The Economist SE4 EP3

“I’m Sayid Jarrah and I’m one of the Oceanic Six.”

Secret Agent Man
We open with Sayid on the golf course when a Mr. Avellino propositions him on a drive: five iron versus 7 iron. While making small talk, he recognizes Sayid, but is not sure where he knows him from. Sayid then lays out the whole Flight 815 story as Mr. Avellino grows increasingly nervous. Sayid and Avellino take their respective shots; Avellino wins and Sayid tries to pay him. Avellino then begs a hasty exit, whereupon Sayid promptly blows him to hell.

Clearly, Sayid’s fortunes have not been as dismal as Jack’s and Hurley’s since his return to the real world.

We then flash to a café in Germany, where an attractive young blond, Elsa, is sitting alone. Sayid joins her for coffee, strikes up a relationship with her. Elsa is an assistant to an “Economist” who keeps her on a leash via an antiquated pager. She never knows when he will call, but when he does; she must drop everything and run to do his bidding. Said tells her that he is a “headhunter” which is, to say the least, an interesting way of describing his occupation of assassin. After Elsa agrees to dinner, Sayid checks in with his boss, telling him he has “made contact”. Sayid is pursuing Elsa to get to her boss.

As the Sayid / Elsa relationship progresses through a “Pretty Woman” moment at the opera, I slowly began to realize that Sayid was working for the Island: “The Good Guys.” This is how Sayid has achieved redemption despite his inherent nature of being a torturer/killer. Sayid’s nature, when deployed in defense of the island is moral.

Elsa finally confesses her love to Sayid, which causes Sayid to have a crisis of conscience for using Elsa to get to her boss, who is no Economist. Sayid is about to unveil his secrets to Elsa when the pager goes off. Sayid tells Elsa to leave Germany for her own good since he clearly plans to kill Elsa’s boss: He is on Sayid’s list. It is at this moment that we realize that Elsa not only knows who and what Sayid is, but she’s working for the other side. Apparently she wants Sayid’s boss as much as Sayid wants hers. She shoots Sayid, but does not kill him and phones her boss for further instructions. Sayid, not be caught off guard by his heart again, and certainly unwilling to be hauled off by Elsa to meet her boss, shoots her point blank several times and kills her. As Elsa dies, a distraught Sayid removes a strangely familiar bracelet from her wrist.

The injured Sayid seeks medical help for his gunshot wound. We see him at a veterinary clinic, where he is given instructions and debriefed by his faceless boss.
“Is she dead?” Sayid answers that she is.
“Why didn’t she kill you?”
Sayid: ”She was trying to get information from me. She wanted to know who I worked for. She wanted to know about you.”
“Of course she did.” As Sayid’s boss, Ben is revealed for the first time.
“Why are you crying? Because it hurts or because you cared for her? These people don’t deserve our sympathies. Need I remind you what happened the last time you thought with your heart instead of your gun?” (Hmmmm…..When was that exactly? Foreshadowing of events to come…)
Sayid, still clearly not all that fond of Ben, says “You used that to recruit me into killing for you.”
“Do you want to protect your friends or not, Sayid?”
Sayid’s complicty is evident in his non-answer, so Ben proceeds: “I have another name for you.”
“But they know I’m after them now,” Sayid says.
“Good.” Boom BEST ENDING.

Honestly, just when I think this show has peaked, it just keeps getting better.

Island Time
Regrouping at the Landing Zone
Sayid appears to be saying a little prayer for Naomi, whom he then covers and removes a bracelet. Engraved on the inside is: “I’ll always be with you, R.C.” Upon further inspection of Naomi’s belongings, Sayid finds a picture of Des and Penny, which prompts Jack to ask Juliet to go back to the beach to get Desmond. Sayid, after telling Jack that diplomacy was not his forte since the last time he came into contact with Locke he tried to shoot him at point blank range, makes a deal with Frank to bring Charlotte back in return for taking him to the Island. Kate takes Jack aside and asks him how it feels to be asked to stay behind since that what he always does to her. “I guess that means I should juts wait 20 minutes then follow anyway.” Jack quips in the best line of the night. “You should go with them, Kate.” Jack says. “Sawyer will make sure Locke doesn’t hurt you.”

So Sayid, Kate and Miles trek off to the Otherville Baracks in pursuit of Charlotte. Miles wants to know how Locke split the Lostaways in two. Sayid tells him there was a fundamental debate over whether Miles’ people were coming to rescue them or kill them. “So which side did you fall on?” asks Miles. Sayid gives him that secret little smile of his: “I’ll let you know when I decide.”

Run through the Jungle
Elsewhere on the island, the Lockies continue their trek through the jungle in pursuit of Jacob’s cabin. Some of them want to dump Charlotte, but Locke says no, she’s going to be valuable. As what? Hurley wants to know. “As a hostage, Luv.” Charlotte answers. Hurley’s not happy with this “This isn’t what I signed up for.” To which Locke replies “Well, what did you sign up for, Hugo?” Which when you think about it, is really an excellent question and one which Hurley is unprepared to answer.

