Meet Kevin Johnson
Encyclopedia
"Meet Kevin Johnson" is the 80th television episode of the American Broadcasting Company
's (ABC's) Lost
and the eighth episode of the fourth season
. It was written in October and November 2007 by supervising producer Elizabeth Sarnoff
and co-producer Brian K. Vaughan
, and directed in November by co-executive producer Stephen Williams
. "Meet Kevin Johnson" first aired March 20, 2008 on ABC in the United States and on CTV
in Canada.
In the second season finale
, after 67 days of being stranded on a mysterious and mystical tropical island, Oceanic Airlines
815 crash survivor Michael Dawson
(played by Harold Perrineau) successfully negotiates his escape via motorboat with the island's dangerous original inhabitants, whom the survivors refer to as the "Others". One month later in the episode before
"Meet Kevin Johnson", Michael reappears on a freighter offshore of the island, undercover with the alias "Kevin Johnson". Most of the narrative of "Meet Kevin Johnson" consists of a continuous flashback
—the longest in the show's history—showing what happened to Michael in the month that he spent away in New York and on the freighter, primarily his recruitment aboard the freighter Kahana as a spy for the Others.
The writers completed "Meet Kevin Johnson", the eighth of 16 ordered scripts, on the same day that the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike
action began. Post-production finished weeks later without input from the show's writers. ABC pledged to air the completed eight episodes regardless of the strike's resolution, but the writers felt that the episode's cliffhanger was unsuitable as a potential season finale. ABC ultimately overruled their opposition.
"Meet Kevin Johnson" was watched by 13 million Americans and was met with mixed reactions. A major discussion point was the episode's climax, which was criticized for its placement in the story and its focus on secondary characters. Although critics responded well to Michael's emotional journey, they complained that his physical journey seemed to conflict with Lost' s timeline that had been laid out in previous episodes. The episode was honored with the fourth season's sole Emmy Award
for its achievement in sound mixing.
(Alan Dale
), who is intent on extracting the Others' leader Ben Linus (Michael Emerson
). Captain Gault (Grant Bowler
) stops two crewmembers from deserting the freighter in a raft. He publicly beats them and shouts that this is to save their lives, reminding the crew of what happened to George Minkowski (Fisher Stevens
) when he left the boat
. The next morning, Sayid Jarrah
(Naveen Andrews
) confronts Michael about his motivations, and the narrative shifts into an uninterrupted flashback of Michael's life after escaping from the island.
Michael and his son Walt Lloyd
(Malcolm David Kelley
) return to New York. Overcome with guilt, Michael confesses that he murdered Ana Lucia Cortez
(Michelle Rodriguez
) and Libby
(Cynthia Watros
) as part of his rescue of Walt from the Others' captivity. Michael becomes estranged from Walt, who goes to live with Michael's mother (Starletta DuPois). Michael is haunted by apparitions and nightmares of the late Libby. Michael attempts to kill himself in a car crash, but fails. He sells the watch that Jin Kwon
(Daniel Dae Kim) gave him in the first season finale
and buys a gun for another suicide attempt, but this, too, is unsuccessful, because the gun jams. That night, Michael is confronted by Tom (M.C. Gainey
), the Other who abducted Walt. Tom explains that the island will not allow Michael to kill himself, and gives Michael an assignment: Michael must infiltrate the freighter Kahana using the pseudonym "Kevin Johnson" and kill everyone on board, who may try to kill his fellow crash survivors. Michael agrees to do it and boards the freighter from Fiji. Michael becomes acquainted with the crew and hesitates to sabotage their mission until he finds Martin Keamy
(Kevin Durand
) and his associates target-practicing with machine guns. After Michael tries to detonate a provided bomb only to discover that it is a fake, Ben contacts Michael by radio and explains that the trick illustrated his stance against killing innocent people in his war against Widmore. The flashback ends and Sayid, appalled by Michael's association with Ben, exposes his duplicity to Gault.
On the island in the Others' abandoned Barracks where some of the survivors have taken residence, 815 survivor John Locke
(Terry O'Quinn
) meets with his faction to discuss the freighter and Ben reveals that Michael is spying for him there. Ben later urges his adopted daughter Alex
(Tania Raymonde
) to flee to the Others' sanctuary at the "Temple" for safety; she is accompanied by her biological mother Danielle Rousseau
(Mira Furlan
) and boyfriend Karl (Blake Bashoff
). On their way, Karl and Rousseau are shot dead by hidden assailants and Alex surrenders.
"Meet Kevin Johnson" features the first appearance of Cynthia Watros as Libby in Lost since the character was murdered in the second season. Despite a promise by writer's assistant Matt Ragghianti
that there would be an episode in the second season in which flashbacks would focus on Libby, Watros became the first main cast member to never play the central role in a Lost episode. Following Libby's death, Co-creator/executive producer/writer Damon Lindelof
revealed plans to tell her story in the third season. Libby's story was later postponed again—Lindelof stated that her back story would be told through flashbacks of a new character introduced in the fourth season. Executive producer/writer Carlton Cuse
further explained that these flashbacks would unfold over multiple episodes. This failed to materialize; however, Watros made a couple of appearances via hallucinations in Michael's flashbacks in "Meet Kevin Johnson". The writers asserted that while they had yet to shed light on the character's past, they would finally in their fifth year. The writers later made further revisions, with Cuse concluding that Libby's part in the show is "pretty much finished." When Watros returned to Lost for "Meet Kevin Johnson", she did not receive the "special guest star" credit, as was customary for former main cast members of Lost. She was instead billed simply as a guest star, although her name appeared with that of frequent guest star M.C. Gainey ahead of the remainder of the episode's guest cast, who were listed alphabetically on-screen. Gainey explained that "just because they kill you on this show, don't mean they don't need you anymore 'cause everybody's got a past." Damon Lindelof said that "it was sort of like a walk down memory lane for the dead", as it not only included Tom and Libby, but also Naomi Dorrit (Marsha Thomason
) and George Minkowski (Fisher Stevens
), two characters from the freighter who had met their demises earlier in the season.
First season regular cast member Malcolm David Kelley returned in an uncredited cameo
for a single scene as Michael's ten-year old son Walt without dialogue and from a distance. Fifteen-year old Kelley claimed that make-up was applied to him in an effort for him to look younger; however, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse clarified that visual effects supervisor Mitch Suskin had actually composited into the shot some footage of Kelley from production on the first season. Because Kelley was so obscured and his name did not appear in the cast list, television critics were convinced that Walt had been recast. Steve Heisler of Time Out stated that "You gotta hand it to the Lost writers: For weeks, people have speculated about how they were going to treat Walt's inevitable pubescence. See, the show's set in 2004, and only a few months have passed since the plane crash. Yet … it's been years, and … Kelley has become a man. So what did they do? … They just didn't show him. Clever." TMZ
's Daniel thought that "Not showing Walt is a clever way to cover up the fact that he [is] a foot taller than he should be … I understand that they pretty much can't show Walt ever again". Wizard' s Nikki Stafford went so far as to remark that "That kid standing in the window was definitely not Malcolm David Kelley … I don't think Kelley will be back to reprise the role."
Having appeared in six episodes of the third season and the first two of the fourth season, Blake Bashoff auditioned for and won the part of Moritz Stiefel in the Broadway musical Spring Awakening
. He warned Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse that he would be unable to shoot Lost for at least six months beginning in December 2007, as he rehearsed for and performed in the production. Being "big fans" of the musical and congratulating Bashoff on what they thought was an "amazing opportunity," they brainstormed ideas with the other writers to write him out of the story while they still had him at their disposal. Having decided some time ago that Karl would eventually die, they pinpointed the episode. The cliffhanger of "Meet Kevin Johnson" sees Karl shot dead by unseen killers in the jungle. Two episodes later, the character Miles Straume
(Ken Leung
) finds Karl partially buried in the jungle dirt, but this corpse is portrayed by a body double
and not Bashoff. According to Bashoff, the writers hope that he can return to Lost at some point to "serve a cool purpose like [Tom does in 'Meet Kevin Johnson']." In regard to his experience with Lost, Bashoff recounted that "I love the show. [The cast]'s a great group … and … you get to shoot in paradise"; however, he wished that he had learned more about Karl's backstory.
