LOST
Season 4 Episode 7
“Ji Yeon”
Written by Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz
Directed by Stephen Semel
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

And the neighbours were said to have heard: Bastaaaardds!!!

Okay, let’s do it like this; let’s divvy this up between on the Island, on the freighter, and off the Island…

On the freighter:
Frank takes a whole bunch of canned goods to Sayid and Des, who are under lock and key once more after their unauthorized excursion to the comm room, during which time poor Minkowski did an Eloise.
On guard, Regina in the flesh, portrayed by Zoe Bell. Finally we see Zoe. Only to have her wrap some chains around herself and jump overboard.
Bye bye, Zoe.
WTF?!
And I thought Fisher Stevens came and went…

Anyway, no one even tries to jump in to save Regina, and Sayid and Des finally meet the freighter’s captain, Gault (Grant Bowler), who says that a) a number of his crew have been having some mental issues, as evidenced by Regina’s swan dive; b) there’s a saboteur on board; and c) the ship belongs to one Charles Widmore (so, Ben wasn’t lying about that).
The captain also shows Sayid and Des what is supposed to be the black box recovered from the Oceanic 815 crash, where all those corpses were found, including one that was supposed to be Sayid…
So the captain claims that the man behind the elaborate ruse (which required 324 corpses as props) is one Benjamin Linus…

Returning from their audience with the captain, whom Sayid wryly describes as “surprisingly forthcoming,” they’re moved into a new room, and who do they meet but Kevin Johnson.
You know, Kevin! Who looks exactly like some scummy traitor known as Michael.
Of course, Sayid and Des are on the ball, and don’t let on to the fact that they recognize this schmuck. (Of course, right now, I’m doing some memory scrabbling and trying to recall if Des was sober enough to have remembered Michael…)

On the beach:
Jin and Sun are talking baby names, but Sun doesn’t want to jinx it, so she doesn’t play along. Jin thinks it’s going to be a girl, and wants to name his daughter “Ji Yeon.”
When Kate and company get back, Sun asks what went down, and Kate tells all (I love Sun’s reaction to hearing that Charlotte whacked Kate on the head; go, Sun! Show that Brit b!tch some Korean whoop-a$$!), including the fact that Juliet euphemistically referred to the poison gas factory as a “power station.”

This penchant Juliet has for sometimes avoiding the truth like the plague, gets Sun suspicious once more of the Other woman, and after unsuccessfully trying to get something out of Daniel in regards to their rescue, she gets it into her fool head to go join Locke, because she doesn’t trust these newcomers.
But when Sun needs some prenatal vitamins from Juliet, Juliet is deathly opposed to the idea, since Sun really needs to get off the Island, and quick. But Sun’s gotten dubious about Ju-Ju’s claims, so she’s off for LockeLandia.
Kate draws the Kwons a map and all, and tells them she has to tell Jack, but she’ll give them a good head start first. Sun says she wanted to tell Jack, but decided not to because “he wouldn’t understand.”
But Ju-Ju busts that party and at first tries to tell Jin about Sun’s condition (as Jin explained to Jack earlier, he understands English better than he speaks it), but when Jin says, Wherever Sun goes, I go, Ju-Ju whips out her trump card: Juliet tells Jin about Sun’s affair! (And although I understood precisely why Juliet said that, I still so hated her guts just then.)
Sun slaps an already beaten-up Juliet (ouchee), and Jin stalks off back to the beach.

Sun tries to explain, but Jin just wants to go fish. Luckily, Bernard, bless his soul, arrives, and at first unaware of the argument, asks Jin if he can tag along.
Bernard realizes he’s walked right into the middle of something, and is apologetic and is backing off, when Jin says it’s okay.
So the only two married men on the Island (well, from 815; who knows how many of the natives are married; come to think of it, some of the 815 sock puppets could be married too, but how are we to know?) go fishing, and Bernard tells Jin about Rose’s cancer.

