The title, as all titles so far this season, has a few possible meanings. The obvious was the sundown deadline the Man in Black set for the Temple folks to either follow them and be saved, or stay and die… an important ultimatum. It could also reference the 1974 Gordon Lightfoot song, “Sundown”, which was inspired by his then girlfriend, Cathy Smith, whom he says is “the one woman in my life who most hurt me.” In a Sayid-centric episode about his timeline-crossed love and loss of Nadia, and his fight to get her back despite her dying in his arms… I think this is an appropriate choice. The album artwork also goes with the YELLOW theme in this episode (which I’ve noted throughout)… If you’re interested, here are the “Sundown” lyrics.
Doc Jensen:
“Sundown,” reminded us that for all his spirituality, and for all his protest-too-much bleating about being a ”good man,” Sayid has never been able to make peace with his past as a torturer for Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard, as well as the CIA. He’s more than mired in his quagmire; he feels like he deserves it. To quote Joseph Conrad, Sayid is a man infected with a self-mortifying, self-corrupting ”fascination with abomination.”
Sideways Timeline (2004)
“Uncle Sayid” arrives at Nadia’s house (in a yellow cab), carrying a bouquet of yellow roses… Yellow roses symbolize friendship, but the color yellow also means cowardice. Other clear association of Sayid and the color yellow: his T-shirt at the job site in Santo Domingo for Build Our World, when he tried escaping anonymously to a faraway place to get over the death of Nadia and try to be a better person.
Doc Jensen:
He walked up to Nadia’s door and rang the doorbell. This being Lost‘s season of mirrors, we saw his reflection in the glass — but he did not. Instead, Sayid looked right through the vision of himself as he watched Nadia approach and welcome him into her home. It was like we were being shown a window into Sayid’s heart. Inside, we saw an idol. Nadia, his beautiful muse and inspiration for redemption… but also his unreachable standard and reminder of his damnation. In the Sideways world, Nadia doesn’t complete Sayid — she negates him. She is not his constant — she is his scale. Poor Nadia. Sayid told her he didn’t deserve her, and he’s right: no woman should be treated like a reward for being ”a good man,” much like an unapproachable, unattainable goddess.
It is revealed that his one true love is married to his brother, Omer Jarrah. At dinner, Nadia mentions Omer just opened a second shop, which he brushes off and then takes a private “business” call in the other room. While he’s out, Nadia asks whether Sayid got her letters and asks why he didn’t write back (aforementioned cowardice). The kids find boomerangs (Sayid’s life is like one giant boomerang?) from Australia in Sayid’s bag, as well as a photo of Nadia. It seems well-known to everyone that Sayid is still in love with Nadia, even Omer, who is watching this unfold from the other room looking mighty displeased.
Omer wakes up Sayid at 2:30 am (the numbers) and says the man he took a loan from is after him and asks Sayid to help. He knows what Sayid is capable of, and tries blackmailing him using his feelings for Nadia (just as the MIB later uses Nadia to blackmail Sayid into helping him). But Sideways Sayid (sporting Candidate BLUE) insists that he is “not that man anymore”, which was last spoken by Jin in “Ji Yeon”… Coincidentally, Jin and Sayid who both insist they are “not that man anymore”, find themselves in Sideways world wrapped up in shady business deals and violence, respectively.
The scene between Sayid and Omer reminded me of the first (and only other time) we saw Omer… When the two of them were kids, Omer was tasked to kill one of the chickens, but he “chickened” out (coward, “yellow”), so Sayid stepped in and snapped its neck. Seems even in adulthood, Omer still expects Sayid to step in and save him.
Sayid sends the kids off to school (on a big yellow bus!), and Nadia frantically rushes out of the house yelling to Sayid that Omar is in the hospital, seriously injured.
The two arrive at St. Sebastian and pass Jack in the hallway, who is again wearing his Sideways signature Candidate BLUE whilst walking down a blue hallway:
Nadia returns home and Sayid is repairing a vase broken by the children (NOT the same vase as his yellow flowers were in, I had to check!)