The Writers Guild of America
went on strike on November 4, 2007—the day that the writers finished editing the final draft of the script of "Meet Kevin Johnson". The writers wanted to hold the eight episodes until they were able to produce more of the season because the eighth episode has a "very cool" yet inconclusive cliffhanger that was not written to end the season; they compared it to "the end of an exciting book chapter [but] not the end of the novel." ABC decided that the eight episodes would be aired from January to March, regardless of whether any more episodes were produced in the 2007–2008 season. After the strike's end on February 12, 2008, the writers pleaded with ABC to air "Meet Kevin Johnson" on April 17 with the second pod of episodes, due to "the eighth episode [being] non-traditional and the start of something new". Jorge Garcia
, who plays Hurley Reyes, agreed that "it's a pretty shocking end but it doesn't close out the way our previous [finales] have ended [because] it doesn't have that closure to it [and] ends in a sense of dissonance." ABC nevertheless prioritized scheduling Grey's Anatomy
, Ugly Betty
and Lost' s returns all for April 24.
Despite the struggles with the strike, co-executive producer/staff writer Adam Horowitz recounted this as "a satisfying episode to work on—it was like we'd been waiting so long to tell the story of what happened with Michael." Carlton Cuse stated that "we [the writers] felt that the audience deserved to know, you know, once he and Walt sailed off in the boat, what was their journey." Supervising producer/writer Elizabeth Sarnoff stated that "Michael's goal—the whole season—is to die and he gets an opportunity to redeem himself when [Tom] finds him." Co-executive producer/staff writer Edward Kitsis
added that "It's heartbreaking when Walt wouldn't see [Michael] … I always respected the fact that he told his son about the murders … Even though he knew it would probably blow up their relationship, he wanted to be honest with his son. In a way, you've got to respect that." Harold Perrineau, who plays Michael, concluded that "He's done some bad things and he's you know, got himself into a messy situation, but at the end of the day, Michael's a good guy." Instead of being intercut with scenes from the main ongoing plot, the flashbacks of "Meet Kevin Johnson" are presented continuously and are only bookended by present-day scenes. This is the second episode to do this after "Flashes Before Your Eyes
" from the third season. The flashback portion of "Meet Kevin Johnson" is the longest in Lost history; Horowitz stated that "As we were breaking the story, it just happened, and it turned into the longest flashback to date." When asked why Michael's alias was not an allusion to a literary or historical figure, as with other Lost characters, Damon Lindelof explained that "if the Others … had chosen … Darwin
or … Dickens
, then … Widmore would have gotten suspicious: he'd go like, 'oh, now there's somebody on my boat with a literary allusion in their name, which sounds very much like that's a Benjamin Linus alias', so they picked the most innocuous name they possibly could, which was Kevin Johnson." Lindelof also said that it was a coincidence that "Kevin Johnson" was also the name of an American basketball player
.
In "Meet Kevin Johnson", Michael visits Tom's penthouse suite, where Tom and his lover Arturo (Francesco Simone) are revealed to be homosexual—Lost' s only gay characters. Online speculation about Tom's sexual orientation began after the broadcast of the third season premiere
, in which Tom tells Kate Austen
(Evangeline Lilly
) that she is "not [his] type". A few weeks later, the writers hinted that a character would eventually be revealed as gay. In response to the internet community's suspicions, actor M.C. Gainey began to play the character as such, subtly trying to flirt with Jack Shephard
(Matthew Fox
) and later claiming that this attraction "got [him] through the first half of the season." Following the broadcast of "Meet Kevin Johnson", Lindelof and Cuse confirmed that the line from the third season premiere is an allusion to Tom's sexuality, but felt that it needed to be explicitly confirmed in the show. Lindelof noted that "it was not subtle, to say the least". Edward "Eddy" Kitsis stated that "It was great to see [Tom] and realize that … he is a true gentleman." M.C. Gainey stated that "anytime you've got a group of people, somebody's got to be marching to a different drummer—that would be Tom" and Harold Perrineau rejoiced "Right on, I thought that was cool".
Tom establishes that the island has some control over whether characters can die, as demonstrated when Michael unsuccessfully attempts to commit suicide three times. Kitsis thought that "It was interesting what [Tom] said to Michael … that really carries through Michael's arc." Later in the season, Martin Keamy
(Kevin Durand
) tries to shoot Michael in the head, but the gun jams and the next day, a manifestation of the island in the form of Christian Shephard
(John Terry
) appears before Michael. Damon Lindelof confirmed that the island's "cosmic intervention[s] of fate" also played a part in the car crash that foiled Jack's suicide attempt in the third season finale. Following the broadcast of the fourth midseason premiere
, Lindelof further confirmed that this island force prevents Ben and Widmore from dying. Cuse has said that "There is a raging debate on the show about what constitutes free will and what constitutes destiny and Michael's story was sort of a[n] argument on the destiny side of that equation. He had more destiny to fulfil with that island than he anticipated and maybe the audience anticipated." Elizabeth Sarnoff stated that "the island doesn't let you go until it's done with you and I think that the rest of our characters are going to feel the reverberations of that, as well."
The second scene of the episode has Captain Gault beating two of his men, who had attempted to leave the freighter. Gault's actor Grant Bowler explained that "it was a scene about how far and fast things were spiralling out of control [on] the freighter … It was also about his ability to run the ship and that he was willing to go to such great lengths to keep order. It was about status, and keeping level-headed, and being in control."
mobisodes directed by executive producer Jack Bender
and one scene from the season premiere
overseen by co-executive producer Jean Higgins. Perrineau hoped the audience would enjoy Michael's return since the cast and crew "busted [their] butts doing this one. It felt like we were making a movie because there's so much stuff that happens in this episode". Lilly called it "one of the best episodes of the first eight."
The exterior freighter scenes were filmed on an actual freighter, while interior scenes were filmed both on sets and in the freighter. The production crew had intended for the engine room scene where Michael goes to detonate the bomb and sees Libby to be shot in the freighter's engine room; instead, they built a new engine room set based on that inside the freighter. It was "so stifling hot" at around 105 °F (40 °C) and the crew found that "to get air conditioning down [t]here … was an impossible task", according to the Kahana' s real life chief engineer Bob Bower. Sculptor Jim Van Houten created twin twenty four foot (seven meter) marine engines for the set, primarily from urethane foam.
One New York flashback was filmed on the same Honolulu, Oahu
, Hawaii
street that had been used by set decorator Carol Bayne Kelley as Berlin, Germany in the fourth season's "The Economist
" and London, England in the third season's "Flashes Before Your Eyes". The cliffhanger, in which Alex, Karl and Rousseau are in the jungle, was shot at Dillingham Ranch on the northwest tip of Oahu near the beach where the pilot
and other early episodes were primarily filmed. The scene originally ended with "snipers emerging through the jungle in these incredible, elaborate, jungle camouflage uniforms"; however, this was cut in post-production. Elements of this would be re-shot and used in the next episode when the snipers are identified.
broke down in early December, he boycotted his producing duties on the show until the strike was resolved.
