It's a Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt World
The episode is the third in the series to focus on the character of Matt Jamison, this time following him on a tumultuous journey to Australia alongside John, Laurie and Michael in an attempt to bring Kevin back home.
Matt persuades Arturo, a loyal member of his congregation who works at a relief agency, to fly him to Melbourne under the guise of a rescue mission, believing that the ruse will help them bypass Australian flight restrictions.
Matt attempts to book a 11-hour ferry ride from Tasmania to Melbourne but finds that a private client has reserved the entire boat.
Curious, Matt travels to the ferry's upper deck to meet "God," who is shown to be the same man Kevin twice encountered while in the afterlife.
Unable to receive anyone's help amidst the orgy, Matt jumps overboard himself in an attempt to save the passenger, but is unsuccessful and is quickly rescued.
The captain informs Matt that "God" is David Burton, a former athlete and sportscaster who made headlines after apparently returning from the dead.
Matt attempts to persuade the others to help him bring Burton to justice, and during an argument, he blurts out that Kevin is experiencing hallucinations of Evie (which Laurie disclosed to him in confidence).
Matt gradually begins talking to Burton as if he were indeed the Biblical God, demanding answers for the Departure as well as his own personal suffering, which he claims was in service of his faith.
The captain informs him that a fishing boat discovered a body in the ocean and that Melbourne police plan to arrest Burton when the ferry docks.
Matt, observing the chaos from the boat, turns to a shocked John, Laurie and Michael and nonchalantly remarks, "that's the guy I was telling you about."
Lindelof likened the cult to the ending of the Book of Exodus, stating, "it felt like it's that moment when Moses comes down from the mountaintop with the Commandments and all the Israelites are worshipping the golden calf and fucking each other.
Both Lindelof and Eccleston stated that it was left ambiguous whether Burton heals Matt's cancer at the end of the episode and that they allowed the moment to rest on the actors' performances.
[2] Series producer Eugene Kelly revealed that the ferry's owner helped market its usage on the show to offset its dwindling revenues at the time.
A significant portion of the budget went into the computer-generated effects involved in rendering the nuclear submarine environment, as well as depicting Burton's death at the hands of the lion at the end of the episode.
Its lyrics translate in English to "God, Let this missile fly straight and true/ Let it find the volcano nest/ And let the egg there be unhatched/ So that this unborn beast may be destroyed/ Before it rises to destroy the world.
Fowler remarked on the episode's unpredictability, and praised the series' "tongue-in-cheek take on the End Times as the inhabitants of this particular world manifest lunacy and bizarre devotion along a spectacular spectrum.
Club gave the episode an A, likening Matt's character arc to Neale Donald Walsch's Conversations with God book series.
[9] Sophie Gilbert of The Atlantic named the episode her favorite of the third season yet, also praising the "bravura" opening sequence and interpreting the Frasier cult as an attempt to satirize Matt's belief in Kevin's holiness.
