I'm a little behind this week. It's Thursday and I'm finally getting to my first episode. In some countries, that's an offense that's probably punishable by death. Fortunately for me, I'm in the good ol' U.S. of A.
"Solitary" is our first Sayid-centric episode. Remember how he went off on a self-imposed exile at the end of the previous episode? Well, this one picks up that thread of the story, and we learn how the lovable Iraqi stumbles upon Danielle Rousseau (A.K.A. the French woman from the repeating distress call) and her hideout.
The episode begins with Sayid sitting alone on a beach, studying a snapshot of his love Nadia. Turning his gaze down the beach, he notices something odd in the sand. He approaches it to get a better look and finds that it's a cable running through the sand. It's coming from the jungle, and it goes out into the swells of the ocean. Naturally, Sayid follows the cable into the jungle, which leads him to a trap. Strung up like one of Locke's boars, Sayid dangles upside-down from a tree 'til someone comes along and cuts him down. Sayid loses consciousness and later wakes up tied to mattress-less bed with someone asking him "Where is Alex?" in several different tongues. Sayid hasn't the foggiest idea of what the voice is talking about, so he gets a nice jolt of electricity.
So, as stated earlier, the captor turns out to be Danielle Rousseau. And through the conversations between her and Sayid, we glean the following:
- Rousseau was part of a science team whose ship crashed into the island during a storm.
- Someone took her child Alex from her. Little do we know that it's a female rather than a male. Tricky unisex names!
- Her lover Robert gave her a music box for their anniversary. It hasn't worked for a while, so Sayid fixes it.
- She's the only survivor from her team. "The Others" carried something which the other Frenchies presumably caught. She had to kill them because they were "sick." Oh, and "the Others" can be heard to whisper in the jungle.
Not a terrible amount of information, but we're accustomed to that on Lost. Sayid manages to escape from her shelter, but they later run into each other again in the jungle. And guns are involved. More on that a little later.
The flashbacks in this episode show us more about Sayid's stint as an interrogator in Iraq's Republican Guard. Basically, Sayid was a BAMF. That is, until he was forced to interrogate an Iraqi cutie from his past named Nadia. She sorta breaks him down, and he tries to buy time to keep her alive. Eventually, Sayid's bosses press for her execution because she won't divulge any of the information that they're trying to extract from her. Torn about what to do, he orchestrates her escape, and she vows to see him again, whether in their current lives or in an afterlife. It's all quite sentimental, you know, but seasoned veterans of the show know how it all goes down.
"Solitary" is also notable for the first appearance of Ethan, about whom we'll soon learn more. He's only on the screen for about 30 seconds here, chumming about with Locke and delivering luggage to Hurley which contains golf clubs. Oh, that's the other thing: Hurley builds a golf course for the survivors. A bit of lighthearted fun that's all fluff and no substance.
Back in the jungle, there's a standoff between the escaped Sayid and Rousseau. Sayid pulls the trigger of the rifle he stole from Rousseau's place, but it doesn't work because she had removed the firing pin. She had done the same to her lover Robert several years ago and was forced to shoot him. The Iraqi and the Frenchwoman have a heart-to-heart, and Sayid asks her to join him and the other survivors because he feels they have the best shot to get off of the island, but she declines. As Rousseau and Sayid part ways, the former admonishes the latter to watch the 815 survivors closely. This makes a whole lotta sense after we see in the fifth season how things played out between the French team. As we now know, it turns out that the sickness was caused after the Smoke Monster dragged Robert and others down into the Temple. After that incident, they had subtly changed, and were somehow evil, which is why the pregnant Rousseau had to fill 'em full o' lead.
The episode closes with Sayid making his way back to the beach. Upon reaching some clearing in the jungle, he hears the whispers that Rousseau talked about surround him. As with the other mysteries of the island, there's been speculation about the significance and origin of the whispers. I wish I could take credit for it, but the most interesting theory I've heard so far is that the whispers are the voices of others who have inhabited the same area at different points in time. Now that we know how significant time travel has been in the history of the island, one can't help but wonder about time travelers running in and out of scenes that they weren't originally a part of. To clarify my muddied idea, indulge me in this example:
In season five, there's a scene in which the Losties left on the island are bouncing around in time, not sure of where they're going because the frozen wheel is skipping on its axis. During one of these time skips, Sawyer walks into the scene in 2004 where Claire gave birth to Charlie. Sawyer had been on the island in a different spot during that time, but as a time traveler he's embedded in the jungle and watching Kate serve as midwife. If there are any whispers during this scene in season one (and I don't think there are, but we'll see) then one could theorize that the whispers belong to the future Sawyer who's skipping around to different points in time.
Got it?
Well, if you don't, I don't blame you. Hell, that theory might not even be right. I only include it here because, as I said, I think it's pretty darn good. If you've anything to add about the whispers, feel free to leave some comments.
Thanks for reading!
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