Lower Decks

LOST
“He’s Our You”
Originally Broadcast Wednesday, March 25th, 2009

I can still remember the first time that I saw Ben Linus in a preview for season two’s “One of Them”  It was probably the idea that we finally had a face to the Others that fascinated me because I never thought that he’d be such a major character in the mythos of the series.  Several years later, we get “He’s Our You” – an episode that might be Ben’s biggest to date.

For a minute there, I thought they were going to do it.  I really thought that they were going to kill off Sayid.

It all made perfect sense in a LOST kind of way.  It was a Sayid flashback episode (hint #1), the theme of the flashbacks mirrored the other “death flashbacks” of Shannon, Ana-Lucia, and Eko (hint #2), and they haven’t killed anyone off in a really long time (hint #3).

The only thing that made me think differently was the idea that Sayid needed to go to the Hostiles.  But I realized that such a move would only be important because we need to see the Hostiles…and it could just as easily be little Ben that showed us the world of the Hostiles.

And, for that second, I was sad because Sayid is one of my favorite characters on the show.  And I think the reason I like him so much is because you always know what you’re getting with Sayid.  He’s fiercely (and sometimes irresponsibly) loyal, and his character hasn’t “evolved” as much as some of the other Oceanic survivors.  Plus, he simply a really cool character.

Instead, Sayid escapes with young Ben and ends up shooting the boy in cold blood.  Not a surprising twist…but certainly a cool one.

Now I’ll just go out and say it…Ben ain’t dead.  It makes things a little strange because this will, if I’m right, be the third consecutive death that the writers have wiggled out of.  Jin, Locke, and (I assume) Ben will all have “died” and then “come back to life” – I have to put things in quotation marks because the show hasn’t been clear on any of that stuff yet.

And while the “resurrection” thing is something I despise on a show like Heroes, it is something that I tolerate on LOST.  But I think the next death needs to count…just to keep us guessing.  Because, outside of Michael, wasn’t Charlie the last main Oceanic survivor to die?

And I think it all goes back to what Faraday’s been saying all season…that the past cannot be changed.  If Ben survived, he survived.  So there’s no way that Ben died because we know he isn’t dead.  Not in the past and not in the future.

Besides, if they’re going to kill off Ben Linus, it will be after a really cool scene with Michael Emerson – not some child.

(By the way, where is Faraday?  We need to find that out soon.)

But I must say that the pairing of Ben and Sayid makes complete sense.  These are guys that seem to be a lot alike, and they share an extremely long history together.  It was Sayid who, through Danielle, originally discovered “Henry Gale” in the jungle, and it was Sayid’s goal in the middle of season two to prove that Ben was an Other.

Outside of Locke and perhaps Jack, Sayid and Ben have the longest history.  And that was way before Sayid began to work for the man.

Flashbacks, huh?  It’s still a bit odd to see flashbacks on LOST because it’s been so long since they were removed as a staple of the show.  But I’m guessing this is how the final hours before Ajira 316 will be explained for everyone.  And I’m glad…because we need to find out what made Hurley and Kate get on that plane.

I do have a question about the flashbacks – what was the purpose of all Sayid’s assassinations.? I realize I’m diving into the mind of Ben Linus…something dangerous…but did he really get Sayid to kill everyone of importance in Widmore’s organization?  Even then, I’m not sure I understand the point. 

And why didn’t Sayid go about trying to find/kill Widmore himself?

But, in the end, Sayid realizes that he’s just a pawn in this game.  He was used by the Iraqis, he was used by the American government, he’s been used by the Oceanic survivors, and he’s been used by Ben.  If you want to add in Fate and the Island itself, those wouldn’t be wrong either.

And in the end, what has Sayid gained from all of it?  Nothing but death.  In the long line of tragic characters on this show, I’m not sure if anyone has suffered more and received less than poor Mr. Jarrah.  All his stories seem to end in heartbreak, death, or both.

And we get a little more insight into Ilana, the woman who captured Sayid and escorted him onto the plane.  You have to think that she’s working for Widmore, right?  Because if the man on the golf course was on Ben’s list, then he had to have a connection to Widmore – and it would have to be more than coincidence that Sayid was taken on that plane.

