Writers: Adam Horowitz & Edward Kitsis
Director: Jack Bender
Cast: Naveen Andrews (Sayid), Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond), Jorge Garcia (Hurley), Michael Emerson (Ben), Emilie de Ravin (Claire), Matthew Fox (Jack), Evangeline Lilly (Kate), Josh Holloway (Sawyer), Jeremy Davies (Daniel Faraday), Terry O'Quinn (Locke), Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet), Ken Leung (Miles Straume), Rebecca Mader (Charlotte Lewis), Jeff Fahey (Frank Lapidus), Marsha Thomason (Naomi), Mira Furlan (Rousseau), Zoë Bell (Regina, voice), Thekla Reuten (Elsa) & Armando Pucci (Italian Man)
Sayid leads a small team across the island to find Charlotte, as flashforwards reveal his curious lifestyle after leaving the island...
It's true that episodes of Lost come loaded with preconceptions; owing to the fact each instalment focuses on a different character, in rotation. Sayid (Naveen Andrews) is an interesting example, as I much prefer his on-island activities to his rather tedious flashbacks -- which haven’t revealed much since the first season revelations of his love-split from Nadia, and the fact he was a skilled torturer.
The Economist immediately rocked my presumptions, however; as we see Sayid playing golf in the Seychelles, looking slick and dapper -- and revealing to an intrigued fellow golfer that he's one of the Oceanic Six. Ah-ha, we're in a flashforward, and Sayid is clearly spending some of his Oceanic Airlines cash settlement after his island trauma. That makes sense. What doesn't make sense is when Sayid calmly takes out a gun and shoots the inquisitive golfer dead…
On the island, Sayid suggests to tempestuous Miles (Ken Leung) that he'll lead him across the island to retrieve their colleague Charlotte (Rebecca Mader), who's a captive of Locke (Terry O'Quinn) – but only in exchange for a seat on their helicopter when it flies back to the offshore freighter...
Jack (Matthew Fox) agrees to stay behind with pilot Frank (Jeff Fahey), Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) and Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick), although he suggests Kate (Evangeline Lilley) should tag along with Sayid and Miles.
Across the island, Locke leads his group through the jungle towards Jacob's Cabin, acting on the orders of Walt's ghost – finding the circle of ash that provides its perimeter, but finding the Cabin itself has vanished! Confused, he makes his excuses and has them push on to the abandoned Barracks, where they can hide from the "rescuers" they’re convinced mean them harm.
While waiting for Sayid's team to return, twitchy Daniel (Jeremy Davies) uses the time to perform an experiment; setting up a beacon and having their freighter fire a payload to its exact coordinates. Interestingly, the approaching payload (a small rocket containing a synchronized clock) doesn't arrive when the freighter says it's at their position, instead arriving much later… with its clock missing 31 minutes of time. The time differential being the clearest evidence yet that the island isn't in synch with the outside world.
Sayid reaches the apparently empty Barracks, although Hurley (Jorge Garcia) is later found tied-up inside a wardrobe – having apparently been left behind after he spoke out against the group's treatment of Charlotte. Sayid takes the time to search some rooms, including Ben's (Michael Emerson), where he finds a hidden walk-in closet containing changes of clothes, international passports, and bundles of banknotes from foreign countries.
Kate searches Ben's bedroom and is confronted by Sawyer (Josh Holloway), as Locke and Rousseau (Mira Furlan) jump out and catch Sayid's team off guard – Hurley having lied about their whereabouts so Locke's trap would work. Sayid is led to a games room to sit with Ben, as Sawyer looks after Kate – admitting to her that he doesn't want to leave the island and go back to his life, and doesn't think an escaped felon like her would want to either.
Sayid's flashforward finds the Iraqi engaged in another romance, this time with a woman called Elsa (Thekla Reuten) he meets in a German café. She takes a shine to him and they arrange a date, quickly becoming besotted with each other – although Sayid seems to have ulterior motives, as he checks in with his unseen handler via cell phone, and seems very interested in Elsa's unseen boss (the titular "economist") who contacts her using an old-fashioned pager...
Eventually, Elsa grows tired of Sayid's privacy regarding his life and wants to know answers. Sayid, having fallen in love with Elsa, drops a strong hint that he's been hired to assassinate her employer, but gives her a chance to leave to avoid all the questions. Now aware that Sayid is a contract killer, who likely only started a relationship with her as part of his job, Elsa shoots Sayid in the chest. As he sits bleeding in bed, Elsa goes to the bathroom to call her mysterious employer, and Sayid notices his own gun close by... using it to shoot Elsa dead when she re-enters the room.
