121 - The Greater Good (A Sayid Episode)

Mini Recap: Coming soon.


---

Shannon sits at Boone's side, staring at his dead body. Sayid watches her from afar before finally walking to her and sitting beside her. He asks if there's anything he can do and gets no answer. She doesn't even look at him. He tells Shannon that Sun said that Boone wouldn't let Jack take his leg. He knew what was happening to him. He was brave. Shannon just stares at Boone.

FLASHBACK. Sayid's being escorted by two guards through an airport, his hands held behind him by handcuffs. He's let out in an interrogation-type room, two agents—one from the CIA, the other from ASIS—in front of him. The woman, Agent Cole, tells Sayid that he's there because he's going to do them a favor. A favor? Agent Hewitt, the man, tells him that some explosives were stolen by a terrorist cell just outside of Melbourne. He wants them back. He's not a terrorist. They didn't pick him up because he's a terrorist, Cole says. They picked him up because he knows one. She throws a folder full of pictures in front of him. Essam Tazia—his roommate at Cairo University. He's a member of the cell. Why should he care? He'd be saving lives. Why should he care? Because they know where she is. Sayid looks at Cole as she throws a picture in front of him. Noor Abed-Jazeem. He grasps the picture. Nobody calls her Noor... Cole stares at Sayid coldly. If he wants to know where she is, he's going to Sydney.

Kate finds a piece of fabric in the jungle and hears approaching footsteps. Jack stumbles out and asks her what she's doing out there—she's looking for him. Well, she found him. She tells him he's walking in circles. He needs to come back. Jack shakes his head. Not without Locke. He hasn't slept. He gave Boone his own blood—Locke lied. Boone didn't fall off a cliff—his leg was crushed. And he based his medical treatment on Locke's lie. Kate grabs his arm. People are scared and confused. They need him to come back. Please.

Hurley and Jack carry Boone's body to the burial site, the other castaways standing around them. They set him down and Jack looks to Shannon. Does she want to say something? She remains silent for a minute and then shakes her head. Everyone stands around in silence, staring at Boone's body, for a few minutes. Suddenly, Sayid opens his mouth. He didn't know Boone very well, he says, and for that he's sorry. He brings up their sixth day, all those days ago, when Joanna drowned. Boone was the first one in the water. He didn't know him, but he remembers his courage. And he knows he will be missed.

Everyone looks at him save for Shannon, who's still staring at Boone's body. Jack nods. Suddenly, a voice comes from behind the group and everyone turns around to see who it is. Locke stands there, his shirt still bloody from carrying Boone, his hands on his hips. He tells them it was his fault. They found a plane, lodged in the canopy. He would've gone up, but... his leg, it... it was hurt. So Boone climbed up... there was a radio inside and he thought he could... his weight must have made it shift and it fell... and... it happened because he was trying to save them. He was a hero. All eyes remain on Locke and all is silent for another few minutes. Suddenly, Jack yells at Locke, asking where he was. He starts walking towards Locke and tackles him. Sawyer and Charlie pull Jack off of him while Jack continues to yell, saying Locke left Boone to die, that he lied. Where the hell was he? Kate joins the other two in restraining Jack, who keeps on yelling at Locke. Suddenly, he collapses and Sawyer calls for water. Charlie plays doctor and tells Jack to breathe, Locke looking on, silent.

Jack and Sayid walk down the beach later, Kate and Sun following them. Jack says Locke's lying and Sayid tells him he's suffering from fatigue. Locke told Boone not to tell, Jack says. What? Something about a hatch. Locke's hiding something. Jack... The man is hiding something. Sayid stops Jack from walking. They need the only doctor on the island to get some sleep. Jack shakes his head. He's fine. He doesn't need it. Kate grabs his arm and Sun tells him again that he does. Together, they take him off to a tent.

