Lost - "Meet Kevin Johnson"

First, I just need to gloat at Nathan right quick, so pardon me while I say "I was right and you were wrong, so there, nyah!"  This will make more sense to everyone else when I get into the spoilers. That was an awesome Lost.  They answered a surprising number of questions for us, mostly at the end of the episode, and they took some of those answers in a different direction than I expected.  That's just what I like to see from this show. Now, onward to spoiler-land: We knew this was going to be a Michael-centric episode, after he revealed himself last week.  I'll admit I was dead wrong last week when I speculated on how he wound up on the freighter.  In addition, we got a flashback for the final piece of his backstory.  Apparently his car crash injuries stemmed from a suicide attempt, apparently brought on by losing Walt.  That explains why his ex felt so responsible and came back to make all the arrangements for his medical care.  Given that he was found with a note to Walt pinned to his chest, I find it interesting that she never brought up his mental state during the custody battles, but it does explain why he basically had no chance at all of getting custody. The rest of the flashbacks were much more recent, showing us how Michael went from the island to the freighter.  As I said, I was dead wrong about him getting rescued by the freighter itself, and now that I think about it, it was unrealistic to think he would become a trusted member of the crew that easily.  Instead, he actually managed to make it all the way back home with Walt, but in the course of explaining why he and Walt couldn't tell anyone about the island, it looks like he also told his son everything he did to free them, including committing two murders.  Now Walt lives with his grandmother, who won't let Michael even see the boy.  So Michael is to try once again to kill himself, this time with something less uncertain than a car crash. Then in walks Tom!  It was awesome to see him again, but sad because I know I won't see much more.  According to him, the island's influence extends all the way back to New York and it will not allow him to kill himself.  He still has work to do.  This raises a couple of questions.  Is it the island on its own, or Ben's influence that's doing it.  Or is it Walt's control over the island?  Was Walt born with that power, and is that what made Michael survive the car crash too?  At any rate, Tom tells Michael to look him up when he's ready to help out, and leaves him to prove to himself that he can't kill himself. So Michael went to Tom, and found out he was to join the crew of Widmore's freighter to the island.  According to Tom, Widmore is the one who orchestrated the fake Oceanic wreck, digging up an Indonesian graveyard for the bodies, buying an old 777, and sinking it deep in a trench where it could never be raised.  All of that, of course, is suspect since we know Ben is always willing to lie to his own people to get his will pushed through.  Plus, the freighter captain claims to have the actual black box from Oceanic 815, which he says Widmore acquired at very great expense.  Of course, if Widmore orchestrated the whole thing, he'd lie to his people too. So the plan was for Michael to wait until the ship was a couple days out to see, then kill everyone on board.  Of course, he started getting cold feet once he met other crew members, but once he found the commandos shooting skeet with submachineguns, he steeled himself and went to set off the bomb Ben's people had sent him.  Instead of exploding, it popped up a flag with the message "NOT YET."  Ben seemed surprised when Michael later related this bit of information to him, surprised that Michael had even tried to detonate it.  I think the bomb was the real deal, and was supposed to explode, except that the island didn't want it to yet.  Once again, it wouldn't let Michael kill himself until his work was done.  Ben did not expect that. Now, in the present timeline, Michael related all of this to Sayid and Desmond.  Sayid, one truly able to know what evil lurks in the hearts of men, made his single greatest mistake.  He acted from the heart instead of the mind, just as Ben said in a flash forward, and he turned Michael in to the captain as the saboteur.  And that, among other things, is one of the major precipitating factor of the coming war for the island, which will result in many deaths. Back in Locketown, Ben is free and finally revealed the identity of his man on the boat to everyone.  Near as I could tell, Miles didn't tell anyone anything they didn't already know when Locke allowed them to interrogate him; Sawyer even pointed out that they left out the part about the $3.2 million bribe Miles demanded to let Ben go.  But the big thing back at Locketown was Ben convincing Alex to head for the Sanctuary to hide with the rest of the Others.  He kept telling her that if she were captured by the boat people they would use her to get to him.  I have to wonder, though, if she really does represent that much leverage over him, or if he had another purpose to send her out that way. Danielle agreed with Ben that they needed to go, and she led Alex and Karl along the route Ben specified.  Unfortunately, when they stop to rest, a silenced shot took out Karl and when Danielle and Alex tried to run, another one droped Danielle.  Alex surrendere, calling out that she was Ben's daughter.  I told Nathan it was going to be a minor character that died this week, and I wasn't wrong.  I didn't expect Danielle to die too, but then, I bet she's not really dead.  She's tough to kill, and will probably get up and go after Alex again. Now we know where Frank and the chopper went.  My guess is he was taking the commandos out to the island to take out Ben and the Others.  The question is whether they had hit the Sanctuary already or were on their way there.  Will Alex lead them to Ben, who she does hate, or to the Sanctuary with Ben's map?  Was her capture all part of Ben's plan? Now, unfortunately, we have to wait until Thursday, April 24th to get the next installment.  And it looks like things are finally going to come to a head between the Oceanic survivors, the Others, and Widmore's boat people.  We only know a handful of survivors for certain, the Oceanic Six and Ben.  My guess, based on Aaron being passed off as Kate's son, is that Claire dies in the coming war.  Jin may as well, though some think he makes it back to civilization before he goes.  Michael came all this way to die, so he's probably going to be a casualty.  Everyone else is up for grabs.  I there are survivors, though, who remain on the island, and Locke will be among them.  We'll know for sure in another month. Until then, see you in another life, brother.