In addition to Michael Giacchino
's original score, "Meet Kevin Johnson" contained popular music diegetically
. The song playing on Michael's car radio during his first suicide attempt is "It's Getting Better," performed by "Mama" Cass Elliot
. The song is heard again, fleetingly, during Michael's vision of Libby in the ship's engine room. Elliot's rendition of the song was released as a single
in 1969 and was included on her album Bubblegum, Lemonade, and... Something for Mama
later the same year. Lost previously played Elliot's "Make Your Own Kind of Music" throughout the second season.
due to Michael's flashbacks, "Meet Kevin Johnson" was watched live or recorded and watched within five hours of broadcast by 11.461 million viewers in the United States. Despite ranking ninth for the week in television programs with the most viewers, "Meet Kevin Johnson" set a new record as the lowest-rated episode in Lost' s history, although this title was taken two episodes later with the broadcast of "Something Nice Back Home
". "Meet Kevin Johnson" achieved a fifth-place 4.6/12 in the coveted adults aged eighteen to forty-nine demographic for the week. Including those who watched within seven days of broadcast, the episode was watched by a total of 13.386 million American viewers. 1.421 million Canadians watched "Meet Kevin Johnson", making Lost the eighth most-viewed show of the week. The episode brought in 618,000 viewers in Australia, placing it as the twenty-fourth most watched show of the night.
Critics and fans alike criticized the writers' seeming disregard for the Lost timeline. Based on the actions and whereabouts of characters in the third season, fans could deduce when parts of Michael's flashbacks occurred in relation to events on the island. John Kubicek of BuddyTV
wrote that "This timeline results in some serious issues fans should have with time … This makes almost no sense … Michael left in the boat, he had to find help, come ashore, somehow explain himself, get on a plane back to New York City, drop off Walt to live with his grandma, find an apartment, get into a car accident, recover, and only then did he meet Tom. Either the writers are playing fast and loose with the concept of time, or Michael had the busiest week in the history of the world." Using Lostpedia
as a reference, Nikki Stafford of Wizard
pointed out that the chronology was not only almost inconsistent with the third season, but also with an earlier episode
of the same season. Damon Lindelof responded that "we [the writers and producers] find that the [fan message] boards can be really toxic" and pointed specifically to the "nitpick[ing]" of the possible continuity issues of "Meet Kevin Johnson", saying in defence of the script that "it's television."
The cliffhanger, in which Rousseau and Karl are killed and Alex calls out in desperation that she is Ben's daughter, gained a mixed response. In an 8.8 out of 10 review, IGN
's Chris Carabott called the scene "completely out of place … tacked on and anticlimactic" as it "came at the strangest moment". Jay Glatfelter of The Huffington Post
deemed the cliffhanger "a shocker"; he asked "do we really care [about Karl's death]? I mean, he did have a nice new haircut and all, but he really wasn't too interesting of a character." Despite his assessment that "this impressive episode was a fitting midseason finale", Digital Spy
's Ben Rawson-Jones wrote that the "climax wasn't as effective as one could have hoped for, as the collective fates of Alex, Danielle and the ultra-expendable Karl don't rouse a great deal of interest." Grading the episode as a "B", Entertainment Weekly
' s Jeff Jensen was also unimpressed with the cliffhanger and the characters carrying it; he felt that network executives were partially to blame for going against the wish of the show's creative team to broadcast "Meet Kevin Johnson" as a midseason premiere as opposed to a midseason finale. Jensen criticized the episode's unique flashback format, commenting that it lacked the usual "deeper, more immersive experience [that] embellishes the sophistication of the storytelling" of Lost.
"Meet Kevin Johnson" had a share of good reviews, with critics acclaiming the character development and emotional struggles of Michael. Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger
found this "middle chapter" to be "quite good" with "a fine performance from Mr. Perrineau". Sepinwall wrote that Michael's "struggle to deal with the guilt from his Faust
ian bargain to save Walt was another moving example of how the writers this season are really trying to build on the emotional impact of everything that's happened before." The San Francisco Chronicle
' s Tim Goodman echoed this praise and referred to "Gay Tom" as "a unique and funny twist". Cynthia Littleton of Variety
wrote that "Perrineau plays it just right most of the time—no hysterics or scenery-chewing, just a man trying to do the right thing, most of the time." In a four-out-of-five-star review, Digital Spy's Ben Rawson-Jones lauded the lack of interruption to the flashback and commented that "[Michael's] suicidal plight was well conveyed and there were plenty of shocks and thrills along the way". Dan Compora of SyFy Portal
enjoyed seeing dead characters in flashbacks and commended Perrineau's performance and character's story, while criticizing the underutilization of the rest of the main cast. In an overall positive review for the episode, The Huffington Post's Jay Glatfelter had mixed feelings for the revelation of Tom's sexual orientation, writing that "It seemed a little oddly placed, kind of like 'Let's make one of our characters gay just for the heck of it' but still it's cool that the show has a perfectly normal … not over-the-top gay character."
The episode was also subject to less favorable reviews from critics who were disappointed with the gaps in Michael and Walt's story. Steve Heisler of Time Out "wasn't all-too-pleased", citing the story's predictability. TMZ's Daniel called "Meet Kevin Johnson" "solid, but not spectacular" and gave it a grade of a "C+", writing that "this episode fell a little short … I feel like we were kind of robbed of half of the 'What Happened to Michael?' story. It was interesting to see how far into depression he sunk … And they did give him a pretty good reason for working for Ben … But I can't shake the feeling that we missed a good opportunity". He further commented that "Tom would make a great football coach—his motivational speeches are awesome." TV Squad's Erin Martell was unsatisfied with Michael's flashback and the lack of Walt, asking "What was their cover story when they got back to the mainland? … they couldn't do a genuine flashback scene because of … Kelley's growth spurt, but they could have worked around that." Oscar Dahl of BuddyTV ranked it as the second worst episode of the season; his colleague John Kubicek was also critical, and commented that the flashback "essentially tells us things we already know without telling us much more."
' s only Primetime Emmy Award
win in 2008
. Anderson discussed his job for an Easter egg featurette
on the DVD and Blu-ray releases of Lost: The Complete Fourth Season – The Expanded Experience. Lost is sometimes filmed just two hundred yards (180 meters) from the Kamehameha Highway
and the traffic noise drowns out filmed dialogue, as do the ocean waves, so Anderson has the actors loop
their relatively quiet lines on an automated dialogue replacement (ADR) sound stage
.
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's (ABC's) Lost
Lost (TV series)
Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...
and the eighth episode of the fourth season
Lost (season 4)
The fourth season of the American serial drama television series Lost commenced airing on the American Broadcasting Company Network in the United States, and on CTV in Canada on January 31, 2008 and concluded on May 29, 2008...
. It was written in October and November 2007 by supervising producer Elizabeth Sarnoff
Elizabeth Sarnoff
Elizabeth "Liz" Sarnoff is an American television writer and producer. She has written episodes of NYPD Blue, Crossing Jordan, Deadwood and Lost.-Career:...
and co-producer Brian K. Vaughan
Brian K. Vaughan
Brian Keller Vaughan is an American comic book and television writer. He is best known for the comic book series Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina, Runaways, and Pride of Baghdad, and was one of the principal writers of the television series Lost, during seasons three through five...
, and directed in November by co-executive producer Stephen Williams
Stephen Williams (director)
Stephen Williams is a Canadian film and television director. Williams has directed several modern day television programs including work as a regular director on the ABC drama series Lost, where he was also a co-executive producer...
. "Meet Kevin Johnson" first aired March 20, 2008 on ABC in the United States and on CTV
CTV television network
CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...
in Canada.
In the second season finale
Live Together, Die Alone
"Live Together, Die Alone" is the second season finale of the ABC television series Lost, consisting of the 23rd and 24th episodes of the second season. It is also the 48th and 49th episodes overall. The episode was written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, and directed by Jack Bender. It first...
, after 67 days of being stranded on a mysterious and mystical tropical island, Oceanic Airlines
Oceanic Airlines
Oceanic Airlines and less frequently Oceanic Airways are fictional airlines used in several films and television programs.The most famous use of this brand is in the TV show Lost, where Oceanic Airlines is featured branded with a highly-stylized logo depicting an Aboriginal dot painting that...
