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- TV Series: Lost
- Episode: He's Our You
- Starring: Naveen Andrews, Josh Holloway, Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Daniel Dae Kim, Jorge Garcia, Michael Emerson, Doug Hutchinson, Eric Lange, Sterling Beaumon, Reiko Aylesworth
- Written By: Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz
- Directed By: Greg Yaitanes
- Network: ABC
- Series: Lost
Lost: He's Our You
Joe's latest Lost Love. By Joe Oesterle
March 26, 2009
Source: JoeArtistWriter
Sayid (Naveen Andrews) takes center stage in the latest LOST: He's Our You(2009).
© Mania.com/Robert Trate
Greetings fellow LOST junkies, I’ll be honest, I don’t know if I liked “He’s Our You” or not. Typically I’m very pro-Sayid centric stories, so I figured this episode would be a treat, but for me anyway, I wasn’t left with the usual “can’t wait for next week” feeling I normally get after watching. I didn’t even re-watch the show immediately like I normally do.
To quote the inimitable Randy Jackson, “I don’t know dawg, I just wasn’t feeling it. It was a little pitchy in spots.” I would have quoted the inimitable Paula Abdul, but I would need to take a couple doses of Oldham’s sugary hallucinogenic to effectively give her thoughts any justice.
Natural Born Chicken Killer
Ok, so Sayid’s chubby older brother disappoints daddy because he’s too soft to kill a chicken. Sayid has no such aversion to slaughtering dinner, so he earns the respect of his hard to please father – And this incident sets the blueprint for Sayid’s life as a ruthless torturer and murderer? I guess it’s the very genesis, but I would have liked to see a more radical moment. I assumed the point of that scene was in part to show Sayid is capable of killing without remorse and partly to show what a cruel man his father could be. In my opinion, it did neither.
Like many people in Takrit, Iraq or Atlanta, Georgia for that matter, the Jarrah family raises its own livestock. Since there weren’t more than a dozen chickens in that little coop, it’s probably safe to say the Jarrah’s aren’t in the chicken wholesale business. I’m also guessing since they weren’t living in a mansion, the Jarrah’s depend upon those chickens for sustenance. Someone is going to have to do some chicken choking, and Papa Jarrah was just trying to teach his oldest son how to pitch in. I doubt he’ll win any father of the year awards for his tact, but I didn’t see the parallels of Sayid’s father to Ben’s. It felt like a weak jumping point to have us understand how Sayid Jarrah, the military torturer and deadly hand-to-hand combatant was forged.
Perhaps the meaning of the scene was to show Sayid has no compulsion to take a life if it means saving someone he cares about from pain. If that’s the case, I’m behind it a little more, but not completely, because he later points out what a hard man his father was, but we really see very little evidence of that.
Chicken Salad for the Chicken Killer
So anyway, Lil Ben, in his attempt to curry favor with whom he believes is a bona fide Hostile, talks his way past Phil and delivers Sayid a sandwich and a book. The book was written by Carlos Castaneda and it is described by Lost-pedia as a non-fictional account of a man’s experience working with a modern day sorcerer. The website also goes on to report that the authenticity of the book, along with the rest of Castaneda's series, has been a topic of debate since they were published. Let’s hope the chicken salad was easier to swallow.
Lil Ben confesses to Sayid that he’s been wanting out of Dharmaville for a good long time now, but he’s just patiently awaiting for Richard to give him the ‘hi’ sign. He figures if he’s friendly to Sayid, this may grease the wheels a bit. Sayid smartly plays along.
From Russia With a Hat
Yeah, yeah, Sayid kills another fellow in another country. It’s all fairly routine by this point. Find some out of shape middle-aged man, put a bullet in him and run back to Ben for the address of the next easy target. Unfortunately for Sayid, Ben (looking rakishly dorky in his new hat) has cancelled the Killing Widmore’s Fat Slow Guys World Tour.
He announces to Sayid, “You’re free,” and suddenly Sayid realizes he hasn’t been free since the moment he met Ben, and he probably won’t ever be truly free until Ben is out of his life for good. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sayid starts thinking that maybe, just maybe Ben had Nadia killed, and pinned it on Charles Widmore. Surely each of us who watch the show have entertained that thought. Regardless, after Ben proudly (if not spitefully) announces, “mission accomplished,” Sayid is left to wonder what he’s supposed to do now.
As a freelancer myself, I understand Sayid’s trepidation. You always think the gig will last longer than it does, and when they eventually no longer require your services, you’re stuck wondering if you’ll ever hook onto something else, and kicking yourself for not having a decent 401K.
WWWCD?
So Horace ominously brings in the wire cutters and does play a nice little head game on prisoner Sayid, only to use the tool to actually snap his bonds, but even when peace-loving Horace promises to take it to the next level, our favorite good-natured executioner remains stoic.
Juliet meanwhile, has a nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach that things are just beginning to fall apart. She’s even burning the bacon. Sawyer tries to reassure her everything they’ve built together will be fine, but even the great con man can’t bring himself to effectively sell this cheap falsehood to his lady love.
