I received some questions from long-time reader Fazel from Amsterdam, who recently finished watching Episode 5×10 He’s Our You.
I was watching ep 5×10 (Sayid-centric) last week and I think I noticed some screw-ups in the script. But I want to run it by you, the Lost expert, first.
Sayid reacts to kid-Ben when he first introduced himself and then later on tells someone (Sawyer?) that he had met a kid-Ben in 1974(?). Now, tell me this… How the hell could he know that? Let alone even believe such a thing (he hadn’t seen the same evidence as the other Losties, thus his convincing was poor). The guy was separated from the other Losties, he was never on their journey of information and discovery. In fact, did he even participate in the meet of Hawkins? Didn’t he leave before they all went inside to meet her?
Had anyone even briefed him about time traveling and 1974? The first thing that seemed to have happened to him when crashed (he was there on his own and not on the plan of returning, thus makes him poorly informed) was being captured by Jin and Radzinsky. Their hadn’t been an opportunity to bring him up to speed up to that point, but yet he seemed very updated and convinced of these revelations (despite seeing little proof of it).
What do you say? =)
I was looking on YouTube for a clip of the scene where Jin saw Sayid in the jungle — and I saw that Disney recently pulled most of the clips for that episode off of YouTube! Boo! I hope that doesn’t leave too many holes in the archives of this blog and all the other LOST blogs, because we’ve all relied heavily in the past on embedding those clips.
Anyway there are just a few little clip-lets left. Here is where Jin sees Sayid in the jungle (this is from 5×09 Namaste):
The clip ends right at the point where Jin and Sayid recognize each other, so it doesn’t show how long they were alone together before Radzinsky shows up. As I remember it, though, they didn’t have very much time.
Even if there wasn’t enough time for Jin to say anything to Sayid, I think Sayid would figure it out. He must have thought that Jin had died in the freighter explosion. Yet there was Jin, alive, and wearing a Dharma jumpsuit!
In this next clip-let, Sawyer, Jin, and Radzinsky are bringing Sayid back to Dharmaville. Sayid sees Kate, Jack, and Hurley, who he last saw on Flight 316 — and they too are wearing Dharma jumpsuits! So he must just put two and two together to figure out that he is in the past. And as soon as Little Ben says his name, a lightbulb must have gone off in Sayid’s head.
Yet another inquiry. In the same ep as above, Sayid tells Dharma: “I know about, the hatch, swan, ‘the incident…’” etc. Now, I know that the season finale is named that and is about that, but I wondered where he got that information from. All the things he said, we the viewer had seen them too with Sayid. But the incident? When was this brought to Sayid’s attention?
I appreciate if you enlightened me without spoiling the finale
That’s another great scene whose clip I had linked to earlier that is now gone from YouTube (grumble grumble). Only this little clip-let remains:
I think that when Sayid said “the incident,” he was not seeing the future, not seeing “the incident” that will be shown in the Finale. I would guess he meant either (1) The “purge” that wiped out the Dharma Initiative (did the Losties learn about this from Ben??) or (2) What happened when Desmond turned the key at the end of Season 2.
I envy you not having seen the Finale yet, because you have a big treat to look forward to!
Hehe, as always, I appreciate your help.
About putting two and two together… I wouldn’t think that concluding to time travel would enter any sane person’s mind (especially someone of that culture) =) Hehe. I will put this in the “badly executed” bin of Lost’s. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great show, but it has some weak spots and this is sadly one of them.
Yeah, looking towards the finale, then the last season ever… Oh boy!
Btw, I hope it’s ok that I keep coming back to this site and asking questions every once in a while?
PS. Where should I go next time I want to pose a question? I see no “post your question here” tab.
I was thinking that — that a sane person in a normal world would never just assume that he had time traveled to the past. But the LOST Island is not a sane or normal place!! Think of all the crazy things Sayid has already been through! After seeing a paralyzed man walk, polar bears romping through a tropical jungle, and a smoke monster, how much crazier would it be to travel to the past? 😉
No question that LOST has some holes, but I don’t think this is necessarily one of them.
The Finale is great — actually all the episodes ahead of you, from 5×11 on, are fantastic!
I like answering once-in-a-while questions, so fire away!
