Walt (above) is shown not soaking wet for the first time in four seasons.
I’ve been promising for a week to write about this season’s eighth episode of LOST, the mini-season finale before the show returns with five more episodes (and a true season finale) starting at 10:00pm April 24th. Apparently Grey’s Anatomy will take over LOST‘s 9:00pm slot, which is complete and utter bullshit because the former show sucks and LOST is the best show on television — but that’s not important right now. Today, I’m going to dissect episode eight (entitled “Meet Kevin Johnson”) and expand upon the palpable sense of frustration that circulated through one Echo Park living room last Thursday.
By the way, I don’t think a single one of my predictions has come true except for Michael being on the freighter, but everybody already knew that.
Honestly, the writing in this episode was nothing short of atrocious. It contained, perhaps, the worst-written LOST segments I have ever seen. Christina M. Kim, who was credited with penning “Meet Kevin Johnson,” must have really been looking forward to what was at the time an impending writer’s strike. The biggest offenses came during a flashback in which a clearly distraught Michael arrives at his mother’s doorstep asking to see his son Walt. It contained what was essentially the worst dialogue in any scene in any of the series’ sixty-plus episodes. While Michael lays down some cliche lines about “fathers’ rights”, his mother retorts with some “I thought you were dead!” bullshit, before stating that until Michael can tell her where he was for two months, he’s given up the right to see his son. It gets worse. Michael actually starts to walk away, then turns and offers a teary-eyed, “Will you tell him I love him?” What the fuck is this, an after school special? It’s fucking LOST. Yeah, mushy feelings-related bullshit worked well during the Desmond-and-Penelope-centric episode “The Constant,” but Michael has always been a maligned character. He’s annoying, and many fans despise him. Placing him in an emotionally-charged scene where “Waaaaalt!” is not screamed at the top of his lungs is completely out-of-character. It brought down the quality of the episode.
There was also a hilarious line on the freighter when Naomi and Frank are arguing about something, and she tells him, “That’s on a need-to-know basis, and you don’t!” before slamming a door. Come on Christina M. Kim, that’s pathetic. You’ve written quality episodes before, like “Par Avion” where we learn about the Jack-Claire connection and more about the Desmond-Charlie relationship, and “Two For The Road,” one of the most important episodes in the series. God damn did this one stink.
Then there were the glaring plot holes. First of all, how the hell did Michael and Walt get back into the country if they couldn’t use their real names? And what exactly happened to make Walt so scared of Michael? And what the hell was the point of trying to kill himself if Michael knew Walt wouldn’t get the note since he wasn’t carrying ID? An old friend of mine commented on several more valid questions following Saturday’s post. Why wouldn’t Ben put a professional on the boat? Don’t you think Widmore or the boat’s crew would have a passenger manifest, or pictures of the 815 “victims” just like the Others did? None of these questions were answered, and they seemed like there could have been simple, easy enough solutions for each one. Again, perhaps the impending writer’s strike was to blame for any oversights.
Lastly, I have to discuss the deaths of Karl and Rousseau. Kind of pathetic. If this was to be the final episode of season four, that was a fucking awful way to close the season. At least kill some characters we know. Killing Claire would have been the perfect way to ensure Aaron ended up with Kate on the helicopter. Sure, the strike forced the crew into a corner, but even if they knew production would be halted for an indefinite period of time, this episode would have been a good time to answer even a single question fans have been pondering since season three’s finale. For example, they could have answered the Aaron/Oceanic Six question, or shown us why Jack tried to kill himself at the end of Season 3. This was supposed to be the episode that tied everything together, right? All it did was leave us asking more questions, none of which I imagine are going to be answered for another five episodes. It’s what makes LOST simultaneously the best and most annoying show on TV.
