ODI LOSTcast 38 - Epi 5x10 Recap and 5x11 Preview Posted by The ODI at 3/31/2009 08:28:00 PM View Comments Labels: Ben, He's Our You, Podcasts, Sayid, Season 5, Vozzek69

Hey All,
So earlier this week we had a chance to interview Eric Lange who plays Radzinsky and we had a great time chatting with him. We appreciate all the positive feedback from all of you that listened.

Also, since many of you emailed us and said that you liked the two new segments in the podcast we have decided to make them a regular part of the podcast. So once again the recap of Episode 5x10 He's Our You starts with our "Initial Thoughts in a Flash" and ends with "Vozzek's Final Thoughts" segment.

We cover all of the key points, the easter eggs and of course the shocking twist with Young Ben being shot by Sayid.

After the recap there is a little preview of Episode 5x11, but the preview portion is followed by an special Extended Season Finale Spoilers segment.

So yes with all of these segments in the podcast, this is a Super-Sized version of the podcast.

The podcast was posted on iTunes earlier today, but for those of you that can not access it there, below is a link to an audio player with a download link.

Hope you all enjoy!!

NOTE: Spoilers/preview segment starts at the 92 Minute mark this week

http://the-odi.blogspot.com/2009/03/odi-lostcast-38-epi-5x10-recap-and-5x11.html

He's Our You Recap and Analysis by Erika Posted by DarkUFO at 3/31/2009 04:08:00 PM View Comments Labels: Erika Olson, He's Our You, Recaps

Here is the Episode 5.10 - He's Our You recap from Erika Olson (aka "e") from LongLiveLocke.com.

When I learned that the name of the series' 96th episode was "He's Our You," I got chills. Something about those three words just totally freaked me out. I immediately thought that the hour would revolve around parallels between two groups: the 815ers vs. the Others/Hostiles, the 815ers vs. Dharma, Ben's network of people vs. Widmore's, or some other combination of the aforementioned factions. I also figured that either Ben, Horace, Ageless Richard, Locke, Widmore or maybe even the elusive Jacob would be the character of focus.

What's embarrassing to admit is that although it was clear from the very first second of airtime that this episode was going to be Sayid-centric, it still didn't click to me that the title would be in reference to another interrogator/torturer. It wasn't until Sawyer actually said the line at Oldham's Teepee of Terror that the lightbulb went on in my head.

Since my brain is obviously not in tip-top shape this week (and since I have less time than usual to write this post), I'm especially thankful that there really wasn't that much to pick apart in this episode... except for The Ending, of course.

Let's start with the flashbacks (yay for the return of the old format!) and then finish up with the Island events.


ON THE DAY I WAS BORN
THE NURSES ALL GATHERED 'ROUND
AND THEY GAZED IN WIDE WONDER
AT THE JOY THEY HAD FOUND
THE HEAD NURSE SPOKE UP AND SHE SAID
"LEAVE THIS ONE ALONE"
SHE COULD TELL RIGHT AWAY
THAT I WAS BAD TO THE BONE

Over the course of Season Five we've seen countless parallels to past episodes. Characters are saying (sometimes word for word) and doing the same things that different characters said and did (in earlier seasons) more and more frequently. I usually don't mention things like this because, 1) there's just too many to call out, and 2) while I think they're neat, they typically don't advance the plot, provide clues, or serve any purpose other than enabling us to say something like, "Hey, that's exactly what Goodwin said to Ana Lucia in Season Two!"

But in light of Mr. Eko's fate, I feel that I should bring up the fact that the beginning of "He's Our You," which showed that Sayid has always been comfortable with taking lives, was extremely similar to the beginning of "The 23rd Psalm." In that Season Two episode we saw Young Eko kill a man to appease gang leaders who'd ordered his brother to do so.


Fast-forward to Eko's last day on the Island, where he was whipped all around and ultimately killed by Smokey, presumably for being unrepentant about his past. Is a comparable end in store for Sayid? I certainly hope not.

Anyway, the bulk of the flashbacks were obviously meant to bang into our heads -- as if we weren't already aware -- that Sayid is a killer. I was slightly annoyed that the whole question of The Economist's identity seemed to be brushed under the rug when Ben and Sayid met up in Moscow and Ben announced that all of Widmore's men had been successfully offed. That statement seemed to imply that either 1) The Economist was eventually found and killed after Sayid's fling with Elsa went awry, and that this man wasn't necessarily anyone of consequence, or that 2) The Economist is Widmore.

At the beginning of February I ranted on and on for 3.5 sections about why The Economist was probably an important character and why it didn't work for him to be Widmore (the main reason being that Widmore has never been particularly hard to find, whereas Sayid was going to great lengths to get face-time with The Economist). So I guess I'll just have to roll with explanation #1 unless anyone out there has a different idea they'd like to share (but before doing so, please first refresh your memory of my original arguments here).

Back to the flashback... After Sayid put a bullet it what turned out to be his last assignment for Ben, Ben's just like, "High five! I'm outta here to do vodka shots with the Ruskies -- have a nice life!" Once Sayid got over his jealousy of Ben's extremely sweet hat, he replied, "So that's it? What am I supposed to do now -- go build schools in Central America, or something equally as random?"

Many people were expecting a huge showdown between Ben and Sayid... you know, something that would explain Sayid's extreme distrust of Ben by the time the events of "Because You Left" rolled around. I for one was certainly assuming that we'd get to see some sort of falling out between the two men. Then the Santo Domingo scene started up and I thought, "Oh goody, now we'll get some answers..."



COME
AS YOU ARE
AS YOU WERE
AS I WANT YOU TO BE

... or maybe not. Ben simply flew down to inform Sayid about Locke's death (though he of course neglected to mention that he was the murderer) and the guy staking out Hurley's mental institution. He was confident that was all he'd have to mention in order to motivate Sayid to fly to L.A. It turns out that Mr. Linus knew Sayid better than Sayid knew himself.

However, that doesn't solve the mystery of why Sayid would tell Hurley to do "the opposite" of anything that Ben says, or why he'd comment to Jack that "the only side Ben's on is his own." It's not like Ben said "Hey, those people you killed -- it was all for nothing, I just didn't like those dudes -- you weren't really protecting your friends." He didn't cop to being behind Nadia's murder or anything. He didn't trick Sayid in any way, actually (aside from not giving him the full information about Locke's demise).

At this point, though, I'm not so sure we're going to get any other clue as to why Sayid was so anti-Ben by the time he headed back (unwillingly) to the Island. Unless you count the little speech he gave Ilana before Ajira 316 took flight...



FOOL ME ONCE
DO ME AS BAD AS YOU CAN DO
SHAME ON YOU, SHAME ON YOU
FOOL ME TWICE
I'LL BE AS MAD AS I CAN BE
SHAME ON ME, SHAME ON ME

Ah, Sayid. You just don't learn. You really have to stop falling for mysterious babes. Your silky, glorious, wondrous mane will just be wasted on them. Ilana certainly paid no attention to it when she kicked you in the face with her dominatrix boots...

