Thursday, March 26, 2009

"He's Our You."

Because I like to remain completely spoiler-free I never know the title of each new episode of Lost until after it has aired. My favorite line from last night's installment was Sawyer's description of Oldham to Sayid: "He's our you." When I woke this morning and went to Lostpedia (the encyclopedia of all things Lost, of course), I literally gasped upon learning the title of episode 10 of Season 5: He's Our You. Brilliant!

"He's Our You" opens with an adorably young Sayid breaking the neck of a chicken, as his older brother is clearly fearful of any harm coming to that animal. (No harm, no fowl! OK, bad pun...couldn't resist!) Immediately I thought of Season 2, and a young Eko in Nigeria, killing a man so that his younger brother, Yemi, would be spared that experience. Coincidence? Of course not! This is Lost. One of the Nigerian guerrillas tells Eko that he is a "natural born killer," and the same could be said of Sayid's destiny...all those early days of snapping chicken necks will hone him into the ninja he's meant to become. (Y'all remember in Season 3's finale, "Through the Looking Glass," Sayid broke that Other's neck using just his legs? Yeah. One of my favorite moments ever. He's so badass.)


We then see young Ben delivering a sandwich and some reading material to the imprisioned Sayid. Let me just pause right here and tout the casting of the kid portraying lil' Ben...it is spot on, I tell ya. He is amazing! The book Wee Ben passes to Sayid is A Separate Reality by Carlos Castaneda. I won't even attempt to break that one down for you, but feel free to click on the book title for Wikipedia's synopsis. And, as always, remember that nothing is happenstance on this show. Ben gave Sayid that particular book for a reason. Duh. (And the book lover in me again rejoices at all the literary references which circle the world of Lost. Truly fantastic.)

Next we find ourselves in Russia, where Sayid is doing what he does best...chasing people while brandishing a gun. Honestly, have you ever seen a better dressed hitman? Sayid...dude...with that sleek black ensemble and your hair so carefully blown-out, you are rocking the GQ style. When offing a Russian, why look like a thug when one can look like this:Sayid effortlessly pulls off the look of a classy assassin with the ease of a runway model. I dig him. After killing the Russian Sayid meets up with Ben, who informs Sayid that his work is done. It seems Sayid has managed to exterminate all of Charles Widmore's organization and Ben is all "Mission accomplished...we so rock!" And by "we," Ben clearly means Sayid, 'cause Ben's hands haven't been pulling triggers...no, Ben's hands are more of the strangling kind. (Cough-cough--John Locke--ahem.) Sayid has been a badass his entire life...torturing, killing for a living, and being a super Ninja is all he knows, which is painfully evident when he begs of Ben, "What do I do now?" The chipper Ben replies, rather smugly, "Go live your life." (And then I started singing T.I. and Rihanna's "Live Your Life." I'm sure Ben did, too...off-screen.)

Back in 1977 Horace tries to get all McGruff Crime Dog on Sayid. It doesn't work, because seriously...McGruff would be a more convincing interrogator than Hippie Horace.McGruff The Crime Dog Pictures, Images and Photos

Next we see that Juliet not only brings home the bacon, but she also fries it up in a pan. Oh yes, she is a W-O-M-A-N. In this brief, tender scene between Jules and James, we learn the crux of the entire episode..."It's over--this--us--playing house," laments Juliet. Yes, dear viewers, the Dharma Way of Island Living is coming to an end. I love that Saywer tries to convince her (and us!) otherwise: "So they're back, nothing's changed." Puh-lease.

Sawyer takes off to deal with Sayid, and we then hear my second favorite line of the evening:

Sawyer: How you doing?

Sayid: A 12 year old Ben Linus brought me a chicken salad sandwich. How do you think I'm doing?

Awesome.

Meanwhile, Kate, Hurley and Jack are feasting on waffles. While they're chowing down, let me praise Hurley for a minute. Firstly, please tell me the little chef hat & cutlery symbols on his Dharma patch completely rocks your world. Because it's totally rocking mine in a big way. It's the coolest Dharma station yet!Secondly, Hurley had some of the best lines in this episode...

