Lost: Sayid Sells His Soul

I just finished watching "The Economist" a little over an hour ago and all I can say is — wow!

After a slight (but necessary) misstep last week, "Lost" was back in top form on Valentine's Day, as the newer characters were incorporated seamlessly, the relationship between older characters deepened further, and, oh yeah, our minds were blown.

One of the things I'm liking about this season is trying to figure out whether the off-Island bits are flashbacks or flashforwards. It didn't take long to figure out we were watching Sayid's post-Island life (seemingly with a healthy settlement and plenty of time to play golf) when he alluded to being one of the Oceanic six. Of course, what we probably didn't see coming was Sayid pulling out the gun and killing his mildly pushing European playing partner.

I couldn't wait to find out what had made our usually compassionate Sayid (who was praying in the episode's first shot and compassionately closed Naomi's dead eyes) turn into a cold-blooded (but totally pimp) man of mystery.

Sayid convinced Jack to let him and Miles find Locke and convince him to let Charlotte go in exchange for a helicopter ride off the Island. (Numbers alert! The number on the chopper was N842FM)

In one of those nice, nuanced scenes I referred to earlier, Jack convinced Kate to join Sayid and Miles because he figured that Sawyer wouldn't let Locke do anything bad to Kate. I liked everything about this scene, which opened with Jack making light of Kate's propensity for getting in trouble ("what should I do? Wait 20 minutes and go anyway?"), and closed with Jack not so subtly letting Kate know that he believes she and Sawyer are a thing.

This was later followed by an equally good scene in which Sawyer explained his reasons for wanting to stay on the Island (jail time is probably waiting for both of them — though not for Kate as we saw at the end of last year) and seemed to convince to stay on the Island and play house for a bit. Given his usually gruff exterior, it was a little jarring, but very touching to see Sawyer so vulnerable. I'm now officially afraid something terrible will happen to him.

The way Kate and Sawyer got to be face-to-face was after Hurley tricked Sayid's party into thinking Locke had left him behind for having second thoughts.

Speaking of Hurley, he had two of my three favorite lines of the night. I liked him saying "Awesome, the ship sent another Sawyer," after Miles called him "tubby", and I loved the way he was standing a safe distance away from Sayid saying "I saw you snap that guy's neck with that breakdancing thing you do with your neck — I'm good back here." Miles had my third favorite lines of the night, explaining why he was sorry that Naomi was dead ("She was hot, and I dug her accent"). As Frank said, this guy really IS a pain in the ass.

I fell for Hurley's ruse because I'm not very smart and because Locke appeared to be losing a bit of control after not being able to locate Jacob's cabin. Of course, the battered Ben — seriously, Michael Emerson has spent 60 percent of his time on this show with some sort of facial abrasion makeup — was loving this, mocking him by saying "he's waiting for someone to tell him what to do next.")

The setup at Ben's house wasn't a complete waste, as Sayid discovered a room full of Ben's passports and currency from different countries. After he was captured, I like that Ben and Sayid were placed in the same cell (like when we first met Ben). Eventually, Sayid revealed that he was there to trade Miles for Charlotte (explaining why he didn't have any problem with Miles' characteristically forceful demand that he was coming). I know that Miles is an ass, but trading him isn't really right (as Frank pointed out, it's kinda cheating).

More importantly, I thought it may have been the beginning of Sayid selling his soul (which he mentioned he would do the day he started trusting Ben).

I became convinced this is what had happened as we watched him coldly (and pimply) navigate the streets of Berlin and seduce a woman named Elsa to get close to her boss.

Naveen Andrews displayed an extraordinary amount of star power in this episode, and this episode was a terrific showcase for a compelling character that, having no strong ties to any one person since Shannon died, tends to be pushed to the background. Sayid ran the gamut of emotions in this episode and Andrews — who just LOOKED like a STAR in this episode — handled them beautifully.

He played Sayid's tender and compassionate moments on the Island (with his usual glimpse of a sense of humor) as convincingly as the cold, seductive moments when he was working Elsa. By the time she told him she loved him, he'd convinced that he had just become an efficient killing machine in his future. Of course, once he revealed what his true mission was, we learned that Elsa was an operative who was supposed to kill HIM if she couldn't find out who he worked for.

In a whopper of an ending we found out that Sayid is working for the baddest vet in Berlin — Benjamin Linus (we now know he has the passport to get there). We also found out that Sayid isn't exactly a cold-hearted bastard and Ben recruited him kill people on a list (they sure DO love lists on this show) in exchange for protecting his friends. You really trust what this guy is telling you Sayid?

So what'd you think of this episode? Who was the R.C. alluded to in Naomi's necklace and was Elsa wearing the same necklace after Sayid killed her and closed her eyes? What does it mean that time seems to move slower on the Island (31 minutes, according to Daniel's experiment) than everywhere else? Finally, who is "the economist" and who else is on Ben's list? (Are they all Euro-baddies or will it be someone we know?)