Sundown (S6X06)
Airdate: 2 March 2010
Written by: Paul Zbyszewski & Graham Roland
Directed by: Bobby Roth
Running Time: 43 minutes
For a series primarily set on what many would call a tropical paradise, it was at times easy for the audience to forget that Lost was, from its very inception, an intensely dark show. Beneath the sun-drenched beaches and lush jungle lay a relentless undercurrent of moral ambiguity, supernatural terror, and human frailty. Yet, even by its own grim standards, some episodes plunged into deeper shadows than others. A prime example is Sundown, the sixth episode of the final season, an instalment that methodically drags its characters to some very dark places and orchestrates one of the series’ most chilling massacre. It is an episode that functions as a grim pivot, where sanctuary becomes slaughterhouse and a beloved protagonist completes his tragic transformation into a vessel of pure antagonism.
The plot is almost entirely confined to the Temple, that mysterious, ancient sanctuary which has served as the stronghold for the Others, or at least the faction led by the mysterious Dogen. Presented as a bastion against the creeping influence of the Man in Black—the malevolent entity impersonating John Locke—the Temple’s supposed inviolability makes it the prime target for his campaign. The episode cleverly underscores the Man in Black’s modus operandi: unable to enter the Temple himself, he achieves his ends through proxies, much as he manipulated Ben Linus to murder Jacob. Here, the key becomes Sayid Jarrah, returning the narrative focus to a character whose journey has been defined by violence and redemption. His recent death, mysterious resurrection, and the sinister “diagnostic” test have convinced Dogen he is “infected” with evil. Dogen’s response—to banish him—coincides with the arrival of a feral Claire Littleton, who delivers the Man in Black’s stark ultimatum to Dogen: come out or be destroyed. Dogen’s refusal and his decision to imprison Claire set in motion a fatal chain of events. In a moment of profound manipulation, Dogen hands Sayid a dagger, telling him that killing the Man in Black will prove he is still a good man. This is not trust, but a cynical gambit, a suicide mission designed to rid the Temple of a perceived threat.
Sayid’s journey into the jungle to confront the Man in Black is brief and brutally ineffective. The stab of the dagger does nothing, and the Man in Black, with chilling calm, deduces Dogen’s true intent: to have Sayid killed in the attempt. He then flips the script, using Sayid as his herald. The ultimatum is delivered to every person in the Temple: they have until sundown to leave and follow him, or stay and die. The resulting exodus is a great example quiet horror. Seeing figures like Cindy the flight attendant and the innocent children, who have been background mysteries for seasons, willingly walk out to join the enemy is deeply unsettling. It underscores a terrible theme: the choice between a known evil and a futile death is no choice at all. Amidst this chaos, Kate Austen’s return and her fraught reunion with Claire in the pit—Claire now viewing Kate with murderous jealousy over Aaron—adds another layer of personal dread to the impending catastrophe.
The sundown deadline expires with catastrophic results. Sayid, fully embracing his corrupted role, kills Dogen and his lieutenant Lennon. These murders are not acts of rage, but of chilling efficiency, and they symbolically shatter the Temple’s protections. What follows is a massacre of terrifying scale. The Man in Black, in his Smoke Monster form, descends upon the remaining Others, slaughtering them wholesale. Into this nightmare stumble Ilana, Ben, Frank, and Sun, their arrival—though slightly convenient—providing a crucial audience perspective of sheer terror. Ben’s flight upon seeing Sayid, now smiling with sinister satisfaction, is a powerful moment. Even the series’ former arch-manipulator is horrified by the abyss Sayid has become. Ilana, Sun, Miles, and Frank escape through a secret passage, but the episode ends with Sayid, Claire, and Kate standing alongside the triumphant Man in Black, a dark new alliance forged in blood.
Parallel to this, the episode’s “flash-sideways” segment delves into an alternate 2004 for Sayid. Here, he works as a translator for oil companies, a man trying to leave his violent past behind. Visiting a happily married Nadia, now wed to his brother Omer (Cas Anvar), in Los Angeles, he is drawn back into brutality when Omer is beaten by loan sharks. Sayid’s confrontation with these thugs—revealed to be led by an alternate Keamy—and his subsequent discovery of Jin tied up in a freezer, is a taut, well-executed action sequence. Yet, its thematic purpose is clear: it mirrors the main timeline’s assertion that violence is Sayid’s inescapable nature, a “corruption” that exists across realities. For co-writer Graham Roland (making his Lost writing debut here, before later co-creating Jack Ryan with Carlton Cuse), and Paul Zbyszewski, this parallelism is handled with a somewhat heavy hand, but it effectively reinforces the episode’s core tragedy.
Sundown is a relatively well-focused episode, with its 2007 narrative tightly bound to a single location. This claustrophobia amplifies the tension, but also renders certain developments predictable. The Temple’s fall feels inevitable, a necessary narrative consolidation point prophesied by Jacob in the previous episode. It becomes a grim crossroads, forcibly reuniting characters from disparate factions—the Tailies, the Oceanic 815 survivors, the Others—under the shadow of annihilation. What makes the episode particularly dark, however, is not just the body count, but the calculated corruption of Sayid Jarrah. His journey from noble torturer to doomed hero to outright villain is a brutal arc, accelerated by Dogen’s manipulative folly. The confirmation of his turn is delivered with deliberate lack of subtlety: that smile he offers Ben is pure, unadulterated malevolence, so disturbing it terrifies a character who once took part in the purge of an entire village. The suggestion that Kate may be next on this path, joining the dark faction out of a desperate need to protect Claire and find Aaron, adds a further layer of bleakness to the conclusion.
For all its strengths, Sundown is not without flaws. Dogen’s exposition-dump backstory—involving a drunk-driving accident that crippled his son and Jacob’s offer of healing in exchange for service—feels rushed and mechanically convenient, a last-minute attempt to humanise a character just before his execution. Similarly, the perfectly timed arrival of Ilana’s group at the Temple’s moment of crisis stretches credulity, serving plot mechanics over organic narrative flow. These are minor blemishes, however, in an otherwise ruthlessly efficient hour.
Directed with muscular confidence by Bobby Roth, who stages both the intimate fight between Sayid and Dogen and the chaotic massacre with visceral impact, Sundown is a compelling and grim chapter. Its action sequences are brutally effective, and its commitment to darkening the moral landscape of the show’s final act is total. Yet, it remains, in essence, a formulaic episode. It executes the Lost template—character-centric flashback, mythological advancement, shocking violence—with precision, but offers little of the philosophical ambiguity or emotional resonance that marked the series at its best. It is a good, deeply dark piece of television, but one that prioritises plot mechanics and tonal shock over deeper revelation.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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