Lost ~ Sundown

I bet you were expecting a Sun/Jin centric episode this week, weren’t you? The title sure wanted you to think that, and it would have continued the pattern of mirroring character centric episodes from season 1. This turned out to be a Sayid episode instead, complete with the requisite “I’m a good man” / “I’m a bad man” / “I’m a changed man” that we come to expect when he takes center stage. Luckily, we also got some kick-ass fight scenes and major progress on the Team (Ghost) Jacob and Team MIB front. Go watch this week's episode if you haven’t already. If you’re all caught up, grab yourself a plate of eggs and mosey on along to the rest of the blog.

Ummm . . . .

Awkward. Okay, Kate . . . I guess you can come, but MIB isn’t going to be super pleased about it.


In the Sideways-verse

Sideways Sayid’s cab pulls up a nice looking home. He approaches the door nervously with a bouquet of yellow roses. He rings the bell and we see his face reflected in the glass door as Nadia approaches (this is the closest thing we get to a mirror moment in this episode, but it is more reminiscent of Smokey’s window reflection in The Substitute). He’s greeted by Nadia, her two kids, and her husband – Sayid’s brother Omer. Oh snap.

When they are alone Nadia asks if he received her (love) letters, and wants to know why he didn't write back. The kids interrupt to thank Sayid for the souvenirs from Australia and say they found a picture of Nadia in Sayid’s bag. Awkward. Omer probably overheard this, which makes it even better. Later, Omer wakes Sayid up in the middle of the night to tell him that he is in some serious trouble. He borrowed money from a loan shark to open his new store, but once he paid back the debt the loan shark insisted he still needed to pay interest for as long as the store was open. Sayid offered to help him out financially, but that’s not the kind of help Omer was looking for. He wants Sayid to convince the load shark to leave him and his family alone. Omer says he knows what kind of man Sayid is, but Sayid refuses and insists that he is not that man anymore.

After Sayid puts the children on the school bus the next morning Nadia runs out and says something has happened to Omer. He was supposedly mugged outside the store. When they get to the hospital (where we briefly see Jack pass by with a glance at Sayid), the doctors say he has a punctured lung. Sayid tells Nadia to stay at the hospital and he starts to head off in search of revenge. Nadia begs him to go home and make the children feel safe instead. Later Nadia returns home and finds Sayid repairing a broken vase. She says Omer is awake and resting at the hospital. Sayid offers again to help with money, but Nadia says it is Omer’s mess and he will have to clean it up. She then wants to know why Sayid pushed her towards his brother (we’re all a little curious about that). He says that he has been living with guilt for the past twelve years and he didn’t feel he deserved her. Lame answer, Sayid.

The next day a black SUV pulls up in front of the Nadia’s home and intercepts Sayid on the way to pick-up the children. Omar (a freighter crew member in the original timeline) makes a veiled threat towards the children and tells Sayid to get in the car. He takes him to a restaurant kitchen where we discover the loan shark is Keamy!!!! Keamy eats some eggs and tells says he’s sorry to hear about Omer’s mugging. He gets right to the point, which is that Omer still owes him money. Sayid says that the debt has been paid, which Keamy says is a lie. Things get heated real quick and Sayid grab’s Omar’s gun, uses him as a human shield, and shoots the other henchmen. Keamy says that he can forgive the debt and they can just forget about it. Sayid says he can’t do that and shoots Keamy.

Sayid starts to leave but is stopped by pounding noises. He opens the walk-in fridge to find Jin, beaten, gagged and tied. Our guess is that all the money Jin was trying to hide from customs was a payment to Keamy from Sun’s father. I’m guessing Keamy didn’t take kindly to the news that airport security had detained the money. Speaking of Jin, is everyone up to speed that he and Sun aren’t married in the Sideways-verse? Neither of them are wearing wedding rings and security called Sun “Ms. Paik.” Anyway, Sayid takes the tape off Jin’s mouth, he speaks in Korean (“Don't Kill me. Please. Let me live.”) and Sayid asks his name.

