| LOST: The Economist |
| Friday, 15 February 2008 | |
 LOSTThe Economist aka: "The name's Jarrah. Sayid Jarrah." by Peter Sorensen In the third episode of Season Four, the complete and total mindf**k continues. Sayid makes a deal to rescue Charlotte in return for safe passage back to the Boat, Miles conducts a mind-boggling experiment, the Lockies make it to the barracks, and Kate makes a very surprising decision. It's official: the longer this show runs, the less and less sense it makes. Seriously, what the hell? It's confusing, convoluted, mysterious, vague, complicated, and obtuse. Every episode seems to add more and more questions and plunges us further and further into a vast chasm of supernatural science fiction where the laws of physics seem not to apply and people speak with spirits. And you know what? I'm loving every single minute of it. Tonight's episode begins with Sayid meditating (or maybe praying?) in the field next to the helicopter while Miles continues to hassle Juliet and Jack about information on Ben. Sayid walks over to Naomi's body, closes her eyes and begins to cover her up with the blanket when he notices her bracelet. He takes it off (klepto!) and finds an inscription on the back: "N- I'll always be with you. R.G." And with that, the opening torch of the official Lost WTF Olympics is lit. Let the games begin!  Sayid shows off his '9 Iron' Sayid interrupts the fracas and demands to be taken to the boat. Franks initially agrees but Miles objects, saying that the Lockies still have one of their team. Sayid and Frank strike up a deal: Sayid brings Charlotte back alive, Frank will take him off the island. Sayid makes the deal. Flashforward: Sayid is playing golf by himself on a beautiful course when a male stranger pulls up in a golf cart and starts chatting him up. They exchange pleasantries and eventually the man bets Sayid that he can hit the ball closer to the pin with a 5 iron than Sayid can with a 7 iron. Sayid takes his shot, and makes it on the green. It's revealed that it's actually a flashforward when Sayid confesses that he doesn't work for a living; he lives off of a settlement against Oceanic Airlines, he's one of the Oceanic 6. The stranger seems suddenly nervous, and takes his shot. It lands closer to the pin, but the man starts to leave, telling Sayid not to worry about the bet. Sayid insists, calling the man by name, and the man's eyes go wide in fear. Sayid takes out a gun, shoots him, and walks off the course. Later, Sayid makes his way to Berlin, and "accidentally" meets a young woman named Ilsa in a cafe. She reveals that she's a personal shopper for a rich "economist" but that he only stays in Berlin a few days a year and that he contacts her by pager when he arrives. Sayid convinces her to join him for dinner with his winning smile and oh-so-carefully coiffed hair. Surprisingly, he orders coffee and not a vodka martini, shaken... not stirred. As he leaves the cafe, he calls his "boss" and tells him that he's made contact, and then ditches the phone. The last time you encountered him, you put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger. That's not good diplomacy. Back on the island, Sayid shows Jack and Kate the picture of Desmond that Naomi was carrying and points out that whatever their real goal is on the island, they are not telling the Losties the whole story. Jack asks Juliet to go to the beach and get Desmond, who hopefully will be able to get some answers. He takes Sayid aside and asks him how they're going to get Charlotte, but Sayid tells him that he's not going because he's going to try to get Locke to hand her over without violence - "The last time you encountered him, you put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger. That's not good diplomacy." Oh snap! He's got you there, Jack. In the jungle with the Lockies, Ben's not talking but Sawyer is itching to try to make him, even threatening to cut off his toes. The dialog here between Sawyer and Locke is so good that it almost made Quote of the Night, but I had to "roll the hard six" as they say. They arrive at the circle of ash (or it looks more like beach sand in this episode) but Jacob's cabin isn't there and Locke is confused. Yeah... take a number, John. Hurley tries to mention that maybe the cabin could be somewhere else, but Locke isn't getting it. He's directionless, and Ben knows it. Finally, Locke gives in and tells the group that they are moving on to the Barracks. Hurley speaks up and asks Locke to let Charlotte go, but Locke wants to keep her around as a hostage. Hurley tries to stand up to him, but Locke say's he's making the orders now.  I hate to see you go, but I love to watch you leave. Miles insists on going with them to rescue Charlotte, and Sayid happily agrees. On their way to the barracks, Sayid quizzes Miles about his seeming lack of compassion regarding Naomi's death. Of course Miles, ever the sarcastic a-hole, defends himself saying he thought she was hot and he liked her accent. Touché. Looks like someone is out to take the "sarcastic comment" award away from Sawyer. Flashforward: Sayid meets Ilsa at her apartment, dressed in a tuxedo, for a date at the opera. As they're leaving, Ilsa decides to leave the pager, but Sayid insists that she bring it because he "wouldn't want her to get fired over him". Ilsa begins to get suspicious. On the island, Daniel grabs some gear from the helicopter, sets up a homing beacon, and asks for Franks phone to contact the boat. "Ok, but keep it to the science stuff. If Minkowski gets on, you hang up" Frank tells him. Whaaaa? Why would he want Dan to hang up on Minkowski? Something is not right there. Unfortunately, there's a lot of somethings that are not right on the island. Dan calls the boat and tells Regina to "fire the payload", which she does. She tracks the progress and counts down the distance to the target. It gets to zero, but there's still nothing in sight. "That's weird..." she says. Yeah, no kidding. Understatement of the year.  