LOST: A Bad, Bad Man With Pretty Hair

Alrighty, so Wednesday's Lost was a slight improvement over last week's absolutely uneventful "Namaste". We see what Sayid has been up to over the course of, well, his entire life.

Early in his life, little Sayid gained the praise of his father by killing chickens. Good to know. Then, we flash through different points of the three years he spent off the island. He uses his metrosexual disguise to kill a guy in Moscow, which Ben informs him was his last kill. "He was the last of Widmore's men" Ben tells him. I suppose that, at this point, we can all assume that the killing that Benry had our Iraqi doing was essentially of no purpose other than reinstating the fact that Sayid is a killer in his own mind. I find it hard to believe that they were actually doing much damage to Widmore's "team" seeing as how when Locke comes off the island, Charles doesn't seem to be sweating it.

We finally find out why he was in handcuffs heading to Guam of all the places on Earth. I did like that they included a resolution to the golf course scene from S4. This development also lends massive amounts of interest points to Ilana's character. Finding out she's a bounty hunter possibly working for Ben instead of yet another cop makes me sit up and pay attention a bit more.

As far as the island's events: Dharma seems to be some bloodthirsty folk eh? The Others, while living in their little houses, had book club meetings. Our favorite researchers? They held votes on whether to kill people. But before all that, Sawyer/James/LaFleur tries his best to get Sayid to head over to Dharmaland and play house along with the rest of the 815ers. He wants nothing to do with it, however, and later claims that he finally understands his purpose on the island.

Little Benjamin Potter is back in this episode making more culinary treats. We have the return of Roger, being an absolute dick again, throwing said sandwiches across the room and pushing little Ben around. Hell, Linus is getting it easy compared to later in the episode though.

When Sawyer's attempts at saving Sayid fail, they take him to one of my new favorite characters Oldham. Living out in a tent, using old school everything, Oldham is Dharma's torturer we are told. There isn't much torture going on, however, as he just gives him some Veritaserum and Sayid starts pouring out the truth. Which, by all reasonable accounts, they don't buy into.

Then, Ben sets up a distraction in flaming bus form and sets the course for Sayid's escape. How is he repaid? By a bullet in his twelve year old chest. Super intense.

The Big Questions
1. Ben can't die right? That doesn't make sense...however read number two
2. Has Ben been prepping 2005-7 Sayid to go back and injure 1977 Ben? Perhaps Linus knows that something of this magnitude can alter the "future" and thereby change Ben's luck in the future?
3. Why does Oldham live way off outside of New Otherton? He seems to be more at one with the island than his fellow riders of the blue buses.
4. Who did hire Ilana to bring Sayid? Was it the obvious Ben or is she perhaps a Widmore lackey?
5. Is it just me or did next week's trailer seem like another boring episode?