'Lost': Three Minutes

Earlier in the season, we saw an episode called "What Kate Did." This one very well could have been called "What Michael Did," or more accurately, "What Michael Did Dead Wrong." We also get the equivalent of the "Multiple Angle" feature on many DVDs, as we revisit several scenes from the season through Michael's perspective. In addition to that, frayed relationships are slightly mended, goodbyes are said, and final plans are laid as Lost draws to its season's close.

Three Minutes

4) In Short

"I get to say it again? Sweet! And a one and a two and a WAAAAAAAAAAAAALT!"

8) On the Island

13 Days Ago

Michael asks Locke for a gun inside the armory. Locke assumes that Michael wants more target practice, but gets a butt of a rifle to the back of the head for his hospitality. Michael then rushes over the the computer, hoping to hear from "Walt." Someone on the other side tells him to go north, towards two rocks with a gaping hole between them. Just then, Michael hears Jack come to Locke's aid, and we once again see the scene from "The Hunting Party" in which Michael locks the two BFFs inside.

Today

Michael mournfully burns a piece of paper. There's writing on his side of it, but it's impossible to read from the viewers. Jack beckons him back into the Swan, where over the two dead bodies, Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, and Michael talk strategy. Jack wants to bring everyone to the Others' camp; Michael wants only these particular five to go. Things get heated when Hurley breaks the tension by pointing out that they haven't even buried Ana Lucia and Libby yet. Jack agrees to conduct a burial that night and then decide their course of action.

13 Days Ago

Michael is Forest Gump-ing his way through the jungle, following a compass pointing north. (Or, is it?) He comes across a man in familiar clothing, relieving himself in the middle of nowhere. The man distracts him long enough to allow Mr. Friendly to sneak up behind him, relieve Michael of his gun, and then bolo him while Michael attempted to flee. Score one for the Others.

Today

Michael prepares for life on the Kahana by scrubbing blood off the Swan floor. He is surprised by the silent entrance of Eko. The two talk religion: namely, the existence of hell. Eko relates a story of a boy who confessed to killing his dog after it bit his sister. This boy didn't fear hell itself, so much as the fact that the dog might be waiting there for him. Michael watches Eko scrub the blood from his hands, listening to the story quietly. In related news, I miss Eko terribly.

Near the beach, Michael throws up. Sexy. Once again, he and Jack argue over the specifics of Michael's curiously rigid plan. Jack eventually relents, however, yielding to a father's instincts and wishes.

While Claire changes Aaron, Charlie brings the two of them a briefcase from the pallet. The briefcase contains a pneumatic injector and vaccine. He offers it to them, figuring they could be the two who need it most. Just as Charlie tries to further mend the bridge between them, she spies Michael walking to the beach. Sun spots him soon after, but joy turns to grief as they spy Kate digging graves for Ana Lucia and Libby.

13 Days Ago

Mr. Friendly takes the burlap sack off Michael's head in the jungle. Right after Michael spits in his face, who should appear but Kate, also with her head covered. Friendly tells Michael that one peep means he'll never see his son again, and Alex is left alone with the two of them while we see the climatic scene from "The Hunting Party" from another perspective. We learn that Alex didn't bring Kate out, but another Other (Pickett, to be precise). While Pickett brings her out, Alex inquires about Claire to a befuddled Michael. When Friendly returns to Michael, he orders them to divvy the guns up, and Alex reluctantly knocks out Michael with the butt of her rifle. It's kind of a theme in this episode.

Today

Michael pats Vincent as Lt. Jack and Sgt. Sawyer sort out their weaponry. Sayid finds them and wants in on the plan to attack the Others. Now it's Jack's turn to protest, but Sawyer, being much much smarter than Jack at this moment, offers Sayid and gun and welcomes him aboard. Michael loses his mind upon learning this news, and gives Sawyer the evil eye as he leaves.

