I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the Sayid-centric episodes almost always rock, and tonight was no different. Opening in the future with a cleaned-up Sayid playing golf, the former Iraqi soldier is clearly living the good life courtesy of a large settlement from the airline. Or so it seems. When an Italian gentleman approaches him with a friendly golf bet, Sayid reveals his true identity – much to the shock of the man, who looks genuinely spooked by his presence. It isn’t until Sayid calls the man by name and shoots him dead that things become a little clearer: he’s a bounty hunter.

Fast-forward a couple months and Sayid is tracking yet another target in Berlin. This time, it’s a woman named Elsa, and as they spend more time with one another, Sayid appears to be falling in love. Elsa admits to feeling the same way, but when Sayid tells her the truth about why he’s there (i.e. using her to get close to her employer), she shoots him in the chest. Apparently, this girl was playing him too, but how she managed to do that when Sayid approached her first is beyond me. Still, she seems to believe that she can get information from Sayid about his boss, and while she dials her employer to tell him the good news, Sayid is given just enough time to grab his gun and kill her first. Upon closer inspection, he discovers a silver bracelet on her wrist. The same bracelet, in fact, that Sayid has seen once before – on Naomi’s wrist, with the inscription “I’ll always be with you.” Now, that isn’t to say that they were lovers, but it definitely suggests some kind of Dharma tie-in between the two women, as well as the Italian man from before.

Meanwhile, back in the present, Sayid has just cut a deal with Frank. If he can rescue Charlotte from Locke, he’ll get a one-way helicopter ride to the freighter. Joining him on the hunt is Kate and Miles, but when they arrive at the barracks, they discover Hurley locked away in a closet. He claims that Locke and the rest of B Troop went scavenging around Ben’s house, but it’s quickly revealed that, well, Hurley was lying. Locke springs an ambush on the trio and captures them, but not before Sayid discovers a hidden passageway in Ben’s house containing passports and money in several different currencies. Is Ben some kind of international assassin, a la Jason Bourne? Probably not, but he must have some kind of hidden agenda with goodies like that lying around.

When Sayid explains to Locke about the deal he’s made with Frank (playing it off as a way to get on their boat and snoop around), Locke agrees to a trade: Miles for Charlotte. It’s a pretty smart move on Sayid’s part (even though Frank suggests he cheated), and it earns him a trip to the freighter, along with Desmond and Naomi.

Of course, there are a few other things I failed to go into detail with in this blog entry (namely Daniel’s experiments, which seem to indicate the island is as much of a scientific clusterfuck as we all assumed), but they pale in comparison to the big reveal of the night. Yes, Sayid is a bounty hunter. And yes, those people are probably somehow related to Dharma. But just who exactly is the brains behind the whole operation? Ben Linus.

The plot thickens…