Lost - "He's Our You," Ctd

Hello all. Surprise, surprise, I'm actually getting this post up before Wednesday morning! Anyway, I found last week's episode of Lost, "He's Our You," a bit boring. Blasphemy, I know, but nothing really seemed to happen until the last minute. That doesn't mean I didn't have thoughts on the episode. Away we go:

*Nice parallels between Sayid killing the chicken for his brother (and sparing him the ire of their father), and Eko killing the man for his brother, Yemi (and sparing him the ire of the rebels). In fact, there was a number of parallels to Season 2, as there have been throughout the season (see Doc Jensen's columns, where he has chronicled this well). Along this line, there was Hurley providing food (as a chef in Dharmaville), just as he did when he was put in charge of the Hatch pantry in Season 2. Also, Sayid's imprisonment was eerily similar to Ben's when he was held in the Hatch, posing as Henry Gale.

*How does an assassin stop being an assassin? That was essentially the question facing Sayid after his final assignment in Moscow (how freaking cool did Ben look in that hat and trenchcoat, by the way?). As his stated reason for working with Ben was to protect his friends both on and off the Island (instigated by the murder of his wife), now that he was done, he no longer had a purpose. I think Ben's words, "You're free, Sayid," really made Sayid realize he had been a prisoner, a gun for hire, an automaton for the last three years. Once again, he allowed himself to be manipulated by Ben Linus. As we see in 1977, after Sayid's interrogation, he realized the purpose for his return to the Island -- to kill Ben, and hopefully stop his reign of terror in the future.

*The last point brings up the classic quesiton of, "If you could go back in time and kill Hitler as a child, would you?" It seems like an obvious question, but there is no telling what the result would be. I think there is no way in hell Ben is actually dead. In fact, I think it was getting shot that actually made Ben the Evil Ben he is today. He was assumedly a little evil (or misunderstood, if you like) due to not-out-of-the-ordinary daddy issues arising from his relationship with his father, but the shot pushed him over the edge. Did the future change? Methinks we are about to learn more about the rules of time travel in the next episode, "What Happened Happened."

*We all assumed Ben had all his knowledge of the Lostaways from the Flame station and Patchy. However, what if he knew all about our friends because he grew up with them??

*It's interesting that Juliet, who wanted to go home sooooo badly throughout the series up to this point, now wants to stay and preserve her current life in Dharmaville, despite knowledge of The Purge. I guess after living there for three years, she had given up hope of ever leaving the Island. That and a few bottles of Dharma merlot with LaFleur (aka Sawyer, nee Ford).

Quick hits:

*Love how flashbacks are actually of events taking place in the future. Very cool Darlton (That's show runners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse combined in a "Brangelina" way).

*The whole Oldham thing was kinda lame. He was so not scary. Perhaps it was my association of the actor playing Oldham, William Sanderson, with his sad-sack role in a great show, Deadwood. Did think there was a very cool light cue: as the drug took effect on Sayid, the whole scene got much "cooler," moving from orange tones to purple ones.

*The return of McCutcheon Scotch! I don't have much else to say about Ilana the Bounty Hunter. Nice to learn why she had Sayid in cuffs, and some kinda kick-ass moves when taking down the drunk Sayid (stay away from women Sayid! Shannon, Nadia, Elsa. All end up dead or pointing a gun at him!). Great line though about wanting her rib-eye "bloody."

*Reference to Ann Arbor. Are we going to see the Degroot's sometime soon?

*Horace did NOT look surprised to hear Sayid was from the future. I would not be shocked to learn Horace knew of time travel, and the chance that people from the future were living with him. Something to watch for.

Anyway, that's about it. Not a great episode in my book. Again, I don't expect Young Ben to be dead. I've heard that the next episode is going to be a Kate episode, which in the past has always proven to provide good times. Let's hope we can get some background into her general sourness the last few episodes and why she gave up/what happened to Aaron. As always, check out full recaps of "He's Our You" by Doc Jensen and Erika. I'll be back Wednesday for some thoughts on this week's episode. Until then...

Namaste.