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Well, that was a mind-bending Lost episode indeed, in two or three different ways. Time travel! We knew it, we just knew the Island did something wonky with space and time. But it takes a physicist like Dan Faraday to prove it.

And as for Sayid's post-Island career...well, we sure didn't see that coming. Hugo's miserable, Jack's mega-miserable, and even Kate doesn't seem particularly happy in her new life built on a foundation of lies. But are any of them ensnared in quite such a vicious web of deceit and violence as Sayid? We think not.

As always, the estimable Lostpedia.com brings us a super-speedy recap. Check out their synopsis of "The Economist." More such to come tomorrow... blog at you then.

Sayid swaps Charlotte for Miles, but Kate does not return with them. Sayid tells Jack that "she decided to stay." Frank apparently will not miss Miles.

Charlotte and Daniel decline to return to the ship yet, as they have work to do on the Island. Daniel tells Frank to be sure to follow the exact same bearing they came in on, no matter what. Sayid and Desmond take off with Frank piloting the chopper; they take Naomi's body with them.

Flash-forward: Sayid stumbles into what looks like a veterinary office and has his gunshot wound patched up by an unseen doctor, apparently his employer. Gee, that voice sounds familiar...

Sawyer tells Kate he's not looking to leave the Island; he'd like to play house there with her instead. Locke and Sayid negotiate over Charlotte.

Flash-forward: In Berlin, it's kiss-kiss, bang-bang for Sayid and Elsa. Turns out she's no innocent, either. And she has a silver bracelet similar to Naomi's. Hmmm...

Daniel's payload finally shows up, but the clock on it shows a 31-minute time difference from the Island. "This is not good," Dan mutters. (Yes, it IS good! We knew it! Time moves differently on the Island!) Desmond shows up with Juliet, sees the chopper and is very happy.

Hugo says "Locke's gone off the reservation," then leads Sayid, Kate and Miles to Ben's house. Sayid discovers a hidden closet filled with clothes and drawers filled with currency and passports for Ben, under different names and nationalities. Heh. We knew you couldn't trust Ben.

Then Locke and his tribe show up with guns, and a guilty-looking Hugo says, "Sorry, dude." What? We thought you could trust Hugo. Dude!

Flash-forward to Berlin: Hey, Sayid cleans up real good. But there's something he's not telling Elsa. Does it have to do with her boss, the economist? Does it have to do with his boss, whom we never see and he never talks about to Elsa?

On Island, Dan's experiment with sending a "payload" from ship to shore doesn't work. Why?

In a deserted Otherville, Kate, Miles and Sayid find Hugo tied up and gagged. "They left me!" he says. That's what happens when you say no to Locke, dude.

Flash forward: In Berlin, chatting up a blonde named Elsa, Sayid claims to be "a headhunter, a corporate recruiter." We think he actually meant to say, "a headhunter, a hired gun." Elsa works for an economist. Sayid later reports in on a cell phone; he has made contact with her for a reason.

On Island, Locke and Hugo square off, and Locke says he's making the decisions now. Hugo has a problem with that. Uh-oh.

Kate joins Sayid and Miles as they set off to find Locke and retrieve Charlotte. Sayid says he intends to persuade Ben to give her up without bloodshed. Uh-oh.

Seven minutes in:

That inscription in Naomi's bangle bracelet...who is "R.C."? Or is it "R.G."?

And even off the Island, even though he's now a rich, golf-playing guy, one does not mess with Sayid Jarrah. As one unfortunate golfer finds out, with some finality, in the Seychelles.

So who was Mr. Avellino, the man in the golf cart? And why was he so visibly disturbed to find out that Sayid's one of the Oceanic Six?

There are three Davids in the mix this year: Archuleta, Cook and Hernandez. As for the two Jasons, they may look really different from each other (Castro has the dreds; Yeager, the skunk-style stripe), but check out their similarities:
- Both have a strong church backing (Castro at Lake Pointe, Yeager at Inglewood Baptist).
- Both play the drums and guitar.
- Both have received piddly airtime on the show so far.
That will all change on Tuesday, though, as the men take the stage first.

For those keeping score at home, both top-24 Jasons (Castro and Yeager) hail from the DFW area. We covered a bit of Castro's background today -- with more to come in Tuesday's paper -- but who is this Yeager person?
He was born in Grand Prairie, where he spent the first 20 of his 28 years, and now lives in Branson, Mo. He started singing way back when he was 2, and along the way learned how to play the guitar, piano and drums. Yeager also has a boy band in his past; he was a member of a group called True This.
Like Jason Castro, viewers haven't seen a heck of a lot of Yeager so far. But we know he has a sensitive side; after he made it through to the top 24, he fought back tears. "Aw, I'm a mess," he told Ryan Seacrest, who replied, "I'm gonna keep talking until you cry." And he did.

That may be overstating it a bit. HBO is still HBO; there's still half a season of The Wire to go and I admit that I'm slowly getting pulled into In Treatment. But Showtime is an ascendant player in the premium cable programming game. With the writers strike causing the Television Critics Association to cancel the January installment of its semi-annual gathering of journalists and networks, Showtime's Chairman/CEO Matthew Blank and the network's president of entertainment, Robert Greenblatt, decided to hold their own little event by spending a recent afternoon doing phone interviews. Here's how the conversation went.

I apologize for adding to the confusion about where Jason Castro is from (the show said Dallas, his fans emailed and said Grand Prairie, the official Idol bio said Rockwall). Just talked to Jason on the phone (look for the story on Tuesday!), and he says Rockwall is the correct answer.
Meanwhile, Jason Yeager, who now lives in Branson, Mo., spent 20 years as a Grand Prairie resident. So we can really claim both Jasons as hometown boys.

Are you a big loser? Do you have a friend who’s also a big loser? If so, grab him or her and get thee to The Biggest Loser, Season 6 open casting call. The reality weight-loss show will be scouting for two-person teams Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Uptown Bar and Grill, 2523 McKinney Ave. in Dallas.

I've gotten many emails this morning about Jason Castro, who hails from Grand Prairie (not Dallas, as the show had claimed. Silly show.). He already has a rabid fan base; if you want to get on board with watch parties and other fun Castro-centric activities, contact the fan club at Jfanclub@sbcglobal.net.
It will also help if the show ever lets us see him sing!

Episode 3 of Lost tonight is called "The Economist," and (as so often the case) while we don't quite know what the title means, we do know that it's Sayid-centric. So undoubtedly we'll find out about our favorite former-Iraqi-torturer's future life as the fourth of the Oceanic Six -- a life which apparently does not include his long-ago lost ladylove, Nadia.

From ABC's on-air and online previews, we also know we'll see what happens back on the Island when a Sayid-led delegation from Jack's Tribe goes looking for Locke's Tribe, in order to negotiate for Charlotte's freedom. Goal: So that the Freighter crew will take the Lostaways who actually want to leave the Island. And, oh yeah, so maybe they can hand over Ben Linus to Miles the Ghostbuster.

All we know for sure is that Sayid & Co. do find Hugo, who apparently was tied up and left behind at the Others' compound. Left by whom? By John "Colonel Kurtz" Locke, maybe abetted by Ben, would be our guess. Boys can get so darn jealous when somebody else unexpectedly turns out to be special!

Update: EW.com's Doc Jensen gets into the game with a new Big Theory, plus he coaxes some hints from Lost producer Damon Lindelof.