Sea. 1, Ep. 9: Solitary

Hello, gang.

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!

Sea. 1, Ep. 8: Confidence Man

As the last episode of our second week of re-watches, "Confidence Man" invites us to explore Sawyer's character further. But the episode also teaches us a little bit more about the swarthy Sayid and the sadistic art of torture that he developed as a member of Iraq's Republican Guard. Oh, and then there are the lovey-dovey scenes with Charlie and Claire. I guess Charlie was completely embracing his pregnancy fetish at this point. Oh, I kid, I kid...you should know that I like Charlie. I just question his eagerness to get involved in potential baby-daddy issues.

As we begin the episode, conflict abounds on the island. Jack is mending the wounds Sayid suffered when he was knocked unconscious by some unseen foe at the conclusion of the previous episode (remember that we later learn it was Locke who did they dirty deed). Then Shannon comes stumbling into the caves and supporting her step-brother Boone, whom Sawyer bloodied after finding him rummaging through his cache of supplies. Boone had been searching for Shannon's inhalers because she has bad asthma and ran out of her original dose of medication. As luck would have it, Shannon soon battles through some severe asthma attacks, and Jack has to coach her through them while Sayid tries to get the inhalers from Sawyer. As Shannon violently gasps for breath, I think to myself, I don't know what's worse: Shannon's asthma attacks or Maggie Grace's acting. Hah! I'm so clever. If that offends any Maggie Grace fans, then I apologize. That's my first--but definitely not my last--jab at Ms. Grace's acting, which I have always found atrociously bad.

Anyway, while all the hubbub over Shannon's asthma is going on, the flashbacks show Sawyer's life as a con man. Boy, oh, boy...was he a sleazy guy. Well, until a kid entered the picture. He was about to make off with a load of cash given to him by his mistress and her husband, but when he found out there was a young boy--not unlike himself--that would be hurt by the scam, he called it off. That's a pretty thin synopsis, but I feel that it's pretty straightforward at this point: Sawyer's parents were duped by a con man and it resulted in his father killing his mother and then turning the gun on himself. So even though Sawyer became a con man himself, he couldn't let his actions affect any children. Does that make him sort of a nice guy? I dunno...it's pretty murky. I'll say no, though.

Back on the island, Sawyer finds himself a little tied up. Literally. He's apprehended and gets some facetime with one of the Republican Guard's finest torturers. To be sure, Sayid was eager to once again become a torturer because Locke duped him much like Sawyer duped lovely ladies and their husbands. Early on in the episode we see that Sayid has been interrogating different people in hopes of finding out who cleaned his clock. When he questions Mr. Destiny, Locke turns the tables on him and suggests that it was actually Sawyer who sabotaged his triangulation plan. Sayid believes him. So Locke plays the role of manipulator here, even though that's not where he usually finds himself. I mean, in a related third season episode he did sucker Sawyer into killing Anthony Cooper, who turned out to be the confidence man we learn about in this episode. But getting duped into giving up a kidney and believing that he'll magically find his way back to the island? That's more like the Locke we know and love (or hate).

Anyway, Sayid shoves bamboo under Sawyer's fingernails and later winds up slicing one of his arteries. To top this madness all off, Sawyer tells Kate that he doesn't know where the inhalers are. Pretty brutal business, and by the end of the episode we learn that Sayid is going into some sort of self-imposed exile because he's upset with what he has done.

In the end, Sun comes to Shannon's rescue by creating some sort of concoction containing eucalyptus. It works, and Shannon can breathe again. Sawyer's tragic past is revealed to us by an angry Kate. She's angry because he tricked her into kissing him. Oh, and Charlie delivers a jar of imaginary peanut butter to Claire. If he had tried something like that on me, I'd have sent the Smoke Monster after him. "Confidence Man" also ends with another brief musical montage. I don't have any issues with it; I simply didn't remember that that's how they closed a lot of the first season shows. It's drastically different from the later episodes in which some dramatic twist is revealed in the last 120 seconds or so.

So, for a second consecutive episode there was little Lost lore, but a whole lotta character development. I'm not complaining, but it'll be good to move along and see some of the scenes that are a little more relevant after watching the fifth season. I think that's the main purpose of the whole re-watch.

See you in a few days, and thanks for reading!