Best place to post them is in the comments section of a post relating to the episode that you are talking about. There’s a gap in my blog from when I moved it over from my old host (I may try filling in that gap over the summer), but starting with 5×11, there is at least one post for every episode — see the Category list in the far-right sidebar to find them.
So sad that there is only one more season left!
Great questions and great answers. 🙂
Thanks, laneerg =)
Thanks, laneerg. 🙂
P.S. To Fazel — I was just thinking you had a really good idea about having a “post your questions here” tab. I’m going to set one up.
It’s there! Look up! Right over Kate’s head! 😉
That was a good idea. 🙂
Yeah. Thanks, Fazel!
=)
“that a sane person in a normal world would never just assume that he had time traveled to the past. But the LOST Island is not a sane or normal place!!”
Haha, I KNEW that you would reply with this. But the thing is… no one ever acknowledges that there are “fishy” things going on on the island. Which makes for many people being in the dark. Besides, 100+ days (which is how much time they had spent on the island) on the Island is not enough time to absorb and devote oneself to the craziness of the Island.
Heck, 4 seasons in and people were still acting like the smoke monster was nothing to be in awe of, especially after the revealing of it should’ve induced more awe. And the fact of the matter is that no one has ever accumulated all the weird things going on on the island in one place or the mind of one person. Jack has seen his father’s “ghost” since s1 and he has never told anyone. Locke’s encounter with Jacob or his recovery (lately he has revealed the latter to some, although who would believe loonie-Locke?). They are always keeping secrets from each other, even when it hasn’t been necessary. Locke is the only person of the Losties that knows that Richard Alpert has looked the same for many years, the rest doesn’t know (Ben doesn’t count, as he is no Lostie). So really, not a lot of these characters knows about the wacky stuff that has been going on in the island, it has only been revealed to us viewers.
Even if, despite all of that, just because you have something crazy doesn’t mean you can buy in to the more crazy stuff. I mean, fine, you have a weird scientific invention that kills people and is chased away by some subsonic device. But does that mean that you are immediately convinced when someone claims you are timetraveling? And just because a kid presents himself as simply “Ben”. That’s a pretty big leap. What about if someone says: we can jump to different realities. Should and would you buy that as easily? And if you think about it, the only “supernatural” thing going on on the Island is the “smoke monster”.It is one thing to say: “it is possible to time travel”, but it’s another when you say: “not only is it available for us at this exact moment and get access to it, but we have in fact already time traveled”.
“After seeing a paralyzed man walk”
When did Sayid see that? Or when did he get evidence of this? Why would he even stake that much thought or conviction to something that happened to someone else, someone he is at odds with since s2/s3? Something he has no evidence of. Besides, I am not even sure that Sayid knows. Again, we are back to that they keep secrets from each other all the time. I think Locke revealed to Jack in s4 or s5 that he used to be paralyzed. Even then, I think that Jack would and should take it with a grain of salt, coming from Locke and all and Jack being Jack.
“how much crazier would it be to travel to the past?”
Hehe, that’s leaps and bounds crazier =)
Let me also add this: “Ben” is a very common name. So even Sayid’s shock was illogical and unrealistic. The scene would’ve been so much better if he had presented himself as “Ben Linus”, rather than the common “Ben”. There is a reason we have last names and not just go by first names.
PS. Sorry for the long post, I find it to be a good debate.
Put aside, for the moment, all the stuff that happened in the first 3 seasons, and just think of Seasons 4 and 5.
At the end of Season 4, Sayid was in the helicopter leaving the Island. He saw the freighter explode, killing (everyone believed) Jin. Remember when Sun was crying? And then Sayid saw the Island disappear! It went bloop!
That’s pretty supernatural! Islands don’t just disppear in normal life. 😉
And the Oceanic Six KNEW that it was weird — so weird that they believed they could never tell anyone because no one would ever believe them. They already knew that the whole world thought that Flight 815 was under the ocean. The truth was just too weird, so they had to make up their elaborate lie.
Then, 3 years later, Sayid gets kidnapped by a strange woman. She takes him on a plane (I think he was handcuffed to her at this point) that is flying to Guam. On the plane, he sees all his old Lostie buddies, plus Frank Lapidus, plus Ben. Not normal!!
