s4e03: The Economist

It wouldn't be a Lost episode if we didn't have one question answered - usually the one that most people had already guessed the answer to anyway - and five or six more pop up.

On the island, Sayid makes a deal with Frank that if he returns Charlotte safely, Frank will take him off the island on the helicopter. Sayid and Kate, armed, and Miles head off to find Locke. Meanwhile, there seems to be some dissent in Locke's camp, as Hurley isn't sure that keeping Charlotte as a hostage is such a good idea. Locke attempts to travel to Jacob's cabin, but when he finds the ring of powder, the cabin is nowhere to be seen. Hurley, perhaps remembering when he saw it move, looks nervous and suggests that maybe they just took a wrong turn. Locke continues to lead the group to the Others' barracks.

When Sayid and Kate find the barracks, Hurley is tied up in a closet, saying he was left behind by Locke. It turns out to be a ruse, however; Sawyer guards Kate (although she is armed and he appears not to be) and Miles is taken somewhere that we don't see. Kate asks Sawyer why he doesn't want to leave the island and he points out that there's nothing for him in the US, then asks why Kate wants to get off given that a prison term is likely all that awaits her. Sayid is captured by Locke shortly after discovering a hidden room in Ben's house full of clothing, international passports, and various currencies. It's pretty obvious now that not only can Ben get off the island, he likely does so all the time. Sayid and Ben are held in the game room; Ben won't disclose his man on the boat, and Sayid admits to Locke that he doesn't trust the "rescuers" any more than Locke does. He still wants to get to the boat, and trades Miles for Charlotte to fulfill his deal with Frank.

Meanwhile, Daniel has been doing an experiment in the clearing where the helicopter is. He has Regina (from the boat) send a rocket with a clock inside of it. When the rocket finally arrives, the clock is found to be roughly 31 minutes behind island time, which Daniel describes as "not good." He cautions Frank to fly out on the helicopter on the exact same bearing on which they flew in, no matter what. Sayid and Charlotte return, with Kate apparently electing to stay behind and Miles having been traded. Juliet comes back from the beach with Desmond, who demands to know if Daniel and Frank know Penelope Widmore, given that Naomi was carrying her picture. They claim not to, but both look uncomfortable before doing so. Desmond decides to go on the helicopter. Sayid goes as well, and when Charlotte, Daniel and Jack all decide not to go, Sayid suggests that Naomi's body be the third person they carry. The helicopter flies off over the ocean.

In flash-forward, we see Sayid on a deserted golf course in the Seychelles. A man pulls up to him and offers to bet that he can hit the ball closer to the pin with his choice of club. When Sayid discloses that he is one of the Oceanic Six, the man gets nervous and, though he wins the bet, attempts to leave without collecting. Sayid reveals that he knows the man's name (Mr. Avellino) and shoots him dead. Later, Sayid is in Berlin, where he fakes a casual meeting with a German woman, Elsa. Sayid falls for her although his job is to mark her so that he can use her to track her employer, who she claims is an economist. When her employer contacts her, Sayid tells her to stay away, but she shoots him in the shoulder and seems like she was actually spying on him the entire time; he manages to kill her, though he is upset about doing so. In the final scene, Sayid goes to what appears to be an animal hospital to meet his boss... who turns out to be Ben. Ben reminds Sayid that the last time he thought with his heart instead of his gun, something bad happened, and states that Sayid must continue working for him if he wants to protect his friends. Sayid says that now the people on Ben's list will know he is coming after them. Ben stares at him and says, "Good." Logo.

This shakes things up rather a lot, doesn't it? When we saw Jack and Kate meet, or Jack and Hurley, I think we all assumed that the people whose secrets they were keeping were the people on the boat. And maybe they still are? But at least one of the people who gets off the island is in direct contact with Ben, and what's more it becomes apparent that Ben has some travel secrets that we don't know about. There has been speculation among the fans that Locke didn't actually blow up the submarine, but I'm not sure I buy that - given Locke's mental state at the time, it doesn't make sense that he would have a desire to fake blowing it up. So Ben likely has still another way off the island. The time issue, of course, is also a big one, although 31 minutes isn't exactly the difference that many have been positing.

The WGA strike is over and we're getting five more episodes this year. Supposedly, it will run seven, then a six-week break, then six more. So we've got four more to go before the break. The three episodes missing from this season will go into future seasons. Damon Lindelof has said that the storytelling is going to get very compressed in the five new episodes so as to end Season 4 at the same point as it would have; this might not be that bad a thing, frankly. Five new jam-packed episodes? Works for me. Better than nothing, which is what we might have gotten had the strike lasted another month.