Let's just get to the heart of the matter with Ilana, shall we? Was she hired by Ben, Widmore, or somebody else?

- The argument for Ben: As mentioned earlier, Ben knows Sayid. He watched him fall for Elsa. He knew his weaknesses. He needed a Plan B in case Sayid wouldn't come to the Island on his own. Who else would know that Sayid killed that guy on the golf course? Ben definitely orchestrated Ilana's involvement in Sayid's capture... but whether she actually knows the identity of her ultimate boss is another story.

- The argument for Widmore: Um, did you notice the true look of shock on Ben's face when he saw Sayid on the plane? Ben definitely didn't hire Ilana, and it was obvious she would never knowingly work for "somebody like that." Besides, Sayid met Ilana shortly after (perhaps even less than an hour) he left Ben and the others at the marina. There's no way Ben could've pulled together a scheme like that -- at that point in time, he didn't even know what flight led back to the Island as they hadn't gotten that information from Hawking yet. However, Widmore could've been working to ensure Sayid returned... perhaps because he knew Sayid would attempt to kill Young Ben. Or maybe it was just because he had as much motivation as Ben did to get the O6 back to the Island.

- The argument for someone else: Who Ilana ultimately works for is unimportant... we'll probably never find out, or we're just going to have to take what she said at face value. In light of the ten bazillion other mysteries on the show, this one's not worth wasting any time on. And yes, this means that it was truly "fate" for Sayid to be on that specific flight.

I'm leaning toward the last theory... Ilana seemed pretty clueless about the Island once Ajira 316 landed. I'm not sure how big of a role she'll play in the overall story going forward. I mean, think about how many characters there are to keep track of already, right? (However, I do think fellow newbie Caesar is a character whose backstory will matter in the future.)

Besides getting Sayid on the fateful flight, Ilana served one other purpose in "He's Our You" -- namely, she lent an ear when Sayid needed to sum up why he hates Ben so much: "He's a liar. A manipulator. A man who allowed his own daughter to be murdered to save himself. A monster responsible for nothing short of genocide."

So how do you really feel about the man, Sayid?



THEY WON'T LET ME OUT
NO, THEY WON'T LET ME OUT
I'M LOCKED UP

Despite the fact that all of the flashbacks kept reinforcing Sayid's murderous nature and building a case as to why he'd want to do away with Ben, he sure seemed sympathetic to Lil' Linus at the beginning of his Dharma prison stay. Who wouldn't take Ben's side over Evil Roger's, though? It was tough to watch Young Ben get his face slammed into the cell bars by his father, wasn't it? However, I'm glad they included that scene, because it definitely went a long way toward helping me understand why Ben was so desperate to join the Hostiles. We knew his dad was mean and all, but Ben's previous flashback didn't really drive home the point as forcefully as "He's Our You" did.

Oh, and that book that Ben passed Sayid? A Separate Reality? I didn't even bother looking into what it was about, because it was clear to me from its title that the joke was on us crazy fans. I actually said out loud, "OK, now they're just messing with us." What have we been arguing about since this season began? Whether or not the Losties can change the past and thereby affect the future outcome of events. I took the book's presence in this episode as a little nod to all of that mayhem, and nothing more. As in, I don't think it's any sort of clue whatsoever.

Back to the captive Sayid...

Sawyer tried to get his old buddy to act like he's a rogue Hostile, but Sayid would have none of it. So before he could even shout "Don't tase me, bro!", Sayid got zapped and taken to Oldham. By the way all of the Dharmites were talking about him, I sincerely expected Oldham to be some menacing, ultra-violent freak straight out of a Quentin Tarantino movie. If this guy was Dharma's version of Sayid, then surely some nas-tay torture scenes were in the immediate future.

Or not. Oldham's "tools of interrogation" weren't pliers or screwdrivers or sharpened twigs... he just poured some truth serum on a sugar cube and shoved it into Sayid's mouth. The result was that Sayid could tell no lies... and took on the qualities of a bashful, giggling eight-year-old girl in the process. Seriously, what was up with that?

Anyway, it didn't matter that Sayid spilled his guts... no one could possibly believe someone who claimed to be from the future -- especially when Radzinsky kept interrupting him every two seconds (much to Sawyer's relief). Poor Oldham hung his head in shame and slunk back into his teepee. Sayid was then returned to his cell.

(And yes, you do know Oldham from somewhere. But no, I have no idea what the deal was with his old school phonograph. And no, I don't think he's Jacob.)



BURNIN' DOWN THE HOUSE
-- or --
THE ROOF, THE ROOF
THE ROOF IS ON FIRE!
-- or --
TONIGHT THERE'S GONNA BE A JAILBREAK
SOMEWHERE IN THE TOWN
TONIGHT THERE'S GONNA BE A JAILBREAK
SO DON'T YOU BE AROUND

Then a group of Dharmites called a meeting to discuss what to do about their captured Hostile. Radzinsky immediately suggested killing him (surprise, surprise), and when Evil Amy's head snapped to attention, I was like, "Yeeeah, see! She's a Hostile, too!" But a few minutes later when she took the reins from Radzinsky and led the argument for killing Sayid, then I had second thoughts. Until I realized that if she was truly a Hostile, she would know that Sayid wasn't, so therefore she'd be suspicious of him and want him dead or gone. You can't fool me, Evil Amy!

(Random comment about this scene -- is Horace throwing off Kevin Spacey vibes to anyone else? It's something about his eyes. Pay attention in the next episode and let me know if you see the resemblance. Horace Goodspeed is Keyser Söze, dammit!)


Sawyer had no choice but to go along with the vote... but then ran over to the jail and made a last-ditch attempt to convince Sayid to escape. Once again, Sayid was like, "N. O. P. E. What does it spell? NOPE." Frustrated, Mr. LaFleur stomped over to Kate's place and demanded to know why The Returnees came back. But just before we got to hear what motivated Kate to board Ajira 316, a flaming van crashed into a nearby house and all hell broke loose.

It seems as though Ben was able to mastermind elaborate schemes even as a pre-teen. And thank God that someone gave him the memo about wearing a hooded jacket if he wanted to seem more foreboding and mysterious.



He crept into the holding area, made Sayid promise that he'd let him tag along to Hostile Land, and then led Sayid to freedom.



SHOT THROUGH THE HEART
AND YOU'RE TO BLAME

And then came the climactic scene of the night. After knocking Jin unconscious in the jungle (did anyone else laugh at how impressed Little Ben was by Sayid's ninja moves?), Sayid did what I really didn't think he'd do, despite writing this in my last post: "there's a part of me that wonders if Sayid's not above bumping off Little Ben and thereby saving some other iteration of himself the frustration of dealing with ol' bug-eyes in the future."

Yep, he did it. Sayid shot Little Ben, and it looked like he got him right in the heart. After allowing himself a split-second to grapple with and mourn over his decision, He of the Black Tank Top ran off into the darkness.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I really, really, really hope that this act of revenge doesn't mean that it's curtains for Sayid. He's one of my favorite characters, and although it's definitely hard to swallow the attempted murder of a young boy, we know that Sayid thought he was doing the right thing. He thought he would be preventing the Purge. He thought Alex wouldn't be shot in the head by Keamy. Hell, he probably thought Keamy's team would never even come to the Island... they were after Ben, let's not forget.

