With John's laptop on life support, I'm temporarily coming out of
retirement to provide some texty Lost reviews. If ever there was occasion to describe new content as 'filler', this is it ladies and gents.
The last Lost review I threw together was for seminal Desmond episode
The Constant (with
The Other Woman tacked on as an afterthought). It's been over a year since that post made nary a
splash in the podcasting pool, so let's see if 365+ days of C# and SQL has dulled my thirst for mild speculation and fanboyish whining...
Spoilers for Lost episode 5x10, He's Our You follow:
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Lost - 5x10 - He's Our You
Summary: Sayid's separation from Jack, Kate and Hurley upon arrival in 1977
forces Sawyer to imprison him as a Hostile. While Dharma try to decide what to do about their supposedly broken truce, Sawyer and Sayid take strikingly
different approaches to resolving matters. In flashback, Sayid recalls how Ben shaped his post-island life by bringing an innate talent to the
surface.
Likes: So
very glad the traditional flashback structure hasn't been forgotten about. Whether or not this is the beginning of a resurgence or just a convenient
relapse I wouldn't like to guess, but it bodes reasonably well for Daniel and Miles who have each yet to have their solo moment in the sun (I think we
can probably say Charlotte's chances are slim to none...). Gaps in the narrative are efficiently plugged with each fragment of backstory, showing the
changing face of Sayid Jarrah along the way while also managing to squeeze in a little homage to classic Eko ep
The 23rd Psalm. The on-island
A-plot has its moments too, in particular a chilling reappearance for Roger 'Workman' Linus and of course the final scene in which Sayid decides to test
the universe's proficiency in course correction. Dharma stalwarts Radzinsky and Horace are both excellent in their supporting roles, and our
fore-knowledge of their grim futures makes Sayid's drug-induced confession all the more satisfying and believably unbelievable.
A quantum of solace? Conventional flashbacks may be back, but as for their actual effectiveness the jury
is out. I was never particularly convinced by Sayid's transformation into 007-esque assassin, despite
The Economist being a highlight of last
season.
He's Our You seeks to establish via flashback that Sayid has always been a killer, even if a reluctant one, but to my mind the
cumulative flashback content of the first three seasons doesn't give this impression at all. He was a soldier, yes, but a far cry from a cold-blooded
killer. He was a torturer, yes, but it was neither something he sought out nor something he revelled in. His one on-screen kill pre-island is to
facilitate the escape of the love of his life. Fair enough, the death of said love of his life was supposed to be the motivation for his future killings,
but given his normal sceptical stance it's hard to believe anything Ben could say would have convinced him to go off the rails. In other bad news,
Sawyer's comment to Sayid that Oldham is 'our you' rings somewhat false given that his sole contribution to proceedings was to feed Sayid a drugged sugar
cube. You'd think Sawyer would be able to make a better comparison after experiencing the old bamboo-behind-the-fingernails routine firsthand. And one
final quibble: no Desmond for the third ep running and, more surprisingly, no Locke for the second ep running
Musings: The first time I saw this episode it hadn't occured to me that Sayid
didn't know he was in 1977 until meeting young Ben at the end of Namaste, which just goes to show that even the most ardent fans can miss
massive plot details if they're not concentrating. As far as where things can go from here, I'd say the two most likely options are for Ben to be cured
by the island or for Jin to wake up and whisk him back to Dharmaville just in time for Jack to bust out some mad surgery skills. Option 2 is probably the
current frontrunner for me, not least because it echoes Jack reluctantly operating on Ben in season 3 and the Lost writers will seize upon any excuse for
a little echoing. On the other hand, Jack has just been inducted as a janitor, so maybe the good Dharma folks won't be too quick to let him loose on
mini-Ben with scalpel in hand. Either way, I can only presume our Losties will continue to ride the deterministic wave, secure in the knowledge that
Whatever Happened, Happened.
Overall: A solid episode, providing a logical continuation of
Namaste while at the same time throwing us off into an exciting new tangent.
Rating: It's been so long since my last review the station count is now up to a nice round 10. Applying a suitably convoluted
alogrithm to upscale from 7 to 10 means that He's Our You receives 6 out of 10 DHARMA Stations
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Related links:
LostCasts
Official Lost site
He's Our You screencaps at Lost-Media
