S4E03 – The Economist

Pop-up Episode
First off… did you guys all watch the re-airing of last week’s episode “Confirmed Dead” shown in the terrific pop-up video style? While normally, these don’t often give new information, it did mention that the mystery woman who was living with Dan was not his wife or girlfriend… but was instead a caretaker. So, why does he need a caretaker? He seems to be okay…. With the exception of acting squirrely.

Oceanic 6
This week, we learned that SAYID is one of the Oceanic 6….. however, I’m still not convinced that there are only 6 people that make it off the island. It appears as though Desmond is going to make it back to the mainland, but he wouldn’t be classified as one of the “Oceanic 6” because he wasn’t on Flight 815. That got me to thinking, though…. What if more people made it off, but just didn’t admit to being on Flight 815? Let’s think about it. What if Jack, Hurley, Sayid, Claire, Jin, and Sun are the Oceanic 6. But Kate, Sawyer, and Locke also got off the island but aren’t willing to go public as one of the survivors. Instead, they are given a chance to start their lives over, complete with new identities.

Sayid the Hitman
We learn very quickly in the episode that Sayid is one of the Oceanic 6. And some time after his rescue, Sayid accepts a job as a hitman. He met a man on a golf course and after mentioning that he was one of the Oceanic 6, the man became VERY nervous. And, boy, was he right to be scared. It turned out that Sayid was hired to kill the man.

Shortly thereafter, he met up with a woman in a coffee house and he used his charm to get a date with her. Immediately after leaving the café, he made a call on his phone (to his employer) to let him know that the mission has begun. The woman had a pager, and she is basically paid to be on call for the once or twice a year that she is needed. Sayid’s plan is to date this woman and spend as much time with her as possible so that he is guaranteed to be around when her employer calls.

And, during the course of this “Long Con”, Sayid fell in love with the woman. And when her boss finally called, he began to confess to her, and (what do-ya-know) she pulled out a gun and fired shots into Sayid’s chest. Don’t worry though, Sayid was able to grab his gun quickly enough to kill her before she was able to finish him off.

At the end of the episode, we learn that Sayid’s employer is (you ready for this?)…. BEN. What the hell? This opens up a lot of doors here! Does this mean that Ben is officially off the island? Or can he go back and forth to and from the island? Needless to say, this puts more credence into my wife’s theory about Ben being the one in the casket.

Time Travel
While the producers have hinted before that there may be elements of time playing a bigger part in the show, they haven’t officially showed us any proof of this until last night’s episode. Dan made a call back to Regina, and they fired a “pay load” to their location on the island; however, it didn’t show up until 31 minutes after it was supposed to. When it finally did make it to Dan, he opened it up to find a stopwatch inside, with its time differing 31 minutes from Dan’s clock.

There are several ways of looking at this. During his conversation with Regina, was her response actually from the future? Or did the traveling “payload” pass through some sort of time portal on its way to the island?

The Man on the Boat
After the episode ended last night, my wife and I (and our friend Jim) spent about 15 minutes just tossing around theories about who is on the boat. And as always, my wife suggested a great theory (seriously… I have no idea why she doesn’t have her own blog). What if Sayid is Ben’s man on the freighter? I know that sounds like a weird theory but consider this…

We know that Sayid is on his way to the freighter right now. Ben and Sayid, we saw earlier being kept prisoner in the same room. It could be possible that they made a deal with each other. When Sayid got to the freighter, he tortured Minkowski in order to get all of the information for Ben. He then radioed to a frequency that Ben gave him, and (ala “payload” time travel) his transmission was sent to Ben in the past.

I’m still sticking to the idea that when Ben sent Michael off on the boat, he was picked up by the freighter and is operating as a double-agent.

To: N, From: RG
Sayid found a bracelet on Naomi that said “N, I’ll always be with you. RG”. It’s logical to assume that “N” stands for “Naomi”, but who the hell is “RG”? Later in the episode, it is shown that the girl Sayid is courting has a similar bracelet (however, we don’t see the inscription). It seems plausible that the bracelet could’ve come from her employer….which could also be Naomi’s employer (who I am convinced is that Abaddon guy).

That brings me back to another thought I had a few days ago. When Abaddon approaches Hurley in the mental hospital and asks “Are they still alive?”, perhaps he is referring to the freighties (or frothers, however you want to refer to them). Being that they all appear to be scientists (of sorts), it would seem logical that they’d like to stay and study the island. …especially now that Dan knows about a possible time-travel element on the island.

As Always…I plan to keep updating this blog throughout the week, so make sure to check back for the updates. Also, don’t forget to spread the word and tell your friends about the site.

Until next time!

-drew.

BONUS – More Writers Strike News
Okay, so now that the strike is officially over, we’ve got good (and bad) news regarding the rest of season 4. Here’s the quick version. Instead of the pre-planned amount of 16 episodes, they are going to only make 13. In case you haven’t heard, they’ve already filmed 8, so that means there will be 5 additional episodes filmed. They will air the first 7 consecutively. They’ll then take 6 weeks off. Then they’ll come back and air the remaining 6. So, that’s the good news. The bad news is that it’s switching time slots again. Unfortunately, it is moving to 10:00 on Thursdays (following new episodes of Grey’s Anatomy).