Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Character Spotlight: Sayid


Every week or so, I am going to highlight a character on LOST, to review their history on the show and revisit relevant facts that may or may not be significant to their future on or off the island.

I will begin with Sayid Jarrah, my favorite male character on the show.

Flashbacks: 5 (so far)

Sayid was born in Iraq and went to Cairo University. Then he was a Communications Officer in the Iraqi Republican Guard for five years. When Sayid's base was overtaken by U.S. forces during Desert Storm, he was forced to torture his former commanding officer to obtain details about the whereabouts of an American soldier. After that, Sayid returned to the Guard and was promoted to Intelligence, where he was made to put his torture skills to work.

Juliet made reference to an incident in Basra, but no details have emerged since, either in conversation or flashback/flash-forward.

Nadia was Sayid's childhood sweetheart and long lost love. He encountered her after many years when was forced to interrogate her for a crime, and then he killed a fellow officer to allow for her escape. They haven't seen each other since.

At some point between his time in the Guard and crashing on the island, Sayid changed his name, moved to Paris and worked as a chef. He was beaten up by a man whose wife accused him of torturing her a long time ago. Sayid admitted to the crime, the woman forgave him and convinced her husband to let him go.

Several years later, Sayid was arrested in London and brought before the CIA. They offered to tell him Nadia's current location in exchange for his help infiltrating a terrorist group in Sydney, of which his former college roommate was a member. Sayid was successful but his friend killed himself. He was informed that Nadia was living in Orange County, CA. Sayid was scheduled to leave Sydney and fly to LA to find her, but stayed an extra day for his friend's funeral and left on fated Flight 815 the next day.

Character Crossovers: While in the service of the Guard, Sayid encountered both Kate's father (Sergeant Major Sam Austen) and Desmond's future hatch-mate on the island (Kelvin Inman). In one of Locke's flashbacks, Nadia appears when Locke inspects her home, and in a Charlie flashback, he saves her from getting mugged in an alley in London. In a Kate flashback, we briefly see an image of Sayid on TV when she's visiting her father at a military recruitment center.

Random Facts:

S
ayid was the first survivor to...
  1. Encounter crazy French Lady Danielle Rousseau
  2. Meet Ben, who had been captured in one of Rousseau's nets and was calling himself Henry Gale at the time
  3. Discover the cord on the beach that lead into the ocean and down to the Looking Glass station
  4. Spot the four-toed statue
Besides his military training and communications/technology expertise, Sayid seems quite familiar with cartography (always reading maps) and electromagnetism (revealed while under original hatch w/Jack, referring to Chernobyl).

Sayid had a brief romance with Shannon before she was accidentally shot and killed by Ana Lucia. He was shot in the arm by Mikhail. And he killed an Other with his feet while his legs were bound.

Sayid is a badass, and I can't wait to see what's next for his character. I have a feeling that he is one of the Oceanic 6, and if so, I hope that his flash-forwards include Nadia.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Very cool. Great idea to do these character spotlights.

I also think Sayid is one of the Oceanic 6. Now, there is no way that he gets off the Island and actually gets to find Nadia...that would be way too easy and nice!