2.14 One of Them
Danielle: "You talk to him, Sayid. As I recall, that is what
you do."
I don't like episodes
about torture. And yet, Sayid is my favorite character. Consider the
irony.
Yes, Henry Gale was obviously
"one of them." Sayid was right that a man who had buried the
woman he loved would remember every detail, and it's sad that Sayid
is one to know.
But this episode was
also about Sayid being "one of them." His own father was an
Iraqi hero, but Sayid changed sides and tortured his own superior instead
of dying honorably. Why? Was it seeing the film clip about the nerve
gas? Was it that he just wanted to live? It's sort of hard to tell.
It was established in the end that the Clancy Brown character spoke
Arabic, and never really needed a translator. He told Sayid, "One
of these days, there will be something you need to know. And now, you
know how to get it." Was this supposed to imply that Sayid needs
those skills now, on the Island, and that Fate stepped in to give them
to him?
Sayid knew he had a better
chance of convincing Locke to let him torture Gale, and that Jack would
not allow it. Yes, Jack allowed Sayid to torture Sawyer in season one,
but it was because Shannon was Jack's patient, and she needed her asthma
medication. Here, Henry was Jack's patient. Jack felt that there was
no compelling life or death reason to torture Henry. We don't know yet
who was right: Sayid or Jack. It's an interesting question.
When Henry Gale gave
his name and said that he had crashed his balloon on the Island, I couldn't
help laughing. I mean, come on. The Wizard ended up in Oz in the first
place because he crashed his balloon. Dorothy's last name was Gale,
and she had an Uncle Henry. Yes, this one supposedly came from Minnesota
instead of Kansas, and Henry said later that his wife's name was Jennifer.
Why didn't they go all the way and call her Auntie Em?
There have been numerous
references to classic children's fantasy literature throughout this
series. So far, there have been allusions to "Peter Pan,"
"Alice in Wonderland," and "The Black Stallion."
(Okay, that last one isn't technically fantasy, but it was about a child
and a horse marooned alone on a desert island.) And now "The Wizard
of Oz." What do all of these novels have in common? They're about
children who accidentally wind up in a fantasy world where unreal and
incredible things happen. The adults tend to be fantasy villains, like
Captain Hook, the Red Queen, the Wicked Witch. Zeke sort of fits the
bill, doesn't he?
The countdown went to
zero for a split second, and black and red Glyphs of Death showed up.
There were five characters: undecipherable (sort of in the shape of
a pinkie finger), undecipherable, a candle flame or rocket, a bird,
and something that looked like a dowsing rod. Scuttlebutt on the internet
says these glyphs mean "Die." Fortunately, Locke managed to
input Hurley's numbers quickly enough to stave off whatever it was that
was going to happen. If anything. Hey, it was freaky enough to make
me want to keep typing in those numbers. Why take chances?
In other news, nearly
everyone has stopped speaking to Sawyer. (What a surprise.) And we had
an interesting parallel. Last season, Sawyer was harrassed by a boar.
This season, it was a tree frog. (A hog and a frog.) Sawyer doesn't
do well with animals. I was grossed out but unsurprised when Sawyer
crushed the frog. He wants everyone to hate him, doesn't he?
Character bits:
-- Sayid was 23 when
the U.S. came to Iraq. How old would that make him now? What year is
it on the Island?
-- This flashback occurred
before other two Sayid flashbacks, and unlike the others, a lot of the
dialogue was in Arabic. And Sayid finally gave his last name: Jarrah.
I'm fairly certain that hasn't been mentioned before.
-- It was good to see
Danielle again, even if all she did was bring Sayid to Henry-in-a-net,
and shoot Henry with a crossbow.
-- As soon as I saw American
soldiers, I knew Kate's stepfather was going to show up. And he did.
It wasn't even ambiguous, since he had a photo of a much younger Kate
with him in the helicopter.
-- Henry's wife's name
was Jennifer Murphy, and she was from the University of Minnesota. Henry
got rich from selling his mining company; it mined non-metallic minerals.
-- When he was ten, Hurley
had a pet turtle named Stewart.
-- Sawyer bonded a little
with Hurley before literally squashing it along with the frog. Note
that Hurley has a stash, and so does Sawyer. So did Charlie, for that
matter, and in the end, Sayid was bonding with Charlie. It'll be interesting
to see where this goes.
-- Sawyer called Hurley
"Rerun," "Barbar," and "Hammo." Sawyer,
you're the pig.
Bits and pieces:
-- Henry said he and
his wife landed four months ago, and that they lived in a cave off the
beach on the north shore, two days walk away. He also said that his
balloon had a big yellow smiley face. I hope he made that part up.
-- Sayid didn't do a
professional enough job interrogating Henry. Was it because Shannon's
death was too recent, and talking about her unnerved him? Was Henry
too smart for him?
-- The film that Clancy
Brown showed Sayid had the following captions: "Eyes only. Top
secret. Property of DIA. Reel 23108-42." Very familiar numbers
there. And I think the Arabic number on the door of Tariq's cell was
4.
-- Henry said he had
an ADF beacon.
-- I'm starting to think
that Jack and Locke are eventually going to have to duke it out. Pistols
at dawn, perhaps.
-- Hurley hid some of
the food from the Hatch for himself. So he's not perfect, much like
everyone else on the Island. I think I'd pass on that ranch dressing,
though. Anything that keeps that long at room temperature has to be
full of enough preservatives to embalm a corpse.
-- Everyone is always
running out of the jungle yelling, "Where's Jack?"
See, this is why doctors need pagers. Jack certainly has an interesting
practice. How many GPs get called in to remove an arrow?
-- Hurley: "This
is how people get killed in scary movies." Sawyer: "If
it were a scary movie, I'd be with a hot chick. Not you, Barbar."
Hurley: "It's Babar." Sawyer: "Why don't you shut
up, Hammo, or your ranch disorder is gonna be the new lead item on the
coconut internet."
-- Hurley: "Yeah,
I'm fat. Fat, fat, fat, fat, fat. You think I don't know that? At least
people like me." You tell him, Hurley.
-- Sawyer: "I
hear with a little ranch, they taste just like chicken."
Crossbows, torture, mashed
tree frogs, yuk. But this was still the best Sayid backstory episode
so far. A solid three out of four polar bears,
Billie
©Billie
Doux