"He's our you" (510) Recap and comments

A terrific Episode which rocketed along, thanks to The Island’s introduction of Jack, Kate, Hugo and Sayid into the 1977 DHARMA Initiative

Tikrit:
In a scene reminiscent of the one during which Young Yemi is ordered to kill a man but his older brother Eko does the deed for him, Young Sayid "helps" his (older) brother by wringing a chicken’s neck (like Goodwin did) and gives the dead chicken into his brother’s hands, intending to take no credit for the deed. His brother, however, admits that Sayid did the killing - and their Father praises Sayid for his courage. 2008 Sayid’s been a Killer (and a torturer) for decades.
The similarity between the two scenarios suggests the circularity of Human existence on the Wheel of Birth, Death and Reincarnation - but also suggests (again) that LOST is a Game in which various Players are assigned Roles. In Sayid’s case, his Role (in this Ep at least) is "Killer".

1977 Otherville jail:
Young Ben brings Sayid another sandwich (chicken, naturally) while Phil polishes his gun. He also brings the prisoner a book - "A Separate Reality" by Carlos Castaneda.
A Separate Reality... real, but unreal ... "Real", but an Illusion ... possibly a Game (with Rules), possibly a multi-party shared Santa Rosa hallucination, possibly a "Matrix"-like False Reality, possibly a shared Dream, possibly a Star Trek Holodeck-style Drama ...

According to Wikipedia: "As in his previous book, "The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge", Castaneda describes the experiences he has as an apprentice to Don Juan Matus (a self-proclaimed Yaqui Indian Sorcerer) while under the influence of the psychotropic plants that Don Juan offered. The main focus of the book centered around Don Juan's attempts at getting Carlos to See, a practice best described as, in Castaneda's own words, "perceiving energy directly as it flows through the universe".

The book contains an introduction, an epilogue and two separate parts. Part One, "The Preliminaries of 'Seeing'", describes his re-initiation into the apprenticeship from which he withdrew in late 1965, and also describes his introduction to another brujo (sorcerer) named Don Genaro. Part Two, "The Task of 'Seeing'", elaborates on the mental processes involved with Seeing, and begins with Castaneda realizing that the plants are a necessary tool to arrive at Seeing."

So ... we viewers have yet to learn to "see" LOST for what it "really" is. I cast my mind back to Charlie’s S1 tattoo: "Living is easy with eyes closed" - the subsequent line for which is: "misunderstanding all you see". Most of us are still - 4 Seasons later - misunderstanding all we see. LOST is not the Story of Jack, Kate etc. It’s not about the Ben/Widmore War. It’s not even about the Island in and of itself.

Having handed Sayid food for his body and for his mind, Young Ben tells us that he bumped into Richard "four years ago" - which would be 1973, when Ben was about 9 years old, which is also the year that Ben and Roger arrived on the Island.
As a slight aside - If Lostpedia is right about Ben’s birthdate (12/21/65), he adopted Alex (in 1988) when he was 23 years old, four or five years before The Purge (1992 or 1993) - which means that four or five years before he killed his Dad, he’d already adopted a baby girl. OK, then.

Be that as it may, Ben has a Plan to spring Sayid from jail.

Moscow:
Sayid’s "last" Assassination Target is panic-stricken as he rushes into his apartment, locking various doors behind him and grabbing a handful of cash from his Paik-style digital safe in a futile effort to bribe Death.

The fact that Andropow’s safe is similar, if not identical to Paik’s suggests that the Separate Reality we are witnessing has finite Capacity or Memory; that the Island (via Smokey) can only Manifest what’s been down-loaded from the memories of the Players.
After Sayid kills him (two shots), Sayid exits the building and has a memorable encounter with Ben, during which he mentions the bribe - and that it "didn’t work". Sayid takes Pride in his Work.

When Ben tells Sayid that there’s no one left for him to kill, Sayid is lost, not knowing what he should do next. Ben specifically tells him that he’s " free" - that he should go and live his life. But, just like the similar conversation after the death of Bakir, Ben still knows how to pull Sayid’s strings.

So ... who is The Economist? Based on the fact that Elsa didn’t know that Sayid worked for Ben - something that Charles Widmore would certainly have known - The Economist is not CW. And yet, Ben tells Sayid that there’s no one else in Widmore’s organization who needs to be taken care of, implying that Widmore is The Economist. Maybe all of Sayid’s assassinations were merely training exercises, meant to prepare him for his real goal - the assassination of Young Ben.

Otherville jail:
Horace (Mathematician) plus Radzinsky and Phil enter Sayid’s cell, where Horace cuts off Sayid’s zip-tie "hand-cuffs" and threatens Enhanced Interrogation if Sayid doesn’t start talking within the hour. Why is a Mathematician the local Sherriff and Mayor?