Back on the beach, Juliet tells Sun, I just had to stop you from leaving.
Ju-Ju then outlines the next handful of weeks for Sun, an inevitable scenario that ends with her death, and right after that, the baby’s.
You’re my patient, Juliet says, and you need to get off this Island.
When Jin gets back, he prepares dinner for Sun (Jin’s practicing English is adorable), and basically says, I know the man I was back then, before the Island.
I know that what you did back then, you did to that man.
I forgive you.
(Which, let’s face it, already slew me at face value, but in light of our final Off the Island section, well… devastating…)
Jin says, I’ll go with you to Locke’s camp, but Sun says, I don’t want to go there anymore. Juliet was very convincing.
They have a helicopter, she says.
Jin says, I’ll do whatever it takes to protect you and the baby…

Off the Island:
A very pregnant Sun, back in Korea, goes into labour.
Cut to Jin, who’s frantic to get to the hospital, but passes by a store to buy a stuffed panda first.
With Sun, it’s all labour pains and new doctors (her usual one is at a conference, damn him!), with Jin, it’s all, played for laughs, need to get to the hospital, oh crap, I need to buy another panda, oh more crap, my cell phone just got ran over.
So all through this, I had a bunch of suspicions.

Suspicion A: this new doctor and that nurse doping up Sun were evil, evil I say.
They were here to steal Sun’s baby, to study it, it apparently being the first infant to have been conceived on the Island, and to have lived to tell the tale. (Unless Ben used to do that in the past—get the preggers women off the Island before they reached their third trimester, have them deliver off Island, then bring them back when both mother and infant were a-ok—which I always wondered about and I believe I mentioned here at the Iguana before.)
Anyway, it would be that whole Knots Landing, Oh, we’re so sorry, but your baby died during labour, but then Valene just knows she gave birth to a baby that was alive, and no, I was not confused by the drugs, where is my baby you bastards?!
So.
Anyway.
Evil baby snatchers.

Suspicion B: somewhere along the way, I began to think, Oh no, what if they both got off the Island, but in the end—due to the whole Sun having an affair thing—didn’t end up together, and Jin’s actually hurrying up to get to some other woman who’s now his wife, who just happens to be delivering at the same time as Sun.
Of course, if I had had the luxury to think this suspicion through, it would be impossible for Jin to have both found (and perhaps married) another woman and gotten her preggers so that her delivery would coincide with Sun’s. (Unless Jin actually physically time-traveled somehow and that his sperm stayed healthy and alive even after he’d gotten off the Island…)
Anyway, the core of this particular suspicion was that Jin was not heading to Sun’s side, that when he got to the hospital, we’d have the reveal of some other woman with her newborn baby.

Suspicion C: which, before we get into it, I must say, was a niggle at the back of my mind, pretty much overshadowed by Suspicion A (Evil! Evil!), was that Jin and Sun were in different timelines (which would also have worked hand-in-hand with Suspicion B).
But as I said, it was a niggle, so when the reveal came that they were indeed in different times (Sun, post-Island; Jin, two weeks into their marriage, and he was hurrying to the hospital to deliver the panda to some ambassador or other, on orders of Sun’s evil da), the immediate question which overrode the small, though still significant surprise, was, Where’s Jin?
And this is the point where I irrationally shouted at the screen, Bastaaaardds!!!

Hurley shows up to greet the proud mama and Ji Yeon, and then they all troop off to see Jin… who’s in the cemetery.
I say again, Bastaaaardds!!!

I can only assume at this point that Jin did do all he could to protect Sun and the baby, and this is the price.
If so, though, is Jin considered part of the Oceanic Six (as a nurse points Sun out to be)?
Officially, with verbal confirmation on the show, it’s Jack, Kate, Hugo, Sayid, and Sun. We’ve seen Ben, and of course, Aaron, off-Island, but neither were 815 passengers. Or is an unborn infant considered a passenger?
Is Aaron part of the Six, or not?

