1x09 Solitary

[Noman]

I've been holding on for the past 7 years to just a thought, a blind hope that somewhere she's still alive. But the more I hold on, the more I pull away from those around me. The only way out of this, this place, is with their help. Come with me. You don't have to be alone, Danielle.

Jack should take a lesson from Sayid in letting go
Great episode, I love Sayid!

And he does start speaking in Arabic and then it pans into English

[Asclepeos]

After reading through interviews and such I feel pretty safe in saying that the inconsistencies that arise in episodes like these (especially in season 1) are a product of the writers being unsure of the future of the show and of some of the characters. Luckily they had the foresight to make Rousseau mostly insane so that they could contradict whatever she said without too much trouble. A good read for everyone would be David Fury's interview, his take on the writing of season one and its relation to the other seasons provides some nice insight into the 'mysteries' of the first season. It's funny that people have theories about how the Others and Dharma fit into Rousseau's stories, but in the first season they hadn't even decided that there would be a Dharma and their image of the Others (at least according to Fury) was considerably different than it is now. That isn't to say that they couldn't use some clever back-writing to integrate it together, but I think it's fruitless to try to stick to things like specific dates for events like the Purge or Rousseau's arrival, or to try to reconcile her comment about not seeing anyone else on the island with our knowledge of Ben's or Jin's interaction with her. Just my 2 cents.

[DSRing]

This was a great episode, We get a good dose of what Lost is today, the Sickness, the Others, whispers, Ethan, Rousseau. Looking back i didnt realize what they dumped on us in that episode.

[ZEITGEIZT]

This episode didn't do much for me. Never been a big fan of Danielle. Sayid's backstory doesn't really make me feel any emotion, I guess I don't believe in the feelings we are supposed to see between him and Nadia. This was the first episode of the rewatch where I was bored waiting for it to end.

[wongnog]

Originally Posted by Anfield Fox

We know she met Jin and Ben at the very least and it's hard to believe she wouldn't have seen anyone else in those 16 years. Not even Dharma?

I was most confused by these lines upon rewatch as well. I simple chalk it up to one of the many plot holes/inconsistencies with the show that are inevitable upon rewatch. It's clear that at the time they hadn't fully fleshed out Danielle's backstory, but I'm surprised that by the time they got to S5 they had forgotten these lines. Having Jin come in and then Ben steal Alex clearly is inconsistent with her statement that she has seen no-one else on the island. But I think in the writers' defense they would say that Danielle was going crazy after 16 years of isolation...

Originally Posted by Anfield Fox

2. Sayid speaking English in his flashback. This is probably a non-issue to most people but they take great care to attention and detail with the Korean on the show but neglected the Arabic. I know Naveen Andrews does not speak Arabic but i find it hard to believe Sayid would speak English in the Iraqi army to his commanding officer, the guards, the prisoner he interrogated and to Nadia. Ando on Heroes does not speak Japanese and has to learn all his lines phonetically, it's a shame they didn't do it in this episode. In future flashbacks they found clever ways to not have him speak Arabic like being in France or Australia or having him speak with American troops. It's only in this episode really that it feels "out of place".

Sayid did speak Arabic at the beginning of his flashback, but then they did the classic "Hunt for Red October" sequence where they do a slow zoom in on his mouth speaking a foreign language, then switch to English with a pan out. It's a common film technique where you're supposed to figure out that the entire scene is "supposed" to be spoken in a foreign language, but for the benefit of the actors (and the audience) they are all speaking English.

On a side note, I have always LOVED Danielle Rousseau, mostly because of the actress who portrays her. Mira Furlan is a Yugoslavian actress most famous in the US for her portrayal of alien Minbari ambassador Delenn on the 90's sci-fi show Babylon 5. In many interviews with the creative team, they make light of the fact that the French woman actually has an Eastern-European accent. Also in this episodes, her accent and delivery of certain lines is so reminiscent of her best B5 scenes it's amazing. I'm thinking specifically of her saying "No, but I hear them. Out there, in the jungle. They whisper" -- so much like her description of the Shadows in B5. Love it!

[Captain Bunny Killer]

Originally Posted by Space Lizard

Anfield Fox, I interpreted the English as being like The Hunt for Red October. Remember, it begins in Russian, then it just zooms in on something and when it pulls out it's English? Well, they're still really speaking Russian, but it's translated for our benefit.

Of course, they never did that with any other language in the history of the show, but I think Naveen Andrews both couldn't speak Arabic and was unwilling to learn/just say it like Daniel Dae Kim did with Korean.

Space Lizard, I agree that the Arabic/English switch was simply for the viewer's benefit. However, I feel the reason they nevr did the same with Jin and Sun is because the character Jin doesn't know English prior to the crash and neither does Sun as far as he knows. Sayid is clearly bilingual (despite Naveen Andrew's supposed aversion to Arabic) and so that transition worked. Interestingly enough, I don't think they evr had Eko speak in any of the Nigerian languages as best as I can recall. However, according to Wikipedia, the official language of Nigeria is English, so that would make sense.

What I took from rewatching this episode is the unwelcome thought that Sayid will die before Season 6 ends. While I sincerely hope that I am wrong, Nadia's note to him struck me as ominous now that we know she is dead and, last we saw, he was pretty close to dying. "You will find me in the next life, if not in this one." As much as I want Sayid to make it to the end, it occurred to me during Season 5 that he didn't have much to live for anymore after Nadia's death and him killing evryone involved in her murder. I'm not saying he's suicidal, he still has Jack and Co. and likely a job to finish on the island in Season 6 (though what - and when - that job will be remans to be seen). All I'm saying is, like Rose and Bernard in "The Incident," Sayid's story could end early on in Season 6 in a way that leaves me satisfied albeit mournful.

My other thought about this episode concerned the whispers. This is the first episode in which we hear the whispers and, to my knowledge, the Others have nevr once acknowledged the whispers or that it is them whispering. When the jumps through time started in Season 5, my first thought was, "Oh man! We're going to find out that the whispers were actually the Losties jumping through time, trying to warn themselves and their friends about impending danger, etc.!" Sadly, this was not the case as we learned that the Losties can interact with those they meet in the past (and future? Come to think of it, do we know if they evr jumped into the future?) I was actually disappointed that this didn't turn out to be the case; I thought it would have been such a clever and perfect way to make sense of the whispers.

[DiverAWS]

GOLF F THE WORLD! Some of funnest scenes in the whole series.

Also whoever said Danielle thinks Ben and Jin are the smoke moster in relation to her saying she hasn't seen anyone else - that's a pretty feasible theory, i'd buy that.

[Lorite]

Originally Posted by Captain Bunny Killer

My other thought about this episode concerned the whispers. This is the first episode in which we hear the whispers and, to my knowledge, the Others have nevr once acknowledged the whispers or that it is them whispering..

On the face of it your absolutely right. But I do remember in Juliet's episode The Other Woman when Goodwin's wife Harper (more like harpy!) appears out of nowhere in the jungle to Juliet before she tells her to go stop Faraday/Charlotte at the Tempest, we definitely hear the whispers just before and after she seems to appear/vanish. In other words, though there's been no explanation, the whispers have been all but directly associated with the Others on the island.

Of course (I literally just thought of this) it COULD have been some OTHER force posing as Harper, not unlike other happenings on the island (Christian, Yemi, etc.)...

[Lorite]

Though I do like this episode, I agree. It's not Sayid's strongest. My favorite is definitely Enter 77 (backstory wise), where he's confronted by his torture victim. That "did it" for me much more then Solitary. Does that make sense without being inappropriate?

[MM0602]

Danielle is such a good character! I wish Mira Furlan would have stayed longer