Jack: He (Sawyer) told me to leave him alone and let him do his job..."

Hurley: (incredulously) You going to?

Just like the audience, Hugo has Jack's number.

Hurley then spills the beans about Sawyer and Juliet...you know, how they are not just roommates? The expression on Kate's face, upon hearing this revelation, was utterly priceless. As was Hurley's next line, "Who couldn't see that coming?" I'm taking this one as a gentle nod from the writers and producers of Lost, for those of us (Me! Me! Me!) who predicted Sawyer & Juliet's coupling during last season's finale. I knew it the second shirtless Sawyer swam up on the beach to find Juliet buzzing on some Dharma Initiative Rum. Good times for those two. And good call for Hurley...I so love him stating the obvious. I so love him, period.

Moving on...


Let's discuss Ben's dad. He sucks and got what was coming to him in the purge. The end. That's way harsh, I know, but we now realize part of the reason why Ben is the way he is. What is it with this show and father figures? So many of our island peeps--Sawyer, Locke, Jack, Ben, Sayid--have daddy issues.

And then we return to the time when Sayid was working for the greater good. One minute he's a finely skilled hitman for hire, the next, he's getting all Habitat-y in the Dominican Republic. Here's our Sayid laboring on the behalf of those less fortunate, selflessly devoting his time and talent in a situation where the only potential for bloodshed is an accidental hammer to the thumb, or getting knocked on the noggin by a 2"x4". Of course Sayid's reprieve is curtailed by the appearance of Ben, doomsdayer that he is. Ben spends the next few minutes reminding Sayid of his murderous traits, gently prodding him with statements such as, "You're capable of things most men aren't...it's in your nature...you're a killer!" Way to be encouraging, Ben! Using a potential threat to Hurley as bait (and casually tossing out the intel on Locke's murder), Ben once again manages to place Sayid under his thumb. And on the trigger.

Then we come to Oldham, Mr. He's Our You. I want to go on record here and now with the following opinion: Best. Casting. Ever. It's LARRY, from Newhart, y'all! Oh my head, this made me so happy. William Sanderson as Oldham! I kept waiting for him to say, "Hi, I'm Larry...this is my brother, Darryl, and this is my other brother, Darryl." Pure awesomeness. (He's currently on True Blood, too...if you're wondering where you've seen him.) This Oldham chap intrigues me. He listens to Billie Holiday, lives in a teepee, and knows a square full of sugar helps the medicine go down. Methinks he's probably hit the hookah a whole lot, too. I'm just sayin'.

Seeing Sayid chained to the tree was reminiscent of "Confidence Man," from Season 1, in which Sayid "tortures" Sawyer for withholding Shannon's asthma medicine. Yes, the tables have turned. And I have to admit that seeing Sayid tripping on that truth serum was far out, to use a term from the era in which they currently reside. Sayid breaks it down for the gang, as truthful as he can be. The gang then all but exclaims, "What you talkin' 'bout, Willis?" Clearly, they don't believe Sayid...or his "you're all going to die" prediction. Silly gang.

We then learn that after storming off from the marina (leaving Jack, Kate, Sun, and Ben behind), Sayid gets his MacCutcheon on in a swanky bar. Desmond, we miss you. Please come back. And if you didn't see this coming:
...my friends, you need to bone up on your Lost sleuthing skills. Oh...and that's hot.

We have the brief scene between Juliet and Kate to discuss. Or not.

(Crickets chirping.)

The Dharma City Council holds a meeting to determine Sayid's fate. By the time the gavel pounds, it's unanimous: Sayid's cell has become death row! The more I learn about Amy, the more I fear her. Girl is shifty, to put it mildly. She's pretty hardcore standing there, cradling baby Ethan, waxing about the safety of all Dharma children...a regular Old Mother Hubbard. Wanting to stomp Sayid with her shoe.
After being a total follower with his affirmative vote, Saywer heads to Death Row and offers to free Sayid. But Sayid will have none of this, declaring to Sawyer, "I know exactly why I'm here." Alrighty then.

