If last week's episode of "Lost" was like a draw of breath in preparation for the scream that's to come, last night's episode was the scream's first notes.
Once again, I'll throw out my thoughts as they occurred to me throughout the episode, like a live blog, only not.
-- Dude. Child Sayid will kill a damn chicken if need be. Is this what lies ahead for Little Ben?
-- Awww. I kinda like Little Ben. That kid is totally nailing grown-up Ben's facial expressions. Cute.
-- Never mind. Little Ben is evil. Clearly the Others have already chosen Ben as their leader and he's just biding his time (as Richard Alpert tells Locke in "Jughead," they choose their leaders young).
-- Dude. Grown Sayid will kill a damn Russian if need be. This episode is clearly trying to say something about Sayid: but what? Oh yeah. Sayid is a KILLER.
-- Sayid asks Ben "What do I do now?" That seems to be one of the themes of the season. On the island, the castaways had a mission: get off the island. Post-island, they have to find a purpose.
-- Ben to Sayid: "Live your life." Right. Clearly Ben has eee-vil plans in the works for Sayid.
-- Speaking of odd pronunciation, what is with the way Horace says infiltrate? "In-FIL-trate." What a douchebag. A short d-bag with stupid hair.
-- Um. Did they say "take this to the next level" in the 1970s?
-- Juliet tells Sawyer she forgot the bacon was cooking. Yeah right. Who forgets bacon? Mmmm.
-- Seriously, how come none of the castaways has freaked the hell out about finding him/herself in the 1970s? Sayid accepts this information as calmly as Jack, Kate and Hurley did.
-- Sayid tells Sawyer he wants to take his chances on the island, but what does this mean? Does he intend to live alone for all eternity in the jungle? There's not much chance another Lapidus-flown chopper is going to appear and whisk him back to the 21st century.
-- Hurley, on Sawyer and Juliet's hooking up: "Who couldn't see that coming?" It's like Hurley is reading "Lost" fan forums. I love Jack, Kate and Hurley gossiping in the cafeteria, by the way. Just like in 7th grade, the cool kids (not you, Ben; you either, Horace) are all at the same table.
-- Hmm. Sayid clearly feels pity for Little Ben. As we've seen before, Uncle Rico his father is a nightmare.
-- Flashback. Haven't seen one of those in a while (well, not since the beginning of this episode). Is this where we find out what changes Sayid's mind about getting on that plane?
-- Damn, Ben is manipulative. Using Locke's murder to make Sayid fear Widmore: clever.
-- "It's what you are. You're a killer, Sayid." Is this statement going to come back to haunt Ben?
-- Is that Billie Holiday on the record player? Nice. And a makeshift teepee? Yikes.
-- "He's our you" Sawyer tells Sayid. If that's true, Sayid if f***ed. Ooh, the torture guy has a "Deliverance" accent. This does not bode well.
-- Flashback again. It's Ilana the U.S. marshal! Run, Sayid! Or, at least, buy her the cheap scotch.
-- I hate Radzinsky. What an annoying alarmist. I'm kinda glad he blows his brains out later in the hatch.
-- High Sayid is the greatest thing ever. (Right, mdub?) I love that the Dharma Intiative is using Professor Snape's veritaserum.
-- Wait is that it? This is the torture everyone is worried about? Truth serum? Weaksauce. Torturer Sayid would have removed a couple of appendages by now.
-- Whoa. Sayid is getting down with Ilana the U.S. marshal. Maybe the handcuffs were for ... oh, never mind. She's sooo not a marshal.
-- The idea of "No purpose" pops up again. So what is Sayid's purpose if not to kill Little Ben?
-- James LaFleur still manages to get off a great Sawyer one-liner: "Three years, no burning vans; y'all are back for one day..."
-- Little Ben saves Sayid, a la Big Ben (ha. Big Ben). Who is using whom? Is Sayid's true purpose to bring Ben to his destiny, not prevent him from it? Also, how much does Little Ben look like Harry Potter in an invisibility cloak? Answer: a lot.
-- Dude. Sayid just knocked Jin the hell out!
-- Holy crap. HOLY CRAP!! He actually did it! Sayid shot Little Ben!
-- And... scene.
So, here's what I think about it all: there's no way the island is going to let Ben's death come to pass. As we've seen before, the island holds remarkable healing power for the people it likes; Locke and Rose, for example.
I have to think that, in the beginning, before he wore out his welcome, the island liked Ben enough to keep him around and reveal its secrets to him. My guess is that next week we see Little Ben rise to become strong enough to lead the Others, and to become the island's protector. My guess is that Sayid's true purpose all along, though he could never have guessed it, was to help facilitate this. Sorry, Sayid: FAIL.
Good episode. I hope the season manages to regain the momentum it had a few weeks ago as it goes into the final stretch.
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The actor who plays Horace has a knack for playing douchebags. He was the d-bag guard Percy in "The Green Mile".
watching last night's episode, i think we all have to go back to season 2 where sayid is beating the living hell out of ben while he was in the hatch. Also, Ben pretty much has kept his cool throughout, even when Said confronted Ben, along with Jack, that he wasn't Henry Gale. Did Ben have a look on his face that he knew Sayid already?
Plus if little Ben survives, then I guess that pretty much confirms Faraday's line where he states, you can't change what has already happened. But then why does he also say that they can't get involved with the people from the past?
Also, why.....wait a minute, I'm asking questions. I'll just stick to Sawyer's advice to Kate in next episode's preview.."stop asking questions and keep your mouth shut?
Yeah, Sayid definitely does not have the same info that Sawyer, etc. got from Daniel Faraday before Faraday went AWOL.
Is Faraday working on the "wheel" that Locke and Ben turned? That's where we last saw Faraday back in 1977. Remember the very first scene of the season premiere?
How do you pronounce infiltrate?
@mdub: I guess he could be. I just recall Sawyer saying something to the effect of Faraday being gone during the "Namaste" episode.
@Rick: I put the emphasis on the IN and not the FIL. Horace's pronunciation isn't wrong, I guess, but it sounded weird to my ear.
Little Ben SO looks like Harry Potter! My husband was wondering why I was rewatching one of the Potter flicks last night. Had to tell him it was "Lost". He looked lost, then walked out.
What about miles? Wasnt he born there, shouldnt there be a little miles running around also. I bet he is the Scientist dudes (the one that appears in the videos) son or something. I think this because charlotte was there as a child.
Right. We still haven't figured out who Dr. Pierre Chang's baby turns out to be -- if it's Miles, another character we know, or just someone else altogether.
Still more mysteries to be solved!
That's a good one. Go back to the opening scene of the season premiere. It leads to some theories about where Faraday and who this baby is? Dr. Chang is rocking a baby and then the earth shakes. I thought the baby was a girl, but who knows.
Dr. Chang goes to this place where guys in hard hats are drilling a wall to get to the other side where the wheel is. One guy breaks out into convulsions, and another speaks makes a comment to another guy who turns out to be Faraday wearing a hard hat. He has this worried look on his face.
I need to go back and watch that scene again. It makes more sense now that we know what's going on, somewhat.
Where IS Faraday anyway?
And did little Ben set the burning bus loose as a distraction? Darn good for a 12-year-old if he did.