Sundown

I can't explain myself, I'm afraid, Sir, because I'm not myself you see. - Alice from Alice in Wonderland


I first noticed that the episodes this season were following the same pattern as they did in season 1 after “What Kate Does”. So when I first found out that this episode was titled “Sundown” I thought it was going to be a Jin/Sun episode. The sixth episode of the first season was “House of the Rising Sun” which was a Jin/Sun episode. It didn’t take long for me to figure out we were getting a Sayid episode. The pattern the season had been following ended with this episode, that wasn’t the only pattern that ended with this episode but I will explain that later. With that, let’s see just what that wacky Iraqi is up to this week.



A nervous Sayid sits in a cab with a bunch of roses. He walks up to a house and his long lost love Nadia answers the door. She is very happy to see Sayid as she wraps her arms around him. This serves as both a warm welcome for Sayid but it also allows us to get a look at the wedding ring on her finger. At first I cheered that things had worked out for Sayid in the ATL and he was with Nadia. Alas, my joy was quickly dashed when two rug rats quickly approached. My joy caught the last train for the coast when the two aforementioned rug rats called Sayid “Uncle”. Turns out Nadia is married to Sayid’s brother Omer (not to be confused with Omar) so it would seem that in any reality or time line Sayid is doomed in the romance department. Although not together, it is easy to see that there are some feelings between Nadia and Sayid and more than just brother and sister-in-law feelings. Sayid says he does something with contracts for an oil company. Anybody really believe that is what he really does? Omer gets a phone call which gives Sayid and Nadia a chance to talk, openly. Nadia asks Sayid why he didn’t answer the letters she wrote him. I couldn’t tell if Omer had overheard the talk between Sayid and Nadia or if he got bad news in the phone call because he seemed to be a little perturbed afterward.


MTL Sayid goes to talk to Dogan in his little office/greenhouse whatever room. Sayid asks about the torture test that he was subjected to. Dogan talks about a scale with evil and good on either side facing each other. Notice he had a black glove on the hand that he used to represent the “evil” side. Apparently Sayid’s scale had leaned towards evil. In The Egyptian Book of the Dead it describes their belief of the afterlife and the trials that awaited the deceased. One of the trials conducted by the jackal headed god Anubis involved weighing the deceased’s heart on the scale of Maat. The heart was counterbalanced on the other side by the feather of Truth. If the heart was not weighed down by evil then the heart would be lighter than the feather. If this was found to be the case then the soul could move on to rewards in the afterlife. Dogan thinks they would all be better if Sayid was dead. Sayid says he is a good man which causes the two to go all dukes and ruffians. At first Sayid seems to hold his own against the Temple Ninja but soon Dogan gets the upper hand. Sayid is almost stabbed in the neck but Dogan’s baseball falls to the floor and it serves as a reminder to him that he is not allowed to kill Sayid. Remember that Sayid is a “candidate”. Dogan lets Sayid up and tells him that he is to leave the temple.


Outside of the temple on the other side of the ring of ash stand Claire and Unlocke. The MIB (he goes by many names) asks Claire if she is ready to go. Unlocke tells her that he can’t do it himself and that is why he asked her to go to the temple. Claire asks if he is going to keep his promise of reuniting her with Aaron after she does what he asks. He says he always keeps his promises. Claire asks if he is going to hurt the people in the temple. He tells her that he will just hurt the ones that won’t listen.


Omer wakes Sayid up at 2:30 (23) and from the way Sayid wakes up you still believing his story about working for an oil company? Omer tells Sayid that he is in trouble with a man he borrowed money from. He asked Sayid to “convince” the man to leave him alone. Sayid tells Omer that he won’t do it because he is “not that man” anymore. OK, maybe he isn't that man anymore but he most certainly was that man once.


Sayid tells Miles the he has been “banished”. Miles gives Sayid the short version of Sayid’s miraculous resurrection. He points out that the others were just as surprised as the rest of them to see Sayid alive again. Miles says Sayid was dead for two ours and whoever brought Sayidwasn’t the others. Hm mm, who could it have been then? As Sayid is about to leave, Claire shows up. She tells Dogan that “he” wants to talk to Dogan. How bad ass was Claire telling Dogan to speak English? I like mean and evil Claire way more than crazy Claire; I’m just not sure where one ends and the other begins. Dogan tells her that he knows that as soon as he was to set foot out of the temple he would be killed. Claire says to send someone that won’t be killed. Dogan says to put Claire in the hole and wants to see Jack and Hurley. Lennon tells him that they don’t know where they are. Dogan tells Sayid to come with him as the situation in the temple has changed. Inside, Dogan says that Claire is a confused girl and she is being influenced by an angry man. As he says all of this he is dusting off a box that he keeps in some flower pots. He tells Sayid that Unlocke will kill every living person on the island now that Jacob is gone. He goes as far as calling MIB “evil incarnate asks why he would do anything for the others considering what they have done to him. prays on ”. Dogan instructs Sayid to kill him. He tells Sayid that he will come to him as someone he knows, someone who has died. Sayid is to plunge the dagger into his chest as soon as he sees him. This is similar to how Ben was able to kill Jacob. Dogan warns that if he is allowed to speak it will already be too late. SayidDoganSayid’s conscience when he tells him that this is his chance to prove there is still “good” in his soul.