They talk about why Sayid pushed Nadia towards Omer, and Sayid explains that he has spent 12 years dealing with his guilt for all the horrible things he has done and that he can not be with Nadia because he does not deserve her. He is atoning for his sins… But it doesn’t last long, because the very next morning, the OTHER Omar (spelled differently, one of Keamy’s mercenary friends from the freighter) shows up in a BLACK SUV. Sidenote: Sayid passes a minivan bearing the exact same license plate number as Jack’s off-island Jeep (2SAQ321).
Interesting that Keamy and Omar work together whether the island exists or not. They take Sayid to Keamy at same restaurant kitchen Naomi took Miles to recruit him to join the Kahana in ”Some Like It Hoth“
A big deal is made about Keamy frying some eggs (also yellow): Fried, scrambled, or even poached — in his opinion, he can make some very good eggs indeed! Which immediately made me think of the episode, “Eggtown” which opens with Locke frying some eggs in Ben’s house at the barracks. I’m thinking there’s definitely a clue here… In that episode, Locke commented to Ben (being held captive), that they were the only 2 eggs left in the house, and Ben belittles him for not knowing what to do next (coward?). Also in that episode, it is also revealed that Kate is raising baby Aaron. And on the other hand, this could also be a reference to the aforementioned episode (“He’s Our You”) of the Jarrah boys as kids tasked to kill a chicken…eggs… ANYWAY…
Keamy also uses Nadia and the kids to coerce Sayid into paying Omer’s debt. Sayid declines, and ends up doing some fancy moves to kill Omar and the other man and holds Keamy at gunpoint. Keamy suddenly offers to forgive the debt, so I’m guessing Keamy also knows what Sayid is capable of (i.e. his interrogation time in Iraq). Sayid, back in true form, kills Keamy.
Sayid then hears a ruckus in a freezer, where Jin is being held captive, and says in Korean: “Don’t Kill me. Please. Let me live.”
Jin and Sayid are ALSO wearing Sideways Candidate BLUE, which supports what I was saying last week that blue means Jacob’s still-viable candidates are surrounded in it, on-island, and in Sideways world (Jack and Jin)… BUT only until they are taken over by the MIB (Sawyer, Sayid, Locke).
Island Timeline (2007)
Sayid barges into Dogen’s chambers while Dogen calmly reads a book, “Deep River” – Shusaku Endo’s 1993 novel about four Japanese tourists on a trip to India, which is interrupted by the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Ghandi. Each of these tourists goes to India for different purposes with different expectations, and each finds their own spiritual discovery on the banks of the Ganges River.
Sayid asks about the tests he was put though, and Dogen tells him that for every man there is a scale and on one side of the scale there is good and on the other side evil (Dogen is wearing a black glove on his evil hand, while his good hand remains white). The machine tells them how the scale is balanced and Sayid’s scale tipped “the wrong way.” Kinda like the scale in Jacob’s cave, when the MIB tossed the white stone in the ocean and the scale tipped “the wrong way”… BLACK.
It should be noted, though, that Dogen didn’t say ”tipped toward evil”… Should we be wondering if Lost wanted to invite debate what the ”right way” might be?
Egyptian Book of the Dead: A writing of Egyptian origin that described their belief of the afterlife and the trials that awaited the deceased. One of the trials, conducted by the jackal-headed god Anubis, involved weighing the deceased’s heart on the scale of Maat, counterbalanced by the feather of Truth. Only if the heart was lighter than the feather (i.e. not weighed down with evil) could the soul move to the reward of the afterlife.
