1×09 – Solitary

Previously: 1×08 – Confidence Man

From Gideon Slife’s Lost Poster Set

ON THE ISLAND - DAY TWELVE
Sayid sits alone on the beach (after leaving the camp in the last episode¹ ) mooning over his unflattering photo of a muslim woman and the accompanying letter until he notices a cable sticking out of the sand. Digging it out, he realizes that it runs from the sea towards inland, and starts following it.

At the camp, Jack’s changing an antagonistic Sawyer’s bandages after last episode’s stabbing, with Sawyer needling him, saying he’s only there because he feels guilty. When Jack retorts he’s only there because no-one else wants anything to do with him, a hurt Sawyer points out that Kate does, and Jack leaves him to change his own bandages.

And so the love triangle that would plague the show for so long was solidified.

Speaking of Kate, Jack finds her worrying about Sayid, who left two days ago. Kate’s still not happy with Jack and Sayid’s decision to torture Sawyer, and she’s not shy about letting him know.

This is the first time that a day has been skipped in Lost - apparently nothing worth showing happened on day eleven.

Sayid follows the cable and finds a tripwire with his super-keen bad-assery skills, and gingerly steps over it – only to get hauled up into a tree by his feet anyway. He swings sideways and gets stabbed in the leg by a rogue piece of bamboo. With great effort, he yanks it out – then passes out.

When Sayid comes to, it’s nighttime – and just when he thinks he hears someone near, the rope is cut sending him crashing to the ground where he passes out again as he sees someone approaching.

In the caves, Jack’s treating bespectacled hypochondriac Sullivan for a rash, and tells him it’s just caused by stress and sends him away with Sun, who’ll treat it with aloe. When Hurley points out all anyone has to do is stress and they need something to do. Jack says that they’re surviving and things could be worse – but Hurley’s not convinced.

Ever the optimist, Hurley’s already been set up as the carer² who will eventually take over the island³, and this realization that people need more than to simply survive shows the difference between him and Jack. Jack treats the body, Hurley treats the soul, if you like.

Sayid comes to consciousness slowly, under a swinging electric light as someone asks him repeatedly – in different languages – ‘Where is Alex?’ He quickly realizes that he’s strapped down, and when he says he doesn’t know, he gets a strong electric shock for his troubles. All he has to do is to tell the truth and the pain will end – but as he doesn’t have the answers his interrogator wants, the shocks keep coming.

The interrogator, Danielle Rousseau, is the first character introduced on the island who was not on board Oceanic 815.

FLASHBACK

Back in Iraq, Sayid beats a prisoner as he interrogates him over the bombing of the Baathist headquarters, but gets nothing from him but vomit.

Later, his commanding officer and friend Omar tells him he’s getting reassigned to the Intelligence Division as he wanted – but as he does, Sayid is distracted by the woman from his photo being brought past in handcuffs.

ON THE ISLAND

Hurley’s woken by Locke and a man named Ethan who found some bags while they were hunting. When Hurley asks why they were hunting at night, Ethan tells him it’s better that way, and Locke notes that Ethan has some experience hunting rabbit.

Ethan is the second character introduced on the island who was not on board Oceanic 815, although we don’t learn that until later⁴. Having him introduced in the same episode as Suillvan the rash guy is a good way to throw any suspicions off that he isn’t who he appears to be – he appears to simply be another survivor that we haven’t met before.

As Michael sleeps, Walt asks Locke if he can go hunting with him – but Michael wakes up and puts the kibosh on it. Meanwhile, Hurley finds something exciting in the bags Ethan and Locke found.

Elsewhere, Sayid continues to be tortured, and explains about the plane crash and the cable he found, and that he thought it might have something to do with the French transmission that was looping for sixteen years.

At that, his captor steps into sight as she speaks French, changing to English as she asks him if it’s really been sixteen years. She clearly doesn’t quite buy it, tells him she knows what he is and smacks him in the face with the butt of a rifle, knocking him out. Again.

DAY THIRTEEN

It’s daylight when Sayid comes to, and he sees the name ‘Rousseau’ on a tattered jacket. He notes that Rousseau’s batteries couldn’t power the distress call for sixteen years, and she says it’s broadcast from somewhere else but ‘they’ control it now.

The signal is being broadcast from a radio tower which is somewhere near the Black Rock⁵.

Rousseau believes Sayid to be one of the people who control the tower, and asks him who the woman in the photograph he carries with him is. He tells her that her name is Nadia.

FLASHBACK

Omar tasks Sayid with interrogating the imprisoned Nadia for information on the bombing – she can’t be tied to it but she is a known associate of Kurdish and Shiite insurgents. When Sayid goes to interrogate her, he realizes that they knew each other from childhood and she used to tease him because she liked him.