Still Sawyer believes if he’s just given some alone time with the captive, together, they can spin a plausible enough yarn to spare Sayid’s life, and hopefully earn him a nice little yellow cottage on WTF Island. Sawyer’s game plan is to sucker head-butt Sayid before hipping him to his strategy. Seriously Sawyer, if the scheme is “let’s stage a fake fight” with Sayid, you want to let him know it’s a fake fight, because Sayid might take that as a reason to “real fight,” and his real fights often end up deadly. I don’t pretend to know much about the psyche of stone-cold killers but I know this much about them. Don’t head-butt them first, and then try to explain your brilliant idea second. Maybe Sawyer didn’t get a chance to read a book before he took this action, because I highly doubt Winston Churchill would have tried to give Sayid a Nutter in order to get him on board.
What Sawyer didn’t count on after smashing foreheads was Sayid saying thanks but no thanks. I admit I’m a little surprised too. Why not just go with Sawyer’s plan and if you still want to escape, you’ll have an opportunity down the road. You’re Sayid Jarrah, just bide your time.
Sayid certainly seemed surprised that Sawyer wasn’t all that excited to just let him escape. It took a while for Sayid to process Sawyer’s loyalty to the Dharma Initiative, and he certainly seemed a bit taken aback when Sawyer referred to “them” as “us.”
It’s a tough call. Sawyer and Sayid bonded during their brief history 3 years (and thirty years) ago. Now however, Sawyer has made a life for himself. He’s made friends with these people. He’s got the beautiful girlfriend, the white picket fence, the respect of the community. Everything he ever really wanted. Everything he felt was robbed from him when he was just a child.
Sayid on the other hand views Sawyer as a sell-out.
Both viewpoints are valid, but Sawyer knows he can’t just sit idly by while Sayid gets worked over. He better start reading some more books.
MMMM… Waffle Dipping Sauce (Homer Simpson-like Drool)
I enjoyed watching Kate and Hurley fall right back into their on-island roles at the lunch table. There they were, talking low, eyes shifting to make sure no one was spying on them. Jack on the other hand was intent on enjoying his waffles, and he is still going with the flow. Maybe Jack has learned something from his first island vacation. He may not yet know what his purpose is, but at least Jack knows what his mission isn’t. His father told him long ago Jack wasn’t cut out to be a leader. Maybe Jack is finally taking some advice from the old man.
I’m happy to see that at least Jack seems to be over the whole love triangle, or love quadrangle (love square doesn’t sound right) because so am I. Jack acted pretty matter of fact with Sawyer and Juliet’s living arrangement, and he didn’t seem overly concerned about how Kate may feel about it either. Further evidence that Jack is going with the flow? Possibly.
Father Knows Best
Unless there’s more nasty information to come on Sayid’s father, he looks like Mike Brady compared to Roger Linus. Ben’s dad is one of the least believable characters in the entirety of LOST. Roger seems like a happy, normal guy, until his wife dies while delivering his own son. I understand how this could cause some resentment, and certainly could lead to a life of self-pity and alcoholism, but we’re led that smashing Lil Ben’s face into a row of steel bars isn’t an isolated incident.
And why so much anger? Because the woman Mr. Linus loved, the very woman he conceived Lil Ben with, passed away due to complications of the innocent newborn the two of them created? Now unless Lil Ben is actually as big a pain in the ass as Big Ben is, I’m just not buying that Roger Linus has built up such resentment to this child.
Sorry, if the turning point in Roger Linus’ fall from humanity is the death of his darling wife, I just don’t buy the blaming the pure and harmless child this loving union produced. Lil Ben better be an actual hell spawn in order to justify that kind of parental behavior.
I realize horrible men like Roger Linus do exist, I just don’t think we’ve seen enough of his back story to make his actions believable yet, and until then it’s hard for me to buy into the character.
What? No Hat This Time?
Flashback to Sayid trying to pay for his sins by building homes in underprivileged nations. I did like how Sayid was aware of Ben’s presence before Ben made a sound. Very Batman-like of Sayid.
And very Ben-like of Ben to tease Sayid out of retirement with news of John Locke’s murder (leaving out the minor detail that Ben himself strangled dear ol’ Baldy.) as well as mentioning that some mysterious man is camping outside of Santa Rosa, presumably to knock off Hurley.
In one 3-minute encounter, Ben managed to appeal to Sayid’s sense of self-preservation, his duty to a friend, and he also slipped in a nice little reminder about Sayid being a merciless killer. This thought has undoubtedly haunted Sayid. Even though he tries to convince himself to believe he was taking lives for the greater good, the nagging thought at the back of his mind, that maybe he does murder so effortlessly it because it’s who he is.
Don’t Tase Me Bro
I wasn’t aware they had taser guns back in ’77. Maybe Dharma patented the idea, but Sayid definitely got himself tased bro, which made it a whole lot easier to transport him to Oldham’s Out of The Way Wigwam. By the way, are we supposed to believe the combined might of scientist douchebag Radzinsky, and regular douchebag Phil are capable of restraining Sayid to that tree? Another reason this episode didn’t do it for me. We’ve seen Sayid snap a guy’s neck with his hands literally behind his back. No one had him at gunpoint, and Sawyer would have shot and missed intentionally. That was a move Sayid makes every time. Why not this Tim?. Eh, I’m disappointed.
