It took me a while to figure out why I didn’t like the pre-sundown portion. When reviewing the episode a second time, I started to notice that things were lacking, like: humor, meaningful dialogue, symbolism, etc. Essentially, the episode just served to move the plot forward with a lot of exposition. That isn’t necessarily bad, but it falls short of what I’ve come to expect from LOST. After realizing this, I asked myself, “Who wrote this?”
For those not familiar with the LOST creative process, essentially, the entire writing team maps out the season story and assigns plot points to each episode. Then a pair of writers is identified to work on a specific episode. Usually, each episode has at least one of the senior writers assigned to it. This week the writing team was Paul Zbyszewski and Graham Roland. Zbyszewski has only written 3 episodes (all last season) prior to this one. Roland has never written an episode before and....well....the lack of experience showed. Last week’s episode was written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse (the 2 major architects of the series). The difference was striking. Last week, nearly every line was important, providing connections between the two timelines, furthering the mythology, adding depth to characters, referencing literature or inserting comic relief. There was precious little of that this week. Some really good directing this week salvaged a very pedestrian script.
Anyway, enough of the behind the scenes commentary, lets get to the episode. Starting in the sideways universe, we got to see a Sayid who has sacrificed his own happiness for the good of the love of his life, Nadia and his brother, Omer. To make a long story short, Omer gets into trouble with loan sharks and needs Sayid to bail him out. Remember that when Sayid was a boy, he killed a chicken that his father asked Omer to kill. This flash-sideways showed Sayid reluctantly becoming his brothers protector again and consequently killing the loan sharks. Sayid has always had the ability to kill in him and it appears to be present in his sideways persona as well.
Did you bring me a boomerang too Sayid?
One of the ways I was most let down was with the use of Martin Keamy as the loan shark. Keamy, you will recall, was the mercenary from the freighter who shot Ben’s “daughter” Alex in cold blood. He was a badass to the nth degree. When I saw Kevin Durand (the actor who portrays Keamy) listed as a guest star this week, I was excited that maybe he was somehow going to be recruiting Sayid to do some work related to the island. Instead he was on screen for all of 2 very insignificant minutes before being gunned down by Sayid. Again, it wasn’t that the scene was bad, but it seemed like a missed opportunity.
I can still make you some eggs.
OK....let’s get to the island. So, Sayid bursts into Dogan’s chamber and demands to know what they were doing when they were testing him. Dogan responds, “For every man there is a scale. On one side of the scale there is good. On the other side, evil. This machine tells us how the scale is balanced. And yours tipped the wrong way.” (some of that stellar writing I was referring to) A little more banter and Sayid and Dogan get into one of the best fights ever in the series. It was nice to see Sayid have a real challenge (his fights usually don’t last very long) and eventually get taken down. Dogan doesn’t kill Sayid (I don’t think he can.....Sayid is a candidate) and lets Sayid go after his baseball drops to the ground. Later in the episode we learn Dogan’s backstory about how he was responsible for his son’s death on the way home from baseball practice. More on this later.
Shortly thereafter, Claire shows up on orders of Flocke to lure Dogan out of the Temple. Dogan has Claire thrown in “The Hole” and then sends Sayid out to “kill” Flocke. It seems to me that Flocke is one step ahead of Dogan and getting Sayid sent out to him was his plan all along. Sayid stabs Flocke and, of course, Flocke isn’t phased in the least (“Why’d you go and do that”). He pulls out the knife and explains to Sayid that he was duped by Dogan, whose goal was to have someone kill him.
Then Flocke makes his proposal to Sayid:
FLOCKE: I just want you to deliver a message, that's all.
SAYID: Then why didn't you just have Claire deliver it?
FLOCKE: Because it would mean a lot more coming from you. Sayid, if you'll do this for me... what if I told you that you could have anything you wanted. What if I said you can have anything in the entire world?
SAYID: I would tell you that the only thing I ever wanted, died in my arms, and I'll never see it again.
FLOCKE: What if you could?
So the deal proposed to Sayid is essentially Nadia (I am assuming it isn’t Shannon) for his soul. From Sayid’s perspective, what does he have to lose? I think Sayid believes the misery he has experienced in his life (and in the next life) are what he deserves for the choices he has made. (It reminds me of one of the messages on the video in Room 23 at the Hydra Station: “We are the causes of our own suffering”). The prospect of getting the love of his life back is too tempting. There is a clear parallel here to the Anakin Skywalker fall to The Dark Side. The Emperor offered Anakin a chance to save the one he loves. Similarly, the Man-in-Black offers Sayid a chance to bring back the one person that ever really mattered to him.
As student body president....
Sayid does indeed go to the Temple and offers The Others a choice. Leave the Temple and join the Man-in-Black or stay and die...you have until sundown. For most the choice is simple....let’s blow this popsicle stand! A few remain and wait for the sun to set. This split of the Others is similar to the split of the Losties in Season 4, when some of them followed Jack to the beach, and others followed Locke to the barracks.