But of course the real question is, could Sayid have actually killed Ben, or would that be impossible?

In the interest of not causing my head to explode, I'm just going to summarize the various outcomes we could potentially see in the next episode... or at least the major ones:

In the THE PAST CAN BE CHANGED camp:

1) Little Ben dies. And just like Marty McFly who starts disappearing on stage while playing "Johnny B. Goode" in Back to the Future, Sayid is going to evaporate into thin air at any moment. Because how could Sayid have returned to the Island if Ben was never around as a grown man to order him to kill the guy on the golf course, which would then cause him to be arrested by Ilana? In fact, maybe all of the other Returnees will vanish, as they, too, would've never known about Ajira 316 without Ben's help.

2) Little Ben dies, and a new iteration of events will unfurl from that point forward. Meaning that there IS more than one "reality," so to speak. However, what happened up to that point for each of the characters is set in stone, so no Lostaways are going to disappear. I'm hoping this idea is self-explanatory, because it will just get more confusing if I say anything else. This theory may explain the seemingly different condition of the Barracks Frank and Sun visited in "Namaste."

In the YOU CAN'T CHANGE THE PAST camp:

3) The Island won't let Little Ben die. The Hostiles witness this, and that's how Ben is chosen to be their next leader. Everything plays out as it always did.

4) Jack or Juliet or some other doctor-type person in Dharma saves Ben. Everything plays out as it always did.

5) Little Ben is aware of all of the time-looping/traveling going on, and had a bulletproof vest under his hoodie. That's why there wasn't any blood. So he doesn't die, and everything plays out as it always did.

We don't have much longer to see what will become of Little Ben, so I'll refrain from writing out any more theories about how this situation could play out. Instead, I'll leave you with a few of my admittedly conflicting thoughts.

- Last week I was in the camp of "the Losties can change the past." But now that Ben's been shot and I've thought through the far-reaching ramifications of his death for this show, I'm realizing how tough it would be to wrap up all of the story lines in this series in just 1.5 more seasons if the future kept changing based on what the 815ers did in 1977.

HOWEVER...

- If absolutely NOTHING can be changed in the past, then really, what is the point of all of this? Why would Ben and Hawking be so freaked out about the O6 returning to the Island if "whatever happened, happened"? Why would Ben and Locke have uttered "this isn't what was supposed to happen" and other similar lines throughout the series? To me it seems obvious that something must have changed at some point, and that's why Ben, Hawking and others are desperately trying to make things right.

- Which brings me back to something I've been saying since the premiere: since "the rules" supposedly don't apply to Desmond, isn't it most likely something he did differently that had disastrous consequences? Like delaying Charlie's death, which enabled Charlie to unjam the communications to/from the Island, which led to the freighter team's arrival... which led to Ben moving the Island... etc., etc.

- And if it's something Desmond did that changed the way things were "supposed" to be, how can anything be righted if he's not back on the Island? Get the brotha back!

Alright folks, I gotta wrap this up or else it's never getting posted. I know I neglected a few scenes, but I think we all know how awesome Hurley's Dharma Chef logo was without me pointing it out, right?


BEST LINES OF THE EPISODE

SAWYER: How you doin’?
SAYID: A twelve-year-old Ben Linus brought me a chicken salad sandwich. How do you think I’m doing?

SAYID: How did you find me?
BEN: I looked.




SAYID: You're going to be killed.
HORACE: How exactly would you know this Sayid?
SAYID: Because I am from the future.
[Pause]
OLDHAM: Maybe I should use half a dropper...? Oops.




SAYID: I appreciate the offer, but I am fine right here.
SAWYER: They're gonna kill you. They just took a vote. Even the new mom wants you dead.




SAWYER [to JACK]: Three years, no burning buses. Y'all are back one day...




ON A PERSONAL NOTE

Thanks to everyone who sent along birthday wishes for my Grandma. We had a great time celebrating her 85th. On the five-hour drive back from Michigan (during which I gave a shout-out to the DeGroots as I passed Ann Arbor), I was able to snap a picture of this highway sign, which I'm sure has caused many a Lost fan to swerve off of the road (especially those of the female persuasion). Alas, my husband wouldn't take the exit and help me investigate whether or not our favorite con man was anywhere in the area...





Until next time,
- e

Test your LOST IQ Posted by DarkUFO at 3/31/2009 03:32:00 PM View Comments Labels: Quiz

Check out Parade's new Lost IQ Test. Take the test and post your scores in the comments along with what you thought of the Quiz :)

Lost IQ Test

Natural Born Killers by Luhks Posted by DarkUFO at 3/31/2009 10:36:00 AM View Comments Labels: Luhks, Namaste, Recaps

The tenth episode of Season Five arrives with the perplexing, pronoun-filled title He’s Our You. Taken out of context, the name seemed to suggest what many Lost viewers have theorized for years: the existence of multiple timelines. The potentially misleading title of the episode’s main literary reference, A Separate Reality, suggests something similar. This week’s cliffhanger ending, in which Sayid shoots a 12-year old Benjamin Linus in the chest, tested the limits of Lost’s timeline consistency. In the early seasons, moving through time served only as a metaphor for the mental journey of Lost characters, but literal time travel has become the primary plot device of the current season. The concept of symbolic character doubling has also permeated the story since the beginning. If the Lost characters obtain the power to change their past, then the days of Parallel Sayid lording his cowboy hat over Regular Sayid might not be far behind. To borrow two words from Meet Kevin Johnson, Season Four’s similarly themed exploration of human freedom: NOT YET. The beloved Lost universe took one to the chest, but space-time remains intact as long as little Benjamin keeps breathing. The audience must continue to accept the most unpleasant elements of the timeline, because even minor change would erase the good elements along with it. As James reassured Juliet early in the episode: “Nothing’s changed.”

For the time being, doubling will remain a metaphor in the story rather than a science-fiction plot point. In due course, James spoke those three titular words to Sayid at the episode’s halfway point, as a succinct introduction to Oldham, the Dharma Initiative’s reclusive psychopath. The narrative of He’s Our You offers a number of looking-glass versions of Sayid Jarrah: Oldham, the intimidating interrogator; Eko, the self-sacrificing sibling; James, the conflicted captor; Roger, the weak-willed widower; Ilana, the proficient professional; even Keamy, the adolescent assassin. Any individual character can be conceived as the center of a panoramic hall of mirrors, in which dozens of other characters each reflect back different aspects of someone’s personality. He’s and She’s frequently come into conflict with other You’s, and create a duel of opposites. These battles extend beyond character showdowns, and into the realm of ideas. Every debate blurs the distinctions between perceived enemies (Us-vs.-Them, empiricism-vs.-faith, Widmore-vs.-Linus, good-vs.-evil, Jack-vs,-Sawyer, past-vs.-future, Dharma-vs.-Hostiles), by highlighting similarities instead of differences. Inevitably, the storytelling of Lost reveals each polar dichotomy to be a false one. The deepest level of introspection in He’s Our You occurs as it reveals the yin-and-yang inseparability between two laws of action, free will and determinism; and two characters, Sayid and Ben.