In the Swan, Eko notices his cross edge towards the mysterious concrete wall, then enters the Numbers. Charlie enters soon after, wondering why Eko has abandoned the church. He's confused as to why Eko wants him to bring his belongings into the Swan, at a loss at to what his own purpose will be without his church. Hurt, Charlie refuses to bring Eko's things and then leaves.

11 Days Ago

Friendly et al bring Michael to what looks like a rundown village, just as Michael described to the Lostaways. Above it sits a Stonehenge-type rock edifice, as described on the Hatch computer. Pickett takes a blood sample from Michael, after which a woman identifying herself as Ms. Klugh comes up and starts asking a whole host of odd questions about Walt. She wants to know when he started speaking, if he had any illnesses growing up, and most curiously, if he ever appeared someplace he wasn't supposed to be. She greets Michael's ignorance sarcastically, noting that he's working quite hard to get a son back that he barely knows.

Today

Michael confronts Sayid, stating that Sayid's lust for revenge will compromise the mission. Because Sayid's a smooth operator, he doesn't fight Michael too hard on this. Sayid has something else in mind.

Charlie struggles to finish the church on his own. As he does so, Vincent carries over a Virgin Mary statue over to him. In disbelief, Charlie follows him back to Sawyer's tent, where the entire stash of heroin still remains. Charlie stares at them briefly, and then quickly tosses all of them into the water. Break on through to the other side, Charlie. You'll be with those statues in due time. After the last one sinks to the ocean floor, Charlie notices a forlorn Locke still sitting on the beach, hobbled thanks to his injury.

In the dome, Jack confronts Eko about his inability to find Henry. Eko seems unable to focus on anything except for the counter. While Sawyer and Jack fill the guns with ammo, Sawyer confesses that Ana Lucia jumped his bones, which is how she got his gun. Why does he tell him this? "Because you're about the closest thing I've got to a friend, Doc." Awww. Lock and load, boys.

On the beach, Hurley and Kate continue to dig graves, and Michael continued to dig into Hurley. Turns out Hurley doesn't want to go and get revenge after all. Michael pleads for him to help, but Kate insists on a touch of respect.

3 Days Ago

Ms. Klugh comes into a tent with food for Michael, who is tied to the main pole of the tent. He wants to know when they are going to kill him. She states she has no such plans, and in fact needs a favor from Michael. One of their people is in Lostaway hands, and he has to liberate them. At first, Michael refuses, but then she lets Walt into the tent, much to Michael's shock. He has three minutes to speak to his son, according to Ms. Klugh.

Walt looks scared but physically unarmed as Pickett brings him into the tent. Walt states that they have been performing tests on him, a statement that confuses Michael and annoys Ms. Klugh. She warns Walt that she will put him in the "room" again if he speaks out of turn. Walt breaks away from Pickett, hugs his father, and is dragged away while screaming, "I love you!" repeatedly to his father. Broken, Michael agrees to do whatever his captor wants. She presents a list of four ingredients in order to make the perfect cookies for the reading groups. Ooops, that's four people he needs to return with after freeing "Henry." Muh bad. And thus the "Mystery of the Previously Burned Parchment" is solved. Who says Lost doesn't solve its mysteries?

Today

Walking towards the funeral, Sayid quietly suggests to Jack that Michael might be a Benedict Arnold. Jack's skeptical, until Sayid plays the effective, "OK, which one of us knew Henry was an Other?" card, effectively shutting the good doctor up. Sayid insists they keep following Michael's plan in order to leverage an advantage, but isn't quite sure how to do so just yet.

At the funeral, Jack speaks on behalf of Ana Lucia. "She was supposed to be my Season 2 love interest," he says. "Guess that sorta changed as the season went along, eh?" Hurley speaks on behalf of Libby, and it's heartbreaking, and gets him so angry that he finally agrees to join Michael's party. Hurley's speech is so devastating that Michael can't even pretend to be enthusiastic. Claire instinctively reaches for Charlie's hand, but a boat spotted offshore ruins Charlie's newfound funeral-inspired mojo.

