Follow along! The episode guide for “The Greater Good” is in Finding Lost, pp. 132-135.The second Sayid flashback is a sad one, and the one that shows us he didn’t originally have a ticket for Flight 815 – he’d had his ticket changed from September 21 to September 22, putting him on the ill-fated island. Jacob must've had a hand in things…
Fun things I noticed:
• I always find it amusing that when people are tracking others in the jungle, they find such OBVIOUS things. It’s not like a footprint or a cracked branch. It’s more like, “Oh look, his left shoe! I have found A CLUE…”
• Again, hats off to Terry O’Quinn. When Locke shows up at Shannon’s funeral, he does so because he doesn’t want to hide from everyone, yet notice how he fails to complete a single sentence: here is the transcript:
It was my fault. We found a plane, a Beechcraft, in the jungle. It was lodged in the canopy so -- I would have gone up, but I -- my leg was hurt so he -- there was a radio inside and he thought he could -- look, his weight must have made the plane shift and it fell -- and -- it happened because he was trying to help us. He was a hero.
• Nice way to help Shannon lay her brother to rest… first, the “killer” shows up trying to explain what happened, and then an exhausted and delirious Jack tackles him like a linebacker.
• I remember being a Mama Bear just like Claire right after my first baby was born… my first day home from the hospital (which was the day after I had my child), I had this weird anxiety that would wash over me when anyone else was holding her. I guess after nine months of carrying this child, the thought of being separated from her for even an instant was too much to take. Which brings me to Sun’s comment, that in the hospital the nurses take your baby and give you sleep. Not if the hospital subscribes to the attachment parenting concept, which mine did. In that case, the baby never leaves your side and the nurses do not take care of things for you. I remember the first night with my daughter, where I could barely move, and the nurse came in, looked at the baby and said, “Oh, her diaper needs changing,” and then walked out of the room. That was a bit of a downside, but the upside was, I was never separated from her for an instant. When I finally realized it was just too painful to keep getting out of the bed to get her, I simply grabbed her and pulled her into bed with me for the first of many, many nights. A nurse showed up an hour later and without saying anything, just smiling, tucked a pillow behind her just in case I fell asleep that way.
• I love O’Quinn, I love John Locke. But since the first time I saw this episode, I’ve always thought, Geez, John, couldn’t you have changed your shirt before talking to Shannon? Going and talking to the mourning sister while wearing a shirt covered in her brother’s blood is just kind of… tacky.
• My heart always breaks when Sayid convinces Essam to go ahead and do this. Wah. I loved that character.
• Sawyer on Aaron: “I liked that thing a lot better inside than I like it outside.” Ha!
Things that have new meaning:
• Sayid has always been a character who straddles that fate versus free will fence, and here Essam’s friend believes in fate, and Sayid smiles. But he knows that it’s not fate, and that he was set up to be there. Or… was it fate that the CIA found him and put him in this position?
• Speaking of which, I’ve always wondered how the CIA knew anything about Nadia. How did they know he loved her? He tortured her, and then convinced the Republican Guard that she shot him on the way out. Then he leaves the Guard a while later and starts looking for her, silently. How would anyone know?
• Locke says he knows what it’s like to lose family. What does he mean? Is he referring to losing his foster mother? The commune from “Further Instructions,” whom he says in that episode is closer to a real family than he’s ever had?
• Is it possible that Shannon never dropped her grudge against Locke and the island killed her to keep him safe?