I still think that if Hawking knew about Ajira 316, Widmore knew about it.  And, for whatever reason, Widmore wanted the Oceanic Six to go back to the Island.

But this paints an interesting picture of Ilana before we really meet her.  She’s a bounty hunter, it seems, and she has a connection to Widmore.  Is there a chance that she’s Widmore’s new spy on the Island?  I guess we’ll have to stay tuned to find out.

So what next?  I’m still guessing Sayidwill end up with the Hostiles, although I’m assuming he’s not really interested in joining them.  But we’re getting a lot of great Dharma stuff, and we really need to learn more about the pre-Other Others.  Because let’s face it, outside of Ben and Juliet, what do we know about who they are and what they’re doing on the Island?

And Sayid joining the Hostiles means more Richard.  And I love more Richard.

I found the whole “torture” scene to be very well done.  Sayid, forced against his will to tell the truth, spills his guts about everything he knows about the Island – even telling the Dharma people that he’s from the future.  He tells them about the Purge, the Incident, the plane crash(es) and even Sawyer’s real name.

Perhaps they should’ve listened?

Although I found it interesting how scared Sayid was.  We know that Sayid has been captured by the enemy before, and we know he’s one tough SOB.  But it seemed like Sayid was about as genuinely scared as we’ve ever seen him right before Oldham gave him that truth serum.  Is it possible that Sayid can dish it out but can’t take it himself?

The other Sayid scene that I really liked was the scene with Roger Linus and young Ben.  For as long as Sayid has known Ben, he’s been in control.  Ben, like he’s said several times, always has a plan, and he always seems to be one step ahead of everyone else.

But Sayid gets to see a young Ben who has no control over his situation.  He sees Ben cowering in front of his father, taking both a mental and physical beating.  I almost thought that would’ve been enough to make Sayid reconsider.

Yeah, not so much.

As for the rest of the Dharma situation, I have another question: who is in charge?  At times, it seems like it’s Pierre Chang.  He seems to be the face of the Dharma Initiative, filming all of the videos.  He’s also in some kind of leadership capacity since he was called to take care of the situation at the Orchid in the season’s first episode.

But it also seems to be Horace.  He leads the meeting when they decide to kill Sayid, and he seems to be present at most of the important meetings.  Chang, however, wasn’t present in the entire episode, and he wasn’t even at the bigwig meeting at Horace’s house.

I’m guessing it’s supposed to be Horace, but we’ll probably have to keep guessing until they tell us.

The rest of the episode dealt with Sawyer/LaFleur trying to stay on top of his big con.  He tries desperately to get Sayid to come around and join the Dharma team, but Sayid refuses at every corner.  Sawyer seems willing to risk everything to save Sayid, but in the end, nothing really works.

Of course, Sayid and Sawyer share a very complicated relationship themselves…I hope to see more of their rivalry as things continue to develop.

We also get a lot of “love quartet” business.  More specifically, Sawyer commits to Juliet, and Kate finds out about their relationship.  Despite her late-night hookup with Jack on the night before the flight, it seems like Kate was secretly hoping to get back with Sawyer – she was definitely upset to hear about his new romance.

But I think everyone handled things pretty well, and I’m not sure we’ll see any sort of fighting between Juliet and Kate.  Jack and Sawyer?  That’s a different story.

And I love the little Hurley scene we got – the guy is funny and lovable but he doesn’t seem to have a lot of people skills.  He talks a bit too much about Sawyer/Juliet, and he argues that everyone should’ve seen it coming.

And it further proves, at least to me, that Hurley is the soul of all these survivors.  And, based on that one little scene, he also might be the voice of the fans.

So there you have it – this episode might be a game changer.  Sayid has now been separated from the group, and he’s presumably heading toward the Hostiles.  Ben has been shot, and there’s a chance he could be dead.  And now that the Sawyer/Juliet romance is out in the open, things could sizzle there at any moment.

Another great one, LOST.  Can’t wait until next week.