Lost Recap: The Economist

Information overload! Information overload! Information overload!

Lost hit us hard with a lot of information last night in its Sayid-centric 3rd episode, “The Economist.” Today, I’m going to do things a bit differently. Instead of recapping the events of the entire episode, I’m going to point out, in no particular order (true to Lost fashion), some of the most important revelations from the episode.

Sayid is one of the Oceanic 6, and he becomes a hitman in the future. For Ben! I have to say, I kinda saw the Ben thing coming, although my guess was that he would be the Economist. But it’s still pretty cool. From this, we learn quite a few things:

1. Ben gets off the Island, or he can get off the Island whenever he wants, but moreover, he’s got a life outside the Island. Possibly posing as a Veterinarian? There were a lot of caged dogs in the hallway where Sayid walked into Ben’s lab in Berlin.

2. Ben has enemies in the real world, namely the Economist. Who this person is remains to be seen. I’ll theorize about that early next week (could it be Matthew Abbadon?). But The Economist hired someone to spy on Sayid. Ben hired Sayid to spy on the Economist by spying on the woman that was hired to spy on Sayid. So, yeah, they were spying on each other by, uhh, hooking up. Get it? It was a nice twist to find out that she was really spying on him as well.

3. Ben is manipulating Sayid to be a hitman for him in order to be able to protect his “friends.” It’s important that Ben used the word “friends” because Miles used the same word on the Island with Sayid, and it seemed as if Sayid didn’t want to profess his friendship to anyone at that point.

4. The Oceanic 6 is not a group of celebrities only to the United States. Sayid was in Germany and still very recognizable.

5. In futureland, as is the case on the Island, there will be two or more sides at odds with each other. It also seems that getting away with murder is pretty easy.

6. Sayid, be he a hitman, still has the inclination to fall for chicks rather easily. I’m assuming that he’s learned by now that his pre-Island love Nadia is dead.

7. Sayid may also be notorious for being a killer. When the man at the golf course found out who he was, he was clearly afraid. This is before he was shot by Sayid, of course.

8. What’s with Sayid’s sudden affection for a dead Naomi?

Delta Time
Daniel, the weird doctor from the outside world, performed a very interesting experiment while on the Island. He had his boat launch a rocket onto the Island. It landed there, but 31 minutes later than it should have. Lost told us last night that there is indeed a difference between Island time and non-Island time. Does that mean that you have to travel through time to get to the Island, or off of it?

Based on his experiment and his experience getting onto the Island, Daniel made absolute certain to tell Frank, the pilot of the helicopter, to follow the exact coordinates to get out. What do I mean by get out? Oh yeah, Sayid, Desmond, Naomi’s body and Frank are on their way back to the “rescue boat.” Sayid is on a mission to find out who Ben’s spy is. Time Travels Ben theory! Sayid is Ben’s spy on the boat and, somehow, due to the difference in time between the Island and off it, Ben can get the information he needs – even while tied up. OK, it’s a stretch, but still something to think about. Question is, will the helicopter make it off the Island, and if it does, will Sayid or Desmond ever come back? Why is Desmond on the helicopter? Because Naomi had that picture. The one with Penny and Desmond. He needs to figure out how they got that picture.

Locke-d Up
Sayid had to make a deal with Frank and therefore with Locke to get onto that helicopter. He had to get Charlotte back from Locke. He did so by trading Kate and Miles for Charlotte. Pretty simple. Kinda like the Mets trading for Johan Santana (yeah baby!). I digress.

Locke was headed to Jacob’s cabin with the group to apparently get advice on what to do next. When he got there, the cabin was gone. Looks like this cabin is like Dorothy’s house – it can fly. This is the beginning of the turn of John Locke into an evil man, it seems. He’s possessed by the Island and he’s now willing to do whatever it takes to figure things out. That means hostages, bait and guns. No more Mr. Nice Guy. But he still tries (iced tea anyone?).

Ben the International Terrorist?
Mr. Linus has a secret of his own. One that Sayid discovered when snooping around in his house. Ben has a secret room that’s got lots of suits, fake passports and international currency. He’s obviously a man with means. What good are those things on the Island? This, coupled with future Ben off the Island, reinforces the fact that Ben knows how to come and go as he pleases. The Island is his escape from trouble. His hideout, if you will. That’s why he won’t let anyone out. If he does, others can come in and get him. Lost seems to be all about the livelihood of one Benjamin Linus.

We still don’t know exactly what the Oceanic 6 really means. I’m sticking to my theory that there’s more to it than just the 6 people who get rescued. We know that they are given lots of money as part of a settlement. We know that Ben’s messing with them. What we don’t know is how to put the pieces together. And that’s the wonder of Lost.

Theories to come early next week. Til then, Namaste.

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