"Lost" The Economist (2008)

Director:

Jack Bender

Writers:

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

TV Series:

"Lost" (2004)

Original Air Date:

14 February 2008 (Season 4, Episode 3)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Plot:

Sayid negotiates a deal with Locke to hand over Charlotte from the "rescue team," so that he can get on their helicopter and reach their ship. Kate joins Sayid for the mission, but she decides to stay behind with Sawyer.

Plot Keywords:

Flash Forward | Helicopter | Tied Up | Doubt | 7 Iron

Cast

  (Episode Cast overview, first billed only)

Naveen Andrews	...	Sayid Jarrah
Henry Ian Cusick	...	Desmond Hume
Jeremy Davies	...	Daniel Faraday
Emilie de Ravin	...	Claire Littleton
Michael Emerson	...	Benjamin Linus
Matthew Fox	...	Jack Shephard
Jorge Garcia	...	Hugo 'Hurley' Reyes
Josh Holloway	...	James 'Sawyer' Ford
Daniel Dae Kim	...	Jin Kwon (credit only)
Yunjin Kim	...	Sun Kwon (credit only)
Ken Leung	...	Miles Straume
Evangeline Lilly	...	Kate Austen
Rebecca Mader	...	Charlotte Lewis
Elizabeth Mitchell	...	Juliet Burke
Terry O'Quinn	...	John Locke

Runtime:

43 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Canada:14+ | Venezuela:PG-13 (DVD rating) | USA:TV-14

Filming Locations:

O'ahu, Hawaii, USA

Company:

ABC Studios

Trivia:

Elsa tells Sayid to meet her at the restaurant for their first date at 8 o'clock. 8 is one of the fabled island "numbers."

Goofs:

Factual errors: When Elsa talks in German to her employer in the flash forward scene, the subtitles say 'He had no idea' but what she actually says at that moment translates into 'He won't give up the name now'. Earlier in that scene, the subtitles say 'He won't give up the name now' but the actual words translate into 'He won't say anything'.

Quotes:

Jack Shephard: Did the Red Socks really win the series.
Frank Lapidus: Hey. Don't get me started on that. Alright. My dad was from the Bronx. I bleed Yankee blue.

Movie Connections:

References Gremlins (1984)

"She wanted to know who I work for. She wanted to know about YOU"

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

OMFG! I caught myself saying that twice in this episode, once near the very beginning and once near the very end. The twists of "The Economist" will truly spin your mind. The addition of the flash-forwards proves definitively to have been a great idea - just what the series needed to renew itself. In fact, the "future" story of this episode, focusing on Sayid's post-rescue life (yes, he's the fourth revealed out of the "Oceanic Six", after Jack, Kate and Hurley), is even more compelling than the "present" happenings on the island. The gorgeous Dutch guest star Thekla Reuten gives an outstanding performance. Not that the island scenes don't have their moments as well: in particular, one of Hurley's funniest lines ("Oh, awesome, they sent us another Sawyer") when Miles calls him "tubby", and a pretty convincing argument from Sawyer to Kate on why they should maybe stay on the island after all. But it's the twist of the final 2 minutes that propels "The Economist" to the status of brilliance. ***1/2 out of 4.