Sawyer then goes to see Kate...blah-blah-blah. Oh look! A flaming VW van! Did we love the speedy manner in which the Dharmaville Volunteer Fire Department sprang into action? We did. The show's writers made a serious effort for the audience to see just how tight-knit this community is...notice how Sawyer called a bunch of redshirts by name as the flames blazed? Like any of us cares if it's Erin or Steve or Sally Lou holding a hose. But Sawyer cares. Noted.

With the fire crisis keeping everyone else occupied, Ben Junior is on his mission to rescue Sayid. Sayid tells Ben he will take him (Ben) to "his people" (Richard and the hostiles). "That's why I'm here." Sayid explains to lil' Ben. And off they go tromping through the jungle, as these two are wont to do. Until Jin and his No Rosetta Stone Required English shows up and almost thwarts the plans.

What plans? Oh, that would be Sayid fulfilling his mission. You know, to prove what Ben has been telling him all along: "You were right about me. I am a killer!" BANG!

The anguish on his face just slayed me. Brilliant acting, Naveen Andrews. Kudos to you!

Now, if you think Ben is truly dead...well, I'll just remind you...George Strait has some oceanfront property in Arizona that he'd really like to sell. Let's not forget Jin is lying there, too...Sayid's dropping bodies like flies. His game is back on!
Oh Ben...we hardly knew ye...at this age, that is.

A couple of questions:

*During the Dharma City Council meeting, Radzinsky mentioned contacting "Ann Arbor." As in University of Michigan? As in the DeGroots, the founders of the Dharma Initiative? Are the DeGroots still in a positon of power in 1977?

*When Ben Junior visits Sayid's cell just before breaking him out, Ben says of his father, "I hated him." Hated. Past tense. What does this mean?????? Or am I making something out of nothing?

(Edited to add: I must have hearing problems, because everyone's telling me Ben Junior said, "I hate it here." BUT...just so you know...I've scoured the lost message boards and others heard the same as me. I'm not alone in my mistake, and I find comfort in that. Good times.)

And now, please let the sussing commence!

30 comments:

Shannon said...

Lula, you are the Queen of all things Lost. So many things I didn't catch or think of!


But, nonetheless, here are my thoughts:

Sayid's anguished "What do I do now?" was heartbreaking. Oh, and his face when he shot Lil' Ben.

Totally agree with you on Amy... there is more to her than what we first thought!

Hurley as a chef is awesome. I love Hurley.

I said the same thing when Oldham appeared... "it's Larry! HA!"

And speaking of Oldham... we all know Sayid is a badass. One look at him and you know he could totally take you down. But Oldham... man, that dude gives me the heebie-jeebies!

The whole scene with Sayid telling Horace, Oldham, etc, the truth about him... so good. "I am a bad man... you're all going to die, you know." Loved it.

"We have the brief scene between Juliet and Kate to discuss. Or not." BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I love you.

Ilana turning out to be a bounty hunter... awesome.

My fave line was from Sawyer: "3 years, no burning buses... y'all are back for one day..."

This was one kick-ass epi... makes me sad to know the season is almost over :(

FROGGITY! said...

Well. That was a great recap!

And I couldn't place Oldham's face so thanks for doing that! Larry, Darryl and Darryl! Of course!

Oldham's tent looked like a sweatlodge. I thought that maybe Locke's old buddies Mike and Jan were going to pop out... even though it was the wrong timeframe.

The kid who plays young Ben is amazing. Just right on. Can't wait to lostpedia that book.

Ben's not dead, the island won't let him die. We see that coming...

Loved young Sayid. Just really big props to the writers for keeping those themes. It's good stuff.

FROGGITY! said...

oh, p.s. I am glad someone loved the neck-breaking Sayid scene as much as I did. That was LOST at it's finest. I was obsessed with the Sayid/Ben scenes last night. So great.

Jill@Barnes Yard said...

I think I love reading Lula's take more than actually watching LOST, okay not really, but almost!! Anyway I just keep thinking how does baby Ethan not die in the purge??? And...how is there going to be a purge with kid Ben dead? Maybe Sayid will have to purge everyone...questions, questions. Also I don't know if I read it on here or somewhere else, but I heard that in the pit of dead Dharmas there is a skeleton with a LaFleur jumpsuit (???)