Sayid drops the kids off at the pool, OK it was the bus stop. He says that he has to go to Toronto for work and will be leaving soon. Sayid and Nadia rush to the hospital after she gets word that Omer has been hurt. Sayid passes Jack in the hallway at the hospital was a nice surprise. After the ER doctor gives them the news that Omer needs surgery, Sayid knows he was hurt by the man he owes money to. Nadia begs him to just let it go and to go home with the kids.



In the jungle, Kate sees Sayid and he tells her to ask Miles for an update on what’s going on. Kate arrives back at the temple and finds Miles playing solitaire. Miles remarks that Sawyer sent Kate packing. He then adds that that is the reason why he didn’t go after Sawyer as well. Kate says that pretty much sums up what happened to her. Miles tells Kate that Claire returned and even though she was acting weird he thinks she is still hot. Throw some soap and water on her and I’m right there with ya Miles. Kate goes off to find Claire which is kinda ironic in that all this time Kate has been running around looking for Claire all over the island and all she had to do was stay put and Claire would have come to her. Funny how stuff works out sometimes isn't it?


Sayid stops for a drink of water and Smokie is around. Unlocke comes out of the jungle and says “Hello Sayid” and he gets a dagger in the chest from Sayid. Was “Hello Sayid” enough to make Sayid not able to kill Unlocke? I don’t think so, I don’t think Sayid ever was able to kill Unlocke. Notice when he pulls the dagger from his chest there is no blood. “Now why'd you go and do that?” was one of the best lines of the night. Unlocke gives the dagger back to Sayid and the two share information as to what Unlocke is and what Dogan told Sayid about him. Unlocke tells Sayid that Dogan sent him out into the jungle to be killed. Unlocke then tells Sayid that he wants him to deliver a message to the others. He promises Sayid that he can give him the thing that he wants more than anything else in the world. Sayid says that the thing he wants most in life died in his arms. I lean towards thinking this is Nadia he is talking about although some say they think it could actually be Shannon. The MIB is able to get on the good side of people by using their fondest wishes to his advantage. Watch how his face changes when he looks at Sayid and asks “But what if you could?” Remember Ben explaining to John Locke about the “magic box” that was on the island that can bring to the island whatever he wanted. What if the island can’t do squattah and it is Jacob and the MIB that can do it? In that case maybe Unlocke was right when he told Sawyer that the island didn’t need protecting. One other thing this reminded me of was when Desmond was talking to Jack and Jack said he couldn’t fix Sara’s injuries. Desmond asked him something similar to “But what if you could?”. Wanna go real old school? OK, a quick version of the temptation of Christ tells us that Jesus was offered a deal by Satan when he was walking through the wilderness. Satan offered him dominion over the world if he was to follow him.


Sayid is gluing a vase when Nadia comes home. She asks Sayid about the kids then Sayid offers to pay off Omer’s debt but Nadia still insists that it is not his problem that it is Omer’s responsibility. Nadia asks Sayid why he pushed her towards his brother and didn’t want to be with her. He tells her that for twelve years he has tried to forget what he did while in the military. He tried to wash away everything he had done. He says the reason he can’t be with her is because he doesn’t deserve her. A little self imposed punishment which we know Sayid is very good at.


Sayid delivers Unlocke’s message to the others back at the temple. His message is that Jacob is dead and the others don’t have to stay at the temple any longer. The others are all free. Unlocke is leaving the island forever and he wants them to join him. He tells them that if they want to go with him they need to make up their mind and leave the temple by sundown. Hence the title of the episode, turns out the title had nothing to do with Sun at all. Cindy asks what happens if they don’t leave and Sayid says they will die.


Lennon finds Kate in the halls of the temple and asks her when she got back and if Jin or Sawyer is with her. She says she wants to see Claire and Lennon agrees to take her after Kate gives him a little “convincing”. Claire is in a pit similar to the one the Taillies put Sawyer, Jin, and Michael in. Claire is singing “Catch a Falling Star” which is the song Claire wanted to be sung to Aaron. We get a great shot of Claire’s cleavage as she talks to Kate about Aaron. Claire seems happy to see Kate at first but then her attitude quickly changes when Kate tells her she in fact took Aaron off of the island and was raising him for the past three years. Kate tells Claire that she came back to the island to rescue Claire and to take her to Aaron. Claire tells Kate that she isn’t the one that needs saving. Uh-oh what does that mean? Looks like Claire is going to be hating on Kate as much as some LOST fans do. There are so many people that actually hate Kate that there is a term for it: “Katetred”. As Lennon is taking Kate away, Claire tells her that “he is coming and they can’t stop him”.


