Lost: Season 2, Episode 14 "One of Them" Review

"My name is Sayid Jarrah...and I am a torturer."

-Sayid Jarrah

The 14th episode of season 2 starts off with flashbacks to Sayid's (Naveen Andrews) time in the Gulf War.  He is captured by American troops, including Kate's father, Sam (Lindsey Ginter).  Since Sayid is fluent in English, they use him as a translator to interrogate his commanding officer, Tariq (Marc Casabani), on the location of a missing American pilot.  When Tariq refuses to talk, Sayid is shown a tape of Tariq conducting a chemical attack on a village, which killed some of Sayid's relatives.  Sayid tortures Tariq and gets the location of the pilot's body.  He is later released by the Americans and swears he will never torture anyone again.

On the island, Danielle Rousseau (Mira Furlan) approaches Sayid and takes him into the jungle where she has captured a man (Michael Emerson) in a net.  She claims he is an Other.  Sayid takes the man, who calls himself Henry Gale, to the Hatch, where Jack (Matthew Fox) patches him up.  They decide to lock him in the armory while they figure out what to do with him, but Sayid shuts himself inside with Henry after having Locke (Terry O'Quinn) change the combination, which upsets Jack.

Henry claims he and his wife crashed on the island via hot air balloon four months ago and that she had died three weeks before.  Sayid does not believe him and starts to beat Henry.  Jack tries to force Locke to open the armory, but he refuses until the alarm starts going off.  Jack forces Locke to open the armory before he can press the button and Jack stops Sayid.  Sayid is convinced that Henry is an Other because he feels no remorse for beating him and fills in Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) of the whole situation. 

After discovering Hurley (Jorge Garcia) has a secret stash of food, Sawyer (Josh Holloway) blackmails him into helping hunt down a tree frog that is preventing Sawyer from sleeping.  They eventually find it and Sawyer kills it.

What Works:

This episode introduces us to Ben Linus, even though we don't know his name yet, one of the best characters on the show.  Michael Emerson is incredible from the get go.  He gives such a great performance and I think I probably would have been fooled by him.  Knowing how full of crap he is makes this a fun episode to re-watch.  Emerson is the best part of season 2 and he shines from the start.

Naveen Andrews is also fantastic here.  He starts the episode as seemingly stable and pragmatic, pretty much typical Sayid, but by the time he starts beating on Henry Gale, it's obvious that Sayid is emotionally compromised.  It's a great turn for the character.  At the end of the episode, he claims he knows Sayid is an Other, and he turns out to be right, but I don't think it's because Sayid is that good.  It's luck that he was right, but he's emotionally blinded and that is interesting for this character.

The torture debate between Locke and Jack is also really interesting and just widens the divide between these two.  Again, Locke is going to end up being right, but I think Jack handles the situation better than the others.  Still, both are valid and that makes for an interesting story.

Finally, I know some people don't care for the tree frog plot, and it's nothing too special, but I think it's interesting from a character perspective.  Both Hurley and Sawyer stash supplies away from the rest of the group, but one is beloved and the other reviled and I like that the show does a character study of why that is, even if the plot itself doesn't matter at all.

What Sucks:

My only problem with the episode comes from Rousseau.  When she wants Sayid to go with her into the jungle, she is unnecessarily vague about where she wants him to go.  Why not tell him she has captured one of the others.  I think that would be a much more compelling TV moment then their discussion.  Picture this: Sayid asks, "Where are you taking me?"  Rousseau responds, "I've captured one of the Others."  Dramatic music, cut to commercial.  When we come back, we start with Henry trapped in the net.  I think that would work much better from a TV perspective and makes more sense in terms of character.  It might be a nitpick, but it's always bugged me.

Platinum Polar Bear:

The Platinum Polar Bear goes to the most useful character in an episode.  For "One of Them," the award goes to Jack Shephard.  While he was wrong about Henry not being an Other, he was right to step in when he did.  Sayid was not in a place where he could be objective and I like that Jack called Locke's bluff on the button.  He also patched up Henry's wounds.  This is Jack's 6th time winning the award, which ties him for first place with Locke.

Verdict:

"One of Them" is another really solid episode.  The acting from Emerson and Andrews is phenomenal and the philosophical divides between Jack and Locke are really interesting.  There is one scene between Sayid and Rousseau I don't love, but this episode has definitely got it going on.

 9/10: Great