Lost episode recap – “The Economist” (S4E3) airdate 02/14/08

It’s a Sayid-centric episode with only minimal Jack! Yahoo!!

As Miles argues with Jack, Juliet and Kate about rescuing Charlotte from Locke, Sayid goes over to Naomi’s body. He closes her eyes and covers her face with a blanket, then notices a bracelet on her wrist. It’s engraved with “N. I’ll always be with you. R.G.” He looks thoughtful and pockets the bracelet. Sayid then interrupts the argument and says that if Frank will fly him off the Island back to the boat, he will bring Charlotte back safely. Frank says it’s a deal.

Flash (which turns out to be forward - nice call, Mr. Mouse): Sayid, with straightened hair, is golfing in the Seychelles. Some big guy with an accent comes up; they chat, and make a wager over the next shot. It comes up that Sayid is one of the Oceanic Six and the other man gets very nervous, saying uh, he read all about that. But he’s not nervous for long because Sayid pulls out a gun and shoots him dead. The golf course sprinklers come on (just like the event-heralding rain on the Island!) and Sayid walks off.

Flash slightly forward: Wintertime in Berlin. Sayid chats up a blonde woman, Elsa, in a café. She says she works for a famous economist; she carries a beeper and has to meet her boss immediately whenever he pages her … luckily he’s only in Berlin a couple of times a year. For his part, Sayid says he’s a headhunter, clarifying “Corporate recruiting.” Elsa totally checks him out as he sips his espresso (he said “expresso” when he ordered – that chaps my hide) and they make plans for dinner later. Sayid leaves and makes a phone call: “I’ve made contact.” He drops the cell phone into a trashcan after the call and keeps walking.

On Island: Sayid and Miles (and Kate, after checking in with Jack) head off after Locke; Jack himself is not allowed to go on this mission, says Sayid, because he’s liable to try to shoot Locke again. (I’m going to have to go back and remind myself just when and why Jack’s animosity toward Locke got so overwhelming. Also overwhelming lately: Kate’s hair.) Juliet goes back to the beach to fetch Desmond to see if he knows anything about the boat folks, seeing how Naomi had that photograph of Des and Penny in her backpack. Meanwhile, Locke and his band are trekking (Sawyer calls Ben “Gizmo” – Gremlins shout-out!), looking for Jacob’s cabin. It’s not where Locke thinks it should be and Ben sasses him, saying that Locke is looking for someone to tell him what to do next. Frustrated, Locke says they’ll just go on to the barracks as planned. Everyone is, however, a little concerned that Jack’s group will try to ambush them at the barracks.

Sayid, Kate and Miles head off through the jungle to rescue Charlotte. Miles wants to know what happened that Locke split the Losties in two. Sayid tells him that half the group thought the boat was here to rescue them and the other half thought the boat was here to kill them. Miles wants to know which side Sayid is on. “I’ll let you know when I decide," smirks Sayid.

Flashforward to Berlin: Sayid meets Elsa to go to the opera, giving her a damn hot kiss. Apparently they’ve been seeing quite a lot of each other. Sayid is staying in Berlin longer than his initial plan of one week because the job he’s on is proving more difficult to accomplish than he thought; Elsa was hoping it was because of her. She thinks she’ll leave her beeper at her flat and if her employer, The Economist, buzzes, he’ll just be out of luck. Sayid, however, chivalrously offers to carry it for her, not wanting her to get fired because of him. Of course, we all know that he’s here to kill her boss. We all figured that out in the café scene.

While Jack and Frank shoot the shit, waiting for Sayid et al. and Juliet et al. to return, Dan fidgets around, setting up an experiment. He borrows the sat phone from Frank to call the boat, arranging with “Regina” to launch the payload, locking in on his beacon’s signal. Before handing over the phone, Frank cautions him to hang up immediately if Minkowski gets on the line. (There are too many characters and names to keep track of!) Dan is a total spaz. Regina launches the “payload” and does a countdown, but whatever it is that Dan is expecting to arrive never shows up. “That’s weird,” says Regina via the sat phone. “It’s far more than weird,” breathes Dan. Quite some time later, a little rocket hits the ground next to Dan’s beacon. He opens it to find a clock reading 2:45:03, but Dan’s own clock has recorded 3:16:23, a 31-minute difference. “Oh no, oh no,” moans Dan.

