Lost: Temple of Doom

Ok, so last week I alluded to the very strong possibility that I cried during the climactic breakthrough scene between Sideways Jack and his son David.

Well “Sundown”, the latest episode of “Lost”, did away with that namby-pamby emotional junk and simply decided to wreck some s---! (R.I.P. Temple.)

Obviously I’m joking (since the emotional connection to these characters is what makes the show’s freaky-deaky sci-fi stuff palatable for us non-geniuses), but “Sundown” still came across as a dark, action-packed and emphatic conclusion to the Temple storyline that was beginning to frustrate some fans. (I imagine they felt a bit like Miles – sadly playing solitaire and waiting for something, ANYTHING to come and bust them out of that Temple.)

Well, the Temple definitely got busted in what was effectively the end of Act I in the final season of “Lost.”

“Sundown”, a title that directly evokes the season’s central themes of light and dark, focused on Sayid (not Sun, much to my pun-loving dismay).

It turns out Sideways Sayid (like Castaway Sayid) was in Los Angeles to see Nadia, the love of his life. The difference is that Sideways Nadia is married to Sayid’s brother Omer, and has two children.

After that initial shock, it became increasingly clear that things weren’t THAT different. Sayid and Nadia still loved each other (albeit secretly in this reality), and Sayid still had his Republican Guard/torturer background, which Omer cruelly tried to use as leverage to get Sayid to bail him out of trouble. (If you remember a young Sayid killing a chicken so Omer didn’t have to when they were young, you know Sayid bailing Omer out is nothing new.)

Most importantly, (like Castaway Sayid) Sideways Sayid found trouble and darkness no matter how desperately he tried to avoid it. I will give Sideways Sayid credit for turning the other cheek (at Nadia’s urging) even after his brother got “mugged” and sent to the hospital. (Hi, Jack!) Eventually, Sayid had no choice but to deal with his brother’s trouble when the bad men Omer borrowed money from semi-abducted Sayid.

The past-season character parade continued in the Sideways world with a delightfully hammy (and eggy) appearance from former freighter psycho Martin Keamy (Kevin Durand). Keamy’s men threatened Sayid, so he killed his two henchmen in self-defense. (I have a feeling Sideways Sayid doesn’t really approve oil contracts.) However, he didn’t necessarily HAVE to kill Keamy, so it was disappointing to see him make a choice the tortured Castaway Sayid would’ve made, especially in light of the fact that the other Sideways characters we’ve seen so far appear to be making more enlightened choices.

Still, unlike the time he (for example) shot a little kid, Sayid can justify his decision by saying he was protecting Nadia and his family. Also, there was an intriguing surprise in Keamy’s freezer.

Last week’s Sideways story moved me to tears, and Sayid’s Sideways story this week was solid (and kicked up a notch after Jin showed up). However, the real s--- was going down on the Island this week.

We opened with Sayid barging into Dogen’s, um, office and demanding to know why Dogen tried to kill him. Dogen explained the test he administered — weighing the good and bad in a person — had Sayid the scales in the wrong direction before coldly delivering a killer line: “I think it would be better if you were dead.” Despite saying these words to Sayid, Dogen stopped just short of killing him after a great, extended fight between the two men. Still, the most interesting tidbit from this scene was Sayid’s insistence that he was a good man. If you recall, Sayid was absolutely convinced he was going to hell before he died (but not by the Others, as Miles pointed out). As a result, Resurrected Castaway Sayid’s insistence that he was “good” stood out to me.

The exchange led Dogen to banish Sayid to the jungle (“Apparently, I’m evil,” he deadpanned to Miles), which I initially thought was good luck given that Jacob had gotten Jack and Hurley the hell out of the Temple. Unfortunately, Claire showed up as Sayid was leaving and requested that Dogen come outside the Temple to meet her “friend.” Dogen balked and instead gave Sayid the chance to prove he was a good person by giving him a knife and telling him to plunge it in the heart of “evil incarnate.” Besides Dogen’s obviously-biased view on the Man in Black, it was also interesting to learn (officially) that the Smoke Monster can apparently only take the form of people who have died. He warned Sayid that if he let the man talk, it was too late.