EKO: I did not ask for the life that I was given. But it was given, nonetheless. And with it... I did my best.

The first frame of He’s Our You shows a close-up image of a caged chicken, mindlessly bobbing its head and waiting to be eaten. The most recent Sayid story, Season Four’s The Economist, used a comparable image in its final scene: a dog trapped inside it own cage. That episode ended with the revelation that Sayid had become Ben’s personal attack dog, dependent on his master’s will. Due to Lost’s circular timeline, the story of these two allies/enemies makes as much sense when viewed backwards as forwards. In the latest ending, a younger version of Ben unleashes his trained bloodhound onto himself. The fateful shooting becomes another of Lost’s self-fulfilling prophecies, an event which creates itself out of nothing. As a child, Benjamin witnessed Sayid’s violent nature first hand. As an adult, Ben exploited that knowledge of Sayid to serve his own ends. When Sayid traveled back into the past, his experiences as Ben’s assassin enabled him to perform that bloody deed in the first place. (In retrospect, Sayid survived a bullet wound at the end of The Economist for the same reason that little Benjamin must survive here. Anyone who still has work to do in the timeline is effectively invincible. Did Ben come to understand that this destiny made his assassin unstoppable?) The opening image of the chicken also recalls the classic riddle of initial causality: which came first, the chicken or the egg? The story of He’s Our You offers its own answer to that question: neither. The cause produced the effect, because the effect produced the cause. In a sense, twin killers Sayid and Ben form one indivisible being, a double-headed monster in which one half spawned the other half.



Despite the heavy reliance on a new time-travel causality loop, He’s Our You includes a return to Lost’s traditional flashback format for the first time since Cabin Fever. The main focus of each scene is not to reveal what happened, but to understand why it happened. As Sayid approaches his ultimate choice, his journey explores the various ways in which individuals can be enslaved by time and space. The human will is essentially the product of two forces outside our control: biology and past experience. The adult versions of Sayid and Ben describe one other in terms of innate qualities. At their meeting in Santo Domingo, Ben suggests that Sayid enjoys killing, due to his inner nature. When Sayid describes his employer to Ilana, he makes an equivalent accusation, by depicting Ben as some sort of instinctive lying and killing machine. It would be difficult to accept that Linus and Jarrah could lead such lives without some inherent tendency towards violence. However, formative experiences also shaped the two boys into the men they became. While little Benjamin was growing up, his father provided more verbal and physical abuse than hugs. Young Sayid grew up in restrained environment, under the influence of his demanding father (during the reign of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein). Sayid sought to emulate his father as a military hero, while Benjamin radically defined himself in terms of the Hostile counterculture. (Even the adult Ben did end up repeating some of his father’s behavior. Roger’s line “I’ll tell you what to think” becomes the Ben Linus mantra, even to the point of brainwashing.) The birth of a monster requires two ingredients: both inherited capacities and acquired experiences.


The opening scene introduces a novel thematic wrinkle that builds throughout the episode. Young Sayid kills the helpless chicken out of compassion for his older brother. Presumably, that chicken will be cooked and eaten, and the food would be shared with the family. Sayid is the only character shown killing anything in this episode, but several other characters are shown eating or preparing meat. Ben delivers a chicken-salad sandwich, Juliet fries up some bacon, Chef Hurley serves breakfast ham with dipping sauces, and Ilana orders a blood-red steak. The prevalence of meat-eating offers an intriguing reminder of the role of killing in society. The average person consumes countless animals over the course of his life. The vast majority of those people have never killed a live animal on their own. Division of labor shields most of us from facing the more unpleasant aspects of our lifestyle. Before someone like Hurley can share a ham with his friends, someone else needed to kill that pig for him. (Sayid’s brother seems to serve as a double for his friend Hurley: overweight, with curly hair, and a gentle nature.) Similarly, nearly every secure society requires occasional bloodshed. Homo sapiens are natural born killers, by necessity. We destroy life in order to preserve life. Every civilization comes with a steep body count, but that burden is not shared equally. Jarrah embraces violence as his necessary obligation to others. In doing so, he seeks to protect his people from killing, by engaging the dark side of human nature. Men like Sayid do the things that many people cannot do, fighting wars to keep everyone else safe. Everyone benefits, but only a few people get blood on their hands.


CHRISTIAN: One simple phone call and I could fix everything.
SAWYER: Why don't you?
CHRISTIAN: Because I am weak.

Beyond the power of genetics, the brain also constrains human liberty in other meaningful ways. Every individual suffers from character flaws alongside their virtues. Sayid’s own personal frailties precipitate his journey back to the Island. Linus tempts him out of retirement, with vague notions of revenge and the need to protect his friends. Jarrah always had a particular soft spot for attractive women, and newcomer Ilana exploits this vulnerability in order to capture him. Emotions, sexual desire, and even alcohol all limit his higher decision-making faculties on the road to Island jail. When Sayid meets Dharma’s village drunk Roger Linus, the prisoner and the servant trade insults with each other about whose mind must have been weaker, if they put themselves in their current situations. Sayid and Roger share a deeper, unspoken connection as well; the two men both fell into despair when they lost their wives in tragic circumstances. Sayid responded to Nadia’s death by murdering strangers as a slave to Ben. Roger turned to alcohol when his wife died, and then he unleashed his violent self-loathing onto his own son. Which bereaved husband revealed a deeper weakness in his response to loss?


The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes famously defined liberty in physical terms, as the absence of external impediments to motion. Sayid’s autonomy over his own body encounters just about every possible obstacle during his Island vacation. Every other passenger made a conscious choice to join Flight 316, except for him. Ilana subdued him with physical force at gunpoint, and then she dragged him onto the airplane in handcuffs. The Dharma Initiative captured him with its own guns and imprisoned him in a jail cell. James subdued his friend by electrocution, to allow Dharma security to tie him to a tree and force-feed him chemicals. A veteran interrogator like Sayid (or Oldham) even understands how the power of the human will itself can be broken down systematically. Sayid’s method of questioning a subject involved attacking the body’s pain threshold until the mind surrendered. The Dharma Initiative employs its own combination of scientific and spiritual techniques to achieve the same result. Oldham’s drug concoction bypasses human free will by attacking the brain directly. Both methods represent intense bodily invasions, on a different scale. Execution serves as Dharma’s final solution to control their prisoner permanently. Throughout this cruel bondage, Sayid makes only a simple request from his captor: “let me go.” Ultimately, young Ben is the one to liberate Sayid from his cell. Without this series of physical coercion, he would have never made his ultimate choice. Even after his release, Sayid still remains trapped by the boundaries of the Island itself, as well as three decades of time.