Of course, my steering the pondering over to the Oceanic Six question is simply me trying to avoid having to deal with Jin’s upcoming demise.
It’s Charlie all over again…
But, as hard as this is going to be, at least I get to psyche myself out for the inevitable, as opposed to, say, the sudden departures of Shannon (Ana-Lucia, you b!tch!) and Libby (Michael, you bastard!).
Still.
I say again, Bastaaaardds!!!

Or was that part of the elaborate ruse and Jin’s still alive, on the Island? Though I doubt that possibility, as I can’t see Sun going through the masquerade of visiting an empty grave just so she could get me to blubber like an idiot…
Of course, the date of death on Jin’s marker read September 22, 2004, the date of the 815 crash, since he was purported to have died then. But that still leaves us with possibilities…
Either Jin really did die back on the Island, and Sun can’t really have the date of death on the grave marker changed because that would contradict the “official story” of the 815 crash, or the visit to the cemetery was indeed part of the ruse and Jin is still alive, back on the Island.
Graaar! I say again, Bastaaaardds!!!
Now I don’t even know if I should prepare myself for Jin’s demise or not…

Sigh.
I love this show.

COUNTDOWN: 41.

(Images courtesy of ABC, ew.com, and variety.com.)

LOST
Season 4 Episode 4
“Eggtown”
Written by Elizabeth Sarnoff & Greggory Nations
Directed by Stephen Williams
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

Back at the Barracks, Locke is still out of sorts, uncertain what his next move should be. He’s so desperate he actually tries to get Ben to tell him what needs to be done, something Ben crows about of course, observing Locke’s more lost now than he’s ever been.
Locke acts all cool but once he’s out of the room (but still within Ben’s hearing distance), he smashes some plates against the wall.
Ben.
Smiles.
(Why does Locke always do that? Act all cool and unruffled, then break some stuff when Ben can still hear? He did that back in the hatch too.)

Kate meanwhile, is actually living with Claire, while Sawyer is roomies with Hugo. Sawyer tries to woo Kate to stay with him, but she’s more interested in Miles.
Ahem.
To talk to Miles.
Kate tries to get Miles’ whereabouts out of Locke, but he keeps his lips sealed, and reminds Kate Jack isn’t in charge here and that this isn’t a democracy. (What did I say before? Locke can be just like Ben…)
So Kate finagles Miles’ location from an unsuspecting Hugo, and when she gets there, she asks Miles what he knows about her. Miles says he just wants one minute with someone, then he’ll tell her what she wants to know.
Kate asks, Who?
Miles says, You know who.

Kate then asks Sawyer for help to break Ben out so she can hook him up with Miles. (Ewww. That’s even more disturbing than Kate being interested in Miles.)
Oh, and Xanadu’s playing in the background…
Sawyer then shows up at Locke’s for a game of backgammon, during which time Locke seems to be fishing for what the popular vote is regarding his leadership. Sawyer says all the others are sheep, except maybe for Kate. Sawyer then tells Locke about Kate’s earlier request regarding Ben. Locke says, Whatever Miles has to say to Ben, I want to hear too.
So they head on off to the boathouse where Miles is being held, only to find him gone. (Cue Sawyer’s act of having been bamboozled by Kate…)

Kate brings the mountain to Mohammed, and can the angry young ghost whisperer get any sleazier? It turns out he wants $3.2 million from Ben, in exchange for Miles telling his employer that, Oh, you know what? We found Ben, but he was dead.
Miles wants the $3.2 mil in cash, in two days. Ben points out how that might be difficult given his current circumstances. So Miles gives him an extension: a week.
Idiot.
Kate then asks the idiot (oh, sorry, angry ghost whisperer) what he knows about her, and Miles tells her he knows about her fugitive status, as does the public at large, and that unless she wants to end up behind the bars just as soon as she’s rescued, she should probably just stay on the Island.
Locke then arrives and breaks up the party.