That’s why I’m interested to hear how you read the scene where Sayid faced Anti-Locke. I mean, technically Anti-Locke spoke, but was saying “Hello, Sayid” really enough to negate Sayid stabbing him in the chest? Obviously stabbing Anti-Locke didn’t hurt him, but did Dogen’s custom knife do ANYTHING? Despite the fact he DOES appear to be “evil incarnate”, I’m inclined to believe Anti-Locke when he says that Dogen had sent Sayid on a poison pill fools errand hoping that Sayid would be killed.

Either way, Sayid happened to catch Anti-Locke in the middle of recruiting season. Kudos once again to Terry O’Quinn, who refuses to overplay Anti-Locke’s Faustian tendencies. The pitch to Sayid was that Anti-Locke could provide the one thing he wanted – even if that thing had died in his arms years before. The idea that the flash-sideways represent the alternate lives Anti-Locke keeps promising people is an interesting notion. (What do you think?)

As a result, Sayid returned to the Temple with a message from Anti-Locke – Jacob is dead and you’re all free to go! (Flight attendant Cindy was particularly eager to comply. She’s SUCH a frontrunner, first ditching the castaways for the Others, now ditching the Others for Anti-Locke.)

Sayid shared a nice scene with Dogen, who explained how he got to the Island. He’d been driving drunk after picking up his son from baseball practice (which explained his obsession with that baseball) and got into an accident, so he made a deal with Jacob to save his son’s life in exchange for servitude on the Island. (Shades of Juliet and her cancer-ridden sister.)

The niceness quickly gave way to chaos with Sayid drowning Dogen in the (non)rejuvenation pool (he didn’t seem to put up much of a fight) and slitting Lennon’s throat. Though I’ll be sad to see Dogen go (I thought he was pretty cool), the character appeared to have packed it in and seemed to welcome death. (And Hiroyuki Sanada got a cool fight scene under his belt.) Lennon’s death? Meh.

Unfortunately for the Temple inhabitants, Dogen’s death now allowed to Smoke Monster to enter the Temple. (It seems Jacob had endowed him with some sort of Smoke Monster-Be-Gone mojo.)

The sequence with the Smoke Monster attacking the temple was so badass, that words can’t do it justice. You REALLY have to see it yourself, if you haven’t already. I’ll just give you a couple of my highlights:

The pillar of smoke whooshing above Kate and Claire as Kate dangled from the ladder (boy do THOSE two have unfinished business). The really killer scene was when Ben ran into Sayid and insisted they escape because, “There’s still time.” “Not for me,” Sayid replied in a loaded tone that matched Castaway Resurrected Sayid’s attitude with Castaway Pre-Death Sayid’s. (Michael Emerson slowly backing away from Sayid after he said this was also genius.)

The episode ended with Claire’s creepy rendition of “Catch a Falling Star” as Sayid looking like a terrifying badass joined Anti-Locke’s army. Personally, while the music was effective, I thought it was too much. I believe the acting of Naveen Andrews (who was EXCELLENT in this episode), O’Quinn, Emilie de Ravin and Evangeline Lilly was good enough to carry it without the creepy soundtrack. I’m especially intrigued by the stank look Anti-Locke gave the befuddled Kate – it’s almost as if he can tell that she’s not exactly on-board with his plans, but he can’t kill her in front of all those people.

This episode was absolutely terrific on its own merits, while also closing the chapter on the final season’s first act AND setting the stage for the story’s next phase. Remember the war Widmore referred to when he was trying to help Locke get back to the Island? I believe we now know what he was talking about.

So what’d you think of this episode? Who else thought (for an instant) that Sayid might stab Kate (since she was actually the first person he ran into in the jungle)? Will anyone besides me be using, “Apparently, I’m evil” in everyday conversation? Finally, where the hell were Jin and Sawyer during Anti-Locke’s siege?