Sayid Jarrah is one of the leaders of the Middle Section that survived the crash of Oceanic Flight 815. Though initially treated like an outsider by the group, especially Sawyer, he is one of the most proactive, least ego-driven members of the group.
Before the Crash
Sayid Jarrah was born in 1969 in Baghdad, Iraq. He is of Muslim faith, though how devout is uncertain. He is not seen praying regularly (One of the "Five Pillars of Islam") but only in crisis situations. His father (named Hassan - as seen on his passport via The Oceanic Air Website) was considered a hero.
Sayid is a veteran of the Iraqi Republican Guard, in which he was a military communications officer. He was 23 at the time of Operation Desert Storm by the United States Military. After being captured by US forces during a raid, Sayid is used as a translator and initially remains loyal to his commanding officer, Tariq. When then CIA operative Joe Inman shows Sayid a video of his home village being exposed to nerve gas that Tariq had ordered, he reluctantly agrees to cooperate. Using a torture kit given by Inman, Sayid gets the location of where a missing US pilot's body is located. Later, Sayid talks briefly in the back of a US military truck with Sam Austen, who is holding a photograph of a young Kate, prior to being abandoned in the desert with a large sum of money.
After being released by the US, Sayid returns to the Iraqi Republican Guard, although he swears never to torture again. After being promoted to the intelligence division, he is soon forced to interrogate a childhood friend and love, Nadia. When he is ordered to execute her, instead of doing so, he shoots his superior, Omar, and then he shoots himself in the leg so she could get away with his gun.
Sayid then left the Republican Guard and Iraq. He was picked up in England by members of the CIA, which had been following his movements. In exchange for information on Nadia, he was recruited to infiltrate a terrorist cell in Sydney to uncover a stolen 300 pounds of C-4 explosive. Sayid was tasked with convincing Essam, his college roommate from Cairo University, to go through with being a suicide bomber so the intelligence officers could take possession of the missing explosives. Just before the mission was to begin, he warned Essam to give him time to escape, but Essam became distraught that his supposed friend had deceived him over a woman, and killed himself.
CIA Agent Cole informed Sayid that Nadia was said to be living in California. He was given a ticket for the Oceanic Flight on September 21, 2004 but he decided to stay in Australia an extra day, so that he might arrange a proper Muslim burial for Essam's body. In the airport the following day, Sayid first met Shannon in the waiting area of the Sydney airport, when he asked her to watch his bag for a moment. She reported him to airport security as an "Arab man" who had left his bag unattended. She told Boone that she did so just to prove to him that she could do anything that she wanted to do. Sayid was forgiven later by security for the misunderstanding.
During the flight, Sayid sat in the last seat in business class with his hands underneath a blanket, and never got up (according to Sawyer).
On the Island
After the crash, Sayid becomes one of the first targets of blame for the survivor's misfortune. He is suspected as a terrorist and as the US Marshall's prisoner by Sawyer. Sayid's contributions using his military background soon prove him to be a vital memeber of the group.
Sayid trying to pick up a signal
Using his experience as a communications officer, Sayid repaires the transceiver recovered from the fuselage. He then leads the expedition along with Kate, Charlie, Sawyer, Shannon and Boone to find high ground to receive a signal. Sayid uses the transceiver to pick up the looped French distress signal. With the help of Shannon, they discover it has been on a loop for 16 years.
Later, Sayid attempts to locate the origin of the signal, using triangulation. With the help of Shannon, Kate and Sawyer, he sets up three signal towers. However, when he begins to pick up the signal he is knocked out and his equipment smashed (in Pilot, Part 2). Locke later admits to being the one who did this in The Greater Good.
When Sawyer falls under suspicion for hoarding Shannon's asthma medicine, Sayid and Jack determine that they should use any means necessary to get the information from him. He then tortures Sawyer and causes severe injury to his arm. This becomes the first and only time Sayid's intuition about the truth has been wrong.
Haunted by memories of his time as torturer, Sayid feels guilty and leaves the survivors' camp to explore the island. While exploring a cable he finds on the beach, he is captured and tortured by Danielle Rousseau deep in the jungle. Rousseau reveales that she is the one who recorded the taped transmission. When questioned about the photo of Nadia he carried, Sayid tells Rousseau that Nadia is dead, even though she was alive the day before the crash. When he escapes, Sayid steals Rousseau's maps and notes and brings them back to camp. On his way back, he becomes the first member of the group to hear the whispers (see Sawyer, Shannon, Charlie).
