Enter 77
- Sayid
I'm still watching LOST and I was especially struck by what happened in an episode I just saw, Enter 77. In it, Sayid remembers an event from his past. He'd been working as a chef in Paris after the war in Iraq, a war he spent as a torturer first for the Iraqis and then for the US. He's recognized and taken prisoner by a woman, Amira, whom he tortured, pouring boiling oil over her arms. All she wants is for him to admit what he did to her, but he refuses. Then one night she comes to talk to him, bringing her cat ....
***
AMIRA: After my husband and I first arrived to Paris, I was afraid to ever leave our apartment. So I would stare out in the window into the alley, and I would see this cat looking for scraps. One day some children came into the alley and trapped him in a box. I watched them light firecrackers and drop them in the box. I could hear him howl from three stories above. So finally, I had a reason to leave my apartment. I rescued this cat and I brought him home. He sits with me when I read, sleeps with me, and he purrs. But, every once in a while, he will bite me or scratch me. He does this because sometimes he forgets that he is safe now. So I forgive him when he bites me, because I remember what it is like to never feel safe. And that is because of you. So today, I ask only one thing of you: I ask you now to show me the respect by acknowledging what you did to me. That it was you who questioned me, tortured me and that you remember me.
SAYID: I remember you. I remember your face. Your face has haunted me ever since I left Iraq. [crying] I am sorry. I am so sorry for what I did to you. I am sorry.
AMIRA: I forgive you. When my husband returns, I will tell I made a terrible mistake, that it was not you, and he will release you.
SAYID: Why? Why are you letting me go?
AMIRA: We are all capable of doing what those children did to this cat. But I will not do that. I will not be that.
***
At the end of the episode, Sayid sees a cat in the jungle that looks like Amira's cat.
posted by crystal | 10:27 PM
4 Comments:
I've only seen a few episodes of this show. I really liked it when it first aired but missed several episodes in a row and was hopelessly "lost" when I tuned in again. But my first impression was that the island was a kind of purgatory...right?
I think by the end of the show there were questions of whether the characters had all died in the crash and were in purgatory from the start, or if they were in purgatory later in the last season when they all seemed to be living the lives they would have had if the plane hadn't crashed after all, but the creators of the show said they weren't in purgatory on the island - they were still alive. I still don't understand what was goingon :) It did seem, though, like crashing on the island gave most of the characters the chance to sort of fix some of what was messed up about them.
Darn, I was hoping for an easy answer. Sounds like I may have to watch it :)
Maybe you'll like it. I never watched it when it was on tv - I had the idea it was some kind of reality show. I only decided to rent it recently and it was much more interesting than I thought it would be ... there's some neat time travel stuff in season 5 :)
Post a Comment
<< Home