Lost: Enter 77

Okay, now we're getting somewhere. After the feel-good episode with Hurley learning that he can make his own luck/hope, this episode delivered some action, answers and... still more questions. Let's reflect:

In Sayid's flashbacks, his was Najeev and he was working as a chef in Paris where he met Sami, a fellow Iraqi whose wife, Amira, claims Sayid brutally tortured her. All they want is for Sayid to admit it. Slight problem: Sayid is certain he never tortured her and "cannot admit to something I did not do." Don't they all say that, Sayid?

Amira strokes a cat that she saved from a torturous death, and she says the cat sometimes bites or scratches because he forgets that he is safe. The cat is similar to the cat at The Flame. In the end, Sayid admits to having tortured Amira, who sets him free because she doesn't want to be a ruthless torturer like Sayid.

In Island news, Locke, Kate, and Sayid are following a compass bearing of 305 North, which is a little something Locke has derived from Eko's stick. Sayid is frustrated by Locke's faith-based excursion but soon he comes upon a cow. Then a farm. Then the eye-patch guy, or "Patchy," who promptly shoots Sayid in the arm. When Locke and Kate come busting in, Patchy realizes it's all a big misunderstanding and gets to work removing the bullet from Sayid's arm. He also reveals a string of information of questionable truthiness (if I may):

• The station is called The Flame and is the center for communication with the outside world.
• Patchy's name is Mikhail Bakunin, and he claims to be the last surviving member of the Dharma Initiative.
• He was in the Soviet military, stationed in Afghanistan, before he responded to a newspaper ad for Dharma which asked, "Would you like to save the world?"
• In what he calls "The Purge," the rest of the Dharma people were destroyed when they waged a war against the "hostiles" (indigenous people of the Island?). After the war, a few hostiles told Mikhail that he could stay at the Flame if he stayed within a certain area.
• The Flame communicates via underwater beacons that emit sonar pings into the ocean, guiding submarines. The giant satellite dish on top of the farmhouse apparently doesn't work.

Other stuff that happens at the Flame: Locke comes upon a computerized chess game, which brings him to a menu screen where we see our old buddy Marvin Candle. This time, Candle presents a few options, the last of which is to "enter 77" if the station has been taken by hostiles.

In the C4-wired basement, Sayid and Kate encounter Ms. Klugh, the creepy Other lady who said Walt was special. In a loud showdown, Kate and Sayid hold Ms. Klugh at gunpoint while Mikhail holds Locke at gunpoint, none of them willing to give up their captives. Ms. Klugh and Mikhail scream at each other in Russian. So Klugh asked Mikhail to kill her!

Then Sayid takes Mikhail prisoner. Sayid also finds a map on which he locates the "Barracks" and assumes that is where the Others have their village. Meanwhile, Locke has entered 77 and the whole Flame station blows up, conveniently after everyone's outside.

Less importantly, Sawyer loses a ping-pong game to Hurley and now can't make up any nicknames for people for a week. I have to say, I laughed out loud when he called Sun and Jin "Crouching Tiger" and "Hidden Dragon."