The others begin a mass exodus from the temple as suddenly they all now live in The Town That Dreaded Sundown. Miles asks Sayid what happened and asks if it is time for them to leave. Sayid pulls out the dagger and tells Miles that he has to return it first.



Back in the ATL, Sayid is picked up by Omar (one of the freighter goons in the MTL) and taken to what looks like a kitchen. Almost the same kitchen that Miles was taken to by Naomi before he joined the freighter team. By the way, a little mess up by the prop department; the license plate on the van Sayid walks past has the same numbers as Jack’s jeep from last week. Oops. In the kitchen a man is cracking an egg into a pan and offers Sayid an egg. It’s Keamy! No doubt about it, he is one of the scariest dudes to ever be on this show, I’m sorry, he just is! Anyway, Keamy makes some ominous comments about Sayid’s brother being mugged. He asks Sayid if he wants to take care of his brother’s family. We can figure out that Keamy is the man Omer borrowed money from before he tells Sayid that he is. He tells Sayid that Omer lied and he is still owed money but he says that he didn’t put Omer in the hospital. He makes a remark that it is a dangerous world and Sayid knows this since he is from Iraq. Sayid quickly does what Sayid does best and before you can say “Martin Christopher Keamy” there are two dead thugs in the kitchen. Keamy tells Sayid that they can forget about the debt but Sayid says that he can’t forget about it and shoots Keamy. This serves to point out that no matter what reality we are in if you lie to Sayid you are going to die! Sayid then goes to check out the banging he hears coming from the walk-in refrigerator or freezer. Inside, he finds Jin in what was the biggest “WTF?” moment of the night. The translation of what Jin says to Sayid runs along the lines of “Don’t shoot! Please don’t kill me!”. So let’s figure this one out real quick; Jin works for Mr. Paik and he was supposed to be taking the watch to someone for Mr. Paik. Was that person Keamy? Is Keamy still working for Charles Widmore like he was in the original time line? Some say Keamy is wearing the watch Jin was supposed to deliver. We do know that Paik and Widmore are business buddies so it’s a possibility. Looking forward to seeing Jin’s flash sideways to find out what the rest of this story is. So maybe we can count on one more Keamy appearance before the show ends.



Inside the temple Dogan comments that Sayid let “him” talk to him. Sayid says he stabbed him like he was supposed to. Sayid says this was the second time Dogan has tried to get someone else to kill Sayid for him. Watch Dogan’s face when Sayid says this, it's absolutely true! Sayid wants to know why Dogan didn’t kill him when he had the chance. We get as close to a Dogan flashback as we are going to get when he tells Sayid his story. He was a banker in Japan and after getting a promotion he goes out to celebrate with the rest of the office. He has a little too much to drink and after picking his son up from baseball they get into an accident. Dogan was fine but not so his son. A man came to him in the hospital and told him that he could fix his son but Dogan would have to go to the island and he could never see his son again. This deal sounds a little bit like the one Juliette made in order to heal her sister in return for coming to the island. So now we know why the baseball is so important to Dogan. Sayid asks Dogan who the man was and he says it was Jacob. Sayid says that Jacob drives a hard bargain. Dogan comments that it is now sundown and asks Sayid if he is staying or going. Sayid says he would like to stay and then attacks Dogan and drowns him much the same way Dogan had the others drown Sayid. Lennon comes in and finds Dogan dead and asks Sayid if he knows what he just did. Lennon says that Dogan was the only thing keeping “it” out and that Sayid just let “it” in. Sayid says “I know” after he slices Lennon’s throat with the dagger. Lennon floats in the water along side of Dogan, could they be resurrected by the water? In the ATL Sayid is asked to kill by his brother but refuses. Later he is forced to kill. In the MTL Sayid is asked to kill by Dogan and he agrees to however Sayid is unable to seal the deal and cannot kill Unlocke.


Miles is outside of the temple with the rest of the others. Smokie is on the way and Kate tells Miles they have to run. As Smokie begins his rampage Kate goes in search of Claire. Apparently Ilana is better at knocking down a door than Miles is at barricading one because she got into the little room where he was hiding fairly easy. Ilana seemed to know who Miles is but Miles doesn't know who she is. Ilana asks where Jack, Hurley, and Sawyer are. Miles says he is the only one left at the temple. Frank comes in with Ben and Sun and he tells Miles they will catch up later after they move their asses; another good line in this episode. Ben goes to look for Sayid who Miles says is in the pool room. Ilana moves out with the rest of the group.


