Tuesday night’s Lost revealed a more sinister side of our favorite Iraqi-interrogator, Sayid.

In the off-island universe, Sayid visits his long-lost love Nadia. For a second, the audience is in rapture to see the two reunited, but like many episodes of Lost, the moment is ripped away like a band-aid removed too quickly from still-healing flesh.

When Nadia invites him in to her home, we discover that she has children with Sayid’s brother Omar. The marriage of course, isn’t as happy as it might seem. She is clearly in love with Sayid, and Omar has gotten himself entangled in business with less-than-reputable characters, jeopardizing his family’s future. Omar pleads with Sayid to deal with the people that are threatening his life in a way that only Sayid can. Sayid insists that he is a changed man. He wants redemption.

After Omar is injured in mysterious circumstances, Sayid reveals to Nadia that he pushed her in his brother’s direction because he felt he did not deserve her. Maybe he doesn’t. Because the next thing we know, Sayid is brought in to see the man that has been threatening his brother, and in moments, Sayid kills him and his henchman without breaking a sweat.

On the island, things are not much different. Sayid is sent out of the temple by Dogen to “deal with” the smoke monster. Rather than doing this, however, Sayid is manipulated by Smokey, who tells him that he can bring Nadia back to life. Taking the deal, Sayid goes back to the temple to reveal that Jacob is dead, and if the people there do not team up with the smoke monster by sundown, they are as good as dead.

This causes panic, and many of the temple’s inhabitants leave. Sayid has a heart to heart with Dogen, who reveals a bit of his heartbreaking life before the island, and Sayid responds by drowning him. It’s not the last out-of-character moment in the episode, as he then kills Dogen’s sidekick. Meanwhile the smoke monster swoops in to do his dirty work, in other words, killing all the temple’s current residents.

It would seem that perhaps Dogen was right about Claire being infected by the mysterious disease that killed Rousseau’s companions, and it appears that the bug has gotten Sayid. The two are exhibiting some strange behaviors. They have now teamed up with the smoke monster and unfortunately, Kate has been dragged in to the mess.

The one ray of hope in the episode is that Ilana arrives at the temple, and manages to escort Miles, Sun, Frank and Ben to safety. Sun discovers that Jin is alive somewhere in the jungle.   Will the two be reunited soon?

The sides are now clearly established, but who is who? Is the smoke monster evil, or is Jacob? Is Sayid really infected, or manipulating the smoke monster for his own purposes? Will Jack, Hurley, Kate and Jin choose sides? Who will be left standing when the season is over, and will the two worlds of the island and alternate-universe Los Angeles ever collide?

Tune in to Lost on ABC at 9 pm on Tuesdays to find out!

Photo courtesy of ABC.