Then, when the plane is at 30,00 feet or whatever, there is a bright flash, and in the next moment, he is on the Island. The plane didn’t land, it didn’t crash (yet) — he just went straight from 30,000 feet to the ground in a instant — in normal life, that kind of fall would take much longer, plus it would kill you. And where did he end up? On an Island he had seen disappear.
Then he sees Jin, who was dead, as far as he knew. And Jin is wearing the uniform of a group that went out of existence decades before.
If I were Sayid, at this point I would be thinking, “Ok. Time travel. Whatever.” 😉
As far as “Ben” being a common name — first off, there weren’t that many people in Dharmaville, and second off, this is the kind of thing where I just voluntarily suspend disbelief. 😉 There is only one Ben in the whole world, as far as we, the viewers of LOST, are concerned. 😉
“At the end of Season 4, Sayid was in the helicopter leaving the Island. He saw the freighter explode, killing (everyone believed) Jin. Remember when Sun was crying? And then Sayid saw the Island disappear! It went bloop!”
Ah, but that is why I said specifically “4 seasons in”, that is still a lot of seasons of not seeing supernatural. And the end of s4 doesn’t exclude the totality of s4 not having that. The thing about Jin dying is no issue at all. They thought he died, he didn’t. It’s not like they saw him die with certainty.
“That’s pretty supernatural! Islands don’t just disppear in normal life.”
Then you haven’t been in some of the cool islands I’ve been to =)
“And the Oceanic Six KNEW that it was weird”
Yes, they knew it was weird (although barely anyone acknowledging it), but time traveling is not just weird, it’s MIND-BLOWING! It’s inconceivable. Some even say, it’s impossible!
“The truth was just too weird, so they had to make up their elaborate lie.”
Actually, I thought that the “lie” at the end of s4 was one of Lost’s biggest mistakes. It was poorly thought out. I mean, who said that they should’ve told anyone about the supernatural stuff? There is still a story to tell about what happened at the Island, what was there, what transpired there, who was there, Dharma etc. By creating this lie, from the writers, they cheated us out of one of the most anticipated stories originating from the show: what would happen if/when they get away from the Island and get to talk with the outside world? How would the outside people react? How would the losties react to their reaction? That was once one of the lures of the show.
Plus, didn’t Ben reveal in s2/s3 that every Oceanic passenger had been counted for at the bottom of the ocean (Widmore had arranged this)? Thus no one searched for them. Thus begs the questions why no journalists asks: “wait a minute, all passengers were accounted for, your bodies has been confirmed found and dead months ago! who are you people? Where did you come from?”
“On the plane, he sees all his old Lostie buddies, plus Frank Lapidus, plus Ben. Not normal!”
That still doesn’t equal believing someone so easily when they claim to be timetraveling. Not one single “wait a minute… Let me see if I get this straight” or “you’re crazy”, something! Lets not even forget that I originally brought up that Sayid never even got the briefing, apparently he put 2+2 (as you said), but that makes it even more ludicrous!
“And Jin is wearing the uniform of a group that went out of existence decades before.”
Uh, he was gone for three years and he knows it’s a strange place with strange people, so anything could’ve happened during those absent three years. You are implying that time travel is the most logical or the next theory that should come to Sayid, sorry, but that doesn’t fly one bit. We come to the same argument: THAT doesn’t equate jumping to conclusions about time-travel. No matter how weird the island was. Time travel is beyond weird. It’s a whole another league.
“If I were Sayid, at this point I would be thinking, “Ok. Time travel. Whatever.””
LOL! That’s because you are a viewer and you really are not putting yourself in your own shoes in such an event (not that event can and will ever happen). You are taking the very fictional approach of imagining how you would react.
Plus, not only are the reasons above sufficient enough to point out how lazy writing that was, you can’t ignore his background. The guy comes from Iraq, a very religious country. Even if Sayid has never exhibited any religious “ideas”, he is still from that culture. As they say; we are products of our times/environment [with all that entails]. I would think he would act with venomous denial. It’s not like the American guy who has been raised with BTTF and fantasy stories about timetravel, superheroes etc and would (as you even pointed out) probably act: “cool”. Even then, it’s not just an issue of Sayid believing it too easily, but the guy thought of it himself. Which makes for super-duper ludicrous. So not one, but two faults lies here!
