Lost: Season 6, Episode 6 Review: Sundown

Sundown

Original Airdate: March 2, 2010

Writer: Paul Zbyszewski and Graham Roland

Director: Bobby Roth

Note: I’ve grown tired of referring to the person occupying Locke’s body by the nickname Man in Locke. So until he is given a name, I will refer to him as Johnny, both because he has the form of John Locke, and Man in Black, what he’s referred to officially, is best known as the nickname for legendary country singer Johnny Cash. For reviews I’m behind on, I will not incorporate any real name given until the episode that happens in.

Playing off our expectations of following season one’s centric episodes and the word play of the title, this episode instead focuses on Sayid (100 episodes after his first one). The characters lives are falling into two categories, and LA X Sayid’s life is closer to LA X Kate’s than LA X Jack & Locke. While Sayid at first seems to have a fine life, he doesn’t feel he deserves the love of his life Nadia, who married his brother Omer despite the lingering feelings between her and Sayid. Then when he is called upon to help Omer when he falls into debt with mobsters, he returns to his nature to act brutally and more with his emotions than reason.

In one of the best sideways appearances, Keamy shows up as the man to whom Omer owes money. Keamy’s core personality, ruthless and out for money, makes him a good fit for a gangster. Like every gangster in recent memory, he has an affinity for cooking (when did this become a thing for TV and movie mobsters?) Kevin Durand is having a lot of fun here, channeling Christopher Walken way more than he was in the fourth season.

A pattern has emerged in the flash sideways: those who have sided with Jacob found redemption in their flash sideways, while those who side with Johnny find themselves falling back on old habits. Sayid reverts to his violent past as he ambushes LA X Keamy’s men and doesn’t forgive Keamy when he promises to forget Omer’s debt.

No sooner are the guys dispatched does Sayid hear Jin banging on the side of the refrigerator door. This encounter really boosts the flash-sideways standing. It reminds me of season one where these collisions would spark hours of discussion and debate. It’s a step in the right direction.

In the master timeline, Sayid is also asked to intervene in the growing island conflict by killing Johnny. Ever since his resurrection, The Others have been wary of Sayid, and failing Dogen’s test isn’t helping either. After a well choreographed fight scene and brief banishment, Dogen sends Sayid on this mission to prove that there’s still good in him. It is up for debate whether Dogen meant this as a redemptive measure or if Johnny was right that Dogen assumed that Sayid would’ve been killed on sight. Johnny did speak before Sayid stabbed him, but how that affects the potency of the knife is weird. Also Dogen isn’t above manipulating events so he doesn’t dirty his hands.

Considering his history with Dogen, Sayid believes the latter. Many people assume that being “claimed” means that Johnny has you on his side. While I’ve stated my issues with possession and character development, it’d make sense that Sayid would go against Dogen considering he’s tried to kill him. Thankfully the writers aren’t using possession as a shortcut.

Johnny also lures Sayid with the promise of bringing Nadia back to him. This is another promise to someone on his side that uses what they value most against them. He’s already lied to Claire about Aaron, so are we to believe he is the necromancer he claims?

Sayid returns with the warning Claire was unable to give: choose Johnny or be killed and they have to make a choice by sundown. Johnny seems to have a great knack for planning, as no sooner does Sayid kill Dogen & Lennon does he come roaring in. This may point to “claiming” allowing Johnny to have some access into what Sayid is going through, and therefore was able to get Sayid to do what he wanted them to do.

Before drowning, Dogen reveals his backstory: after partying with co-workers following a promotion, he gets in an accident leaving his son in a grave condition. He makes a deal with Jacob to save his son but he must come to the island and he can never see his son again. Ultimately his story is a lot like Juliet’s, although she didn’t know that she would never see Rachel again. Dogen’s baseball is like “Downtown” in that they are the only reminders they have of those they left behind. To illustrate the concept of Team Jacob having a better life in the LA X world, we see Dogen with his son in LA, presumably happy.

As Dogen is drowned in the pond and Lennon’s body is thrown in shortly after, some have wondered if they can return the way Sayid did. If they did, odds are they would wind up on Johnny’s side. Besides the show not needing more characters, they served their purpose: Lennon was a supporting character at best, and Dogen, while interesting, told his story and any loose ends can be told in a flashback. Besides, him dying allowed the massacre to take place.

The massacre itself was an amazing capper to the episode. Seeing the Monster tear apart the Temple and everyone unfortunate to cross his path really felt like the first major battle of the war that’s been teased since last season, with the Jacob side brutally defeated. Closing the first third of the season, things look really bad. Redemption is forgone, bodies are strewn about the Temple and creepy Claire sings “Catch a Falling Star”. If Johnny is supposed to be the side of good, it’s going to be a hard sell to make us think otherwise.

During the chaos, Ilana, Ben, Frank & Sun wind up at the Temple, and quickly decide to hightail it out with Miles in tow. While it makes sense for them to head to the Temple, this appearance felt a little out of place, or at least the staging, like if the Scooby gang showed up in the Mystery Machine van. However, a little goofy amidst an awesome climax is pretty forgivable.

The other plot point of the episode is Kate finding Claire, thrown in the “Silence of the Lambs” hole in the Temple. Like Jin last week, why is Kate holding back valuable information? It’s four simple words: Aaron’s with your mother. No one has bothered to tell her that her mother is awake and her precious son is under her care. Of course, Kate doesn’t do herself any favors by playing up the hero card like Jack did last season and as Sawyer did in that scenario, Claire isn’t buying it. While characters withholding is a fact of Lost, there’s a limit on that.

Regardless, in Kate’s pursuit of Claire she sides with Johnny, something he apparently didn’t account for, judging by his expression. So ultimately he has way more people along for the ride than he does believers in his cause. Most of the Others now on his side switched presumably out of fear of death, Jin is prisoner and Kate is there because she wants to reunite Claire with her son. Ultimately Johnny probably doesn’t care too much about any of them so long as he gets what he wants, but is Kate a big enough x factor to cause him to tinker with that plan?

This is easily the darkest episode of Lost, with the huge body count, the open dismissal of redemption in selfish pursuits with the presumed good side decimated. No wonder Jacob got Hurley & Jack as far away from that as possible. The war is here and its impact makes an indelible impression.

Overall Score: 8/10