Anonymous said...

I really thought Ben said "I hated him" too but then I rewound and replayed, rewound and replayed and now I'm wondering if he said, "I hate it here." Thoughts?

Sayid is hardcore. I wanted him to shoot Ben even though I know Ben will never die. It just felt right for some reason...

Miss Blondie said...

Great Recap! Great episode! I just can't get enough of it.

I thought Ben said "I hate it here" too.

Vickie said...

This episode blew me away!

Oh my gosh, is Jin dead? But then I was thinking, why wouldn't Jin just let Sayid go?

I think lil' Ben said "I hate it here", too

Now you got me wanting to look up the book:)

Keys to the Magic Travel said...

I am going to have to watch it again to hear if it's "hated" or "hate it here." Cause if he's already killed his dad...well...that really changes things.

And why do you think the Losties joined Dharma rather than hooking up with the Others? Why couldn't Sayid go and find Richard now?

I am still curious as to why Richard looked so scruffy when Ben first finds him...

Keys to the Magic Travel said...

Oh...and so that one day I might do my own due diligence and do the re-cap...how do you do the screen captures???

Anonymous said...

Did anyone notice that little Ben's dad is Uncle Ricco from Napoleon Dynamite. Uncle Ricco's greatest wish was to go back in time. He bought a time machine on the World Wide Web as he called it. LOVED IT!!

Michelle said...

What I heard from Lil Ben was "I really hate it here" in his saddest of sad voices. I felt so bad for that kid.

When Sayid shot him which I knew was coming, I sat there with my mouth hanging open for about 5 mins! I mean I don't watch horror movies and I'm not big on the CSI's so it's not often I see a child being shot to death on t.v. it was distrubing, sad and exciting all at the same time.

So what do we think Kate was going to give Sawyer as her reason for coming back? It has something to do with his whisper I bet. Though how she could leave Aaron to fullfil some whispered promise to Sawyer is beyond me.

Amy is probably the scariest person in the Dharma int. at this point. I don't like anything about her. She's scary and I guess she teaches Ethan how to be scary too. But I do for some reason respect Horace, too bad he gets purged, or does he? you're right we don't know who's going to do the purging now do we?

Sayid is going to have to join Richard and the hostiles now. I wonder what big Ben is going to do once he hears that Sayid killed his 8 yr old self.

On a separate note if I don't find out what happened to Desmond, Penny, Lil Charlie, Clair, Aaron, and Crazy Faraday, soon I'm going to go nuts.

Great re-cap by the way you had me laughing.

Jill@Barnes Yard said...

I totally recognized uncle Rico!!!

Melissa said...

Oh mercy. This was an incredible episode. I almost wrote a short post yesterday to commence the commenting, but then I saw Lula's draft in progress. I have been itching to talk. What a crazy night! Sayid is the hottest hitman of all time. He has such a tender heart, too. Interesting dichotomy. The man is brilliant.

I'm definitely over the whole undramatic love quadrangle between our star-crossed couples. The flaming van bug couldn't have come any sooner.

So when are they gonna give us a 2-hour special. This one hour a week is just killin' me.

Little miss Amy is definitely a force to be reckoned with. Ethan scares the hoo-ha out of me in Season 1/2. The apple certainly didn't fall very far from that tree.

I have nada to add in the way of insight. Ya'll have given me some good stuff to chew on.

Thank you Lula and Shannon for being so faithful to write these recaps. I know this may seem like a cop-out, but you both do a far better job than I ever could. Seriously. I heart you both. Mega props to you for your smartness and attention to detail.

Melissa said...

Shannon.....I agree with that line from Sawyer......favorite line of the night.....

Melissa said...

Okay, I can't believe I missed that! Uncle Rico.....from one of my all-time favorite movies! That is hilarious and the time travel thing just makes it that much funnier!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shannon said...

Another thought...

