Lost - "The Economist"

Looks like we're not going to do a slow, quiet build this season, that's for sure. Every Lost  episode seems to be dropping bigger and bigger bombshells, and the final reveals are excellent. I'm really enjoying the season so far. Now, let's get to the spoilers: So Sayid is the next member of the Oceanic 6 to be revealed. In his flash-forward, we saw him first golfing in the Seychelles when he was approached by another golfer. The two exchanged pleasantries and made a bet on the outcome of the next shot. The man got very nervous when Sayid revealed his identity. He must have known something about the Oceanic 6, or what Sayid is really up to, but it's odd that he didn't recognize the Oceanic survivor outright. He was right to be nervous, as Sayid pulled a gun and killed him. In the next flash-forward, Sayid was in Germany, and joined a woman named Elsa at a coffee shop. He got directions he didn't need and wound up making a dinner date with her. Shortly afterwards, he made a phone call to report making contact to some mysterious employer, then immediately discarded the phone. As the future scenes progress, we saw Sayid apparently falling for Elsa, and she for him. In he end, when the economist who employes her finally paged that he's in Germany, he admited to her that her boss, who is not really an economist, was his target. She responded by shooting him and calling her boss. When she got off the phone, Sayid killed her. He draged himself to a veterinary clinic for medical assistance, and it turned out he was working for BEN! Ben had a list of people he was sending Sayid out to kill. Excellent final reveal, I thought. Some people may have been able to recognize Ben's voice on the phone, but my own hearing isn't good enough so I was surprised. Meanwhile, back in the present on the island, we're getting all manner of interesting tidbits of information. Sayid noticed that Naomi was wearing a bracelet with an engraving inside: "N, I'll always be with you, RG." We've not been introduced to anyone who definitely has those initials, but a little research did turn up the Ruth to whom Desmond was engaged before he disappeared to join the monastery. Biblically, Ruth was the daughter-in-law of Naomi. If the two are connected, it could explain why she has a picture of Desmond on her. While Sayid headed out with Kate and Miles to rescue Charlotte from Locke, Daniel Farraday conducted a very interesting experiment. He set up some kind of platform with a beacon, and called the freighter to send the "payload." According to the voice on the freighter, the payload arrived at the target within a few moments, but it didn't actually hit the ground near the beacon for 31 minutes. This is bad, according to Daniel. It also seems to support the theory that the island itself is somehow does not occupy the same space-time as the rest of the world. But why does that only seem to apply to physical objects? Why don't electromagnetic signals seem to have the same issue? It also seems that you have to follow an electromagnetic signal into the island; the payload missile did, the chopper did, and from what we've heard, the Others' submarine did as well. It was pretty clear Miles was playing directly into Sayid's plan by insisting on joining the mission to rescue Charlotte. Along with Kate, they made their way to Othertown, where they found Hurley tied up in a closet. He told them Locke and company left him behind while they went someplace else, after they got something from Ben's house. Looking for clues to Locke's destination, they went to Ben's place, where Sayid discovered a hidden room packed with suits, money, and passports. Ben clearly goes off island regularly, and has plenty of resources when he does. Turned out, though, Locke never took the group anywhere, and took Sayid and company prisoner. While Sawyer told Kate he had nothing to return to the world for, and tried to convince her to stay with him, Locke visits with Sayid. As it turns out, Sayid came up with the perfect way to get Charlotte. He offered Locke Miles in exchange. Before we know it, Sayid returned to the helicopter with Charlotte in tow. Kate decided to remain behind, and no one seemed too upset that Miles took Charlotte's place. As they loaded up to leave, Daniel stressed to pilot Frank that it was absolutely vital to follow the same bearing they came in along to get out. That sounds very similar to Ben telling Michael to remain on a bearing of 305 degrees to get rescued. Things are definitely heating up. Sayid and Desmond are headed off the island finally, theoretically to the freighter. Daniel had more experiments to run, and Charlotte also decided to stay behind, I'd guess to look at some of the DHARMA sites. Next week we're supposed to get another member of the Oceanic 6 revealed. Hopefully we'll get to see the freighter itself so we can start trying to figure out who Ben's man on the ship is. Until then, see you in another life, brother.