On the island, Locke apologizes to Sayid for his ruse, but makes it clear he doesn't trust Miles or the other rescuers. Sayid explains that he needs Charlotte to exchange for safe passage to their freighter, where he can ascertain the rescuer's real motives for coming here. Locke offers a trade instead, and Sayid later returns to the helicopter with Charlotte, having left Miles behind with Locke, and Kate with Sawyer.
Frank isn't too bothered about Sayid's "trick", as he's not that very keen on Miles himself, and honours their agreement. The lack of fuel means his chopper can only carry three people, so Sayid suggests they take Naomi's dead body back to the freighter, along with Desmond (who wants to know why Naomi had a photo of him and Penny.) As Jack, Juliet and Daniel watch, Sayid leaves the island in the chopper, flying over the ocean on an "exact bearing" Daniel insist they follow…
The last scene of Sayid's flashback finds him arriving in a gloomy veterinarian's office, to have his gunshot wound treated by an unseen man in glasses. It's clear the man is Sayid's "employer" who's been masterminding his hits, and the man's voice is familiar... but the face is unmistakable: Ben! The slippery leader of the Others mentions Sayid having to "protect his friends", and that he has another name for his list. Sayid looks worried that "they" know he's coming for them now, but answers his concerns with a simple: "good".
The Economist is actually the weakest of season 4's episodes so far, although it has much to recommend in the bigger picture of the show. Sayid is a character whose flashbacks were becoming particularly pointless, so making him one of the Oceanic Six (and in league with Ben for some strange reason) is an excellent strategy to keep his character interesting.
I'm still worried that the idea of an Oceanic Six of survivors is killing some of the "present day" drama on the island – as whenever Jack, Kate, Hurley and now Sayid get into any danger, we know for a fact they'll be safe. But I sense it’s a small price to pay, and the flashforward twist to the show is still working very well, so far...
Naveen Andrews is an underrated actor, and he gets some opportunities to stretch himself a little bit here – although I still think his character works best when he's asserting himself on the island. Besides the memorable twists near the end of the flashforward, everything else is still too vague and mysterious to really make any sense of – which has always been a slight flaw with Lost's inscrutable nature. You can actually be bored or confused by an entire subplot now, but you can't really condemn it -- because it could soon be revealed as brilliant foreshadowing in future episodes.
The on-island action wasn't particularly exciting, beyond some mythology deepening for the island (with Daniel's time-delay experiment), confirmation that Jacob's Cabin seems able to change location, and evidence that Ben makes frequent trips abroad. It was nice to see Sawyer and Kate share a scene, particularly because I like the idea that Sawyer wants to stay on the island – which surely means he's not one of the Oceanic Six? Lilley and Holloway are good actors, and their obvious chemistry really makes their scenes fly.
Overall, The Economist is another very solid episode, but one that didn't have me gripped until a few revelations turn everything on their head. I suspect this episode improves with a second viewing, but it was great to see Naveen Andrews sink his teeth into something, and I appreciate the tangible sense that Lost has a definitive plan now, and is edging closer towards The End every week...
-- What's the significance of Naomi and Elsa having similar bracelets, as Sayid noticed? Naomi's was engraved as being from "R.G" – are they the initials of Elsa's mysterious economist boss?
-- Why is there a 31-minute delay between the freighter and the island? Does this time differential increase the further you are away from the island? Will the Oceanic Six one day leave the island after months, but find it's been years in the outside world?
-- Why didn't Charlotte tell Frank or Daniel that Ben's got a spy on the boat the moment she set eyes on them?
-- Does Ben regularly leave the island to visit numerous countries? It sure seems that way – but for what reason?
-- Why did the Italian golfer Mr Avellino become nervous when Sayid revealed he's one of the Oceanic Six? Did he expect death or revenge for some reason? Why did he have to be killed?
-- Who is Elsa's unseen employer, why is he using outdated pager technology, and why did Ben want Sayid to kill him?
-- Who are the other people on Ben's "hit list", and why must they all be killed? Are they perhaps on the verge of discovering where the island is? We can assume that golfer Avellino and the Elsa's economist boss are both very wealthy, so they'd have the resources to try.
-- Where have Jack's band of followers gone? Are they loitering around in the jungle somewhere nearby – or do his fellow "pro-rescuers" only include himself, Kate, Sayid, Desmond and Juliet!?
