Kate visits Cassidy Phillps for Sawyer, gets an earful

Back in 2005, Kate goes to visit Cassidy Phillips, Sawyer's ex and the mother of his child Clementine. Presumably she still lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She has baby Aaron with her. She knocks on the door and Cassidy recognizes her from their previous experience back before the crash of 815. Kate tells Cassidy that Sawyer sent her, finally confirming what we've all known he told Kate before jumping off the helicopter.

Kate gives Cassidy an envelope full of cash that is from Kate's settlement with Oceanic. Kate also tells her the truth about what happened after the crash. Sawyer told Kate where to find Cassidy and to take care of Clementine, who's apparently asleep in her crib. That would place Sawyer's relationship with Cassidy not long before the crash and not long after he was released from prison. Kate tells Cassidy that she told her the truth because she though Clementine deserved to know that her father cared about her. Kate then tells her about Sawyer jumping from the helicopter and Cassidy calls him a coward for it. Cassidy says that he jumped to get away from Kate. Cassidy goes on to ask if Aaron is Sawyer's son. Kate tells her that she was pregnant before she met Sawyer. Cassidy quickly realizes she's lying and that the baby is not hers. Kate says she's lying about Aaron "because she has to."

Nothing too deep to delve into here. The biggest thing of interest is how close the timeline in which Sawyer meets Cassidy and gets her pregnant, when she turns him in and he goes to prison and when 815 crashed. If in 2005, Clementine is still a baby, all of those events happened pretty close together. Sawyer was a busy guy.

Jin takes Ben back to the barracks, Kate meets Roger Linus

Jin wakes up and hears Phil calling him on his walkie. Jin tells Phil that Sayid is heading north because he was just attacked by him. Jin then finds Ben laying face down where Sayid left him after he shot him. Ben weakly says "Help me." Jin puts him in the van and heads back towards the barracks.

Back at the barracks, Horace is telling everyone to prepare for another attack by the hostiles. He tells everyone that Sayid used the fire as a diversion to escape. Jack, unable to resist the urge to but in, asks how could Sayid have set the fire if he was locked up. Horace tells him that Sayid had help and that since no hostiles were seen on the security cameras crossing the perimeter, someone in the Dharma Initiative must have helped him.

As the group breaks up, Kate is asked by Roger Linus to help him get the van out of the house. He asks her to run a wench and then says "You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?" As the wench starts pulling the van out of the house, Roger asks if they just stuck her in the motor pool when she got to the island. She says yes and Roger replies that Dharma wouldn't be able to convince people to get on the submarine if they told them they'd be grease monkeys and janitors once they arrived. Kate is taken aback when Roger tells her his name. At that moment, Jin arrives and carries Ben out of the van. Roger follows Jin screaming "That's my kid!"

Sayid takes Jin's gun, shoots Ben

Ben unlocks Sayid's cell and they both flee the security building. We see them running through the jungle and make their way to a road/path where a Dharma van approaches. Sayid tells Ben to hide. The vans stops and Jin gets out and approahces Sayid. Sayid lies and tells Jin that Sawyer let him go because they were going to kill him. At that point, Phil's voice comes over the walkie saying that the prisoner escaped. Jin tells Sayid to let him talk to Sawyer before he lets him go. Sayid throws Jin on the ground and knocks him out with a blow to the face. Ben is impressed by Sayid's moves and doesn't see him take Jin's gun. Sayid says "You were right about me. I am a killer" referring to their converstation in Santo Domingo. Sayid then shoots Ben once in the chest. Ben falls to the ground and Sayid quietly weeps and then runs off down the path.

This scene leaves Ben's future in question, but we'll learn in the next episode "Whatever Happened, Happened" that Sayid can't choose to change the course of the future because whatever happened, happened.

Sayid sees his friends as Ilana takes him to Ajira 316

As Ilana is taking Sayid to board Ajira Airways flight 316, he stops when he sees Hurley at the gate. He asks Ilana "Are you sure we're going to Guam?" She snidely respsons "Where else would we be going?" Sayid sees Jack and then Kate and asks Ilana if they can take the next plane because he is superstitious when it comes to flying. She tells him that she'll buy him a rabbit's foot at the gift shop because this is the plane they're taking. After they're on the plane, Sayid looks back at Sun and then sees the one person he really didn't wan to see. He sees Ben board the plane which promts him to ask Ilana if she is working for Ben Linus. She says she doesn't know who Ben Linus is and Sayid proceeds to describe him as a liar, manipulator and a monster responsible for genecide. Ilana says "Why would I work for somebody like that?" Sayid replies "I did."

The question here is does Ilana know more about what's instore for them on 316 that she lets Sayid believe? Her responses to his questions are very coy and sarcastic leading me to think she at least knows a little bit more than she admits.

Ben sets Sayid free with the promise of taking him to the hostiles

After Sawyer calls all the security to help with the fire, Phil leaves the security building. As he leaves, Ben sneaks in and goes to Sayid's cell. Sayid is standing at the bars like he's waiting for someone. He asks Ben what happened to his glasses because one of the lenses is missing and there is tape on them. Ben confirms that his dad did it because he brought Sayid the sandwich. Sayid tells him "My father was a hard man as well." With a tear rolling down his face, Ben asks Sayid to take him back to the hostiles. Sayid says that he will and that's why he is there.

Sayid's ability to con this young kid into believing that he will take him to the hostiles is pretty creepy. It's Ben, but he's still a kid. Sayid has entered a dark place.

Sawyer and Kate interrupted by a flaming Dharma van

After talking to Sayid, Sawyer goes to Kate's house and asks her why she came back to the island. She tells him I don't know why the others came back, but I know why I came back. At that moment Sawyer hears a Dharma van and is shocked to see a flaming van barreling through the barracks. It runs into one of the houses and everyone rushes to put it out including Sawyer, Kate, Jack and Juliet. The people in the house escape through the window. Sawyer tells Jack that there were no burning buses in three years and then they are back for one day and this happens. Sawyer puts out an alert to all of the security team that there is a fire. More in the next post.

We can assumed from what happens next that Ben set the van on fire and let it loose in the barracks. He's quite industrious for such a young kid. His actions are similar to when Walt burned the raft in season 1.