Lost/Meet Kevin Johnson

Meet Kevin Johnson
Season 4, Episode 8
Airdate	March 20, 2008
Production Number	408
Written by	Elizabeth Sarnoff Brian K. Vaughan
Directed by	Stephen Williams
← 4x07 Ji Yeon	4x09 → The Shape of Things to Come
Lost — Season Four

Meet Kevin Johnson is the eighth episode of the fourth season of Lost, and the eightieth episode overall.

Sayid confronts Ben's spy on the freighter, and Ben urges daughter Alex to flee Locke's camp in order to survive an impending attack.

Starring: Naveen Andrews (Sayid), Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond), Jeremy Davies (Daniel), Emilie de Ravin (Claire), Michael Emerson (Ben), Matthew Fox (Jack), Jorge Garcia (Hurley), Josh Holloway (Sawyer), Daniel Dae Kim (Jin), Yunjin Kim (Sun), Ken Leung (Miles), Evangeline Lilly (Kate), Rebecca Mader (Charlotte), Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet), Terry O'Quinn (Locke), Harold Perrineau (Michael).

Guest Starring: Cynthia Watros (Libby), M.C. Gainey (Mr. Friendly/Tom), Anthony Azizi (Omar), Blake Bashoff (Karl), Grant Bowler (Captain Gault), Starletta DuPois (Mrs. Dawson), Kevin Durand (Keamy), Jeff Fahey (Frank Lapidus), Mira Furlan (Danielle Rousseau), Tania Raymonde (Alex), Fisher Stevens (George Minkowski), Marsha Thomason (Naomi Dorrit).

Co-Starring: Galyn Görg (Nurse), James Locke (Mechanic), William P. Ogilivie (Pawnbroker), Francesco Simone (Arturo), Jill Kuramoto (Female Anchor).

Uncredited: Malcolm David Kelley (Walt Lloyd).

Plot Overview

The Island/Freighter

• At night at the barracks, John Locke calls everyone to a meeting and brings Miles with him. He tells all those assembled that he didn't want to make a move until he knew more about their situation, and is going to tell them everything he knows. He has Miles share with them why he and his group arrived on the island: they're there for Ben. Sawyer suggests they simply turn Ben over, but Ben informs the group that the people from the freighter have orders to kill everyone on the island once they have him. Claire doesn't believe Locke is going to protect Ben after he tried to kill him and Hurley points out how Ben won't even tell them the identity of his spy on the freighter, but Ben reveals the identity of his spy - it's Michael.

  With the meeting concluded, Locke escorts Miles back to the boathouse when they're stopped by Sawyer. Since Locke claimed to not be keeping any more secrets, he wants to know about the $3.2 million Miles wanted from Ben. Locke tells Sawyer that Miles wanted the money in exchange for his loyalty, but he didn't bring it up as he hasn't seen a bank on the island and believed it wasn't important. Miles finds Locke's remark humorous, telling them that Linus will find a way to get the money in order to survive. Back inside Ben's house, Ben asks for a moment of Alex's time. He gives Alex a map to the Temple, a sanctuary and the last safe place on the island. Karl asks why they never heard of it before and Ben tells him it wouldn't be a sanctuary otherwise. The rest of the Others are there and they should be able to get there in a day and a half. The others in the barracks, such as Claire and Hurley, can't go as it's not meant for them. He warns them that the people from the freighter know who he is and are trying to capture him, will kill anyone who gets in the way and would use her against him. Karl thinks they should go to the Temple and Rousseau agrees. Alex asks if the people from the freighter are more dangerous than Ben and is told they are. The three leave.

  With the sun overhead, Rousseau has the group stop for a two-minute rest before continuing on. Alex notices something wrong with Karl. Karl tells her he has a bad feeling and thinks her dad may be lying to them. Alex reminds Karl that he doesn't like taking orders from her father either, but he doesn't want her getting hurt. They hear the sound of ricochets from silenced gunfire and Karl is struck in the chest, killing him. Rousseau pulls her daughter behind a tree as more rounds strike the tree trunks. She tells Alex they're going to make a run for it. As Rousseau leaves the cover of the tree, she's immediately struck from behind and falls to the ground wounded. Alex hears the rustling of the shooters surrounding her and surrenders, yelling at them that she's Ben's daughter.

