LOST: The Notorious S.A.Y.I.D.

Wowza. Gotta say that Sayid episodes rarely disappoint. I am kinda bummed that the episode was more about things being done to Sayid than Sayid doing things.

OBSERVATIONS

1. Jack's perfectly happy not being the leader. Either that, or Matthew Fox is in Stage One of "Phoning in the Series."
2. If Kate isn't concerned about something trivial, she ain't Kate.
3. I see that Ben's father went from being a neglectful, alcoholic jerk to full-fledged abuser. Reminds me of when they did the Sharon-centric episode and tried to rationalize her snootiness as a by-product of her heartless mother. In LOST, everyone's the way they are because of their parents.
4. When I saw the first scene/flashback, I was thinking, "Are they trying to make Sayid into Eko now?" the last scene pretty much said, "Yep."
5. Anyone betting that a "Sayid vs. Jin' fight would come out in Sayid's favor won some cash last night. Not me: although both were in their country's respective military, I gave Jin the edge for that roundhouse kick he gave Patchy two seasons ago.
6. Who knew the DI people were so blood thirsty? They actually voted on killing a a person.

THEORIES/PREDICTIONS

1. Ben ain't dead. If it were that easy to kill Ben Linus, there'd be a line coming outside the Orchid station, with people waiting to travel back in time to get a chance to bump the guy off. Each person would be allowed to go one month before the last person, and the lucky guy who travels back to Ben's birth gets to go into the woods, knock out Ben's father and hurl Baby Ben into a grizzly bear cave.
2. Kate is going to fuck up the Sawyer-Juliet relationship, because that's what she does. Kate is never satisfied with the status quo.
3. Sayid's run with LOST may be coming to an end. As far as Island mysteries go, he doesn't have the same connection as John, Jack and Hurley. Unlike Kate and Sawyer, he has no real reason to stay. Juliet's still needed to complete the Love Quadrangle and Jin and Sun are the closest thing the show has to a happy couple. Daniel is Captain Exposition and no doubt Miles' ghost whispering will come in handy. Plus, Sayid himself was wondering what his purpose is, and if was to shoot a dangerous man while he was still a tween then "Mission Accomplished," right?

QUESTIONS

1. This just hit me: were the Tail Section Flight 180 Survivors who were taken by Others going through time jumps too? If so, where are they? If not, why and what happened to them?
2. Where is Claire and Desmond?
3. Why was everyone in the DI freaked out about Sawyer shooting two Hostiles, but now they couldn't give a rat's ass if an imprisoned one is bumped off?
4. How is Young Ben getting access to prisoners? Don't they have adult guards?
5. Last and most importantly: What is the "goal" of the Losties now? It almost seems like everyone's content living with the Dharma Initiative in the 1970s, despite the fact that (1) all of them did not make it to this timeline and (2) these people they are living with are going to die (then again, this timeline seems devoid of ghosts and smoke monsters). For the first few seasons, their misson was to get as many people off the Island as possible. When some did make it off, a majority of them wanted to get back. Locke's mission was to bring the O6 back to stop the Island from time-skipping, but his turning the Wheel 'O Time actually did that piece; other than sending everybody to the 70's nothing else bad has happened since. Sayid was the only real question mark, and this episode pretty much addressed what he wanted to do. So I ask again: What is the "goal" of the Losties now?