FLASHBACK. Sayid's at a mosque in Sydney, praying. He spots Essam praying as well and turns his head away when Essam looks at him. After the prayer is over, Essam finds Sayid outside the mosque and they have a reunion moment. Essam asks him what he's doing in Sydney and Sayid tells him he's been traveling. What he's doing there? He lives there, he says. He's a tree-cutter, he cuts trees. Sayid tells him it sounds like good, honest work. Essam smiles. So much for that philosophy degree, huh? They laugh. How's Zahra, Sayid asks. Essam's smile fades. She's dead. She was killed by a stray bomb while she was shopping for a dress. Sayid consoles his friend. Essam halfheartedly smiles again. Why doesn't he come over to his house? Sayid smiles again. He'd love to.

Essam's two roommates, Haddad and Yusef, are playing a video game—Half Life—when Sayid and Essam show up. Sayid asks if they all live there; Sydney's expensive and it's the best they can afford. Haddad, the clear leader of the trio, asks Sayid what he does; he tells him that, at the moment, he's at liberty. Essam explains he's on vacation and tells Sayid that he'll love the beaches and the women. Sayid notices a smoke detector on the wall and heads to it, all the while saying he's had the misfortune of being landlocked for several years. He pulls a cigarette out of Yusef's mouth and puts it in front of the smoke detector. Nothing happens. He pulls it down and removes a bug from inside and throws it into a glass of water on the coffee table. What kind of trees do they cut, exactly? Haddad stands up and goes to Sayid while Essam tells him that Sayid was in the Republican Guard, that he knows things. Haddad doesn't remove his eyes from Sayid. Maybe it wasn't happenstance he and Essam met at the mosque, he says. Maybe it was fate.

Claire holds onto her baby tightly while Charlie and Sun try to convince her to hand him over to them so she can rest. Sun tells her that if she was in a hospital, the nurses would take her baby while she rested. Claire turns away. Well, she's not in a hospital, is she? All the more reason to be careful, Charlie tells her. She just needs to give Turnip Head to them while she has a lie-down. Turnip Head? Yeah, that's just what he's calling him, until she gives him a name... What if he needs something? She'll be there, right after she rests. No. Charlie tells her that nobody's going to take her baby. He won't let anything happen. Reluctantly, she hands him over to Charlie, who walks off while Sun puts Claire to sleep.

Shannon sits alone on the beach, staring out at the water, when Locke comes beside her and sets a bag at her feet. It was Boone's, he tells her. He didn't go through it. She thanks him. He tells her that he should've said no. When he first offered to go hunting with him, he should have said no. Shannon says that he would've gone anyway. Locke smiles. Yeah, he would've. He tells her that he knows she must be confused and hurt and scared. He can't say he knows what she's going through, but he knows what it's like to lose family. He hopes she can forgive him. He's sorry. He leaves and Shannon stares after him. She finds Sayid working on some new contraption for the raft in a tent on the beach and she reminds him of when he asked if he could do anything for her. He drops what he's doing. Anything. John Locke killed her brother, she says. Can he do something about that?

Kate's forcing Jack to lie down and drink something she got for him. He tries to give it to her, but she insists that he finish it. He starts to get up and Kate asks where he's going; to go talk to Locke. She tells him he needs to keep resting but he ignores it and stands up, but falls back down. She tells him she crushed up some sleeping pills and put it in his drink. Why would she... she drugged him? Yeah. Oh. Okay then. He falls asleep and Kate smiles. Night.

Locke cleans his blood-soaked shirt at the caves. He notices Walt watching him and waves, but Walt looks scared and runs off with Vincent. Sayid finds him and notices his kidney transplant scar on his side. He asks how he got that and Locke tells him it's a war wound. It looks more like a surgical scar, Sayid says. Like he said, war wound. Sayid brings up the plane's radio and asks if Boone was able to pick up a signal. Locke shrugs. He was on the ground, all he could hear was static. But it was working? Yeah, but it probably didn't survive the fall. That doesn't matter, Sayid says. He might be able to use some of the parts in a transmitter he's making for the raft. Will he take him to the plane? Of course.

