Watching Lost

There something about Sayid-centric episodes that don’t seem to hook me in as much as the rest. I have always felt his flashbacks (and in this episode’s case, flash forwards) were dragging at times. But while this episode was the weakest among the three stories already aired, I can’t deny I loved the last part of it.

The Economist opens with Sayid studying the remains of Naomi, while, a few feet away, Miles and Jack are thinking about how they can rescue Charlotte from Team Locke. Sayid notices Naomi’s bracelet and removes it from her wrist. Inscribed on it are the words: “N, I’ll always be with you. R.G” Sayid then says to Miles and Frank he can bring Charlotte back, provided he gets to ride on the chopper back to the boat. For this operation, Miles joins Sayid, and Jack suggested Kate come with them, too.

While the were gone, Daniel conducts some tests, which Frank tells Jack, he does a lot on the boat going to the island. Daniel has a tripod with what looks like a beacon. There’s also a clock attached to it. Using Frank’s phone, Daniel calls a Regina and asks her to send a payload. Regina begins the countdown but the payload does not arrive as expected. Rather, this was delayed some 30 or so minutes later. Daniel thinks this was “beyond weird”.

Meanwhile, Sayid, Miles and Kate reach the barracks where The Others used to reside. They find Hurley tied up and locked inside a closet and Hurley tells them Team Locke has left him behind when he suggested they let Charlotte go. Hurley tells the three, he thinks the rest of the Losties are heading towards Ben’s house. They snooped around the area and Sayid finds a secret room inside Ben’s house. It has a number of passports (all Ben’s) and some money or notes in different currency (and probably in different years). Before they could check the area further, Sayid, Miles and Kate are cornered by Team Locke. Hurley suddenly appears and apologizes for lying.

Kate is in Ben’s room with Sawyer to stand as guard. Sawyer wonders if she really thinks the rescuers will be able to get them out of the island. She wonders why Sawyer doesn’t want to go home and he sort of tells her his life is better where they are. Miles is whisked off somewhere, too, while Sayid is brought to the game room, where Ben is also locked up. Locke apologizes to Sayid for the deception, but explains it was a precaution since Locke doesn’t believe in the freighter crew. Sayid tells him he believes the same, but it was necessary to bring Charlotte to them so that he could find out more. Locke tells Sayid about Ben’s man on the boat but Ben refuses to say anything more. Sayid trades Miles for Charlotte from Locke.

Back at Team Jack, they learn that Naomi had a picture of Desmond and Penny on one of her pockets, so they ask Frank about it. Unfortunately, he doesn’t know anything but Desmond doesn’t believe him and demands he be brought back to the freighter. Frank relents. And minutes after, Sayid arrives with Charlotte. Kate is not with him, though and Sayid tells Jack that Kate has decided to stay with Locke.

Frank is ready to fly the chopper out, but Charlotte and Daniel chose to stay on the island. Instead, his passengers were Sayid, Desmond and Naomi’s body. Just before they were to take off, Daniel tells Frank to strictly follow the course they had coming into the island.

SAYID FLASH FORWARDS

After leaving the island, Sayid apparently becomes an assassin. He meets a woman named Elsa, who works as a personal assistant to some elusive economist and she carries around a pager that would tell her whenever her boss is in town. Sayid tells her he’s a headhunter in town for a week. They agreed to meet sometime later that evening for dinner. When Sayid leaves her at the coffee shop, he makes a call to someone and says, “I have made contact”. As it turns out, his chance meeting with Elsa was actually planned.

Eventually, Elsa and Sayid become involved in a love affair and Elsa tells him that she would like to get to know the man she loves better. Later, after a night in bed together, Elsa’s pager goes off, and she quickly gets ready to meet her boss. At this point Sayid tells her to leave immediately, so that people will not look for her when they find out her boss has been eliminated. Elsa now gets what Sayid’s work is and becomes upset upon realizing Sayid has used her. Sayid tries to explain but she shoots his shoulders.

In the bathroom, Elsa is overheard talking to someone and telling whoever it was on the phone that Sayid refuses to say who he works for. So, like Sayid, Elsa is also out to get more information from him and that their chanced meeting and affair was just so they could get to each other’s bosses. Sayid distracts Elsa and she quickly storms out of the bathroom. Sayid immediately shots her twice on the chest and dies on the spot. Upon closer look, Elsa has the same bracelet as Naomi’s.

Later, Sayid slowly walks into a vet’s clinic and goes straight to the operating room where someone was already waiting for him and asked him to explain what happened. The mystery man is other than Ben. He and Sayid are working together. Ben gives him a list of names to kill. While treating his wounds, Ben tells him he has a new name for Sayid. But Sayid says they know that he is coming for them. And Ben only replies with, “Good.”

Thought bubbles…

• It looks like the Time Travel Theory is slowly becoming more and more credible to me.
• Sayid: “The day I start trusting him (Ben) is the day I’ve sold my soul.” But they are working together in the future, as we’ve seen. There should be more to it than that in the coming episodes.
• Miles has some witty lines, I am liking him a lot! Hurley threw in a couple, too and I’m compiling them all in the Quotes section next week.
• Naomi and Elsa’s bracelets are identical, so they are working for the same team. But who is R.G. on Naomi’s bracelet?
• Who is The Economist? Elsa says he is someone who hasn’t embraced technology. Is he on the island because Elsa says he paged her 30 minutes too late? Is it…Locke?
• Why did Jacob’s cabin disappear?