Sayid Jarrah

The Actor: Naveen Andrews

Flashback Episodes: "Solitary", "The Greater Good", "One of Them", "Enter 77"

Flashforward Episodes: "The Economist"

Appears in Kate's flashback in "What Kate Did". Appears in Ben's flashforward in "The Shape of Things to Come."

Biography: Sayid Hassan Jarrah is a survivor of Oceanic Flight 815. A courageous man and a competent leader, Sayid maintains a conservative manner which reflects both strength and spirituality, and tries to atone for the demons in his path. Through his skills and leadership, he plays a key role in the survival of his group, and exploring the island's secrets.

Hails from: Tikrit, Iraq

Plane Section: Middle

Who he was before: Communications officer in Iraq’s Republican Guard (he tortured people).

Who he is now: Island technician, fixer of all things electronic, Rousseau-Losties unofficial communicator, and sometimes torturer.

Connections with survivors: Is connected with Kate's father when he is being released from capture in war, Kate's father is looking at a photograph of her in the van that Sayid is in. Commander of the same unit is Kelvin Inman, later member of Dharma, pusher of the button in the Swan. Before boarding flight 815, Shannon got him in trouble with airport security by saying he had abandoned his bags (he had very nicely asked her to watch them for a moment), just because she wanted to show Boone how mean she could be.


Why he was in Australia: To help ASIS and the CIA recover C4 explosive that had been stolen by a terrorist cell. He had to convince his old Cairo University roommate to explode himself as a martyr according to the plan. In return for his help, he was handed information on Nadia's whereabouts after handing the C4 over, along with a plane ticket. However, he pushed his flight so that he could give his old friend an Islamic burial rather than cremation. This placed him on Flight 815.

Sayid is a man who is carrying a ton of pain, grief, and guilt about who he was and the past events in his life. He wants to get a fresh start in life and find a true love. He still believes he is being detained from finding his true love.

Daddy issues: His father was an Iraqi war hero. His mother has not been referenced (yet).

Romantic entanglements:
Pre-island: Forced to torture childhood crush Nadia, whom he later helped escape by killing his commanding officer, and shooting himself in the leg.

On the island: Had a short-lived, tragic romance with Shannon.

Island Adventures
Sayid was the first fuselage survivor to knowingly meet someone on the island who was not on the plane (remember, Ethan and Goodwin showed up at the crash sites very soon after the crash, and pretended to be crash survivors). In season one, he exiled himself out of guilt for resorting to torturing and planned to map the island. Instead, he was trapped by Danielle ("Rousseau") and tortured by her. He learned that Danielle knew that the crash survivors are not alone on the island, that there are even more people, people she called "The Others". Rather than continuing his self-imposed exile, Sayid returns to the survivor camp to tell his fellow passengers that they are not alone, after he hears voices in the jungle. He recruited Shannon to translate Danielle's maps, and this started a relationship between them that grew over the season. Before finding Danielle, he had tried to triangulate her signal, but was attacked at the last moment; he finds out that Locke was the one who did it, to save them from the monster. After forty-two days (First season finale), he joins Charlie on the search for Aaron, Claire's baby, and find him in hands of Danielle at the torch lit by the Others. Returning to the camp, he hugs Shannon.

In the second season, Sayid's grows closer to Shannon, and when he makes a romantic hide-away, they make love, Walt's vision lead her to the jungle, later to be killed by Ana Lucia. Sayid tries to take revenge, but is beat by Mr. Eko and then refuses to kill Ana Lucia 'What do I win killing you, if we're both already dead'. Sayid sets himself apart from the group, until Danielle comes back and 'gives' him the man that claims to be Henry Gale, saying he's one of the Others. Torture doesn't give any benefit, and he finally joins Ana Lucia and Charlie on the trip to find Henry's balloon.

On the second season finale, he suspects Michael has been compromised by the Others, and along with Jack, sets up a trap to catch them. He sails in Desmond's boat to the Others' camp, scout their forces, and light a signal fire so they can join Jack's party. The plan would have gone perfectly except for one issue - the Others' camp is a decoy, and his mission with Jin and Sun doesn't prove useful.

When Jack doesn't arrive after a day, Sayid sails further east with the Korean couple on the boat, and find the Pala Ferry, where he can gather, from the footprints, that his friends have been captured. He prepares a trap, lighting another signal fire, to kill all of the Others' searching party except for two - one to get info from, and one to make the other cooperate. He waits armed along with Jin, but when they hear gunshots, they realize their mistake - the Others headed directly to the boat. He shoots at them from the pier, but it doesn't do any good. Sun manages to get off the boat; Jin swims out to her and helps her back to the shore.

Sayid later arrives at the survivors' camp, and checks on Eko. The next morning, he joins Locke, Desmond, Nikki and Paulo on their trip to the Pearl station; he manages to fix some cables, and they get a glimpse at a man wearing a patch. Later on, after Eko's death, he ventures with John to find Eko's stick, and confronts Locke about the Monster - he knows John has seen it, and wants to know something more.

When Kate and Sawyer return to Camp without Jack, He and Locke questioned Kate about the Others, and when she went off into the jungle, they followed her. Going along with Kate and Locke to find Jack, and they are joined by Danielle Rousseau, who is enticed to come by the fact that she could get to see her long lost daughter, Alex.

While our favorite commando torturer dude is once again a captive, he sees Alex when she comes to get Sayid's pack for Locke. Sayid hears his guard call her Alex and tells her she looks just like her mother. This confuses Alex, and she tells Sayid her mother is dead. He replies, "I'm sure that's what they told you."


Questions:
Q: Is Sayid evil since he didn't take the pill given to him by Jack?