Lost: Season 4, Episode 3 "The Economist" Review

 "Half the stuff he says goes way over my head; the other half goes way, way over."

-Frank Lapidus

"The Economist" picks up with Sayid (Naveen Andrews) making a deal with Frank (Jeff Fahey).  If Sayid can rescue Charlotte (Rebecca Mader) from Locke's (Terry O'Quinn) group, Frank will fly him to the freighter.  Sayid heads to the Barracks along with Kate (Evangeline Lilly) and Miles (Ken Leung).  They find Hurley (Jorge Garcia) tied up in a closet, but it's a trick.  Hurley leads them to Ben's (Michael Emerson) house, where they are all swiftly captured

Back at the helicopter, Daniel (Jeremy Davies) orders a rocket launch from the freighter, but it arrives at the chopper very late, which causes Daniel to suspect there is a time displacement between the Island and the outside world.

Sawyer (Josh Holloway) convinces Kate to stay with him, while Sayid and Locke agree to trade Charlotte for Miles, so Sayid can get information aboard the ship.  They return to the chopper just after Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) brings Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) there.  Frank takes off with Sayid, Desmond, and the body of Naomi (Marsha Thomason) and flies towards the freighter.

In flash-forwards, Sayid meets Peter Avellino (Armando Pucci) on a golf course.  Avellino gets nervous when he discovers Sayid is one of the Oceanic 6 and Sayid shoots him.  He then travels to Berlin and meets a woman named Elsa (Thekla Reuten) who works for an economist.  They form a relationship, but when the economist arrives in Berlin, Sayid reveals he is actually planning on killing him.  Elsa shoots Sayid and wants to know who Sayid works for, but Sayid manages to kill her.  He meets up with his boss, who turns out to be Ben, who has another target for Sayid.

What Works:

I'm not the biggest fan of this episode overall, but some of the stuff I do like is action/spy Sayid.  The scene on the golf course is much better on the rewatch knowing that Sayid was just waiting patiently for Avellino and playing nice with him until the opportune moment.  

The reveal that Sayid is working for Ben is also great.  The two of them going on assassination missions would have been an excellent spinoff.  I wish we got more of them working together over the rest of the show, but their scene together at the vet clinic is probably the best moment of the episode.

Finally, I do really like the B-story with Daniel, Jack (Matthew Fox), and Frank hanging out at the chopper.  Any time Frank is on screen, I'm happy and the focus on Daniel and the time discrepancy is really interesting.  I like this hard sci-fi, time travel stuff and Daniel's experiment is really intriguing.

What Sucks:

The A-story is the biggest problem for me.  It really feels a lot like wheel-spinning.  This episode is really just about movie people to different locations.  Sometimes you need episodes like that, but to have one so early in the season is odd.  All that really happens is Miles, Charlotte, and Kate end up in a different place then they were at the beginning of the episode.  There isn't much forward momentum, which isn't ideal when you have such a short season.

I also found the interactions between Sayid and Locke's group to be really forced.  They all saw each other yesterday and now we have Rousseau (Mira Furlan) holding Sayid at gunpoint and Hurley tricking his friends.  I just don't buy it.  Unless Jack is involved, trying to build tension between these groups doesn't really work.

While the beginning and the end of the flash-forward storyline are great, the middle stuff with Elsa doesn't really work for me.  None of it really matters over the course of the rest of the show and we never find out who the economist is.  I wonder if there were more storylines around this stuff that had to be aborted due to the Writer's Strike.  In any case, Sayid and Elsa's relationship doesn't do much for me.  I think there was more fun to be had with assassin Sayid then what we ultimately got.

Platinum Polar Bear:

The Platinum Polar Bear goes to the most competent character of the episode.  For "The Economist," this award goes to Sayid for negotiating with Locke peacefully, rescuing Charlotte, and getting on board the helicopter.  This is Sayid's 10th time winning this award, which ties him for 1st place with Jack.

Verdict:

I know a lot of people really like "The Economist" and there are parts I like as well, but I think it's a mostly overrated episode.  Daniel's time experiments, assassin Sayid, and the Ben reveal are all really cool, but the A-plot is just wheel spinning with some forced tension and the flash-forward ultimately doesn't really add much to the show.

 6/10: Okay