Lost/The Economist

The Economist
Season 4, Episode 3
Airdate	February 14, 2008
Production Number	403
Written by	Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz
Directed by	Jack Bender
← 4x02 Confirmed Dead	4x04 → Eggtown
Lost — Season Four

The Economist is the third episode of the fourth season of Lost, and the seventy-fifth episode overall.

Sayid and Kate try to negotiate for Locke's hostage, whom they think might be the key to getting off the island.

Starring: Naveen Andrews (Sayid), Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond), Jeremy Davies (Daniel), Emilie de Ravin (Claire), Michael Emerson (Ben), Matthew Fox (Jack), Jorge Garcia (Hurley), Josh Holloway (Sawyer), Daniel Dae Kim (Jin), Yunjin Kim (Sun), Ken Leung (Miles), Evangeline Lilly (Kate), Rebecca Mader (Charlotte), Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet), Terry O'Quinn (Locke), Harold Perrineau (Michael)

Guest Starring: Zoë Bell (Regina, voice only), Jeff Fahey (Frank Lapidus), Mira Furlan (Danielle Rousseau), Armando Pucci (Peter Avellino), Thekla Reuten (Elsa), Marsha Thomason (Naomi)

Plot Overview

The Island

• At the helicopter, Jack and Juliet discuss why the people from the freighter would want Ben while Miles badgers them for Ben's location. Miles claims the people who hired him gave him Ben's picture, told him his name, and that was it. For the amount of money they're paying him, he didn't bother asking questions. As they argue, Sayid looks over Naomi's body and finds an inscription on her bracelet reading, "N, I'll always be with you. R.G." He strikes a deal with the helicopter pilot, Frank: he'll bring back Charlotte safely in exchange for a ride to their freighter. After looking through Naomi's pack, Sayid shows Jack a picture she had of Desmond and Penelope Widmore. She was looking for Desmond, and he believes their real agenda on the island has yet to be revealed. Juliet agrees to go to the beach camp and bring back Desmond. Turning to how they'll get Charlotte, Sayid tells Jack he's going to get her back without any bloodshed. As Sayid and Miles prepare to leave for the barracks, Jack tells Kate that she should go with them. He doesn't trust Locke and believes Sawyer will prevent Locke from harming Kate. Kate joins up with Sayid and Miles, and the group leaves. Learning Sayid was from Iraq, Frank asks Jack if Sayid was a diplomat and is just going to go work everything out. Jack tells him Sayid was a torturer.

  Daniel pulls some equipment out from the helicopter and begins setting it up. Jack asks Frank as to what Daniel's story is, but Frank tells him he has no idea as everything Daniel says goes way over his head. Daniel asks Frank for the satellite phone as he wants to do a science experiment. Frank lets him have it, telling him to hang up if Minkowski starts hassling him. Daniel contacts Regina on the freighter and, turning on the equipment, is told they have a fix on their location. A payload is fired from the freighter to the beacon, but it doesn't arrive on the island while the freighter tracks it as being there. Sometime later, Jack asks Frank if the Red Sox won the World Series, but Frank doesn't want to talk about it as he's a Yankees fan. The payload, a rocket, finally arrives and lodges itself into the ground near the helicopter. Daniel pulls out a digital clock from the rocket, but is distressed. Comparing the payload's clock with the clock on the island, Daniel learns the payload's clock is ahead by 31 minutes and 18 seconds; that's not good. Juliet returns with Desmond in tow.

• In the jungle, Sawyer questions Ben as to who his mole is on the freighter. Locke tells Sawyer that Ben will never give up that information as its the only thing keeping him alive. Locke reaches where Jacob's cabin is, finding the ring of ash on the ground, but the cabin is gone. He's adamant that the cabin should be there, making Sawyer wonder what's so important in the cabin. Ben tells him that Locke is looking for someone to tell him what to do next. To defuse the situation, Locke tells the group he must be mistaken and the plan hasn't changed, the barracks are nearby. Rousseau reminds Locke that Jack's group know they're going to the barracks, and Sawyer chimes in with how Charlotte was wearing a bullet-proof vest, so her team must be expecting a gun fight. Hurley suggests they let Charlotte go as he didn't sign up for taking hostages, but Locke overrules him.