“And Jin is wearing the uniform of a group that went out of existence decades before.”
Well, maybe Jin was buttnaked after three years and had to take what was lying around. Did you think that Sayid could come up with that smarty pants? LOL! Kidding =)
“As far as “Ben” being a common name — first off, there weren’t that many people in Dharmaville”
How would Sayid know that? It’s not like he had a manifest of the Dharma personnel in the past or present. Besides, it’s still a common name. I’ve been in classrooms where we’ve had 2-3 “Erics”, “Johans” or “Marias”. I’m sure you’ve had to. And that still doesn’t justify how he can conclude towards “hmm, I guess that there was only one Ben in Dharma, thus it must be him! But wait, he is a kid here, that must mean… I AM TIMETRAVELING! HELL YEAH!”. Hehe.
“and second off, this is the kind of thing where I just voluntarily suspend disbelief.”
I can do that too. That is not the issue. It’s about it didn’t take a lot of effort to put a “Linus” in to that to make a scene more “efficient”. It creates for a scene that could’ve gone better. Why would you want to settle for less? Especially when the better is so easy and close. They went with the “oh, the audience knows, we’ve only got one Ben!”. That is the execution of all things good.
“There is only one Ben in the whole world, as far as we, the viewers of LOST, are concerned. ;)”
Hehe, and that is the thing, you are too much in the viewers frame of mind: “it’s for us viewers”. But when you make a show or film, you have to make a story that works on every level without having to rely on the “fourth wall”. It becomes inherently cheap, cause basically it is knocking on the wall between us and saying “*wink wink* We write just ‘Ben’, cause you viewers know we mean our Ben, and that is and should be enough for the viewer and the material”. That can’t be taken seriously and shouldn’t, cause something lesser comes from it.
Is there a way to get a preview function on this site? That would help.
Hi, Fazel.
Sayid grew up in Saddam-era Iraq, which was not as religious a country as it is now. Saddam was a secular, not a religious, dictator.
Certainly Saddam clamped down on intellectual freedom, but Sayid went to college in Cairo, he spoke English, he might have had access to black-market books — and he lived in Paris (for several years??) after leaving Iraq.
Also we have never seen him pray. Whether he had a crisis of faith after the war, or whether he had never been religious, even as a child, I don’t know.
The role of religion in LOST is a huge, fascinating question, that I keep on planning on tackling some day, but it’s almost overwhelming, because there is so much to write about …
As for the rest, in my opinion, time travel is no stranger than seeing a whole Island disappear, or being transported — literally in a flash — from an airplane to the ground. So we just disagree on that. 😉
I do look at it as a viewer, because that’s what I am. 😉 What I look for in a story, especially one as unrealistic as this, is dramatic truth, more than I look for literal truth.
For example, if Little Ben were to have said, “My name is Benjamin Linus,” then, as you said, it would be more logical that Sayid would be so sure that this kid was a past version of the Linus he already knew.
But I think dramatically, the scene would have been weaker that way. Kids usually introduce themsleves by their first name only, so it might strike a jarring note if Little Ben introduced himself formally, using both names. It might pull us, the viewers, out of the story.
Also, if he had said “I am Benjamin Linus,” it would have deprived us of that split second, after he said “I am Ben,” where we — just like Sayid! –put 2 and 2 together.
These little surprises — where it takes a beat to catch on — are one of my favorite things about the show, and I wouldn’t want to give them up, even for more realism.
Cheers!
P.S. Good idea to have a comment preview/editing feature. That may take some tinkering, though, so I’ll put it on my (virtual) list of things to look at over the summer.
I do agree that the whole plotline about the Oceanic 6’s “lie” seemed far-fetched. It would have been easier for the Losites if they had just told the truth, and let people believe them or not, as they wished. The “lie” seemed like something the writers needed to have to keep the story going along a certain path.
Hi Terri. Sorry for the delay.
Sure, Saddam wasn’t a religious dictator, but the majority of the people in the country abide to the religion of Islam. So it does of course influence the way they live and think, even if they do not abide to it themselves. And from what I’ve gathered, the small minority of Christians that are there are persecuted. So if you are persecuted for following another religion, I wonder what they would do to someone who would state they do not follow any religion at all. Aka. would Sayid have made it out alive? LOL!
