Solitary (17 Nov. 2004)

Ashamed with his behavior torturing Sawyer, Sayid Jarrah decides to leave the group of survivors and travel alone through the island, trying to find the source of transmission and map the ... See full summary »

Director:

Greg Yaitanes

Writers:

Jeffrey Lieber (creator), J.J. Abrams (creator),

Stars:

Naveen Andrews, Matthew Fox, Jorge Garcia

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Naveen Andrews	...	Sayid Jarrah
Matthew Fox	...	Jack Shephard
Jorge Garcia	...	Hugo 'Hurley' Reyes
Maggie Grace	...	Shannon Rutherford
Josh Holloway	...	James 'Sawyer' Ford
Malcolm David Kelley	...	Walt Lloyd
Daniel Dae Kim	...	Jin Kwon (credit only)
Yunjin Kim	...	Sun Kwon
Evangeline Lilly	...	Kate Austen
Dominic Monaghan	...	Charlie Pace
Terry O'Quinn	...	John Locke
Harold Perrineau	...	Michael Dawson
Ian Somerhalder	...	Boone Carlyle
William Mapother	...	Ethan Rom
Mira Furlan	...	Danielle Rousseau

Storyline

Ashamed with his behavior torturing Sawyer, Sayid Jarrah decides to leave the group of survivors and travel alone through the island, trying to find the source of transmission and map the place. He is arrested and tortured by the French survivor Danielle Rousseau and recalls his beloved Nadia back to his days years earlier in Iraq as part of the interrogation/torturer for the Republican Guard. Meanwhile, Hurley decides to get the survivors spirits up by getting up a golf course in a sunny field.

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Plot Keywords:

labrador retriever | mysterious island

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Korean

Release Date:

17 November 2004 (USA)

Filming Locations:

O'ahu, Hawaii, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bad Robot, Touchstone Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

43 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

First appearance in the series of Mira Furlan playing Danielle.

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Goofs

When Jack is shown golfing for the second time (when the other survivors are watching him) watch the left side of his shirt as he brings the club up from the swing. Coming up from the waist of his jeans, you can see the cord for his microphone pack.

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Quotes

Sayid: [answering Danielle's question about what is written on back of Nadia's photograph] You'll find me in the next life, if not in this one.

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Soundtracks

"End Title"
Written by Michael Giacchino
Performed by Hollywood Studio Symphony Orchestra

User Reviews

"Are you playing golf?"

Like its predecessor Confidence Man, the ninth episode of Lost, called Solitary, is a solid character study that also digs a little deeper into the show's mysteries, whilst retaining a lighter side to avoid slipping into complete darkness.

This time, the "main" character is Sayid, who's suffering from a guilty conscience after torturing Sawyer (and nearly killing him in the process). Taking a solitary walk around the Island to find out where the radio transmission came from, he's suddenly abducted, imprisoned and, at one point, tortured (there it goes) by a mysterious French woman (Mira Furlan). She identifies herself as Danielle Rousseau, the one who sent the distress signal, and the sole survivor of a science team that was stranded on the Island and got into conflict with the "Others".

During the conversations with Danielle, Sayid remembers his own past, and it is revealed - though it doesn't come as much of a surprise - that he used to be a torturer acting under Saddam Hussein's command in Iraq. During one of his assignments, he had a chance encounter with childhood friend Nadia (Andrea Gabriel), who he helped escape from the prison facility with dire consequences for himself.

While the back-story doesn't strike as particularly surprising (the previous episode gave it away somehow), the drama that comes with it is handled very well, and the scenes with Naveen Andrews and Gabriel are among the most moving in the series so far. More interesting, though, is the new details added to the ongoing mystery of the Island, with suggestions of hitherto unseen enemies and plenty left to say about Rousseau, another character with a philosophically relevant name (unsurprisingly, the real-life inspiration, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, was connected to one John Locke). Additionally, the episode offers plenty of humor, courtesy of writer David Fury (a Buffy and Angel veteran), who gives Danielle the ironic line "There's no such thing as monsters" and finally provides the survivors with an outdoors activity: golf. Question is, how much time will they have for it with all the weird stuff happening around them?