Director: Stephen Williams
Writers: Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof
Flashback: Sayid
Synopsis:
The Beach
Hurley and a few others are rebuilding the remains of the ping pong table salvaged from the Hatch. Sawyer is looking for Kate, when he is angered to discover that Paulo has taken his copy of Guns and Ammo. Paulo tells him that he got it from the magazine rack and that they share things now. Sawyer berates the camp for the helping themselves to his stash while they thought he was dead and sulks back to his tent.
Jungle
Sayid, Locke, Kate, and Rousseau continue their search for the Others’ camp. Sayid expresses a great deal of frustration in Locke’s blind faith that following a compass bearing of 305 will show them the way. Locke argues that his bearing is the only bearing they’ve got. As the group rests Sayid sets off to find food and states that when he returns they will have a rational conversation about their next move. As he’s picking fruit, Sayid hears a cowbell off in the distance. He finds the cow and follows it to discover the Flame station, being manned by the man with the eye patch that he saw on the Pearl station video.
The Beach
Nikki and Hurley are just finishing the net on the ping pong table, while Charlie and Jin work on the legs. Sawyer challenges the other survivors to a bet. He says that when he beats the player of their choosing, they must return every last bit of his stash. If their player can best him, however, he will not use any nicknames on anyone for a week. Sawyer leaves and gives them an hour to choose their player.
Outside the Flame
After a quick evaluation Sayid decides to approach the station alone and unarmed, so that the man inside won’t feel threatened. He tells Kate and Locke to be ready with their guns, in case he is threatened. Rousseau leaves, saying that she has survived on the Island by avoiding such encounters. She says she will wait by the stream for those who survive.
Flashback-Restaurant
Sayid is working as a chef in a restaurant in Paris. A waiter, speaking in Arabic, calls him Najeev and tells him that someone is waiting for him outside. Sayid goes to meet the man, who introduces himself as Sami. Sami asks Sayid where’s he’s from and Sayid claims to be Syrian. Sami sees through the lie and tells him, "You are as much of an Iraqi as I am, young man." He goes on to tell him that he is opening a restaurant and wants Sayid to be his new chef at twice his current pay. Sayid questions his hospitality, but his doubts are answered when Sami tells him that they are both outsiders and have to stick together, and his chef just quit.
Outside the Flame
Sayid cautiously makes his way towards the Flame. He sees a cat that really catches his interest. As he stares at the cat, the man inside the Flame shoots him in the shoulder. Kate tries to rush to Sayid’s aid, but Locke holds her back. The man starts yelling, "I didn’t cross the line, you said we had a truce!" Sayid tells him that just a survivor of a plane crash and the man starts to believe him. He closes the window he was firing out of a moves toward to door. While he’s inside Locke and Kate run to Sayid. The second the man comes out of the door, Locke fires a few warning shots and forces him to drop his weapon. The man asks if they really are crash survivors and introduces himself as Mikhail Bakunin, the last living member of the DHARMA Initiative.
Inside the Flame
Kate and Mikhail help Sayid onto a couch while Locke explores the station. Mikhail looks at Sayid’s wound, claiming to have experience as a field medic in the Soviet army in Afghanistan. Kate joins in Locke’s search of the station while she retrieves a first-aid kit for Sayid’s wound. The both discover a wide array of technical equipment. As Mikhail cleans Sayid’s wound with vodka he tells him how he became a part of the DHARMA Initiative. He says he grew up in Kiev and joined the Soviet army. When the Soviets lost the Cold War his unit was decommissioned and his life in the military was over. After years of performing unpleasant acts against enemies of the Soviet Union, he wanted to do something good. That’s when he saw a newspaper advertisement that read, "Would you like to save the world?" He responded to the ad and met the Initiative, and organization that he describes as "very secretive, very rich, and very smart." DHARMA set him up in the Flame 11 years ago, because he like computers and being alone, like a lighthouse keeper. He says that the purpose of the Flame is to communicate with the outside world. As Locke explores the station he finds a computer chess game and begins to play. As Locke plays chess Kate joins Sayid in listening to Mikhail’s story. He says that the DHARMA Initiative foolishly started a war with a group called the Hostiles, a war that they called a Purge. He survived the Purge by not participating in it. After it was over the Hostiles offered him a truce and told him to imagine a line around his station that he was not to cross. Then they took two cows and he never saw them again. The Hostiles were not interested in the station because it hasn’t functioned for years. Mikhail does not know who the Hostiles are, only that they have been on the Island for years, long before DHARMA.
