Tipping the Scales

Quick Hits

• I mentioned the seal of protection Dogen had over the Temple, and it’s important to note it wasn’t just the ash barrier keeping Esau at bay. Dogen himself somehow prevented Smokey from entering the perimeter. This makes some logical sense, as Claire could’ve just kicked some of the ash aside to allow Smokey in.

  

  I’m guessing Jacob infused certain of his followers with an ability to protect an area surrounded by that ash over time, and one wonders if any of our current castaways may have that ability (Jack or Hurley, maybe).

• Dogen gives Sayid a chance to redeem himself and prove he still has good in him with a knife of some sort.

  

  He tells Sayid Esau will appear as “someone you know, someone who has died” (as we’ve seen Smokey in all of his previous incarnations), in this case, Locke, and that he must kill him before he says anything to him. At face value, we could just take that to mean Esau’s a silver-tongued devil who could convince you to sell your own mother down the river. Based on the failure of that knife to kill Esau, that’d seem to be an accurate take.

  

  However, if we take Dogen’s meaning more literally, perhaps Esau does have some mystical ability to control others or protect himself with his voice. If that’s the case, Esau’s “Hello, Sayid” before the Iraqi could stab him may have been enough to exert whatever mystical ability or protection that was. As Dogen said before his untimely demise, “you let him talk.”

  

• The X storyline of the episode follows Sayid’s reunion with Nadia, albeit a Nadia with two kids, married to his brother, Omar.

  

  Sayid still has feelings for the woman, however, as we learn he pushed her towards his brother to keep her from the darkness he feels he still has inside him.

  

• I believe the picture Sayid kept of Nadia in his bag was the same the FBI or CIA gave to him in the 1.0 timeline to help convince him to infiltrate a terrorist cell in Australia in 2004.

  

  I’m sure it came into his hands by different means in the X timeline, but you get the idea. More correlations to the original timeline.

• Welcome back, Martin Keamy. When last we saw Keamy, he’d led his team of Widmore-approved mercenaries to slaughter at the hands of Smokey and was finally killed by Ben down in The Orchid (which, in turn, set off the explosives on the freighter offshore). Keamy X is no less driven by bad thoughts and cash, having Sayid’s brother beaten up when he couldn’t pay his inflated debt.

  

  Of additional interest is why Keamy has a roughed-up Jin locked in a freezer. Perhaps Keamy is the man Mr. Paik sent Jin to deliver that watch (and its attached message) to.

  

• One of Keamy’s fellow mercenaries from Widmore’s team is with him in this timeline as well, the other Omar in this episode:

  

  Omar was killed by a grenade on the Island, and he doesn’t fare much better here.

• Along with the ubiquitous eye shots, I may have to start keeping track of all the mirror/reflection shots in season 6 (of which there’ve been many thus far, in case you hadn’t noticed already).

  

• There’s an eerie song with vocals under the scenes of death and destruction at episode’s end, and I believe it’s the same tune Claire was singing down in her hole.

  

  I’ll have to rely on some other sites to see if there’s any added significance there; I have a feeling it might’ve been a lullaby Claire once sang to Aaron, but I’ve got no recollection of it at this point. Either way, the song lends a creepiness to the precedings that’s exceedingly effective.

• The Dogen vs. Sayid fight at the beginning of the episode was pretty enjoyable, but it got me thinking tangentially as to why Dogen couldn’t just give the poison pill to Sayid himself. Was the duty given to Jack at Jacob’s bidding?

  

  It seems as if Dogen’s had opportunity to do Sayid in himself, but hasn’t — was he actually trying to kill Sayid during their fight? Perhaps no — perhaps Dogen, like Esau, can’t harm candidates (more on that in a minute).

• So Dogen and Lennon are apparently dead, although the place of their death may render that status temporary. The Spring’s healing powers should be able to go to work on the two Temple leaders, should it not?
• Jack shows up in a cameo in the hospital Sayid’s brother is taken to.

  

  As with the 1.0 timeline, our castaways constantly coming in contact with one another must be more than simple coincidence.

• The episode concludes with Sayid and Claire firmly on Esau’s side, and Esau in control of the bulk of the remaining Others.

  

  Kate may be the fly in the ointment down the road, but I find it odd Esau wouldn’t want her out of the way since she doesn’t appear to be infected. My guess? Esau can’t kill candidates. He couldn’t kill Jacob with his own hands, and it looks like the same may hold true for anyone that may have to replace the Man in White.

• I’m not sure I’m looking forward to an episode featuring a pissed-off Claire and a whiney Kate battling each other, unless the two fight atop a cliff and plummet over the edge to their deaths.

  

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