Why didn’t he tell Essam earlier?

[Audio Pineapple]

Going back to The Greater Good, something about those flashbacks has always bothered me. He wants to stop conning Essam, but is, effectively, forced into it by Rob and Melissa so that Nadia won’t be incarcerated as a terrorist.

That makes sense, but what doesn’t make sense is why he waited until the end of the con to tell Essam the truth, leading to his suicide.

Surely this could have been avoided if he had told him earlier on, instructed him to play along with him and then run away?

Was it to keep the con safe? We know that Essam did not want to be a terrorist, it was Sayid himself who convinced him to continue!

Could it have been so make sure that Essam didn’t give away the plan by accident?
Or did Sayid just not think?

[D-Roc]

I think Sayid had a battle with his conscience. One the one hand he wanted to protect Nadia and her new life and on the other hand he wanted Essam to make the right choice. If he had told essame earlier then the whole thing might have fallen through and the other guys might have scarpered. His job was to get them bang to rights..he couldnt risk failing otherwise the CSI would've used thier power to bring Nadia down.

Thats what i reckon anyway

[Kiowa Warrior]

Sayid was could have been scared that if he told Essam the truth earlier, then the CSI would have found out about it and put Nadia in danger. After all they had found her, Sayid, Essam etc, so maybe he didn't want to second guess them...he might have worried that they would still keep survellience on him to make sure he followed through with the plan.

And like Roco said there was a risk that Essam wouldn't agree to pretend to go through with the plan, and he could have done a runner, which the CSI would have discovered and so would punish Nadia and or Sayid.

[Mantis Zero]

Sayid couldnt risk it, he didnt want to be there in the first place and the CIA had him over a barrel. He told them he could have got Essam out and then still got the other two but they told him they wanted to bring in Essam aswell. He did try and get Essam to run to safety at the last moment but he chose top top himself instead

[Snowy~Owl]

I agree with whats been said before. He didn't want to put Nadia's life at risk and he followed it through as far as he could. When they were in the van together, I think even Sayid realised that it had now gone far enough and didn't want to be part of the plan or to lose his friend Essam. When it actually came to the crunch he had to take the chance that it would work out for the best. I wonder if he ever did get to see or talk to Nadia before he caught that fated plane back to LA.