Summary: Flashbacks show Sayid's time torturing people in the Republican Guard. He is eventually forced to torture his lover Nadia. She doesn't give any information and Sayid is told to kill her. Unable to do it, Sayid frees Nadia and shoots himself to make it seem like she escaped. In the present, Sayid finds a cable on the island and follows it. He is caught in a trap, captured and tortured to reveal the location of somebody named Alex. Sayid speaks with his torturer and deduces that she is the French woman, Rousseau. Rousseau tells Sayid her story but she comes off as mentally unstable. She warns Sayid of others on the island. Sayid convinces Rousseau to let him go so he can go back to the camp. In the jungle, Sayid hears strange whispers. Meanwhile, Hurley creates a golf course to help ease stress back at the camp. While Michael plays golf, Walt goes to Locke to learn how to hunt.
The Good: Even though "Lost" has a working formula that has produced outstanding episodes, it still isn't afraid to shake things up. This episode is the most plot-heavy episode since the two-part pilot, and it manages to exquisitely mix the plot elements and the character elements together to create an episode that has parts of the excitement from the pilot and parts of beautiful storytelling from all of the episodes since. The episode started off on the right note. We get more hints at Sayid's backstory as he looks at the pictures of Nadia which builds up our excitement for learning more about Sayid. Continuing on, the episode then introduced a mysterious cable that leads into the jungle, forcing Sayid into many different traps. The opening sequence is tense, exciting and mysterious, and it is a perfect way to get us invested in the episode. Then we get an awesome sequence of Sayid being brutally tortured, which is a perfect irony. Sayid went off on his own to atone for torturing Sawyer, and he ended up atoning for his sins in a more fitting way than he would have expected. This leads into the introduction of Rousseau, the French woman who has become quite unhinged after 16 long years alone on this island. Her mannerisms are so unpredictable, almost childlike in certain elements. It's really sad to see how her time on the island has changed her, to the point that she has forgotten how to be social. It's especially powerful to see her attempt to cling on to Sayid, her only source of human interaction in over a decade. Furthermore, we got a lovely speech from Rousseau as she reveals how she got to the island, and covers a lot of the different things that happened to her team, which only furthers the mystery of the island (see: The Unknown). While the episode tells Rousseau's story, it's also telling Sayid's story simultaneously. The episode impressively blended the flashbacks with the island storyline. As Nadia breaks through Sayid's hard exterior in the flashbacks, Sayid breaks through Rousseau's wall in the present. It's a story of a cold-hearted, almost evil character getting brought back to sanity by the person they were torturing. A lovely parallel story that works really well. Sayid's actual story here is good too. I was pleased to get a look at his life in the Republican Guard, covering his duty as a soldier mixed in with his childhood relationship with Nadia. I really enjoyed the little things that were shown about his character. Scenes like Sayid refusing to desert his post to protect his family, and him praying to Allah while hanging in Rousseau's trap were excellent, and they did a great job of making Said feel like a real, relatable character. The fate of his relationship with Nadia is sad when it is revealed that Sayid has been holding onto a small hope of her life for years and years now, knowing in his heart that she is likely dead. The Hurley side plot is a lot of fun. Hurley hasn't been given much screen time to develop so far, so it's good to put the focus on him for this episode. Hurley comes off as a very wholesome person as he puts in the effort to get the other survivors to have fun, in contrast to Jack's desperate attempts at mere survival. The story doesn't advance the plot any, but it is enjoyable to watch and it continues this show's consistent characterization in an enjoyable way. There were some other small moments I really liked. I appreciated Michael's suggestion of making a shower at the caves, which is a sensible thing to work on. I also love the idea that rumours of the polar bear spread throughout the community, but may not have reached everyone. The show hasn't fully explored the idea of being in a community of less than 50 people, but this is a good start. I also really like that Michael got distracted by the golf which gave Walt the prime opportunity to go learn from Locke. Lastly, I was glad to see one of the non-main characters get some spotlight as the man with the hives got a few scenes to get introduced as well as Ethan in another extra scene. This episode seems to hint that the community of survivors will be getting more exploration in future episodes. The Bad: It was a bit odd to have the flashbacks be told in English instead of Arabic, unlike "House of the Rising Sun" a little while back. Then again, there may be some limitations in play that forced the change to English in the flashbacks so it isn't a huge problem. The Unknown: Why is there a cable on the island? Does it lead anywhere? What happened to Alex? Is he dead? Rousseau claims that there are others on the island. Are there? Where are they? Why are they there? Apparently they were carriers of the sickness. How? What is this sickness anyways? What symptoms come from the sickness? Is there even a sickness or did Rousseau just go crazy and kill her team? Lastly, what are those whispers? It seems that there is some truth to what Rousseau is saying due to Sayid hearing the whispers in the jungle. What is the black rock that Rousseau mentioned? Why did her team go there? What happened to Nadia after her escape? Is she really dead? Rousseau says there is no such thing as monsters. What does that mean? Has she seen the monster? Why haven't any of the survivors gotten sick? Why hasn't Rousseau gotten sick? Is the sickness gone? Best Moment: Rousseau telling her story was extremely gripping. It was fascinating to learn all of this information, and the scene gets even more interesting when we realize that Rousseau may not be the most reliable source for this information. Sayid eventually realizes this too, leading to a wonderful line as Sayid tells Rousseau that he thinks she has been alone for far too long. Character of the Episode: Sayid. Conclusion: This was yet another brilliant episode that combined story and plot in a fantastic way. This show continues to impress me. Score: 77
1 Comment
Ben
9/21/2019 01:54:21 pm
Nice to see you reviewing Lost. I actually think the worst part about this episode is the editing. The scenes are so short and it goes back and forth between Sayid/Danielle and the golf course so frequently that it's very jarring and ruins any chance of tension building up within Sayid's scenes. I've read the script for the episode (written by David Fury, who was also nominated for an Emmy for writing "Walkabout" (sadly he left the show after the first season)), and the scenes were written much longer. Not much content was cut, but the scenes were just all broken up into much smaller scenes, and I have no idea why they did that. Other than that, I really like the episode.
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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