815 crash survivor Michael Dawson
Michael Dawson (Lost)
Michael Dawson is a fictional character played by Harold Perrineau on the ABC television series Lost. After losing a custody battle with Susan Lloyd , Michael does not see his son Walt for almost ten years. They reunite when she dies, but on their journey home, their plane crashes on a mysterious...
(played by Harold Perrineau) successfully negotiates his escape via motorboat with the island's dangerous original inhabitants, whom the survivors refer to as the "Others". One month later in the episode before
Ji Yeon
"Ji Yeon" is the seventh episode of the American Broadcasting Company's fourth season of Lost and 79th episode overall. The episode was written by co-executive producers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, and directed by regular Lost editor Stephen Semel. It was first aired in the United States and...
"Meet Kevin Johnson", Michael reappears on a freighter offshore of the island, undercover with the alias "Kevin Johnson". Most of the narrative of "Meet Kevin Johnson" consists of a continuous flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
—the longest in the show's history—showing what happened to Michael in the month that he spent away in New York and on the freighter, primarily his recruitment aboard the freighter Kahana as a spy for the Others.
The writers completed "Meet Kevin Johnson", the eighth of 16 ordered scripts, on the same day that the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike
2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike
The 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, more commonly referred to as simply the Writers' Strike, was a strike by the Writers Guild of America, East and the Writers Guild of America, West ....
action began. Post-production finished weeks later without input from the show's writers. ABC pledged to air the completed eight episodes regardless of the strike's resolution, but the writers felt that the episode's cliffhanger was unsuitable as a potential season finale. ABC ultimately overruled their opposition.
"Meet Kevin Johnson" was watched by 13 million Americans and was met with mixed reactions. A major discussion point was the episode's climax, which was criticized for its placement in the story and its focus on secondary characters. Although critics responded well to Michael's emotional journey, they complained that his physical journey seemed to conflict with Lost
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
for its achievement in sound mixing.
Plot
The episode's opening is set on December 26, 2004, over three months after the crash of Oceanic 815. Most of the episode takes place on the freighter "Kahana," moored offshore of the island where the plane crashed. The freighter is owned by Charles WidmoreCharles Widmore
Charles Widmore is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost, which chronicles the lives of over forty people after their plane crashes on a remote island somewhere in the south Pacific. He is primarily portrayed as an older man by Alan Dale; Tom Connolly and David S...
(Alan Dale
Alan Dale
Alan Hugh Dale is a New Zealand actor. As a child, Dale developed a love of theatre and also became a rugby player. After retiring from the sport he took on a number of professions to support his family, before deciding to become a professional actor at the age of 27. With work limited in New...
), who is intent on extracting the Others' leader Ben Linus (Michael Emerson
Michael Emerson
Michael Emerson is an American actor who is perhaps best known for his roles as Benjamin Linus on Lost and fictional serial killer William Hinks in The Practice.-Early life:...
). Captain Gault (Grant Bowler
Grant Bowler
Grant Bowler is a New Zealand actor who has worked in American, Australian and New Zealand films and television.He is known for playing the role of Constable Wayne Patterson in Blue Heelers and also appeared as Wilhelmina Slater's love interest Connor Owens in Ugly Betty.In November 2010, he was...
) stops two crewmembers from deserting the freighter in a raft. He publicly beats them and shouts that this is to save their lives, reminding the crew of what happened to George Minkowski (Fisher Stevens
Fisher Stevens
Fisher Stevens is an American actor, director and producer. His most recent successes include the 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for his film The Cove and 2008 Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature for his film Crazy Love...
) when he left the boat
The Constant
"The Constant" is the fifth episode of the fourth season of the American Broadcasting Company's serial drama television series Lost, and the 77th episode overall. It was aired on February 28, 2008, on ABC in the United States and on CTV in Canada...
. The next morning, Sayid Jarrah
Sayid Jarrah
Sayid Hassan Jarrah is a character from the ABC show Lost portrayed by Naveen Andrews.-Season 1:Sayid fixes the transceiver recovered from the cockpit, and leads a group into the jungle in order to send out a distress signal. Instead, he picks up a looping message . He tries to locate the...
(Naveen Andrews
Naveen Andrews
Naveen William Sidney Andrews is a British American actor. He is best known for portraying Kip in the movie The English Patient and Sayid Jarrah on the American television series Lost.-Early life:...
) confronts Michael about his motivations, and the narrative shifts into an uninterrupted flashback of Michael's life after escaping from the island.
Michael and his son Walt Lloyd
Walt Lloyd
Walter "Walt" Lloyd is a fictional character portrayed by Malcolm David Kelley in the American ABC television series Lost. The series follows the lives of over forty survivors of the crash of Oceanic Flight 815. Walt is introduced in the pilot episode as one of the survivors aboard the plane, which...
(Malcolm David Kelley
Malcolm David Kelley
Malcolm David Kelley is an American teen actor. He starred in the 2004 film You Got Served as "Li'l Saint". He also appears in the television series Lost as the character Walt Lloyd. A regular cast member in the show's first season , he has appeared only occasionally since due to a dramatic...
) return to New York. Overcome with guilt, Michael confesses that he murdered Ana Lucia Cortez
Ana Lucia Cortez
Ana Lucia Cortez is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost, played by Michelle Rodriguez. Ana Lucia made her first appearance as a guest star in the first season finale, and became part of the main cast for season two. After Oceanic Flight 815 splits in mid-air, the tail section...
(Michelle Rodriguez
Michelle Rodriguez
Mayte Michelle Rodríguez , known professionally as Michelle Rodriguez, is an American actress. Following on from her breakthrough role in 2000's Girlfight, she is best known for playing tough-girl roles and starring in Hollywood blockbusters such as The Fast and the Furious, Resident Evil,...
) and Libby
Libby (Lost)
Libby is a fictional character on the ABC drama television series Lost, which chronicles the lives of over forty people after their plane crashes on a remote island somewhere in the South Pacific. She is played by American actress Cynthia Watros...
(Cynthia Watros
Cynthia Watros
Cynthia Michele Watros is an American television actress, who also starred in films and on stage. She is known for her roles as Libby on the ABC TV series Lost, Kellie in The Drew Carey Show, Erin in Titus, and Annie Dutton in Guiding Light...
) as part of his rescue of Walt from the Others' captivity. Michael becomes estranged from Walt, who goes to live with Michael's mother (Starletta DuPois). Michael is haunted by apparitions and nightmares of the late Libby. Michael attempts to kill himself in a car crash, but fails. He sells the watch that Jin Kwon
Jin-Soo Kwon
Jin-Soo Kwon, better known as "Jin," is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost played by Daniel Dae Kim.- Prior to the crash :...
(Daniel Dae Kim) gave him in the first season finale
Exodus (Lost)
"Exodus" is the first season finale of the ABC television series Lost, consisting of the 23rd through 25th episodes of the first season and the show overall. The episodes were directed by Jack Bender, and written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. "Part 1" first aired on May 18, 2005 and "Part 2"...
and buys a gun for another suicide attempt, but this, too, is unsuccessful, because the gun jams. That night, Michael is confronted by Tom (M.C. Gainey
M. C. Gainey
Michael Connor "Mike" Gainey , better known as M. C. Gainey, is an American film and television actor whose distinctive mustache, 6'2½" height, and threatening look have given him supporting roles as Southern/Southwestern types, thugs, and criminals.Gainey attended the University of Southern...
), the Other who abducted Walt. Tom explains that the island will not allow Michael to kill himself, and gives Michael an assignment: Michael must infiltrate the freighter Kahana using the pseudonym "Kevin Johnson" and kill everyone on board, who may try to kill his fellow crash survivors. Michael agrees to do it and boards the freighter from Fiji. Michael becomes acquainted with the crew and hesitates to sabotage their mission until he finds Martin Keamy
Martin Keamy
First Sergeant Martin Christopher Keamy is a recurring fictional character played by Kevin Durand in the fourth season and sixth season of the American ABC television series Lost. Keamy is introduced in the fifth episode of the fourth season as a crew member aboard the freighter called the Kahana...