Locke visits Claire’s later on to have a chat with Kate, and asks her what Miles’ chat with Ben was all about. Kate tells him, then Locke promptly banishes her.
Kate goes to Sawyer’s, and tells him Locke’s decree, but Sawyer unbanishes Kate, and says he’ll take care of her. They start rasslin’ on the bed…
The next morning, Sawyer initiates some more rasslin’, but Kate’s having none of it (as she apparently had none of it last night as well). Sawyer thinks he gets it, and says, Oh, you’re still worried you’re pregnant.
Kate says, I’m not.
Sawyer’s relieved, though Kate just seems upset. Then she says she has to go. Sawyer says, You were just waiting for an excuse to leave, and now you’ve got it. Then he says, Fine. In a week, Jack’ll do something that’ll get you pissed off at him and you’ll come running back to me, to which Kate’s reply is a stinging slap.
Then she leaves.

Meanwhile, Locke, ticked off about the whole Kate-Miles-Ben thing (again, ewww), decides to leave a live grenade in Miles’ mouth…
Man, Locke is really flying off the rails…

Back at the beach, there’s a nice scene between Sun and Jin, with Jin looking a map of the U.S. over, picking places for them to live once they get off the Island, all of which meet with disapproval from Sun (“too hot,” “too many people,” etc.).
Sun asks, What’s wrong with Korea? (Uh, duhh, your shady criminal father lives there?)
Jin says, I learned English for you, so we can live in America.
Sun says, I want to raise my baby in Korea.
Jin says, Don’t you mean “our” baby?
But that conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Jack with Daniel and Charlotte.

Later on, Jack, concerned he hasn’t heard anything from Sayid, gets the Boat People to ‘fess up about the other emergencies-only number, which they ring up on their NaomiPhone, and which is answered by the still unseen Regina.
Daniel asks about the helicopter. Regina says, I thought the helicopter was with you…

Oh, and before we leave the Island this week, there’s one little scene that takes place in the Barracks, as Claire and Kate are hanging the laundry out to dry. Aaron starts to make a fuss, and Claire asks Kate, Can you pick him up and just rock him a little?
Kate looks really hesitant and says, I’m not very good with babies.
Claire says, Okay, and picks Aaron up herself. Then she says, You should try it some time…

And… onward flash-forward, ho!
Kate’s on trial for the gazillion and one crimes she’s wanted for, and when the prosecutor asks that she be held in custody for the duration of the trial, the judge agrees, and Kate’s cuffed and hauled off to jail.
Man, that was a surprisingly strong scene… You can see the whole “I can’t stand being tied down” vibe that just oozes off Evangeline Lilly.

Later on, Kate’s lawyer says, We’re in trouble, and your sick mother’s the prosecution’s star witness. He says, Let’s make this about character. Let’s bring him in.
Kate says, No. I’m not dragging my son into this. (Wait for it…)

In court, Kate’s lawyer brings in (without conferring with Kate first) Jack!
On the witness stand, Jack flat out lies: 8 people survived the crash; I almost died; Kate saved me; Kate saved us all…
Kate stands and says, Stop. This is my trial. What happened back there doesn’t matter.
Kate’s lawyer says, Fine. I got my answer.
And the prosecution pounces: Do you love Kate Austen, Dr. Shepard?
Gulp.
Jack: No. Not anymore.
Ho.
Lee.
Smoke.

Later on, Kate’s lawyer wheels Kate’s mum into a room so mother and daughter can talk.
Kate doesn’t want to, but she’s not really given a choice.
Momma Austen asks, Was what that doctor said true? That you saved all of them?
And she goes on to say, Things changed since the last time we saw each other (you know? That time I screamed bloody murder and called the fuzz on your a$$, baby girl?); things changed when I thought you were dead.
I didn’t want to testify against you.
Kate says, Then don’t.
Momma Austen says, Let me see my grandson.
Kate says, That’s what this is about? You wanted to make a deal?
Kate says, I don’t want you anywhere near him. Then, We’re done here.

