The show opens this week, not with an eyeball, but a long shot of Sayid sitting Solitary on the beach. The camera closes in and we can see that he is studying the photo of the woman Claire returned to him when she found his things. He flips it over and reads something on the back. I can't translate- it looks like a bunch of 3's to me. He looks away with a pained expression but then notices something in the sand not far away. Sayid gets up to investigate and discovers a thick, coiled cable coming from out of the ocean and into the jungle. He picks it up and follows it inland.
Back at the crashsite, Jack is tending to Sawyer's knife wound, but is not getting much appreciation. Sawyer alleges that Jack is just helping him because he feels guilty about the torture. Jack says no one else wants anything to do with him. Sawyer implies that Kate does, which makes Jack get up and leave. Speaking of Kate, she is staring down the length of the beach. Jack approaches and learns that she is awaiting Sayid's return and is worried about him. Jack assures her that he is a trained soldier (hopefully there's not too many untrained soldiers out there) and he will come back when he has found what he's looking for. That's Jack's leadership style- repeat what smarter people have told you in the past. Kate thinks it's not that simple since Sayid left the camp out of shame.
Back in the jungle, Sayid finds a tripwire and, being a trained soldier, knows enough to step over it very carefully. Unfortunately, he wasn't trained well enough to notice the rest of the trap which he steps onto and soon finds himself hanging upside down. He swings head first into a tree and gets pierced in the leg by a sharp stick. He tries his best to escape, but he is definitely stuck. Cue creepy LOST title screen.
Night has fallen and Sayid is still just hanging around mumbling to himself. Or more likely praying, but again, I don't translate. He hears someone coming- someone who cuts him down. As he lies groggy from the fall, he can half make out a figure approaching him, but he passes out before he can tell who it is.
Over at the caves, Jack and Sun are medically tending to an extra when some arguing distracts the doctor. Hurley tells him that people are being people- arguing over stupid stuff- like the dog drinking their water, which doesn't sound all that stupid to me, but I don't really like dogs. Hold the phone now! The extra has lines. They pay extra for that, you know. This schmo is concerned that his simple breakout of hives could be the start of some deadly tropical disease. See, wearing glasses doesn't always mean you're smart. Hurley laughs at Jack's advice to the guy to just relax. He thinks everyone is too tense and they need to have something to do. Jack dismisses this notion and is content just to have everyone survive.
Sayid slowly comes to underneath a working light bulb as a strange voice asks him where Alex is in several languages. He realizes he is strapped down and cannot move. When he answers that he doesn't know any Alex, a dark figure moves quickly to throw a switch and give him some unneeded shock therapy.
Sayid takes his mind off the pain by flashing back to when he was a soldier in Iraq. He is in the midst of torturing someone to get them to admit to a bombing. The guy only pukes as his answer. Outside, Sayid tells his superior officer that the guy doesn't know anything. But it turns out, that wasn't the point- Sayid handled himself very well and is going to be reassigned to Intelligence, which is a big promotion from Stupidity. Superior officer tells Sayid not to call him sir when it's just the two of them, then starts blabbering about some military stuff that Sayid doesn't hear because the dramatic music is playing too loudly as the girl from his future photo is being led by as a prisoner.
Back in the present, Locke and friend return from some night hunting with a bunch of bags that fell from the plane. It's meet the extras day on LOST- Locke's buddy with hunting experience is named Ethan. Hurley tells them he will look through the stuff for anything useful. Walt goes over to Locke and asks if he can come hunting too, but Michael catches him and shoots that notion right down. I doubt Locke would have said yes to that anyway. Hurley opens a bag and is stunned by the content. We're not allowed to see what it is yet, though.
Back in TasteYourOwnMedicine Town, Sayid continues to be tortured and begs for it to stop. He recaps the major plot points of the previous episodes- when he gets to the part about the French woman's transmission, his female captor responds in French. She finally emerges from the shadows to reveal her surprise that it has been sixteen years since she got there. She is also surprised that Sayid heard the distress call and whacks him on the head for it.
It takes Sayid an entire commercial break to wake up. He sees a jacket and reads the name on the back- Rousseau. She wants to know how he knew her name, then learns his by reading the envelope his pictures were in. Sayid mentions that her battery-powered torture device can't broadcast a message for sixteen years. Rousseau says that it comes from somewhere else, but "they" control it now. She then asks about the woman in the pictures and Sayid tells her that she is named Nadia.
With a whoosh, Sayid flashes back to the time when duty forced him to torture Nadia. They banter about their childhood together- a childhood where Sayid ignored her and Nadia pushed him in the mud- you know, because they liked each other. Sayid brings up the impending torture, so Nadia shows him the scars of tortures past and tells him to bring it on because she will not tell him anything. In the present, Rousseau continues to learn about Sayid- he was a soldier and has a gunshot scar on his leg. He will answer nothing else about Nadia until she tells him who Alex is.
In Cavetown, Walt is bored so Michael tells him to find a way to entertain himself. I'll let my four-year-old handle the next side comment- that's exactly what Shrek says to Donkey. Good job, honey. A few feet away, Hurley is looking frantically for something in the baggage. He finds it and hurries off, even blowing off the almighty Jack. When Michael and Jack ask him what's up, he just giggles.
