John Locke

Runtime:

43 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:TV-14 | Netherlands:12 | Venezuela:PG-13 (DVD rating)

Company:

Bad Robot

Goofs:

Errors in geography: When Michael Dawson arrives at the port in Suva, Fiji, the taxi is a left hand drive vehicle. In Fiji cars are driven on the left hand side of the road so the vehicles are right hand drive.

Quotes:

Miles Straume: Your name's not Kevin!
Michael Dawson: [stares at him blankly]
Miles Straume: Don't worry, eighty percent of the people on this boat are lying about something.

Movie Connections:

References The Shining (1980)

Another great episode which does a great job of tying up loose ends

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Like many, many other Lost fans I was concerned about how the writers would explain Michael's return, but it went off without any major issues. The flashbacks were effective, explanatory, interesting, and provided a chance to encounter some faces we haven't seen in a while. Harold Perrineau did a brilliant job this episode, proving that he is a great actor when given the right material to work with, which Liz Sarnoff and Brian K. Vaughan do in this episode. We see barely anything of 'present-time' island events, only getting the obligatory (but nicely done) scene with the rest of the 'important' members of Locke's camp learning that Michael was on the freighter. Speaking of the freighter, other than on-freighter scenes in the flashback we get essentially an extended scene of Sayid interrogating Michael.

The episode's flashback story was nicely set up, with further mythology reveals (more like hints, admittedly) and nice character-driven moments. I wasn't crazy about the reveal that Tom Friendly was gay, simply because I felt it was obligatory and lazy in that fans have been told there is a gay character on the show so the writers went ahead and said: 'hey, here's a dead character we'll see in some flashbacks here and there- make him gay'. Aside from that disappointment and a complete lack of explanation for Locke's 'taller ghost Walt' comment, which is looking increasingly like a throwaway joke as the story progresses (I suspect Walt will only be shown in flashforwards a few years ahead of 2004), this episode's flashbacks provided some terrific scenes, including another example of Ben's expertly manipulative nature.

Stephen Williams did a fairly good job of directing the episode and it was nice to revisit some of the music Giacchino wrote for Michael's character. The ending of this episode made me angry and frustrated because it seemed such an awkward place to end it, but it does promise some intriguing encounters with whoever was shooting. I sincerely hope Rosseau isn't dead, that would just be cowardly writing after being promised a Rosseau flashback for so long. Can't wait for the closing five episodes.

9/10