Sayid's Flashback - The Offer

Sayid is in a restaurant chopping onions, peppers, and carrots. A waiter comes to him and in Arabic says, "Najeev, a man out front wants to see you."
Sayid goes out to a man sitting at a small table with a bowl of soup. Sayid stands in front of the table and the man says, "Did you cook this?"

"Yes, I did," Sayid says, clearly waiting to hear what the man thinks is wrong with it.

"Wow, it's delicious," the man says and Sayid looks surprised. The man extends his hand. "My name is Sami."

"Najeev, thank you."

"Sit, please sit," Sami says and Sayid does. Sami wants to know where he is from.

"I am Syrian."

"Please," Sami says. In Arabic he says, "You are as much of an Iraqi as I am, young man."

Sayid looks caught and says, "What do you want from me?"

Sami shrugs. "You're an excellent cook. And I have a restaurant. Much nicer than this place. Come take a look. If you like it, I will hire you, at twice your pay here."

"You're offering a stranger a job because of a single meal?"

"I'm offering you a job because we're outsiders here and because my chef just quit."

Eye Patch Guy

Sayid walks toward the house with his hands up. A gray cat catches his attention and Sayid is shot!
Kate starts to go to him. "He's been hit! He's been hit!"

Locke stops her and says, "Not yet! Do you want to get shot too?"

The man with the eye patch, with his gun still trained on Sayid who is laying on the ground, says, "I didn't cross the line!

We had a truce! You said I could stay here!"

"I'm not who you think I am," Sayid says. "My name is Sayid Jarrah. I was on a plane that crashed here months ago."

"A plane?"

"I'm unarmed, I swear!"

"Stay right there!" The man closes the window and comes out the door. Locke and Kate run forward and shoot at his feet.

"Drop the rifle," Locke says. The man drops his rifle and puts his hands up. Locke takes the rifle. Kate asks if Sayid is okay.

"You really did crash here?" the man says. He is wearing a Dharma jump suit with a Flame logo on it.

"Over 40 of us, yes," Sayid says.

"I'll go in first and make sure it's okay," Locke says.

Kate asks the man who he is and he says, "My name is Mikhail Bakunin. And I am the last living member of the Dharma Initiative."

Kate and Mikhail help Sayid inside. Turns out it's not a small farm house, but a large, open station, nicely furnished. Mikhail sits Sayid on a couch and looks at the wound on Sayid's arm.

"You have experience treating gunshot wounds?" Sayid asks while Kate looks around.

"I spent some time in Afghanistan," Mikhail says. "I've had experience with field medicine, in the Soviet Army." He tells Kate, "In the kitchen on the top shelf there is a medical kit. Will you bring it please?"

She looks at Sayid and he tells her it's alright. Mikhail gets a rag and some Dharma Vodka. Sayid asks how he got there and Mikhail says he almost doesn't know where to begin.

"Why don't you begin with the Dharma Initiative?"

"I grew up in Kiev," Mikhail says, "and joined the Soviet Army." As Kate looks around the kitchen and Locke looks around other parts of the station, Mikhail explains that he was stationed at a listening post. After the cold war, his unit was recommissioned. He was dismissed. After years of conducting unpleasant actions against their enemy, he wanted to do something good, so he answered a newspaper ad.

Locke sees an old typewriter and picks up what looks like a manuscript. It's written in Russian, and there are a couple of marks and notes made in red that look like they were made by an editor.

Mikhail continues, "Would you like to save the world, it read."

Kate opens a refrigerator filled with large meat carcasses.

"That's how I met them, the Initiative. Very secretive, very rich, and very smart."

"So when did you come to the island?" Sayid asks.

"Eleven years, now. I like computers, communications equipment, and being alone, like a lighthouse keeper."

Locke sees a bunch of computer equipment.

"So they put me in this station," Mikhail says. "They called it The Flame."

"What's the purpose of The Flame?" Sayid asks.

"To communicate with the outside world, of course."

Sayid looks skeptical.

Locke goes into a computer room. The computer plays a little tune and says, "Ready to play?" On the screen is says: READY TO PLAY? Y/N.

It keeps repeating. Locke looks up at a camera, then hits the Y button. It's a chess game. The computer says, "It's your turn."

In the next room, Mikhail opens a medical kit. Kate stands nearby. Sayid wants to know what happened to the Dharma Initiative.

"They're all dead, of course," Mikhail says. "They foolishly initiated a war against the hostiles. A purge they called it."

"And how did you survive this purge?" Sayid asks.

Mikhail heats tweezers with a lighter. "By not participating in it, of course. I told you, I like being alone."

"And the hostiles allowed you to stay here?"

"After it was over, four men appeared in the yard." Mikhail puts glasses on. "They offered a truce. They said to imagine a line that extended all the way around the valley. As long as I did not cross it, I would be left alone." He sticks the tweezers into Sayid's wound. "Then they took two cows and I never saw them again."

"They weren't interested in the satellite dish in the yard?" Kate asks.

"Why would they be? It hasn't functioned in years."

Sayid wants to know who the hostiles are.

"I don't know, but they were here for a long time before we were."