Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Lost 2/15: "My name is Sayid and I am a torturer"

Wherein I say "Damn!"


Let me start with two quotes from the spouse:
  • He is evil. Said of Henry Gale as he stared down Sayid after Jack pulled Sayid away.
  • God, he's an ass. Directed toward Jack for any number of offenses.


Maybe it's just me, but I'm hoping for a sweep episode that's nothing but two hours of Locke and Sayid kicking Jack's whiny ass.

The Sayid flashback shows him as a member of the Republican Guard during the Gulf War. We knew he worked as an interrogator, but tonight we learned it was the Americans who gave him his initial training. Very interesting twist. And this mirrors Sayid recovering from his guilt of previously torturing Sawyer to do what must be done.

Back on the island, Danielle shows up looking for Sayid. Turns out she has a guy in one of her traps - says his name is Henry Gale from Minnesota. Sayid cuts him down, he runs, Danielle shoots an arrow through his shoulder. "If I wanted to kill him, he'd be dead." Damn! As Sayid hauls him away, Danielle tells him "He is one of them. He will lie for a long time."

So Sayid has Henry in the hatch and is questioning him with Locke when whiny Jack shows up. So Jack takes out the arrow and gets all "whine whine whine," so Sayid has Locke change the combination of the armory, then fakes out Jack so Sayid and Henry can have some alone time. Sayid proceeds to get medieval on his ass. Unfortunately, the timer sounds and Jack won't let Locke key in the numbers until Locke opens the vault. Locke folds (boo! hiss!), and Jack pulls Sayid off the now bloody lumpen Henry. Looks like Locke doesn't get the numbers in, but then he does. Now I'll have to wait for someone with TIVO to post the pictures, but before flipping back, the numbers turned to red cards with symbols. Looked to me these might be the symbols for the Dharma hatches. We'll see. What this means I have no idea.

Side story of Sawyer hunting down a tree frog with help from Hurley. Hurley would prefer not to help, but Sawyer discovers his stash of food. Guess this is the shows nod to why Hurley isn't losing any weight. Sawyer finds the frog and squeezes it to death to remind us that we're not supposed to like him.

Ends with Sayid talking to outcast Charlie because Charlie killed Ethan, one of the Others. Sayid confesses he knows Henry is one of the Others, because "I know because I felt no guilt for what I did to him." Goes on say these people are dangerous, they can take us any time they want. Charlie asks why Sayid is telling him this. Sayid's reply: "Tell me Charlie, have you forgotten."

Maybe when Lost ends, ABC can spinoff Locke, Sayid, and Hurley into a wacky sitcom. Make them...whatever, I don't care...I just want the Hurley, Sayid, and Locke show. Sun and Jin can make frequent guest star appearances.

What did we learn?
I'm tempted to say, not much, other than Sayid is done playing nice. On the podcast, it was said this was the first of a 4 episode story arc. So this is the setup and we're introduced to a new outside element. My first instinct is that Henry is evil and we're about to see more of the evil Others, as opposed to the Mr. Friendly Others. We also saw something new with the counter. Was this a tease, or was something triggered.

baseless speculation
Henry Gale is an acronym for "Argyle Hen." OH MY GOD!!!!!! That doesn't mean anything. It also an anagram for "Ely Hanger." He did say he was from Minnesota - Ely is a city in Minnesota - and he was flying a balloon - uff da! A balloon could be kept in a hanger! Proof he's innocent.

There is also a Henry Gale who was an Astrophysicist.

Since all conspiracies lead to the freemasons, a Robert Henry Gale, was mayor of Vancouver.

Go forth and discuss.

Update #1: I speculate that Henry Gale meant to be captured and insert himself into the Losties. These people walk without leaving a trail, they're not stepping in a trap unless they want to. Either he was convinced Danielle would turn him over or he made a deal with Danielle. Still, I doubt he expected to be shot with an arrow and then tortured.

Update #2: Greg mentions that "Henry Gale" is Dorothy's uncle in the Wizard of Oz. D'oh! Completely missed that. And the counters rolled over to Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Update #3 The Iraqi Torture Edition

6 Comments:

Blogger Pooh said...

Pooh's theorem of Lost Epidsode Quality puts another notch in its belt.

2/16/2006 03:28:00 AM  
Blogger XWL said...

One thing I find fascinating is that whenever discussions of real world torture abound, it's intoned over and over that torture doesn't work and any information obtained will be unreliable or false, but where hollywood is concerned torture is almost always an efficient way to extract accurate information.

My conclusion, if you are going to torture someone, torture a hollywood screenwriter, cause they seem to believe in it (too bad they don't have any information anyone would want).

2/16/2006 03:40:00 PM  
Blogger Pooh said...

It worked on Kevin Spacey in "Swimming with Sharks"

2/16/2006 06:51:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Do you think that Henry Gale is the mysterious "Him" mentioned by Desmond when he is talking to Locke or Mr. Friendly/Zeke when he is talking to Nathan?

3/14/2006 02:34:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Remember, "Are you Him?"

3/14/2006 02:35:00 PM  
Blogger bill said...

Anon - it's a possibility, but not enough info to state one way or the other.

I take Desmond's statement as him asking if Locke is his replacement. At least that was the interpretation at the time.

Plus, I'm leaning towards Desmond being an Other and he was misdirecting Locke.

My instinct is that Zeke was talking about someone off-island.

But all theories are in play.

3/14/2006 02:44:00 PM  

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