Lost/Solitary

Solitary
Season 1, Episode 9
Airdate	November 17, 2004
Production Number	109
Written by	David Fury
Directed by	Greg Yaitanes
← 1x08 Confidence Man	1x10 → Raised by Another
Lost — Season One

Solitary is the ninth episode of the first season of Lost, and is the ninth episode overall.

When a golf bag is found in the wreckage, Hurley constructs a primitive golf course to give the survivors a much-needed recreational outlet. In the jungle, Sayid's attempt at exploration ends when he falls into a trap. He regains consciousness in the lair of a mysterious Frenchwoman named Danielle Rousseau. Sayid's overtures of friendship are rebuffed as Rousseau resorts to torture, believing him to be part of a mysterious tribe already living on the island.

Starring: Naveen Andrews (Sayid), Matthew Fox (Jack), Jorge Garcia (Hurley), Maggie Grace (Shannon), Josh Holloway (Sawyer), Malcolm David Kelley (Walt), Daniel Dae Kim (Jin), Yunjin Kim (Sun), Evangeline Lilly (Kate), Dominic Monaghan (Charlie), Terry O'Quinn (Locke), Harold Perrineau, Jr. (Michael), Ian Somerhalder (Boone).

Guest Starring: William Mapother (Ethan Rom), Mira Furlan (Danielle Rousseau), Andrea Gabriel (Nadia Abed-Jaseem).

Co-Starring: Scott Paulin (Sullivan), Navid Negahban (Omar), Xavier Alaniz (Prisoner).

Plot Overview

The Island

• While on his self-imposed exile, Sayid stumbles across a partially exposed cable in the sand of the beach. It leads from the ocean into the interior of the island. He follows the cable into the jungle where he discovers a trip-wire. He accidentally trips a second trap which catches him in a snare and, after colliding with a tree, a branch becomes lodged in his leg. Sayid yanks it out, but passes out from the pain. That night he's cut down, but loses consciousness again. Sayid wakes up to find himself strapped to a metal bed frame. A voice asks him where Alex is in various languages and tortures him. While being tortured, Sayid tells his captor he is a survivor of a plane crash, that he found a wire on the beach and followed it in the hope it might have something to do with a transmission made by a French woman 16 years ago. His captor reveals herself to be that French woman, Rousseau. Rousseau shows Sayid a broken music box given to her by her love, Robert. He offers to fix it for her. Rousseau sedates him in order to move him so he can fix it. As he starts working on the music box, Rousseau tells him how she came to be on the island. He fixes it, but Rousseau leaves with a rifle to investigate a sound outside her shelter. Sayid takes this opportunity to escape, taking several of Rousseau's maps and one of her rifles. In the jungle, Sayid confronts Rousseau.
• At the caves, Locke and Ethan give Hurley some luggage they found in the jungle while hunting. Something in one of the bags excites Hurley - golf clubs. Hurley creates a two hole golf course to help everyone relax and shows it off to Jack, Michael and Charlie.
• As darkness falls, Sayid continues to make his way back to the other survivors. But, in the jungle, he's surrounded by whispering.

The Flashback

• Flashback: Sayid

Sayid interrogates a man regarding the bombing of the Baathist headquarters. Afterwards, Sayid's superior officer, Omar, discusses Sayid's impending promotion from communications officer and reassignment to the intelligence division. As Omar is talking to Sayid, a woman is escorted past them that catches Sayid's eye. Her name is Noor Abed Jazeem or Nadia, a known associate of Kurdish and Shiite insurgents. Omar tasks Sayid with finding out if she knows who orchestrated a bombing in Najaf. During his initial talk with Nadia, we discover that they were childhood friends and that Nadia had affections for Sayid. She tells Sayid that she's been tortured by his friends in the Republican Guard before and that she'll tell him nothing.

Weeks later, Sayid visits Nadia in her isolated cell and brings her some bread and apologizes that it's all he could find. He tells her that, if she proves willing to cooperate, he might be able to get them to free her. She tells him that then she wouldn't have these visits to look forward to and tells him he's pretending to be something she knows he's not. Later, Omar tells Sayid he has to execute Nadia. He's had more than a month and her execution will send a message to others. As Sayid escorts Nadia he tells the other two soldiers they can leave. He then tells Nadia that she can escape on a supply truck that's leaving shortly. Nadia asks Sayid to come with her, but he refuses because his family would be killed for his desertion, so Nadia grabs the photos of her and begins writing a message on the back. However, Omar appears and asks Sayid what he's doing. Omar yells for the guard and draws his pistol, but Sayid shoots and kills him. Sayid then shoots himself and gives Nadia the gun - in order to make it look like she shot them - and tells her to leave now.

Notes

Mysteries

• What is the cable and where does it lead to?
• What exactly happened to Rousseau's science team?
• What is the Black Rock?
• Who are the Others?
• What happened to Nadia?
• Who or what is the whispering?

Answers

• Danielle Rousseau is the Frenchwoman that recorded the distress call. She was never rescued. (1x02 - Pilot (2))
• The girl in Sayid's pictures is Nadia, a childhood friend of his. (1x04 - Walkabout)

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Sayid finds the French woman, Danielle Roussea.
• Hurley builds a golf course for everyone to use and relax.

Trivia

Behind the Scenes

• Missing in Action: Jin and Claire do not appear in this episode.
• Nielsen Ratings: On its original airing this episode scored 17.64 million viewers for ABC, being the highest rated program of the night among networks.
• Location, Location, Location: Hurley's golf course was filmed at Ka'a'awa Valley on Oahu.

Allusions and References

• Dr. Jack, Medicine Man: Sawyer refers to Jack as "Dr. Quinn." Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman was a CBS television series starring Jane Seymour that ran from 1993 to 1998. Set in the 1860s, the show was about a Boston doctor who moves to a small wild west town of Colorado Springs where she practices medicine and looks after three adopted children.

Quotes

• Kate: It's been two days since Sayid took off on his own. I keep looking up, thinking I'm gonna see him coming back.
  Jack: He'll come back when he's found what he's looking for, the French transmission.
  Kate: He wasn't looking for anything. He left because of what happened... Because of what he did.
  Jack: It was an accident.
  Kate: Well, accidents happen when you torture people, Jack.
  Jack: Sayid's a trained soldier, Kate. He can take care of himself.
• Hurley: We're all fried. I mean, have you take a look at everybody out there? Everybody's way tense. Dude, I'm just saying, it... it'd be sweet if we could have... I don't know, something to do.
  Jack: We're surviving here, Hurley. And that's my main concern, is keeping us alive. Things could be worse.
  Hurley: How?!
• Hurley: Welcome... to the first and... hopefully last, Island Open.
  Jack: What?
  Hurley: It's two holes, for now. Three par, and no waiting.
  Jack: Hurley... You built a golf course?
  Hurley: Rich idiots fly to tropical islands all the time to whack balls around.
  Michael: All the stuff we got to deal with, man, this is what you've been wasting your time on?
  Hurley: Dudes, listen. Our lives suck. Everyone's nerves are stretched to the max. I mean, we're lost on an island, running from boars and monsters... Freakin' polar bears!
  Michael: Polar bears?
  Charlie: You didn't hear about the polar bear?
  Hurley: Look, all I'm saying is, if we're stuck here, then just surviving's not gonna cut it. We need some kind of relief, you know? We need some way that we can... you know, have fun. That's right, fun. Or else we're just gonna go crazy, waiting for the next bad thing to happen.
• Sullivan: What are you guys doing?
  Jack: Uh...
  Sullivan: Are you playing golf?!
  Jack: Yeah.
  Sullivan: Can I play?

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