Even so, he tells her that he’ll hurt her if she doesn’t cooperate and she believes him – this isn’t her first time being tortured by the Republican Guard. He apologizes for her past treatment, but tells her the bombing is a different matter and he will hurt her. She tells him that she knows.

ON THE ISLAND

Rousseau tells Sayid to tell her more about Nadia; he counters by asking her to tell him about Alex.

Michael, sketching some plans while looking at a stick, tells a bored Walt he’ll take him to the beach later, but he’s busy right now. Hurley finds something he’s been looking for, takes Michael’s stick and runs off to do something, cackling.

Rousseau still thinks that Sayid is lying, and asks him why he’s alone if there were other survivors of the plane crash. He tells her that he left them because of something he’s ashamed of⁶, and she asks if he left Nadia too. He tells her no, Nadia wasn’t on the plane and is dead because of him. Rousseau empathizes with this and tells him she wants to show him something.

Michael shares the sketch he was working on with Jack – a filter to pull off some of the spring water for showers. Jack’s impressed and Michael says he was an artist in a previous life even though he worked construction. Before they can continue, Charlie arrives and tells them Hurley’s all worked up about something he wants them to see.

On an open area of the island, Hurley welcomes them to a golf course he’s built. Jack and Michael can’t believe that he’s doing with all that’s going on, but he tells them that they need to have something to do for fun, or they’ll all go crazy waiting for the next thing to happen.

Rousseau shows Sayid a broken music box that ‘her love’ gave her for their anniversary. Sayid thinks she’s talking about Alex, but she corrects him – she means Robert. She says the music box was a comfort to her for her first few years on the island, and Sayid offers to fix it.

Rousseau was given the music box by Robert, and is seen clinging to it when they arrive on the island⁷.

Rousseau seems to ignore him, instead asking what was written on the back of the photograph as she fills a hypodermic needle with something before injecting him.

Michael and Jack stand close, talking over a problem – which turns out to be what golf club to use. He warns off a dancing Hurley and Charlie by the hole but they don’t think he’ll get anywhere near them.

He’s about to swing when Sullivan shows up complaining about his rash – and then, on seeing the golf course, asks if he can play.

Sayid comes to with a start (he’s spending a lot of time unconscious this episode) – Rousseau sedated him so that she could move him to a table so he could fix her music box. He tells her he wants to know her name – and she tells him it’s Danielle.

She tells him that she and Robert were part of a science team who landed on the island after their ship, three days out from Tahiti, lost instrumentation and was hit by a storm. She says the hull breached beyond repair and they ran aground, making the temporary shelter she’s still in. She says they lasted almost two months.

When he asks about the distress signal where she said ‘It killed them all’, she tells him they were on their way back from the Black Rock, and the others were the carriers. Frustrated by her lack of clarity, Sayid asks if she’s seen other people on the island, and she says no – but she’s heard the whispers in the jungle. From Sayid’s reaction, she sees that he thinks she’s insane – but he just says he thinks she’s been on her own too long.

The Black Rock will be revealed to be a crashed 19th century ship later in the season⁸.

Rousseau says that her ship ran aground while she and her team are later shown paddling a raft to shore⁹ when they find Jin in the past.

Rousseau says that she’s never seen anyone on the island, while in fact she has seen Jin (5×04, 5×05)) and Ben¹⁰.

Rousseau says that the team lasted almost two months before ‘the carriers’, while she actually believed Jin to be the carrier¹¹ and met him the day she crashed on the island – although some time passed before she killed Robert and the remaining team members¹².

FLASHBACK

Sayid smuggles some food to Nadia – but she’s still adamant she won’t, even after weeks of imprisonment. Sayid tells her that they have two suspects in custody and all she needs to do is nod an identification and Sayid thinks he can have her set free.

Nadia touches his hand and tells him that then she wouldn’t have his visits to look forward to. He tells her that it isn’t a game – and she asks in that case, why does he pretend to be something he’s not?

Sayid’s struggle between who he thinks he is – a killer – and who he wants to be – a better man – is central to his character. In many ways, even though his love for Nadia drives him forward both on and off the island (and both before and after her death), it also holds him back from being what he wants to be, as Nadia represents his past. I think that’s why, in the final episodes it’s not Nadia who’s revealed as his soul mate, but Shannon¹³ as she believed him to be the better man he wanted to be and had no ties to his violent past.

At the beach, Boone tells Shannon about the golf course and they head to watch Jack play – followed by Kate, until she’s waylaid by Sawyer. He passes up the chance to come with her, especially as the others aren’t too keen on him. She suggests he might make more of an effort.

