InsaneBear

Our Adventures: Lost – “Sundown”

Well, I’m officially getting sick of analyzing these every week, because it just makes it all the more disappointing when an episode doesn’t deliver. “Sundown” was exciting enough, but for the love of God, DO NOT PROMISE ANSWERS IN THE PROMOS IF NONE WILL BE REVEALED! Seriously, I can’t think of one question that was answered in this episode. If I were a writer for Lost, I would advise my cohorts from cramming every big revelation into the final month of the season. Unfortunately, though, I am not a writer for the show, and that seems to be the road they’re going down.

But anyways, my analysis. Firstly, that was a sweet fight between Dogen and Sayid at the beginning, even if it was a little one-sided. As we know, it culminated in Mr. Jarrah being banished from the Temple until “still hot” Claire showed up and nobody seemed the least bit surprised (as far as acting goes). She gets sent to a hole in the ground and starts singing lullabies like the crazy broad that she is, and Dogen gives Sayid a handy blade to go get himself killed with.

Meanwhile, the tangent-universe is a very strange place indeed for Sayid. Nadia is not his lover, but his brother’s. Our favorite Iraqi torturer is left to the role of “Uncle Sayid.” But perhaps this is all for the best, as Sayid denied the lure of love in order to atone for his sins. As he says to his brother, “I’m not that man anymore.”

Well, Sayid’s spent a lot of time on this show telling everybody that he’s not “that man” anymore, but that didn’t stop him from jamming bamboo underneath Sawyer’s fingernails back in Season 1, so it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that he reverted to the killer he is at heart (guess Ben was right in Season 5) when he ran into tangent-Keamy. Speaking of which, I wonder if this alternate universe Keamy still works for Widmore? Are we going to have to wait another eight episodes to even see Widmore? But I digress. Sayid went bad and murdered a defenseless man (although he probably deserved it). After that, our Republican Guard finds Jin tied up in a storage room. Wonder how Jin went from Customs trouble to mob trouble? Hopefully we’ll get a Sun and Jin centric episode soon. But yeah, Sayid and Jin are intertwined going back to the days of their sail-boat sighting of the Statue, so I’m sure their paths will be related in some way in the coming war. Perhaps if I remembered their early-season exploits more clearly I’d have a better idea of what to expect.

Going back to the Island now, Sayid stabbed Focke in the chest, failing to kill him, before he was quite easily persuaded to do Evil Incarnate’s bidding with the promise of having whatever he wanted in the entire world. Yeah, Sayid, no strings attached to that one…So he goes to the Temple, hastily converts all the flip-floppers with the news that Jacob’s dead and that they’re next in line, and then proceeds to drown Dogen in the infected water (which will likely have significance). Only after slicing the throat of Mr. Dogen’s translator is his blood-lust satisfied.

In the midst of all this madness, Smokie rampages through the Temple killing everyone in sight. Luckily, Illana and her rag-tag crew of yahoos show up to save Miles and escape through a secret passage. Before they go, Ben pays a visit to Sayid to try and rescue him, but backs away upon seeing the crazy eyes. I think it’s interesting that in Season 4, in the fight with Keamy, Sayid stabbed him but Ben finished the job. Actually, I’m getting very fuzzy here, as I’m fairly certain it was Keamy who was chasing Sayid and attacked him, and that Ben shot him in the back before telling the Losties that they could leave. But I know for a fact that Ben stabbed Keamy in the throat a couple times in the Orchid, thus blowing up the freighter. Keamy probably had a bullet proof vest on the first time. Or he’s the Terminator. Something like that.

But back to my point, first time around, Ben “saves” Sayid from killing Keamy. Second time around, tangent-universe Sayid already killed Keamy and Island-universe Sayid already killed Dogen and his translator. Ben was too late to do anything. But this Keamy connection is probably more my imagination that a real thread.

What is important is that tangent-universe Sayid, although trying to atone for his sins, gave in to his weaknesses and failed to redeem himself. This mirrors the actions of Island-universe Sayid, who claimed to still have good in his soul before setting a massacre into motion. Perhaps the tangent-universe is not the prize for atonement, as I originally hypothesized in my Redemption Theory. Perhaps, the Losties must prove themselves worthy in both worlds. That clouds up the picture a bit on what happens with these multiple universes, though. Maybe we’ll find out in the last episode…maybe we’ll never find out…who knows with this show?

The last points I’ll bring up regarding “Sundown” (which could quite possibly be symbolic of a coming darkness that will eventually succumb to “sunrise”) pertain to all non-Iraqi characters.
-Evangeline Lily and Emilie de Ravin aren’t very good actresses and their scenes together showed it. Absolutely no chemistry and poor delivery. The lines they were given to work with weren’t very good either.
-Why is Claire not freaking out on Kate when she told Jin she’d kill her? Why is Kate going along with the crazies and not really looking too spooked about it? And that shotgun’s not going to do you any good, honey.
-Where are Jin and Sawyer? Focke just leave them to chill out in the cave or something? How about a little more continuity effort, writers of Lost?
-If what the promos are indicating turns out to be true and Ben dies next week, then I might just turn on this show that I’ve followed for so many years. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

Lastly, there was no further evidence of the Bleeding Universe Theory this week, but Redemption Theory was supported in a few instances. Dogen’s whole story about being responsible for his son’s death and agreeing to sacrifice life as he knew it to save his son even though he’d never see him again certainly sounds like a man trying to atone for his sins. At first I thought the man who approached him was going to be Ben, as the story sounded strikingly familiar to Juliet’s situation with her sister, but I guess Jacob is the hot new thing in town this season. Dogen also held back from killing Sayid when he had the chance, further emphasizing his commitment to good. That didn’t really get him very far, but maybe his sacrifice will pay off in the tangent-universe.

So that’s all I have to say for this episode. I don’t want to say that the season is treading water so far, as it is advancing new plots, but it simply isn’t answering any of the questions we’ve been waiting five years to solve. This wouldn’t be such a big deal to me if they didn’t advertise every week as having all the answers we’ve been waiting for. Hopefully the advertisers and writers can get on the same page soon and pull this ship together, because I’m just becoming more and more frustrated each week. But hey, they’ll probably just play up this whole “recruiting” angle for another month or so before there’s a big war where good triumphantly defeats evil through self-sacrifice and then all the good guys’ kids will get to lead good lives in the final episode.

Author: Cody

Tags: lost, lost season 6, lost theories, Our Adventures, sundown