In Emergencies: A Bomb is not for floating

(Spoiler Alert: This recap talks about the most recent episode of LOST, including the many characters that died)
Death by itself is not a powerful tool. I can watch a war movie and not blink as soldiers get mowed down while charging a beach. Context is what makes a viewer give a damn about what they’re witnessing.
For that very reason, though, I didn’t give a damn when Boone, Shannon, Libby, Anna Lucia and Arzt died on the island in LOST. In their cases I wasn’t flooded with apathy, but with joy. In those instances context ensured that I would treat their individual demises as a savory treat to enjoy. I currently think I’ll be denied the feeling of this warmth with Kate, who miraculously had a bullet wound immediately above her heart become superficial at best.
All this talk of death stems from the most recent episode of LOST, The Candidate, where we said goodbye to three (debatably four, but we’ll talk to that later) main characters.
Let’s take these deaths in the order they occurred, which means we’re starting with Sayid. In many regard the Sayid we had known on the island, the reluctant torturer, reluctant killer and reluctant human, died from the wounds he sustained in the season five finale. Since then we’ve had the Zombie Sayid experience, which slowly had been devolving to the point where he felt more like a lifeless pawn in the service of Man in Locke (MiL).
I had held out hope and a firm belief that he would find salvation in the close of this season. While he had been killing for MiL and appeared to have given up the last of his ties to humanity, he showed his true colors during his discourse with Desmond. We were supposed to believe that conversation had ended in the execution of Desmond, but it was obvious that Sayid had unilaterally granted a stay of execution. But why?
I think the answer revolves around the fact that his fellow Losties reaffirmed his ties to human society. With MiL he was just an island unto himself, where all he had to cling to was a promise that MiL couldn’t really deliver. The Losties offered him friendship and some sort of meaning, which might not have made him whole, but prompted him to make the ultimate sacrifice. (Although, I think he was probably dying on the submarine and probably could have avoided his death by throwing the bomb or something. That reminds me, did Charlie really need to die?)
The death of Sayid didn’t really hit me that hard and I was satisfied with how he was killed. It might not have been on par with Randy Quaid’s gesture in INDEPENDENCE DAY or Bruce Willis’s move in ARMAGEDDON, but it was touching.
His death embodied the way he lived. It was courageous, but underplayed. It was dramatic, but without any sense of urgency. It was selfless. I think it’s important to note how selfless his actions were, since for most of the season he had been motivated by a selfish desire. Sayid had been killing on behalf of MiL for a chance to be reunited with the love of his life, and in the process denying others that same realistic possibility. I previously wrote about how Sayid’s humanity is grounded in the presence or hope of Nadia, since in real life and the sideways reality it inspires him to be better than he is.
At this point I want to pause and briefly remember Sayid:
When we first met him we were supposed to believe he had the hots for Kate. I was glad to see that tangent quickly killed off, but still can’t forgive him for his infatuation with Shannon. I know he’s a torturer, but that was painful for me to watch. Before falling for the blonde bombshell he went on a sabbatical from the camp that led to his connection with Russo, who in my opinion gave him a second chance at life.
A constant theme with Sayid is his humanity, his connection with other people on an emotional level, which was always in doubt. Even when he seemed driven to protect his fellow Losties, it always felt like he was a man apart. He was a soldier on a mission. He may have been fighting for the good side, but his morals were driven merely by the master he currently served.
Off the island he was a man at ease with the world and himself. In Nadia he had a nurturing figure that quelled his inner demons. In a cynical sense she was just another distraction. I want to believe that for a while she balanced him and he felt genuine love and devotion, in lieu of devotion to a mission.
In the aftermath of Nadia’s death we saw the first signs of Zombie Sayid. A man without a nation, and while he tried his hand at building house and killing for hire, he was doomed to his fate one way or another. Not so much a fate of death, but a fate of destruction. In his final moments he broke that cycle and in doing so guaranteed his final ties to civilization and his friends.
(Editor’s Note: This is the end of THE CANDIDATE recap PART 1. Dave will be back to explore the death of the good Koreans, our favorite beach bum and provide context for the episode.)