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Lost: The Economist

Ben: "Why are you crying? Because it hurts? Or because you were stupid enough to care for her?"

I gasped out loud three times during this episode. So I guess you could say it was a multiple shocker.

Sayid is our fourth member of the Oceanic Six. That was gasp number one. I liked Sayid in flash forwards a lot more than in his previous flashbacks; he was much more interesting as a suave but reluctant assassin than as a tortured torturer. Plus, Sayid in gorgeous clothes and doing love scenes? Super yum. Not that I don't like him in Island grunge.

Ben, who is an even bigger villain than I thought, has some sort of stranglehold on future Sayid. Like what? Did the amorphous, unknown bad guys that included Mr. Abilene and "the economist" (who wasn't an economist) do something to Nadia, perhaps? Was that why Sayid was crying? Or did Sayid really grow to love Elsa? And what has Ben been doing with the money, fancy clothes, and multiple passports?

Locke continued his search for the Magical Moving Cabin and its mysterious and possibly dead residents. He also managed to subvert Hurley. That really surprised me, because I thought Locke wasn't doing all that well in the leadership skills department. Plus it was very unlike Hurley to betray a friend.

And Jack has apparently passed Kate back to Sawyer. When did Sawyer decide he never wanted to leave the Island? After he killed Locke's father? Maybe he believed what Ben said about it being his only chance with Kate. Sawyer had Kate locked in Ben's bedroom with him. That scene was way too short. More, please.


Time moves more slowly on the Island; it took half an hour longer than expected for the payload to reach Daniel. I'd say that was a pretty honking huge revelation. Maybe the faked wreckage of flight 815 was discovered much later than 2004. What's the date in the outside world? 2008? Maybe that explains Taller Ghost Walt.

And Daniel warned Frank to follow the exact same bearing leaving the Island. There is apparently only one way in or out. Sayid and Desmond got into the chopper with Frank. I wouldn't get in that chopper no matter what was on the other end. Does this mean that Sayid is off the Island for good? Is Desmond another one of the Oceanic Six? (Oops. He's not. I completely forgot that Desmond wasn't on Flight 815.)

Character bits:

Assassination made Sayid feel dirty. He washed his hands with snow after calling Ben the first time.

One of Ben's passports was Swiss and gave his name as Dean Moriarty. Moriarty was Sherlock Holmes' archnemesis. And Dean Moriarty was a character in Jack Kerouac's On the Road.

Elsa had a silver bracelet, like Naomi's. Naomi was senior management. Was Elsa? Naomi's bracelet was engraved: "N. I'll always be with you. R.G." Who is R.G.? Or is the whole thing an anagram that I'll never be able to solve?

Daniel prefers Charlotte to Miles. Who wouldn't.

Sawyer called Ben "Gizmo," which was the name of one of the critters in Gremlins, wasn't it? And Miles called Hurley "Tubby." Too schoolyard. Not as creative or literary as Sawyer's nicknames, for sure.

Frank's father was a Yankee fan from the Bronx.

Bits and pieces:

— This episode began with a close-up of Sayid, but his eyes were closed. (They're playing with us, aren't they?) Maybe it was because the episode began and ended with Sayid closing the eyes of a dead woman. Sayid has never gotten an "eye scene." I did a list.

— If the freighter is eighty nautical miles offshore and it took half an hour for the payload to reach Daniel, then how much slower does time move on the Island? That's like one of those math questions on the GRE.

— By the way, gasps two and three were when Elsa shot Sayid, and when Ben turned out to be Sayid's boss.

— What else did Sayid give Locke in exchange for Charlotte? I got the feeling it was something more than just Miles. Maybe I was wrong.



— Sayid killed Mr. Abilene, a gambler sort of guy, at a golf course in the Seychelles.

— Sayid picked up Elsa in "Die Mauer" in Berlin. "Die Mauer" means "the wall."

— I didn't mention it last week, but I noticed the number on the chopper: N842M. And the time on the timers was 2:45:03 and 3:16:23. Someone wrote to me and suggested that they were Bible verses.

— In this week's hair report, Sayid's is a lot different when he has access to conditioner. Much like Kate. Was there more white in Sayid's beard? How far in the "future" was this?

— The writers' strike has been resolved, and we'll be getting five more Lost episodes this season. Making a total of unlucky thirteen. Not the sixteen we were promised, but I'm still glad it's more than just eight. Maybe we'll even get something resembling a climax.

Quotes:

Sayid: "I love Europe. Everyone speaks English."

Kate: "Kinda sucks, huh."
Jack: "What's that?"
Kate: "Being told not to come along. Now you know what it feels like to be me."
Jack: "Does that mean I should wait twenty minutes and go anyway?"

Miles: "Where the hell did they go, Tubby?"
Hurley: "Oh, awesome. The ship sent us another Sawyer."

Sayid: "I'm not going to hurt you, Hurley."
Hurley: "Yeah. I saw you snap that guy's neck with that breakdancing thing you do with your legs. I think I'll hang back here."

Kate: "So, what? Am I your prisoner?"
Sawyer: "If that sort of thing turns you on."

Ben: "I have another name for you."
Sayid: "But they know I'm after them now."
Ben: "Good."

I'd rate this one a high three or even four polar bears. This is the first poll where I allowed you guys to rate it, too, and you gave it four polar bears,

Billie

Note: I made several revisions to this review after it was originally posted, because I got way too many emails about stuff I missed. Thanks to everyone who wrote to me.
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

3 comments:

  1. I wondered through the entire episode about why Sayid would be killing people in cold blood, but I like your idea about Nadia. That hadn't occurred to me, but it makes more sense than anything else I have come up with. I'm not sure I want yet another of our characters to resort to murder whenever things get tough. It's beginning to feel like a recurring theme.

    But, the Else twist was very well done. I watched their scenes again after the reveal and it was carefully telegraphed. I just missed the hints.

    I saw the Sawyer/Kate scene as a break-up. She's not interested in playing house (she wasn't very good at it the first time around) and he knows it. The look on Sawyer's face whenever Kate does something that feeds into his negative self-image always makes me sad. But, Kate is hardly blameless. Right now, she is playing these guys off against each other. I've never had much time for people who do that.

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  2. There's a lot to love in this episode, not least of which is Sayid's consistent weakness for beautitful, strong-willed women. He's such a James Bond: suave when he needs to be, violent when he needs to be, looks great in a tux.

    But I hate his hair. Oh, god, how do I hate his hair in the Berlin scenes, especially the first one. All I can think about when I look at it is how someone had to blow out his curls, finish 'em off with a flat-iron, and then use a curling iron on just the ends. Kim Kardashian's hair is less high-maintenance.

    And that's what I don't like about it. It looks great, except that it looks so styled.

    Anyway: other things I love: Ben, with more lists. Jack assuming Sawyer would protect Kate (which is more thoughtful than Jack usually is). And, of course, the math problem of what Faraday's experiment means.

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  3. Dan is such a nerd,so funny,but his experiment looks kind of serious.
    Sayid is so eager to get away from the island,as always. His FlashForward is shocking in the ending.
    Kate flirts shameless with Jack,then Jack pushes her to the Barracks using the pretext of the mission. Yes,Jack trusts of her skills and of her loyalty,but he obviously encourages her to make up her mind about her feelings.
    That is, before you flirt with me,you have to broke up with Sawyer. The Kate's expression is so funny(What?Who the hell is Sawyer?).
    Jack is clearly disappointed when she doesn't come back with Sayid(but she doesn't mean to remain for Sawyer at all).

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