"Sundown"

JANUARY 24, 2011

FOCUS: SAYID
EPISODE: 6.6
AIRED: MARCH 2, 2010

I probably should have made this clear when S6 started, but I’ve only seen the season once, as opposed to 3-4 times for the other seasons. Thus, given my poor memory, overload of Lost lore from rewatching S1-5 yet again, and the fact that my brain is constantly being bombarded with horror movie shit, I am having trouble remembering a lot of stuff from this season. Thus, episodes like “Sundown” are just confusing me all over again, because I can remember how Sayid went out (saving his friends), but not how he stopped being the evil bastard we see here.

Granted, he did think Dogen was trying to kill him again, and perhaps he was (Dogen may have figured either way one of his enemies would be dead), but he didn’t follow the guy’s instructions either – Locke/MIB totally spoke before Sayid stabbed him, which was the only condition Dogen told him to follow. It’s not like he said he had to do it at the stroke of midnight while standing on salted earth and wearing a muumuu, he just had to stab the guy before he said anything. So what does Sayid do? Sits there like a moron while Locke walks up to him, then AFTER he says “Hello Sayid”, he stabs. Christ, man, speed up!

So he goes back to Dogen, and after the guy finally starts revealing his human side, Sayid tackles him (in pretty spectacular fashion I must say), kills him, and then kills Lennon for good measure. And while I love the idea of these two being dead and thus not annoying me anymore (albeit without ever explaining who the fuck they were or why they were important), I hate that it comes at the hands of one of the show’s most noble characters. Ben? Sure. Sawyer? Hell, why not? But Sayid killing two guys in cold blood because of some unexplained “darkness” inside him – it’s a decent shock, sure, but it’s such a terrible way to start the final chapter of a great character.

And unlike Nikki and Paulo, this was part of their plan! The season was too “fresh” for this to be the result of fan backlash against these characters (indeed, footage from this episode appeared in the S6 teaser that began airing prior to the season premiere), and according to John Hawkes they only wanted him for 3-4 episodes, so again – there is nothing to suggest that this was some sort of premature conclusion to their storyline that had to occur due to factors beyond their control. Their plan was to introduce two new, mysterious characters and kill them off before they ever got any real development (in Lennon’s case, he was never even identified!). Whatever.

This episode also has my favorite example of why the “waiting room” was such a clumsily implemented story – Sayid KILLS people in it, and finds Jin tied up and beaten. Again, this is some sort of pre-afterlife, why is it so violent!? I understand the need to provide drama and maybe even give them some sort of challenge to overcome before they move on, but it should have played out more like Kate and Jack’s episodes (personal demons being expunged – i.e. Kate’s guilt about taking Aaron away from Claire), not with shootouts and appearances from villains. I mean, I’m happy to see Keamy again (I would have taken the offer for eggs, for the record), but not at the expense of logic.

One thing the episode sort of foreshadowed was that Nadia was not meant to be with Sayid, I guess. In the afterlife, she’s married to his brother, and although he still wants to smash her rotten (he even carries a picture around with him – Jesus Christ dude, TACT), his real soul mate will eventually be revealed to be Shannon. So this episode at least set us up for that horrible outcome. Thanks, “Sundown”.

Oh, I like the completely random team of Ben, Frank, Ilana, Sun, and Miles, by the way. It’s funny how many characters never really met before (I think this is the first time Miles has met Ilana and Sun), or were paired in odd ways – Miles and Kate were running together for a while; the previous episode had Jin and Claire talking for I think the first time since the first season, etc. Season 6 is all about bringing everyone together, on and off the island!

Where are we?