• In the middle of the night on the freighter, Sayid and Desmond are roused from their sleep by the sound of an alarm. Rushing up to the deck, they witness Captain Gault beating two men who are trying to desert by using the ship's tender. Gault yells to everyone that no one leaves his ship without his express permission. He tells the assembled crew that he beat the men to save their lives, reminding everyone about the fate of the last two men who took the tender out and how Minkowski died. Once they have the engines back up they'll be fine, but he wants the crew to hold on until that happens. Gault orders Kevin Johnson - Michael - to clean up the mess and leaves. Sayid stops Michael as he wants to know what he's doing on the boat, but Michael only tells him he's there to die.

  As the sun rises on the horizon, Sayid learns from one of the crew that Michael is down in the engine room. Sayid and Desmond head down to the engine room and get themselves alone with Michael. Sayid demands to know why Michael is on the boat. Michael tells them how he got to the freighter and that he's working for Ben. Sayid grabs Michael and forcefully takes him to Gault's cabin. He tells Gault that Michael was a passenger on Oceanic 815, the man who betrayed them and the man who's been sabotaging the freighter.

The Flashback

• Flashback: Michael

In a small, cluttered apartment in New York City, Michael hurriedly composes a note as people yelling and the sounds of city surround him. After finishing his note, Michael heads down to the street and gets inside his car. He pins the note to his jacket, drives off to the docks and slams his car headlong into a shipping container. Waking up, Michael finds himself in a hospital. A nurse enters with some blankets and tells him he was in a car accident. Michael opens his eyes and discovers the nurse is Libby, the woman he murdered. Libby tells him it's a cold night and she brought some extra blankets. Michael screams, but realizes Libby isn't there. A nurse comes into the room as she heard a shout. She tells Michael he's lucky to be alive and asks for his name as the EMT's didn't find any identification on him, but Michael doesn't say anything. She asks if she should call Walt, since his note was written to him, but Michael tells her not to.

After being released from the hospital, Michael stops by his mother's house. He asks to come in, but his mother closes the door behind her, telling him he knows the answer and she won't let him see Walt. She doesn't know what Michael said to Walt, but she knows Walt doesn't want to see him. She reminds Michael how they said his plane crashed in the middle of ocean, yet they showed up on her doorstop just fine and she can't tell anyone they're alive or refer to them by their real names. Walt wakes up screaming in the middle of the night and she has to tell him everything is OK. Until Michael can explain to her where they've been for the last two months and what happened, Michael's given up his rights to be Walt's father. Michael can't bring himself to tell her what happened and asks her to tell Walt he loves him. As he leaves, Michael sees Walt watching him from a bedroom window.

Michael heads straight to a pawn shop and offers up his watch. The shop owner asks about the Chinese writing on the back of it and Michael tells him it's Korean. The shop owner offers Michael $300 for the watch, but Michael tells him he wants a gun and bullets. With the gun and bullets in hand, Michael heads into an empty alley. With shaky hands he loads the handgun and then places it against his jaw. Before he can pull the trigger, a man asks Michael for the time. Michael hides the gun and apologizes. The man steps out of the shadows, revealing himself to be Tom, and asks Michael again as an "old friend." Michael tries to pull the gun on Tom, but Tom parries as Michael takes a shot. He punches Michael and tells him to relax, but Michael tries to fight him. Tom knocks Michael to the ground and asks him if he's ready to talk like adults. Michael accepts and is helped up, but grabs a glass bottle and strikes Tom in the head. He shatters the bottle against a wall puts the jagged end to Tom's throat as Tom puts a gun Michael's throat. Michael drops the bottle and tells Tom to pull the trigger, but Tom refuses. Asked how they found him, Tom reminds him that they were the ones who let him leave the island and were going to keep tabs on him. They want Michael's help. Michael can't believe they think he's going to help the people who took his son, but Tom reminds him they gave Walt back in one piece. Tom then realizes that Michael told Walt what he did to get him back, that Michael couldn't carry the guilt of murdering two women and shared it with a ten-year-old kid. That's why Michael wants to kill himself. Tom tells Michael that he can't kill himself as the island won't let him, no matter how many times he tries. He gives Michael his gun back and tells him he has more work to do. Once he realizes that he should come visit him at the penthouse of the Hotel Earl.

