Is the nature of a murderer inherent or learned?
That is the lifelong question that Sayid Jarrah has been battling. He was made a torturer by the US Government and manipulated to torture his own commanding officer in the Iraqi guard after he was shown a tape of that same officer ordering a gassing of his village. He then took those skills and became a torturer/interrogator in the Iraqi guard which led him to the interrogation of his childhood love Nadia who he inevitably helped escape. However as it would appear Sayid was forced into this way of life the counter argument could be made that this is just who he is. When he was a boy his father asked his brother to murder a chicken and when his brother faltered Sayid killed the chicken. Sayid is constantly placed into situations of torture and murder and the arch of his character has always left the viewers to wonder if he is villainous killer or tortured manipulated soul?
This week played to those Sayid life questions and provide some definitive answers. None of this is metaphorical anymore as it is not only viewers who are asking these questions but the characters and the island. Dogen plainly tells Sayid that the, “Machine tells us how the scale is balanced and yours ticked the wrong way.” According to the master of the Temple and the Others/Jacob’s mysterious ways Sayid has been corrupted and is in danger of being infected.
Literally after the statement above is said Dogen and Sayid enter into a fight that concludes with a baseball falling to the ground which we later learn is connected to the resurrection of Dogen’s son and the deal that he made with Jacob to end up serving out a life sentence on the island in the Temple. The viewer is left to assume that Dogen does not kill Sayid because of the remembrance of these events but the true reason is that Dogen is not stopped by some noble memory but rather by the fact that he realizes part of the oath he took and part of the deal he made with Jacob is that he must follow his rules. One of those rules is that an Other cannot kill a Candidate. As shown in the cave and on the lighthouse wheel Sayid is a Candidate. (See last week’s entry to understand the rules of the island http://bit.ly/bATdqh).
The sad thing is that when the ballet of battle between Sayid and Dogen concludes Sayid is asked to go kill MIB aka the Lockeness Monster (LNM) to which Sayid replies, “I’ve been drowned and tortured and beaten by you. Why would I ever do anything for you.” However because Sayid so wants to fight his inherit murderous nature and prove that his scale can tip the right way and that he can choice to be a good person…he accepts the mission.
When Sayid enters the jungle he immediately is confronted by MIB/LNM and he stabs him in the heart. The amazing irony of all of this is that Sayid is sent on a mission to prove himself and to find redemption and that mission ends up with him murdering someone. Throughout his entire life Sayid is always confronted with murder and often time it’s presented in a way that he believes is supposedly tied to helping people and to making the right choice. Upon Ben’s initial arrival in Season 2 under the name Henry Gale, Sayid tortures him to find out his true identity…and help the castaways. When Sayid leaves the island as one of the Oceanic Six he ends up working for Ben as an assassin and murdering numerous people…all to help Ben fight Widmore who supposedly killed Nadia. And this week in flash sideways we see Sayid kills Martin (Widmore’s mercenary from the past time line)…all to protect his brother and Nadia.
All of this brings us back to the initial question offered is the nature of a murderer inherent or learned? Are all of these self sacrifices that Sayid makes really in the name of righteousness or are they the fulfillment of a murderous hunger that lives inside of him?
When the MIB offers Sayid a deal to give him whatever he wants. Sayid says that all he wants is Nadia resurrected. He then strikes a deal with the MIB and says he will do what is requested of him to keep his end of the bargain. Sayid returns to the Temple to tell everyone that MIB is coming and that, “Jacob is dead. None of you have to stay here anymore. You are free. ” It appears many of the Temple people made a deal like Dogen and had to stay due to the bargain they struck with Jacob. This reference to multiple deals and having to trade away your daily life into sub servitude reminded me of the deal that Juliet made with Ben to cure her sister of cancer. Her price too, was that she had to stay on the island. I know wonder if Ben had Jacob fulfill that deal as the island needed a fertility doctor to solve its childbirth problem.
All of this conjecture around deal making comes full circle when Dogen tells Sayid of the deal he struck with Jacob for his son and asks Sayid if he struck a similar deal with MIB. The answer is of course yes and the irony is that the deals are mirror images of each other. Dogen made a deal with the (perceived) good Jacob to save his son’s life and Sayid has now made a deal with the (perceived) evil MIB to save the love of his life. As has been the consistent theme this year we are asked as the viewer to weigh the balance of these deals and ask ourselves are they that different? If we truly analyze the balance between these deals of Good and Evil, couldn’t they best be described as even?
However the last thing that must be noted is that for Sayid to seal his deal…he has to murder Dogen. This murder is not done under the shroud of being just and there is not grey line here. This atrocity transitions Sayid from a morally struggling tortured personality into a full blown murderous man.
This brings a conclusion to Sayid’s series long character arch, answers his questions about nature vs nurture and confirms…Sayid is infected.