Hello, fellow beer and television lovers! As you’ve no doubt noticed, our new site is up and running and includes, among many other exciting new things, a TV section. Now that it’s off the ground, I can finally start giving out my thoughts on each week’s episode of the greatest show on television: Lost, beginning with the latest, the Michael-centric episode Meet Kevin Johnson.

Many websites that give a weekly recap of Lost often analyze it to death, with comparisons to classic novels, films and philosophers. While I love reading these reviews and think the writers of Lost are that much smarter for all of their subtle references to such things, I really don’t have the brains to get into the deeper, multi-layered stuff on the show. Besides, this is Beer.com – you’re not here for a lesson on literature or philosophy, you just wanna get right down to business. No problem, folks.

Thursday’s episode was highly anticipated by fans for the (not so) unexpected return of Michael Dawson, last seen hightailing it away from the island with his son Walt, although not after murdering two innocent women in order to have the Others hand his son back. We finally found out what Michael’s been up to since his return to the real world, and it ain’t pretty. Hopeless, hallucinating and depressed, Michael attempts suicide more than once during his extended flashback, and it’s easy to see why; his son, the one thing he had left in his life, now resents him for what he did and lives with his grandmother, refusing to have anything to do with his dad. Michael is also being haunted by ghost Libby, one of his innocent victims. After failing to off himself by crashing his car, Michael finds a nice, dark alley and puts a gun to his head. He’s just about to pull the trigger when a familiar face shows up – the Other’s very own fake-bearded football star, Tom. He tells Michael he’s got work to do, and not to bother trying to end his life – the island won’t let him. Before Mike knows it, he’s got a fake passport and a job as a deckhand on a boat headed right back to where he just came from – and he’d better listen to every single word Tom says if he wants to redeem himself for what he’s done.

I thought this was a great way to bring Michael back into the picture. We know that Ben gets what he wants by exploiting things people care about and messing about with their emotions, and he knew that Michael wouldn’t be feeling all that great about killing Ana-Lucia and Libby and would take any chance he could get to redeem himself. For Michael, there are two prizes here: he gets to help the people he sold out, and by doing Ben’s (and the island’s) bidding, his work is done and he’s free to escape the hell that his life has become. Whether or not this is how things will play out is anyone’s guess, but that’s definitely how Mike is looking at it: “I’m here to die.” And despite some first day jitters when he boarded that mysterious ship, he soon proved he wasn’t going to back out when he hit that button; even if it means killing a boatful of strangers, he’s gonna show just how sorry he is right before he ends it all.

When Sayid heard Michael’s story about how he is now working for Ben, he immediately dragged him to the captain and sang like a canary without a second thought. It’s clear that no matter how messed up and sorry Michael seems, Sayid doesn’t give a damn; in his eyes, Michael has pulled a Benedict Arnold, murdered two innocents, and sold his soul to the devil. This is oozing with irony when we consider Sayid’s past and future: he betrayed his comrade Omar, tortured an innocent woman, and eventually became Ben’s personal hitman. One thing I and many others noticed was that after spilling the beans to the Captain, Gault didn’t seem at all surprised or angry – and this is a guy who just gave a serious beatdown to two attempted runaways. Of course, this may have been shock, but this is Lost - you can’t rule anything out. Whatever happens next, the cat’s outta the bag, and someone’s gettin’ scratched.

Back in Otherville, Ben convinced Alex to go with Karl and Rousseau to the Temple, “the last safe place on the island.” We heard him tell Richard to get everyone to the Temple at the end of last season, but this is the first time we got any hint as to what it was. Ben called it a sanctuary, and the on the map he showed Alex it was shown as belonging to those crazy science folks from the DHARMA Initiative. We didn’t get to see the actual place this episode, however, since some very bad people gunned down Karl and Rousseau. Were they about to shoot Alex before her hissy fit? That’s a mystery, and so is the matter of just who the shooters were: Ben’s henchmen, or the mercenaries from the boat? Personally, I’m going with the boat people. I think we were shown their little game of target practice for a reason, and don’t forget that Frank piloted the chopper to “run an errand” on the island. Given the fact that we know these people are here to kill Ben and anyone else they find, I can’t imagine that Frank was just dropping in to pick up some DHARMA mac and cheese.

At first, I was slightly disappointed with this episode, probably because I couldn’t help myself and read a few spoilers beforehand. But the more I think about it, the more I thought that this was a quality piece of television. Seeing Michael back was awesome, of course, and so was finally hearing his post-island story. It was also satisfying to finally see Locke open up and tell his gang all of his dirty little secrets, and I loved seeing the reactions of Hurley and Sawyer after Ben told them Michael was his man on the boat. I knew Karl was doomed since I read those damn spoilers, but I did NOT expect Rousseau to get shot and I seriously hope she hasn’t bitten it, because she’s a kickass character and I really want to see her get a flashback.

So now we’ve got a month long break and a lot of questions to ponder before Lost comes back; if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to drink myself into a four week coma. See you in April!

Dave the Droll