While they're walking in the jungle, Sayid asks Locke how they found the plane. Luck, he tells him. They were hunting? Is that a question? Yes. The boar got scarce a couple of weeks back, he tells him, and they were exploring, not hunting. And they just happened to find a Beechcraft lodged in the trees? Yep. Sayid asks Locke what was wrong with his leg—at the funeral, he said his leg was hurt. Charley-horse, Locke says. A charley-horse? Yep. Back in Iraq, he was an interrogator? Is that a question? Yeah. A long time ago, he was. He hasn't lost his touch, Locke says. Why would he be interrogating him? Jack called him a liar in front of every person he's come to know over the past month, Locke reminds him. Maybe there's a part of him that doesn't think there's a plane out there at all. Sayid looks at him. He knows when he's being lied to—there's a plane. They finally enter the clearing and find the plane on the ground. Locke turns to Sayid. Like he said, he hasn't lost his touch.

FLASHBACK. Sayid and Essam are playing soccer in a park in Sydney. They joke about Essam's slowness on the field before Sayid brings Haddad. He says that he's been asking him about explosives for the past two weeks—blast radii, transports. Does he have any explosives? He doesn't know. All he knows is there's going to be an operation... and a martyr. Sayid stops. Essam? Haddad told him that morning. He kicks the soccer ball again and tells Sayid they should keep playing, but Sayid stops the ball and looks at his friend. What's wrong? Essam stares at Sayid sadly. He doesn't know if he can do it.

Sayid is talking with Cole and Hewitt on a dock. He tells them that he thinks he can get Essam to turn himself in. Does he know where the explosives are? Sayid ignores her and says that the other two are the ones they want. Does he know where it is? No. Then he's useless, Cole says. He'll get the explosives and the target at the last minute. The only way to find the explosives is to wait until Essam walks out the door with a target to hit. Sayid insists that he's in over his head, that he doesn't even know why he's doing it. That's why he's got to convince him to go through with it. No. He won't. It's over, he's done. Hewitt tells him that he can't just leave. What are they going to do, arrest him? No, but they'll arrest her. Sayid looks at Cole. She's an Iraqi living abroad with a record of insurgency. Wouldn't it be horrible if she got picked up as an enemy combatant? If he ever wants the chance to see her again, he's going to go back to the apartment and convince his good friend Essam to blow himself up.

Charlie sings "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider" to Claire's crying baby while walking down the beach. Hurley stops him and asks what's wrong; he doesn't know, but he won't stop crying. Is he hungry? No, Claire nursed him five times. Any deposits diaper-wise? Charlie sniffs. Nope. Time to bring out the big guns, Hurley says. Suddenly, he bursts into song, singing "I Got You (I Feel Good)" loudly. Charlie dances with the baby until Hurley's done, but he's still crying. Hurley puts his arms down. Dude, that's all he's got.

Sayid tastes the drugs in the baggies at the plane and confirms that it's heroin. Locke tells him the cargo hold's full of it—best he can tell, they were drug smugglers. It was perched up in the canopy? Right up there. And Boone climbed up because of his charley-horse? Yep. Why did he lie? He made a mistake. He's going to salvage what he can of the radio. He heads towards the plane while Locke asks him why he doesn't trust him. He glances at the gun in Locke's pocket. He's been carrying a gun around nobody knew about, so that's one thing. He pulls the gun out and hands it to Sayid, then tells him about the Nigerian man dressed as a priest they found. Now he's armed and Locke's not. Does that earn him any trust? He handed it over because Sayid found him concealing it. That earns him adaptability. He goes back to the radio. Does he wanna know something he doesn't, then? Sure. He asks him if he remembers their first week, when Jack was trapped in a cave-in. Of course. Sayid, Kate, and Sawyer went out to triangulate the French signal. Yes. He was hit from behind and when he woke up the transceiver and all of his equipment was gone. Locke nods his head a little. That was him.

