Lost: Paradox Lost

This week it’s all Sayid, all the time, but a dramatic uh-oh ending that leaves everyone wondering how the writers are going to finagle their way out of this one.  We begin in familiar territory: a flashback.  Sayid is a child and kills a chicken for his brother.  Me, I preferred Transformers, but I’m from the suburbs and not the Iraqi desert.  From this scene we learn that Sayid either has killer instincts or will do what he needs to do to help people.  We explore this battle through the rest of the flashbacks as we see how Sayid came back to the Island.

We know from last season that after he left he became Ben’s hit man and started knocking off various people in Charles Widmore’s empire.  After Sayid kills the last one in Russia, Ben tosses him aside like a hooker that’s past her prime.  Sayid retires to build houses in the Dominican Republic but that does not last long.  Ben finds him and says that Locke is dead; he needs Sayid to come with him because the same people may be after Sayid as well.  Well, not exactly, Ben.  Sayid says no but still goes to Los Angeles and winds up on the dock with the other Oceanics.

After he wants nothing more to do with Ben, he goes to a hotel for very expensive scotch and strikes up a conversation with Ilana, who is not “a professional” as Sayid suspects.  Sort of.  She’s a professional bounty hunter and that night she shoves a boot in Sayid’s face and takes him into her custody so she can return him to the family of one of the guys he killed for Ben.  The next day they head to the airport and get on the same plane bound for “Guam,” a/k/a The Island.  Sayid suspects Ilana is a front for Ben but she isn’t (or at least says she isn’t).

Flashback to 1977 Dharmaland and Sayid is in the Dharma jail, suspected of being a Hostile.  Since Sayid won’t talk, Horace takes Sayid to the village hippie/torturer, Oldham, for a sugar cube of LSD or something while being tied to a tree.  (Sounds like my summer camp!)  In his high state, he talks about LaFleur as Sawyer and tells the Dharma guys that they are going to all die (i.e., the Purge).  They all think that Oldham overdosed Sayid and take Sayid back to the jail.

The Dharma leadership or Judicial Committee meet and, after an impassioned rant by Amy, unanimously vote to execute Sayid.  And yes, Sawyer voted as well–you see, he offered Sayid an opportunity to escape but Sayid refused.  While Sayid is in his cell, he attracts the attention of a young Ben Linus.  Ben is intrigued by the Hostiles since he met Richard and asked about joining their group.  Ben’s father Roger, though, is an abusive ass and beats Ben for making Sayid a sandwich.

Sayid and Ben form an alliance where Ben will help Sayid escape and Sayid will take him to the Hostiles.  So as the flaming Dharma bus goes rolling into a building, Ben and Sayid escape into the jungle.  Jin catches them but Sayid quickly knocks him out.  And then without warning, Sayid tells Ben that he is a killer and shoots the kid, who collapses, apparently dead.

Didn’t see that one coming.  Now, I think we can assume that Ben does not die because under the Lost time travel rules, you can’t change the future.  I think we can all agree that killing Ben would certainly change something or at least create a paradox that would rip apart the space-time continuum.  And even with Jack on janitor duty, that’s still a huge mess to clean up.  (Speaking of, will Jack operate on Ben and save his life a second time?)

So did future Ben tell Sayid to go back and kill him?  Or is Sayid’s shooting Ben what turned Ben into the devilish man he becomes?  Now I’ve got a headache.  Can someone get me one of those fun sugar cubes?

Season 5, Episode 10: He’s Our You (originally aired March 25, 2009)

For another take on this episode, check out Would you kill baby Hitler? by Robin Reed.

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Wednesdays, 9/8c on ABC

Photographs courtesy of ABC