Solitary (Lost)

Infobox Television episode | Title = Solitary
Series = Lost


Caption = Sayid interrogating his childhood friend and prisoner Nadia.
Episode = 9
Guests = William Mapother
Mira Furlan
Andrea Gabriel
Scott Paulin
Navid Negahban
Xavier Alaniz
Airdate = November 17, 2004
Production = 107
Writer = David Fury
Director = Greg Yaitanes
Episode list = "Lost" (season 1)
List of "Lost" episodes
Prev = Confidence Man
Next = Raised by Another

"Solitary" is the 9th episode of "Lost". It is the ninth episode of the show's first season. The episode was directed by Greg Yaitanes and written by David Fury. It first aired on November 17, 2004 on ABC. The character of Sayid Jarrah is featured in the episode's flashbacks.

Plot

Sayid finds a mysterious cable running out of the ocean and into the jungle. When it was first discovered, it was slightly damaged, revealing wires within it. When followed into the jungle, it runs down into the ground within a few hundred feet of a ravine with a rope bridge across it. While following it, Sayid is caught in a trap. A mysterious woman cuts him down and ties him to a bed in a bunker. She asks where Alex is, but when Sayid says he does not know, she shocks him with electricity using batteries and a cable. Sayid tells his torturer his story and about the French transmission. The torturer then identifies herself as Danielle Rousseau, the person who sent out the distress signal. Danielle finds a picture of a woman among Sayid's possessions, and she identifies her as Nadia.

"In a flashback, Sayid is torturing a prisoner who will not answer his questions. When he steps outside, he recognizes a new prisoner. He is then instructed to torture her until she answers his questions. Sayid discovers that the woman is Nadia, a childhood friend. She reveals that she has been tortured before, and nothing Sayid does will persuade her to talk."

At camp, everyone is stressed. Locke and his new hunting companion, Ethan, give some newly found luggage to Hurley. He looks through it and finds golf clubs. The next morning, Hurley builds a golf course to improve morale among the survivors.

Danielle asks Sayid about Nadia, and he says she is dead because of him. Danielle shows Sayid a broken music box, and he tells her he will fix it. She gives Sayid a sedative and moves him. Danielle tells Sayid she was part of a science team, and they crashed on the island about three days from Tahiti. She identifies the Others as the carriers of a sickness that her companions caught, and says that the Others whisper in the jungle. Sayid doesn’t believe her, and continues to fix the music box. After he is finished, he asks Danielle to let him go. They hear a growl outside, and Danielle pursues it, leaving Sayid alone.

"In a flashback, Sayid’s superior tells him to execute Nadia. He cuffs Nadia and puts a hood over her head. When they are alone he frees her and tells her how to escape. His superior finds and attempts to kill them both but Sayid fatally shoots him. Nadia first thinks that he will have to leave with her now but he instead shoots himself in the leg and tells her to leave as reinforcements arrive. Making it appear as if Nadia shot Sayid and the other officer to escape."

Sayid escapes from Rousseau's bunker while she is gone and grabs a rifle and notes she made about the island. Danielle finds him and they have a standoff. He fires the rifle, but nothing happens. Danielle says she removed the firing pin, and Robert, her deceased husband, made the same mistake before she killed him. She then reveals that it was she who killed her team, under the motive of stopping the disease from reaching the outside world. Sayid talks Danielle into letting him go. Before he leaves, Sayid asks about Alex. Danielle says that Alex was her child. While trying to find his way back to camp, Sayid hears the whispering Danielle told him about.