OK.....now let’s get into the good stuff.
Sayid finds Dogan and the two have a poolside chat. Dogan relays the story of his son’s death and the offer he was given by Jacob (I’ll save your son if you become my Temple Master). The more we learn about Jacob, the less I believe him to be benevolent. In fact, I’m having a hard time distinguishing between the methods of Jacob and the Man-in-Black. While Jacob doesn’t appear to kill at will, he sure seems indifferent to the lives of those who are affected by him. There are some very strong theories out there that LOST is nothing but a game between Jacob and MIB. Each of them seem to maneuver the Losties in whatever way seems to position them best for victory. Do the Losties really have the ability to control their own destines or are they just pawns on the chess board positioned and sacrificed for whatever suits the game players’ strategies?
For a moment it appeared that Sayid and Dogan understood each other and were about to become allies:
DOGAN: It is sundown. Do you choose to stay or go?
SAYID: I’d like to stay.
Then Sayid grabs Dogan and drowns him in the very water that brought Sayid back to life (oh the irony!). The barefoot John Lennon impersonator runs in and can’t believe what Sayid has done and says: “You realize what you just did? He was the only thing keeping it out! Idiot! You just let it in?” No one calls Sayid an idiot without getting his throat slashed! But let’s pause here for a moment. What was Lennon talking about here? Why does killing Dogan let the Smoke Monster in? Clearly, the ash alone isn’t the protective barrier against Smokey. The power of the ash must be tied to the person who seals the ash. This is kind of like the magic circles I mentioned a few entries back. The circle itself only has power if the magician seals it with a spell. I am guessing there is something similar going on here. Once Dogan is dead, the protective ash no longer works.
So Smokey comes in and massacres nearly everyone at the Temple in one of the greatest action sequences in the series. Again, I am reminded of the Star Wars saga and Darth Vader’s slaughter of everyone at the Jedi Temple. It is also not hard to think of the Creeping Death that killed all without a marked door in The Ten Commandments (I hear that was based on a book). In the midst of the chaos, in barges Ilana, Lapidus, Sun and Ben to save Miles butt (she was really looking for Shephard, Reyes, Ford and Jarrah.....the candidates).
Ben breaks off to find Sayid.....and locates him at the spring. Sayid is sitting there just looking at the blood dripping from his knife.
BEN: Sayid....come on. I know a way out of here. There’s still time.
SAYID: Not for me.
A chilling response. And just like that, we know that Sayid has completed his journey to The Dark Side. He made his choice and is going to embrace it. Sayid is dead. The Sayid who fixed tranceivers, dynamited tents, and helped Desmond find his Constant is gone. All that remains is the killer and the torturer. Sayid believed himself to be damned. Believe something long enough and eventually it becomes true. Sayid has taken the same descent as Anakin did to become Vader. The only question that remains is if he can find redemption as Anakin did.
Too creepy for a funny comment.
Team Ilana made it out of the Temple, but Kate, who chose to go back for Claire, was left behind. Kate’s fate is left up in the air at the end of this episode. As she is leaving the Temple, she picks up a rifle and follows Sayid and Claire to join Flocke and his new followers. Are we to believe Kate is “infected” or “claimed” by the Man-in-Black? I’m not so sure. I think she is doing what she has always done....survive. Also, note Flocke’s expression as he see’s Kate exit the Temple. My interpretation is that he views the “acquisition” of Kate as an unexpected bonus to what was a pretty good day for him in the game.
A successful recruiting trip.
This final scene also reinforced my feelings that this season is strongly influenced by Stephen King’s “The Stand”. The MIB is gathering his followers, just like Randall Flagg did in the novel. He is preying upon their weakness and fears as a recruiting tool and his army is growing. However, dead-or-not, Jacob is still in the game...but the strategy he employs is slightly different. He is much more subtle (as we saw with Jack last week)....but perhaps no less ruthless.
So, so start....fantastic conclusion.
Here are a few misc items:
- Best line of the week: Not awarded this week....the best lines of this week wouldn’t even be under consideration in other weeks.
- Did you notice Jack pass Sayid and Nadia at the hospital?
- What was Jin doing in the meat locker? Wonder how long ‘til we find out?
- I thought it was pretty cool how Flocke appeared in the jungle after the Smoke Monster sounds surrounded Sayid.
- Flocke asks Sayid to “deliver a message”. Mr. Paik once asked Jin to “deliver a message”....which meant kill someone. Looks like it means the same thing to Flocke.
- I liked Kate pushing Lennon against the wall when he tried to stop her from finding Claire. We need to see more of this Kate.
- Note that Dogan and Sayid give into temptation for the sake of a loved one, much like Michael did for Walt.
That’s all for this week. I’m looking for next week’s Ben-centric episode to be as good as his episodes always are.
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