Episode 14One of themAt last we meet the infamous Henry Gale. When his name popped up in one of the comments a few articles back, I can tell you that I have never been that tempted to Google anything before. I really don’t know how I resisted. But now we have another problem - we now have a few more unanswered questions to add to the ever increasing list of unanswered questions… like, just
who is Henry Gale and is he an Other?
So, in Sayid’s flashback we see how Sayid was captured by some American soldiers. Turns out that the commanding officer is Kate’s Daddy. Let’s see how many co-incidences they can squeeze into this series before it turns out that they are all hillbillies from deepest, darkest America…all separated at birth.
Anyways, back to the story at hand. Kate’s Daddy uses Sayid as an interpreter and later as a torturer. Much later, Sayid is released when the Americans are leaving, and he vows never to torture anyone again….even though Kate’s Daddy tells him that it will be needed again in future.
Back in present day, Ana-Lucia interrupts Sayid during his cleansing rituals, demanding to know where Jack is. She leads Sayid into the jungle where they see Danielle skulking about. Sayid sends Ana-Lucia back with orders not to talk about this to anyone (ie. Don’t mention it to Jack!)
Ah Danielle. I was wondering when we’d see her again. You know, something completely off topic here….it amazes me that she’s been all alone on the island for
16 years and her clothes are
not in tatters! If that’s not a miracle, then I don’t know what is.
Well, in any case she leads a highly skeptical and untrusting Sayid to a clearing in the jungle where she’s got a man dangling in one of those net traps of hers. She says that he’s “one of them”. The man shouts out that his name is Henry Gale and he’s from Minnesota… I just find it so interesting that the very first thing he does is mentions where he’s from.
Sayid cuts him down but Danielle (proving that she’s as unstable as ever) shoots him with an arrow. Sayid takes him to the hatch where Jack patches him up, after doing his never-ending but ever-growing self-righteous routine.
Sayid and Locke conspire behind Jack’s back and Locke changes the combination to the armory, where Sayid eventually ends up with Henry Gale. Jack gets all upset and demands that Locke open up the door. Locke refuses.
Oh. There you are John. I was wondering when the real John Locke would re-appear from behind Jack’s apron strings.
Henry Gale regains consciousness and Sayid begins questioning him. Henry Gale maintains that he and his wife were flying over the island in a hot air balloon and they crashed. Apparently his wife died of a fever.
Sayid asks him questions about his wife’s death and Henry says that he cannot remember. Sayid believes he is lying about his identity, stating he would know every last detail about burying the woman he loved. Henry then realises that Sayid had lost someone close to him on the island. Aww. I know I shouldn’t be feeling sorry for someone who has every intention of torturing another human being, but I
did feel for Sayid.
Sayid looses it a bit and starts beating Henry Gale up. Jack, if possible, gets more uppity than ever and demands that Locke open the armory. Jack takes action by backing Locke against a wall, telling him he will only let him go if he opens the door. As the timer goes below a minute, Locke is forced to unlock the armory, then run to the computer and begin typing the code.
In his haste to push the button, he mistypes the numbers. As the timer passes zero, what looks like hieroglyphics are displayed on the timer…in red. Locke presses two more buttons on the computer, and after he hits the 'Execute' button, the clock resets to 108 and the sound that accompanied the hieroglyphics, dies down. I’ve never needed a reason to Google anything before, and I guess hieroglyphics are now going to the top of the list.
So, Jack rescues Henry Gale from Sayid. Sayid is later sitting on the beach chatting to Charlie. He tells Charlie that he knows that Henry Gale is an Other, because he felt no guilt about torturing him. Charlie asks him why he is telling him all of this.
Sayid replies that Locke and Jack will never understand because they have forgotten what the Others have done to them all – hanging up Charlie, kidnapping Claire etc. He then says "So Charlie, Have you forgotten?"
I like where Sayid’s going with this!!! Firstly, I am not sure that I believe Henry Gale. I didn’t like the look in his eyes when Jack shut the door on him after removing Sayid from the armory. This island is making me crazy too!
Wouldn’t it be so cool is Sayid secretly gets together an army of his own. I can see it now - Sayid and the 2 outcasts (Sawyer and Charlie), maybe they can recruit Michael when they all eventually realise that he’s been gone for, like, forever and nobody seems to be too interested. And then they can recruit Mr Eko, and one or two of the unknown survivors. I reckon their chances against the Others are much better than Jack’s army.
Anyway, in other island news, the island decides to show Sawyer who is
really the sheriff of the island and, in keeping with this weeks theme of armies, they send an army consisting of a
single tree frog to torture him into sleepless nights.
Sawyer blackmails Hurley to go looking for it, and after he insults Hurley for the millionth time, Hurley finally has enough and heads back to the beach. Sawyer
apologizes and they go look for the frog.
But the island is clever, because you wonder how are they ever going to find and identify the offending frog in a jungle!!! In a jungle that potentially houses a trillion frogs!
Island 1 – Sawyer 0.
But Hurley and Sawyer are even cleverer than the island, because they not only
find the frog, but
capture it too.
Island 1 – Sawyer 1. It’s an even playing field now, but still in keeping with this weeks other theme of torture, Sawyer squishes the poor wee froggie to death.
I have got to take away brownie points from Sawyer. I have a great affinity for frogs.. he should really have gone with Hurley’s suggestion that they set him free and let him find a Mrs Tree Frog. But then he’d just breed and return with an even larger army.
Island 1 – Sawyer 2. Sawyer wins this round!