Approaching Lost

Lost - Character Profile - Sayid Jarrah

by Nikki on November 29th, 2007

Lost
Character Profile
Sayid Jarrah

Actor: Naveen Andrews

On Flight 815: Sayid was coming to the United States to find his childhood friend, Nadia.

Profession: Communications officer in the Iraqi Republican Guard

Prior to the Crash:
Sayid was born the son of an Iraqi war hero. During the Gulf War, Sayid’s base is captured by the Americans. He is the only one to speak English and he is forced to ask his superior about a missing U.S. pilot. He is forced to torture the information out of hi superior out of fear for a planned attack on his home village. At the end of the Gulf War Sayid is released back into the Republican Guard where he uses torture to interrogate prisoners.

Sayid’s childhood friend, Nadia, is brought in and he can’t torture her. He helps her escape.

Later, Sayid leaves the Republican Guard in search of Nadia. He travels to Paris and works as a chef. He is offered a higher paying job at another restaurant, but is taken prisoner. The owner recognize Sayid and tries to make him confess to torturing his wife. Sayid apologizes to the wife and she in turn denies to her husband that he in fact tortured her. Sayid is released.

At a later time Sayid travels to England. There he is picked up by the ASIS and the CIA who make him a deal. If he can infiltrate a terrorist cell in Sydney and recover stolen C-4 explosives, they will tell him Nadia’s whereabouts. Sayid turns on his former roommate, Essam, to get the information. He tries to get Essam to run away but instead Essam kills himself. Sayid talks the CIA into letting him stay one more day to claim Essam’s body and flies back on Flight 815.

After the Crash:
Sayid becomes quickly known as the mechanical one in the group. He attempts to use the plane’s transceiver as a distress signal, but it doesn’t work.

Sayid is also known as an interrogator. He attempts to get Shannon’s medication from Saywer. Then feeling guilty Sayid leaves the beach to explore the island. He is captured and tortured by Rousseau. He helps repair her music box, but manages to steal some maps from her before returning back to the beach.

After returning to the beach Sayid seeks Shannon’s help with translating the maps. This begins the relationship between the couple. Sayid takes Shannon to an isolated part of the beach for a romantic night, the same night that Boone dies. Shannon begins having visions of Walt but Sayid believes it to be a dream. One night he follows her into the jungle during her search for Walt. He tries to reason with her and they see Walt. She leaves and he follows, just in time to see Ana Lucia shooting Shannon; she collapses in his arms and dies. Sayid becomes angry, but is knocked out and tied to a tree before he can react. He is later released, and forgives Ana Lucia for her mistake.

Ana Lucia brings Sayid to Rousseau, who in turn takes them to one of her captives - Henry Gale. Sayid attemps to torture Henry but he releases no information. Sayid goes off on the search for Henry Gale’s balloon. They find the balloon and grave, but when Sayid digs up the grave they learn that it is a man with the ID Henry Gale.

Sayid continues his interrogation of Henry but learns nothing further. Sayid, Sun, and Jin use Desmond’s boat to go after Michael, who Sayid believes has been compromised. They arrive at the Others’ camp, and Sayid enters cautiously. He comes to the realization that the camp is a decoy.

Later when Kate and Sawyer return from being captured by the Others, Sayid and Locke join her and Rousseau in rescuing Jack.

Sayid and Kate infiltrate the Others’ barracks, only to be kidnapped. Sayid is tied to a swing in a playground. He is then gassed the next day, released only when Juliet discovers him. He returns to the beach with Jack, Kate and Juliet.

Sayid’s constantly attempts to interrogate Juliet back at the beach. He is also informed of Naomi’s presence, and after speaking to her begins to interrogate her; he is soon taken aback when she gives him her satellite phone. When Jack leads the group to use the phone, Sayid stays behind on the beach to destroy the Others.

After they win on the beach, the freighter people land. Sayid joins Camp Jack and travels to the freighter with Lapidus and Desmond. There Sayid gets a chance to speak to the captain, who tells Sayid that they discovered Oceanic Flight 815 and all the passengers were dead.

Off the Island:
Sayid is part of the Oceanic 6.

Sayid finds Nadia and they marry. Later she is shot and killed by Bakir, a man who works for Charles Widmore. Ben meets up with him at the funeral procession. This is the first time Sayid has seen Ben since the island. Ben tracks and follows Bakir but Sayid eventually kills him. Sayid say he can’t move forward with his life, as Nadia was everything. He asks Ben who is next. Ben smiles as he turns and says he will be in touch. [Episode 4.09]

At a later point Sayid shoot someone while on a golf course. Later he is in Berlin where he befriends a young woman, Elsa. They become romantic. She admits to being in love with him. Her phone rings and she says she has to go. “Where?” Sayid asks. He closes his eyes. He then says that she has to leave Berlin. “They will be asking questions soon, about what happened to your employer, that you can’t be around to answer.” She becomes upset and says that he used her to get to her boss. She then turns and shoots him before picking up the phone. She says that she’ll bring him. Sayid grabs a gun and shoots her. He has tears in his eyes as she dies. He closes her eyes and touches her bracelet. He then goes to visit his boss, who turns out to be Ben! Ben tells him not to be upset about her death. “These people don’t deserve our sympathies,” Ben says. “Do you want to protect your friends or not.” [Episode 4.03]

Key Character Relations:
Desmond - Sayid worked with Kelvin in the interrogation of Tariq.
Kate - Indirectly. Sayid talks to Kate’s father in a US military truck where he carries a younger picture of Kate.
Locke - Indirectly. Locke does a home inspection for Sayid’s friend, Nadia.
Shannon - At the airport Sayid asked Shannon to watch his bags.

Image used with permission from Newscom

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POSTED IN: Naveen Andrews, Sayid Jarrah