Back at his apartment, Michael puts the gun to his head, pulls the trigger and the gun doesn't fire. Michael puts the gun to his head for a second attempt, but is interrupted by a news report on the television - the wreckage of Oceanic 815 has been discovered. Due to the depth, there's little hope of the remains or the black box being recovered. Michael goes to the Hotel Earl penthouse and is greeted by Tom. Another man inside, Arturo, asks Tom if Michael is the one who knocked him over the head with a champagne bottle. Tom asks Arturo for a moment alone with Michael and the two kiss each other on the cheek. Alone, Tom tells Michael to help himself to a table of food; he likes to indulge himself as he doesn't get to go to the mainland too often. Michael demands to know why Oceanic 815 is at the bottom of the ocean and Tom tells him the plane is a fake placed there by Charles Widmore. Widmore doesn't want anyone but himself knowing where Oceanic 815 actually crashed. He hands Michael a dossier with information on how Widmore did it; pictures of a cemetery in Thailand where Widmore dug up the 324 bodies, a purchase order for the Boeing 777 he purchased through a shell company and shipping logs for the freighter he used to drop the whole thing into the ocean. They believe Widmore now has the location of the island and a freighter is about to depart Fiji to find the island. Tom hands him a passport for "Kevin Johnson" and tells him he's going to be a deckhand on the freighter. If Widmore finds the island, then he'll kill everyone on the island without a second thought. Michael can redeem himself by saving all their lives by killing the people on the freighter.

Michael arrives at the Port of Suva in Fiji, the port where the Kahana is docked. Minkowski asks Michael if he's their engineer but learns he's a deckhand. Minkowski tells them they're all equal on the boat and introduces himself. He tells Michael to check in with Naomi and gets back to work. Michael introduces himself to Naomi and learns a crate was delivered for him and she'll have to brought to his berth. Getting onto the freighter, Michael passes by Miles who tells him his name isn't "Kevin". Miles tells him not to worry as most of the people on the freighter are lying about something. Michael receives a phone call from Tom and is told not to open the package until they're at sea. Tom gets the feeling Michael is having cold feet and reminds him of his friends still on the island. Michael tells him he's still in and is told to ditch the phone.

The freighter puts to sea and Michael witnesses an argument between Naomi and Frank. Frank believes he should be the first to take the chopper out, but Naomi tells him he has to transport the science team and refuses to tell him why she's going out first. Their conversation over, Frank heads over to Michael and introduces himself. Michael claims he's on the freighter to look for some adventure. Frank tells him he's on the freighter as he believes the Oceanic 815 wreckage found isn't real. Widmore believed his story and that's why he got onto the freighter. Later, Michael witnesses Keamy and his men firing Heckler & Koch MP5 submachineguns at targets fired from the freighter. Michael asks them what they're doing as he thought they were on a rescue mission. Keamy chuckles and dodges the question, asking Michael if he has something to mop up. Michael heads to his cabin and opens his package, finding a briefcase inside. Michael takes the briefcase to the engine room and opens it to discover C-4 explosives hidden inside. He arms the device and prepares to push the detonation button, but hears music briefly. Looking around the engine room to discern the source of the sound, Michael sees Libby who tells him not to do it. She disappears. Michael goes back to the device and pushes the button which begins a countdown. The timer reaches zero, but the device doesn't explode and a rolled up message pops up instead. The message reads, "Not yet."

