1.09 Solitary
Days 12-13 Sayid Jarrah

Sayid's life is placed in grave danger after he stumbles upon the source of the mysterious French transmission, the woman Danielle Rousseau (guest-star Mira Furlan). She was on the distress call and is found alive. Meanwhile, Hurley has a ridiculous plan to make life on the island a little more civilized. The plan involves golf clubs he finds in the debris, and it looks like it just might work. Lastly, we flash back to Sayid's childhood friend Nadia as well as his participation in hostage situations in Iraq.

On the beach, Sayid is looking through his photos. As he looks around, he sees a wire sticking out of the sand. He picks it up, revealing it to be attached to a big cable running from the ocean into the jungle. As he follows it, he accidentally steps into a trap and is hung upside-down. After hours of hanging, someone comes and cuts him loose. After falling to the ground, Sayid only sees a blur of the person before he passes out. He awakens and finds himself tied down, and there is a woman asking where Alex is. When he tells her that he doesn't know what she's talking about, she flicks a switch and he is electrocuted. He then has a flashback to abusing a man during an interrogation. Afterwards he is talking to his superior officer and sees the woman in his photos. Back in the cave, Locke and Ethan arrive with stuff they found in the jungle. As Hurley looks through the stuff, Walt asks Locke if he can join him on the hunt, but Michael stops him. Elsewhere, Sayid begs for her to stop and mentions the French woman's transmission, and then the woman reveals herself to be the French woman. She doesn't believe that he just happened to hear her transmission and says that she knows what he is. She then knocks him unconscious. When he awakens, he sees her name on a jacket - Rousseau. He looks around and sees batteries, but he tells her that the batteries wouldn't have been able to power the transmission for 16 years. Rousseau tells him that it is being broadcasted from somewhere else, but \"The Others\" have control of it now. She says that she believes that Sayid is one of The Others. She then finds the envelope of Sayid's photos and asks who the woman in the photos is; he says that her name is Nadia. In a flashback, Sayid is interrogating Nadia. She reveals that they knew each other when they were little, but he still threatens to hurt her if she doesn't talk. However, when she shows him her wounds from other interrogations, he becomes upset. He still tells her that if she doesn't talk, he will hurt her, but she refuses to. The flashback ends as Rousseau sees a bullet wound in his leg. He tells her that he used to be a soldier a long time ago. When she asks to hear more about Nadia, he asks who Alex is. In the cave, Walt is bored, and Hurley finds something in the luggage and is excited. He borrows a stick from Michael and runs off. Meanwhile, Rousseau asks why Sayid was alone even though he claims there were other survivors. He tells her that he left camp because he was ashamed. When Rousseau asks if he left Nadia, too, he says that she wasn't on the plane and that she's dead because of him. Rousseau tells him that she wants to show him something and then runs off. Elsewhere, when Michael is showing Jack his plans for showers, Charlie tells them that Hurley wants to show them something. Hurley reveals that he has made a golf course! Meanwhile, Rousseau shows Sayid a broken musicbox that was from her love, Robert. She says it comforted her during the first few years on the island, and Sayid offers to fix it for her if she frees his hands. She immediately gets up, grabs an a seditive, and injects it into him with a hypodermic needle. Back on the course, Jack and Michael are playing golf. When Sayid wakes up, he is chained to a chair. Rousseau apologizes, saying it was the only way to safely move him. As he begins to repair the musicbox, Sayid asks Rousseau questions. Rousseau says that her first name is Danielle and that she arrived on the island by boat. After leaving Tahiti, her boat's instruments malfunctioned and a storm came. The boat crashed into rocks and couldn't be repaired. After two months of being on the island, the rest of her team was killed by The Others when they were returning from the Black Rock. When he asks if she has seen The Others, she replies that she only hears them. In another flashback, Sayid sneaks Nadia food. He offers her the chance to get out if she'll talk, but she still refuses. On the beach, others hears about the golf course. Boone, Shannon, and Kate leave to check it out, but Sawyer stays behind. Meanwhile, Sayid fixes the musicbox. When he hands it to Rousseau, he manages to steal her hypodermic needle. When he asks to be let free, she won't let him go because it's not safe. They hear a loud animal, and Rousseau grabs a gun and leaves. As Sayid looks at the rifle she left behind, he has a flashback of being told to execute Nadia. Although he disagrees with it, he follows orders and goes to get Nadia. The flashback ends as Sayid frees himself, grabs maps and supplies, and leaves, accidentally leaving the picture of Nadia behind. As Michael and the others are busy playing golf, Walt goes into the woods. Sayid then runs into Rousseau. The two face off with their rifles. Another flashback begins with Sayid trying to free Nadia. When his superior officer catches him, Sayid shoots and kills him and then shoots himself in the leg to make it look like Nadia did the shooting in her escape. He gives her his gun and she runs. As the flashback ends, Sayid pulls the trigger, but the gun doesn't fire. Rousseau tells him that Robert never noticed that the firing pin was removed when she killed him. She then reveals that she killed her team because they were \"sick\". Sayid tells her that he knows what it's like to lose someone and still hold on, and he asks her to come back the beach with him. She lets him go but doesn't go back with him. As she leaves, Sayid asks who Alex is, and she replies that it was her child. On the golf course, people start betting on whether Jack will sink the ball or not, and Sawyer arrives. Meanwhile, Locke is teaching Walt how to throw a knife. As Sayid is running through the jungle, he begins to hear whispering sounds

