Sayid Makes Chuck Norris Look Like Tobey Maguire

The title of the post is a quote made (by me) to my friend Beth last year. That quote actually still adorns Beth’s Facebook profile. Last night, it was reaffirmed in the first five minutes of LOST’s Season 4 – Episode 3 offering: The Economist.

My Name Is Sayid Jarrah. I Am a Torturer.

Four Down. Two to Go.
The members of the Oceanic Six are slowly being revealed to us, and last night we learned that Sayid joined Jack, Kate and Hurley in their escape from the Island. That leaves us with two more to learn, one of which will be unveiled next Thursday. We know from this episode that Ben Linus is off the Island (more on that later), but I don’t think he’s one of the Oceanic Six (sorry). We also saw Desmond board the chopper, but something tells me that Captain Frank’s extensive knowledge of the flight 815 manifest will result in Desmond promptly being returned to the Island. So who are the other two? Well that’s a question for next week’s preview now, isn’t it?

Spy vs. Spy
Last night we learned something really important about Sayid: he really likes tall, skinny, blonde chicks with marginal foreign language skills. But who doesn't!?! We also learned that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

We open on “Operation: Tiger Woods Ya’ll,” where Sayid unflinchingly murders a man who disturbs his round of golf (side note: the golf course is set in Seychelles, a remote island located a few thousand kilometers off the east coast of Africa). So while Sayid has left the Island, he hasn’t abandoned his killer instinct. Score one for The Torturer.

Then he meets a lovely young woman, Elsa, whose job entails being at the very occasional beck and call of the titular character of this episode: The Economist. While we know that Sayid is playing her, we are surprised to learn that Elsa is simultaneously playing Sayid. They are both on a mission to learn who the other is working for. Neither gets what they’re looking for, and Elsa ends up in much the same way as the man who Sayid met on the golf course (not the sex part, of course).

Unfortunately, Elsa died before we could learn who her boss was. But we did learn who Sayid’s boss was.

Everybody Has a Boss

Your Enemy’s Enemy is Your Friend.
Man. Are you kidding me? Ben Linus: Child of Dharma, Other, sadistic veterinarian? Sayid is working for Ben Linus? I don’t even know where to begin.

Except right here: Obviously the Oceanic Six are pitted against Matthew Abaddon (the “Oceanic Airlines attorney”) and whomever he works for. And whomever Abaddon works for is pitted against Ben. In the flash-forwards, we are witness to a world where Benjamin Linus and the Oceanic Six share a common objective: stop Matthew Abaddon and the people he’s working for. For the Oceanic Six, the motive is to protect their “secret.” For Ben, the motive is to protect “the Island.” And perhaps their motives are one in the same.

But in what must be the king of all ironies, Ben and the Oceanic Six are after the same thing. The Oceanic Six’s enemy is Abaddon. Abaddon’s enemy is Ben. So according to the adage, Oceanic Six is friends with Ben.

Or at least, Sayid is. Maybe he knows that working with Ben is the only way to protect “the secret.” What is the secret? Good question. Call me when you know. But maybe we got a little clue tonight. To quote Dr. Linus, “Need I remind you what happened the last time you followed your heart and not your gun …do you wanna protect your friends or not, Sayid?” I believe that the secret is just that the rest of the Oceanic 815 passengers are still alive, and that The Oceanic Six are not allowed to say so. Sayid, though, knows that Ben may be his ticket back to the Island, and his friends’ ticket off of it.

And apparently, that secret is worth killing to protect. Sayid has become Ben’s hit man, using his years of military training to eliminate targets on Ben’s list. Who is Ben targeting? Presumably, the people who work with Abaddon. My guess is they are all Dharma Initiative people; scientists, organizers, loyalists and those who funded the operation. Was anybody else taken aback by Ben's flippant attitude toward Sayid? He was taking direct shots at the man who once brought him to the brink of death. Now it seems Ben has some serious upper hand on his Employee of the Month, deriding him for following his heart and threatening him with harming the other survivors back on the Island. Let's also not forget the chilling ending, in which Sayid suggests that his next target will know he's coming. Ben's reply? "Good." If the next Sayid episode is called "Sacrificial Lamb," be prepared.