Sayid in Rousseau's hideout
Back at camp, Sayid enlists Shannon to help translate the markings on Rousseau's maps and notes. Shannon reluctantly agrees but has trouble at first and becomes frustrated with Sayid and herself. During their work on the maps, Shannon and Sayid begin to fall in love.
When Shannon attempts to shoot Locke because she felt he was responsible for Boone's death, Sayid steps in at the last minute and causes her to miss. As a way of repairing their rocky relationship, Sayid builds Shannon a new tent to live in, and they have sex in it later that night. When Sayid returns after stepping out for a moment, Shannon tells him that she saw Walt. He concludes that she must have fallen asleep and had a nightmare but Shannon insists and leaves him.
Sayid later catches up with Shannon in the jungle as she searches for Walt with Vincent. When they both see Walt in the jungle together, Sayid tells Shannon that he believes her and he loves her. As Shannon runs toward Walt, she is shot once in the chest by Ana-Lucia Cortez, who thought she was one of The Others. Sayid rushes to her side and holds her as she dies in his arms. He buries Shannon the next day and leaves a string of prayer beads on the cross at Shannon's grave.
After the accident, Sayid spends some time talking with Ana Lucia. Sayid is given a chance to kill her but refuses to. A few days later, he takes the radio found by Bernard and given to him by Hurley and fixes it to pick up a radio broadcast. However, it has only worked that one time.
In the hatch, Sayid is the first person to notice the magnetic anomaly coming from the walls (in Hearts and Minds). Rousseau leads Sayid to a trap in which she caught a man claiming to be Henry Gale. When Sayid tortures a mysterious man in the hatch, he becomes convinced that he is one of the Others, although Jack is skeptical. During the interrogation of the fakeHenry, Sayid nearly shoots him but is stopped by Ana Lucia. Sayid goes with Ana Lucia and Charlie to find the balloon that Henry Gale described, only to find the body of the real Henry Gale.
At the end of the episode One of Them Sayid seemed to be trying to recruit Charlie for something. He begins building a house of some kind since Charlie makes a (possibly facetious) reference to a dining room table.
When Michael returns and begins planning for his return trip to retrieve Walt, Sayid becomes suspicious. He is the first to suspect Michael may have been compromised by the Others. At Libby and Ana Lucia's funeral he brings this to the attention of Jack.
As part of his plan, Sayid sets of on the sailboat with Jin and Sun around to the other side of the Island. He tells Desmond that he doesn't know how to sail, which is why he brought Jin and Sun. While sailing, Sayid prays to Allah on the boat while Sun and Jin look on. Soon afterward, they spot the Four-Toed statue on the shore.
When Sayid reaches the Others camp he finds it deserted. He opens the Door hatch and finds a wall of solid rock.
Trivia
Sayid seen on the TV in Sam Austen's office
- His Name:
- Sayid (Arabic: سيد ) is a common arabic name meaning 'Master' or 'Lord' (Also often used in the arabic language as an honorary title for addressing respected people and those of higher positions, much like 'Sir' or 'Mr.' in english). However, Sayid, as pronounced in the show, sounds more like the arabic name spelled Said (Arabic: سعيد ) which ironically means someone who is happy / cheerful and lucky in life.
- The names Sayid / Said hold a striking link to Palestinian-American Literary Theorist, Critic and Philosopher Edward W. Said(Arabic: إدوارد سعيد ) who wrote Orientalism. Orientalism is about colonization and how the colonizers of new land start to call the original habitants "The other".
- Jarrah (Arabic: جراح )originally meaning a 'Cutter' or a 'Wounder' in traditional arabic, is currently the typical arabic translation for 'Surgeon', which consequently relates to the profession of both Jack and Christian Shephard.
- Sayid can be seen on the TV in the background of the U.S. Army Office where Kate's father works in the episode What Kate Did.
- In the beginning of the 2nd season finale, when everybody is running down the beach to the boat, you hear him say: "Perhaps it's Desmond"
Unanswered Questions
- Why, after years of searching for Nadia, and travelling on Flight 815 to be reunited with her, did he fall in love with Shannon so quickly, and seem to forget about Nadia?
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