Casa LaFleur/Burke: While Juliet stares out the window at Kate’s door, the bacon’s burning in the frying pan (as in "from the fat to the fire"). Coupled with her muffin-burning in TOTC, I’d suggest that Juliet should stay away from stoves and ovens.
Talk about low self-esteem - the mere fact of Kate’s return to Otherville leads Juliet to doubt the durability of her relationship with James: "It’s over, isn’t it? This, us, playing house". Note that "playing house" is a Kate phrase and that "This, us" is a Desmond phrase - the Island Separate Reality Game recycling within its limited stock of phrases. Note also that James assures Juliet that "everything’s under control". In his dreams

And yet, within a few hours, Kate’s been educated about the James/Juliet relationship and has explicitly ceded ownership of James to Juliet.

Enter Horace, who informs Jim that the prisoner isn’t talking and that the next step is a visit to Oldham (the "psychopath"). James gets his shot at extracting Sayid’s co-operation and marches over to Otherville Jail, where he orders Phil to take a long walk. His attempt to persuade Sayid to join in on the LaFleur Long Con fails because Sayid’s been so carefully trained (by Ben) to hate Ben - who maneuvered him into all those murders and learning to enjoy - or at least tolerate - his Work.

I’ve written elsewhere that Ben often appears to be The Master Manipulator, but that he himself is being played by Someone Else. This entity might be Jacob, the Island - or maybe future-dwelling Alvar Hanso. If so, this Entity is the true Man Behind The Curtain - the true "Watchmen" Ozymandias.

DI Cafeteria:
Hugo Cook brings some food to Jack Workman and Kate Mechanic. Talk about "Roles" ... talk about Karma ... talk about Jim’s (or Juliet’s) sense of humour.
I guess that "Love is Blind" because Kate genuinely seems not to have known that James (multiply scorned by her and separated from her for three subjective years) now belongs to Juliet. At least, she reacts with grace. Her "love" for James may have been her reason to Go Back, but she’s unwilling (for now at least) to fight for his affection.

As per standard, Jack hangs back and dutifully accepts whatever scraps of Rebound Love that Kate tosses at his feet. A couple of subjective days ago, she dragged him to bed, only to slap him in the face the next day. Then, after a sexual foreplay-style North Valley embrace with Ford, Jack hangs back some more. Ah, but that same night (I think) she invites Jack back into her bed.

Jail:
Roger Work Man mops the jail area floor, but really just wants to taunt the Prisoner by asking how he could be dumb enough to have been captured by dimwits like Radzinsky and Kwon. I guess the point of this exchange is to make us dislike Roger more than we already do - which sets up the following Bad Daddy scene - in which Young Ben is verbally and physically abused by Roger. This abuse helps to "explain" Ben’s Character, making it that much harder for Sayid to stick to his Mission - but he’s been well-enough conditioned that he carries it out all the same.

Santo Domingo:
Ben visits Sayid to inform him of Locke’s death. Playing on Sayid’s affection for Hugo and his guilt over his earlier rejection of Locke’s Go Back request, Ben delivers his lines and leaves, secure in the knowledge that the seeds he’s just planted in Sayid’s mind will bear fruit very shortly. Note the close correlation between the "Flashback" and Sayid’s "present day" memories, motivations and actions: having heard Ben tell him that he’s a Killer - that all the Free Will choices he ever made to torture and to kill weren’t Free Will at all because Killing is in his Nature (plus a lot of Nurture), Sayid comes to believe this "Truth".
Note that Ben considers himself a Good Person who is not a Killer.

Jail:
The Posse have come to take The Prisoner to The Torturer. This process starts with LaFleur giving Sayid a Last Chance to speak up. When he doesn’t, LaFleur shocks Sayid in the crotch! That had to hurt.

Oldham’s Office:
The music playing on Oldham’s wind-up phonograph is a Billie Holiday song whose words include: "I can’t give you anything but Love, the only thing I’ve got plenty of" - a little ironic for an Interrogator.
Oldham’s Office consists of a patchwork tent inspired by Locke’s Grow-Op Sweat Lodge, some outdoor tables loaded with vials of chemicals and some trees with strategically-placed restraint-straps.
Oldham is played by William Sanderson - who played JF Sebastian in "Blade-Runner" - and who also played in 12 Eps (in 2008) of "True Blood" - the very same show in which Michael Emerson’s wife Carrie Preston also played 12 Eps in 2008. Small world, eh?
When Sayid asks LaFleur who Oldham is, he answers: "He’s our you" - meaning he’s our Interrogator. But Oldham doesn’t resort to torture. He uses Truth Drugs instead - something the US military wishes it had (maybe they do have it?).

Long Beach Marina:
With the "illusion" in the background, Sayid stalks off after Kate announces that "This is insane. You are all crazy". Insane ... crazy ... Illusion. Can the LOST writers be any more obvious that what we (and the Players) think is "real" isn’t?

We catch up to Sayid - once again lost - drinking some MacCutcheon’s - Widmore’s brand of Scotch. Ilana - whose facial mannerisms and speech patterns are almost identical to Elsa’s - is there to pick him up. Whereas Sayid asked Elsa to dinner, Ilana asks Sayid to buy her a glass of MacCutcheon’s.