Retreating back to his cabin, Michael bounces a ball up against the bulkhead until Minkowski pops in. Minkowski informs Michael he has a call from the mainland from someone named Walt. The two go to the radio room and Michael asks for some time alone as it's a personal call. Minkowski tells him how to operate the radio and leaves the room. Unfortunately for Michael, the caller is Ben and not Walt. Michael tells Ben how he was put on the freighter to blow it up, but only got a flag to pop up when he pushed the button. Ben is surprised that Michael actually activated the bomb. He tells Michael there are people on the freighter who are innocent and have know idea the man they work for is a monster. When Ben's at war he'll do what he needs to do to win, but will not kill innocent people. Michael asks him about Ana-Lucia and Libby as they were innocent, but Ben reminds him that he never killed them or asked Michael to; he doesn't blame Michael for what he did. Ben tells Michael to compile a list of everyone on the freighter and to give it to him the next time he calls, then disable the radio room and then the engines. The boat won't get to the island and his friends will be safe.

Notes

Mysteries

• Who are the "innocent" people aboard the freighter?
• Who are the people holed up at the Temple?
• Who or what attacked Karl, Rousseau and Alex?

Answers

• Michael and Walt were able to leave the island successfully. (2x23 - Live Together, Die Alone)
• Ben's spy on the freighter is Michael. (4x02 - Confirmed Dead)

The Cursed Numbers

• The markings on the C-4 explosives include "MOD-004-IGN".
• The explosive device's timer starts at 15 seconds.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Michael tells his tale of how he got onto the freighter and his cover is blown by Sayid.
• Locke informs his group about the intentions of the freighter and how they'll kill everyone once they get Ben.
• Ben asks his daughter to go to the Temple for safety.

Characters

• Karl and Rousseau are both killed.
• Alex is captured alive.

Referbacks

• 1x24 - Exodus, Part Two: Michael pawns the watch Jin gave to him. Michael later asks Tom why he should help the people who took his son. In "Exodus, Part Two", Jin gave Michael the watch that brought them to blows earlier. Tom later took Walt from Michael's raft.
• 2x20 - Two for the Road: In the hospital Michael sees Libby carrying a bundle of blankets. In "Three Minutes", Michael shot and killed Libby as she was carrying blankets for her picnic with Hurley.
• 2x23 - Live Together, Die Alone: Tom reminds Michael they gave him back Walt in one piece. In "Live Together, Die Alone", Walt was returned to Michael.
• 3x20 - The Man Behind the Curtain: Claire reminds Locke how Ben tried to kill him. In "The Man Behind the Curtain", Ben shot Locke and left him for dead.
• 4x04 - Eggtown: Sawyer inquires about the $3.2 million Miles wants from Ben. In "Eggtown", Miles told Ben he wanted $3.2 million to tell his employers that Ben was dead.

Trivia

The Show

• Oops: While the freighter is at sea, only one helicopter is seen on deck when there should be two.
• Oops: When Karl gets shot, Rousseau tries to calm down Alex and we can see the microphone on her right ear when it should be covered by her hair.
• Terminology: After running out of ammo, Keamy asks for another clip. The proper term is "magazine".

Behind the Scenes

• Location, Location, Location: The Barracks is the YMCA's Camp Erdman in Waialua, HI. Port of Suva in Fiji is Kewalo Basin in Honolulu, HI.
• Missing in Action: Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Elizabeth Mitchell, Yunjin Kim, Daniel Dae Kim, Jeremy Davies and Rebecca Mader are credited but do not appear in this episode.

Allusions and References

• It's Getting Better: When Michael gets into his car, the song playing on the radio is the 1969 single "It's Getting Better" by Cass Elliot. Cass Elliot also recorded "Make Your Own Kind of Music", which was played in the season two opener "Man of Science, Man of Faith".
• Kurt Vonnegut: One of the answers on the game show on the television in Michael's apartment is "Kurt Vonnegut". Kurt Vonnegut is the author of Slaughterhouse Five.
• The Shining: Michael bounces a ball against the wall of his cabin, prompting Minkowski to ask him if he's going Nicholson on them like in The Shining. In The Shining, a 1980 horror film directed by Stanley Kubrick and based on Stephen King's novel of the same name, Jack Nicholson's character bounces a ball against a wall before eventually going insane.