At the following court date, the prosecution claims their star witness can’t testify due to medical reasons. Judge calls for a recess. Prosecutor Lady talks with Kate and her lawyer.
It turns out Momma Austen doesn’t want to testify against Kate anymore, and thus, their case is badly compromised now.
Plea bargaining ensues.
Kate will not take any prison time, so the deal is, Ten years probation, and Kate can’t leave the state. Kate says, Fine. I just want this over. I’m not going anywhere. I have a son. (Wait for it…)

Just as Kate is leaving the court house, Jack meets her.
Kate says, I’ve heard you tell that story so many times now, I’m starting to wonder if you believe it yourself.
Jack says, What I said up there? That wasn’t true.
Kate asks, You want to follow me? You want to see him?
Jack says, evasively, I actually have to get to the hospital, but can we meet for a coffee sometime?
Kate says, I understand why you don’t want to see him, but until you decide that you can, then there won’t be any meetings for coffee.
And Kate gets in her cab and leaves.

And she gets to her house…
And she greets someone who I assume is her housekeeper…
And she goes up to her son’s room…
And I’m thinking, What? Will he have Sawyer’s stubble and a conniving mind, or Jack’s bad hair and obsessive nature?
And Kate’s son turns out to be… Aaron…

I told you to wait for it…

So this episode slows down the Lost mythology a tad, as what we get is basically a story that puts the whole “shouldn’t Kate be rotting in jail after getting off the Island?” clamour conveniently to rest.
A little too neatly? Perhaps.
But they do smack you upside on the head with that cliffhanger.
So what happened to Claire? Did she get left back on the Island? Did she (gasp!) die?
But what about Des’ future-flash, of Claire and Aaron getting on a helicopter? Did Claire stupidly fall out of the helicopter? Or, distraught at Charlie’s death, plunge to a watery grave to join the ex-junkie rocker? (I kid, I kid…)

Seriously though, I am concerned about Claire’s welfare. I’d also like to think that Charlie’s sacrifice wasn’t for naught; after all, it was Des’ vision that was Charlie’s driving motivation to go diving to the Looking Glass.
And since the child Jack so obviously didn’t want to see is Aaron, that means he doesn’t want to be reminded of Claire. The important question at this point is, of course, does Jack already know that Aaron is his half-nephew?
After all, knowing about the biological connection could go either way: if Jack doesn’t know, then it’s simply because he’ll be reminded of Claire; and if he already knows, then Aaron will just remind him of his half-sister, making things even worse.
Then again, if Jack knew about the blood connection, he could get all obsessive-y as he sometimes does, which he clearly isn’t, as far as seeing Aaron.
Jack isn’t the easiest person to figure out…

All that, and we get a couple of scenes that feel like set-ups for subsequent episodes: the “what happened to the helicopter” scene is obviously an Island cliffhanger, and the Sun-Jin scene also feels like foreshadowing for some future episode.
Will we see Sun off the Island? Please, please, please let her be one of the Oceanic Six. Don’t let the bad sexist Island have its way with her and the baby…
And speaking of the Oceanic Six, we’re still looking at Jack, Hugo, Kate, and Sayid. (Ben and Aaron being part of the Six seems iffy to me at this point.)
So two more…
Can Sun be one of those two?
Please?

COUNTDOWN: 44.

Parting shot: Incidentally, the edition of Philip K. Dick’s Valis, which Locke brings to Ben along with his breakfast (of the last two eggs in town), is the exact same edition that I got to read from a friend’s library once…
I loved that book, and now have cause to hunt it down in the bargain bins, if only to read it again, to see if I missed something… (I may not like Locke a lot these days, but it does pay to listen to him once in a while…)

(Image courtesy of ABC and aol.com.)