Sayid, Kate and Miles arrive at the Others’ barracks but it seems as though Locke’s troupe has not gotten there yet. They hear a noise and, upon investigating, find Hurley tied up and stuffed in a closet. After they release him, he says that Locke and his group are gone, leaving him behind without telling them where they were headed. Miles is rude to him, calling him “Tubby” and Hurley snarks, “Oh, awesome. The ship sent us another Sawyer.” They decide to check out Ben’s house. Sayid finds a hidden room filled with suits, many different kinds of currency and dozens of passports, each with Ben’s picture. Kate, on the other hand, finds Sawyer, who’s looking good these days. And Sayid turns around to find Locke pointing a gun at his head; Rousseau has Miles under control. Hurley shambles up, looking hangdog. “Sorry, dude,” he says to Sayid.

Rousseau locks Sayid in the rec room (where Kate had been held last season). Ben is already there, bemoaning the fact that he lost a dollar, having bet Locke that Sayid wouldn’t be dumb enough to fall for Hurley as bait. “What do you know about friendship?” growls Sayid. “I know it’s no use having friends you can’t trust,” Ben opines. Locke stops by and there’s some back and forth. Sayid agrees that the boat people are liars and not here to rescue the Losties. He goes on to say that if Locke gives him Charlotte, the boat folks will take him to their ship and he’ll do some recon. Locke says that Ben already has a spy on board. Sayid all but rolls his eyes, “The day I start trusting him is the day I sell my soul.” I think those words may haunt you, my friend. Sayid suggests a trade for Charlotte: I think Locke is going to get to keep Miles. Fun!

Back in Ben’s house, Kate and Sawyer are catching up. When Kate says she thinks Jack can get them off the Island, Sawyer says he isn’t interested in leaving since there’s nothing back home for him. He points out that she doesn’t have a whole lot other than handcuffs waiting for her off-Island. Kate wants to know how long he thinks they could play house. And Sawyer plays it sweet, saying, “Why don’t we find out.”

Flashforward to Berlin: Sayid and Elsa are in bed, post-snugglebunnies. She is sad because she says she’s falling in love with him and doesn’t know anything about him. She says that she understands that he doesn’t want to talk about the crash, about what happened to him, but she wants to know about his life now. He looks intently at her and relents, asking what she wants to know. Just then, her beeper goes off. She says she has to go right now, her employer is in town! She scampers out of bed and gets dressed (no shower? but you just had snugglebunnies! Ick!). Sayid says that she needs to leave Berlin, that people will soon be asking about what happened to her boss and she shouldn’t be around to answer questions. Elsa gets upset, asking if Sayid used her to get to her boss, if he is going to kill him, asking for whom Sayid is working. He says her boss is on a list he has and he’s not an economist; he does not tell her his own boss’s name. Then, Elsa spins and shoots him! She picks up the phone, ostensibly calling the economist, and says that she shot Sayid but he’s not talking. When she’s not paying attention, Sayid grabs his own gun and shoots her twice, killing her. He drags himself over to her and closes her eyes. He is crying a little. When he touches her wrist, we see that she’s wearing the same sort of bracelet that Naomi was wearing. Hmm.

On Island: Desmond demands to know if Frank knows anything about Penny. Frank and Dan exchange glances and Desmond gets huffy, saying that he’s going on the ‘copter to the ship to get his own answers since they won’t be honest with him. Just then, Sayid arrives with Charlotte. He tells Jack that Kate decided to stay behind; Jack gets all sad and for some reason the camera bounces around enough to make me a little motion sick. Or maybe it’s just having to watch Jack try to emote. Frank asks what happened to Miles and Sayid says he traded him for Charlotte. Frank’s okay with this as Miles was a pain in his ass. It is decided that Frank will take Sayid, Desmond and Naomi’s body back to the boat. Dan reminds Frank that he must follow the exact same bearing they came in on to get back to the boat – very important. They load up the chopper and take off to big sweeping music.

Flashforward: A bloodied Sayid staggers into a veterinary clinic. He takes off his shirt (yay!) and sits down. His boss is there, cleaning Sayid’s wound and asking questions. Sayid says that Elsa wanted to know about whom Sayid works for. “Of course she did,” is the reply and of course it’s Ben, looking very stern. “These people don’t deserve our sympathies,” Ben goes on, “Need I remind you what happened the last time you fought with your heart instead of your gun?” Then they each say a line I can’t get, after rewinding multiple times. Sayid: “You used that […] to kill him for you.” Ben: “[….] protect your friends or not, Sayid.” I think these lines are important but I can’t decipher what they’re saying. Did anyone else catch it? Ben goes on, “I have another name for you.” Sayid points out that “they” know he’s after them now. The camera zooms in on Ben’s face: “Good.”

So, of the Oceanic Six, we know Hurley, Jack, Kate and now Sayid. Whoever shall be revealed next? Who is post-Island Sayid killing: Oceanic people, Dharma people? And just when exactly did Sayid sell his soul to Ben Linus? Most importantly, though, when do we get to see Sawyer take his shirt off?

Next time on Lost. Previously on Lost.