'Lost': The Greater Good

I have to put Sayid atop my list of "favorite Lost character that has the worst flashbacks." There may be characters that have a worse set of flashbacks, but these aren't character I really connect with in the first place. But Sayid? He's one of my favorite on-Island characters. Off the Island, however, I want to slap him with something semi-hard and vaguely moist most of the time. Can't figure that one out.

This leads us to this episode, which, as you've probably surmised, is a Sayid-centric one. Decent enough stuff on the Island, but when the show literally puts its protagonist to sleep for the majority of it, you know they had a slight stinker on their hands. At least we have some excellent stuff between Sayid and Locke to get us through this disappointing ep.

The Greater Good

4) In Short

"The next time someone asks you if you're a martyr, you say YES!"

8) On the Island

Kate catches up to Jack in the jungle, who has been walking in circles looking for Locke. Due to Locke's lie, Jack treated Boone incorrectly, and he wants answers. But Kate convinces Jack to return to the camp, where he is more urgently needed to maintain what little morale is left.

The survivors have gathered on the beach around Boone's body, taking solace from those they have grown to know over the past few weeks. Jack covers up Boone's face, and asks if Shannon wants to say anything. She demurs, but Sayid picks up the slack, eulogizing him as best he can. After that speech, who enters but John Locke, wearing a blood-stained shirt. He takes responsibility for Boone's death, giving most, but not all, of the true story behind Boone's demise.

Locke's story does not appease Jack, who keeps shouting, "Where were you?" as he attacks John. Charlie and Sawyer try to pull Jack off of him, and finally Jack collapses from dehydration. He tells Sayid about the hatch before being put to bed rest by Kate and Sun. In the meantime, Locke brings Boone's belongings to Shannon, and tries to console her. He understands that she can't fully comprehend what he's going through, but hopes she'll forgive him. She then asks Sayid to kill John Locke. Looks like forgiveness is off the table.

After two sips of water, Dr. Stubborn tries to stand and pull a Perry Mason on Locke. But lo, Kate drugged Jack's juice, because, well, she did. I try not to over think things that Kate does. Back in the caves, Sayid asks Locke to take him to the Beechcraft, ostensibly to salvage parts for a new transceiver. The two interrogate each other on the way there, and it's delicious dialogue for both characters as they subtly dance around each other. Both have wary, wearing smiles. Great stuff.

Upon finding the Beechcraft, the interrogation continues. Locke wants to know why Sayid won't trust him. Sayid notes that Locke's packing heat, and I'm not talking about raw sexual power, people. I'm talking about the gun he lifted from the Nigerian priest. Locke hands over the gun, wondering if that will earn him some trust. No dice, as Sayid remains skeptical. At this point, Locke reveals something Sayid doesn't know, free of charge: it was good ol' John that smashed Sayid's head in while trying to triangulate the source of Rousseau's signal. OH NO YOU DIDN'T, Sayid's eyes seem to say.

Sayid pulls the gun on John, demanding to know why he would do such a thing. Locke declared it "in everyone's best interest," a line of reasoning he would employ as one-man wrecking crew of anything and everything able to get them off the Island over the next 3 seasons. Sayid changes tactics, trying to trip Locke up about the hatch mentioned by Boone. Locke bluffs his way through, theorizing it could be either of the two hatches that makes up the Beechcraft. Or Orrin Hatch. Or Richard Hatch.

Sayid returns to the beach, and tells Shannon he thinks Locke did not intend to cause Boone harm. And that part's actually true, but of little solace to Shannon, who storms off looking for a new boy toy with more murderous tendencies. Meanwhile, Jack wakes up from his medicinally-induced coma to find the key to the gun case missing. Looks like Shannon don't need no man. Cue Avril Lavigne: "Hey, hey, you, you, I don't need a boyfriend/No way, no way, I think I'm gonna shoot Locke."