Kate kicks the rope ladder down into the hole and tells Claire that she has to get out. Claire looks very much at peace as she says “No” and says that Kate will be safer there in the hole with her. Kate jumps into the hole as she hears Smokie approaching. Kate is both horrified and mesmerized as Smokie passes overhead.



Ben finds Sayid near the water with the bloody dagger still in his hand. Ben tries to convince Sayid to leave with him. Ben says that there is time for him to get out. Sayid looks as evil as we have ever seen him as he smiles at Ben and says “Not for me”. Ben very slowly backs out of the room.


Ilana and her group make their way deeper into the temple. Miles asks Sun if she has seen Jin. Sun is shocked to learn that he is still alive. Ilana finds the secret path, the same one that Hurley took to get out of the temple, and escapes the wrath of Smokie who passes through the hallway just after they enter the secret hallway. A quick visit to Lostpedia and it tells us the hieroglyph tile on the wall in the temple hallway that Ilana pushes to open the secret passage is a Shen ring. The Shen ring is an ancient Egyptian symbol of eternity and protection. In ancient Egypt, the Shen Ring also represents dual concepts of time; the cyclic line of periodicity and lineal time that leads into infinity. By the way, that sound you just heard was my head exploding. Let’s move on.



It’s been awhile since we have had a good slow motion musical montage on LOST. We get one at the end of Sundown which is quite possible the creepiest we have ever had. Catch a Falling Star plays in the background as Sayid makes his way from the temple through the carnage. Claire and Kate are right behind him. Kate stops to lift a rifle from one of the dead others, she must have been a girl scout. Sayid and Claire seem to be of a like mind as they exit the temple and join Unlocke and the rest of the others that decided to join him. Unlocke greets Sayid and Claire then looks at Kate. His reaction to her is odd. Kate sees Locke for the first time alive again on the island and she is clearly surprised.


Earlier I had commented that this episode was different than previous episodes this season in that it didn’t follow the same pattern as the first season. There was something else in this episode that was different from the rest of the episodes from this seasons and that is how the flash sideways plays out. In Jack’s episode he was saying he wouldn’t have made a good father and in the ATL he worked hard with his son and in the end was actually able to be a good father. We are at least made to think he will be. He also doesn’t have an alcohol problem nor does he have a drug problem. There is definitely a difference between the flash sideways we have seen for Jack and the flash forwards we saw of him before. Same for Kate and Locke. Kate is still on the run but she is not as selfish as she was in the past and after seeing the stuff in Claire’s bags she returns to the spot where she dropped off the pregnant girl and offered to help her. Almost to the point of risking her own freedom in fact. The Kate we had seen in the past would never have done that in her flash sideways. Locke is different as well. Where before he was willing to believe in miracles, in the flash sideways he doesn’t. He tries to fight his paralysis and never seems to come to grips with it in the original story of John Locke but in his flash sideways he accepts it. He tells Helen that no matter what, he is going to be in that chair and they will have to deal with it. Sayid is different; in both of his time lines he is a killer. Always has been and always will be. There is no change in his love life either. Sayid is not happily in love with Nadia. He is miserable when it comes to his relationship with her. Whatever time line you are in Sayid will never be happy and he is not able to get away from the label of “killer”. As Ben said before it is just what Sayid does.


Where the difference is really obvious, and I think we can mark this as the time when the “darkness” actually claims Sayid is in his assessment of himself as not being evil. Sayid tells Dogan that he is a good man. This is false, we know the real Sayid doesn’t believe himself to be a good man. It was just a few episodes ago that Sayid was lying in the jungle dying and telling Hurley how much of a bad person he has been in his life. So bad in fact that he will not be going anywhere pleasant after he dies. Remember back in Solitary after Sayid tortures Sawyer he feels that he could be a threat to the rest of the survivors so instead of putting their safety at risk Sayid leaves. So why the quick turn around? Dogan read the scales when he gave Sayid the test and the scales leaned towards Sayid being evil. Sounds fairly accurate to me. Sayid has been forced to kill all throughout LOST. Sometimes willingly (guy on the golf course or the guy outside of Santa Rosa Mental Hospital) and other times when he had to and not so willingly (the men at the safe house and his girlfriend Elsa from The Economist). If he was a Dungeons and Dragons character he would be considered chaotic good. In the world of LOST he leans towards evil, especially now, but this is not our Sayid. Not anymore. And I can't believe I am ending a post with a D&D reference but I am cause that's just how I roll! Hey I tried to find a Gordon Lightfoot tie-in but I got nothin'.