Lost Rewatch: Week 22

This week in the Rewatch, we reach the season 4 writer's strike. The show had finished up to "Meet Kevin Johnson" before the strike, so there was a five-week layoff before "The Shape of Things to Come" aired. This forced season 4 to be shorter than expected and the back portion of the season became faster paced. Here's this week's batch:

Meet Kevin Johnson (Zap2It Recap)

• GulfCoastOffense's original recap. LongLiveLocke's original recap.
• Flashback focuses on what happened to Michael since he left the island and how he became Ben's man on the freighter.
• How does the island's control work? It won't let Michael die because he still has work to do. Was working for Ben to stop the freighter really the work Michael had to do? Couldn't anyone have posed as Kevin Johnson? And since Michael is consumed by the guilt of killing Ana Lucia and Libby, how would killing a whole freighter of people removed that guilt? Michael's whole line of thinking is off in this one.
  
• As I said in my original recap, I still don't buy the reasoning for Michael wanting to kill himself. When he was on the island, everything he did was to make sure he and Walt left safely. Now that he and Walt are off the island, he destroyed his relationship with Walt and his own mom, but still, to now want to kill yourself ... I don't know. Way to really be there for your son.
• Miles knows more than he's leading on. He knows Michael is posing as Kevin but says 80 percent of the people on the freighter are lying. We've come to see many of those lies, but is there more to this?
• I hope we get some resolution to Ben always referring to the Others as the good guys.

The Shape of Things to Come (Zap2It Recap)

• GulfCoastOffense's original recap. LongLiveLocke's original recap.
• Flashforward focuses on Ben after he turned the frozen donkey wheel to move the island (though fans didn't know about the wheel yet). Ben "recruits" Sayid and confronts Widmore and promises to kill Penny, something he attempted but was unable to follow through on in season 5.
• How many times had Ben been to Tunisia before and what for? He gives the name Dean Moriarty and says he's a preferred guest. Did he know that's where he'd end up after turning the wheel? How does he know about the wheel anyway? Is there an Other Leader 101 course he had to take that goes over everything?
• Claire's house blows up and she is uninjured ... or was she? With Claire's future behavior and her leaving Aaron to go with her ghost father to the cabin, many fans still wonder is Claire didn't really die in the explosion. Later, she says that she's OK and will live and Miles replies, I wouldn't be too sure about that. This along with Desmond's vision of her and Aaron boarding a helicopter or the two biggest holes left in Claire's story.
• While playing Risk, Hurley says Australia is the key to the whole game. Is this loaded dialogue or was he simply talking about Risk. As always with Lost, there's always an underlying reason something like this is said on the show.
  
• Once Keamy kills Alex, Ben says that he changed the rules. What rules did Widmore change and who laid down those rules?
  
• What control does Ben have over the monster? His house was connected to the hieroglyphic door where he summoned it. Does the Other's leader have a special connection with the monster? Did DHARMA discover it when they built the barracks and leave that door as part of the house?
  
• The last scene with Ben and Widmore packs a punch. Lingering questions, what kind of nightmare is Widmore having? Why can't they kill each other? "What" is Ben as Widmore claims to know what he is? There's also another mention of the rules.

Something Nice Back Home (Zap2It Recap)

• GulfCoastOffense's original recap. LongLiveLocke's original recap.
• Why did Jack get appendicitis on the island? How do the healing powers on the island work and why are some healed and some get sick?
• Claire leaves Aaron behind in this episode to go with Christian, but we aren't sure why. It's strange that she'd leave her baby behind to go with the dad that she never really knew.
  
• Charlie gave Jack the message, "you're not supposed to raise him, Jack." We assumed him meant Aaron, but it be someone who was raised up? Like Christian or Locke?
• Jack sees his dead father off the island, showing us that these island vision/manifestations occur off the island too. But what causes them? The smoke alarm was malfunctioning, giving a hint that it might be the smoke monster.