The episode includes a number of hints to suggest that Sayid’s eventual decision to shoot Ben may have been directed by a higher power. Oldham encourages Sayid to shut his mind off, to free himself from the illusions of sensory existence and access a separate reality. The prisoner offers Dharma a clairvoyant glimpse of its destiny, while he achieves clarity on his own future. The interrogation scene echoes similar Island moments from past seasons: Michael’s prolonged inquisition by the Others, Sawyer’s torture from Sayid, and Boone’s hallucination forced by Locke. Such mind-and-body-altering experiences force the truth to emerge, whether from within or from without. The sequence of events implies that Sayid establishes some communion with the Island’s past and future will before he makes his fatal choice. Sayid’s conspicuous purple shirt perhaps suggests a similar idea. Violet light has a higher frequency than any other color in the visible spectrum. Some Hindu traditions associate the color with the seventh chakra, the highest energy center of spiritual consciousness. Sayid seems to obtain some degree of enlightenment while in chains, an understanding of his new purpose.


LOCKE: You may think this is a democracy, Kate, [...] but this is not a democracy.
KATE: Well, I guess that makes it a dictatorship.
LOCKE: If I was a dictator, I would just shoot you, and go about my day.

Other notions of freedom also come into play throughout the episode, on the community level. In today’s global landscape, freedom is often equated with democratic rule. (Sayid’s first meeting with Ben inserts some subtle political subtext into the story. The American-born Ben ends his military alliance with his Iraqi partner by announcing: “Mission accomplished. […] I suppose you should go live your life. You’re free.” Not surprisingly, the struggle continues.) The Dharma society lives under a rule of law, and makes decisions as by popular vote. True democracy in action can present just as great a threat to liberty as a dictatorship can. In the seminal text On Liberty, philosopher John Stuart Mill popularized this concept of the tyranny of the majority. The Dharma Initiative’s democratic council ordered the execution of an innocent man, because they believed he posed a threat to their security. At the time, Sayid had committed no crime against any of them, aside from a harmless trespass into their jungle. Dharma may regard itself as civilized, but their decision resulted in a savage outcome. The con man James is unable to persuade them in this forum, and Radzinsky’s faction gains the weight of law. James even caves in to save his own reputation under the weight of group pressure. The voting scene offered a chilling demonstration of the easy path from fear to gross injustice in a supposedly free society.


The Dharma community makes its unanimous decision only after Amy reminds them of the risks to their children. The biggest threat to their culture is a child, a Hostile spy and traitor in their midst. Indeed, Sayid’s desire to kill Ben would make him a savior to their families rather than a danger. Throughout the episode, though, James LaFleur receives constant reminders that Sayid does pose an immediate threat to his personal lifestyle. James struggles to negotiate some compromise between his competing loyalties. Liberating Sayid would endanger the rest of the group. For every decision he makes, he feels that his choice is the only one available to him. Technically, he should be free to make any decision he wants, but his new life comes with its own chains. In his own way, James becomes a prisoner of this situation, despite his comfortable position on the other side of Sayid’s cell. In flashbacks from Season One’s Solitary, Sayid once found himself in a similar position. The Iraqi military captured his childhood friend Nadia, and ordered him to interrogate and later execute her. Sayid eventually betrayed his people, and murdered a fellow soldier to save her. James now walks a similar path between his group responsibilities and his personal attachment. In the end, the outcome is not much better. This escape ends with another body on the ground, and possibly irreconcilable relationship between James and his people.


SAYID: I have no life. They took it from me.
BEN: Go home, Sayid. Once you let your grief become anger, it will never go away. I speak from experience.

The first scene of Season Five introduced a classic conundrum of both morality and science-fiction. If it were possible to travel back in time when Hitler was a child, could you murder him to save the world from his evil? This episode offers its own response to that question. (If so, then you already tried it, and you helped create the monster you wanted to destroy.) According to a strict utilitarian morality, such a deed might be justified if the good outweighs the harm. When judged by non-consequentialist moral theories, murdering a person is equally wrong regardless of what that person will do later in life. Science-fiction authors have treated the famous question a bit differently, and looked at the more basic issue of whether it would be possible to kill someone who already existed in the future. According to the universe’s self-consistency principle, such an action would be impossible. Changing the past would require creating a separate four-dimensional universe. He’s Our You uses the scientific notion to answer the ethical dilemma. Young Ben will survive the bullet wound. After all, Sayid’s continued existence after the gunshot proves that the timeline remains intact. The moral question then becomes a moot point: the harm of the act definitely outweighs the good. The shooting of young Ben will no doubt play a role in leading him to his destiny as the Island’s brutal dictator. The savage trauma (and the war to come) destroyed the innocence of the child, and left behind the shell of the human being, dead on inside.


Certainly, Sayid was destined to shoot young Ben from the beginning, but the act is the product of his own choice. The shooting itself can be explained equally well by either of those two forces. When Sayid pulls the trigger, he basically surrenders the internal battle against his violent nature. Faced with overwhelming reminders that he is a born killer, he performs the deed that no one else could, shooting a defenseless child. By the same token, the shooting also serves as nearly the epitome of free will. Early in the episode, James comments that he “doesn’t have a choice” of whether to live with young Ben, but Sayid believes that there is another option. If Sayid succeeded in killing Benjamin, then he would not only save dozens of lives, but he would save himself from becoming Ben’s assassin. He fires a bullet directly into the past, in an attempt to destroy his own history. The gunshot is simultaneously an act of violence and protection, self-destruction as well as self-preservation. The murder would not only create a time paradox, and his motives themselves are paradoxical: to murder a child in cold-blood to prevent himself from becoming a cold-blooded murderer.


The Möbius-shaped story of He’s Our You explores the connections between two sets of mortal enemies, and concludes that neither could exist without the other. The unholy partnership between twin killers Sayid Jarrah and Benjamin Linus reveals another unbreakable bond between free will and determinism. Sayid's liberty is restrained in a number of significant ways: by nature and nurture, by himself and others, by mind and body, by the will of Island people and the will of Island gods. In the end, though, it is Sayid and no one else who pulls the trigger. Sayid chose to shoot Ben, just as he chose to shoot Andropov. Without Ben's future actions, Sayid would not even exist in his present form. If Sayid succeeded in killing Ben, then he would also erase countless later events, along with all of the human decisions in them. Sayid's inability to end Ben's life in the past preserves his own existence, and thus protects his own will. Indeed, changing the timeline would be the ultimate enemy to free will, because every human decision in history could be erased by the side effects of any time traveler. If history could be re-written even once, then it could also be changed a second time, and then an infinite number of times, until everything and everyone in the original timeline never existed. Complete freedom to alter outcomes would be indistinguishable from chaos. The fire would grow exponentially until it consumed everything. Ultimately, you can only control your actions, if there is only one You. In the words of Oldham, the restraints are for your protection.

LNG Results 5x10 Posted by CJ Allan at 3/30/2009 09:54:00 PM View Comments Labels: LNG, lost numbers game, Season 5

LNG 5x10 Results
Hey Everyone. Another batch of results here. I am very ashamed to admit this week that i have not seen the episode of LOST. Luckily my good friends (and excellent forum staff) have once again supplied me with the answers to the LNG this week.

