Lost - One of Them

***½ / ****

My name is Sayid Jarrah, and I'm a torturer.

I must admit that the last couple episodes have been just okay to me, although Sawyer calling himself the “new sheriff in town”, holding the guns hostage, and using his leverage as bragging rights to hold over Locke and Jack cracked me up a bit. But One of Them, a bona fide humdinger of a Sayid episode (introducing character actor Michael Emerson; I know him from the Saw movies) where he is led by Danielle Rousseau to a man named Henry Gale caught in her net trap. When Sayid cuts him down, Rousseau shoots him with an arrow, which goes through (but doesn’t exit) his back, protruding from his shoulder. Sayid takes Henry back to the Dharma bunker to answer some questions. Wounded and suffering, Henry would appear to be suitable for Sayid to “interrogate” [torture] in order to get answers regarding whether or not he is who he says…a retired owner of a mine who was in a hot air balloon with his wife in flight over the Pacific that somehow goes awry. Henry says he spent “about four months” with his wife in a cave, eventually losing her to illness, burying her body near the crashed balloon site. Sayid spends time in the empty armory (he convinces a hesitant but eventually compliant Locke to update the lock so Jack couldn’t stop him from using torture to get answers if necessary) with Henry, trying to poke holes into his back story, believing this guy is in fact an Other. Eventually Jack uses the ticking clock in the bunker as a tool to get into the armory, holding Locke against the wall until he complies. The clock nearly goes to *critical* before Locke successfully punches execute. Jack pulls Sayid away before he pummels Henry into pulp.

The back story is a compelling Gulf War incident involving a captured Sayid “convinced” by the great Clancy Brown (as a “military intelligence officer”, Kelvin Inman) to get information from his found commanding officer, Tariq (Marc Cassabani). Convinced when Inman shows him a horrifying gassing that hits close to home, Sayid indeed uses the “tools of the trade” to get information about a missing pilot from Tariq. Tariq spits in Sayid’s face, calls him a traitor, provokes Sayid with insults to encourage his going for a gun on a soldier nearby (Kate’s stepfather!) and shoot as many of them as he could. Eventually he’s “dropped off” by Inman as the soldiers are moving out, as Sayid vows not to torture like that again. The pilot was already killed anyway, so Sayid’s actions weren’t necessary if Tariq had just told it outright. But on the island, in the empty armory, Sayid is beating on Henry.

That final conversation between Sayid and Charlie, for me, is one of the best scenes I have seen in the second season. Because I found myself in the same company of Locke and Jack…I had forgotten that Charlie was left hanging (until I recalled the clips from the past as they connect to the narrative of this episode) by Ethan [representing the Others]. Sayid makes a damn good point to Charlie (who was nearly killed by Ethan, left for dead) about how he believes Henry isn’t to be trusted. He believes Henry, like the Others, is merciless. Charlie wonders why Sayid is telling him all this. Well, because Charlie can never forget a near-death experience while everyone else seems to. Charlie mentally/psychologically barely escaped that in one piece…not to mention physically!  Claire was indeed kidnapped. Rousseau might be considered a crackpot, but her paranoia seems rather justified, don’t you think? Charlie can’t be blamed, can he, if Sayid doesn’t just accept Henry into the fold, giving in to his back story. A mission to find that balloon would seem to be in order. Henry also mentioned a transmitter…what about that?

The countdown is magnificently done. I noticed that these symbols in red pop up once the numbers go to zero and Locke punches execute just in the nick of time. I was actually hoping it would go all the way as my curiosity is certainly piqued. Jack still considers this clock a hoax, something that isn’t what Locke thinks it is. He was willing to let it go critical in order for Sayid to stop using violence. The sounds of the beating coming out of the room from behind the door, how Jack has Locke pinned to the wall, the countdown going as the buzzer noises, and the decision to either let the clock go all the way or open the armory door; this is all done in that tightening tension I totally enjoy. And how Locke springs into action and that recoil as Jack rips Sayid out of the armory…damn great stuff!

There is a secondary story that sort of pulls away Sawyer and Hurley from the camp to find a frog with a particularly needling sound. It unnerves Sawyer who enlists Hurley to aid him in the search for it. When they do find it, instead of allowing Hurley to carry it off across the island, Sawyer crushes it just for spite. Just being a dick, Sawyer chooses to kill a frog that Hurley could have taken off. How does Sawyer get Hurley to help him? Sawyer catches Hurley dipping in a tub of ranch dipping sauce he confiscated from the bunker food supply! That question from Charlie regarding how Hurley doesn’t lose weight is perhaps answered here…there are ways. I like how Hurley just puts it out there that he is fat, just tired of it being an issue folks have a problem with. Sawyer tries to humor him…as long as he is of use to Sawyer that is.

The connection between Kate and Sayid—that slender thread that just can’t be passed off as “mere coincidence”—here is another means for those in Lost Creative to flex their inventive cerebral muscles. So clever those in the writer’s room can be, and I applaud them.. Consider me once again impressed.

This is just a fantastic piece for Naveen Andrews. As Sayid, Andrews gets so much closeup shine to emote such depth and clarity in the feeling of his tortured, suffering character. There is that neat scene where Sayid is breaking down [Shannon’s death still fresh] because he feels Henry would know every detail of his wife’s sickness, death, and burial. Henry, to me a possible gesture to help ease the punishment on his own person, asks Sayid if he lost someone, too. As if trying to connect with his torturer, Henry is pitiable, emphatic, and vulnerable. Sayid doesn’t buy it. As Sayid looks at Henry, when pulled away by Jack, I saw what he does…this different face, not one of extreme woe, as if some crumbling victim, but expressing this look of “it won’t be that easy to get rid of me” response to what transpired. I loved how Emerson has that change in behavior just with a variation of expression. It begs to question what motives perhaps lie behind those eyes. Again, I have adopted the attitude of “not everything is as it seems” when it comes to this show. And I wouldn’t want it any other way. Ethan was friendly and seemingly swell. Look what he turned out to be. Is Henry the same?

*The visual emphasis on the tool box and tools themselves as Sayid prepares for torture and his cold tone, full of austere, pointed directness to Henry of what he's capable of reminds us of the darker side that rests behind his friendly, often sympathetic face.
*Those camera glides in the woods at the beginning where Ana sees Danielle and fetches Sayid remind me of not only how important cinematography can be in furthering the dangers that lie within but just how much (yes, I know it's cliche but still...) of a character the jungle on this island is indeed.