But I have to admit that I don’t know that a lot about Sayid’s past. It’s a bit sketchy.
Btw, is Iraq more religious now than it was under Saddam’s rule? I would’ve thought: no.
Of course you look at it as a viewer, but they shouldn’t make the show from that basis. Neither should you expect or want them to.
You can’t have both “literal truth” and “dramatic truth”? Especially when it would be easy to aquire both? Dramatic truth doesn’t mean anything if it is done with soapy tools and setups. Aka. “I’m Ben” scene= concluding time-travel. Hehe.
“But I think dramatically, the scene would have been weaker that way. Kids usually introduce themsleves by their first name only, so it might strike a jarring note if Little Ben introduced himself formally, using both names. It might pull us, the viewers, out of the story.”
LOL! I thought the exact opposite. What you gain from the full name outweighs any negative. The negative as it is now being: “Hi, my name is Ben”. Sayid’s thought: “OH MY GOD, I am gonna jump to an asinine conclusion just based on your very common first name: you are Ben Linus! I am in the past!!!”. Nah.
Besides, “Ben Linus” really rolls of your tongue. The full name “Benjamin” isn’t neccessary. “Hi, I’m Ben Linus. What’s your name?”. Try it, it sounds so natural =) Also, Ben is supposed to be outgoing and natural in that scene. After all, the guy approaches what he thinks is a hostile in a cell! So not only is the kid all those things, but he also has the guts to approach him and he is also trying to act mature and grown-up (which he is). Present himself full-name would’ve definitely worked. As he was no ordinary kid doing an ordinary thing. Add to it that we knew the kid was obviously Ben (who doesn’t recognize the kid actor? he did a fantastic job the last time!) and it was so obvious that they would bump in to each other in the past (we had seen Horace, Ben’s dad etc up to that point).
“Also, if he had said “I am Benjamin Linus,” it would have deprived us of that split second, after he said “I am Ben,” where we — just like Sayid! –put 2 and 2 together.”
“Ben”, and not “Benjamin” makes all the difference in this argument. Of course no one presents themselves with the full legal name, I am not asking for that! LOL! “Hi, I am Benjamin R. Linus. The “R” stands for Rudolf”= NAH!
Since you said that you look at it from the viewer’s POV, let me ask you this… Weren’t you shocked and surprised like the rest of us when they introduced time travel for the first time in s4? If you did, then that means that it was shocking, despite all the strange things we had seen up to that point. And despite you as a viewer knew more than the characters about the strange and sometimes supernatural events happening on the Island. So if it made you react that way (if I presume correctly), wouldn’t you expect at least that Sayid not only would NOT figure it out by himself, but instead that someone tells him and he reluctantly believes it?
The topic of the history of religion in Iraq is probably too big a topic to discuss in the comments section of a LOST blog. But as far as one thing you mentioned — the persecution of Christians in Iraq — a year and a half ago, I saw a very good story that “60 Minutes” did about that. I recommend watching it or reading the transcript. It shows how much worse things have gotten for Christians there after the fall of Saddam: 60 Minutes: Dire Times for Iraq’s Christians. Very sad.
As for Sayid, I think what motivates him most is not religion but his capability for brutality, and his horror at knowing he has that capability.
When you talk about time travel in Season 4, do you mean that scene with the rat in Faraday’s Oxford lab? I don’t remember being shocked by that. Actually what I rememember the most about that episode (The Constant) when I first saw it was being confused. 😉
As for seeing Little Ben, I think Sayid realized, long before he saw Little Ben, that he was in the past. It was seeing Jin in the jungle, and then seeing Dharmaville that tipped him off. So the realization, when Sayid heard Ben say his name, was not that he was in 1970s — Sayid already knew that — but that this was Ben, the man he despised, as a child.
Definitely! I really loved how you phrased it: “let people believe them or not”! That would’ve really have been ten times more interesting. To have the ocean6 be perceived as “whackos” after telling their story. That would’ve created some persecution by press and various people. Which would’ve made so much more sense for their motivation to gather and go back to the island.
Great idea Terri! =)
Yeah, they should hire me to write their show. 😉 I think what they were trying to do with that whole “lie” plot thread was to show that the pressure of living a lie was unbearable — and that’s why they went back — but it was never very convincing.
Ah, thanks for the link.