• As Sayid, Kate and Miles proceed deeper into the jungle, Sayid questions Miles about Naomi and how he doesn't seem particularly phased by her death. Miles replies that he was affected; she was hot and he dug her accent. He doesn't really care much about Charlotte, either. Miles points out how the two of them are going after one of their buddies with guns, and asks them what Locke did to split up their little family. Sayid tells him there was a debate on whether his people were coming to rescue them or kill them; he's still undecided as to which side he's on.

  The group arrives at the barracks, finding it seemingly empty, but hear a noise coming from one of the houses. They find Hurley locked inside a closet. Hurley tells them that Locke has gone crazy, telling them Walt told him to kill Naomi, and they've gone somewhere else but went by Ben's place first. The four of them search Ben's house for any sign of where Locke's group may have gone. Sayid notices scuff marks on the floor from a bookcase being moved away from a wall. Behind it he finds a hidden room containing benign items like clothing and suitcases, but then he discovers large sums of money from different countries and numerous passports. In Ben's bedroom, Kate checks underneath the bed when Sawyer enters and tries to tell her to be quiet, but she yells for Sayid. Sayid rushes out of the hidden room, but is met at gunpoint by Locke. It's an ambush and Hurley was in on it.

  While Locke questions Miles, Rousseau escorts Sayid to the barracks' community room and locks him inside with Ben. Ben lets Sayid know he lost a dollar by making a bet with Locke that Sayid wouldn't be stupid enough to fall for Hurley as bait. At Ben's bedroom, Sawyer keeps an eye on Kate. The two question each other on why they chose the group they did. Kate tells him he stuck with Jack because she believes he can get them off the island. Sawyer tells her he isn't looking to leave the island as there's nothing back there for him in the outside world. Kate wonders what's so better on the island, but Sawyer asks her why she wants to leave so badly, reminding her how she was heading to jail. If she thinks there's anything for her off the island other than handcuffs, then she doesn't know how the world works. They have all the amenities of home there at the barracks, but Kate doesn't believe they can pretend to play house forever. Sawyer tells her they could find out.

  At the community room, Locke brings some iced tea for Sayid. He assures Sayid that Miles is fine, but couldn't get any information out of him. Sayid agrees that the people from the freighter are liars and are not there to rescue them, but if he returns with Charlotte then he'll be taken to the freighter and he can discover the truth. Asked why he would give Charlotte away for nothing, Sayid tells him he's there to make an exchange.

• At the helicopter, Desmond confronts Frank with the photograph Naomi had of himself and Penny. Frank tries to tell him Naomi was "senior management" and it wasn't like they hung out together. Desmond tells him Naomi said the freighter was hired by Penelope, and he wants Frank to look him in the eye and tell him he's never seen or heard of Penelope Widmore. After sharing a glance with Daniel, Frank just shakes his head. Seeing as how Frank doesn't want to tell him the truth, Desmond tells him he's going along on the helicopter to find someone who will. Sayid returns with Charlotte. He tells Jack that Kate decided to stay. Frank learns that Sayid traded Miles for Charlotte. He tells Sayid he cheated, but Sayid is lucky Miles is a pain in his ass. As Sayid and Desmond are going to the freighter, there's room for only one more. Charlotte decides to stay as she has work to do, and Daniel decides to stay with Charlotte. Pulling Frank aside, Daniel warns him to follow the same exact bearing they came in on no matter what. As there's still room for one more, Sayid suggests they take Naomi home. The three leave the island.

The Flashforward

• Flashforward: Sayid

Sayid is playing a few rounds of golf on an exclusive, private golf course on the Seychelles, an archipelago nation of islands in the Indian Ocean. An Italian man drives up to him in a golf cart, offering a ride to the next hole, but Sayid politely declines. The man remarks that Sayid is the first person he's seen on the course all morning. Sayid replies that it's because they pay a lot of money for that kind of privacy. The Italian man suggests Sayid use the 5-iron, betting him 50 euros that he could hit the ball closer to the tee with the 5-iron than the 7-iron Sayid has selected. Sayid raises the bet to 100 euros. As the two make their attempts, the man questions Sayid as to what he does and learns he was the recipient of a large settlement from Oceanic Airlines as he is one of the Oceanic Six. The Italian man becomes visibly nervous at the revelation. The man wins their wager, but refuses to accept any compensation. He tries to leave but Sayid insists he pay, referring to the man by his name, "Mr. Avellino", and shoots him. Sayid picks up his clubs and calmly leaves the green.