The Lockies finally come upon the telltale ash trail that generally indicates Jacob’s house is near—except it’s not. Locke is thrown—he fully expected to find the cabin there. When the others pick up on his confusion, doubt in their leader ensues. And where there’s doubt, there’s Ben to exploit it. “John is looking for someone to tell him what to do next.” Which is either Ben’s way of undermining Locke’s authority or all part of the series of tests designed by Jacob/Ben to mold Locke into the new leader of the island. Whichever it is, it galvanizes Locke who decides to press on to the Barracks.

If I may digress for a moment here: Benjamin Linus is quickly becoming my favorite character and Michael Emerson is pure genius as playing him. Delightfully creepy and deliciously ambiguous, you’re never quite sure whose side Ben is on. He is an expert button pusher and manipulator and quite frankly, makes this show fun to watch. He consistently delivers the most innocuous lines with just the right touch of patronizing sarcasm that turns simple phrases into delightful ones.

Mad Scientist sets up shop
Meanwhile back at the Landing Zone, our eccentric little friend Daniel begins to set up a physics experiment to amuse himself. Coordinating with the freighter, a projectile is fired to Daniel’s location. The freighter tracks it in but Daniel cannot see it. It arrives sometime later. The clock on the projectile is 31 minutes behind the timer on the island. Daniel’s reaction tells us that this is not a good thing.

Commando Team Arrives at the Barracks
When they arrive, the barracks appears to be deserted. A search reveals Hurley tied up and gagged in Juliet’s closet. “They left me.” Hurley tells them. They then go to Ben’s house on Hurley’s suggestion. After Sayid makes an interesting discovery of Ben’s secret room containing numerous suits, various packs of different currency and several dozen passports, they are ambushed by the Lockies.

Kate and Sawyer, together again
Kate asks Sawyer why he’s with Locke, Sawyer asks Kate why she’s with Jack. Kate’s all, well Jack’s going to get us off the island, duh! And Sawyer’s all, well what’s so great about that? I kinda like it here. Sawyer then tells her that he’s got nothing to go back for, and, by the way, neither do you, Kate. They’re going to throw you in jail the minute they see you. Kate: “How long do you think we can play house?” Sawyer: “Why don’t we find out?”

I’ve got those “I’m-Locked-in-the-Rec-Room Blues”
Sayid is imprisoned in the game room with Ben, where Ben promptly tells him that he lost a dollar to Locke because he told Locke Sayid wouldn’t be stupid enough to fall for his friend as bait. When Sayid asks Ben what he knows about friendship, Ben says, “I know it’s no use having friends you can’t trust.”

Sayid and Locke agree that the people from the freighter are liars and they are not there to rescue them. Sayid wants to deal with them to find out who they are and what they really want. Locke says Ben knows all that because he has a man on the boat. Who is Ben’s spy on the boat? Ben: “It’s a secret.” Sayid, in a nice little bit of foreshadowing:” Well the day I start trusting him is the day I would have sold my soul.” And the look on Locke’s face says he knows something Sayid doesn’t know. (In this case, I believe that Sayid will be selling his damaged and tortured soul to the good guys for redemption)

Sayid and Locke exchange prisoners so that Sayid can go back with Charlotte having fulfilled his end of the bargain with Frank; the one that will get him on the freighter. Jack wants to know where Kate is and seems surprised and a little disappointed when Sayid tells him she stayed behind. Daniel tells Frank to be sure to stay on the exact bearing back to the freighter. We see the helicopter lift off and fly over the island and out to sea.

Importantly, we do not see the freighter before the end of the show.

Ben’s Closet
The picture last week, Ben’s closet and his alter egos in Sayid’s front story this week, clearly reveal that Ben has the ability to come and go from the island at will, probably unbeknownst to the Others (especially Juliet—Imagine how pissed she’d have been if she had found out Ben was regularly visiting the mainland and not taking her.). I believe this is the reason the Wrong Team was hired by Abbadan to get Ben—they need Ben to get the secret to travel on and off the island. This may also explain why Ben got the spinal tumor since he has not had the benefit of being under the protection of the island for the whole time. As to why Ben elected to wait until a spinal surgeon fell from the sky in order to operate as opposed to going to a mainland hospital to get the surgery, I can only speculate that Jack and Ben meeting is all part of Jacob’s grand plan and that Jacob either told Ben the outcome, or told him that it was necessary for the survival of the island.

Best lines of the night
Miles on how or if he was affected by Naomi’s death: “Sure I’m affected. She was hot and I dug her accent.”
Miles on if he cares about Charlotte: “Define care.”
Hurley as part of a captured Sayid’s escort to “jail”: “Yeah, I saw you do that break dancing thing with your legs on that guy’s neck. I think I’ll hang back here.”
When Locke brings iced tea and mentions that he thought Sayid might be thirsty, Ben raises his hand “I’m thirsty.”
Hurley’s reaction to Miles calling him Tubby “Oh awesome. They brought another Sawyer from the ship.”
Frank to Sayid on learning that Sayid has traded Miles for Charlotte: “Lucky for you that guy’s nothing but a pain in my ass.”

Next Week
Kate wearing giant Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen sunglasses and working through a paparazzi line as one of the “most recognizable faces in the Country” and the next member of the Oceanic Six is revealed.