Sayid, another troubled soul, is the center of this episode. Sayid is a former interrogator for the Iraqi Republican Guard. He has spent many years trying to distance himself from this, but somehow finds himself in situation after situation where his former “skills” are needed. This time is no different.
Flash Sideways: Sayid arrives at the home of his brother in LA. We find that his long lost love, Nadia, is married to his brother and they have two children. His brother admits to taking a loan from a loan shark and that they have threatened to harm him if he doesn’t pay their interest. He asks Sayid to stop them using his “skills”. Sayid refuses and swears that he’s not that man anymore. Sayid’s brother is “mugged” and put in the hospital. (Anyone notice Jack in the hallway?) Sayid still doesn’t retaliate.
He is then approached outside of his brother’s home by the loan sharks and has no choice but to get in the car with them. He is taken by these two men to a third man. (This is the same man that killed Ben’s daughter in a previous episode.) Man #3 informs Sayid that he must pay his brother’s debt. It’s quite obvious that these men have no idea who they are dealing with, as Sayid proceeds to kill them all. After the blood shed, Sayid hears banging and goes to investigate. He finds Jin bound and gagged in a closet. He doesn’t know him, as they met on the island. Jin doesn’t speak English because he learned on the island. These flash sideways are showing us that the survivor’s lives are completely different than what we’ve learned in the past, but, they are connected. I still have the same question. Why?
On the island: Sayid confronts Dogen to find out why he wants him dead. They end up in a fist fight and Dogen gets the upper hand. He has a knife at Sayid’s throat but at the last minute doesn’t kill him. He tells Sayid that he is banished. Sayid speaks to Miles as he is packing and Miles tells him that The Others tried to save him, but he died anyway.
Then two hours later he was miraculously alive and that someone or something else brought him back. Claire has been sent to The Temple to ask for a meeting between Dogen and Flocke. Dogen refuses and says that Flocke will kill him if he leaves The Temple. Claire suggests that he send someone that Flocke won’t kill. Of course he picks Sayid.
He gives Sayid a dagger and tells him to bury it in the chest of someone he will meet; someone who looks like a dead friend. He meets Flocke in the woods and does as Dogen requested, but Flocke doesn’t die; he doesn’t even bleed. He removes the dagger from his heart and returns it to Sayid. Sayid is scared (not something that we see often). Flocke tells him that he can give him whatever he wants if he joins him and delivers a message to the inhabitants of The Temple. Sayid asks for the only thing he has ever wanted; Nadia to be alive. (We see Nadia die in one of the flashes from last season.)
Flocke agrees to Sayid’s request. Sayid comes back to The Temple with Flocke’s message – “Jacob is dead and they are all free to leave the island. Leave The Temple by sundown and join them or die”. Panic ensues as everyone gathers their belongings to leave. Sayid confronts Dogen again and Dogen tells him a story about how he was a banker once; how he had a son and during a car accident lost his son while he survived. He tells him that Jacob appeared to him and promised that his son would live if he came to the island. Sayid is struck by the fact that they both were given the same agreement, although that doesn’t stop him from killing Dogen and his assistant.
In the meantime, Kate has come back to The Temple and finds that Claire has been imprisoned in a hole. She tells Claire that she has Aaron and is here to rescue her and reunite them.
At sundown, the smoke monster arrives at The Temple and proceeds to kill anyone remaining. Miles and Kate flee for their lives. But, Kate will not leave Claire. She ends up hanging from the lip of the hole Claire is in while the smoke monster passes overhead. Miles comes upon Ilana, Jin, Ben and Frank who have just arrived.
Ilana asks after Sayid and Ben runs off to find him. Ilana takes Miles and the other two through a secret passageway out of The Temple. Ben finds Sayid and tells him to hurry; that there is still time. Sayid responds with an evil leer, “Not for me.” Sayid, Claire and Kate come out of The Temple to join Flocke and those who left. Kate is horrified and Flocke looks at her in a very strange way; in a way that makes me believe that he doesn’t think she should be there. This reinforces my belief that Kate has a very important role to play in the upcoming confrontation.
This was a great episode. Sayid has become one of my favorite characters. He always seemed to be running from his past and struggled to make people see that he was a good man. But, his past kept catching up to him. He was able to hold himself separate from that part, but not anymore. He is officially immersed in his darkness.
I still want to think that he will come around. I guess we will find out, won’t we?
This Tuesday, “Dr. Linus” – Ben deals with the consequences of an uncovered lie, on “Lost,” (9:00-10:00 p.m., ET)
-April Starlett (let me know your thoughts, post below)
