Whew. So it looks like we're back to our regularly scheduled OHHH! AHHHH! EEKKK! and OH NO HE DIDN'T! LOST programming. A lot of people were less than impressed with last week's episode (the word "boring" was used, to my shock) and though I personally enjoyed it, I suppose it could have used a little bit more of an emotional kick. However, it was clearly a "bridge" episode, merely serving the function of placing our characters exactly where they needed to be in order for the action to move forward on it's appointed path.
LOST has a way of giving you just the right amount of information - a glimpse into the heart of a character, a peek into the future, a hint as to the structure behind its mythology - all to make you believe that you know how events will unfold. But it's all a tease, an exercise in reminding us that we are but mere mortals, with no chance of grasping the will of the LOST gods. They set us up with pretty pictures, luring us in with a double-edged sword of knowledge and then cackle gleefully at us once we cut ourselves on that sharp sword, proving that we are there only for their godly amusement. *Sigh* Our LOST gods can be so cruel but as Lady Gaga suggests, "you've got me wonderin' why I, I like it rough, I like it rough".
When I first heard the title, He's Our You, I thought, "What's our who"? Upon listening to the ever entertaining and hilarious LOST Podcast (it's free on iTunes, I suggest subscribe now if you know what's good for you), I was given the information I wanted, almost too willingly. Someone would say "He's our you" to Sayid. If you're a hardcore LOST fan, that's all the information you need to deduce that Sayid was going to be tortured by someone from Dharma. But, willingly answered LOST questions often come in the form of red-herrings and the title of last night's episode was, in the end, misleading. We did get a torture scene, but it was hardly "heavy" as originally suspected and it was certainly not the main focus of the episode, though Sayid obviously was. The episode continued in that same misleading vein, one scene giving us information that would lead to one obvious outcome and then the next scene showing us something that made us doubt our previous "obvious" outcome. If you're anything like me, the voice in your head went something like this:
Oh yeah, little Sayid has NO problem strangling that chicken. Ewww. Wait, chicken sounds good right about now...Uh oh, flashbacks aren't a good sign. Sayid is SO dead! Oh, little Ben is so cute. Ohmigod, old Ben is so nasty and manipulative! He's being so obvious! Stupid Sayid! Dude, Sayid is SO going to kill lil' Ben. Aw, Sayid looks upset about how Ben's dad is treating him. Maybe he won't kill him after all. Oh, that's a nice teepee. Dharma's Sayid isn't very intimidating. Ohmigod, are they giving him acid or something? How very hippie of them. Ok, not acid, but maybe that got little-Ben-Harry-Potter to get some Truth Potion from Professor Snape.....Oh, stay on task, Lauren! Oh, I hope loopy Sayid doesn't give away Sawyer and Co. God, why isn't he running? Sawyer is giving you an out! GO GO! Ok, now you're just being stubborn. Oh, little Ben is so helpful and kinda starting to be creepy with his whole "I want to be a hostile" deal. I don't want him to turn creepy! Well, maybe Sayid is supposed to take little Ben to the hostiles so they can hatch the Purge plan. Yeah, that must be it. Oh no! Don't hit Jin! That's so mean! Ohhhhh....uh oh. Don't you do it, Sayid! Don't you - *GASP* OH NO YOU DIDN'T!
Well, since I'm one of a kind (and hopefully your inner voice doesn't sound like an obnoxious teenage girl), I'm sure your inner monologue didn't go QUITE like that, but I'm sure you were thinking along those same lines. Needless to say, last night's 9 - 10 o'clock hour was what I can lovingly describe as an emotional and time-warping clusterf**k. And I just really love that word.
The Number 1 Question
Are our beloved castaways following the path fate has set out for them, putting events into motion that will eventually lead to the SAME conditions on the Island when they crash there in season 1, ie: do we follow Daniel Faraday's theory that "what happened, happen" and there is no changing the future, that they are in fact heading towards that one and only future they knew in season 1?
OR are they, perhaps by the Island's own designs, on a path to CHANGE the future they know, one that includes the Purge, an older and evil Ben Linus, a Claire-grabbing Ethan, etc?
That's Not All Folks
Now that the castaways are back in Little Ben time, does this mean that older Ben has always known who they were, starting from when the plane crashed on the Island? When the Others came out of their cute little house and watch the plane go down and when Ben immediately told Ethan and Goodwin to infiltrate their groups, did he know all along who was on that plane and who he would meet? Did he allow himself to be caught as Henry Gale, all along knowing the disposition of his captors because he had grew up with some of them?
OR do we follow the Jin/Rousseau theory that because our castaways had not time-travelled yet when they crashed on the Island, then they had not technically gone back to the past yet and therefore had not met Ben, therefore Ben did not know them when he first met them.
Yeah, I think I'm starting to understand why nose-bleeds are so prevalent on this show.
A Killer Conscience
It's interesting to be re-introduced to a side-lined character like Sayid. He has been apart of things this season, but never really in the thick of things, at least not since this season's premiere. Like with Kate, Sun, Hurley and Ben's lost stories after the event at the docks, we have wondered about Sayid's story. Why did he so vehemently denounce Ben to Hurley in the premiere, when he had been working for him the last three years? If he wasn't at Santa Rosa on Ben's orders, why was he there? How did he get arrested and why was he being flown to Guam? Funnily enough, the one question I didn't ask was the main focus of the episode. Does Sayid care about all the people he had killed over the past three years, all on Ben's orders? Does he care that he has become a literal hitman for what can honestly be considered the wrong side? This episode "un-benched" his character, so to speak, and we got a good look at what Sayid had become or maybe, just what he has always been. I don't like to think badly of any of these characters. The writers have done a magnificent job of making them very human, with human flaws and human attractions. I don't like to believe that Sayid was bred to be a killer from an early age and that after so long living that life, he has come to be defined by what he does best, kill. As far as I'm concerned, Sayid loves just as fiercely as he kills, but then again, isn't that always the nature of such characters? Even so, I never bought him as just a killer and I'm not buying that now, even if he does. As with many good people lead down a dark path whilst working towards good, his heart was always in the right place. The same cannot be said for Ben.
And All The Rest
Of course, we get a couple non-Sayid scenes, most to do with the agonizingly doomed love quadrangle of Kate, Jack, Sawyer and Juliet. But, I believe that Lost Untangled tells that story far better than I ever could...
See you all next week for "Whatever Happen, Happened", LOST lovers!
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