The Economist is Me

Castaways-

Who’s your favorite economist? Mine is/was none other than Milton Friedman of the University of Chicago who passed away last year. All this monetarist did was change the intellectual landscape of 20th century economics, win the Nobel Prize in 1976, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1988. He was a champion of the “radical” idea that perhaps Adam Smith and Thomas Jefferson had found a pretty remarkable link between political and economic freedom. I personally just want more free stuff from my government, and Friedman’s theories are missing an awful lot of words like “change” and “hope” for my liking.

But I digress…

Actually, I don’t: Barack Obama is the most unqualified person to ever run for the office of President.

So, LOST??? Good show.

Sayid is still under Ben’s control, even off the island and as a member of the famed Oceanic Six. In that conversation at the end of the episode, the two of them allude to some prior situation with a girl whose death Ben used to blackmail Sayid into working for him. I thought it was interesting that Ben was a doggie doctor and one of the dogs in the crates we saw looked like the one from the portrait of a pooch in Jacob’s cabin from last season’s episode where Locke heard Jacob say “help me.” Also, the smokey monster is called Cerberus (guard-dog of Hade in Greek mythology). Vincent is obviously a special canine too. There’s something up with dogs on LOST and I intend by next week to have a real, substantive theory about that. If you have any before then, post-a-way!

Okay, so this post is a hurried and scatter-brained one, but I have random thoughts about the episode (which was another home-run in my opinion). First off, The Economist was said to be “old fashioned” by Elsa (the skirt Sayid was chasing). Ben last season described Jacob much the same way to Locke, and even commented that Locke felt the same way about technology as Jacob did. This, in my mind at least, possibly points to either Jacob being the Economist, or to a person similar to Jacob, maybe even from the same ship-wrecked slave ship, being the Economist. What do I mean?

I am still going with my theory that there is a group of Others within the Others who have been there for quite some time. My guesstimate is that they are survivors of the crash of the slave ship The Black Rock. Some or all of them found the secrets of the island which lengthen or eternalize life (hence, Richard appearing to be the same age in Ben’s back story and in present “island” time). Perhaps some of those survivors got off the island, while Jacob (who may be Magnus Hanso) stayed behind (or was left behind). Maybe the bigger picture struggle going on isn’t between Ben and Matthew Abbadon, but between Jacob and whoever is running that group of people who come to hunt Ben down and then Ben uses Sayid to hunt them down.

Moving on…the matching bracelets that Naomi and Elsa had were obviously an indicator that they worked for the same person/organization. Ben reminds Sayid that whoever these people are, they don’t deserve “our sympathy.” Sounds pretty bad, but when coming from the most manipulative person this side of me when I was 11 with my younger siblings and their allowance money, it means very little right now. Sayid is obviously an emotional wreck and has some lingering guilt that causes him to work for such a creepy guy, killing people none the less. The guy Sayid shot first thing at the golf course was on an island chain east of Africa in the Indian Ocean. He was obviously wealthy and probably a higher-up in whatever secret organization this is Sayid’s tracking down members of. Perhaps this is further evidence of a link to Windimore and Paik Industries.

Speaking of which, our boy Desmond was back in the Scottish mix with a full-court press of the helicopter pilot and Faraday the neurotic physicist regarding their knowledge of Penny. I mean, come on, their looks gave it away that something was up, but we didn’t even need that much information to realize there’s a connection. They’ve got a frickin’ picture of Penny and Dez that only Desmond had a copy of. Again, my theory here is that they know Penny found at least the vicinity of the island at the end of season two when those guys in the snow-clad mountains honed in on the electromagnetic activity and phoned her. Since then, whoever these boat people are have been tracking her movements and coordinates and beat her to the punch of finding the island.

Also pertaining to Desmond, I believe his vision he told Charlie he saw was not of Aaron and Claire getting on that helicopter, but of himself getting off the island back to Penny. I think that’s why he felt so badly about Charlie going down to the Looking Glass station and was even willing at the last second to trade places with Drive Shaft himself. I have little other evidence to go on but that…

There was also the fascinating scene of the rocket launched from the ship landing 31 minutes late on the island. Faraday said that it was “beyond weird” that this occurred, and then insisted that the pilot follow the exact same bearing going out that they’d used going in. Obviously the pilot, Frank, will be back, and it would appear that there are two slots left open for members of the Oceanic Six. Desmond and Ben will get off the island, but neither were on the plane and Ben’s escape is likely not one he wants publicized anyway.

Final thought/theory…I really think its shaping up that Locke did not blow up the submarine and still has it stashed away somewhere near the dock. I’ve gone over why I think this many times before, but basically I don’t think its gone and he’s saving it for a rainy day, and it will ultimately be how Ben (possibly others) get off the island in the end.

Sayid is still the man, despite his head-hunting ways. He was an economist in this episode himself as he carefully orchestrated deals, prisoner exchange rates, hedged his bets, and merged as partners (or so it seems) with Locke to go and spy on the ship and see what’s what. Great episode and next week’s will hopefully continue this season’s current trend of brilliance. Decent show.


Love,
Sayid’s Mane of Hair