Sayid has fixed the music box, and palms a screwdriver as he gives it back to her. He asks to be let go, but she tells him he has to stay and it’s not safe. Suddenly a roar echoes in from outside, and Danielle heads out to investigate saying that if they’re lucky it’s one of the bears. When Sayid tells her it could be the monster, she replies that there’s no such thing as monsters – and leaves him alone, staring at one of her rifles.

FLASHBACK

Omar tells Sayid that he needs to execute Nadia to send a message, as Sayid has had a month to get information from her. He tells Sayid to bring her out and shoot her – or her will.

Sayid goes to collect Nadia, and throws a black hood to her, telling her to put it on. She looks at it, then asks him if he’s going to hurt her.

ON THE ISLAND

Sayid frees himself and gathers up Rousseau’s maps of the island from her camp before grabbing the rifle and heading out – although he accidentally leaves Nadia’s picture behind.

On the golf course, quite the crowd has gathered to watch the game. Jack comments to Kate that he’s been doing all he can to make everyone feel safe, then Hurley comes along, builds a golf course and everyone feels safe.

Again, Hurley is the carer, while Jack is the protector.

While Charlie and Hurley horse around, Walt shows up and tells Michael he left him alone at the caves. Michael apologizes, but gets distracted again when Charlie tells him it’s his shot and Walt wanders off.

Sayid limps through the jungle trying to get away when he hears movement. Rousseau appears, and he draws a bead on her with the rifle telling her to put it down. Wordlessly, she aims her own rifle at him.

FLASHBACK

Sayid dismisses two guards walking a hooded Nadia to her execution. Once they’re gone, he quickly pulls her hood off and frees her, telling her there’s a supply truck outside she can escape in. She wants him to come, but she can’t as they’d kill his family for his desertion and he doesn’t have her courage. She pulls her picture from the file and writes on it – as Omar calls for Sayid.

Omar calls out for a guard and Sayid kills him but still won’t leave with Nadia. Instead he’ll tell them she took his gun and shot Omar – and then him, as he shoots himself in the side. He begs Nadia to go, and she flees.

ON THE ISLAND

Sayid tells Rousseau he doesn’t want to hurt her, but she tells him he already has and raises her rifle. Sayid pulls the trigger but nothing happens. Rousseau took the firing pin out – just as she did with Robert before she killed him.

True story¹⁴.

She tells Sayid that Robert was sick, and that the disease took them one after another, leaving her no choice. Sayid realizes that she killed them all but she says she couldn’t take the risk of them being rescued like that – and she can’t take the risk with Sayid either. She can’t let him go after being alone all this time.

The sickness that Rousseau refers to is the transformation of people after they’ve been infected somehow by Smokey¹⁵. Ironically, Sayid will also fall victim to this¹⁶.

Sayid tells her that on the back of the photo Nadia wrote ‘You’ll find me in the next life if not in this one’ – he’s been holding on to that thought for seven years, hoping that she’s still alive somewhere but it only holds him back.

If Nadia’s message doesn’t foreshadow the final season’s flash-sideways I don’t know what does, even if – as noted above – it isn’t her that ultimately reawakens Sayid in that sideways world even though she’s there¹⁷.

He asks her to return with him so that they can all try to leave together but she won’t. She warns him to watch the other survivors closely, then goes to leave – but not before telling Sayid that Alex was her child.

Alex isn’t defined as male or female in the course of this episode.

On the golf course, Charlie misses his putt, leaving Jack to take his shot for the match. The bets start to fly – Hurley and Boone bet money, Sullivan bets dinner – and then Sawyer arrives, staking some sunscreen and a flashlight.

Jack shakes his head in disbelief and there’s an awkward silence as Sawyer gets shut out until Kate takes the bet – and then Boone does too, since they need the sunscreen -and then Jack takes the shot.

Locke hurls a knife into a tree, practicing – and he asks the Walt if his father knows he’s there. Walt ask if he can teach him how to throw the knife and Locke silently passes it to him, much to the boy’s delight.

Elsewhere as darkness starts to fall, Sayid’s walk back to the beach is halted as he begins to hear strange whisperings in the jungle, just as Rousseau said.

Jin and Claire don’t appear in this episode.

1. 1×08 [↩]
2. 1×01 [↩]
3. 6×17 [↩]
4. 1×10 and 1×11 [↩]
5. 3×22 [↩]
6. 1×08 [↩]
7. 5×05 [↩]
8. 1×24 [↩]
9. 5×04 [↩]
10. 5×12 [↩]
11. 5×05 [↩]
12. 5×05 [↩]
13. 6×17 [↩]
14. 5×15 [↩]
15. 5×15 [↩]
16. 6×06 [↩]
17. 6×06 [↩]

Tags: Boone, Charlie, Hurley, Jack, Jin, Kate, Locke, Michael, Sawyer, Sayid, Shannon, Sun