(Kevin Durand
Kevin Durand
Kevin Serge Durand is a Canadian actor known for his roles as Joshua in Dark Angel, Martin Keamy in Lost, Fred J. Dukes in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the Archangel Gabriel in Legion, and Little John in Robin Hood....
) and his associates target-practicing with machine guns. After Michael tries to detonate a provided bomb only to discover that it is a fake, Ben contacts Michael by radio and explains that the trick illustrated his stance against killing innocent people in his war against Widmore. The flashback ends and Sayid, appalled by Michael's association with Ben, exposes his duplicity to Gault.
On the island in the Others' abandoned Barracks where some of the survivors have taken residence, 815 survivor John Locke
John Locke (Lost)
John Locke is a fictional character played by Terry O'Quinn on the ABC television series Lost. He is named after English philosopher John Locke...
(Terry O'Quinn
Terry O'Quinn
Terry O'Quinn is an American actor, most famous for playing John Locke on the TV series Lost. He made his debut in a 1980 television movie called F.D.R.: The Last Year. Since then, O'Quinn has had minor supporting roles in films and TV movies such as Young Guns, All the Right Moves, Silver Bullet,...
) meets with his faction to discuss the freighter and Ben reveals that Michael is spying for him there. Ben later urges his adopted daughter Alex
Alex (Lost)
Alexandra "Alex" Linus is a recurring fictional character on the ABC television series Lost played by Tania Raymonde. She was born 16 years prior to the crash of Oceanic Flight 815, but was taken from her mother, Danielle Rousseau by the Others. She was raised among them, believing her mother to...
(Tania Raymonde
Tania Raymonde
Tania Raymonde is an American actress. Raymonde's first prominent casting role was the recurring character of Cynthia Sanders in TV series Malcolm in the Middle between 2000–2003, followed by a popular role as Alex Rousseau in ABC's Lost from 2006 to 2010.She can currently be seen as UTF officer...
) to flee to the Others' sanctuary at the "Temple" for safety; she is accompanied by her biological mother Danielle Rousseau
Danielle Rousseau
Danielle Rousseau is a fictional character on the ABC drama television series Lost, which chronicles the lives of over forty people after their plane crashes on a remote island somewhere in the South Pacific. Croatian actress Mira Furlan plays the scientist who shipwrecks on the island sixteen...
(Mira Furlan
Mira Furlan
Mira Furlan is a Croatian actress and singer currently residing in the United States. She is well known for her roles as the Minbari Ambassador Delenn on all five seasons of the science fiction television series Babylon 5 , and Danielle Rousseau on Lost.-Early life:Furlan was born to an...
) and boyfriend Karl (Blake Bashoff
Blake Bashoff
Blake Warren Bashoff is an American television and motion picture actor, known for his role as Moritz Stiefel in Spring Awakening. He has also appeared in a number of guest roles on television series, including the ABC series Lost as Karl Martin.- Life and career :Bashoff was born in Philadelphia,...
). On their way, Karl and Rousseau are shot dead by hidden assailants and Alex surrenders.
Casting
Matt Ragghianti
Matt "Raggs" Ragghianti is an American television writer and writer's assistant. He wrote an episode of the second season of Lost and was a writer's assistant during the first two seasons of the show...
that there would be an episode in the second season in which flashbacks would focus on Libby, Watros became the first main cast member to never play the central role in a Lost episode. Following Libby's death, Co-creator/executive producer/writer Damon Lindelof
Damon Lindelof
Damon Laurence Lindelof is an American television writer and executive, most recently noted as the co-creator and executive producer for the television series Lost. He has written for and produced Crossing Jordan, and wrote for Nash Bridges, Wasteland, and the MTV anthology series Undressed...
revealed plans to tell her story in the third season. Libby's story was later postponed again—Lindelof stated that her back story would be told through flashbacks of a new character introduced in the fourth season. Executive producer/writer Carlton Cuse
Carlton Cuse
Carlton Cuse is an AmericanEmmy Award winning screenwriter and producer, most famous as executive producer andscreenwriter for the American television series Lost for...
further explained that these flashbacks would unfold over multiple episodes. This failed to materialize; however, Watros made a couple of appearances via hallucinations in Michael's flashbacks in "Meet Kevin Johnson". The writers asserted that while they had yet to shed light on the character's past, they would finally in their fifth year. The writers later made further revisions, with Cuse concluding that Libby's part in the show is "pretty much finished." When Watros returned to Lost for "Meet Kevin Johnson", she did not receive the "special guest star" credit, as was customary for former main cast members of Lost. She was instead billed simply as a guest star, although her name appeared with that of frequent guest star M.C. Gainey ahead of the remainder of the episode's guest cast, who were listed alphabetically on-screen. Gainey explained that "just because they kill you on this show, don't mean they don't need you anymore 'cause everybody's got a past." Damon Lindelof said that "it was sort of like a walk down memory lane for the dead", as it not only included Tom and Libby, but also Naomi Dorrit (Marsha Thomason
Marsha Thomason
Marsha Lisa Thomason is an English actress, who is known in the United States for playing Nessa Holt in the first two seasons of the NBC series Las Vegas, for her recurring role on ABC's Lost as Naomi Dorrit, and for playing FBI agent Diana Berrigan on USA Network's White Collar.-Early...
) and George Minkowski (Fisher Stevens
Fisher Stevens
Fisher Stevens is an American actor, director and producer. His most recent successes include the 2010 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for his film The Cove and 2008 Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature for his film Crazy Love...
), two characters from the freighter who had met their demises earlier in the season.
First season regular cast member Malcolm David Kelley returned in an uncredited cameo
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
for a single scene as Michael's ten-year old son Walt without dialogue and from a distance. Fifteen-year old Kelley claimed that make-up was applied to him in an effort for him to look younger; however, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse clarified that visual effects supervisor Mitch Suskin had actually composited into the shot some footage of Kelley from production on the first season. Because Kelley was so obscured and his name did not appear in the cast list, television critics were convinced that Walt had been recast. Steve Heisler of Time Out stated that "You gotta hand it to the Lost writers: For weeks, people have speculated about how they were going to treat Walt's inevitable pubescence. See, the show's set in 2004, and only a few months have passed since the plane crash. Yet … it's been years, and … Kelley has become a man. So what did they do? … They just didn't show him. Clever." TMZ
TMZ.com
TMZ.com is a celebrity news website that debuted on November 8, 2005. It was a collaboration between America Online and Telepictures Productions, a division of Warner Bros., until Time Warner divested AOL in 2009. However, it is still affiliated with AOL News and has the AOL News logo affixed in...
's Daniel thought that "Not showing Walt is a clever way to cover up the fact that he [is] a foot taller than he should be … I understand that they pretty much can't show Walt ever again". Wizard
Having appeared in six episodes of the third season and the first two of the fourth season, Blake Bashoff auditioned for and won the part of Moritz Stiefel in the Broadway musical Spring Awakening
Spring Awakening
Spring Awakening is a rock musical adaptation of the controversial 1892 German play of the same title by Frank Wedekind. It features music by Duncan Sheik and a book and lyrics by Steven Sater. Set in late-19th century Germany, it concerns teenagers who are discovering the inner and outer tumult of...
. He warned Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse that he would be unable to shoot Lost for at least six months beginning in December 2007, as he rehearsed for and performed in the production. Being "big fans" of the musical and congratulating Bashoff on what they thought was an "amazing opportunity," they brainstormed ideas with the other writers to write him out of the story while they still had him at their disposal. Having decided some time ago that Karl would eventually die, they pinpointed the episode. The cliffhanger of "Meet Kevin Johnson" sees Karl shot dead by unseen killers in the jungle. Two episodes later, the character Miles Straume
Miles Straume
Miles Straume is a fictional character played by Ken Leung on the ABC television series Lost. Miles is introduced early in the fourth season as a hotheaded and sarcastic medium as a crew member aboard the freighter called the Kahana that is offshore the island where most of Lost takes place...