I don't think Lil' Ben is dead (or will die)... due to the Island's healing powers. But I do think Sayid shooting him will have a pretty big impact on him. Afterall, he thinks Sayid is a Hostile sent to the Dharma camp by Richard.

www.AForestFrolic.typepad.com said...

Lula, Lula, Lula...I'm lovin' your re-caps! You are quite the funny one, tee hee! Hmmm, wondering if Ben is really dead? He can't be right?

Jamie :-)

CaraBee said...

As always, a pitch perfect re-cap, Lula!

I admit that I always kind of liked Kate, or at least didn't dislike her. But now, when Sawyer and Juliet are so RIGHT together, for Kate to get in the way of that would really tick me off. Especially after she was shacked up with Jack. Not liking her so much.

Btw, we were watching the first episode of Angel the other night and who appeared? A very young and yummy Josh Holloway aka Sawyer!

Christina said...

Ok, so my favorite scene/line of the night was Sayid saying, "A 12 year old Ben Linus brought me a chicken salad sandwich, how do you think I'm doing?!?" I laughed for about 10 minutes.

And, the scene between Hurley, Jack, and Kate was both comical and uncomfortable.

Sayid is badass, but I'm kind of afraid of him. I wouldn't wanna get on his bad side, ya'know?

The truth serum was awesome, too...but, of course, they weren't going to believe him. I love how he giggled the entire time he's telling them how they're all going to die. Awesome.

I have a tough month coming up here soon and I'm going to be very hard pressed to stay up until 10 to watch the show....thank god for DVR!!!!!

Ronda's Rants said...

Love the recap...
I really thought young Ben said "I really hated him, too!"
It was adult Ben who shot him...
When young Ben was shot...it disturbed me quite a bit!
Anyway...great job on the recap!

Michelle said...

CaraBee, I was a big Angel fan, I don't remember Josh Holloway, who did he play on Angel? I know that Jin was on Angel for a season or two.

Keeper of the Skies Wife said...

I heard little Ben say, I hated him. I just watched it last night. Wasn't it Ben who killed everyone with the gas because of his dad?

Tink412 said...

OMG! Am I thrilled to find this smart & telling LOST blog! I love the other "takes" that everyone has & you can be sure that I'll be back.......a lot! I'm one of the people that believe that LOST is by far te best TV has had to offer in a long,long time. I'm already sad that next year is it's last! BUt not to fear, I've gotten all the series on DVD (so far of course) & plan on enjoying them over & over. Not something that I've ever done with any TV show. I'd like to think I can pick up more or find what I've read that others (Others?!) have seen that I missed.YAAAH! SO happy to be here!

CaraBee said...

Michelle - He was a bit part, playing a demon. He was only in the episode for a few minutes. In IMDB he is credited as "Good Looking Guy." No kidding!

piecemeal people said...

CaraBee, I'm currently aboard the "Kate is Annoying" train right along with you. I don't understand her longing looks thrown in Sawyer's direction since being back on the island; I guess I was pretty convinced she was in love with Jack and the whole "sex in a cage" thing was for Sawyer's benefit, not hers.

And like Michelle, I need some answers re: everyone else! I can't believe it, but I COMPLETELY forgot about Aaron until reading her comment!

Also, I really hope there isn't too much time spent on this new set of survivors, courtesy of plane crash #2. I just don't have the mental real estate for a brand new group of people and their back stories...

Great blog...I'm off to put a button on my own right now!

Karen M. Peterson said...

I'm late. I didn't get to watch until this weekend, so I missed out on all the commenty-goodness.

But I just have to say, "Sayid canNOT do that!"

Anonymous said...

yea wish i watched this...

AP Mommy said...

Sorry haven't read through the other comments so someone else might have already said this but...

When Ben Jr. came in that final time to the jail cell and said HATED I assumed that BJ killed his father and that's what the flaming van was associated with.

Thoughts?

Knocked Up in Bama said...

I thought he said "I hated him" as well, but who knows!

Good episode that is setting up something HUGE...only problem, no Sawyer shirtless time!

Ritch in Love said...

All Hail Queen Lula of LOST! Your posts are the "fix" I need! Can't WAIT for tomorrow night!