I know that Sayid is not motivated by religion. The reason why I brought it up was to illustrate one of many points to why he should’ve been reluctant to believe in the time travel claim, let alone understand it. Taking in to consideration a society shaped and maintained through religion, their views and mentality can’t be the same as ours. As I said previously, it’s easy for us, with all the access and outlet for fantasy and comicbooks, even with films like BTTF (Back to The Future) growing up, that our response would be “cool”.
“Actually what I rememember the most about that episode (The Constant) when I first saw it was being confused”
Haha. I’m not sure when time travel was officially introduced, I guess that the “Constant” ep was the one in question. But never mind that, for you it could be when you first got the fact that they had introduced time travel in the show/story.
“As for seeing Little Ben, I think Sayid realized, long before he saw Little Ben, that he was in the past. It was seeing Jin in the jungle, and then seeing Dharmaville that tipped him off.”
No no. Hehe. Don’t you remember that this was a point brought up earlier? =) I debunked those claims. Jin could be in the jungle, nothing strange with that. Dharma could’ve returned. After all, the guy was gone for THREE years! Which sounds more likely:
a) After three years of absence, Jin is alive and living on the Island and Dharma is back.
b) time travel, they are in the past.
??? Why would ANYONE jump to point b? It’s not like it it is the most common, logical or even possible thing.
Hehe, I am glad that you feel the same way about “the lie” not being very convincing. The “lie” is stupid on so many levels. Neither the execution of the lie was handled properly or the motivation for it. It was beyond stupid! Especially when you have some poor suckers/their comradies STILL stuck on the Island for indefinitely, wanting to get back to their families!!! But they practically buried those there forever lost, because…? *sigh*
I don’t think that anyone really believes in time travel, no matter how or where they grew up. I grew up in the U.S. and read a lot of science-fiction when I was a kid — and I don’t believe time travel is possible outside of made-up stories.
If it turned out that time travel could happen, and I was actually sent to the past, I wouldn’t say “cool”!!! I’d say “WTF!!!!” Actually, I would probably be so freaked out I wouldn’t say anything at all!
The producers/writers of LOST, Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, were aware that some viewers would have trouble buying into the idea of time travel, and they were afraid they might lose some viewers when the show took such an explicit science-fiction-y turn.
Carlton and Damon have talked about this a lot in various interviews and podcasts. They said that at the beginning of Season 5, they made Sawyer into a mouthpiece for the audience, having him express the surprise and disbelief that some people in the audience would be feeling. Later in the season, they had Hurley express the audience’s confusion about how time travel worked in LOST.
While I agree with you that the logic of Sayid’s reaction might not stand up under a microscope, I think in terms of the drama, it would have been repetitious and potentially boring if they showed yet another character going “Huh? What’s going on here?”
Also keep in mind that we, the audience, don’t see every moment in Sayid’s life. For example, we didn’t see him at all from the time of the flash on the plane until he runs into Jin in the jungle. So a lot can be happening off-screen.
I’m not sure when time travel was first introduced to LOST. I think it was with “The Constant,” though there was an earlier episode, “Flashes Before Your Eyes” in Season 3, where Desmond was jumping around in time — though at the time they showed that episode, it seemed like something that was peculiar to Desmond, not something that could happen to anyone.
By the way, I tend to give the writers a lot of slack because they are working on a TV show, not a novel or a movie, and they have very tight deadlines and all sorts of things that are out of their control. I’m less forgiving of plot h0les in novels, where the writers, presumably, would have been able to fix the plot holes if they had noticed they were there.
Uh… You are missing the point completely! I don’t believe in time-travel either. But you are prone to easier believing certain things or being at least open about it, depending on culture and environment – what you have been exposed to, even if it’s just in theory. Just the fact that you grew up reading sci-fi makes all the difference for someone who doesn’t even grasp the concept of such make-up belief, cause they’ve never had access to that outlet of the mind.
“I wouldn’t say “cool”!!! I’d say “WTF!!!!” Actually, I would probably be so freaked out I wouldn’t say anything at all!”
Well, you were the first to bring up the “cool” reaction and I played along. Of course you would react more seriously, as would anyone!
I don’t have trouble with introducing time travel in to any story, as long as it is done right. But they haven’t a lot of times and sometimes they have.
