Not a surprise, of course, because of the giveaway in the credits, but it's a fascinating mystery. Only Ben's using Walt as leverage seems to make sense of Michael's agreeing to work for him, because surely Ben would be pretty much top on Michael's list of enemies. Either that or he knows of a direct threat posed to the Losties by the freighter (though he didn't seem overly concerned for the Losties the day he gunned two of them down and sold four more to the Others). But how did they communicate? The day Michael and Walt left the island, the comms went down and no-one's been able to leave. I can only imagine that the course Michael was put on took the two of them straight to somewhere (or some-when) where Ben was able to manipulate them and get them to do his bidding.
That said, in spite of all the manipulation that I suspect on Ben's part (but have no proof of), Michael's lack of trust for the captain and desire to help Sayid and, perhaps by extension, Ben, seems quite genuine. I suspect while he may have nothing but contempt for Ben and his methods (or maybe that's just me), he agrees with Ben's opinions of the freighterites.
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