Every week the forum staff discuss (and argue haha) what characters appear at each minute and really do deserve a big thanks for all the help they have given me so far.

Sorry for the lack of details again but luckily i'm off work for 2 weeks so i can give you all a well deserved break down of results and some future predictions next week.

Good luck with episode 11 and i hope episode 10 isnt the disappointment everyone is telling me it is :)

Raising £1000 for Cancer Research
On the 20th September 2009 i will be running the Great North Run which is a 13.1 Mile Half marathon. I am aiming to raise £1000 for Cancer Research. And i need your help to do it!! And it doesn't matter if your from UK or US or the island, all donations are accepted! Click on the Sponsor Me Button below to be taken to my Cancer Research fundraising page and please try and donate as much as you can towards this good cause. It is all done online and goes straight to cancer research. You can also follow my training blog called Run SONIC Run.

So please give as much as you can and support me during the race and click the "Sponsor Me" Banner below!

As you know the numbers are 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42.

In this game each number represents a minute in the episode, you have to guess which character (from a pre selected list) will be on screen at that minute(this is based on an episode being 42 mins long like on the DVD).

Point Scoring

The following is a points break down:

4 Mins = 4 Points
8 Mins = 8 Points
15 Mins = 15 Points
16 Mins = 16 Points
23 Mins = 23 Points
42 Mins = 42 Points

And the more you get correct the more points you can gain, because your total would be multiplied by the amount correct. So for example:

Example 1 -- 42 Mins correct = 42 x 1 = 42 Points
Example 2 -- 8 Mins and 15 Mins Correct = (8+15) x 2 = 46 Points

Example one may have got the higher minute correct but because example 2 got 2 correct there points score is multiplied by 2.

5x11 Entry Form Link

LNG - 5x10 Answers

I wish i could make a comment about the episode but i'm actually watching it tonight. But luckily my trusted forum friends have given me the list and agreed that the answers for this episode are:

Episode Type: Flashback
Character Centric: Sayid

4 Mins: Sayid
8 Mins: Sayid
15 Mins: Ben
16 Mins: Sayid
23 Mins: Sayid
42 Mins: Ben

LNG Weekly - 5x10

Weekly Game - 5x10 Stats - Click Here

Weekly Game - 5x10 Table - Click Here

LNG Season - 5x10

Season Game - 5x10 Stats - Click Here

Season Game - 5x10 Table - Click Here

You can now keep up to date in a number of ways in the LNG. You can sign up to the seperate RSS feed or you can join my Twitter account to follow updates and news regarding the LNG.

Follow my Twitter Account here --> http://twitter.com/cjsonic

Follow the RSS Feed Here -- > RSS FEED

If you need to contact me for any reason please feel free to respond via Twitter or my email: cjsonic.lng@googlemail.com

Al Trautwig's Lost Thoughts: Episode 5.10 Posted by DarkUFO at 3/30/2009 02:38:00 PM View Comments Labels: He's Our You, Recaps, Video

Source: The Monitor

The Lost Initiative: Episode 5.10 - He's Our You Posted by DarkUFO at 3/29/2009 10:37:00 PM View Comments Labels: He's Our You, Sky One, UK, Video

Thanks to LostFanz.Com for the heads up.

Source: Sky One

IMDB Lost Poll Posted by DarkUFO at 3/29/2009 09:53:00 AM View Comments Labels: Polls, Season 5

Thanks to Dutch Lost for the heads up on IMDB currently running a Poll on what you think of Lost Season 5

Go and vote here

Current results.

ODI LOSTcast 37 - Interview with Eric Lange (Radzinsky) Posted by The ODI at 3/29/2009 02:01:00 AM View Comments Labels: Eric Lange, He's Our You, Interviews, Namaste, Podcasts, Radzinsky, Season 5

Hey All,
So a couple of days ago Karen and I were joined by new LOST cast member Eric Lange who plays the mysterious and infamous Dharma member Radzinsky!!

We had a great chat with him about his career, how he got the role on LOST, being a fan of the show, he provided us with his thoughts and theories on what is happening and even answered several fan questions.

Thanks to all of your questions and to Eric for joining us!

For some reason when recording the interview some audio distortion occurred and you can hear a slight echo when Karen or Eric speak. When we recorded there was no echo but some how there is. With help from Thirty-Fiver and some audio editing it is not too bad and it actually depends on how you are listening. We apologize in advance if it is bad on your end, but for the most part it turned out well.

The interview is of course available on iTunes, but for those that can not access iTunes below is a link to an audio player with a download link.

Hope you all enjoy!!

NOTE: Some minor spoilers are discussed starting at the 47 minute mark.

http://the-odi.blogspot.com/2009/03/odi-lostcast-37-interview-with-eric.html

Al Trautwig's "Lost" Thoughts: End Game Posted by DarkUFO at 3/28/2009 08:16:00 PM View Comments Labels: Al Trautwig, Video

Vote for the Men of Lost - Round 4 Posted by DarkUFO at 3/27/2009 07:55:00 PM View Comments Labels: Polls

Update: 27th March Go Vote and help Sayid in the Semi-Final!

Vote Here

Update: 24th March The next round is up.

Vote Here

Game 1.1
* 49.2% Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgard), True Blood
* 50.8% Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan), Burn Notice

Game 1.2
* 42.9% Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler), Friday Night Lights
* 57.1% Sam Winchester (Jared Padelecki), Supernatural

Game 2.1
* 53.8% James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway), Lost
* 46.2% Sayid Jarrah (Naveen Andrews), Lost

Game 2.2
* 57.5% Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles), Supernatural
* 42.5% Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), House

Update: 20th March Round 3 is now online. Looks like both Ben and Locke were knocked out and E!Online have now pitted 2 Losties against each other.

Vote Here - Round 3

E!Online are currently running some polls featuring TV's leading men. Make sure you Vote for the Men of Lost in their poll.

You can Vote Here - Round 2.

Mystery Woman cleared up? Posted by DarkUFO at 3/27/2009 06:31:00 PM View Comments Labels: Jorge Garcia, Namaste

In Episode 5.09 - Namaste we had this image posted in the Screencaps section.


http://forum.thefuselage.com/showthread.php?t=110574

Well it looks like Jorge Garcia has cleared this up for us in a post over at The Fuselage. Thanks to Lenka for the heads up.

Question
„Can you please tell me why when christian shepherd holds the picture up there looks to be an image of a person behind sun can you please tell me if this is the camera crew or is this an actor.