'Yesh, Missh Moneypenny?' Meanwhile - Miles, Sayid, and Kate make it to the barracks, but it's quiet. They sneak onto the compound and hear banging coming from one of the houses. When they follow it, they find Hurley tied up in a closet. Hurley tells them that Locke left him behind. "Where the hell did they go, Tubby?" Miles asks. Hurley replies, "Oh, awesome. The ship sent us another Sawyer." Again, "quote of the night" material left and right here. Hurley tells them that they said something about going by Ben's house before they left. Back at the helicopter, Jack and Frank talk baseball when suddenly Daniel sees "the payload": a rocket coming their way. It land next to the beacon, and Daniel races over and opens it up to reveal a digital clock inside. There's only one problem: the clock inside the rocket says it's 3:16pm, but Daniels digital clock on the island says it's only 2:45pm. Yup, you go right ahead and pick up all those meaty chunks of your brain that just exploded, and I'll be right here when you get back. Ready? Ok. So there it is: evidence that time isn't working right on the island. Somewhere between it's launch from the ship, and it's landing on the island, the rocket picked up an extra 31 minutes of time.  Alright, and after it's all over, you say 'Oh, what a lovely tea party.' In the rec room, Locke brings ice tea to Sayid. Sayid asks Locke to give him Charlotte so that he can get on the boat and find out what's really going on. Locke considers it, but won't give Charlotte to Sayid for nothing. "I think you misunderstood me," Sayid tells him, "I never expected you to give her to me for nothing". Flashforward: Sayid has done his duty as a manly superspy and done the horizontal tango with Ilsa. As they lay in bed, she confesses her love for him, and Sayid falls for it, hook, line and 9mm sinker. They must not have the Bond movies in Iraq, because as any fan of the spy genre can tell you: NEVER trust a woman who tells you she loves you while you're in bed because she's only going to drug you, betray you, or shoot you (or any combination of the three). Ilsa's pager goes off, and she hurries out of bed. Sayid, in a moment of post-coital idiocy, tells her to leave Berlin and reveals his real intentions for her boss. Big surprise: she betrays him and shoots him. Well, at least he missed out on the drugging part. Ilsa calls her contact on her cell and tells him to meet her at the safe house, as well as revealing that they were on to Sayid. She tells her contact that Sayid didn't suspect her and that she'll bring Sayid to him. Sayid distracts her by smashing a mirror, makes a grab for his gun and as she comes around the corner, he shoots her dead. He stumbles over to her body, closes her eyes, and lightly touches the bracelet on her arm, much like the one Naomi had. Are they connected? At the helicopter, Desmond interrogates Frank about his picture that Naomi carried, but Frank plays dumb. Just then, Sayid comes back with Charlotte, but minus Miles and Kate. Nice. He left Miles in exchange for Charlotte, and Kate decided to stay, something which shocks Jack. Frank tells Sayid he's lucky that Miles was such a pain in the ass, and honors their agreement. Charlotte stays on the island, stating that she has work to do, Daniel stays with her to do the same. Desmond boards the helicopter with Frank, who tells Sayid that they can take one more. Sayid decides to bring Naomi's body with them and they load it up. Daniel takes Frank aside and tells him to make sure to stay on the exact bearing they came in on, no matter what. Fifty bucks says it's the exact same heading that Ben gave to Michael when he allowed him to leave the island at the end of Season 2. Now, the real question is why?  (cue 'Ride of the Valkyries') Flashforward: In the final flashforward of the night, Sayid makes his way to a vet to meet his "boss", a certain someone we all know and despise: Benjamin Linus. That's right. As if the show couldn't get any weirder, now Sayid is working for Ben. Ben patches him up and gives him another name to track down and kill. Sayid tells him that they know he's after them now. Ben replies with a single word: "Good." And so ends another week of Lost, and begins another week of wild speculation about what the heck is going on with this friggin' island. My thoughts?
Sorry, this part is for members only and may contain spoilers. If you'd like to read it, please LOG IN or REGISTER. Next week - Episode 4.3 entitled "Eggtown": From Lostpedia: "Kate's need to get information out of the hostage may jeopardize her standing with Locke -- as well as with Sawyer." With Charlotte back with the Losties, does this mean Kate needs to go back to Jack? Or does she need information from Miles? The trailer makes it seem like Kate has ulterior motives for staying at the Barracks, so until next week: good luck putting those blown up brains back together!  About the Author:Peter Sorensen is a four-toed insurgent from a remote island who spends his days writing and his nights drinking cheap rum and participating in paragovernmental activities. After being deported to the United States over a border dispute, he took up film and animation as a way to pay for his tragic caffeine addiction. When he is not sowing discord on the streets or committing heineous acts of sedition he sometimes finds a moment to sketch. Is this season kicking ass? Or is it digging it's grave? Post a comment below and let us know! Comments (7)
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