Doing a Lost Journal shouldn’t feel like work…but the rush to get these 8 episodes complete before the return on Thursday has felt a little like work! Anyways, the final episode before the writers’ strike is Meet Kevin Johnson. After seeing Michael’s odd return in the last episode, there are many questions: How did he get there? Where is Walt? Why is he working for Ben under an assumed name?

00:30  The “Previously on Lost” highlights pretty much sum up the Annoying-Michael phase…didn’t that stretch on for like forever?  Yes, I know…you love your son, you want to get him back, but geez…let it go for 5 minutes.

02:04  Yay…a Miles sighting.  Have we seen him since he got a grenade shoved in his mouth like 20 episodes ago?

05:14  Okay, Michael is on the freighter to die.  Sayid is looking at him as though he’s perfectly accepting of this revelation.  No sign of Walt anywhere…and I seriously doubt if he’s on the freighter.  How long ago did they set off in the boat?  Maybe 30-40 days, if that?

06:30  Yeah, Ben pretty much always gets what he wants.  Why doesn’t anyone realize this?  I would have shot him days ago.  Then again, I probably would have shot Claire weeks ago, so perhaps I’m not the best judge of character.

07:20  Ben has sent Alex, Karl, and Danielle off to the Temple to hide out.  Promos said that someone is gonna die tonight and my money is on one of these 3 people.  Is the Temple a Dharma station or some old prayer site?  Does it have anything to do with the 4-toed statue?  I’ve been waiting to get to the Temple or the Statue for several episodes.

11:29  Flashback time…with Michael.  Your life off of the island looks pretty shitty.  Couldn’t you think of a better method of suicide than to ram your POS car into a shipping container?  Can’t you do anything right?  I mean, other than killing innocent people and selling out your friends?  That was pretty much textbook.

14:49  The timeline is a little confusing right now.  A lot of happened since Michael and Walt left the island.  They get rescued, have a falling out, and have been back in the states for what…a few weeks?  Oh, ok…they were missing for 2 months…which makes their rescue around November 20ish, which places the Michael-mother scene around the beginning of December?  I’m confused…

16:17  Dude…that’s a $10,000 watch.  Couldn’t you get a better deal for it than just a gun and some bullets?

17:04  Woah…it’s Tom.  Didn’t see that one coming.  This confuses the timeline even more.  This must be right after Kate and Sawyer escaped the Hydra island, right?  Obviously, the Others have a convenient means of traveling to and from the island.

18:26  So the falling out between Michael and Walt is because he told Walt what he did to Ana Lucia and Libby.  That’s some Father-of-the-Year material right there.

18:47  And the island won’t let Michael commit suicide.  Huh?  This is becoming Groundhog’s Day.

20:33  Tom is gay.  I have nothing to add here.

22:02  Tom is claiming Widmore staged the fake plane and has papers to back it up.  The captain said it was Ben.

23:30  “You’re going so you can kill everyone on board.”  I thought the Others weren’t killers.  I guess that’s why they have to get someone else to do their dirty work, especially since Michael’s been a killing machine.

24:43  Naomi…hot as ever.  I’d swab her deck anytime.

26:47  This is a long flashback.  I hate it when we don’t get the switches between island and flashback/flashforward.

30:45  Keamy is somewhat of an asshole…but not in a good way like Miles.  So much of an asshole that Michael is ready to blow up the ship.

33:19  The Others are just cruel.  Michael activates the bomb, but it’s just another Others mind game.  The Others are like the crew of Jackass…they’re probably sitting around laughing at their preposterous schemes.

35:45  Ben is making a case for the good vs. bad argument, innocent vs. guilty.  He makes the clear distinction that no one told Michael to kill Ana Lucia or Libby…that he was clearly responsible for making his own decisions.  I’m not sure if I buy his argument, but it sounded pretty good.

36:48  What are the chances that Michael actually redeems himself in the eyes of the Losties?  I’m putting them pretty high…like at 90%.

37:54  LOL  Sayid didn’t buy any of Michael’s loooong story…and turned his ass in to the captain.  That’s hilarious.  Sayid is so fed up with everyone’s bullshit at this point, he just doesn’t give a damn anymore.

38:26  It’s Danielle, Alex, and Karl.  I smell a death coming soon…

39:42  There you go…R.I.P. Karl.  Not exactly surprising…

40:24  Woah…R.I.P. Danielle?  Didn’t expect that…

ABC didn’t do this episode any favors by placing the 4-week hiatus after it.  This episode was never meant to be a cliffhanger or a season-ender.  Not the greatest way to go into a break, but it does bring up the question of who shot Karl and Danielle.  Was it the freighter people (remember Frank and Keamy took off from the freighter a while back) or the rest of the Others?  I’m inclined to believe it’s the freighter people mainly b/c those shots at the end of the episode came within a few inches of Alex, and I doubt if Ben would seriously risk the health of his daughter, one of the few people he truly cares about.

Well, that’s all 8 pre-hiatus episodes in the bag.  Enough of the old journals…I’ll be back on Thursday night to do the first Live Lost Journal as the episode is being shown.  I hope I’ll be able to keep up and more importantly, I hope I’ll be able to understand it!

6 out of 10 coconuts