(Ken Leung
Ken Leung
Kenneth "Ken" Leung is an American actor best known for his role as Miles Straume in the ABC television series Lost and roles in such films as Shanghai Kiss, Rush Hour, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Saw.-Early life:...
) finds Karl partially buried in the jungle dirt, but this corpse is portrayed by a body double
Body double
A body double is a general term for someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character in any recorded visual medium, in shots where the character's body is shown but the face is either not visible or shown indistinctly, or in shots where the image of the credited actor's face is joined,...
and not Bashoff. According to Bashoff, the writers hope that he can return to Lost at some point to "serve a cool purpose like [Tom does in 'Meet Kevin Johnson']." In regard to his experience with Lost, Bashoff recounted that "I love the show. [The cast]'s a great group … and … you get to shoot in paradise"; however, he wished that he had learned more about Karl's backstory.
Writing
Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America is a generic term referring to the joint efforts of two different US labor unions:* The Writers Guild of America, East , representing TV and film writers East of the Mississippi....
went on strike on November 4, 2007—the day that the writers finished editing the final draft of the script of "Meet Kevin Johnson". The writers wanted to hold the eight episodes until they were able to produce more of the season because the eighth episode has a "very cool" yet inconclusive cliffhanger that was not written to end the season; they compared it to "the end of an exciting book chapter [but] not the end of the novel." ABC decided that the eight episodes would be aired from January to March, regardless of whether any more episodes were produced in the 2007–2008 season. After the strike's end on February 12, 2008, the writers pleaded with ABC to air "Meet Kevin Johnson" on April 17 with the second pod of episodes, due to "the eighth episode [being] non-traditional and the start of something new". Jorge Garcia
Jorge Garcia
Jorge García is a U.S. actor and comedian. He first came to public attention with his performance as Hector Lopez on the television show Becker and later for his portrayal of Hugo "Hurley" Reyes in the television series Lost. Garcia also performs as a stand-up comedian.-Early life:García was born...
, who plays Hurley Reyes, agreed that "it's a pretty shocking end but it doesn't close out the way our previous [finales] have ended [because] it doesn't have that closure to it [and] ends in a sense of dissonance." ABC nevertheless prioritized scheduling Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy is an American medical drama television series created by Shonda Rhimes. The series premiered on March 27, 2005 on ABC; since then, seven seasons have aired. The series follows the lives of interns, residents and their mentors in the fictional Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital in...
, Ugly Betty
Ugly Betty
Ugly Betty is an American comedy-drama television series developed by Silvio Horta, which premiered on ABC on September 28, 2006, and ended on April 14, 2010. The series revolves around the character Betty Suarez and is based on Fernando Gaitán's Colombian telenovela soap opera Yo soy Betty, la fea...
and Lost
Despite the struggles with the strike, co-executive producer/staff writer Adam Horowitz recounted this as "a satisfying episode to work on—it was like we'd been waiting so long to tell the story of what happened with Michael." Carlton Cuse stated that "we [the writers] felt that the audience deserved to know, you know, once he and Walt sailed off in the boat, what was their journey." Supervising producer/writer Elizabeth Sarnoff stated that "Michael's goal—the whole season—is to die and he gets an opportunity to redeem himself when [Tom] finds him." Co-executive producer/staff writer Edward Kitsis
Edward Kitsis
Edward Lawrence Kitsis, also sometimes credited as Eddy Kitsis, is an American screenwriter and producer, best known for his work on the popular American television series, Lost and Once Upon a Time.-Life and career:...
added that "It's heartbreaking when Walt wouldn't see [Michael] … I always respected the fact that he told his son about the murders … Even though he knew it would probably blow up their relationship, he wanted to be honest with his son. In a way, you've got to respect that." Harold Perrineau, who plays Michael, concluded that "He's done some bad things and he's you know, got himself into a messy situation, but at the end of the day, Michael's a good guy." Instead of being intercut with scenes from the main ongoing plot, the flashbacks of "Meet Kevin Johnson" are presented continuously and are only bookended by present-day scenes. This is the second episode to do this after "Flashes Before Your Eyes
Flashes Before Your Eyes
"Flashes Before Your Eyes" is the 8th episode of the third season of the American drama television series Lost, and the show's 57th episode overall. The episode was written by the series co-creator, show runner and executive producer Damon Lindelof and supervising producer Drew Goddard, and...
" from the third season. The flashback portion of "Meet Kevin Johnson" is the longest in Lost history; Horowitz stated that "As we were breaking the story, it just happened, and it turned into the longest flashback to date." When asked why Michael's alias was not an allusion to a literary or historical figure, as with other Lost characters, Damon Lindelof explained that "if the Others … had chosen … Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
or … Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
, then … Widmore would have gotten suspicious: he'd go like, 'oh, now there's somebody on my boat with a literary allusion in their name, which sounds very much like that's a Benjamin Linus alias', so they picked the most innocuous name they possibly could, which was Kevin Johnson." Lindelof also said that it was a coincidence that "Kevin Johnson" was also the name of an American basketball player
Kevin Johnson
Kevin Maurice Johnson is the current mayor of Sacramento, California. He is Sacramento's first African American mayor. Prior to entering politics, Johnson was a basketball player in the NBA, playing point guard for the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Phoenix Suns...
.
In "Meet Kevin Johnson", Michael visits Tom's penthouse suite, where Tom and his lover Arturo (Francesco Simone) are revealed to be homosexual—Lost
A Tale of Two Cities (Lost)
"A Tale of Two Cities" is the third season premiere, and 50th episode overall, of the American Broadcasting Company's serial drama television series Lost. The episode was written by co-creators/executive producers J. J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof, based on a story by Lindelof and directed by...
, in which Tom tells Kate Austen
Kate Austen
Katherine Anne "Kate" Austen is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost, played by Canadian actress Evangeline Lilly. She is the de facto female lead...
(Evangeline Lilly
Evangeline Lilly
Evangeline Lilly is a Canadian actress, best known for her role as Kate Austen in the ABC drama, Lost.-Early life:...
) that she is "not [his] type". A few weeks later, the writers hinted that a character would eventually be revealed as gay. In response to the internet community's suspicions, actor M.C. Gainey began to play the character as such, subtly trying to flirt with Jack Shephard
Jack Shephard
Dr. Jack Shephard is a fictional character and protagonist of the ABC television series Lost played by Matthew Fox. Lost follows the journey of the survivors of Oceanic Airlines flight 815 on a mysterious island and their attempts to survive and escape, slowly uncovering more of the much broader...
(Matthew Fox
Matthew Fox (actor)
Matthew Chandler Fox is an American actor. He is mostly known for his role as Charlie Salinger on Party of Five, and for portraying Jack Shephard on the supernatural drama television series Lost.- Early life :...
) and later claiming that this attraction "got [him] through the first half of the season." Following the broadcast of "Meet Kevin Johnson", Lindelof and Cuse confirmed that the line from the third season premiere is an allusion to Tom's sexuality, but felt that it needed to be explicitly confirmed in the show. Lindelof noted that "it was not subtle, to say the least". Edward "Eddy" Kitsis stated that "It was great to see [Tom] and realize that … he is a true gentleman." M.C. Gainey stated that "anytime you've got a group of people, somebody's got to be marching to a different drummer—that would be Tom" and Harold Perrineau rejoiced "Right on, I thought that was cool".
Tom establishes that the island has some control over whether characters can die, as demonstrated when Michael unsuccessfully attempts to commit suicide three times. Kitsis thought that "It was interesting what [Tom] said to Michael … that really carries through Michael's arc." Later in the season, Martin Keamy
Martin Keamy
First Sergeant Martin Christopher Keamy is a recurring fictional character played by Kevin Durand in the fourth season and sixth season of the American ABC television series Lost. Keamy is introduced in the fifth episode of the fourth season as a crew member aboard the freighter called the Kahana...
