"Sundown"

Oh, wow. I feel pretty depressed and downright icky right now... because it seems like in the Island battle for good and evil, one of our favorites has chosen the dark side.

Or has he?

I admit, it's driving me a little crazy these days trying to figure out what's what on LOST. Who's good and, in the immortal words of Michael Jackson, "Who's bad?"

I'll get back to that in a second, first a few episode highlights:

Sayid Kicks A@@
I'm wondering if it's in Naveen's contract that he always gets to have some good action scenes. I counted one, two, THREE of them in tonight's hour... and it's always great fun to watch Sayid take somebody down. (The best is still his leg-flipping move that freaked Hurley out back on the beach in late Season 4? 3? 4, I think.) Tonight, we saw our favorite former Republican Guard member getting his aggression out...in a good furniture-crashing fight with Dogen - cut short by Dogen being brought back to Earth by his son's baseball, followed by.... a shoot out with Keamy and the gang!, followed by... another takedown with Dogen, and then Lennon, in both cases fatal.

How great was Michael Emerson's reaction, by the way? Ben knows something is very seriously dark in Sayid now - whether it's the so-called sickness or just Sayid letting go of the good parts of himself.

Sayid's LA Story
Oh, these flash sideways scenes... do they make any more sense? Are they more than just a rewrite of what happens in their lives without the influence of Jacob / the Island / MIB? Is it something they get to choose, a Faustian bargain, LOST-style?

It sure seems like Flocke offered Sayid a chance to have Nadia back...like Dogen said Jacob made him an offer he couldn't refuse... but you just know these offers aren't going to be all they are cracked up to be. Is that how Sayid ends up being Nadia's brother-in-law, twisted and full of regret for pushing her towards his shady brother? In the alt/LA storyline, he's clearly a man suffering with his own duality, trying to find redemption by living as a good man after his terrible past. But, when pushed, he pushes back -- hence the 2nd death scene for Keamy on LOST.

And how to explain 2004 Jin in the freezer? I'm guessing he was still a rising gangster and got in bad with Keamy, just like Omar Jarrah.

Claire and Kate, BFFs No More
Well, that didn't take long... how's that for season 6 pacing? Claire's been reunited with the group, Kate told her the truth about Aaron, Claire gave her a creepy evil laugh yet still saved her from Smokey's wrath. Or is she just waiting until later... when she can take down Kate herself?

The Love Fest Continues
I'm still gaga over Terry O'Quinn's work these days. Just a simple crook of an eyebrow, or smirk, or inflection of his voice is all it takes to show the fire and the intent of whatever's going on in Flocke's head. I tell ya, I would not want to be on the receiving end of his grimace when he saw Kate joining his merry band of new recruits (including Cindy and the kids!). Yikes. Like many of us, it seems he is NOT a Kate fan.

Good versus Evil
Dogen called Flocke "evil incarnate" - but is he? When oh when will we find out???

Both Jacob and Flocke seem to have done some bad, bad things. Just tonight, Flocke / Smokey took out everyone at the Temple, which is just a drop in the bucket in terms of his body count. But what of Jacob? His influence in others' (and Others') lives doesn't seem to be completely altruistic... Nadia's dead, and the Others certainly killed a lot of people in his name. And what about the Purge? Was that all Ben's doing, or Jacob's prodding?

So far, it feels like Jacob's the good guy - because he wears white? because we heard of him first? because BEN of all people followed him and said "we're the good guys"? Because of all of this talk about how his death has set Smokey free? Well, what kind of proof is that? Maybe neither of them are good or bad...

But, as I said, tonight's episode felt like a really dark turn, as Sayid made his choice for the one that seems the more malevolent of the two. Sawyer's following Flocke too, but so far I don't think he's made as much of an informed choice as Sayid - who has now killed for him, and for the chance to see Nadia again.

Other Thoughts
Random thought.... what if the Island is actually looking for TWO candidates, to take the places of both Jacob and the MIB? If that's the case, then I'm totally calling Jack and Sawyer.

By the way, just based on the title "Sundown," I was totally gearing up for a Sun/Jin episode tonight... so having a Sayid-centric hour was a real surprise. Yet another reason why I'm glad I don't read episode details or predictions. But, the long-awaited Jin and Sun reunion can't be that far off - now that Miles let Sun know that Jin's around somewhere.

And -- the promos for the scenes from next week had a voiceover that made me really angry. Either they spoiled something really huge, or they wrote a terrible tease that won't come to pass. I hope the latter, but then that means the promo writers just suck. IMHO of course.

Your thoughts? Were you as upset by this turn for Sayid as I was?

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