LOST
Season 4 Episode 3
“The Economist”
Written by Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz
Directed by Jack Bender
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

So this episode’s flashforward had me going, “Noooo, he’s gone over to the Dark Side!” with the occasional “Bad! Bad!” throughout its running time.
But first…

As Sayid attends to Naomi’s body, he sees a bracelet, with an inscription that reads, “N. I’ll be with you always. R.G.” (Or was it R.C.?)
Sayid then comes up with a plan: to go get Charlotte back from Locke, and if he can get her back in one piece, he asks to be brought to the freighter. Frank agrees. Miles goes off with Sayid, and Jack suggests Kate go along as well (as Jack doesn’t trust Locke, and he knows Sawyer won’t allow Locke to do anything bad to Kate). Of course, you can sort of see that Kate feels she’s being taken for granted by Jack, but she goes along with the plan anyway.
Meanwhile, since they find the DesPenny pic on Naomi, they decide to call Des over from the beach, and Juliet goes off to do the fetching.
Oh, and apparently, Miles has no idea why Ben’s such a hot ticket. All he knows is he’s being paid a lot to find the guy, so find him he will.

Meanwhile, Locke goes to where the cabin should be (and that protective circle of ash is there), but it isn’t.
Ben of course, taunts Locke for being Jacob’s b!tch and not knowing what to do.
Hurley then starts to argue that maybe handing Charlotte over would be a good thing to do, but Locke will have none of that sort of talk. (The man can be just as monomaniacal as Ben…)

At the apparently still deserted Barracks, Sayid, Kate, and Miles find Hurley tied and gagged inside a closet, and he claims that Locke’s lost it and that he got left behind after he started to disagree with Locke.
They head on over to Ben’s house, and while Sayid finds a secret room with oodles of cash in different currencies and lots of passports and suits and stuff, Kate finds Sawyer.
It turns out that Hurley was bait, and Locke confines Sayid and Miles. Sayid gets locked up with Ben, and when Locke visits for a chat, Sayid says, Give me Charlotte, and I can get to the freighter, and I can see what’s going on. Locke says Ben has a spy on board, but when Sayid asks who it is, Ben of course keeps mum.
As an aside, Sayid says, The day I trust [Ben] is the day I sell my soul…
Locke then says, Why should I give you Charlotte for nothing, and Sayid says, You misunderstood. I never said anything about taking Charlotte for nothing…

Over with Kate and Sawyer, Kate asks why Sawyer is here, and he says he doesn’t have anything to go back for and that he’d rather stay on the Island.
Kate asks how long can they play house here, and Sawyer says, Let’s find out.

Meanwhile, Daniel conducts an experiment, and seems to discover that on the Island, time (or maybe distance, or perhaps space; or perhaps all three) doesn’t quite work the way it normally does. Whatever. I ain’t no loony physicist. (Note also that last episode, he observed that light doesn’t scatter normally on the Island.)
Anyway, if memory serves me right, there’s a time differential of 31 minutes on the Island.
Juliet then arrives with Des, who starts to question Frank about Penny, but he doesn’t seem to know what Des is talking about, so Des says that when the helicopter leaves for the freighter, he’s on it.
Then Sayid arrives, with Charlotte. Apparently, he traded Miles for Charlotte, and Kate decided to stay at the Barracks. (Damn, girl! Make up your bloody mind!) There is, of course, a flicker of emotion on Jack’s face when he hears why Kate is absent.
Ahhh, what a Valentine’s Day episode…

Jack then tells Sayid to go to the freighter, so off he goes with Des.
Before they leave, Daniel pulls Frank aside and warns him to stay on the exact same bearings they took on their way in, and to not deviate from them in any way.
And since there’s an extra seat on the helicopter, and Daniel and Charlotte opt to stay on the Island to start running whatever crazy-a$$ work and experiments they need to, Sayid says they should bring Naomi home.
The helicopter takes off…

And in the future…

Sayid plays golf! And shoots a man dead!
Before he shoots the poor schmuck though, Sayid says he’s one of the Oceanic Six, which gets the schmuck all bothered and scared.
Then he shoots him.
Then I start with the “Noooo, he’s gone over to the Dark Side!” whinging and bleating, unwilling to wrap my head around the fact that Sayid’s gone stone cold kill crazy.