“They said that at the beginning of Season 5, they made Sawyer into a mouthpiece for the audience, having him express the surprise and disbelief that some people in the audience would be feeling.”
Haha, that is funny! Sawyer?! Of all the people, Sawyer was the one who barely even flinched! LOL! In fact, all of them bought in to it like it was no issue to begin with. That was why I was expecting that of all of the people, that Sayid, with his “background”, situation (which included a lack of evidence, let alone someone briefing him!) and three years absence would at least show some kind of disbelief. But no, he won the top spot for being the most easily persuaded. Heck, there wasn’t even a persuasion going on, he concluded time travel by all his lonesome self! And Carlon and Damon thought they had done a decent job of portraying that?! Oh my…
“it would have been repetitious and potentially boring if they showed yet another character going “Huh? What’s going on here?””
Except that barely happened with the other characters. The only scene I can give is when Sawyer punches Faraday and demands answers, but he never questions or is in disbelief about the time travel aspect. So…
Besides, you could’ve done that ten different ways without being repetitious.
“So a lot can be happening off-screen.”
Oh, c’mon Terri! That is like “the wizard did it” excuse. Anything that it is lacking or is off, you say: “hey, maybe it happened off-screen”. You know?
“By the way, I tend to give the writers a lot of slack because they are working on a TV show”
Yeah, me too. Except this wasn’t about plotholes or such (Libby for example <– couldn’t care less about that). This was about good writing and delivery. Which they failed. Just as with “the lie”.
To tell you the truth, I am watching the show nowadays for the plot and the plotting. I think that they have done a wonderful job creating and unveiling the mythology of the show. So for me, spotting plotholes or whatever isn’t tainting my enjoyment of the show. However, I think that the writing of characters have been incredibly poor since s2. I thought that season 1 had a perfect balance of maintaining and nurturing both characters and mythology. But when s1 ended, Darlton got nervous and realized that they had to straighten out and map the mythology and where it was going. Thus began the unraveling of the mythology of the Island. And also began the demise of good character development and writing. The balance had shifted. The mythology got all the focus and effort, and characters suffered (there are exceptions, Ben, Juliet, Desmond to name a few are great, mostly it’s a original characters vs new ones – with original ones being crap). Seriously, Locke killing Naomi on a whim?! And every character nowadays is a [would-be] murderer, that includes everyone from Jack, Locke to Juliet and Sun. It’s ridiculous. Time travel shmam travel, that has nothing to do with poor writing that may displease viewers.
My point was that just because I have read fictional stories about time travel doesn’t mean I’m going to be any more likely to believe that time travel is possible in the real world — I’m no more likely to believe that than someone who has never read those kinds of stories.
There’s a very clear line in my mind between fantasy and reality. Reading a fantasy or a science-fiction story has nothing to do with what I think is possible in the real world.
Also, you seem to be assuming that Sayid could not have had any exposure to science-fiction stories himself. But even the most repressive countries usually have a thriving black market in banned books and movies — even before satellite TV and the internet.
I know for a fact that in the old Soviet Union, it was easy to get copies of banned American movies. People could get banned music and books in Iran even at the height of the cultural revolution. (See “Persepolis” by Marjane Satrapi.)
Often, the access to banned material seems to depend on social class. People living in poor, remote villages might have little or no access, while more upper-class people in the cities might have a lot.
And Sayid was definitely in the elite in Iraq. He left the country to go to college, which not many people were allowed to do, and of course, he was in the Revolutionary Guard, which was a very elite position.
By the way, when I look at the stats for this site, I occasionally see that I’m getting visitors from Iran and from Saudi Arabia. Do the governments there allow LOST to be shown? Or are people bootlegging it off the internet, satellites, and/or DVDs?
I guess I just don’t want to stereotype Sayid. I don’t want to think that just because he grew up in a certain place that he must think in a certain way. To me, he is a more interesting character than that.
My interest in the show is mostly in the surprises and in the characters — even now. Season 2 was my favorite season, but I’ve enjoyed all of LOST . The beginning of Season 5 worried me — with all the jumping around in time stuff, I thought the show might have been on the verge of jumping the shark — but I thought the second half of Season 5 was great.
I think Darlton are very good storytellers — not perfect, but I’m not expecting perfection.