Harold Perrineau is fantastic in this episode. He's tasked with portraying a guilty, angry, desperate and deceitful man and does an exceptional job balancing these varying aspects of his character. In particular, the scene with Michael reuniting with everyone on the beach stood out as a very tough moment for the character. Everyone is thrilled to see him but all we can really see is Michael trying to mask the guilt he feels for what he has done. Then, in the next scene, he's desperately attempting to ensure that everything goes according to Miss Klugh's plan. There's a great deal of range that Perrineau has to achieve here and he does a great job.
In Michael's flashback, which also takes place on the island, we discover what happened to him after he left in search of his son. Michael is quickly captured and taken to the Others' "other" camp where he is held for several days. It's all fairly straightforward and I did appreciate how some of his story tied in with other events on the island. It was neat seeing Kate's capture from a different perspective and Alex asking about Claire's baby.
Miss Klugh's questions about Walt were an intriguing development. Especially those in relation to Walt's ability to be somewhere he shouldn't be. Too bad those never really panned out over the course of the rest of the series. His reunion with Michael was emotional and I was surprised to see how frightened Walt was in this scene. His fear definitely fueled the fire that led Michael to do what he did to Libby and Ana Lucia. Of course, Miss Klugh doesn't explicitly tell Michael to kill anyone.
While everyone is "understanding" of Michael's situation I found it a little frustrating that nobody was willing to ask the right question. WHY is Michael so insistent that only a certain select few survivors join him on his quest to save his son? When Jack suggests Sayid accompany them (an obvious choice), Michael's excuse is far from reasonable for not having him come along. Kate should have picked up on Michael attempting to coax Hurley into coming – does it make any sense why he would want Hurley to come along and not Sayid?
This hearkens back to the lack of questions being thrown around regarding Henry's escape. Michael's explanation in that case is suspect too but it's a little more understandable at that point since everyone is reeling in the fact that two of their own have just been murdered. In "Three Minutes" they are being asked to risk their lives to save Michael's son yet he won't give them a say on who goes and who stays behind. Both Jack and Sawyer do try to confront him about the situation but fail to really press him on why it would have to be four specific people that need to go.
Thankfully, Sayid picks up on the fact that Michael has been compromised fairly quickly. Sure, he has military training but any reasonable person should have been able to tell that Michael was acting strangely. Even when Sayid confronts Jack about his suspicions, Jack still has hesitates to believe Michael is working for the Others. A little strange from a group that is so prone to mistrust.
There were a couple of much smaller moments that I really appreciated in this episode. Sawyer's talk with Jack about "screwing" Ana Lucia was poignant as it highlighted his need to express his feelings during a time of mourning. Who would think that he really though of Jack as a friend and would even be willing to admit to that. Really puts everything into perspective. Also, Charlie has finally surfaced as a relevant character again with his gift to Claire of a vaccine for her and the baby. Honestly, I wouldn't trust anything given to me by Charlie that involved needles but Clarie appears to have gotten over her issue.
Later, seeing Charlie throw those Virgin Mary statues into the ocean was great. I disliked the story the second time around about as much as the first time I had seen it.