LOST: The Economist [RECAP]

I'll Always Be With You

The episode starts with Sayid kneeling outside the chopper.  Is he listening for something? Is it prayer time?  No, he's kneeling over Naomi's body.  Miles and Juliet are in the background arguing about why they're after Ben.  Apparently they're on a "need to know" basis as to why they're even on this mission.

Sayid bends down, closes Naomi's eyes, and discovers a bracelet on her wrist.  Inside is an inscription: "I'll Always Be With You.  R.G."

He tells Frank he wants to go with them back to the ship, and strikes a deal.  If he can bring back Charlotte safely, they'll take him back.

They discover Naomi's picture of Desmond and Penny, and determine that the rescuers still aren't sharing their "full agenda."  But they come to the conculsion that Desmond might know, and so they send Juliet out after him.

Sayid will go after Locke, to bring back Charlotte.  He takes Kate with him, and asks Jack to stay behind, due to his animosity towards Locke.   Miles, of course, tags along.

The Missing Cabin

Back with Locke, they continue to squabble about what to do with Ben.  They want Ben to give up the name of his "man on the boat," but he refuses, even after being threatened with losing his "piggies!"

But they've arrived at the "border" to Jacob's cabin.  You remember, the line of sand or ashes which marked the arrival into the area where the cabin is.  Except its not there.  Locke is obviously distraught by this, and almost starts to flounder, much to Ben's amusement.  "John's looking for someone to tell him what to do next."  Which seems to pretty much be the story of Locke on the island, led by one introduced "mission" after the next.  For some reason Aaron starts to cry, whether it's because they're at the cabin "line", its not there, or he's just really hungry, we don't know for sure.

The seeds of dissent are already being sown within this group, with Hurley not liking Locke's decision to hold Charlotte hostage.  "It's not what I signed up for."  "Right now, Hugo, I'm making the decisions, is that going to be a problem?"

Back at the Huey, Kate and Jack are somewhat swapping roles.  "Now you know what it feels like to be me."  Jack thinks that Kate will be safe on this mission, because Sawyer won't let anything happen to her.  He's probably right.

So Sayid, Kate, and Miles take off on their mission.  Frank starts asking questions about Sayid, and Jack tells him about Sayid's former life as a Republican Guard "interrogator."

As Sayid's band marches through the jungle, he studies the bracelet, and quizzes Miles about her.  Seems Miles isn't much for sentiment.  "She was hot and I dug her accent."  He does seem to care about Locke, and his ability to cause such a rift in the survivors.

The Payload

Ah, this was one of the more interesting segments of "on island" action, and will probably get a lot of folks talking.  Faraday grabs a pole and a case from the helicopter, and in his own particular idiom, goes about setting it up.  He asks Frank for the phone so he can call Regina.  He's going to perform an experiment, much to Frank's amusement.  "Just keep it to the science stuff.   If Minkowski answers, hang up."

Regina locks onto the beacon that Faraday has just set up, and it sounds like she's fired a rocket.  "Don't sweat it, he does this kind of stuff all the time," says Frank.  She begins counting down the range to the beacon, and when she reaches zero, the rocket should be there.

But it isn't.  Faraday's left empty handed.  "That's weird.  That is far more than weird."

Sayid's commando squad finally reaches the barracks.  Curiously, there seems to be laundry hanging out to dry everywhere.  They hear some banging noises and muffled shouting, and eventually they find Hugo bound and locked in a closet.  "They left me!"

He starts going on about Locke "going off the reservation."  After a wisecrack by Miles, he says "awesome they sent another Sawyer."  "Locke said they were going by Ben's house."

We get another confirmation from Jack about how long they've been on the island.  One hundred days.  Then they all hear something.  "It's the payload! It's finally here!" And a small rocket plants itself in the ground.  Faraday opens it up, pulls out a clock, and compares it to his watch.  "Oh No! This is not good."  The time on the clock reads:  3:16:23.  (I think I missed the other clock there!)

Just then, Juliet arrives with Desmond, who stares in awe at the Huey, "Look at that!"

The Trap

Sayid, Kate, and Miles arrive at Ben's house, and go to "clear" it SWAT style.  Sayid discovers a bookcase (and dammit if I didn't miss the book title that was staring me in the face.)  He notices a mark on the ground where the bookcase has been moved several times.  He pulls it out and finds a dark secret passage!

He finds the lightswitch, and discovers a room full of "civilian" clothing, lots of different foreign currencies, and a drawer full of passports.  Including a Swiss one which he reads closer (couldn't make out the name on it.)  All belonging to Ben, of course.

Kate is in another room, when she sees a pair of boots on the other side of the bed she's looking under (a nice Sawyer allusion), and speaking of, she stands up to find Sawyer at the door.

She yells for Sayid, and as Sayid runs out of the secret room, he's met by Locke, pointing a gun at him.  "Sorry, dude!" says Hurley, as they discover they've been swindled.