Dogen is about to stab Sayid in the throat but is distracted by his baseball which has fallen to the floor and has a moment to reflect. We find out in another scene that the baseball belonged to his son and reminds Dogen of taking him to practice off-island. Also, as I mentioned in my past recap for “What Kate Does”… In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the commander of the station (Benjamin Sisko), used to have a baseball prominently placed on his desk throughout the entire run of the show. In the pilot episode, he used the baseball as a metaphor to explain the nature of linear time to the inhabitants of the wormhole, who experienced time all at once…
The MIB is standing just outside of the circle of ash with Crazy Claire (FUN FACT:”Sundowning” is another term for dementia), convincing her to deliver Dogen a message because he cannot do it himself. He uses Aaron to coax her into implementing his plans, just as he later uses Nadia to coax Sayid, and previously used a ticket off of the island to coax Sawyer. I wonder if the MIB is merely promising a ticket to Sideways world. Plus, all of these exchanges remind me of the Serpent in the story of Adam + Eve, which was of course alluded to last week when Jack and Hurley came across the Adam + Eve skeletons in the caves on their trek to the Tree (er, Lighthouse) of Life…
Wikipedia:
Genesis 3 introduces the Serpent, “slier than every beast of the field.” The serpent tempts the woman to eat from the tree of knowledge, telling her that it will not lead to death; she succumbs, and gives the fruit to the man, who eats also, “and the eyes of the two of them were opened.” Aware now of their nakedness, they make coverings of fig leaves, and hide from the sight of God. God asks them about what they have done. Adam blames Eve, and Eve blames the serpent. God curses the snake (which must have been able to walk before this since vs 14 says “upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.”) God then curses Adam and Eve with hard labor and with pain in childbirth, and banishes them from his garden, setting a cherub at the gate to bar their way to the Tree of Life, ”lest he put out his hand … and eat, and live forever.”
Claire delivers the message that “He” would like to speak to Dogen. Dogen knows as soon as he steps outside the circle of ash, MIB would kill him. MIB knew he’d say this, so Claire suggests sending someone he won’t kill. Dogen first asks for Shephard and Reyes, because apparently the MIB cannot kill Jacob’s Candidates. Sayid, formerly a Candidate, will have to suffice. Now taken over by the “darkness”, Dogen knows he is no longer protected and sending him is a death trap. He gives Sayid a ceremonial dagger, prattling on about the MIB being “evil incarnate” (the Serpent) and this is Sayid’s chance to redeem himself and prove he is still “good”. Just like the MIB’s trickery, Dogen plays to Sayid’s weakness to coerce him into killing the MIB, but on his own free will.
On his way to meet the MIB, Sayid meets Kate in the jungle and tells her to ask Miles about what’s going on. We then see Miles playing Solitaire, which appears to be a nod to the Sayid-centric episode “Solitary” from season 1, where we first find out about Sayid’s torturing past and his feelings for Nadia. Sayid’s true love tells him in the interrogation room that he was ”pretending to be something I know you’re not.” After Sayid orchestrated her escape, Nadia fled after writing a message on a picture of herself in Sayid’s dossier: ”You will find me in the next life, if not in this one.”
There is rustling all around Sayid in the jungle, the smoke monster sounds are heard, and then the MIB appears as Locke. Sayid was told to stab him before he spoke, but the MIB managed to say “Hello Sayid” before being stabbed in the heart. Despite this being the same method that the MIB used (via Ben) to kill Jacob, it didn’t work on MIB. This may be because the MIB was allowed to speak before he was stabbed… It may also be because the MIB is a different entity than Jacob was (as he does commonly shape-shift to the smoke monster, and used to take the form of other people – Christian, Alex, Yemi, etc.) It appears the MIB cannot be killed in the conventional sense. AND when he removes the dagger and hands it back to Sayid, it’s the same exact camera angle and motions of when Jacob was conspicuously touching his Candidates…
The MIB says he wants Sayid to deliver a message and offers Sayid anything he wants, anything in the entire world, to do so. Sayid replies that the only thing he ever wanted died in his arms and that he will never see it again (obviously meaning Nadia, but could also refer to Shannon, who died in his arms after being shot by Ana Lucia in season 2).