Flashback-Sami’s Restaurant
Sami introduces Sayid to his wife, Amira, who hands and arms are covered in burn marks. Sami asks Amira if she’s sure this is him, and when she says yes, Sami’s friends wrestle Sayid to the ground and Sami knocks him out cold.
Inside the Flame
After pulling the bullet out of Sayid’s shoulder, Mikhail begins to sew up the wound and Sayid notices the cat clawing at a rug. Mikhail calls the cat Nadia and tells it to be polite in Russian. Sayid is surprised to discover that the cat has the same name as the woman he loved, and Mikhail tells him that the cat is named after Nadia Comaneci, the Russian gymnast with whom he shares a birthday. Mikhail leaves Sayid and Kate to get them iced tea and to check on Locke. Locke is still playing computer chess and has lost. Mikhail tells that the computer can’t be beat because it cheats. Locke remarks that computers don’t know how to cheat and that’s what makes being human so distinctly wonderful. While Kate wraps Sayid’s arm she says that Mikhail’s story doesn’t make sense. Why would the Others let him stay hear with all the equipment. Sayid says that it makes perfect sense, they let him stay because he is not DHARMA, he is one of them. Kate asks why they are just sitting there, and Sayid says it’s because he is certain that Mikhail is not alone.
The Beach
Sawyer is about to face the other survivor’s choice of player, Hurley. Sawyer doubts Hurley’s abilities when Hurley asks if they’re playing with the mercy rule. Hurley states that the mercy rule is, if he’s up eleven to zero, he automatically wins. Sawyer doubts the mercy rule will have to come into effect, and says that they will play with the rule. Sawyer’s arrogance falls flat when Hurley scores a point off of him with only two hits.
Inside the Flame
Sayid and Kate continue to ask questions and feign ignorance about Mikhail’s alignment with the Others. He says that the Flame is a hub and has underground cables leading to all the other stations, including one that leads to an underground beacon to guide submarines. Mikhail mentions that the Hostiles must have taken the submarine by now, and Sayid says that that must be how they got around them and took their sailboat. Mikhail is surprised to find that they had a sailboat and adds that it is unfortunate that it was taken by the Hostiles. "Well," says Sayid, "at least we were able to kill one of them." With this, Mikhail knows that Sayid and Kate know of his involvement with the Others and attacks them. Even with his injured shoulder, Sayid subdues Mikhail and as he’s getting up to keep fighting, Kate puts a gun to his head. Locke comes out of the computer room, only after Mikhail’s attack has been stopped. Sayid instructs Kate to get some rope.
Flashback-Back Room of Sami’s Restaurant
Sayid is being held in chains. Sami enters with a duffel bag and a bowl of water. He tells Sayid to drink the water and asks if he was a torturer in the Republican Guard. He asks if he does not recognize one of his victims, his wife. Sayid claims he never tortured her. Sayid tells Sami his real name and admits to being an interrogator, but says he has never seen Amira before. Sami doesn’t believe him and tells him that if he doesn’t admit to what he did, he will leave the room in the bag.
Inside the Flame
Sayid says that the Others must have sent someone to the station because they lost communication with it, most likely when the sky turned purple. Locke says that whoever is there must have a good hiding place because he has search every nook and cranny of the station. Sayid removes the rug that Nadia was clawing at to reveal a trap door.
Flashback-Back Room of Sami’s Restaurant
Sami beats a captive Sayid while Amira watches. Still, Sayid claims to have never seen her before. Sami reaches for a metal rod which with to beat Sayid. Amira stops him and says that Sayid has had enough for today.
