This is Episode 1 B.L. (Before Linus). It's an episode long on character, short on mythology, and featuring a back story that really doesn't gain resonance for another season or so. But it's a crucial Lost episode, in that it exists to create the proper atmosphere of distrust and anger in which a future visitor can work his psychological mastery to perfection.  So all I can say it don't look back in anger at this episode: admire the darkness creeping on the edge of town.

The Long Con

4) In Short

"Two tickets to the gun show, please."

8) On the Island

Jack and Locke are in the armory. Locke is grateful that Jack has decided to store all of the guns in a central location. But tension arises when Jack asks Locke for the combo to the lock on the door. Locke relents after a brief standoff, but both agree to consult the other before ever opening this door again. Locke then cryptically suggests that Jack store the medicine in there as well. You know, lest the heroin-filled Virgin Marys get lonely.

It's Mr. 6-Pack Abs himself, Sawyer. He mocks Charlie for having to relocate on the fringe of the Lostaway camp. Sawyer notes that Charlie's the new a-hole in town, apparently. Charlie casually notes that Jack's ransacking James' tent nearby. Turns out Sawyer stole some pills from the hatch (thus Locke's warning), which leads to another standoff involving Jack. The good doctor is excellent at instigating these. Jack makes off with the pills as Sawyer glowers.

Kate comes over to Sawyer as he freshens up his tent. She brought him a magazine from the hatch. Sawyer asks her to read it to him, since he lost his glasses during the attack on the raft. While reading, Sawyer casually drops info of Jack's Army to Kate. She's clearly hurt that Ana Lucia is on the ins with Jack.

Elsewhere: Sayid is smashing fruit upon a makeshift pike. Hurley comes over and brings the short-wave radio found by Bernard in the Arrow Station. Sayid is less than impressed with this revelation, and works even more furiously to smash fruit into a thousand pieces. Hurley eventually leaves, with his feelings hurt by Sayid's pessimism. But as Sayid looks back, he notces that Hurley left the radio nearby.

In the jungle, Ana Lucia is excited that Jack managed to learn the combo to the armory. She notes the ease with which he obtained it shows that the Lostaways simply aren't afraid enough of the Island's threats: that's why no one will join their army. (Or, you know, they are terrified Ana Lucia will shoot them during warmup drills. That's a possibility as well.) She asks Jack for the combo, and here comes a...whoops, no standoff this time, as Ana Lucia almost instantly says she was kidding. (Riiiiight.)

In Sun's Garden of All Things Tranquil, she is tending to her plants. She hears something in the jungle nearby, but can't see anything. The tension is broken by the appearance of Vincent. But the tension is reinserted thanks to a sudden rainstorm, and a random figure who pulls her into the jungle after tying her hands with rope.

On the beach, Sawyer and Kate hear Sun's muffled cry and run after her. They find her lying, unconscious, on the ground, with a nasty looking cut on her face. Sawyer yells at Kate to get Jack, and carries her back to camp. Everyone anxiously surrounds her as Jack tends to her.

Summit time: Ana Lucia, Jack, Sawyer, Locke, and Kate discuss what just happened. Ana Lucia insists the Others are back; Locke isn't so sure, noting that Mr. Friendly insisted they would stay on their own side of the Island. They agree to wait until Sun awakens before further action is taken.

Sawyer and Kate go into the jungle, looking for any tracks the Others may have left behind. Sawyer thinks something's fishy about the whole situation, and the two eventually come across a black hood attached to a nearby tree. Kate thinks it matches the one used by the Others over her head; Sawyer notes that it's different. He eventually confesses his theory: Jack and Ana Lucia did it to scare up recruits for their army.

Sawyer's words clearly sink in with Kate, since she goes to Jack and subtly accuses Ana Lucia of the crime against Sun. The sinking continues, with Jack soon questioning Ana Lucia's whereabouts earlier in the day. She’s evasive and annoyed in her response. I've lost count of the standoffs in this episode and we're not even halfway through yet. In any case, Claire finally gets something to do in this episode, telling Jack that Sun's awake.

