Sayid could cast blame for the sorry state of his soul. He could blame Machiavellian manipulation. He could blame it on divine conspiracy. But more than anything, Sayid blames himself. Last night's episode of Lost, ''Sundown,'' reminded us that for all his spirituality, and for all his protest-too-much bleating about being a ''good man,'' Sayid has never been able to make peace with his past as a torturer for Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard, as well as the CIA. He's more than mired in his quagmire; he feels like he deserves it. To quote Joseph Conrad, Sayid is a man infected with a self-mortifying, self-corrupting ''fascination with abomination.'' This season, after getting beamed to the Island present with a life-draining gunshot wound, Sayid was certain he was hell bound, and he took that stinkin' thinkin' into death. He was subsequently revived, though either Sayid came back all wrong — or came back just the same. Or neither. With Lost's final season now one third complete, the matter of Island eschatology is still a murky affair. ''Sundown'' — a warped mirror version of ''The Economist,'' juxtaposing an Island story about Sayid becoming a dark knight assassin for Nameless, the Lockeness Monster, with a Sideways tale about Sayid playing white knight dragon slayer for the sake of protecting his family — invited us to debate what exactly Sayid now believes about himself, about the Island, and about the bald-headed embodiment of raw power and diamond-hard will that is His Royal Smokeyness, who promised his good and faithful servant another chance at life and love with Nadia in exchange for his sick skills. As he followed UnLocke into the Island gloom, wearing the kind of smile that you find both on the born again and the zombie dead, it was hard to know if Sayid was being led toward the dawn of new hope or being lured deeper into the heart of darkness.
The Sideways World
The Problem With Nadia
''Sundown.'' The title was a Trojan horse fake out, designed to set us up for something Jin-and-Sunny, but masking something monstrous and smokey. Before last night, every episode of Lost 6.0 had been synced to every episode of Lost 1.0 (premiere, followed by Kate, Locke, and Jack eps). If the season had followed the pattern, then ''Sundown'' should have been a Jin and Sun episode (reunion!), corresponding with the season 1 episode titled ''House of the Rising Sun.'' Get it? No, sing it! Sunrise/Sunset/Sunrise/Sunset... Instead, being the super-suckers that we are, we got sabotaged: ''Sundown'' was a Sayid episode that mirrored his season 1 origin story ''Solitary.'' And just in case we didn't get the riddle, there was castaway jokester Miles sitting in Temple courtyard, passing the time playing Solitaire. FUN FACT! There was a punk band called The Supersuckers. Their second album? The Smoke of Hell. I'd like to dedicate Track 14 to Sayid: ''Thinkin' About Revenge.'' For Fake Locke, I assign Track 12: ''Sweet ‘n Sour Jesus.'' And for Claire, my fetid and frazzled pit-dwelling psycho-sweetie, there's Track 4: ''Alone and Stinking.'' I'm Casey Kasem, and that was your long distance dedications. And now, on with the countdown!
''Solitary'' was the episode that introduced us to Sayid's true love, Nadia. Theirs was a freaky-groovy Stockholm Syndrome-ish kind of love. They had been classmates as children. She flirtatiously teased him. Tough guy Sayid tried not to be flustered or flattered by it. They didn't become close until years later. She was an insurgent opposed to Saddam Hussein's regime. He was an elite Republican Guard soldier sworn to uphold it. Sayid, a torturer, was ordered to ''interrogate'' her. Nadia wouldn't spill. More, she tried to convince Darth Sayid that he had become someone and something he was never meant to be, that he was ''pretending to be something I know you're not.'' Was Nadia speaking truth into his soul — or was she playing him? Eventually, Sayid was ordered to kill her. Instead, he orchestrated her escape and even killed a fellow soldier to secure her protection. As she scooted away, Nadia showed her feelings for him to be genuine by writing a message on a picture of herself in Sayid's dossier: ''You will find me in the next life, if not in this one.''
NEXT: Sayid the protector?
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