In the rain-soaked jungle, Sayid catches up with Locke. Turns out Shannon found him first, and has him in the cross hairs of her gun. At the last second, Sayid tackles her, which causes the bullet to graze off Locke's temple, and Shannon to dump Sayid on the spot. I hate it when relationships end under these circumstances. If I had a quarter for every time this happened to me, I could go to TOWN on the Dollar Menu at McD's. At the end of the episode, Sayid demands that Locke take him to the hatch. Guess he saw through Locke after all.

B Story: Charlie takes care of Turnip Head while Claire rests. Looks like exhaustion's running through both of Christian's children today. Poor Charlie can't make the kid stop crying, leading him and Hurley to engage in the world's worst edition of Supernanny ever, with Hugo busting out some James Brown to no avail. Turns out that the baby's got a fever, and the only prescription is more Sawyer. The kid loves Sawyer's voice, turns out, prompting millions of female Lost fans to scream, "Duh!" in unison.

15) Off the Island

We see Sayid being hauled off from a holding cell inside Heathrow Airport into an interrogation room. Looks like a few hundred pounds of C4 have disappeared, and they want Sayid to infiltrate a terrorist cell that counts his old roommate as a member. The deal? Help them out, and they will help him find Nadia, for whom he's been searching for seven years. The cell's location? Sydney.

His roommate, Essam, catches glimpse of Sayid in an Australian mosque. He tells Sayid he's been working as a lumberjack, and invites Sayid over to his apartment. Sayid impresses them by almost instantly discovering a bug inside their smoke detector.  Essam's friend attributes Sayid's appearance to fate. You say "fate," I say "CIA whipping boy." Let's call the whole thing off.

Sayid and Essam are playing soccer in a park. Turns out Essam's roommates have been asking Sayid about explosives, blast radius, and the secret cheat in Contra that yields you thirty lives at the beginning of the game. Essam learned that morning that he will be the martyr in the mission to come, and is terrified by the prospect. So terrified that he went and played soccer, apparently. Sayid tells his handlers that he wants out of the assignment. They tell him to convince Essam to go through with it or they'll arrest Nadia on suspicion of being Sayid's ball and chain.

Turns out Essam isn't afraid to die, but worries about the innocent lives that will be lost in the explosion. Awww, a terrorist with a heart. Sayid's forced to play the Emperor to Essam's Anakin, forcing him to use his anger to become more powerful than Allah could possibly imagine. Essam asks Sayid to be bomb buddies; Sayid agrees.

It's go time, as Sayid and Essam get taken to a warehouse and a van with the explosives inside. Once in the van, Sayid confesses his true intention to Essam, asking him to flee lest he be captured by the CIA. Essam kinda sort gets angry and pulls a gun on Sayid, eventually pulling the trigger on himself out of grief and rage. So, there's that, then. In return, he gets a ticket to California, where Nadia resides. But Sayid wants to stay an extra day to bury Essam, which means Sayid now has a one-way ticket to Craphole Island.

16) The Mythology

Um, C4 has the number 4 in it. Does that count? Yea, didn't think so.

23) The Moment

Locke's calculated risk in telling Sayid that he was responsible for knocking him into the middle of next week back in "The Moth."

42) In Retrospect

You know, Locke really should have changed shirts before appearing before the Lostaways literally covered in Boone's blood. Just a thought.

108) In Summary

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, a few cool Sayid/Locke scenes does NOT a good episode make. It's not a good sign when you learn Jack's been drugged and you say, "Oooh, oooh, me next, me next!"

Moreover, in some ways, the flashback only shows how weak a couple Shannon and Sayid were. Yes, the point is that he's learned a harsh lesson about letting plans of revenge go too far in the past, but imagine if Nadia wielded that gun: think he would have stopped her? (Also, let's not forget what event transforms him in Season 4 into a killer once again. Kinda ironic, no?)

Sadly, we've got one more semi-weak episode to go before the slam-bang finale. But we've come this far, y'all: we can make it a little bit further, yes? No sleeping aides necessary. Worst case scenario, the upcoming Kate flashback will work better than counting sheep.

Leave your thoughts about this episode below!

Ryan also posts every 108 minutes over at Boob Tube Dude, then peruses Zap2It's Guide to Lost Facebook group.

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