Shannon was obsessed with revenge after Boone's death, so when Sayid returned from his interrogation with Locke and suggested it was an accident, she was incensed.
"You don't get it do you?" she scowled.
Well, flashbacks would indicate that Sayid did indeed "get it". This was the common thread between the flashbacks and the island narrative, the notion that losing a loved one can make us so blind with rage that we twist the meaning of justice in the name of "the greater good".
It's an interesting parallel for sure, but I'm not sure the structure and execution of the episode lived up to its potential. Having Sayid infiltrate a terrorist cell seemed too on-the-nose right from the start, for it welcomed criticism that LOST falls prey to stereotypes — a view that I don't personally subscribe to.
Putting that issue aside, so many episodes use flashbacks to supplement what we're witnessing on the island. In the case of The Greater Good, it almost seems to pull the audience in opposite directions. Sayid is willing to risk life and limb in exchange for Nadia's whereabouts, yet on the island he's becoming Shannon's personal mercenary. If Sayid's overall arc suggests that Shannon humanized him in a way that Nadia never could, this episode doesn't go very far in supporting that suggestion.
There are also a few glaring problems in the plot itself. Kate drugs Jack to force him into rest, then he awakens to find the key to the gun case is gone. Kate assures him that it wasn't Locke, for she was watching the whole time. Soooo... if Kate was on guard, how's it any more/less likely for Locke to have grabbed it than anyone else? I can accept that Shannon was stealthy enough to outsmart Kate and grab the key, but how did she know where the case was?
If that seems like nitpicking, it's not meant to be. It just happens to be a major moment for Shannon to be holding Locke at gunpoint, so it's difficult to gloss over the conveniences which allowed it to happen. In fairness to the writers/producers, they recognized this apparent error and retconned it in Season 3.
Naveen Andrews is at his best when Sayid's free to be cold and menacing, and to that end he nails the interrogation scenes with Terry O'Quinn. I especially liked the scene at the beechcraft, where a mental chess game unfolds between Locke and Sayid and the latter ultimately wins the round.
Naveen Andrews is at his worst when he's attempting to be caring and tender with Shannon. His voice and mannerisms become so schmaltzy that it's darn near insulting, almost as if the show is daring us to object to their relationship. I do indeed object to it, but it has nothing to do with ethnicity, age, or any other superficial matter — it's the complete and utter lack of on-screen chemistry between Andrews and Grace.
Bonus points to Donnie Keshawarz (Essam), who truly nailed the role of a man broken by guilt, bloodlust, and martyrdom.
Deductions for Jenny Gago (Agent Cole) and David Patterson (Agent Hewitt), whose personalities were so boilerplate they may as well have stepped out of any weekly crime drama.
Comparatively speaking, The Greater Good wasn't especially challenging in terms of blowing us away with effects or visuals. However there were a few highlights in David Grossman's only directing effort on LOST:
1. Sayid discovers the CIA surveillance device at Essam's apartment. I loved how this was shot, with Sayid engaging in casual conversation as he stands on a table and disassembles a smoke alarm. We see the device get tossed into someone's drink. A nice touch.
2. The wide shot of Boone's funeral, with Locke clear to the right and everyone else huddled on the left. If that didn't establish Locke as the outsider, nothing would.
Deductions for certain shots of Charlie holding Aaron, which clearly reveal he's holding a doll. This is especially obvious when they're standing at the raft, moments before Sawyer comes around with his oh-so-soothing voice. Ah, the perils of high-definition TV.
I wish I could spin it in a more positive way, but there's very little to latch onto with this episode in terms of repeated viewings. The problem is we know Locke's telling the truth about it being an accident; if we didn't know that ahead of time the interrogation and revenge angles would've been far more interesting and fun to revisit.
Other than learning how Sayid ended up on Oceanic 815, I'm not sure The Greater Good offers much else in terms of long-term significance. The greatest impact on any of the characters: Sayid suffers a mild setback in the course of getting into Shannon's pants. Oh, and Shannon grows a little more comfortable with firing a weapon.
It was almost inevitable that there'd be a slight lull between "Do No Harm" and "Exodus", so I try to keep that in mind when assessing this episode on its own merits.
At the heart of the Intangibles category is the assessment of emotional impact, and that's where I think TGG falls flat in almost every way. If the goal was to make me feel for Shannon, that didn't even come close to happening. When a character is extremely abrasive all season long, you really need to make a compelling case for the audience to throw all that bad will out the window. Boone's death alone wasn't going to make a Shannon sympathizer out of me, especially when she was already back to manipulating men to do her bidding.
The flashbacks just didn't do anything for me. With all of the emotion and intensity of the previous few episodes, it was difficult to switch gears and care one iota about a terrorist cell, no matter how emotionally distraught Essam happened to be.
To some extent I sympathized with Sayid's sacrifice to get Nadia's whereabouts, but given his fling with Shannon it seemed less and less relevant by the minute.
