Is it just me or are the Sayid flashback episodes always some of the best of the season? Tonight’s episode wasn’t even that great, and yet I was still compelled to soak in every minute of the character’s back story. This time around, we finally get to see Sayid during the war (the Gulf War, I suppose), as he’s captured by the Americans and then trained to become a Master of Torture. And while Sayid thinks back on his first torture victim ever – his commanding officer – Crazy French Chick tracks him down on the island and takes him to a man she has captured and believes to be an Other. Sayid is most obliging in aiding the investigation, and though we never discover who the man really is (I didn’t, anyways, because my TiVo cut off the episode after it ran over the hour mark), we’re to believe that he was telling Sayid the truth.
Meanwhile, as Sayid beats up the stranger after locking him away in the armory, Jack and Locke have a brawl over the decision to give Sayid full reign. As Jack tries to convince Locke to open the door, the countdown clock goes into alarm mode. Locke, who’d rather not find out what happens if the clock counts down to zero, gives Jack the combination and rushes to the computer before it’s too late. Well, it’s too late, and the five white panels switch over to black and red ones that revealed four symbols. Note: this is the best I could decipher with the help of my Pause button – a bird, an arrow, a mallet-shaped object and a screwdriver-shaped object. One panel was still switching over before Locke hit “Enter,” and so it seems that everything is back to normal. Overall, it was a bit upsetting. I was really hoping to see what happened, but it doesn’t look like the creators are ready to show us everything just yet.
By the way, shame on you Sawyer for crushing that poor little tree frog to death. I mean, you’re already on everybody’s shit list, so there’s really no point in playing the bad guy role all over again.