Jorge
I'm pretty sure it's a crew member. We were on set trying to figure out who it might be the other day.“

Source: Jorge Garcia@The Fuselage

Things I Noticed - "He's Our You" by Vozzek69 Posted by DarkUFO at 3/26/2009 03:44:00 PM View Comments Labels: He's Our You, Recaps, Vozzek69

Things I Noticed - He's Our You
For the first time this season, I voted an episode just 'Okay'. He's Our You offered up little in the way of new stuff or excitement - at least up until the last 30 seconds. No sarcasm from Sawyer, no comedy by Hurley - even the 'confrontation' between Kate and Juliet was as nondescript as the lunchroom scene. The end was hugely important though (and I'm going to tell you why). Hey, they can't all be winners. Things I Noticed:

Chicken. It's What's for Dinner.
As LOST's record player spins in circles, Sayid is killing a chicken to save his brother from having to do it. This directly parallels The 23rd Psalm, where Eko does the same thing for Yemi but on a much larger scale. We're seeing this flashback for a reason: apparently Sayid's neck-snapping career begins at a very early age. Killing doesn't bother him, and the story goes to great lengths to rub our nose in it. In fact, the whole episode is geared toward showing us exactly how Sayid is forged and tempered into a heartless killing machine... the writers have 40+ minutes to really, really convince us of this if they want to pull off the cold-blooded shooting of an innocent kid.

But in reality, it's not the viewers who really need the convincing: it's Sayid. And as this episode unfolds, it quickly becomes obvious that Sayid's hunting down and killing of Widmore's golfing buddies never really meant Jack or Squat in the grand scheme of things. Not only were these killings unnecessary, they might not even have been related to anything other than planting the seeds of murder deep within Sayid's brain. More on that at the end.


Horace's Split Ends - Bad Dharma Shampoo or a Whole New Timeline?
Horace & Radzinsky's good-cop/bad-cop routine falls woefully short in light of Sayid's badass defiant nature, and I think we all can agree that the 2007 hair care products have given the Iraqi a distinct cosmetic advantage. A three-inch pair of wire cutters just isn't cutting it, and Sayid's not talking. Later on not even Sawyer can get Sayid to play ball... much like Desmond storming out of the Lamppost, Sayid is thoroughly done playing ball. The island could toss him a perfect spiral and Sayid would impassively watch it bounce off his chest to fall at his feet.

It's hard for Sawyer to understand Sayid's unwillingness to jump into the new act of this play. Jack, Kate, and Hurley all eagerly donned their Dharma costumes and immediately started rehearsing their lines. Sayid however, is totally done. Unarguably, he's had the worst off-island time of all the O6. After Nadia's death, Ben provided fuel for Sayid's rage with a bunch of killing missions that gave him, if nothing else, a sense of purpose. Once Ben took that purpose away, Sayid numbly atoned for the terrible things in his life by trying to build something for once instead of destroying it. And now the island has taken that away from him as well... sucking him back in, forcing him to wake up to swaying bamboo trees and an all new cast of bullshit people and bullshit mysteries that it expects him to now play along with. Understandably, Sayid's position is simple: Fuck That.

But now put yourself in Sawyer's shoes. He has no idea what happened to his friends off-island, and he's even more clueless as to why they'd ever intentionally come back. Yet after 3+ months of hell, Sawyer gets to settle down and spend 3+ years living an actual life. Without having to con or grift or search for his father's killer, Sawyer's enjoyed having things and doing things that most people take for granted. Most important of all, by now he's spent 10x as much time with the Dharma Initiative as he has with his 815 friends. This is a hard concept for us to grasp, because as viewers it's been exactly the opposite for us.

It's Juliet though, that really hits the nail on the head this episode: their fairy tale is coming to an end. Dharma is only a temporary dream to wake up from: there's a man behind a curtain somewhere pulling on levers of happiness and contentment. Sawyer and Juliet were never really responsible for building and establishing anything. They're nothing more than actors in the island's big show, playing this part in their cute little Dharma jumpsuits until the curtain closes (on Season 5?) for intermission. Then it's time for a set and a wardrobe change, because once everyone gets back with their popcorn the final act begins.


Rusty the Rickshaw Driver is a Total Dick
Ben's dad becomes a lot easier to gas to death as we watch him Slam young Ben's head into the bars of Sayid's cell. "You never brought me a sandwich" - more time echoes, as this is the same line Ben gave Juliet back when she was bringing Jack all those great lunches in S3. As Roger the Workman spills Sayid's meal all over his freshly mopped floor, I wondered if there wasn't a key or a lockpick stuffed between the lettuce and the tomato.

I've taken a lot of heat for the sympathy I have towards Ben's character, but nothing we've seen so far has been as bad as this. Roger's fathering skills suck like crazy, and CPS is a long way off. Ben's only escape is through the sonic fence, into the arms of the Richard and the hostiles who have already promised him salvation if only he can wait. Ben's blind willingness to help Sayid any way he can, even through the creative techniques of motorized arson, demonstrate just how desperate he is to leave this life behind. Flash-forward several years - and a few hundred more beatings - to an adult Benjamin Linus sitting in that Dharma Van, and now the whole toxic gas thing becomes a bit more understandable. Not that I condone genocide here... I'm just saying Ben's been through a hell of a lot by that point.


Meanwhile, Back at the Cool Kid Lunch Table...
There were three main points to shooting the cool kid lunch table scene, and I'm going to tell you what they were. First and most obvious, it was so Hurley and Jack could tell Kate about the Sawyer/Juliet hookup. Second, we needed to see that the new Chef logo on Hurley's jumpsuit completely destroys the piss out of any and all other Dharma logos. Last and probably missed by most, the absolutely INSANE afro on the dude in the background working the food service line... I haven't seen such a magnificent specimen since the Eddie Gordo/Tiger Jackson costume from Tekken 5. Bravo, makeup artists. Bravo.


Why Kate Came Back - New and Improved Version
At this point, I care as much about the love quadrangle as Kate does about the Dharma motorpool ratchet set. It's played itself wayyyy out, and Kate's character has ping-ponged one too many times for me. As the number of remaining episodes starts winding down, I feel like I'm getting greedy with the time. I would much rather see it spent on really cool, wow-type stuff than on Sawyer/Jack/Kate/Juliet all lamenting over lost love, and pining for past relationships that might have been.

Even worse, Kate's conversation with Sawyer should be enough to piss us all off. "I don't know why the others came back... I only know why I did". Oh yeah? Really? Allow me to help her out with this one:

If the island hadn't wanted them back, would Kate have been happy to keep playing house with Jack and Aaron? YES. And if Ben hadn't sent lawyers knocking on Kate's door, would she have been content just continuing to live with Aaron in her new digs? YES. And if Kate seeing everyone brought together at the docks hadn't slapped her in the face with reality... if Ben's words to her hadn't not-so-subtly reminded Kate that she was living in a fantasy world that would eventually fly apart... would she have kept and stayed with her son instead of giving him up (presumably) to Claire's mom? YES. But all of these things happened. They happened due to forces beyond Kate's control - beyond any of the O6's control. Once Kate saw that the island would continue to place Aaron in danger, she gave him up - which, while admirable, had nothing to do with her love for Sawyer. It was then, and ONLY then, that Kate stepped onto that Ajira flight. More than anyone else, Kate had clung to her off-island life with both hands and even her teeth. She was practically dragged back to the island by one word: inevitability. Yet when she finally gets there, she has the brass balls to stare Sawyer calmly in the face and tell him she came back for HIM???

Alright, the truth is she never really said that. YET. But if Ben's flaming van hadn't gone rolling by, what is it you think Kate would have said? Discuss.


