Sayid Jarrah

Name: Sayid Jarrah

Occupation: Former Republican Guard¹ torturer²

First Appearance: 1×01 – Pilot, Part One

Flashbacks: 1×09 – Solitary

Click for Timeline

Pre-Island

When Sayid was a small boy he was teased by a girl named Nadia, who liked him.

Years later, in 1997 whilst serving in the Iraqi Republican Guard, he met Nadia again when he was assigned to interrogate and torture her. He did so but over the two months she was imprisoned they fell in love. When he was ordered to execute her he instead helped her escape, killing his friend Omar in the process. He covered the escape by shooting himself³.

In 2004, on boarding flight Oceanic 815, Sayid was pulled aside by security.⁴

On the Island

He survived the crash of the flight and as the chaos following the crash died down, he started building a fire with Charlie.⁵

The next day, Sayid got into a fight with Sawyer when he was accused of bring down the plane. The fight was broken up by Jack, and Sayid repaired the tracnsceiver form the cockpit while bonding with Hurley – when he revealed he had been a member of the Iraqi Republican Guard during the Gulf War.⁶

He later led Kate, Sawyer, Boone, Shannon and Charlie on a hike to higher ground to get a signal on the transceiver. Along the way they were attacked by a polar bear, which Sawyer killed. When they finally got a signal the group found another mayday signal, this one in French, was already been broadcast on the island and had been repeating for sixteen years.⁷

That night, Sayid and the others agreed not to tell the other survivors about the signal to avoid a panic. The next day, he omitted everything about the Frenchwoman’s message when addressing the camp, and set about organizing them to ration food and trap rainwater. Later that night, he told Jack that people were getting upset about Mars‘ pained moaning and offered his help – it was refused.⁸

After boars foraged amongst the dead bodies a few nights later, Sayid opposed Jack’s decision to burn the dead as it didn’t take account of their wishes or religion but finally ceded the point. The next morning he gave Kate an antenna he had designed to triangulate the position of the signal, but she later broke it, leaving him frustrated.⁹

The next day when the camp’s water supply was stolen, he and Kate tried to locate the culprit, although they incorrectly pegged Sawyer as the guilty party¹⁰.

The day after, Sayid and Sawyer broke up a fight between Jin and Michael. Sayid later refused to follow Jack to the caves, saying it would be like admitting defeat. Instead he rallied some of the others – including Kate and Sawyer – to stay with him on the beach and keep the signal fire burning¹¹.

Not giving up on rescue, Sayid built three antennae to triangulate the French signal. He left one on the beach in Boone’s care and left another with Kate some way into the island. He went further into the island alone and when the pre-arranged time came, signaled the others to activate the antennae. He seemed to be on the brink of locating the signal with his transceiver when he was knocked unconscious by an unseen assailant¹².

The next day, Sayid became convinced – thanks to Locke’s maneuvering – that Sawyer was his attacker. When it became obvious that Shannon’s life might be endangered by Sawyer withholding her medicine, he convinced Jack to let him torture him for its location. Afterward, when Sawyer told Kate he never had the medicine, Sayid attacked Sawyer in a rage, only coming to his senses when he stabbed the other man in the arm. Ashamed and scared that he’d done things he swore he would never do again, Sayid left the camp to walk the island’s shores alone¹³.

A few days later, Sayid found a cable running inland from the ocean and followed it, only to be caught in a trap set by Rousseau, the French woman who had been trapped on the island for 16 years. She believed him to be one of the people who took her child and tortured him, but later empathized with him over his lost love Nadia as she had herself lost her lover. When he escaped, Sayid offered her a place with the plane survivors but she refused. On his way back to the beach, he heard whispers in the jungle¹⁴.

Sayid made his way back to the camp – a journey that took several days with his injured leg. Finally he made it to the caves to warn everyone that they were not alone on the island¹⁵.

With his wound treated Sayid rested in the caves, where he was confronted by Sawyer. He told him about meeting Rousseau and her story, expecting retribution for his torture – but the other man eventually left him be¹⁶.

As he recovered, Sayid enlisted Shannon to help him translate the writings on Rousseau’s maps, and the pair grew closer. She realized that much of the writings were lyrics from ‘La Mer‘¹⁷.

Sayid continued to flirt with Shannon in spite of Boone’s disapproval. He also was given Locke’s compass as he tried to make sense of Rousseau’s maps, realizing that the compass didn’t work properly on the island¹⁸. He continued working on the maps and a few days later believed that he’d found a location mapped on the island, which he and Charlie theorized might be the black rock that Rousseau had mentioned¹⁹.

Not long after, Claire returned from the jungle and Ethan told them that he would kill one person every day until he got Claire back. Sayid helped Locke prepare the camp, although he was reluctant to let Boone help.
That night, Ethan made good on his threat by killing Scott. The next day Sayid – along with Locke, Jack, Sawyer and Kate used Claire as bait to trap Ethan and he fought the man to a standstill – but the captive Ethan was killed by Charlie²⁰.

At Hurley’s urging, Sayid gave Charlie some advice on how to handle the after effects of his killing Ethan²¹.

Sayid’s flirtation with Shannon moved forward and he told Boone that the two of them might become more than friends as a courtesy. A frustrated Boone told him that Shannon had a history of using men who could help her and on the island, that meant Sayid. Worried, Sayid tried to pull back from her, causing her to realize Boone was sticking his nose into her business. Shannon later approached Sayid and kissed him, not allowing Boone to stand between them²².

Timeline

1. 1×02 [↩]
2. 1×08 [↩]
3. 1×09 [↩]
4. 1×02 [↩]
5. 1×01 [↩]
6. 1×02 [↩]
7. 1×02 [↩]
8. 1×03 [↩]
9. 1×04 [↩]
10. 1×05 [↩]
11. 1×06 [↩]
12. 1×07 [↩]
13. 1×08 [↩]
14. 1×09 [↩]
15. 1×10 [↩]
16. 1×11 [↩]
17. 1×12 [↩]
18. 1×13 [↩]
19. 1×14 [↩]
20. 1×15 [↩]
21. 1×16 [↩]
22. 1×17 [↩]

Tags: Characters, Sayid