Sayid travels to Berlin, Germany and steps inside the cafe Die Mauer ("The Wall"). He asks if the seat is free at a table where a woman, Elsa, is seated. Elsa asks him where he is going, and Sayid tells her he is trying to find Potsdamer Platz. After getting his directions, the two introduce themselves. Inquired as to what brings him to Berlin, Sayid tells Elsa that he is a headhunter. He learns Elsa works for an economist working in emerging markets, but all she really does is shop for him and, pulling out a pager, immediately meets him if she's paged. However, the economist is only in Berlin once or twice a year, so her job is fairly carefree. Elsa can't quite place where she knows Sayid, and Sayid promises to tell her if she'll go out to dinner with him. Elsa agrees, marking a restaurant on his map, and leaves. Outside, Sayid makes a call and tells a man that he's made contact, then dumps the phone in a trash can.

Later, Sayid meets Elsa at her apartment for a date to the opera. Elsa decides that she's not going to bring the pager with her this one night. Sayid decides to take it, telling her he doesn't want her fired because of him. Pointing out how outdated pagers are, Sayid is told that Elsa's employer is very old fashioned. Elsa asks him why he's still in Berlin, reminding Sayid how he said he'd only be in Berlin for one week the day they met in the cafe. She learns his job is proving harder to accomplish than he thought, and is a little disappointed as she hoped he was staying longer because of her. Sayid kisses her and they leave.

Some time later, Sayid and Elsa are in bed together at Elsa's apartment. She knows they'll have to get out of bed eventually as Sayid we'll have to go to his job he never talks about. She knows Sayid doesn't want to talk about the crash or what happened, but she would like to know more about his life now; it's what you do when you're in love. The two kiss, and Sayid agrees to tell Elsa what she wants to know when Elsa's pager goes off. As Elsa gets dressed, Sayid tells her she must leave Berlin as people will be asking questions soon about what happened to her employer. Realizing this is all about her boss, Elsa accuses him of using her to get to her boss, that he's going to kill him. Sayid tells her the economist's name is on his employer's list, but refuses to name his employer. Returning from the bathroom, Elsa shoots Sayid in the shoulder and calls someone. She tells the person they were supposed to call later, that she didn't kill Sayid but he'll not give up the name now and asks why she should keep him alive. Agreeing that Sayid had no idea of her true motives, Elsa agrees to bring Sayid to them at the safe house. As Elsa hangs up, Sayid sees an opening as her back is turned, retrieves his gun and shoots her twice in the chest. He notices she is wearing a bracelet similar to Naomi's.

Sayid staggers into a veterinary clinic. A man, Sayid's employer, tells him to remove his shirt so he can operate on the bullet wound. Sayid confirms that Elsa is dead. She didn't kill him because she needed information from him, namely who he worked for. The man, Benjamin Linus, agrees that she would want to know that. Noticing that Sayid is crying, Ben asks him if it's because his wound hurts or if he was stupid enough to fall in love with Elsa. The people Elsa works for don't deserve their sympathies, and he shouldn't have to remind Sayid what they did the last time he thought with his heart instead of his gun. Sayid tells him he used that to recruit him into killing for him. Ben simply asks Sayid if he wants to protect his friends or not. He has another name for Sayid, but Sayid tells him they know he's coming for them. Ben tells him, "Good."

Notes

Mysteries

• Where is Jacob's cabin?
• Why does Ben have numerous passports and a variety of different currency?
• Who is R.G.?
• Why is there a 31 minute difference in time between off the island and on it?
• Who did Elsa work for? Who are the people Sayid is killing?
• Why is Sayid working for Ben?

The Cursed Numbers

• One of the items on Die Mauer's menu costs 15.95.
• An advertisement on Die Mauer's wall reads "1516 Rein". 15 and 16 are two of the numbers.
• Elsa agrees to meet Sayid at a restaurant at 8PM.
• A street sign in Berlin lists one of the parking hours at 16 to 24 hours.
• The freighter helicopter's tail number contains the numbers 8 and 42.
• At one point the payload is 15 km from the beacon.
• The payload's clock reads 03:16:23 at one point. If it were in 24-hour time, then it would read 15:16:23.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Locke's group arrives at the barracks.
• Sayid returns with Charlotte, but got her by giving Miles to Locke.
• Daniel performs an experiment, discovering a 31 minute time difference between on the island and off.

