What did I think of the latest episode of LOST, “The Economist”?

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This episode was another great episode of this exciting fourth season of LOST. In this episode, we get back to our new formula of flash-forwards and the mystery of the Oceanic Six and the post-island events of our characters. I think this episode was a nice welcome-back to that formula.

This episode revealed that Sayid was one of the Oceanic Six. Now of the Oceanic Six that were part of Jack’s group on the island, this surprises me the least. Throughout the series, Sayid has been very loyal to Jack and everything he does when leading the other castaways in all the crazy missions that he sends them on.

The reveal at the beginning that Sayid was one of the Oceanic Six, although not surprising to me, still carried a lot of weight. You definitely did get the sense that something underhanded and dangerous did transpire on that island that caused the Oceanic Six to get off the island. I have a feeling that this will be answered before the end of the season. Because, as much as I love this show, the endless hinting can only go so long.

On that same-note, obviously, this was a very Sayid-centric episode. Now, Sayid is not my all-time favorite character of this show, but his flashbacks in the past have proved to be very interesting. They deal extensively with his past as an Iraqi torturer and portray him as a very dark character. Now, Sayid, usually, throughout the series is portrayed as darkly resourceful, so his flashbacks are very consistent in that matter.

I do think that Naveen Andrews definitely does play the dark aspect of Sayid’s character very well and is adept to handling anything that the writers throw at him for his centric episodes.

As I’ve stated before, the episodes that center around specific characters always tend to show the characters in a new light, and you’re able to follow them on their individual journeys throughout the episode. This one was no different, and although you do see the dark mind of Sayid’s torturous past come into play in the present, you do see a softer side of Sayid. Another Sayid-centric example that comes to mind was his first one of the series, “Solitary,” where Sayid is asked to torture and kill an old childhood friend.

Sayid’s flash-forward revealed a lot abut Sayid’s character, post-island. Sayid was very different from this pre-island and island selves. He was very suave and debonair and not to mention, RICH. At first, I thought Sayid had become the “new” Sawyer, and was now a full-fledged conman like he was and that in the four years since he left the island, he learned the ways of conning. With Elsa, he was very cunning and sly and smooth all at the same time. But, I was still rather pleased with what it actually ended up being.

The current story with Sayid and the flash-forward also flowed together very nicely in typical LOST fashion. The people at this show do a great job of intertwining the past and the present (or as is now the case, the future and the present) flawlessly. Kudos to the writers!

On that same note, we did get to see more action with the separate teams of castaways. Team: Jack and Team: Locke. There were similarities and differences in their leadership skills, of which I will note here.

First, I want to talk about Team: Locke. Team: Locke’s objective is to stay on the island as they believe that the Freighter Gang’s intentions are less than honorable. At this point in the series, Locke and his team are heading towards Jacob’s cabin, which we saw in the Ben-centric third season episode, “The Man Behind The Curtain”. I think the fact that the Cabin seemed to have disappeared was a very nice touch.

It also kind of deteriorated Locke’s leadership a bit. As we’ve seen in previous seasons, Locke’s character is a very interesting one. But, Ben did bring up an interesting point about Locke’s leadership skills: “John’s waiting for someone to tell him what to do next.” His leadership basically hinges on him being a middle-man. In season 1, in fact, his take-action demeanor relied solely on what the Island “told” him, and his take-action demeanor in the finale of season 3, and in these opening episodes have been about what the Island (through Walt and Jacob) have told him about the Freighter Gang. Now, when Locke goes for “further instruction,” he finds nothing and doesn’t know what to do next.

However, that doesn’t mean Locke isn’t a good leader. He was able to play on Jack’s team’s emotions a little bit, too. He was able to use Hurley as somewhat of bait to trap the other team-members on the Barracks when they arrived. I definitely did see this reveal coming. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Locke continues to “use” Hurley in this fashion. If you think about it, it would be a very systematic thing to do. Everybody trusts and loves Hurley. It would be a genius way to infiltrate Jack’s team. I don’t think that it will be the last we see of Locke’s use of Hurley for espionage purposes.

On the contrary, Jack is a very concentrated leader. He has been the de-facto leader of the castaways ever since the series’ beginning. I think he was very calm with everything. Particularly, about the revelation that the Freighter Gang is after Ben. Jack basically did a lot of sitting around throughout the episode.

Jack’s interaction with Frank was particularly enjoyable to watch. I think Jack wanted to talk to someone off the island about the Red Sox winning the series, ever since Ben revealed to him in the season 3 episode, “The Glass Ballerina” that the Red Sox had in fact won the series. It provided a nice bit of comic relief to the serious goings-on on the Island.

But, going back to Jack’s leadership skills. He also did something that Locke did: played on the emotions of the castaways on Locke’s side of the island. The way he did this was by sending Kate on Sayid’s little rescue mission with Miles. He knew that Sawyer wasn’t going to allow Locke to kill Kate, due to Sawyer’s feelings for Kate.

Other non-Sayid-centric details I wish to discuss are the involvement of Desmond in this episode. I have to say that ever since Desmond’s introduction into the series, I have been an avid Desmond fan. I think he definitely adds something to the series: an element of mystery. The way that Henry Ian Cusick plays the character is always fun to watch, as well. I must say that when Juliet returned from the beach with Desmond by her side, I was like, WOW.

