Or, he is nicer so far than I expected him to be ... I try to take characters that I think are challenging and a little complicated and hopefully really smart and thoughtful and compassionate. I think Michael is all those things. He seems to have a lot of bad luck." He defends Michael's behavior in season two, saying "[Michael] keeps stepping into more trouble than he actually asked for". Cynthia Littleton of Variety described Michael as "one of the most interesting of the Oceanic 815-ers: flawed, tortured, hard to read, volatile, fighting his innate talents, his own worst enemy, at times, and at others, a totally stand-up guy." IGN's Chris Carabott calls Michael a "natural" father. Michael is known for frequently shouting "Walt!", "Where's my son!" and "Have you seen my boy?". Development When the producers were auditioning actors for roles in Lost, Harold Perrineau was in the area. The producers called it a "natural move" to have him audition. Although initially skeptical about the show, he took the role when Lost creator J. J. Abrams explained more about it. Perrineau was attracted to the role because "[Michael]'s a guy that's in a lot of conflict and we're not exactly sure why". In season one, Michael was going to be part of a love triangle with Sun and Jin, however this was dropped after positive fan reaction to Sun and Jin's relationship. The storyline is revisited in the Missing Pieces mobisode "Buried Secrets", which shows Michael and Sun almost kissing. Michael and Jin were going to be enemies throughout all of the season, but the producers felt Perrineau and Daniel Dae Kim had good chemistry, so the storyline was changed to them becoming friends. Perrineau called filming the first season "one of [his] best years as a working actor". Lost writer Elizabeth Sarnoff explained that Michael's storyline in season two is about "what a father will do to save his son"; she noted "there's nothing worse than what he does". The second episode of season two was originally going to be Sawyer centric, however this was rewritten "at the proverbial last minute" and changed to a Michael centric episode. Perrineau received swimming lessons in preparation for this episode. Perrineau was unaware that his character had been captured by the Others until he was told Michael was going to kill Ana Lucia and Libby. Perrineau described shooting the scenes in