There's some moments between Kate and Sawyer, and we discover a key and possibly irreconcilable difference between them.  He wants to stay on the island, because there's nothing for him back in the real world, and tries to convince Kate of the same thing for her.

The Crossroads

Locke enters the "bar" or "pub" or "rec area" or whatever you want to call it with some refreshment for Sayid.  "*I'm* thirsty," yells Ben.  He apologizes to Locke about the theatrics.  Sayid tries to get Locke to turn over Charlotte, and explains that he can get "inside" if he gets back to the freighter.  Locke tells Sayid not to worry about it, that Ben has a man on the boat.  "It's a secret," Ben tells them.

"The day I start trusting him is the day I sell my soul," Sayid remarks.

"Give me Charlotte or a war is coming."  "You expect me to give her to you for nothing."  "No, I never expected that."

Liftoff

At the Huey, Desmond starts interrogating Frank about why Naomi would have the photo of he and Penny.  "Look me in the eye, tell me you've never seen her before."  Frank pauses, as if he's coming up with a good answer, but instead just says, "No."  Desmond of course does not believe him, and demands to go back to the freighter also.

Over the ridge appears Sayid, alone, except for Charlotte walking behind him.  "What happened to Miles?" "I traded him." "You cheated! Lucky for you that guy's a pain in my ass."

And so Frank, Desmond, and Sayid take off in the helicopter towards the freighter, with Naomi's body.  With a stern warning from Faraday.  "Make sure you follow the same bearing you came in on, exactly.  No matter what."

We get that much anticipated (and ultimately disappointing) aerial shot of the island.  Nothing to see here! Move along!   The blanket falls off of Naomi's face, and he carefully covers it back up.

The Economist

Ah, but the really heady sh*t happens in the future it seems, and involves Sayid.

We find him golfing near a beach.  Is he on the island?  No, he's dressed too well for that.  A golf cart approaches, and an Italian man gets out and starts chatting up Sayid.  (Are they in France? I couldn't decipher the name of the place.)

They make a wager as to who can hit the ball closest to the pin, and the Italian wins.  He also discovers who Sayid is.  "I'm one of the Oceanic Six."  Suddenly the Italian gets visibly nervous and scared.  "I should pay you," says Sayid.   "No, that's not necessary."

"But I insist, Mr. Avalino(?)" and he pulls a pistol from his bag and shoots the Italian dead, jumps in the cart and drives off, as the sprinklers all come on.

We later find Sayid entering a cafe in Berlin, where he sits down at the same table as a rather attractive blonde woman, named Elsa.  (relevance? I couldn't think of any, except maybe to Indiana Jones' Nazi Dr. Elsa from "Last Crusade...")

They make the obligatory smalltalk.  "I'm a headhunter, what do you do." "I'm an economist."  But she's really just an assistant, paid well by somebody who only shows up about twice a year.  "Do I know you from somewhere?" she says to him.  "I'll tell you exactly, if you let me take you out to dinner."  She marks up a map, "8 o'clock, if you can find it."  And she leaves.

He calls someone on his phone, "I've made contact."

Everyone Has a Boss

Assumedly sometime further into the future, Sayid arrives at Elsa's apartment.  They're going to the opera, and it would seem that she's prepared to foresake her contact with her boss for tonight, and leave her phone/pager/whatever.  Sayid offers to take it instead.  "I wouldn't want you to get fired over me."  "Don't you have a boss?" she asks him.  "Everyone has a boss."

"Why are you still here" she asks him.  He tells her the job turned out to be harder to accomplish than he thought.  "I was hoping it was because of me."

Again, sometime further down the line, we find Sayid and Elsa in bed together.  She presses him more about his past, and he agrees to tell her everything.  "No more secrets."

Just then her pager goes off.  She goes to get ready to leave, but Sayid intercedes.

"You have to leave Berlin.  People will be asking questions and you can't be around to answer them."  It becomes clear to her that Sayid is after her boss.  His name is on a list and it doesn't matter who he is.

Then she pulls a gun and shoots Sayid in the shoulder.  She gets on the phone and starts talking to a mysterious someone.  "No he didn't give up a name, he had no idea.  I'll meet you at the safe house."

And then she's shot by Sayid, and dies.  There's a moment reminiscent of Sayid's closing Naomi's eyes on the island.  She's also wearing a bracelet almost identical to Naomi!

They Know

Sayid staggers into a veterinary office.  A somewhat familiar voice tells him to take his shirt off.  "Is she dead?" "Yes.  She wanted to know who I worked for, wanted to know about you."

And we find that it's none other than Ben who's working on him.  Sayid sheds a tear for Elsa. 

"Those people don't deserve our sympathies.  Need I remind you what happened the last time you used your hear?  Do you want to protect your friends or not?"

"I have another name for you."  "But they know I'm after them now."

"Good."

And I swear that was one of the biggest and most obvious LOST BONKS ever.

BONK.

Read the analysis thread for my ramblings about "The Economist."  There's a lot to talk about!

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