(Kevin Durand
Kevin Durand
Kevin Serge Durand is a Canadian actor known for his roles as Joshua in Dark Angel, Martin Keamy in Lost, Fred J. Dukes in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the Archangel Gabriel in Legion, and Little John in Robin Hood....
) tries to shoot Michael in the head, but the gun jams and the next day, a manifestation of the island in the form of Christian Shephard
Christian Shephard
Dr. Christian Shephard is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost played by John Terry. He is the father of lead characters Jack Shephard , who becomes the de facto leader of the survivors of Oceanic 815 after it crashes on an island, and Claire Littleton , another of the survivors...
(John Terry
John Terry (actor)
John Terry is an American film, television, and stage actor.-Early life:Terry was born in Florida, where he attended Vero Beach High School. He was also educated at the prestigious Loomis Chaffee prep school in Windsor, Connecticut, and began a career building original custom log homes in North...
) appears before Michael. Damon Lindelof confirmed that the island's "cosmic intervention[s] of fate" also played a part in the car crash that foiled Jack's suicide attempt in the third season finale. Following the broadcast of the fourth midseason premiere
The Shape of Things to Come (Lost)
"The Shape of Things to Come" is the 81st episode of the American Broadcasting Company's Lost and is the ninth episode of the fourth season. It aired on April 24, 2008 on ABC in the United States and on CTV in Canada. The episode was written by co-executive producer Drew Goddard and...
, Lindelof further confirmed that this island force prevents Ben and Widmore from dying. Cuse has said that "There is a raging debate on the show about what constitutes free will and what constitutes destiny and Michael's story was sort of a[n] argument on the destiny side of that equation. He had more destiny to fulfil with that island than he anticipated and maybe the audience anticipated." Elizabeth Sarnoff stated that "the island doesn't let you go until it's done with you and I think that the rest of our characters are going to feel the reverberations of that, as well."
The second scene of the episode has Captain Gault beating two of his men, who had attempted to leave the freighter. Gault's actor Grant Bowler explained that "it was a scene about how far and fast things were spiralling out of control [on] the freighter … It was also about his ability to run the ship and that he was willing to go to such great lengths to keep order. It was about status, and keeping level-headed, and being in control."
Filming
Shooting commenced in early November and concluded on November 27, 2007. The strike suspended the script for the next episode and freed the cast and crew from an immediate deadline, with the result that more time was spent on filming "Meet Kevin Johnson" than the average Lost episode. Shooting did not customarily overlap with the surrounding episodes, although it was produced simultaneously with the Lost: Missing PiecesLost: Missing Pieces
Lost: Missing Pieces is a series of thirteen video clips ranging in length from one to four minutes that aired during the hiatus between the 3rd and 4th seasons of the television show Lost, from which the series is spun off...
mobisodes directed by executive producer Jack Bender
Jack Bender
Jack Bender is an American television and film director, actor, television producer and also a screenwriter. Bender was an executive producer and lead director on the ABC television series, Lost. He directed the series finale of Lost. Bender has also directed on other popular shows such as The...
and one scene from the season premiere
The Beginning of the End (Lost)
"The Beginning of the End" is the fourth season premiere, and 73rd episode overall, of the American Broadcasting Company's television drama series Lost. It was aired on ABC in the United States and CTV in Canada on January 31, 2008...
overseen by co-executive producer Jean Higgins. Perrineau hoped the audience would enjoy Michael's return since the cast and crew "busted [their] butts doing this one. It felt like we were making a movie because there's so much stuff that happens in this episode". Lilly called it "one of the best episodes of the first eight."
The exterior freighter scenes were filmed on an actual freighter, while interior scenes were filmed both on sets and in the freighter. The production crew had intended for the engine room scene where Michael goes to detonate the bomb and sees Libby to be shot in the freighter's engine room; instead, they built a new engine room set based on that inside the freighter. It was "so stifling hot" at around 105 °F (40 °C) and the crew found that "to get air conditioning down [t]here … was an impossible task", according to the Kahana
One New York flashback was filmed on the same Honolulu, Oahu
Oahu
Oahu or Oahu , known as "The Gathering Place", is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous of the islands in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital Honolulu is located on the southeast coast...
, Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
street that had been used by set decorator Carol Bayne Kelley as Berlin, Germany in the fourth season's "The Economist
The Economist (Lost)
"The Economist" is the third episode of the American Broadcasting Company's fourth season of the serial drama television series Lost and 75th episode overall. It was aired on February 14, 2008 on ABC in the United States and on CTV in Canada. The episode was written by co-executive producers...
" and London, England in the third season's "Flashes Before Your Eyes". The cliffhanger, in which Alex, Karl and Rousseau are in the jungle, was shot at Dillingham Ranch on the northwest tip of Oahu near the beach where the pilot
Pilot (Lost)
"Pilot" constitutes the first and second episodes of the first season of ABC television series Lost, with "Part 1" premiering on September 22, 2004 and Part 2 on September 29, 2004. The episodes were directed by J.J. Abrams, and written by him along with Damon Lindelof, based on a story by them and...
and other early episodes were primarily filmed. The scene originally ended with "snipers emerging through the jungle in these incredible, elaborate, jungle camouflage uniforms"; however, this was cut in post-production. Elements of this would be re-shot and used in the next episode when the snipers are identified.
Editing
Despite picketing on most days with his fellow Lost writers, Carlton Cuse, a member of the WGA negotiating committee, continued to oversee post-production in late November. When negotiations between the Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television ProducersAlliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers is a trade association based in Encino, California that represents over 350 American film production companies and studios in negotiations with entertainment industry trade unions in collective bargaining...
broke down in early December, he boycotted his producing duties on the show until the strike was resolved.
In addition to Michael Giacchino
Michael Giacchino
Michael Giacchino is an American composer who has composed scores for movies, television series and video games. Some of his most notable works include the scores to television series such as Lost, Alias and Fringe, games such as the Medal of Honor and Call of Duty series, and films such as...
's original score, "Meet Kevin Johnson" contained popular music diegetically
Diegesis
Diegesis is a style of representation in fiction and is:# the world in which the situations and events narrated occur; and# telling, recounting, as opposed to showing, enacting.In diegesis the narrator tells the story...
. The song playing on Michael's car radio during his first suicide attempt is "It's Getting Better," performed by "Mama" Cass Elliot
Cass Elliot
Cass Elliot , born Ellen Naomi Cohen and also known as Mama Cass, was an American singer and member of The Mamas & the Papas. After the group broke up, she released five solo albums. Elliot was found dead in her room in London, England, from an apparent heart attack after two weeks of sold-out...
. The song is heard again, fleetingly, during Michael's vision of Libby in the ship's engine room. Elliot's rendition of the song was released as a single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
in 1969 and was included on her album Bubblegum, Lemonade, and... Something for Mama
Bubblegum, Lemonade, and... Something for Mama
Bubblegum, Lemonade and… Something for Mama is the second solo album released by Cass Elliot. It was recorded in 1969 and arranged and produced by Steve Barri. The album was originally released on July 5, 1969 with only 11 tracks. It was released again on December 6, 1969 under a new title and with...
later the same year. Lost previously played Elliot's "Make Your Own Kind of Music" throughout the second season.
Ratings
Dubbed "the most anticipated Lost [episode] of the season" by Verne Gay of NewsdayNewsday
Newsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
due to Michael's flashbacks, "Meet Kevin Johnson" was watched live or recorded and watched within five hours of broadcast by 11.461 million viewers in the United States. Despite ranking ninth for the week in television programs with the most viewers, "Meet Kevin Johnson" set a new record as the lowest-rated episode in Lost
Something Nice Back Home
"Something Nice Back Home" is the tenth episode of the American Broadcasting Company's fourth season of the serial drama television series Lost and 82nd episode overall. It was aired on May 1, 2008, on ABC in the United States and on CTV in Canada...
