Sayid Jarrah - 'Lost's Tortured Legend

Sayid Jarrah is one of Lost's most remarkable and compelling characters, a clash of contradictions that has endeared him to fans of the hit show. Brutal yet gentle, his tortured soul has been ripped open over five seasons of ill-fated love and violent exploits. Given his recent shooting of the young Ben Linus and escape from the Dharma Initiative, Sayid's nature and motivations are very much at the forefront of current events.

Played with superb emotional credence by Naveen Andrews, it's fascinating that a former officer of the Iraqi Republican Guard quickly assumed the position of a hero in the American drama. This primarily boils down to the recurring theme of redemption, for Sayid has perpetrated some terrible acts in his time - before, during and after his initial time on the island.

For example, while working as a chef in Paris the restaurant owner Sami believes - correctly - that Sayid was the man who tortured his wife Amira with boiling oil back in Iraq. When the pair come face to face, Sayid breaks down, apologises and admits that he has nightmares about her haunted face. We believe him. Given that we have already seen the tenderness he displayed for the likes of his beloved Nadia and Shannon, Sayid is far from a cold, ruthless machine. He's certainly capable of putting on such a front, like when he interrogates Sawyer in order to retrieve some medication, but it's clear that his actions are eating away at him inside.

It's fair to say that in some respects, Sayid is sometimes the Jack Bauer of the island. He's very resourceful, great with his hands and can fight his way out of many tricky situations. Yet his reluctance to deploy such methods, like when recently detained and assaulted by the Dharma Initiative and Sawyer, add more depth to his complex persona.

This apparent defeatism, coupled with our sympathy for his predicament, can be traced to his somewhat unfortunate love life. His devotion to Nadia, whom he released from captivity at the risk of his own life, saw him travel across the globe to find her. Before he could do so, the small matter of Oceanic Flight 815 got in the way. Once he became part of the Oceanic Six and left the island, an emotional reunion with Nadia took place and the pair quickly married - yet their harmony was short-lived when she was murdered by a hitman.

Out popped the creepy Ben Linus onto and pointed the finger at Charles Widmore, persuading Sayid to carry out various assassinations in order to hit back at the enemy. On one mission in Berlin he falls for a fetching young lass called Elsa, but it transpires she is working for the enemy and only one of the couple walks away alive. But was poor Sayid simply being lied to and manipulated by the real enemy? Hopefully all will become clear soon. It's not as if his time on the island offered much respite from doomed romance, as his union with Shannon was cruelly cut short by a bullet from Ana Lucia.

As Lost reaches its conclusion in 2010, are there any other characters more deserving of a happy ending than Sayid?