While we were away, Rousseau sidestepped the Alex question and got back to interrogating Sayid. This time he reveals that Nadia is dead because of him. Roussaeu strokes his face and tells him she is sorry. Then she gets up to show him something.
One more time back to the caves- Michael is showing Jack his blueprint for a shower system at the waterfall when Charlie comes by and tells them to come see what Hurley has done. The three head over to an open hilltop to find that Hurley has constructed a two hole golf course and has the clubs they can play with in hand. Jack and Michael are dismayed that he would waste his time like this, so Hurley gives his longest speech of the show. I don't do this often but in honor of the big guy showing some initiative for a cause, here is a transcript:
Hurley: Dudes, listen. Our lives suck! Everyone's nerves are stretched to the max- I mean, we're LOST on an island- runnin' from boars and monsters...and freakin' polar bears!
Michael: Polar bears???
Charlie: You didn't hear about the polar bear?
Hurley: Look, all I'm sayin' is, if we're stuck here, then just surviving is not gonna cut it. We need some kinda relief, ya know, some way that we can...you know, have fun. That's right, fun! Or else we're just gonna go crazy waiting for the next bad thing to happen.
Turns out, Rousseau wanted to show Sayid a broken music box. Stuck on an island for sixteen years, there's not much to bring for Show and Tell. It was an anniversary gift from her love, Robert. Sayid offers to fix it since he is handy with that kind of stuff. Rousseau, instead of freeing his hands, sticks an ancient syringe in his arm while she asks about the writing on the back of his photo.
We return to Jack and Michael who are face to face discussing a problem. If you don't know that the camera will pull back to show that they were talking about golf, then you just don't watch enough television. Sure enough, Jack asks for a 7 Iron. Before he can swing, the guy with the rash approaches to complain about his hives again, but he stops when he notices the clubs. He asks if he can play too.
Sayid wakes up yet again, this time chained by the legs to a table. In exchange for working on the music box, Sayid learns that the woman's name is Danielle. Finally with the subject turned toward her, Sayid gets some information. She is a research scientist who came to be shipwrecked on the island because their equipment malfunctioned. Sayid presses her about the transmission saying "it killed them all". Danielle says they were coming back from the black rock and they, "the others", were the carriers. Sayid asks about them and learns thatDanielle has never seen them, only heard them whispering. Sayid looks skeptical, causing Danielle to think that he thinks she is insane. He really thinks she has been alone too long.
Back in Iraq, Sayid brings Nadia some food and asks her to implicate others so she may go free, but she won't do it. She says that he is pretending to be something she knows he is not.
At the beach, word has spread quickly about Hurley's golf course, so Boone, Shannon, Kate and a bunch of excited extras are getting ready to head over. Kate is stopped by Sawyer's mocking of Jack, so she tells him to make more of an effort with people.
Sayid gets the music box working, which pleases his captor greatly. He asks to be let go, but she tells him it is too dangerous. To prove her point, they hear some roaring. Danielle grabs a gun and heads off. Sayid tells her to watch out for the monster, but she scoffs at him. After all, there's no such thing as monsters. In another flashback, Sayid is stunned to learn that Nadia is to be executed to set an example to the other captives who won't cooperate. Worse still, Sayid is the one who has to do it.
I probably should have mentioned that when he gave the music box back, Sayid swiped the key to his chains. That's important since he frees himself as soon as Danielle is gone. He gathers up her maps and a rifle and heads up the ladder and out the door. One thing he did forget was his picture of Nadia. He sees Danielle out there hunting and for some reason decides to confront her. He points his rifle and tells her to drop her gun. She does not comply, but instead raises her own weapon and points it at Sayid.
Sayid flashes back to execution time. He dismisses the other officers and takes Nadia to the door where he tells her she can escape in a supply truck. She begs him to come, but he can't because he is not as brave as she is. She then writes that note on the back of the picture. Before she can get out the door, they are busted by Sayid's friend- the superior officer, so Sayid shoots him dead and then shoots himself in the leg to set up the apperance of Nadia escaping on her own.
Back at the standoff, Sayid rashly pulls the trigger but unfortunately for him, the firing pin has been removed. Robert didn't notice it was missing either...when she shot him, Danielle says. She goes on to reveal that she killed every one in her party because they all got sick and she couldn't let the disease spread to the rest of the world if they had ever been rescued. Sayid drops his useless gun and says he is not sick. Why kill him? Danielle just wants him to stick around to have someone to talk to. Sayid chooses this moment to finally translate the note on the picture- You'll find me in the next life, if not this one. He too knows what it is like to ruin your life holding onto someone who is gone. This somehow convinces Danielle to let him go, but not without a warning to watch his friends closely. She walks off into the jungle, but turns back to answer Sayid's last question- Alex was her child.
Everyone is having a good time now as the golf games continue. Wagers are made on Jack's potential match winning shot, including one from Sawyer, who has heeded Kate's advice to make an effort. Everyone looks wary of him, but Kate gets the ball rolling by taking his bet and the tensions fade again. We don't get to see if Jack makes his putt or not, though. Elsewhere, Locke is practicing his knife throwing when he is approached by Walt, who asks to be taught how to throw. In one final chilling scene, Sayid tramps through the darkened jungle, surrounded by howling winds and...whispering? Could Danielle be right about the others? No answers today, folks. Our time is up...
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