Later, in Berlin, Sayid meets Elsa (the gloriously named Thekla Reuten, seen recently in Martin McDonagh’s In Bruges).
She says she works for an “economist” who dabbles in “emerging markets,” and that she’s on call 24/7, and if she’s ever needed by her employer, that he’ll page her. (Yes, a practically obsolete, low tech device. Hmmmm.)
He says he’s a headhunter, a corporate recruiter.
They go out to dinner. (Before that though, Sayid gets on a disposable cell phone and tells the person on the other line—who may sound familiar if you listen closely—“I’ve made contact,” then tosses the cell in a dustbin.)

The affair with Elsa progresses, and it’s clear that Sayid is here for the “economist,” so he needs to dilly dally (and get all randy) while Elsa waits for that magic page.
At one point, Elsa asks why Sayid is still in Berlin, and shouldn’t he have left already. He says the job he’s on is taking longer than he’d thought. She says, Oh, I was hoping you were still here because of me.

At a later point, Elsa says, I don’t know anything about you. I understand you don’t like to talk about the Oceanic 815 crash, but what about your life now?
I don’t know anything about you, she says. Tell me about yourself, she says. Isn’t that what people in love do, she asks.
Love, Sayid repeats.
Then he says, All right. No more secrets. What do you want to know?
Naturally, the pager goes off at this point, and Elsa says she has to go.
As she’s dressing up though, Sayid says, Get out of Berlin now, because something’s about to happen to your boss and you shouldn’t be around to answer any questions.
This is about my boss, Elsa asks. You’re here to kill him, she says. You used me, she accuses.
Then the b!tch shoots Sayid (roundabout the shoulder).
While she thinks Sayid is suitably disabled, she gets on the phone and speaks German to whoever’s on the other end. The page was a ploy to smoke Sayid out; she’s been on him for awhile now, maybe even from the start.
Sayid of course, our once-and-perhaps-still-could-be-hero, recovers and shoots Elsa dead. He’s clearly shaken though, and takes a bracelet from Elsa which looks awfully similar to the one Naomi was wearing.

Sayid then staggers off to what appears to be a veterinarian’s clinic, and at first I think maybe it’s Juliet there, but of course, it’s Ben.
It seems Ben’s Sayid’s boss now, and he’s gotten Sayid to play hitman to ice whoever’s on his list. As Ben attends to Sayid’s wound, Sayid’s crying, and Ben asks, Are you crying because it hurts, or because you allowed your heart to get in the way again?
Do you remember what happened the last time you used your heart instead of your gun? Ben presses.
You used that as leverage to get me to work for you, Sayid accuses.
Ben says, I have your next target.
Sayid says, But now they know I’m after them.
Ben says, Good.

Aarghh! Sayid’s Crying Freeman for that manipulative lunatic! Nooooo!!!
Presumably, Ben’s now after whoever was behind the Boat People, though I dread to imagine what could have been that pivotal event that got Sayid to end up working for the sleazebag.

And what is up with Kate?! (I refuse to say any more on that matter at the moment.)

Oh, and who is R.G. (or R.C.)?
And can we safely assume that R.G./C. is the mysterious Economist (if the two bracelets in the episode are related, of course)?
And why does the Economist have a thing for low tech, just as Jacob apparently mistrusts technology?

Some great little bits: Daniel’s experiment, and Hurley’s staying clear of Sayid after he sold them out to Locke (“I saw what you did to that guy’s neck with that breakdancing move you did with your legs”).
Priceless.

Parting shot: So we know that Jack, Hurley, and now Sayid are officially part of the Oceanic Six.
We also know that Kate and Ben got off the Island, though whether they’re publicly known as part of the Six is still uncertain.

COUNTDOWN: 45

(Image courtesy of abc.go.com.)