15) Off the Island

Prep work at the Hydra Station, ostensibly. (I mean, technically that's off the Island and all.)

16) The Mythology

The "theatrical glue" found in the episode "Maternity Leave" could not have prepared any of us for the hillbilly production of Our Town found in this episode. The Others essentially had to leave the creature comforts of New Otherton in order to fake an entire (and entirely crappy) village in order to con Michael so he might con the Lostaways.

Given that we see Richard Alpert in similar garb in Season 3's "The Man Behind the Curtain," let's explore the option that such garb function in a way similar to the hieroglyphics in the Swan countdown: homage to societies past. I also can't help but wonder about not simply the aesthetics of these outfits, but their purpose as well. Are they in essence a form of camouflage, designed in concert with silent walking to avoid detection not from survivors of a plane crash but perhaps a certain security system?

This episode also brought what I think is unmistakable reference to Room 23. Let's put in this way: when the woman we know now as Bea warns Walt about the "room," she's not talking about the game room in New Otherton. Moreover, we now have mobisode evidence of Walt royally messin' up their systemz in that room. One of the major mysteries of Lost centers around Walt's placement in that room: if Ben is telling the truth (never a safe assumption), why would Jacob order Ben to put him in that room? And if Jacob's so adverse to technology, why put Walt into a room chock full o' it? And if Ben's lying...well, was he trying to get a loyal psychic soldier on his side, much like Harper? It's a monster mystery, so I won't pretend to have definitive answers. However, I cannot WAIT to watch Ben and Walt work together in Season 5 to get everyone back to the Island.

23) The Moment

Realizing Michael was there while Kate was kidnapped by The Others was a masterstroke of plotting and shows just how unique this show's storytelling truly is.

42) In Retrospect

The hillbilly village is an elaborate hoax, but is it TOO elaborate? I'm fine if the Others just took an existing village from an elder society and slapped some Dharma doors on it. If not, the whole Village People plot strains credulity second time around.

I'm waiting for someone to say this to Henry while they charter a boat/plane/Segway back to the Island in Season 5: "So, lemmee get this straight. You find out about a spinal tumor right before we crash, learn that a spinal surgeon has crashed on your Island, but choose instead to kidnap a boy. You then psychologically manipulate the boy's father via computer, all so you can get yourself captured by us, use the newly kidnapped father to then liberate you, and in the aftermath, lure four more people to us, one of which to keep everyone else away while the doctor agrees to eventually perform surgery on you due to insane jealousy of the other two knocking boots in a polar bear cage. Now, doesn't that all seem a bit...elaborate? And not only elaborate, but rife with approximately 108 places in which said plan can fly off the handle? Just curious."

Obviously, that previous paragraph isn't constructed as the literal set of actions that occurred in the show, but it's certainly ONE way to view it. And I constructed it as such for the simple reason that I think we're going to learn that Ben's actions are going to look far different once we get that "Ben's Greatest B-Sides" episode I hope we get in Season 5.

108) In Summary

Chris Rock had a famous/infamous sketch about O.J. Simpson, in which his constant punchline was, "Now, I'm not saying he shoulda killed her...but I understand." Likewise, I don't agree with just about anything Michael does in this episode...but I understand. Problem is this: understanding isn't sympathizing, and watching him take advantage of his friends' trust makes me ill.

Morality 101 for you all. There's one philosophical strain that states, "Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law." And another states that, "...the good is whatever brings the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people." The former is a tenet of Immanuel Kant, and the latter from, appropriately, Jeremy Bentham. Michael's actions might make sense to Kant, but be antithetical to Bentham's view.

All of this is, of course, a blunt application of these two philosophical perspectives, but I bring them up to ask this question: were you in Michael's shoes, what would you have done?

Leave your thoughts about this episode below!

Ryan also posts every 108 minutes over at Boob Tube Dude, then peruses Zap2It's Guide to Lost Facebook group. He also encourages you to leave questions for the producers and cast of Lost here.