Episode Report Card Daniel: C+ | 2 USERS: C YOU GRADE IT In torture we trust
By Daniel | Season 2 | Episode 14 | Aired on 02.14.2006
Clancy Motherfucking Brown is pacing in his tent. Sayid comes in, and perfunctorily tells him that the pilot was executed two days ago and is buried in a field four kilometres away. Sayid can take them there. He hands off the Tackle Box and leaves. Clancy looks rather grim. "Oh no," he's surely thinking. "He looked rather perturbed that we've made him into someone who'll torture his own countrymen." Oh, well; I'm sure he'll get over it, like all the other short-lived Middle East grudges against the West.
Back in the hatch-hole, Jack's trying the combination on the armoury door. He's also pounding on the door, which is not as effective as he was probably hoping. He asks if Locke changed the combination. Locke's all, yeah, because YOU'RE RAISING AN ARMY. "And why you didn't ask me to help -- well, that's your business. But there's only one reason to raise an army, Jack. And that's because we're at war. And like it or not, whatever Sayid has to do behind that door, that's a part of it too." Yeah, well what if he's telling the truth, is what Jack wants to know. "What if he's not?" asks Locke. Oh, tou-ché.
Inside the armoury, Sayid's tying Henry up again and then forcing him into a sitting position. The torture doesn't seem to be agreeing with him. Sayid starts asking Henry more details about his island, looking for inconsistencies, how quickly Henry is able to answer questions, I imagine. Sayid wants to know why they stayed on the beach for so long (four months). "Why wouldn't we? We wanted to be there for flyovers. We had an emergency beacon, a transmitter." Sayid asks about that, and Henry says it was an ADF beacon. They wanted to make sure they'd be spotted. Sayid looks at him coolly. So Henry tries making nice: "Look, whatever you think I am, I'm not. Please, please just tell me your name." Nope, ain't happening. Instead, Sayid asks what his wife's maiden name is. "Murphy," says Henry. Oh, nice one; I think you've just given him your email password, ya idjit. How'd she die? She got sick. "She got sick?" asks Sayid, pressing. "It started as a fever. After two days she was delirious. Then she died!" Great story. Sayid rests his head in his hand, thinking. Henry's decided enough with the torture, apparently: "I don't know why you're treating me this way, why I have to explain to you who I am when you don't tell me who you are." Well, the simple answer is that he's got you tied up and locked in a very small room.
Never mind, that seems to work. Sayid suddenly feels like sharing. "I was 23 years old when the Americans came to my country. I was a good man. And when they left I was something different." Henry's staring at him, fascinated. "For the next six years I did things I wish I could erase from my memory, things which I never thought myself to be capable of. But I did come to learn this: there was a part of me which was always capable. You want to know who I am? My name is Sayid Jarrah, and I am a torturer." I thought they didn't use last names at Torturers Anonymous meetings?