The Significance of Sayid’s test
How in the world did Dogen’s torture test on Sayid prove anything whatsoever?! The only possibilities I can come up with are:
1. Maybe the shock treatment didn’t use electricity at all. Let’s suppose Sayid isn’t Sayid anymore, but some MIB-god-like creature that doesn’t feel pain. And that creature has to fake that he’s feeling pain if something painful happens.. Maybe Dogen’s plan was to pretend like he’s shocking him to see if he would pretend that he felt pain! (That doesn’t explain the very real hot poker he used seconds later though..)
2. Maybe passing the test simply means your NOT human. So Sayid didn’t pass it because he obviously was human because he obviously was in pain. This seems most plausible to me because maybe Dogen’s understanding of people that are resurrected from being dead is, they’re either some other entity (such as Flocke or Jacob) or they are a human that is “infected” and will eventually become evil.
3. Maybe there was something significant with the dust/powder/ash Dogen blew on Sayid before testing him. I assumed it was some metallic dust that would help spread the charge from the shock treatment. But maybe it was supposed to interact with the torture somehow. Maybe prevent pain? Maybe it was the same ash that prevents smokey from passing? Dogen was really observant of the dust/powder/ash after he blew it over Sayid.
Please I’d love to hear anybody else’s thoughts..
A thought I had – it was the very same ash used to keep smoky/MIB out, and that he was using it to ensure that if Sayid was in fact “infected”, that the monster could not escape during the test and endanger everyone in the temple?
I just assumed it was some sort of smokie test – electricity + ash = Smoke Monster. How the substances behaved was what was important – maybe how his body conducted / made the ash behave?
That could be right actually, because smokie sometimes seems electric? For example the way he sounds?
Well. I had a thought of my own. Isn’t it strange how the very thing that Sayid has to seek redemption for, is the same thing they did to him. Sayid tortured hundreds of people. Can this possibly be related?
Maybe they were testing to see if he was redeemed, but he wasn’t??
Blackhearted – yep, that’s what I mean – it shows those sparky light flares.
I thought it was interesting that the generator sounded like smokey (the chain sound), there was the electricity (the sparks of light in smokey) and the black powder, (which smokey appears to be made out of or/and repelled by) MAYBE this powder is an electrically charged material, both charged the same (++ or –) so that they repel each other. (smokey vrs the black ring powder and the test powder) Why MIB/Smokey is trapped by the ring of black powder?
This actually makes me think that somehow smokey is a combination of all these things, somehow. Is he controlled by a larger force with these elements?
The only thing I can make of the hot poker, is maybe that was a test to see how fast Sayid healed from it. Remember Jack pointing out how fast his bullet wound was healing? And we were never shown the wound caused by the poker. Then there’s those like Flocke and Micheal who cannot be hurt till the island is done with them.
Thoughts?
Wow! great thoughts everybody..
I couldn’t have come up with any of these ideas, they’re all intriguing and very plausible..
I wish when Dogen did the shock treatment, that they showed a quick shot of the dust doing some kind of movement either on his stomach or in the air; maybe that would have been too obvious..and ya lostinthought we were never shown Sayid’s burn, so I’m thinking that’s very possible coming up next episode it will be discovered it’s quickly healed.
The powder could have been put on to make sure he wasn’t smokie. Being infected may not be the same thing.
Oh-to add to my thoughts, Claire was in her house when it got blown-up, and she some how escaped unscratched. And we know SHE is infected.
I’m of the opinion that Sayid’s “test” was some definite foreshadowing of smokie’s origin. I have to believe that “it’s” nature is tied in the with the electromagnetic forces of the island. As a lover of physics, the all-encompassing and miraculous EM of the island often makes me cringe. Nevertheless, all of the wonderful writing and acting (well, most of the cast) keep my disbelief firmly suspended. I think that the “ash” must be magnetic in some capacity- perhaps a static charge within the particles keeps the cloud suspended in some way. I don’t suppose that we’ll get a truly scientifically possible explanation, but that seems to be as close as they could get to reality. Why else would Dogen blow ash on Sayid and then pass a charge through it?
I doubt he is the smoke monster. I think that it’s not plausable for one being to be in more than one place. The invulnerability is brilliant, but that means that you can be claimed instantly (Claire would have to have been claimed right then and there. Jon Locke wasn’t claimed yet. Maybe Jacob is waiting to claim him.
Roland, I don’t believe that these people(the others) know that MIB can take other forms. Richard was very surprised when he realized that Mock Locke was MIB, also in this weeks episode he asked Mock Locke, “Why do you look like Locke?”
I suppose that it’s possible they know he can take forms but didn’t see a reason for him to do it, but meh I just don’t like that haha.
As for the test though, I’m super intrigued and want to know what the components meant. Although, knowing the Lost writers we might just get a one line explanation like, “Oh we were testing to see if he was Smokie” with no deeper explanation(i.e. Locke’s childhood test by Richard).
-Benhamine
The test and who sayid is now played a large part in this episode, the fact that he failed the test, Dogen knows that as does “Sayid”…add to that Jack was asked to administer “Sayids” demise with the pill. If he is bad then are these new others good, if “Sayid” is good then are these new others bad hmmm???
They wanted “Sayid” dead before the infection spread to his heart and turned him…and to prove it, they have seen or know of the same thing happening to Claire. So is Claire good or bad and is Dogen refering to the Claire that was in the cabin?
Why didn’t Dogen mention the same thing happening to Jacks Dad, he was in the cabin. Is he infected? Was this out of sympathy or tact. Why not push him over the edge and let him know his whole family is infected?
Or does infected to one person mean claimed to another in this game?
Curiouser and curiouser…