'Lost' - "Enter 77"

Last week's episode was fun fluff. This week's episode was intense. Lots of action, some mysteries addressed to an extent, new territory explored (and exploded) -- it was the type of episode I like to see. Graphic artist Zoetawny created a new Lost tag for me. She rocks, y'know!

Although the episode was Sayid-centric this week, it seemed to me that there wasn't as much focus on him as many of the others received during their character-specific shows. Usually the flashbacks are about even with the new show content, but there was overwhelmingly more new show stuff tonight rather than focusing on the past.

The Flashbacks
Sayid was working as a sous-chef in Paris under the name Najeev when a customer complimented him on the meal he cooked and offered him a job. It turned out to be just a ruse to capture him. The husband believed that Sayid was the Iraqi who tortured his wife and burnt her arms. He decided to torture Sayid as Sayid had done to his wife.

Sayid kept denying he was responsible until confronted alone by the wife. Then he weeped and admitted his guilt. "Yes, I remember you. Your face has haunted me." With a cat on her lap, she told him that since she was burned, she refused to leave her home. Some children were torturing the cat in the alley below and she left to save it. She claimed it gave her reason to leave. While the cat clearly adores her, it sometimes bites or scratches. She believes it does so because it forgets that it's safe. She knows what it's like to never feel safe.

After he admitted guilt and apologized, she planned to let him go. She told him she'd tell her husband that she was mistaken... he wasn't the one who tortured her. She refuses to be one who will torture, do that or be like that.

On the Island
The beach scenes were basically fluff with no mention of the DHARMA bus from last week. This week Hurley found a ping-pong table. (He's finding a lot of stuff lately, isn't he?) He came across Sawyer who's still fussing about his missing stuff. The never-introduced to us due to a cut scene Paulo told him that everyone shared everything. And, the writers must read our thoughts... Sawyer turned to him and said, "Who the hell are you?"

It turns out Sawyer had the ball and would only give it if he could play for the return of his stuff. Jin and Sun decided if he loses, no nicknames for anyone for a week. Little did he know, Hurley is practically a pro at ping-pong. So, no nicknames for a week and there was our fluff.

Meanwhile in the woods, Kate, Sayid, Locke, and Rousseau were on their mission to save Jack. Sayid saw a horse and a structure with a satellite dish through the trees. He gave the others his gun and tried to approach. As he went by the horse, they showed a camera shot of the saddle and stirrups, but I didn't understand then why they showed it. I would soon enough. Rousseau had left Locke and Kate to wait by the stream as she "avoids confrontations like this." She had never seen the place before.

As Sayid approached the structure which was more like a shack than a house from the outside, he passed a sitting cat. The cat looked just like the one from the flashback. [Cue LOST thunk] Before he could walk to the door, the Eye Patch Dude we saw on the monitor some episodes back shot him in the shoulder. Sayid insisted he was unarmed. The man shouted, "You crossed the line! We had a truce! You said I could stay here and you'd leave me alone!"

Sayid, joined by Locke and Kate, convinced the Patch Dude that they had crashed on a plane and they weren't the "hostiles" he thought them to be. He told them his name was Mikhail Bakunin and that he was the last living member of DHARMA. He told them after he left the Soviet Army, he joined DHARMA by replying to a newspaper advertisement which read "Would you like to save the world?" (Shouldn't they save the cheerleader first? Oops, wrong show.)

Mikhail said that he refused to go to war with the "hostiles" -- his name for the Others. DHARMA lost the purge and he was offered a truce. He couldn't go into the valley and they wouldn't cross the line where he was stationed. His place is known as the Flame Station. It was the center for communication with the outside world, yet the equipment didn't work. He also told them that the hostiles were on the island before DHARMA.

He gave Sayid medical aid, removing the bullet from his shoulder with skill and ease. As Kate explored around, she found odd things like huge sides of beef in industrial sized refrigerators. (Or.. people! Soylent Green... it's people! Okay, I think it was beef.) Locke found a computer room with a chess-playing program all in motion as if it was waiting for him.

Mikhail offered to cook them dinner and advised Locke that the computer cheats and always wins. Locke balked at that saying only humans cheat. He told them the doppelganger-cat was named Nadia after Nadia Comaneci, the gymnast. What Locke and Kate didn't realize was that Sayid knew Mikhail wasn't being honest and most certainly, wasn't alone. Those horse stirrups were the clue that tipped him off... they were set too short for a man Mikhail's size.

While Locke messed with computer (why does he do that?), Mikhail realized that Kate and Sayid were onto him. They captured him and knocked him unconcious. Then Locke peeked in. (What is with him?) Sayid and Kate went to search for the other person and anything else of interest, leaving Locke in charge of the captive Mikhail.

They noticed a basement hatch and explored where it led, coming across explosives and DHARMA manuals, as well as a map. The whole place is rigged with C4 explosives set to detonate. Oh... they also found the other Other, a woman that Kate recognized from the dock kidnapping, Miss Klugh.

Oh, but that silly Locke. The computer was prompting him to take his chess turn, so what does he do? He takes his eyes off of his prisoner and plays chess! Argh. He wins and is very satisfied that the computer didn't cheat, he was right. But then the computer went into some kind of overide mode. "Enter 38 for Mainland Communications." "Enter 56 for sonar access." So, he did. The computer said that communications and access were both down. "Enter 77 for invasion of hostiles." All of the time, the DHARMA training tape was cutting in and out.

Bam! Mikhail grabs Locke. When Kate and Sayid get upstairs, they have a stand-off outside of the station. They have a gun on Miss Klugh and Mikhail has one on Locke. Klugh spoke very heatedly to Mikhail in Russian, apparently telling him to shoot her. So, he did.

Oh, but what had Locke done? He hit the darn ENTER 77! Argh again. Before they could grab anything out of The Flame Station, it blew sky-high. At least Sayid had the map to the Barracks with him. He said he would decide the fate of Mikhail. They met up with Rousseau by the stream leaving Nadia the Cat looking just a bit forlorn.

Great episode!