Ilana: "When you're that good at something, there are always going to be people who tempt you into staying the same." This line reminded me of Dave - who tried to keep Hugo from Changing. The Island, it seems is all in favour of Change, getting Players out of their "stuck" groove - helping them to Evolve.
Sayid is a slow learner and is conned by a beautiful woman. Again. It seems that Ilana - like Boba Fett of Star Wars - is a Bounty Hunter. She’s apparently been hired by the family of Peter Avellino and her Mission is to arrest and transport Sayid to Guam - where he will "answer for what he’s done". Maybe in Guam (alleged) criminals don’t have the rights they have here in North America.

Oldham’s Lab: As the drug-soaked sugar cube takes effect, Horace says: "Hello there" - just as he did in Locke’s Dream. Sayid is now ready to tell the Truth, including the Truth that he’s from The Future and that "you’re all going to die". His interrogators don’t quite believe that. Yet.

Kangaroo Court:
With Rabid Radzinsky foaming at the mouth about the Secrecy surrounding the design/construction of The Swan (as if the DI could possibly build such a large installation secretly), Sayid is sentenced to death on no motive plus non-existent evidence. Note that it’s Truce-Breaking Amy who sways the "Jury" to vote for Radzinsky’s Solution. When she said that "we have no choice", my first thought was: "there’s always a choice".

It seems that the (somewhat) hippy-dippy peace/love DI was readily willing to kill, whereas Family Ben/Richard (who use bolos, tasers, trank-darts, sling-shots and trip-wires) seem to genuinely be (or try to be) Non-Killers - maybe because they are all themselves Resurrected Murder Victims.

Note that Radzinsky (first name Stuart) is "Head of Research" and (possibly because of his Flame responsibilities) also has the privilege of consulting TPTB in Ann Arbor. Hmmm who might these folks be? Hanso? Mittelwerk? The DeGroote’s?
Note that Future Radzinsky (and therefore Inman) knew about the Hostiles. It may be that he and Kelvin quarantined/will quarantine themselves in The Swan during and after The Purge. I wonder if Radzinsky’s suicide was triggered by guilt over his role in the Sayid Affair.
Note that in an effort to enhance their "security" by deciding to execute Sayid, the DI may have helped trigger their own subsequent destruction. Recognizing the futility of his lone dissenting vote, LaFleur reluctantly knuckles under to Groupthink.

In a noble last-ditch effort to save Sayid’s life, LaFleur offers to stage a fake Jail-break like the Michael/Ben Con - another Illusion. Sayid declines, because he’s convinced himself that the Righteous Path for him includes murdering an innocent child. He too has become a Man of Faith.
Just before Kate spells out her reason for Returning, Ben’s Burning Bus Distraction sends all the Dharmites into Fire-Person mode.

I had to laugh when James said something to Jack along the lines of "We had three years of no burning buses [until] ... you’re all back for one day."

Jail:
Ben, wearing his Donnie Darko/Charlie Pace/Miles Straum hoodie, approaches Sayid and proposes a bargain: He’ll spring Sayid if Sayid promises to take him to Richard and his Hostiles. Sayid replies: "Yes, Ben, I will. That’s why I’m here" Sayid has discerned his Purpose.

LAX:
When (cuffed) Sayid spots Hugo, then Jack and then Kate ready to board Flight 316, he asks Ilana to skip this flight and take the next - because he’s" very superstitious" about flying. She replies that she’ll buy him a rabbit’s foot. Like the ones belonging to Roger Work Man, David Reyes and the Co-pilot of the O6 Coast Guard plane.

Jailbreak:
When Jin spots Sayid in the bush, he’s willing to let him go, subject to LaFleur’s approval. So Sayid executes a ninja move on him and knocks him out. Too bad for Jin that he suddenly forgot all his Tae kwon do training. When Sayid grabbed Jin’s pistol and said: "You were right about me. I am a killer", I thought for a moment (as I was meant to) that he was about to shoot Jin. But he shot Young Ben instead!
　
　
So ... if Ben is not dead, his near-murder may help lead (over time) to The Purge.

But if Sayid the Experienced Assassin really did kill Young Ben (it looked like a shot to the heart to me) the implication is that The Ben Entity that murdered Roger Work Man was a Resurrected Non-living Person like "Christian". I’ve been speculating for years that Ben may not be human - and the Assassination of Young Ben may offer the proof that this has been true for 4.5 Seasons. It would certainly explain Ben’s apparent ability to teleport - and his apparent ability to read minds. It would also explain CW’s remark, as well as Miles’ that he knows what Ben is.

So ... if Ben is an Island Manifestation, is he a slave to the island’s will? Does he have any Free Will of his own? Was his Sin - the one that got him banished - that he wanted a "real" daughter of his own? Is this why CW argued that it was Ben’s fault that Alex was murdered?
Is "Ben" opposed to "Christian"? Do these two Manifestations embody the duality/schizophrenia of The Island itself? Where does Future-seeing Widmore fit into this waltz?

Is "Ben" still acting as The Island’s Faithful Servant (or at least the Servant of the Light/Good Aspect of The Island)? Or does he have a "personal" mission - a personal agenda?