The Great Temple Massacre of ‘07

Sayid barges in to Dogen’s chambers and demands answers. He wants to know about the machine they hooked him up to. Dogen tells him that in every person there is a scale which measures the balance between good and evil within that person. The machine tells them which direction the scale is tipped. He says that Sayid’s scale is tipped the wrong way. Dogen admits that he tried to poison Sayid.

“I think it would be best if you were dead.” ~ Dogen

Sayid claims to be a good man (ummm, a good man who shot an innocent kid a few days ago), and he and Dogen get into an epic throw down. In addition to killing children Sayid also appears to have no respect for the well being of innocent pottery. So sad.

Dogen gets the upper hand and has the opportunity to stab Sayid, but be pauses when his baseball falls from the table (in slow motion). Instead of killing Sayid, Dogen banishes him.

Meanwhile, MIB and Claire are standing outside the temple perimeter. He is sending her to deliver a message inside the temple. He is only asking her to do it because he can’t do it himself. Claire wants some kind guarantee that she’ll be reunited with Aaron and he says he always does what he says. She asks if he is going to hurt the temple dwellers and he responds, “only the ones that won’t listen.”

Back at the temple Sayid is hitting the road as intended. Miles wants to know what is going on.

“Apparently, I'm evil.” ~ Sayid

Sayid remarks that it's strange that the temple people want him dead, considering they were the ones to bring him back to life. Miles makes it very clear that Sayid was dead for hours. Something brought him back to life, but it definitely wasn’t Dogen and crew. Just then Claire arrives at the temple and tells Dogen “he wants to see you.” Dogen is no fool, he knows that MIB will kill him if he meets him. Claire suggests that he said someone MIB won’t kill. Dogen has Claire thrown in a hole. He tells Lennon to have Reyes and Shephard brought to him. When Lennon says they are missing Dogen settles for Sayid.

Dogen brings Sayid into his chamber and reveals a ceremonial dagger. He explains that Claire is a confused girl under the influence of an angry man. This angry man had been trapped for years, but he has been freed by Jacob’s death and will not stop until he destroys every living thing on the island. He is evil incarnate. Dogen gives Sayid the dagger and says that the man will come to him as someone he knows, but who has died. He should stab him in the chest before he speaks, otherwise it will be too late. If he does this it will prove he is good. He heads off to meet MIB. Along the way he runs in to Kate who asks what happened back at the temple. He says she should ask Miles and continues on his way. When Kate gets back to the temple Miles asks if Sawyer sent her packing. He also tells her that Claire has returned.

“She's acting all weird, but still hot, though.” ~ Miles (about Claire)

Back in the jungle Sayid encounters a familiar rustling. MIB appears as Locke and says hello. Without missing a beat Sayid stabs him in the chest.

Fail.

“Now why'd you go and do that?” “You stabbed me in the chest without even saying hello.” ~ MIB

He is quickly able to convince Sayid that Dogen sent him out there knowing that he couldn’t kill MIB, and hoping MIB would finish him off. It isn’t the first time he has tried to have someone else kill Sayid, after all (the poison pill). MIB asks him to deliver a message to the temple and offers Sayid anything in the world that he wanted in return. Sayid says that they only thing he ever wanted died in his arms (no, not you Shannon) and that he’ll never be able to see it again. MIB asks “what if you could?” An empty promise, or a suggestion that MIB has knowledge and power over the Sideways-verse? We’ll have to wait and see.

Sayid returns to the temple and announces that Jacob is dead and there is no reason they need to stay in the temple anymore. MIB will be leaving the island and anyone who wants to go with him should join him before sundown and be saved, or stay and die.

Kate misses this memo because she is busy trying to find Claire. Lennon tries to stop her, but she pins him to the wall and demands to see Claire. He grants her two minutes with her. We find Claire in a deep hole signing “Catch a Falling Star” to herself. Kate is so relieved to have found her. When Claire says that the Others have her baby she happily states that she took Aaron and raised him for the past three years. She says he’s a beautiful boy.

Girl is pissed. Kate tells Claire that she returned to the island to rescue her.