I wasn’t disappointed in Oldham though. Just when I started thinking this creepy guy might be an even more severe tormentor than Sayid himself, he whips out a little pre- Grateful Dead concert enhancement and pretty soon Sayid is spilling his guts.
The Man’s Got Two Hobbies
Flashback to Sayid doing what he does when he’s not taking lives – picking up hotties. It was nice to see him order a MacCutcheon. MacCutcheon must be the drink of sorrowful rich men, and while Desmond may think he wants a glass, I’m betting Dharma beer is a happier buzz. Sayid is not a happy drunk, which as it turns out is part of his sexual charisma. Some chicks like bad boys, some like sad men. Ilna claims to fall into the latter camp. It should have come as no surprise for anyone who watched the episode “The Economist,” that this bar chick had a secret agenda. Of course at least the girl in “The Economist” had sex with Sayid a few times before she whipped out her gun. This one drinks his expensive whiskey and then kicks him in the face and slaps on a pair of handcuffs…and not in the sexy way.
Is Ilana really a bounty hunter, or did either Ben, or his nemesis, Charles Widmore, enlist her? It’s unclear, but my money says she works for one of those two. Either way, Sayid was legitimately apprehensive about boarding the same plane that his fellow Oceanic 6 were booked.
Back on the island, the vote was unanimous as Sawyer, feeling the peer pressure reluctantly voted to execute Sayid. Man, Sawyer has a ton of reading to do if he thinks he’s going to get Sayid out of this one. It doesn’t matter though. Sayid has given himself over to his fate. He feels he comprehends his true calling, and he’s become strangely serene.
Teenage Mischief
Some kids light bags of dog crap on fire and knock on doors, Lil’ Ben sets VW buses ablaze and helps prisoners flee. In his defense it’s a very small town, and there’s not much for a bug-eyed teenager to do after dark.
Ordinarily Jack would be barking orders, and running in to the fray to save lives, but new “go with the flow” Jack takes some of Sawyer’s verbal abuse, and then willingly follows his former rival’s orders and hoses down the building.
This leaves Lil’ Ben to spring Sayid, with the proviso that Sayid take him to the Hostile’s camp. Sayid agrees, but on their way to wherever Sayid planned on going, he and Lil’ Ben get spotted by Jin on a routine security round. Sayid has little remorse about sucker punching Jin. Clearly this fighting skill impresses the young Ben, and just as we’re left to believe Ben learned his martial art techniques from his mentor, Sayid, Lil’ Ben takes one in the chest. Clearly Sayid read a book because he had a plan. Kill the kid who gave him the book.
Again, I was disappointed with this episode, and one more reason to add to the list is because Sayid is a professional killer – he should know not to leave the scene until the job is done. Now I realize he’s a good shot, but he really should have aimed for the head. How does a natural born killer make such a mistake when he’s finally getting a chance to actually murder the child version of the man who caused him, and so many other people such great pain?
In truth, from the end of that episode we’re left to assume Lil’ Ben is dead, but come on. He’s not dead. I don’t know what effect killing Lil Ben would have on Big Ben – especially if Big Ben has somehow managed to jump back to 1977 by now.
We Need Some Time Travel Rules
Clearly there’s the Back to the Future school of thought that would suggest if Lil’ Ben dies at 14 years old, that Big Ben would never get to be Big Ben. Now if Big Ben makes the leap to the 70’s before Lil’ Ben is killed, does that change things? It’s possible to believe Big Ben is now in the 70’s because he figured out how to time travel there. If so, would that version of Big Ben still be walking around? That version of Big Ben might exist. I don’t know really, the time travel thing without ground rules laid out is too much trouble to think about. There seems to be multiple possibilities, such as a separate reality, but then there’s Faraday’s whatever happened, happened theory. Best to wait until the rules are explained to us before we state what can and can’t happen.
Like I said I don’t believe Lil’ Ben is dead, nor do I think he’ll die as a result of the gun shot. Now who saves his life? That’s likely to be answered next week. “Go with the flow” Jack will probably be reluctant. Does the burden fall on Juliet? She’s no surgeon, but she is the best doctor in the garage. Would this explain the crush Big Ben has on Juliet? Or could we see an appearance from a 1977 very much alive version of another Dr. Shephard? Dr. Christian Shephard.
We shall see.
So until next week, fire up your Hi-Def TV, (Imperative if you’re impressed with the way the special effects guys green screened the Gremlin in a Hawaiian setting) make sure you hit the record function on your TiVo, (For multiple viewings, and freeze framing purposes immediately after watching the show the first time.) keep your laptop nearby, (You’ll never know when you might need to Google the plots of various and eclectic books Lil’ Ben keeps in his library.) load up that bong, or Dharma sugar cubes as the case may be, (For some of us, LOST isn’t our only drug of choice.) and get ready to get
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Joe...a C...really? You're a buffoon. That episode was the shizz. And nowhere in your little review, which is not a review, but a lousy recap...do you really back up why it's a C.