One BIG spoiler.

Lost Official Site

The Time:
Wednesdays, 9:00 PM, ABC

The Show:

When
Oceanic Flight 815 from Sydney to London went down somewhere over the
Pacific, the survivors of the crash found themselves marooned on a
tropical island.  But this is no ordinary island; it has
unusual magnetic, temporal, healing and seemingly supernatural
properties, and is fraught with constant danger.  There is
a mysterious black smoke-like creature, polar bears, and even
apparitions of the dead roaming the forest.  The island is
also the former secret haven of a group called the Dharma Initiative,
who were running experiments utilizing the unique properties of the
island via research stations that dot the landscape.  Now the
Oceanic survivors, led by Dr. Jack Sheppard, Kate Austen, James
“Sawyer” Ford, John Locke, Hugo “Hurley” Reyes, Sayid Jarrah and
others, seek a way to escape the island and its many dangers. 
But there are people, both living on the island and seeking the island
from outside, who are at war for control of it, and the Oceanic
survivors find themselves caught in the middle.  Told via
nonlinear fashion that incorporates flashbacks and flash forwards, Lost is one of the most unique and densely mythological shows on television.

The Stars:

•  Matthew Fox – Dr. Jack Sheppard
•  Evangeline Lilly – Kate Austen
•  Josh Holloway – James “Sawyer” Ford
•  Naveen Andrews – Sayid Jarrah
•  Terry O’Quinn – John Locke
•  Jorge Garcia – Hugo “Hurley” Reyes
•  Daniel Dae Kim – Jin Kwon
•  Yunjin Kim – Sun Kwon
•  Michael Emerson – Benjamin Linus
•  Henry Ian Cusick – Desmond Hume
•  Elizabeth Mitchell – Juliet Burke
•  Jeremy Davies – Daniel Faraday
•  Nestor Carbonell – Richard Alpert
•  Alan Dale – Charles Widmore
•  Reiko Aylesworth – Amy

The Episode:He’s Our You”

Details of Sayid’s relationship with Ben in between his two stints on the island, as well as other periods in Sayid’s life are explored in flashback.  In the present – which is actually the past – Sayid is still the prisoner of the Dharma Initiative.  Although Sawyer is looking for a way to free him without compromising his own position and that of the other Losties, Sayid doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to be let go.  However, Sayid is eventually freed by someone in the camp when the Dharma people decide to kill him.  He then does something so unbelievable that it could change everything in the future.

The Lowdown:

Everybody’s going to be talking about the ending of this episode until the airing of the next episode.  It turned a fairly pedestrian installment into what’s sure to be one of the bigger-debated topics of the season.  However, before we get to that, leave us cover the rest of the episode first.  It wasn’t one of the better ones of the season.  This is a Sayid-centric episode where we see what transpired in the relationship between Sayid and Ben once Sayid got off the island.  We also get to see just how Sayid came to be on the Ajira Air flight that got everyone back to the island.

On the subject of why Sayid and Ben were whacking Widmore’s people, we’d already caught a good deal of the information and what was seen here didn’t provide any worthwhile new info, except how Sayid and Ben terminated their relationship…which fairly sucked.  Not saying that there has to be a Robert Towne magnum opus behind every storyline of the show, just that it simply had no oomph.  Ben just says good-bye and walks away.  Obviously he was manipulating Sayid to do his dirty work, but the relationship just ends and my expectation deflates.  When Sayid realizes he’s been played into wasting several people, that’s probably what sends him over the edge in terms of Ben.  But it’s internalized as shit and not what I had expected nor hoped for.  Or perhaps it’s only that I assumed and…well, we all know how that goes.

As for the stuff back on the island, not terribly riveting this week, except for when Sayid got shown to the Dharma version of him: Oldham (William Sanderson).  I prefer the ’70s version of torture to be sure.  The groundwork for the Juliet-Sawyer-Kate situation was laid out this week.  And like I said, before, I hope they don’t drag that out.  I just don’t have the patience for it.  The season’s going well and one of the things sure to derail it, if even a little would be that.  Or Juliet-Jack-Kate, or Sawyer-Kate-Jack or…you see what I’m getting at.  I also wasn’t terribly interested in how Sayid ended up with Ilana (Zuleikha Robinson), who escorted him onto the plane in handcuffs.  Once I saw her in the bar it was pretty obvious what was going to go down. 

Finally: the ending.  Sayid shoots little Ben Linus in the chest, bringing about one of them paradox things that Doc Brown warned us about.  It’s only natural that the whole, “killing someone in the past to alter the future” scenarios was eventually going to play out.  Unfortunately, as shocking as the scene was, unless they pull out some kind of major rabbit out of their hat, Ben wasn’t killed by the bullet and will be given medical attention, probably from Jack next week.  That would be my guess.  Pretty obvious but sometimes obvious is the way to go.  Of course this is Lost.  So who knows?  Not a great episode, but at least we didn’t find out how someone got tattoos or something….

6.7 out of 10