Musings about this epi: -When Sayid was regaining consciousness Rousseau asked about Alex in several languages,besides French and English I also detected German and Spanish,a very well educated lady that Danielle,not just in scientific matters. -She said she and her team made a temporary shelter, then how did they discover the cable to tap into for power ? The few batteries she used to torture Sayid wouldn't have lasted 16 years.That would be a pretty risky thing for them, or her, to do .Also pretty risky for her to go to that radio tower and leave her message. -Sayid told her that Nadia was dead because of him .But didn't he go on the mission to Sydney,for the U.S. govt., so he could get the info from them as to where Nadia was ? So then why did he tell her that Nadia was dead ? -Danielle said "It killed them." A disease? Smokie ? So then why didn't she die ?She also said that she had killed her team,particularly her husband Robert. "They were carriers" and that she couldn't let them get off the island. Is she referring to her team or the Others as the carriers? Being a scientific person, why wouldn't she think that modern scientific methods could contain and/or treat any disease that her team might be carrying ?So why was she willing to try to escape from the island, wouldn't she be worried about being a carrier too?Or is she talking about not letting the Others get off the island ? -She said she didn't see the Others, just heard the whispers,I find that hard to believe. -When she and Sayid heard the noise in the jungle,she said "If we're lucky it's one of the bears." Sayid said it might be the monster and she replied"There's no such thing as monsters." indicating that she knew what it was.Remember in a later epi she said it was a "security system" -She also told Sayid to watch his group closely. For signs of sickness? For signs of infiltration ? -I hope we get to find out more about how the Others took the baby,Alex,from her.

I also caught the multiple languages that Danielle spoke in, although at first it sounded like a male talking. The many languages reminded me of Mikhail and Naomi. The trap that Sayid tripped was very sophisticated. Not something I would expect a scientist to build. More like something a person with military training would construct. The bed Sayid was on had 2 sets of jumper cables hooked to it. This didn’t look like something Dani had just set up for this occasion. Who else has been tortured in the bunker? And as Lou mentioned, where did the live batteries come from? Any idea what the symbol on Boone’s shirt was? It appears to be Chinese writing. It is a very interesting contrast between Sayid’s experience and the Beachies in this epi. While Sayid is being held captive and tortured, the rest of them are playing golf. The lack of concern by Jack is something to pay attention to. He is confident that Sayid will come back. Does he know or is it just words at this point? The noises in the jungle at epis end were very strange. Not only are there apparent whispers but also a strange windy like sound. None of the leaves are moving however. Sayid actually seems scared as he is running through the jungle. And where did Dani go? I do not think she lives in the bunker. There did not seem to be a real living space there. Plus who would bring a torture victim back to their own home? Certainly in 16 years she was able to find better accommodations for herself. But where? I still have the suspicion that she and Mikhail are more connected then we have been shown so far. The similarities between Nadia’s scars and Amira’s are striking. I like how they showed Sayid as being emotional toward Nadia even though we know he tortured Amira with no remorse and in fact, denied doing it. Did Nadia leaving harden Sayid or was Amira tortured before all this? Sayid is a much more bitter man in S1 then he is in S3. What happened to him in such a short time that made him change his behavior? Did the Island have a positive influence on him?

Please refresh my memory, who is Amira ?

She was the woman in Enter 77 who Sayid had tortured. Her husband kidnapped and tortured Sayid in Paris. SHe had burn marks on her arms similar to the marks on Nadia's chest.