Solitary (Lost)

From Television Wiki

"Solitary" is the ninth episode of the first season of Lost. The episode was directed by Greg Yaitanes and written by David Fury. It first aired on November 17, 2004 on ABC. The character of Sayid Jarrah (Naveen Andrews) is featured in the episode's flashbacks.

Plot

Sayid finds a mysterious cable running out of the ocean and into the jungle. When it was first discovered, it was slightly damaged, revealing wires within it. When followed into the jungle, it runs down into the ground within a few hundred feet of a ravine with a rope bridge across it. While following it, Sayid is caught in a trap. A mysterious French woman (Mira Furlan) cuts him down and ties him to a bed in a bunker. She asks where Alex is, but when Sayid says he does not know, she shocks him with electricity using batteries and a cable. Sayid tells his torturer his story and about the French transmission. The torturer then identifies herself as Danielle Rousseau, the person who sent out the distress signal. Danielle finds a picture of a woman among Sayid's possessions, and he identifies her as Nadia (Andrea Gabriel).

In a flashback, Sayid is torturing a prisoner who will not answer his questions. When he steps outside, he recognizes a new prisoner. He is then instructed to torture her until she answers his questions. Sayid discovers that the woman is Nadia, a childhood friend. She reveals that she has been tortured before, and nothing Sayid does will persuade her to talk.

At camp, everyone is stressed. John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) and his new hunting companion, Ethan Rom (William Mapother), give some newly found luggage to Hugo "Hurley" Reyes (Jorge Garcia). He looks through it and finds golf clubs. The next morning, Hurley builds a golf course to improve morale among the survivors.

Rousseau asks Sayid about Nadia, and he says that she is dead because of him. Rousseau shows Sayid a broken music box, and he tells her he will fix it. Rousseau reveals that she was part of a science team, and they crashed on the island about three days from Tahiti. She identifies the Others as the carriers of a sickness that her companions caught, and says that the Others whisper in the jungle. Sayid doesn't believe her, but continues to fix the music box. After he is finished, he asks Rousseau to let him go. They hear a growl outside, and Rousseau pursues it, leaving Sayid alone.

In a flashback, Sayid's superior tells him to execute Nadia. He cuffs Nadia and puts a hood over her head. When they are alone he frees her and tells her how to escape. His superior finds and attempts to kill them both but Sayid fatally shoots him. Nadia first thinks that he will have to leave with her now but he instead shoots himself in the leg and tells her to leave as reinforcements arrive. Making it appear as if Nadia shot Sayid and the other officer to escape.

Sayid escapes from Rousseau's bunker while she is gone, grabbing a rifle and notes she made about the island. Rousseau finds him and they have a standoff; he fires the rifle, but nothing happens. Rousseau says she removed the firing pin, and Robert, her deceased husband, made the same mistake before she killed him. She then reveals that it was she who killed her team, under the motive of stopping the disease from reaching the outside world. Sayid talks Rousseau into letting him go, but before he leaves, he asks about Alex. Rousseau says that Alex was her child. While trying to find his way back to camp, Sayid hears the whispering Rousseau told him about.

Reception

17.64 American viewers tuned in to ABC to watch the episode.^[1] In a review of the episode, Chris Carabott of IGN commented that Rousseau appeared to be more emotionally fragile than in later seasons, and was like a "loose canon". Carabott found that as the series progressed and the mystery around the character was lessened, Rousseau was unable to deliver the same impact she made in her first appearance.^[2]

References