". "Meet Kevin Johnson" achieved a fifth-place 4.6/12 in the coveted adults aged eighteen to forty-nine demographic for the week. Including those who watched within seven days of broadcast, the episode was watched by a total of 13.386 million American viewers. 1.421 million Canadians watched "Meet Kevin Johnson", making Lost the eighth most-viewed show of the week. The episode brought in 618,000 viewers in Australia, placing it as the twenty-fourth most watched show of the night.
Critical response
BuddyTV
BuddyTV is an entertainment-based website based in Seattle, Washington, which generates content about television programs and sporting events. The website publishes information about celebrity and related entertainment news through a series of articles, entertainment profiles, actor biographies and...
wrote that "This timeline results in some serious issues fans should have with time … This makes almost no sense … Michael left in the boat, he had to find help, come ashore, somehow explain himself, get on a plane back to New York City, drop off Walt to live with his grandma, find an apartment, get into a car accident, recover, and only then did he meet Tom. Either the writers are playing fast and loose with the concept of time, or Michael had the busiest week in the history of the world." Using Lostpedia
Lostpedia
Lostpedia is a wiki-powered online encyclopedia of information regarding the American television drama Lost. Launched on September 22, 2005 by Kevin Croy, the site uses MediaWiki software to maintain a user-created database of information...
as a reference, Nikki Stafford of Wizard
Wizard (magazine)
Wizard or Wizard: The Magazine of Comics, Entertainment and Pop Culture was a magazine about comic books, published monthly in the United States by Wizard Entertainment from July 1991 to January 2011...
pointed out that the chronology was not only almost inconsistent with the third season, but also with an earlier episode
Confirmed Dead
"Confirmed Dead" is the second episode of the fourth season and 74th episode overall of the ABC's serial drama television series Lost. It was aired on ABC in the United States and on CTV in Canada on February 7, 2008. The episode was written by co-executive producer Drew Goddard and co-producer...
of the same season. Damon Lindelof responded that "we [the writers and producers] find that the [fan message] boards can be really toxic" and pointed specifically to the "nitpick[ing]" of the possible continuity issues of "Meet Kevin Johnson", saying in defence of the script that "it's television."
The cliffhanger, in which Rousseau and Karl are killed and Alex calls out in desperation that she is Ben's daughter, gained a mixed response. In an 8.8 out of 10 review, IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
's Chris Carabott called the scene "completely out of place … tacked on and anticlimactic" as it "came at the strangest moment". Jay Glatfelter of The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
deemed the cliffhanger "a shocker"; he asked "do we really care [about Karl's death]? I mean, he did have a nice new haircut and all, but he really wasn't too interesting of a character." Despite his assessment that "this impressive episode was a fitting midseason finale", Digital Spy
Digital Spy
Digital Spy is a British entertainment and media news website. According to Alexa Internet traffic statistics, as of February 2011, Digital Spy is the 93rd most popular website in the United Kingdom, with an overall Alexa ranking of 2,088....
's Ben Rawson-Jones wrote that the "climax wasn't as effective as one could have hoped for, as the collective fates of Alex, Danielle and the ultra-expendable Karl don't rouse a great deal of interest." Grading the episode as a "B", Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
"Meet Kevin Johnson" had a share of good reviews, with critics acclaiming the character development and emotional struggles of Michael. Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger
The Star-Ledger
The Star-Ledger is the largest circulated newspaper in the U.S. state of New Jersey and is based in Newark. It is a sister paper to The Jersey Journal of Jersey City, The Times of Trenton and the Staten Island Advance, all of which are owned by Advance Publications.The Newark Star-Ledgers daily...
found this "middle chapter" to be "quite good" with "a fine performance from Mr. Perrineau". Sepinwall wrote that Michael's "struggle to deal with the guilt from his Faust
Faust
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend; a highly successful scholar, but also dissatisfied with his life, and so makes a deal with the devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. Faust's tale is the basis for many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical...
ian bargain to save Walt was another moving example of how the writers this season are really trying to build on the emotional impact of everything that's happened before." The San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
wrote that "Perrineau plays it just right most of the time—no hysterics or scenery-chewing, just a man trying to do the right thing, most of the time." In a four-out-of-five-star review, Digital Spy's Ben Rawson-Jones lauded the lack of interruption to the flashback and commented that "[Michael's] suicidal plight was well conveyed and there were plenty of shocks and thrills along the way". Dan Compora of SyFy Portal
SyFy Portal
Airlock Alpha, formerly SyFy Portal, is an entertainment news website focusing on science-fiction, fantasy and comic book television series and films.-History:...
enjoyed seeing dead characters in flashbacks and commended Perrineau's performance and character's story, while criticizing the underutilization of the rest of the main cast. In an overall positive review for the episode, The Huffington Post's Jay Glatfelter had mixed feelings for the revelation of Tom's sexual orientation, writing that "It seemed a little oddly placed, kind of like 'Let's make one of our characters gay just for the heck of it' but still it's cool that the show has a perfectly normal … not over-the-top gay character."
The episode was also subject to less favorable reviews from critics who were disappointed with the gaps in Michael and Walt's story. Steve Heisler of Time Out "wasn't all-too-pleased", citing the story's predictability. TMZ's Daniel called "Meet Kevin Johnson" "solid, but not spectacular" and gave it a grade of a "C+", writing that "this episode fell a little short … I feel like we were kind of robbed of half of the 'What Happened to Michael?' story. It was interesting to see how far into depression he sunk … And they did give him a pretty good reason for working for Ben … But I can't shake the feeling that we missed a good opportunity". He further commented that "Tom would make a great football coach—his motivational speeches are awesome." TV Squad's Erin Martell was unsatisfied with Michael's flashback and the lack of Walt, asking "What was their cover story when they got back to the mainland? … they couldn't do a genuine flashback scene because of … Kelley's growth spurt, but they could have worked around that." Oscar Dahl of BuddyTV ranked it as the second worst episode of the season; his colleague John Kubicek was also critical, and commented that the flashback "essentially tells us things we already know without telling us much more."
Awards
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences granted sound production mixer Robert "Bobby" Anderson and re-recording mixers Frank Morrone and Scott Weber a nomination in the Creative Arts category of "Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series (One-Hour)" for their work on this episode. On September 13, 2008, the nomination prevailed and became LostPrimetime Emmy Award
The Primetime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming...
win in 2008
60th Primetime Emmy Awards
The 60th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards was held on Sunday, September 21, 2008, at the newly opened Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California. They were hosted by Tom Bergeron, Heidi Klum, Howie Mandel, Jeff Probst, and Ryan Seacrest and televised in the United States on ABC.The Creative Arts Awards...
. Anderson discussed his job for an Easter egg featurette
Featurette
Featurette is a term used in the American film industry to designate a film whose length is approximately three quarters of a reel, or about 20–44 minutes in running time - thus midway between a short subject and a feature film; thus it is a "small feature"...
on the DVD and Blu-ray releases of Lost: The Complete Fourth Season – The Expanded Experience. Lost is sometimes filmed just two hundred yards (180 meters) from the Kamehameha Highway
Kamehameha Highway
Kamehameha Highway is one of the main highways serving suburban and rural O‘ahu in the U.S. state of Hawaii. Starting from Nimitz Highway near Pearl Harbor and Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, it serves the island's older western suburbs, turning north across the O‘ahu Central Valley to the...
and the traffic noise drowns out filmed dialogue, as do the ocean waves, so Anderson has the actors loop
Dubbing (filmmaking)
Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...
their relatively quiet lines on an automated dialogue replacement (ADR) sound stage
Sound stage
In common usage, a sound stage is a soundproof, hangar-like structure, building, or room, used for the production of theatrical filmmaking and television production, usually located on a secure movie studio property.-Overview:...
.