Please help me with this I am confused about the events between the two events I have labeled bookends. I have listed the events in the order I think they were shown in the episode. I wanted to add "Michael sees news of Oceanic 815 crash" but couldn't remember where that was shown.

Michael and Walt leave Island (bookend)

Michael rams car into container
Michael in hospital
Michael tries to visit Walt
Michael tries to kill himself in alley
Michael fights with Tom
Michael tries to kill himself in apartment
Michael visits Tom in Hotel

Michael becomes Kevin goes onto freighter (bookend)

My question is when does the ramming of the car into the container actually take place? He obviously sustained serious injuries so how could he have had time to recover at any point between leaving the Island and getting on the freighter? There's only a month or two there right? If this is correct then was that a Flash Forward shown first to throw us off?

I am probably missing something really obvious as I haven't seen this question elsewhere. My apologies in advance.

This is all after Michael and Walt leave in the boat Ben gave them, and back in New York. (I am trying to find the episode you are looking for) This is from Lostpedia:
Racked with guilt over his murder of Libby and Ana Lucia, Michael attempts to kill himself by driving his car into a wall. Michael wakes up in the hospital and Libby enters, however this appears to be just a dream. Michael wakes up again and a nurse enters and offers to call Walt, saying that Michael had a note taped to his chest addressed to Walt.

Sometime later, Michael goes to his mother's house, who is caring for Walt. Michael's mom doesn't understand how her son came to survive the plane crash two months ago and return to the mainland. She also does not know why Walt is so distraught. Michael leaves her and goes to a pawn shop where he sells Jin's Rolex watch in exchange for a gun.


In a back alley, he is preparing to shoot himself when Tom approaches him. He tells him that he has a job for him, and realizes that the reason Walt won't see him is because Michael told him he killed Anna Lucia and Libby. Tom also informs Michael that Michael cannot kill himself even if he wanted to. Michael returns to a motel room and tries to shoot himself in the head, but the gun refuses to fire. Suddenly, a news report comes on TV announcing that the wreckage of Oceanic 815 has been found at the bottom of a trench in the ocean. Michael heads to Tom's hotel room where he finds him in the company of another man. Tom informs Michael that he will pose as a deck hand named Kevin Johnson on board the freighter, a ship commissioned by Charles Widmore, sailing out of Fiji. Michael reads the message "not yet"

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Great thanks!
It's the "sometime later" in the second paragraph that confuses me. How much later, how could he have recovered that quickly?

I know I am missing something with this recovery thing.

Oops... I copied the caption of the photo - lol! I 'll take it out right now!



Well, the way I see it--> Michael left the Pala Ferry on Day 67 (November 27th) and now he is back around Day 99 - Wednesday, December 29, 2004 (on the Island)/Monday, December 27, 2004 (on the Kahana) So Michael was gone for around a month.

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So take off a few days for getting back to NYC from the Island and a few days for getting to the Kahana from NYC and you've got around 3 weeks for him to have gotten in that horrific crash and recovered well enough to be trying to kill himself again and indeed fighting with Tom. I noticed no limp or other malady. Is this making sense?

How does the car crash/suicide attempt fit in the Lost timeline?

If the suicide/crash seen in this episode was the car accident Michael was involved in before the island then why would he be having visions of Libby in the hospital? Also I thought he was hit by a car in that earlier accident. Also his hair was different before the island, longer I think.

Oh, you are right - sorry, I'm still looking for that episode you mentioned so I'm not paying full attention.

I deleted that post so no one would get confused.

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I thought Micheal was hit by a car just after he had talked to Walt's mother on the pay phone. If I'm right I've always kind of wonder which city that happen in, could it had been in NYC?

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Standing in the ocean with the sun burning low in the west
Like a fire in the cavernous darkness at the heart of the beast
With my beliefs and possessions, stopped at the frontier in my chest
At the edge of my country, my back to the sea, looking east

Yeah, I deleted the wrong post - I was supposed to delete the post you quoted for that very reason - so that people wouldn't get confused and start talking about it because I know I was wrong. I was trying to do two different things at once and wasn't paying too close attention to this thread (which I think I also wrote if you had read a few posts up!) Then you would have seen that you didn't need to quote me because I had already addressed this in my own post.

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This thread has gotten a little muddled but I would still like an answer or conversation about my original questions:

My question is when does the ramming of the car into the container actually take place? He obviously sustained serious injuries so how could he have had time to recover at any point between leaving the Island and getting on the freighter? There's only a month there right? If this is correct then was that a Flash Forward shown first to throw us off?

I still may be missing something but I am not seeing this discussed elsewhere and it's driving me crazy.