Sayid pulls out the gun and sticks it at Locke's throat. He tells him angrily that this had better be the one time he's not telling the truth. Locke says he was doing what was in everybody's best interest. He ruined Sayid's chance to find the distress signal's source! He wanted to find the source of a signal that said they were all dead, it killed them all? Is that a place he wants to lead people? Why wait? Why not tell him before? Because, says Locke, nobody would have thought rationally back then. Everyone was so set on getting off the island that they weren't seeing things clearly. It's happening again with the raft! Sayid asks him if he burned the raft. No, he did not. What's the hatch? Locke looks at him. What hatch? Boone mentioned a hatch before he died, Sayid tells him. Locke points to both sides of the plane. Two hatches on a plane, he says—could be forward or aft. Reluctantly, Sayid lowers his gun.

FLASHBACK. Essam and Sayid walk down the streets of Sydney. Essam questions what he's going to do. He tells his friend he doesn't think he can do it. Sayid tells him that being a martyr isn't without fear. He's not afraid to die. It's all the innocent people—Islam teaches peace, that every human life is sacred. Sayid tells him that, yes, innocent lives will be lost—but in service of a greater good. What if he's doing it because he's angry? What if he's doing because they killed her? So what if he is? Should they just accept what happened to Zahra and others like her? Sayid stops. He lost someone too. He will never be whole again. There needs to be consequences for those responsible, he says. It's his duty. He will honor her. Essam smiles. Haddad was right, he says. It was fate they met again. Then he looks at Sayid strongly. Will he do this with him? Sayid grabs his friend's hand. Yes. He will.

Shannon rifles through Boone's pack and finds a picture of the two of them, smiling. She smiles at it even though there are tears in her eyes. Sayid finds her and asks her to take a walk with him. While they're walking down the beach, he tells her he spoke to Locke. What did he say? He took him to the plane. He thinks what happened was an accident, he tells her. Shannon stops walking. Then why did he lie? He doesn't know. But Locke didn't mean to harm Boone. So that's it then? He tells her he knows how strong the need can be to find someone to blame. He doesn't get it, does he? Sayid reaches out for Shannon's hand, but she pulls away and walks off. Forget about it.

Michael's working on the raft and Walt's quizzing him about it. How much weight can it hold? Enough. What if it tips over? It won't. What if a shark attacks? A shark's not getting anywhere near them. What if they die? They're not going to die. Walt looks at his father. Boone died.

Charlie comes onto the scene and asks Michael if he knows anything about babies. He motions towards the still-crying baby in his arms. Michael tells him to walk with him, it'll calm him down. Yeah, he tried that. He turns to Jin and asks him if he knows where Sun is. He doesn't. Sawyer walks past and rudely tells Charlie to keep the baby quiet because it's driving him crazy. Suddenly, he stops crying. Happy now? The baby begins to cry again. Well, he was. If he's going to play nurse, at least do the damn job right. Again, the baby stops crying. Charlie realizes that it likes Sawyer's rough voice and asks him to say something else. He says he liked the baby a lot better on the inside than on the out. Still, the baby is quiet. Sawyer walks off and Charlie hurriedly follows him.

Jack wakes up in the tent to find Kate watching over him. She holds out a bowl and he asks what's in it. She laughs. Just soup. He starts to decline it when he notices his neck is bare. He asks her loudly who was in the tent; she doesn't know. What's the matter? He stands and looks around the tent. The key to the gun case—it's missing. They leave the tent and find Sayid walking past. Maybe it fell off or something, she suggests. It didn't fall off, he says. Locke stole it. He's after the guns. Kate says that she hasn't seen Locke all day, he doesn't know that he took it. Then who did? Sayid stops walking and looks at the two of them. He knows who did. In the jungle, kneeling in the pouring rain at the gun case, is Shannon.