Additional references from this Sayid/MIB exchange:
- The Temptation of Christ: After being baptized, Jesus enters the wilderness and is approached by Satan who offers him dominion over the world if he follows him.
- Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith: Anakin is told he will be able to save Padme if he converts to the Dark Side. Anakin’s first act as a Sith is to go to the Jedi temple and to kill the younglings.
The MIB seals the deal by rhetorically asking Sayid “What if you could?” in response to an impossible hope. It mirrors what Desmond asked Jack in regard to fixing Sarah’s spine. In both timelines Sayid is asked by someone to kill another person. In the Sideways timeline he refuses but is forced to do it, while on the island he agrees to do it but is unable to… So, accepting the challenge, Sayid publicly announces to the Temple-dwellers that Jacob is dead and because he is gone none of the Temple dwellers have to stay here anymore. He says that the Man is leaving the island forever and that those who want to go with him should join him before “sundown” and be saved, or stay and die. The final plague in the Bible talks of God sending the Angel of Death to Egypt and would kill the firstborns, but would pass over those who stayed true to Him and obeyed him. (Passover)
Sayid says he is returning Dogen’s dagger, and we hear about Dogen’s past off-island life as a successful banker with a drinking problem, who killed his son in a car accident. But Jacob magically appeared and offered him a bargain: His son could be saved, but only if Dogen would come to the island and work and never see the boy again. This is similar to Juliet’s deal in which she came to the Island to find a cure for her sister’s cancer, but was unable to leave the Island afterward. By contrast, the MIB offers Sayid the opportunity to not only bring the woman he lost back from the dead, but to be with her again. Sayid notes to Dogen that Jacob drives a hard bargain… I think this was supposed to be a bit snarky, since he realizes that Jacob makes people SACRIFICE for the ones they love, while the MIB does not.
At any rate, Sayid keeps up his end of the bargain with MIB by killing Dogen, ironically in the same way Dogen’s men killed Sayid trying to SAVE him. And we are left to wonder: (1) how was Dogen’s presence (alive) keeping the MIB out, despite the circle of ash? and (2) will Dogen come back to life, taken over by “darkness” as well, or is it only Jacob’s Candidates?
Kate forces Lennon to let her speak with Claire. Claire is sitting in the pit being creepy and singing “Catch a Falling Star”, which has apparently become Aaron’s official theme song throughout the series. The song also later plays as Claire, Kate, and Sayid walk through the Temple after Smokey attacks, as rain begins to fall, surveying the damage. Jacob’s efforts to “catch” those falling souls appeared to have been in vain, as they are now on the side of the MIB, entranced by his false (?) promises.
And with that, I think we know why the color RED was so prevalent at the Temple… They were setting Jacob’s followers up to be a mass of “redshirts”… Refusing to join the MIB by sundown by staying true to Jacob, most of them incurred the wrath of Smokey. The Temple massacre reminds me a lot of the Purge, initiated by Richard and Ben against the Dharma folks using poisonous gas.
As Sayid walks through and surveys the carnage, a structure that looks like a cross is seen burning, which is sacrilege to Christians, and I think supports the longstanding theory that the MIB represents the Serpent/Satan.
Finding the secret passageway that Jacob described to Hurley, Ilana leads Miles, Sun, Lapidus, and Ben to safety, and they escape Smokey unscathed. The symbol on the door (which we first saw last week when Jacob told Hurley about it, and I forgot to look up!)… is a Shen Ring, an ancient Egyptian symbol of eternity and protection, with shen literally meaning “encircle”. The symbol could be stretched to contain other objects (ahem, the ring of ash), which were then understood as being eternally protected by the Shen Ring. In ancient Egypt, the Shen Ring also represents dual concepts of time; the cyclic line of periodicity and lineal time (into infinity). The Shen Ring is most often seen carried by the falcon god Horus (Goodspeed)… Oh and Nadia was wearing a very Shen-like necklace…
At the end, we see the MIB leading his newly-assembled team of Jacob’s former followers and Candidates out in the jungle, hence beginning the war that we’ve been constantly told is coming. Ilana, Miles, Sun, Lapidus, Jack, Hurley, Jin, and Ben comprise Team Jacob, which is actually pretty ironic since Ben was the one who killed Jacob.
