The Story Behind Sayid's Freakishly Long Fingernails In Lost Season 1

"Lost" is currently streaming on Netflix, making one of the most important and influential shows of the Golden Age of TV widely available to a whole new generation. Now, a fresh audience can discover a time when shows could feature both serialized storytelling and deep worldbuilding while still having standalone episodes that make its world feel bigger.

Indeed, watching "Lost" in 2024 feels like stepping into a time machine, with the TV drama doing compelling mysteries that make you want to binge the entire series at once in a way most Netflix shows can only dream of, all without underestimating the power of a great ensemble of characters or the power of episodes working individually in addition to working as part of a whole. "Lost" may have time travel shenanigans, polar bears on a tropical island, a smoke monster — and many more mysteries — but arguably the biggest lingering mystery in the entire show involves Sayid (Naveen Andrews). Specifically, the mystery of Sayid's exceptionally long fingernails in season 1.

Speaking with Esquire in 2014, co-creator Damon Lindelof laughed and simply said the long nails came about "because Naveen Andrews liked to play the guitar between set-ups at night in an effort to lull the cast into submission."

"He's an amazing guitar player," Lindelof continued. "I remember [co-creator] J.J. [Abrams] asking him about his nails when he came in to audition and Naveen was like, 'Oh, I'd be happy to clip them but you'll just take away from me the one meaningful artistic expression I have in my life other than acting.' Completely and totally deadpan in a way only Naveen can. But he did clip them at a certain point — or at least whittled them down. But they're aggressively long and disquieting."

While it's a shame that Andrews' musical skills were never explored in the show, Sayid was nonetheless one of the best characters on "Lost." Much like the roles of Charlie, Hurley, Jin, and Sun were tailored to certain actors, Sayid was created specifically for Andrews to play after he made an impression during the casting process.

Rewatching early episodes of "Lost," it's clear there wasn't much of a plan starting out when it came to Sayid's role among the castaways — not that this prevents the character from immediately standing out. From the very beginning, while Matthew Fox's Jack is reluctant to take a leadership position but is all but forced to anyway, Sayid is quick to help others and proves himself invaluable to the survival of the group immediately following the crash of Oceanic 815. Indeed, it quickly becomes apparent that the other castaways look to Sayid for guidance and trust his judgement. Jack is the doctor and he cares about life-or-death medical emergencies, whereas Locke becomes the hunter. Sayid, however, is a more rounded survivalist. He's the one that fixes the plane's transceiver and helps the group triangulate a signal being broadcasted on the island in an attempt to help get them rescued. He also makes a signal fire and, most importantly of all, does all this while involving the other survivors, as opposed to trying to take on everything by himself a la Jack.

Plus, it can't be ignored just how rare and special it was to see a Middle-Eastern main character on a mainstream TV show, especially in 2004 — a time where most Muslim characters on TV were there to be tortured by Jack Bauer on "24."

Spoilers ahead for "Lost."

As great as the character of Sayid was in the early days of "Lost," there were problems as the show went along. It became clear soon enough that there was no plan for the character the way there was with others. Much like Michael or Charlie, Sayid became a rather one-note player whose only purpose was to be the torturer (and whose flashbacks were all about his past as a torturer).

Out of every main character — except maybe Locke — Sayid was seemingly there just to suffer. He saw everyone he loved murdered in front on him. He becomes a ruthless killer. He is imprisoned and tortured. He's even shot and seemingly killed before coming back to life as a zombie.

In her book "Burn It Down," author Maureen Ryan talked to staff writers and actors on "Lost" who discussed the racism present in the show and its writing process. Allegedly, the writing staff was "told repeatedly" that Locke, Jack, Kate, and Sawyer were the "hero characters." All of these characters are white, and looking back on the show it's clear how characters like Sayid, Michael, Sun, Jin, and even Hurley often fall into stereotypes in their arcs and backstories. The vast majority of Sayid's story is about his past in the Iraqi Republican Guard and whether he was born violent. Similarly, Michael's story, despite some early subversions in season 1, ended up resorting to the stereotype of Black fathers abandoning their kids in season 2.

It's an unfortunate element of "Lost" that cannot be ignored, nor should it be defended merely because the show premiered in 2004. Still, for a good while, Sayid Jarrah was one of the best characters on the best show on TV.