17 February 2008
Sky One, 9.00 pm
Director: Jack Bender
Cast: Naveen Andrews (Sayid), Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond), Jorge Garcia (Hurley), Michael Emerson (Ben), Emilie de Ravin (Claire), Matthew Fox (Jack), Evangeline Lilly (Kate), Josh Holloway (Sawyer), Jeremy Davies (Daniel Faraday), Terry O'Quinn (Locke), Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet), Ken Leung (Miles Straume), Rebecca Mader (Charlotte Lewis), Jeff Fahey (Frank Lapidus), Marsha Thomason (Naomi), Mira Furlan (Rousseau), Zoë Bell (Regina, voice), Thekla Reuten (Elsa) & Armando Pucci (Italian Man)
Sayid leads a small team across the island to find Charlotte, as flashforwards reveal his curious lifestyle after leaving the island..."Forgive me, but the day I start trusting
him is the day I would've sold my soul."
him is the day I would've sold my soul."
-- Sayid (Naveen Andrews)
It's true that episodes of Lost come loaded with preconceptions; owing to the fact each instalment focuses on a different character, in rotation. Sayid (Naveen Andrews) is an interesting example, as I much prefer his on-island activities to his rather tedious flashbacks -- which haven’t revealed much since the first season revelations of his love-split from Nadia, and the fact he was a skilled torturer.
The Economist immediately rocked my presumptions, however; as we see Sayid playing golf in the Seychelles, looking slick and dapper -- and revealing to an intrigued fellow golfer that he's one of the Oceanic Six. Ah-ha, we're in a flashforward, and Sayid is clearly spending some of his Oceanic Airlines cash settlement after his island trauma. That makes sense. What doesn't make sense is when Sayid calmly takes out a gun and shoots the inquisitive golfer dead…
On the island, Sayid suggests to tempestuous Miles (Ken Leung) that he'll lead him across the island to retrieve their colleague Charlotte (Rebecca Mader), who's a captive of Locke (Terry O'Quinn) – but only in exchange for a seat on their helicopter when it flies back to the offshore freighter...
Jack (Matthew Fox) agrees to stay behind with pilot Frank (Jeff Fahey), Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) and Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick), although he suggests Kate (Evangeline Lilley) should tag along with Sayid and Miles.
Across the island, Locke leads his group through the jungle towards Jacob's Cabin, acting on the orders of Walt's ghost – finding the circle of ash that provides its perimeter, but finding the Cabin itself has vanished! Confused, he makes his excuses and has them push on to the abandoned Barracks, where they can hide from the "rescuers" they’re convinced mean them harm.
While waiting for Sayid's team to return, twitchy Daniel (Jeremy Davies) uses the time to perform an experiment; setting up a beacon and having their freighter fire a payload to its exact coordinates. Interestingly, the approaching payload (a small rocket containing a synchronized clock) doesn't arrive when the freighter says it's at their position, instead arriving much later… with its clock missing 31 minutes of time. The time differential being the clearest evidence yet that the island isn't in synch with the outside world.
Sayid reaches the apparently empty Barracks, although Hurley (Jorge Garcia) is later found tied-up inside a wardrobe – having apparently been left behind after he spoke out against the group's treatment of Charlotte. Sayid takes the time to search some rooms, including Ben's (Michael Emerson), where he finds a hidden walk-in closet containing changes of clothes, international passports, and bundles of banknotes from foreign countries.
Kate searches Ben's bedroom and is confronted by Sawyer (Josh Holloway), as Locke and Rousseau (Mira Furlan) jump out and catch Sayid's team off guard – Hurley having lied about their whereabouts so Locke's trap would work. Sayid is led to a games room to sit with Ben, as Sawyer looks after Kate – admitting to her that he doesn't want to leave the island and go back to his life, and doesn't think an escaped felon like her would want to either.
Sayid's flashforward finds the Iraqi engaged in another romance, this time with a woman called Elsa (Thekla Reuten) he meets in a German café. She takes a shine to him and they arrange a date, quickly becoming besotted with each other – although Sayid seems to have ulterior motives, as he checks in with his unseen handler via cell phone, and seems very interested in Elsa's unseen boss (the titular "economist") who contacts her using an old-fashioned pager...
Eventually, Elsa grows tired of Sayid's privacy regarding his life and wants to know answers. Sayid, having fallen in love with Elsa, drops a strong hint that he's been hired to assassinate her employer, but gives her a chance to leave to avoid all the questions. Now aware that Sayid is a contract killer, who likely only started a relationship with her as part of his job, Elsa shoots Sayid in the chest. As he sits bleeding in bed, Elsa goes to the bathroom to call her mysterious employer, and Sayid notices his own gun close by... using it to shoot Elsa dead when she re-enters the room.