“I'm not the one that needs to be rescued. He's coming Kate.”

The temple inhabitants start to flee, including Cindy, Emma, and Zach (look how little Emma has grown!). Lennon says that they should all stay, that the temple is safe, and that “he can’t come in.” Miles asks Sayid if he thinks they should leave, but Sayid says he needs to return Dogen’s dagger first. Yup, this can’t possibly go well.

Sayid finds Dogen contemplating his baseball at the temple’s healing pool. Sayid asks why he didn’t take the opportunity to kill him with his own hands. Dogen reveals his backstory. He says he was once a business man in Osaka. After a promotion his coworkers took him out to celebrate. It was a Friday night. Every Friday he picked his 12 year old son up from baseball. That night there was a terrible accident and his son was injured beyond help. Jacob came to Dogen and said that he could heal his son. In exchange Dogen had to come to the island and he would never see his son again. Dogen asks if MIB had offered Sayid a similar bargain. It is now sundown. He asks Sayid whether he will go or stay. Sayid says he thinks he will stay, and immediately overpowers Dogen and drowns him in the pool.

When Lennon arrives on the scene he yells that Dogen was the only thing keeping “him” out (not the ashses?). Sayid says he knows and slits Lennon’s throat with the dagger, throwing him into the pool.

The smoke monster invades the temple killing everyone in it’s path. Kate and Miles rush for safety, but Kate separates from him to go and find Claire. When she reaches Claire’s hole Claire says that it is much safer down there. Kate dives into the hole, hanging on to the edge, just before smokey passes, watching it from bellow with a bit of fascination and horror.

Miles attempts to barricade himself in a room, but the door bursts open to reveal Ilana, Sun, Lapedis, and Ben. Miles is surprised to see Frank, who says they can catch up later. Ilana leads them to the secret passage used by Hurley and Jack last episode. Ben offers to get Sayid (for realz?) and finds him at the pool.

BEN: There's still a way out of here. There's still time
SAYID: Not for me.

Ben can clearly see the evil in Sayid, and hurries on out of there. He does not, however, reunite with the rest of his group who manages to make it out just before smokey zooms down the hallway.

In one of the creepiest episode endings in show history, Sayid and Claire walk through the temple’s courtyard underscored by Claire’s super creepy “Catch a Falling Star”. There are dead people everywhere. Kate follows behind them and takes a gun off one of the dead bodies. They reunite with MIB outside the temple, who is surrounded by the Others who left the temple earlier (including Cindy and the kids). Kate is surprised to see Locke. MIB doesn’t look too pleased to see her. Clearly she wasn’t invited to this party either. More importantly, he and Claire are BFFs for life.

Easter Eggs, Sidenotes, and Questions

• There are 108 double stitches on a baseball.

• The restaurant kitchen that Sayid is taken to is the same one Naomi took Miles to in Some Like It Hoth to recruit him to join the Kahana.

• Dogen’s story of how he was recruit to the island is very reminiscent of Juliet’s. She stayed on the island so that her sister’s cancer would be cured, but in the end she never saw her again.

• If it was Dogen keeping MIB out of the temple, what was the deal with the ashes? Did the ash only work if Dogen was alive?

• Just to be clear, we know Sayid is evil because his accent has suddenly become wicked sketchy, correct?

• It would seem as though MIB cannot kill any of the candidates directly. That is why Dogen was looking for Jack or Hurley before settling for Sayid. Therefore, Dogen wasn’t trying to kill Sayid at all (that time).

• Why didn't MIB die? Was Dogen wrong? Can he not be killed? Was it because he spoke to Sayid first? Did Sayid fail because he had already been turned, meaning MIB can only be killed by someone pure of heart? Can he not be killed by a candidate?

• Is there any hope for Dogen and Lennon’s survival, since they died in the healing fountain? I don’t think so, but we’ll have to wait and see.

• When MIB suggests that Sayid can be with Nadia again is he referring to the Sideways-verse? When he tells Claire that she will be with Aaron again, is he not just leading her own? Does he have knowledge or power over the Sideways-verse?