Lost: Friends in Low Places

Last week’s episode of LOST was so upsetting that I needed time to rewatch and let it sink in. My initial reaction was something like this:

SAYID, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last week we got The Purge Round 2. Except this time instead of Ben Linus making a deal with Richard and the allegedly “good” Others following Jacob’s instructions, we have Sayid making a deal with Flocke (the devil?) who is allegedly on the bad side. Looks like the same situation to me, which makes the whole black/white dynamic awfully gray.

I don’t know who else really felt like we were watching a reincarnation of The Purge, but that was all I could think about once Sayid crossed over the ash mark outside the temple. Back in Dharmaville when Ben was an angsty kid, he tried to cross through the turbines after seeing his dead mother. He ran into Richard who said that he could join him (and Mommy?), but he would have to be patient, and eventually do something for The Others. This something turned out to be annihilating the entire Dharma Initiative so that The Others were the only survivors on the island. Now tell me this isn’t pretty much the same thing: Sayid crosses out of the temple, runs into Flocke, who says that he can be reunited with Nadia if he does something for him. This something is delivering a message to The Temple people, that if they stay, they will be killed (a la Dharma Initiative), or they can join him (a la The Others). In my mind, Sayid made a deal with Flocke the same way Ben did with Richard. Are we supposed to believe that the two were pledging allegiance to opposite sides of the good/evil spectrum? I don’t know, mass murder always seems like a bad choice to me. Why would a benevolent Jacob want to wipe out the peace loving Dharma Initiative, and why does Flocke want the weirdo Temple people dead? What will happen with all those people set to leave the island with Flocke?

I was so heartbroken this week because I love me some Sayid. Even though he was a torturer and a tortured soul, I always thought that he was a good man at heart, just like he tries to tell Dogen before they try and beat one another to death. Side note: that fight scene in the temple was amazing. Felt like Alias in the good ol days. Bitchin. Anywho, Dogen ultimately tries to get Flocke to kill Sayid by sending him out of the temple for a little chat, but Sayid ends up killing Dogen after returning from his romp in the woods with Flocke. I’m just shocked. Was Sayid really infected? Did something happen to him that tipped the scale in the wrong direction? He looked full on cray cray killing Dogen and his groovy translator (also, why was Dogen the only thing keeping Flocke out?), and when he told Ben that he was staying at the temple, and that there was no way out for him anymore. Does he really think he will get to be with Nadia? Sayid may make some bad choices, but I always thought he was one of the more rational Losties, so what is going on? I have a feeling that being with Nadia will be like being with a psycho-messed-up-demonic version of Nadia, like in Practical Magic or something. Something wicked this way comes for sure, oy.

In Sayid’s alternate reality, I still thought he was basically a good man even though he murdered a couple people. He still felt he didn’t deserve Nadia but he did those morally questionable things to protect his family. Meh? I’m distraught with bad Sayid.

Let’s jump to Crazy Claire. Maybe I take back what I said last week… she is pulling off crazy pretty well, just not in the way I grew to love with Rousseau. Her creepy singing and alien-like hand wringing was enough to sell me on the fact that she is messed up though. Her “friend” was clearly a bad influence. She seems to know what the deal is with Flocke and what he is and what he’s doing, so I want to know more. Who is this new crazy Claire and is she going to try and kill Kate? Also, I don’t understand why instead of saying “Claire, I took Aaron,” Kate wouldn’t say something like, “Claire, you went crazy and wandered off in the middle of the night, leaving Aaron in a tree, and so I took care of him because you chose to stay with your fake father in a creepy cabin.” Gotta tread lightly around crazy people.

Back to The Purge 2 — The Temple looked pretty much like the Dharma destruction, and that rendition of “Catch a Falling Star” couldn’t have been creepier. I feel bad that Kate kind of got stuck with the crazies and put into a frenemy situation. So, is the bad team Sayid, Claire, Flocke, the people who chose to leave the Temple, and maybe Kate, unless she can escape? Where did Ilana, Ben, Lapidus, Sun, and Miles go? Are they supposedly the good team? Where did Ilana come from and why does she know what to do?

Tonight, we are going to get to know more about Ben. Is he a goner? Will he redeem himself? I want the manipulative Ben back. Also, where the hell are Widmore and Eloise? And Cindy? They better all be involved somehow somewhere. On a final note, even though I hated the introduction of the Temple people, I can’t help but feel like we got rid of Dogen too soon. I mean, at least the newbies weren’t as bad as Paulo and Nicki, right? But the real loss this week was Sayid. He was one of the best. So much for his candidacy.

Season 6 Episode 6: Sundown (Originally Aired March 2, 2010)

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Photographs courtesy of ABC and Mario Perez