Inside the Flame
Sayid and Kate climb down a ladder into the Flame’s basement. While he is supposed to be keeping an eye on Mikhail, Locke glances anxiously at the computer as it tempts him by repeating "your move." As Kate and Sayid continue their search they find that the entire place is wired with C4. Locke can resist temptation no longer and he abandons his post to once again try and defeat the almighty computer. Sayid bursts into a room and finds an entire shelf full of DHARMA instruction manuals. Locke finally does the impossible and defeats the computer. After a few seconds of congratulatory music the computer monitor changes from a chess screen to Dr. Marvin Candle/Mark Wickman sitting at a desk, saying that a manual override has been achieved. He gives Locke the following options: "For pallet drop, enter two-four, for station uplink enter three-two, for mainland communication enter three-eight." Locke enters three-eight and Candle informs that the satellite dish is down then gives the option of sonar access. Locke enters five-six for sonar access and Candle responds, "Sonar is inoperable. Has the been an incursion on this station by the Hostiles? If so enter seven-seven." Locke is about to enter seven-seven when Mikhail holds a knife to his throat and tells him to stop. In the basement, Kate goes into a closet full of jumpsuits and is attacked by Bea Klugh. Bea quickly overpowers Kate, but is stopped when Sayid points a gun at her from behind. When Kate sees Bea’s face she becomes very angry and starts punches her. Sayid stops her and she says the Bea was at the docks when the Others to her, Jack, and Sawyer, so she must know where Jack is.
Outside the Flame
Kate, Sayid, and Bea exit the Flame to find Locke held at gunpoint by Mikhail. Mikhail offers to trade Locke for Bea, but Locke says not to listen to him. Mikhail and Bea have a conversation in Russian. It ends with Bea saying in English, "Just do it, Mikhail!" Mikhail then pushes Locke aside and kills Bea. Locke knocks the gun out of Mikhail’s hand and Sayid hits him onto the ground and points his rifle at Mikhail’s neck. Mikhail tells him to finish it, but Sayid takes him alive.
The Beach
Sawyer sits at his tent fiddling with his glasses; he looks frustrated. Hurley comes over and apologizes for beating him so badly. Sawyer accuses Hurley of hustling him. Hurley gives back a few of the items stolen from Sawyer’s stash in the form of three pornographic magazines. He tries to comfort Sawyer by telling him that Kate will be alright.
Inside/Outside the Flame
Kate is stocking up on supplies while Locke sits thoughtfully at the computer. Sayid escorts Mikhail to the area where they first discovered the Flame yelling for Rousseau. He asks Mikhail about the story he told them, and he says that he was never a member of the Initiative but that everything else he told them was true. When Sayid is joined by Rousseau, he tells her that they now have a ticket to where the Others live. Mikhail says that he won’t tell them anything and Sayid replies that he did say he was the ticket. Sayid reaches into his pack and pulls out a map of data cabling that show a cable leading from the Flame to a place called the Barracks, and reasons that that is where the Others live. Rousseau asks why they should keep Mikhail alive if they have a map. Sayid doesn’t answer but just stares at Mikhail.
Flashback-Back Room of Sami’s Restaurant
Amira enters holding a cat that looks very similar to Nadia, Mikhail’s cat. She tells Sayid of how, when she first came to Paris, she was to afraid to leave her apartment, the terrors her torture still fresh on her mind. She would just sit inside, looking out the window and she would see this cat looking for scraps. One day the neighborhood children tortured the cat. They trapped it in a box and dropped fire crackers into the box. This motivated Amira to leave her apartment and rescue the cat. Now the cat sits with her when she reads, sleeps with her, and he purrs. Occasionally, the cat will bite her or scratch her, but she forgives him. She forgives him because she knows what it’s like to never feel safe. She asks Sayid to show her the respect of acknowledging what he did to her. Sayid admits that he did torture her, that her face has haunted him since he left Iraq, and that he is sorry for what he did. Amira forgives him, and says that she will tell her husband that she made a terrible mistake and he will let Sayid go. Sayid asks why, and she says that everyone is capable of doing what the children did to the cat, but she will not do that.
Outside the Flame
Rousseau keeps insisting that they kill Mikhail. Sayid tells her no, and that since Mikhail is his prisoner, he will decide his fate. Kate and Locke join the group and Locke tells Mikhail that he now realizes why Mikhail didn’t want to beat the chess game. Sayid asks him what does that mean and then the answer is made somewhat clearer as the Flame station explodes in a massive fireball. Sayid rebukes Locke for what he’s done, and Locke says, "The computer said if there was an incursion by the Hostiles, I should enter seven-seven, so I entered seven-seven." Sayid is noticeably angry with Locke, but he bites his lip. He says they must leave quickly as the explosion alert others to their position. He takes one last thoughtful look at Nadia and heads off for the Barracks.
