Missing for much of the series, except when he was dying and being resurrected like Lazarus, Sayid finally gets an episode primarily to himself.
The opening flash sideways (yes they are still with us) shows Sayid in LA with Nadia and her family, having just returned from Australia.
A quick shift to the Island story, and Sayid is not in quite to loving company as he questions Dogan over his attempts to have him killed. After a fight that ends just short of him having his throat slit, Sayid is told to leave the temple. Meanwhile, outside Fake Locke has instructed Claire to go into the Temple and deliver a message. There are mentions of Jin and Sawyer, which hints that both men are alive in some form, then Claire heads off to deliver her message. And all this before the opening credit.
In the continuation of the flash, Sayid’s story in LA twists and turns as Nadia’s husband, Sayid’s brother, attempts to get him to take revenge on someone who has swindled money from the couple in a business deal gone bad. When Sayid refuses to help, His brother ends up fighting for his life in hospital after being attacked. Despite Nadia’s pleas for him to do nothing, Sayid is forced to take action. He soon finds himself face to face with Martin Keamy, a man last seen on the island a couple of seasons back as one of Charles Whidmore’s mercenaries. He met a grisly end then, and suffers the same fate when Sayid shoots him here. The familiar faces and connections continue to come as Sayid finds that Keamy was holding someone else hostage Jin. We don’t know why Jin is there, but there are certainly threads coming together and it is still uncertain as to how this storyline is going to merge with the Island one.
On the Island, Sayid is provided with the revelation that it was not the people at the Temple who resurrected him but something else. Before he can find anything else, Claire arrives with her message that “You know who” wants to see Dogan, and suddenly Sayid is being asked for help rather than being banished. Dogan tells Sayid that Jacob’s death has released evil incarnate upon the island, and evil that has taken on the form of someone he knows. Suddenly Sayid finds a knife in his hand and the instruction to kill this impostor. There are no prizes for guessing who the someone is going to be.
As Kate returns to the Temple and learns of events in her absence, she discovers that Claire is alive and well. Considering in the last episode Claire promised to kill Kate if she had taken her baby, it could be a reunion of a not too pleasant nature.
Out in the jungle, Sayid comes face to face with the Fake Locke and as instructed drives a knife into his chest. Unfortunately the desired effect is not achieved as Fake Locke removes the knife and tells Sayid that the only reason Dogan said to use the knife was so he, Locke, would kill him. As we already know, Dogan has wanted Sayid dead for a few episodes now, this seems a plausible story, and in a matter of moments Fake Locke, or The Smoke Monster, or even the Man in Black if you prefer, has Sayid wrapped around his finger.
Soon Sayid is back at the Temple, telling the people they are free because Jacob is dead. He tells them that Fake Locke is leaving the island for good and they have until sundown to decide whether they want to leave with him. If they choose to stay, Sayid tells them they will die. Can any of this be the truth? This is Lost, so truth comes very rarely and as it seems the Man in Black cannot enter the Temple, it could quite easily be a rouse to get everyone out in the open. Inside the Temple, Kate tells Claire that she took her baby off the island and he is waiting for her. The news does not go down well and Kate leaves with Claire’s words ringing in the air “He is coming and no one can stop him.”
Sayid returns the knife he used on Fake Locke to Dogan and asks why he has just not killed him himself. Dogan tells Sayid that he was once a businessman, but one night he crashed his car and almost killed his own son. While in hospital, Dogan was visited by Jacob who told him he would save the boy if Dogan agreed to go to the island. After learning this and with sundown looming, Sayid tells Dogan that he has decided to stay on the island before drowning him in the pool and destroying the last defense of the Temple against the Smoke Monster.
In possibly the most frantic scenes of the season so far, the Smoke Monster bursts into the Temple and starts destroying the people there. Kate heads to save Claire while Miles is surprised to find Frank Lapedes, Ben Linus (it’s been a while since we’ve seen them) and the others who were last seen on the beach by Jacobs place of death arriving to save them.
And as the episode draws to its close we finally have a worthy cliffhanger and a clear dividing of the islanders as Sayid and Claire recruit Kate into their ranks and leave the Temple to find Fake Locke and the rest of this set of Others waiting for them. So now we are starting to see the shape of things to come. Two groups on opposite sides of the coin. We all know that in the end it is going to come down to Jack and Locke, but the question (of many) is how will it get there. We wait with baited breath.
Without doubt one of the best episodes of this final series so far and hopefully a portent of more to come.