FLASHBACK. Sayid exits a building when a van pulls up. Inside are Haddad and Essam. They pull him into the van and he gets a determined look from Essam. They pull into a warehouse and Haddad opens the back of the truck, which is filled with the explosives. He tells them to stay relaxed and focused and to drive with the windows down—the fresh air will keep them alert. He hands them each a uniform jacket—they'll need to wear them. If they run into any problems, he tells them, use this. He hands Essam a gun. They're heroes, he says. Good luck. Essam prays quickly before starting the truck. Sayid tells him to stop. Essam smiles. Don't be nervous. They'll be okay. Sayid finally lets his cover blow—he's working with the CIA. Essam's smile fades instantly. What? Sayid tells him he's going to give him ten minutes to get away before he calls them. Essam doesn't move, though. He set him up? Sayid urges his friend to go. He said they were going to do it together. He said he lost someone. Sayid tells him about Nadia and how they know where she is. He used him to find a woman? Essam suddenly pulls out the gun Haddad gave him and points it in Sayid's throat. Angrily, he reminds him he talked him into doing it. He said it was for the greater good! He said he was his brother! He said he was his friend! Sayid pleads with him not to and stares at him, defenseless. He is his friend! Essam gets ready to shoot Sayid, but stops. He looks at him sadly. Well, then, he hopes she makes him whole again. And with that, he removes the gun and shoots himself in the head.

Jack, Kate, and Sayid run through the jungle to stop Shannon from using the gun. Jack stumbles and Kate goes back to him while Sayid runs on. Jack forces Kate to go on without him. Sayid finally stops when he finds Shannon pointing a gun at Locke. Locke tells Sayid she doesn't believe him. Sayid tells her to listen to him. Shannon doesn't put the gun down. He did it! She knows it. She's not thinking rationally, he tells her. She's never fired a gun before. Quickly, she fires the gun between Locke and Sayid. She doesn't want to do this, he pleads. Yes, she does! If she does it, she can never take it back. Kate and Jack come onto the scene and Shannon quickly points the gun at them, telling them to stay back, before pointing it at Locke again. She asks Locke what he did to Boone. He tells her it was an accident. Jack warningly calls out Shannon's name. She reminds him that he told her Locke was a liar. There is silence for a moment and Shannon fires, but Sayid jumps at the same instant, causing her bullet to miss. It grazes Locke's head, causing him to fall back with nothing more than a scratch. Sayid tells Shannon he's sorry and reaches out for her, but she pulls away again and stands up. Don't. She heads off into the jungle and Kate runs after her.

Charlie, Sawyer, and the baby are sitting in a tent. Sawyer's reading from a car magazine—glasses on—to the baby to keep him quiet. Claire walks up and asks what's going on, but Charlie shushes her and urges Sawyer to keep reading. Claire sits down beside Charlie and smiles as Sawyer continues reading about the car's six speed transmission.

Sayid looks longingly at Shannon, who's sitting alone on the beach once again. Kate comes up to him and tells him it'll just take some time. She's been through a lot. Sayid says that time won't make a difference. Maybe he made a mistake. He couldn't let her kill Locke, Kate tells him. He had no choice. He shakes his head. There's always a choice.

FLASHBACK. Cole tells Sayid that Nadia lives in Irvine, California. She's a lab-tech at a medical testing company. She hands him plane tickets and some money and tells him his plane leaves in two hours. He looks toward the van, out of which some investigators are pulling Essam's body. He asks what will happen to him. With no one to claim the body, Hewitt says, he'll be cremated once he's released. Sayid tells him a Muslim man is supposed to buried. But, he reminds him, there's no one to claim the body. He'll claim it then. Hewitt tells him he can't claim it, his flight leaves in two hours. Determined, Sayid shoves the plane ticket into his hand. Change his flight to tomorrow. Hewitt and Cole exchange glances before Cole nods at her partner. Hewitt halfheartedly and briefly smiles.

Locke tends to his head wound when Sayid walks up. He asks him how it is; it'll heal. Another war wound. Locke smiles. He tells Sayid he knows what it cost him, doing what he did. He thanks him. Sayid says he did it because he senses he's their best chance of surviving. But he doesn't forgive him for what he did. And he certainly doesn't trust him. And now, Sayid says, he's going to take him to the hatch. Locke looks puzzled. The hatch? He already showed him the—Sayid cuts him off and stands. No more lies.

The Greater Good was written by Leonard Dick.