As for how Ben got off the Island, I think the answer lies in the cache of passports, travel documents and foreign currencies that Sayid stumbled upon in Ben’s hidden closet. Looks like Ben has the means to go to and from the Island if and when he pleases. But how does he travel once Locke blows up the submarine?

So we know what Elsa wanted to know (who Sayid was working for), but who was Elsa working for? Or, to put it another way…

Who is The Economist?
Damn. I was really hoping we’d be treated to a visit with The Economist. And secretly – in the interest of selfishly vindicating just one of my theories – I was hoping that The Economist would be Penny’s dad or, even better, Alvar Hanso, the Dharma Initiative sugar daddy. Well actually…

If Sayid is working for Ben, we can assume from the narrative that Elsa is working for the same people as Abaddon (or at least we will assume that for the purposes of this blog post). My hunch is that Abaddon works for the founders and or remnants of the Dharma Initiative – including Alvar Hanso. The Economist, just maybe, is Hanso.

I think Abaddon sent the Fantastic Four (Frank, Miles, Charlotte and Daniel) to the Island to retrieve Ben for Hanso. Ben destroyed the Dharma Initiative, and it's payback time, Hanso style.

Hanso would want to protect whatever the Oceanic Six is covering up. He would also want to punish Ben. When you consider that Sayid (and the Oceanix Six) and Ben are working against the same force(s), it narrows down your options of who that enemy is. My early money is on Hanso. What do you think? Do you have an idea of who The Economist is? Or do you think it’s someone unrelated that we don’t even know yet?

Bracelets, Nerds and Time Travel

“N, I Will always be with you. R.G.”
I don’t even have a guess as to how that whole bracelet thing fit in. Why was Elsa wearing the bracelet that Sayid lifted off Naomi? And why did Sayid seem to react so emotionally when he lifted it off of Naomi? Who is R.G.? I’m filing this one under WTF, right in front of Walt and right behind the Four-Toed Statue.


Daniel Faraday is a Nerd
When he started pulling that equipment out of the chopper, my friend Ben said, “Looks like Faraday’s gonna get his nerd on.” Nice. And true. He geeked out big time, testing the delivery time of a rocket sent to the Island from a freighter. A couple of synchronized stopwatches seem to give Daniel the impression that something is “not good” and “goes beyond weird” is happening. The stopwatches display a 31-minute discrepancy, a revelation that must’ve been catnip for those who buy into the theory that the Island represents some kind of glitch or rip in the time-space continuum and that one can use that to master time travel (see: Desmond). I’m not saying I don’t believe in that, only that it confuses the Dharma Fish Biscuits out of me.

But there’s this: we saw Ben off the Island. We know he’s got all the supplies to go anywhere in the world. But he says he’s never left the Island and that he never will. Is he using this rip in time as a means to do his off-Island bidding without alerting his people? Leaving the Island would discredit him greatly, but nobody would know if he was able to escape through a wrinkle in time.


Lots to discuss, lots to think about. In summary, here's what I think we learned:

• Sayid is one of the Oceanic Six
• Off the Island, Sayid works for Ben Linus as a hit man
• There are some powerful forces allying against Ben and the Six
• Ben and the Six have a common goal
• The Island may, in fact, have some sort of effect on the space-time continuum
• I should probably get a girlfriend.

Here's what we don't know:

• Who is the Economist, and is he part of the same group with Abaddon?
• Who are the other two Oceanic Six?
• Why is Ben working off of the Island?
• What's up with that bracelet?
• What will Desmond and Sayid encounter on the freighter?

And I’ll leave you with the quote of the night…

Miles: Where the hell did they go, Tubby?

Hurley: Oh, awesome. The ship sent us another Sawyer.

Namaste.
.charlie