Doc Jensen:
Remember earlier when I talked about how Saul saw Jesus, was blinded with scales, and then three days later the scales fell off and he could see clearly again? From that day forward, Saul became a new creation. He called himself Paul. Now, check this out. Remember before the season began, when ABC released a trio of images that had the cast of Lost replicating Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting of The Last Supper? According to tradition, Jesus’ final meal with his disciples occurred on Thursday evening. The next day, on ’’Good Friday,’’ Christ was crucified. Jesus was taken off the cross at sundown (although it had been oddly dark all day) and placed into a tomb. From there, the Christian messiah, God’s only begotten son, is said to have descended into hell to give Satan the finger. Sundown. Son Down. Now, think back to the season premiere, ’’LA X.’’ The castaways arrived back on the Island in the evening. Last night’s episode was the first time we’ve seen evening on the Island since then, and based on what we’ve seen, I think it’s safe to say that only one day has passed since Team Jughead was uploaded to Island 2007. Oh, and in case you weren’t keeping track, Lost’s last season is now one-third complete. Six hours of Lost 6.0 = 1 day on the Island. 18 hours on Lost 6.0 = 3 days. If we say that ’’LA X’’ was Maundy Thursday, and if ’’Sundown’’ was Good Friday, then will the show’s final hour be… Easter Sunday. And you know what happened on Easter? Resurrection. I’m telling you, folks, Alpha, the god of beginnings is coming back to balance the scales, but this time he’ll be wearing a whole new body, because he’s going to be a whole new creation: the resurrected John Locke.
With so many references to GOOD and BAD (especially in this episode) when talking about MIB and Jacob, I almost think that having it so clear-cut (Jacob = good and MIB = bad) means there’s going to be a twist. I think they’re throwing us off… And this seems to be pretty spot on:
Doc Jensen:
Think about the wondrous things associated with Jacob. Richard’s eternal youth. The resurrection hot spring. And, if you believe Ben from season 3, a cure for cancer. Jacob isn’t ”good,” per se — he’s just capable of giving life. Put another way: Jacob is the god of beginnings. He is The Alpha. The Man in Black? Not evil — he’s the god of endings. He is the Omega. The beginning and the end. Polar, warring opposites, but absolutely necessary for life to bloom (Alpha) and to have form (Omega). Both are necessary for anything to have meaning. Jacob unchecked leads to chaos; Man In Black unchecked leads to annihilation. Both need to exist in balance; both need to be equally weighted rocks on the scale.
Leave comments and feel free to share… Thanks for reading!
Jen / desmondismyconstant.
4 Comments so far
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I am rooting for the Smoke Monster. The hell with Jacob. He struck me as a little bit of a bitch anyway. Nice job on the recap.
Comment by John M. Solt March 4, 2010 @ 6:14 pmhaha, yes clearly MIB is the bigger bad ass
Comment by desmondismyconstant March 4, 2010 @ 6:17 pmWhat about that very long, odd look Locke/MIB gave Kate when she emerged from the compound? Didn’t seem he expected to see her. I wonder if she’s really part of his new team (albeit accidently) or will have to be dealt with since she wasn’t supposed to have survived.
Comment by Joy March 5, 2010 @ 2:37 pmi agree, there was a very odd look between them… i think hers was of surprise to see locke alive (that’s the first she’s run into the MIB posing as locke)… i have a feeling kate might go along with all of this in the beginning because her friends (sayid, claire, sawyer) are following this guy. i’m excited to see how this plays out!
Comment by desmondismyconstant March 5, 2010 @ 8:01 pm