But it is my belief that Desmond is more connected to the goings-on with the Freighter than we realize. I do not believe that the Freighter Gang are entirely oblivious to the name “Widmore,” despite what Frank said to Desmond. Naomi, obviously the leader of the Freighter Gang before she was killed, was carrying that infamous photo of Desmond and Penny that we’ve seen in the several Desmond-centric episodes we’ve had already.

Sayid’s actions in this episode were very Sayid-esque. I do not think that Sayid is on anybody’s side. I think he is on his own side. He said that he is not entirely sure what the intentions of the Freighter Gang is at the moment. But I’m sure once he arrives on the Freighter, he will have made his decision.

Another reason I think Sayid is on his own side, was he was able to manipulate masterfully (almost in a Ben-way) to allow him to take Charlotte, so he get aboard the Freighter. I thought Naveen Andrews plays this darker side of Sayid amazingly. As I’ve said, Naveen Andrews plays both the dark and the soft sides of Sayid wonderfully.

In this episode, we also got to see a little bit more of Daniel Faraday’s erratic behavior. Some people questioned this, and wonder why Mr. Faraday is the way he is. I think that he might be some sort of idiot-savant kind of character. I believe that this is how the rest of the Freighter Gang sees him as well. We do know that he is a physicist of some kind, so he is a genius, but is still erratic in so many ways. But I have to admit the man does know his science.

But by the end of the episode, Sayid is able to convince Locke (through master manipulation) to trade Charlotte for Miles. He also leaves with Desmond and Frank for the Freighter. But not before Daniel Faraday leaves them a very cryptic instruction: “Follow the same bearing we came in on, no matter what.” Does that mean that there is a certain bearing you have to come in on to get to the Island? A doorway, if you will? I do think that something will happen to take them off-course that will cause them delay their arrival on the Freighter for an episode.

The clincher of this episode was obviously the reveal that Sayid was working for Ben. Throughout the episode, if you’ll notice Ben is silent. When he talks, he talks in a low voice. I believe that was an editing decision to kind of clue the audience into figuring out that who Sayid was talking to on the disposable cell phone, and that it was actually Ben. It was a definitely a throw for the audience to see this, ads Sayid clearly stated on the island that the day he started trusting Ben was the day he sold his soul.

This begs the question, though. What exactly is Sayid doing for Ben? It was never out rightly stated what exactly Sayid WAS doing for Ben. I do believe something will happen on the island that will lead Sayid to Ben’s side. Ben notes in the episode after Sayid had been shot that “that” wasn’t the first time he thought with his heart, instead of his gun. Could Sayid be responsible for peoples’ deaths on the island? Ben also infers that seral people are still alive on the island. I believe this is true, and that Ben has somehow manipulated Sayid to thinking he is protecting them. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sayid defects over to Locke’s group to work with Ben to do some unsavory work for him on the island, as well he does in the future.

But I digress. My grand theory of Sayid’s alliance with Ben is I think that Sayid is a hitman for Ben. The people on his “list” are the members of the organization who have been trying to find the island, and that same organization sent the Freighter Gang. That is why he needed Elsa’s employer and in turn Elsa. It is also why he eliminated the golfer at the beginning of the episode. Does this mean that Sayid is responsible for the deaths of the Freighter Gang? I wouldn’t surprised, either, if Sayid has a close encounter with Mr. Abaddon before the season ends.

As with the previous two episodes of the season, this episode deals with how the castaways are dealing with the Freighter Gang’s arrival on the island. But since last episode revealed a little bit more about them, does that make the Freighter Gang any less intriguing? Absolutely not. We haven’t even scratched the surface with these four. I mean, all we know about the Freighter Gang’s intents is that they’re after Ben, but why are they after him? Has he done anything that is unsavory that would warrant people’s gazes? Time will tell . . .

Like with many LOST episodes, it does a great job of following up with all the twists and turns that were left at the last episode. They quickly established that they were not going to reveal Ben’s “mole” that soon after the reveal that he had one. To be quite honest, I hope LOST long-goers were not expecting them to. I know I wasn’t. Not as a LOST-goer, but as a general TV-goer, I was not expecting them to. They’ll hold on to that secret for at least a few more episodes.

This episode was written by the writing team of Jack Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. They have in turn written many Hurley-centric episodes. One of my favorite episodes that they have written is the famous “Hurley Van” episode, Tricia Tanaka is Dead. They did a fine job of writing this one, and they will be writing the seventh episode of this season.

The episode was directed by jack Bender, who has become a LOST staple the past few seasons, and has been with the show since the very beginning. You can always tell in the series when it’s gonna be a Bender-directed episode. The performances by the actors are top-notch, and everything is on the top of its game. He is definitely my favorite LOST director, as I always look forward to the episodes he directs.

In conclusion, I would like to say that this was indeed an awesome episode. It continued to move the different storylines forward. It provided some nice changes for the character of Sayid that I, for one, was not expecting. It provided more answers as to what is going on with the Freighter Gang and also gave us a thousand more questions, as only LOST can do.

RATING: 9/10