Oldham (I just couldn't think of a clever title here...)
We've seen many, many record players throughout LOST, but none as antique as Oldham's Victrola. This means something, and I think it's a not-so-subtle clue as to how this creepy new character is in keeping with the island's ancient ways. He's living very oldskool, deeper in the jungle, dwelling in a tepee with no electricity far from the civilized Dharma compound. He's using old methods and listening to old music on an old recording device, and he even has 'old' in his name. Go figure.

I think the closer you get to the island's spiritual roots, the more attuned you are to it's true nature. Even more important, the deeper into subconscious a character's mind can journey, the closer they get to achieving the island's true enlightenment. All throughout LOST, the island has spoken most directly and pointedly to those who have been unconscious, semi-conscious, or drugged out of their minds. Boone tripping out on Locke's magic paste... Eko's dreams of Yemi while half-conscious... Locke using his sweat-tent to commune with the island. Last season I pointed out how Jack even took a nice trip to see dad after being knocked out during his appendectomy. These things are highly important, which is why it wasn't all that surprising to me when Oldham whipped up something that sent Sayid into a state of semi-consciousness.

SIDE NOTE: If this kind of stuff intrigues you, check out this post from Karen's LOST blog: Her overall thoughts on dreams, illusions, and the importance of the characters regularly being unconscious mirror a lot of my own. Although she and I also disagree on some things too, I think she's definitely on the right track with the whole idea she puts forward here. As she says, everyone is always being told to "Wake up". It's much more than just a recurring theme, by now it's a mantra.

Back to Oldham. Awesome casting job - creepy as hell. I think he shoved a stick of butter in Sayid's mouth. I also couldn't believe that a non-handcuffed Sayid couldn't whip the shit out of Radzinsky and that little nerd Phil. We've seen him fight the mighty Keamy and kick unholy ass with drug-tipped darts sticking out of his neck... yet they somehow force his arms up against that tree? Alright, fine - I'll go with it.

Once drugged, Sayid starts spouting "the truth", which was hilarious because I'd already been wondering what Sawyer was so worried about in the first place. The truth is so far out there, no one would believe it anyway. Sawyer could let Sayid say pretty much anything he wanted, there was no real reason to shut him up. We're also meant to believe that Sawyer's concern for keeping his new life together is overriding his allegiance to his old friends (or at least the previews made it seem that way). I don't think that's true. This episode Sawyer did everything he possibly could to save Sayid, first trying to bring him into his fold and then offering to let him escape. The previews for this week's episode were deceiving - they always have been a little sketchy, but I think lately ABC's chopping of these scenes and pairing them with dramatically misleading dialogue is tantamount to almost blatant lying.

In any case, the whole truth serum scene with Oldham had good storytelling and a cool feel to it that might've saved the episode. I especially liked Horace's reaction to Sayid's words that they were "all going to die" (another recurring phrase). He seemed to take this prophecy a little more seriously than everyone else, especially with Radzinsky focused soley on his top secret plans for the Swan hatch. As a leader Horace seems pretty smart, and as someone dealing with both Oldham and Richard he's got to be at least a little bit versed in the oddities of the island. This might be why he didn't shrug off Sayid's words so quickly.


No... I Need Him to Want to Do It
So Ben notices this dude stalking Hurley outside Santa Rosa Mental Hospital for several days. Does he get out the high-powered rifle he used to drill holes in Abaddon? Nah. Instead he puts on a suit and flies to South America so that Sayid can take care of it. Seem a little strange and unnecessary? Not if your Benjamin Linus.

Every single solitary thing Ben does has its own unique purpose, and in this case, a multi-purpose. Ben's mention of the man stalking Hurley not only served to bring Sayid back to California for the upcoming Ajira flight, it also reinforced the kill-crazy mental programming that Ben just spent three years driving into Sayid's skull. Ben played on Sayid's loyalty to his friends, saying juuuuuust enough before walking away to know that Sayid would come back to help protect Hugo. In the process, Ben also knew Sayid's killing of that man, and subsequent dishwasher-assisted killing of various other bad guys, would freshen up Sayid's (not-so) self-imposed notion of being a killer... just in case building houses in the Dominican Republic had made him forget about it. On top of this, it would also cause him to despise Ben even more than he did the last time, which is exactly what Ben wanted.

I'll even go as far as to say the guy watching Hurley was one of Ben's own men, put there for this very purpose, sacrificed to get Sayid (and Hurley) to that dockside meeting. Hurley never made it, but the island got him to the plane anyway. The second piece of trouble Ben had was that he pushed Sayid a little too far - he'd caused him to do so much in the way of killing that Sayid angrily walked away from that dock instead of agreeing to go back to the island. Ben overdid it here. He corrected that mistake by hiring Illana to get Sayid on that plane, and in handcuffs to boot. More than anyone, Ben knows Sayid. He knows his weakness with women, and he knows that a little sex and a little MacCuthcheon's whisky would be the best way of getting him on the Ajira flight. Whether or not Illana understands she's working for Ben or truly believes she's working for the family of the dude Sayid killed on the golf course remains to be seen, but if I had to guess I'd pick the latter.

So what do we have? We have Ben sending Sayid all over the world to kill people for three straight years. Did these people really matter? Did their deaths really keep Sayid's friends safe? Shit no. I'm even sketchy on them being related to Widmore at all, but if so I'm sure Ben was just playing fun games inside Charles Widmore's head. The deaths of these men meant nothing in the grand scheme of things other to reinforce one thing that I've always said: Sayid Jarrah is an absolute death-magnet.

Then we have Ben reminding Sayid that he's a killer... telling him that he's a killer... over and over, beating it into his skull. We also have Sayid driven to an intense hatred for Ben and a complete mistrust in him by the time he gets on the Ajira airways flight. Add all of this together and what do you get?

Alright, I've built it up enough: Ben wanted Sayid to go back to the past and shoot him. He fine-tuned Sayid into enough of a killing machine and instilled enough hatred in his heart for him so that Ben knew he would shoot even a young child version of himself. Yeah, I know it's crazy. I know it's out there. But if you examine this episode and really delve into why Ben spent so much off-island time honing Sayid into the killing tool he's now become... it makes a lot of sense.

Notice I said 'shoot him' and not 'kill him'. I'm pretty sure young Benjamin Linus will live. But I think Sayid shooting Ben is going to have serious repercussions on the 1977 timeline that might result in big changes to the way things originally would've played out. Maybe Ben getting shot in 1977 will somehow delay or prevent him from joining the hostiles? Maybe the purge will be avoided? I won't pretend to know those answers, but somehow 2007 Ben understands that getting shot in the past will cause ripples through time that will change things in a direction favorable to his master plan. And I'll leave it at that.

One more thing though. If you believe in what I just said above, and if you believe the purge isn't going to happen (at least not in the way it originally occurred), then did Ben really commit genocide? The first time around, did he really kill all those people? Or did he always know, somehow, that once he solved the equation that would result in the end game of LOST, that all the things that happened all those other times would become null and void? In the end, maybe only one song can really be played on the island's record player. And Ben knows which song that is.

(I hope it's a Manowar song)