61 - Observations: LOST 0606: Sundown

This weeks episode, Sundown, focussed on back-from-the-dead Sayid and his confrontations with Dogen and the Smoke Monster. Both Sayid’s flashsideways and on island antics are yet another episode of the “is Sayid good or evil?” show. Once an Iraqi torturer, Sayid is constantly fighting with the evil deeds of his past, the new life he tries to hold and the skeletons in his closet.

He’s one of the more conflicted characters of the heroes - even more so than Sawyer. He has a veneer of leadership, trust and heroism, but over the course of the show he’s probably killed more dudes than all the losties put together, and tortured a fair few too. He’s worked with Ben, killed for money and retaliation and is quick to dispatch some random Other with ease. As Hurley says “he is my friend, but he’s also got this double life where he does crazy ninja moves and spy stuff”.

He’s a tragic character, and its sad to see him finally consumed by the evil thats welled up in him for five seasons. Whether or not he has time for redemption isn’t clear.

Anyway, here are some of important, thematic observations -

Team Flocke, Team Jacob
In classic Lost style, the Island seems to be breaking off into two camps. On one side is Jacob, speaking through Hurley, and has a hodgepodge collection of heroes, villains and slightly more nebulous characters. Jack, Hurley and Sun are our main heroes, as well as Lapidus, Illiana and, possibly, Ben.

On the other side, a much darker force, we have The Smoke Monster, Claire, Sayid and a handful of Others - with a capital O, that is. There are still plenty of characters who haven’t sworn alliance to either side; Kate, Sawyer and Jin being the main outsiders.

The morality choice
One of the prevailing, but more subtle, themes on the show has been the idea of a morality choice surrounding a family member. I think we’ve seen it three times now - Juliet’s sister could beat cancer with Jacob’s help, as long as Juliet was happy to stay on the island. Dogen tells the story of saving his kid but coming to the island. Now we see Sayid, who can apparently resurrect Nadia (or, less likely, Shannon), but at what cost?

This was a pretty great, but very dark episode. Sayid can always be called on for an awesome fight scene and he didn’t disappoint here, plus his many kills in this episode were equally impressive. Claire’s song was super eery, both emanating from her hole and when played over the top of the death and destruction of the temple.

Keamy made a nice little addition - still not sure whether all these Lost cast members of yore are just nostalgic cameos or say something more meaningful about the show’s themes of destiny.

The best line of the episode definitely came from Miles.

Right; Claire. She just strolled in here, a couple of hours ago - acting all weird. Still hot though…

Good old Miles. He seems like a spare wheel without the freighter gang - but I hope he makes it to the end.

See you next week. For more Lost I mean. I’ll see you tomorrow for more blogging.