LOST ? Episode 9
?I Think You?ve Been Alone Too Long?
At last, it?s Sayid?s turn. We see a portion of his back-story. I think the quote I picked was significant not only for the French woman, but also for Sayid. I have noticed that they do not completely fill in everyone?s past. We probably will be fed it little by little.
Since they are always busy keeping us up with the characters, cutting scenes back and forth, I?m going to try to put Sayid?s entire story in the first three or four paragraphs.
The opening shows him sitting on the beach (we don?t know how far he?s walked) looking at the picture of the woman. He catches sight of something in the sand. Putting the picture away, Sayid pulls at what looks like a rope. He follows it deep into the jungle. He steps into a rope trap that carries him up into the tree hanging upside down. He hears someone approaching. He cries out to be cut down and is, but loses consciousness when he hits the tree.
Sayid wakes up with his arms tied over his head to a bed. He is somewhere underground and looking around he sees that it is roughly furnished. He is approached by a woman he can barely see (and it seemed to be too dark for us to see also) and he quickly finds out that she is the Frenchwoman who they heard on the distress call. She uses torture, both hitting and by shock, to ask where Alex is. Finally, she tells him her name is Danielle Rousseau. She also says, ?They control it now.? I take it to mean, the island.
In and out of his conversations with her, he thinks about what happened to him in Iraq. We see him working over a prisoner and obtaining the information. His commander tells him he?s being promoted. As they talk, soldiers are bringing in a prisoner?the woman in the picture. He is assigned to get information out of her. (By the way, I?m telling the complete story here, rather than the in and out style the writers give us.) He confronts her and finds out she is Nadia, a childhood friend. She tells him others have tried torture, but she has never said anything. (Not at all nice things were done to her.) He tries to get her to talk, depending on their friendship, but she has nothing to say. A month after the assignment was given to him, his commander tells Sayid to execute her.
However, the ties are too strong and Sayid is not as brutal as we may think he is. He gives her a way to escape, but before she can go, the commander enters the prison and tells Sayid if he won?t do it, he will. Sayid kills the man and shoots himself, telling Nadia she has only one chance and to go. She wants him to go with her, but he tells her he doesn?t have the courage she does. She answers, ?You have more than you know.?
Meanwhile sometime in the future Sayid is trying to find out what happened to those mentioned in the message. Danielle is not exactly forthcoming and is suspicious of him. He has explained he was a victim of a plane crash and that there are others left alive also. He sees a music box and tells her he can probably fix it. She injects him with something over his protests. However, when he wakes up he finds himself sitting at a table with the music box in front of him. He fixes it and during their conversation finds out that Danielle was part of a scientific expedition that left Tahiti in a small ship. The ship ran aground three days out of Tahiti during a storm. He finds out she was married to Robert and during the conversation, she mentions an Alex again.
They hear a roaring noise and Danielle arms herself. She thinks it?s another bear. Sayid notices there is another gun. She leaves to check out the noise, which she says is not a monster. There are voices and bears, but no monsters. He tells her she?s been alone too long. He uses the tools he used to fix the music box and frees himself. He takes the other rifle and, after stealing some maps, follows her.
In the jungle, they confront each other with rifles pointed at each other. She tells him she can?t let him go. He wants her to come with him to join the others. She refuses, but lets him go with a warning to ?watch them. Watch them closely.? He asks who Alex was and she says, ?Alex was my child.?
The final scene shows Sayid running as if his life depends on it. We hear noises from deep in the jungle.
Now interacting with Sayid?s story, we are seeing what has happened with the rest of the group. Jack is changing Sawyer?s bandage, but they have words and he leaves disgusted. He sees Kate staring out toward the place she last saw Sayid and tells him he?s been gone two days. Jack assures her he will return. When he returns to the caves, he finds people waiting for him and most seem stressed out. He knows that symptoms will go away if people keep busy. Michael approaches him with some drawings that indicate he could build showers.
Meanwhile Locke has found another pod with more baggage. He gives it to Hurley to search through for things they might need. Among the items he found were golf clubs and now, he has an idea. In an open area on a hill, he builds a two-hole golf course. He tells Jack that golf will relieve the stress that everyone is feeling. They need to have fun. Little by little, the group begins to congregate. Jack and Michael are playing Charlie and Hurley. Kate and others from the beach come to watch. There is even some friendly betting going on between Sawyer and Kate. Meanwhile, in another part of the jungle, Locke has thrown a knife into a tree and Walt sees it. He wants to learn how to do that too.
DISCUSSION:
I liked this episode about Sayid and his past. Being a member of Hussein?s Republican Guard, we wonder what happened to him. Now we know. What we don?t know is why he was on the plane?
It?s interesting to note that there were two ties to J.J. Abrams other show, Alias. Now we have two Nadia?s both of whom became separated from main characters: Nadia from Sayid, and Nadia from Irina Derevko, her mother, on Alias. Then Danielle tells Sayid ?it killed them all. They were the carriers. They whisper.? In Alias, we learn that ?the Passenger? also carried something?a virus that might kill us all.
Danielle Rousseau, the Frenchwoman, how has she managed to survive all these years? Does she have an ?arrangement? with the island?s ?voices??
I loved that Hurley built a golf course. Of course, the putting green left something to be desired, but then one can?t have everything on a jungle island.
What is the black rock? Where is it on the island?
The rope that Sayid followed into the jungle, also led into the ocean. Where is its end?
Of course, I don?t know about you, but I sure want to know the rest of Kate?s history. She calls herself an outcast later on in the show.
*** :boat:
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