Characters

• Miles is taken hostage by Locke.
• Kate decides to stay with Sawyer and Locke's group.
• Desmond leaves the island.
• Sayid leaves the island.

Referbacks

• 3x22 - Through the Looking Glass: Sayid tells Hurley he isn't going to hurt him, but Hurley reminds him how he saw him snap an Others neck with his legs.
• 4x01 - The Beginning of the End: Sayid reminds Jack that, the last time he encountered Locke, he put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger.

Trivia

The Show

• Home: The house Hurley was found inside is Juliet's house, seen in "A Tale of Two Cities" and "The Envelope".

Behind the Scenes

• Brazil: One of Ben's passports is Brazilian and reads "República Federativa do Brazil" ("Federative Republic of Brazil"). However, it should read "Brasil" instead of "Brazil".
• Deleted Scene: The original cut of "The Economist" featured Sayid, Kate and Miles at the sonar fence surrounding the barracks. While Sayid and Kate attempted to disarm the fence via control panel, Miles listened intently for something and then walked between the pylons unharmed. Turning to the two, Miles told them it wasn't on and it was just a lucky guess on his part.
• Advanced Cut: An advanced cut of "The Economist" had the timer on Daniel's experiment off by just 31 seconds instead of 31 minutes. The cut did not have several lines of dialog between Sayid and Ben at the end of Sayid's flashforward, namely when Ben mentioned the last time Sayid thought with his heart instead of his gun and if Sayid wanted to protect his friends or not.
• Location, Location, Location: The helicopter landing site is Hakipu'u Valley on Kualoa Ranch in Ka'a'awa, HI. The golf course in the Seychelles is the Arnold Palmer Course at the Turtle Bay Resort in Kahuku, HI. Die Mauer cafe in Berlin is the restaurant Cassis in Honolulu, HI. The Barracks is the YMCA's Camp Erdman in Waialua, HI.
• Missing in Action: Daniel Dae Kim, Yunjin Kim, Harold Perrineau, Jr. are credited but do not appear.

Allusions and References

• Gizmo: Sawyer refers to Ben as "Gizmo". Gizmo is one of the characters in the Gremlins movies, and is a mogwai (Cantonese for "evil spirit").
• Dean Moriarty: Ben's Swiss passport lists his alias as "Dean Moriarty". Dean Moriarty is one of the protagonists in Jack Kerouac's 1958 novel On the Road. In the novel, Dean grew up with a bum for a father for whom he searches on many occasions. In one of the stories in Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier, Dean Moriarty is the great-grandson of Sherlock Holmes' arch-nemesis Professor Moriarty. Professor Moriarty is considered one of the first super villains.
• If You Stayed Over: The song playing in the background when Sayid and Elsa are in bed together is "If You Stayed Over" by Bonobo, a British musician, from his 2006 album "Days to Come".

Quotes

• Sayid: Naomi. Were you close to her?

Miles: Nope. Met her on the boat.

Sayid: You don't seem particularly affected by her death.

Miles: Sure I'm affected. She was hot and I dug her accent.

Kate: (sarcastically) Nice.

Sayid: And this woman, Charlotte... You don't really care about her, do you?

Miles: Define "care."

Sayid: So much for camaraderie.

Miles: Yeah, gee, who's the one going after one of their crash buddies with guns.

• Miles: How about you stop babbling and tell us what happened to them? Where are they?

Hurley: Who're you?

Miles: Where the hell did they go, tubby?

Hurley: Oh, awesome, the ship sent us another Sawyer.

• (Danielle escorts Sayid at gunpoint while Hurley trails behind them)

Danielle: I'm sorry, Sayid. Nothing personal.

Sayid: Where's Locke?

Hurley: He's talking to that angry Chinese guy.

Sayid: I'm not going to hurt you, Hurley.

Hurley: Yeah... I saw you snap that guy's neck with that breakdancing thing you do with your legs. I think I'll hang back here.

(Sayid is locked inside a room with Ben)

Ben: Well... I guess they're running out of jail space. I lost a dollar, you know.

Sayid: How did you manage that?

Ben: I bet John you wouldn't be stupid enough to fall for your friend as bait.