On the island, Locke apologizes to Sayid for his ruse, but makes it clear he doesn't trust Miles or the other rescuers. Sayid explains that he needs Charlotte to exchange for safe passage to their freighter, where he can ascertain the rescuer's real motives for coming here. Locke offers a trade instead, and Sayid later returns to the helicopter with Charlotte, having left Miles behind with Locke, and Kate with Sawyer.
Frank isn't too bothered about Sayid's "trick", as he's not that very keen on Miles himself, and honours their agreement. The lack of fuel means his chopper can only carry three people, so Sayid suggests they take Naomi's dead body back to the freighter, along with Desmond (who wants to know why Naomi had a photo of him and Penny.) As Jack, Juliet and Daniel watch, Sayid leaves the island in the chopper, flying over the ocean on an "exact bearing" Daniel insist they follow…
The last scene of Sayid's flashback finds him arriving in a gloomy veterinarian's office, to have his gunshot wound treated by an unseen man in glasses. It's clear the man is Sayid's "employer" who's been masterminding his hits, and the man's voice is familiar... but the face is unmistakable: Ben! The slippery leader of the Others mentions Sayid having to "protect his friends", and that he has another name for his list. Sayid looks worried that "they" know he's coming for them now, but answers his concerns with a simple: "good".
The Economist is actually the weakest of season 4's episodes so far, although it has much to recommend in the bigger picture of the show. Sayid is a character whose flashbacks were becoming particularly pointless, so making him one of the Oceanic Six (and in league with Ben for some strange reason) is an excellent strategy to keep his character interesting.
I'm still worried that the idea of an Oceanic Six of survivors is killing some of the "present day" drama on the island – as whenever Jack, Kate, Hurley and now Sayid get into any danger, we know for a fact they'll be safe. But I sense it’s a small price to pay, and the flashforward twist to the show is still working very well, so far...
Naveen Andrews is an underrated actor, and he gets some opportunities to stretch himself a little bit here – although I still think his character works best when he's asserting himself on the island. Besides the memorable twists near the end of the flashforward, everything else is still too vague and mysterious to really make any sense of – which has always been a slight flaw with Lost's inscrutable nature. You can actually be bored or confused by an entire subplot now, but you can't really condemn it -- because it could soon be revealed as brilliant foreshadowing in future episodes.
The on-island action wasn't particularly exciting, beyond some mythology deepening for the island (with Daniel's time-delay experiment), confirmation that Jacob's Cabin seems able to change location, and evidence that Ben makes frequent trips abroad. It was nice to see Sawyer and Kate share a scene, particularly because I like the idea that Sawyer wants to stay on the island – which surely means he's not one of the Oceanic Six? Lilley and Holloway are good actors, and their obvious chemistry really makes their scenes fly.
Overall, The Economist is another very solid episode, but one that didn't have me gripped until a few revelations turn everything on their head. I suspect this episode improves with a second viewing, but it was great to see Naveen Andrews sink his teeth into something, and I appreciate the tangible sense that Lost has a definitive plan now, and is edging closer towards The End every week...
Burning Questions
-- What's the significance of Naomi and Elsa having similar bracelets, as Sayid noticed? Naomi's was engraved as being from "R.G" – are they the initials of Elsa's mysterious economist boss?
-- Why is there a 31-minute delay between the freighter and the island? Does this time differential increase the further you are away from the island? Will the Oceanic Six one day leave the island after months, but find it's been years in the outside world?
-- Why didn't Charlotte tell Frank or Daniel that Ben's got a spy on the boat the moment she set eyes on them?
-- Does Ben regularly leave the island to visit numerous countries? It sure seems that way – but for what reason?
-- Why did the Italian golfer Mr Avellino become nervous when Sayid revealed he's one of the Oceanic Six? Did he expect death or revenge for some reason? Why did he have to be killed?
-- Who is Elsa's unseen employer, why is he using outdated pager technology, and why did Ben want Sayid to kill him?
-- Who are the other people on Ben's "hit list", and why must they all be killed? Are they perhaps on the verge of discovering where the island is? We can assume that golfer Avellino and the Elsa's economist boss are both very wealthy, so they'd have the resources to try.
-- Where have Jack's band of followers gone? Are they loitering around in the jungle somewhere nearby – or do his fellow "pro-rescuers" only include himself, Kate, Sayid, Desmond and Juliet!?
17 February 2008
Sky One, 9.00 pm