Jack's questioning yields little in the way of answers. What is clear is that Jin is ready to shoot himself some bad guys, repeating, "Gun!" over and over again after feverishly arguing with with Sun in Korean. While watching the scene from afar, Kate has a revelation: Ana Lucia is making a play for the guns! She's gonna dig up Shannon and shoot her again! Kate asks Sawyer to warn Locke.

In the hatch, Locke is rooting through the various novels on the bookshelf. Ostensibly, he's seeing if any books are hollowed out like Eko's Bible. Sawyer warns him that Jack and others will be by soon, looking to get their hands on some weaponry. Locke asks why Sawyer is telling him this, and Sawyer insists it's simply to annoy the good doctor. Locke asks for Sawyer's help: while Sawyer mans the buttons, Locke will move the guns to an undisclosed location.

Jack and Jin walk in on Sawyer, pushing the button in the hatch. Jack wants to know where Locke is, and is shocked to find the armory emptied out. Sawyer smiles as he tosses back the medicine Jack procured earlier in the episode. Jin prevents Jack from knocking Sawyer's lights out, insisting that Locke is more important. The two have, you guessed it, a standoff, interrupted by sudden gunfire in the jungle.

Sawyer swaggers out of the jungle, revealing everything in the episode to be a long con in order to obtain the only valuable form of currency on the Island: guns. Declaring himself the new sheriff in town, he insists that anyone who wants a weapon has to go through him. He announces that he did in this in response to the ingratitude he felt upon arriving back on the beach and finding his belongings ransacked by those who stayed behind, coupled with their slavish adherence to Jack and Locke's rule over them. While Kate disgustedly looks on, Sawyer saunters through the silent crowd.

Kate confronts Sawyer: she wants to know how he got the guns. She's mostly angry that she got played. She wants to know if he had anything to do with Sun he's angry at the charge. Kate thinks Sawyer just wants to be hated. He says, "You run, I con. A tiger don't change his stripes." She walks away.

Sayid greets Hurley on the beach. Looks like Sayid's been playing with the short-wave radio that Hurley brought over earlier. As they go through the channels, they are shocked to hear something actually come through: WXR, an old-time jazz standards station. They listen to "Moonlight Sonata" as Sayid and Hurley have this lovely little exchange:

SAYID: Radio waves at this frequency bounce off the ionosphere. They can travel thousands of miles. It could be coming from anywhere.

HURLEY: Or, anytime. Just kidding, dude.

In the jungle, Sawyer confronts his partner in crime: Charlie. Why would Charlie do it? Because he wanted Locke to feel like a fool. He insists that Sun can never find out what they did to her. (Damn. This is still a dark point of the show, even years later.) As Sawyer walks away, he wants to know how on earth Sawyer devised such an elaborate plan. "I'm not a good person, Charlie," answers Sawyer. "Never did a good thing in my life."

15) Off the Island

Sawyer's in a hotel room with a foxy lady. You'd be forgiven if you experienced deja vu watching this, as Sawyer's playing the same con he did back in his first flashback episode, "Confidence Man." Here's the twist: his latest victim, Cassidy, ain't no dummy. She sees right through his scam, and here's another twist: she wants in on it.

First con time: they have artificially boosted the prices on some jewelry they have obtained. She's scared, but Sawyer insists everyone's scared...of missing an opportunity. He tries to pawn them off to some guys at a gas station, but they are skeptical. That is, until Cassidy comes in, snatching up two for herself. This works, as the men are soon buying crappy jewelry of their own.

It's some time later, with Cassidy anxious to move on from small cons to "long" cons. Sawyer explains to us, the future con victims at home, that a "long" con, "...works by getting someone to ask you to do something like it's their idea, but it's not their idea, it's your idea." But without money, they can't affect such a con. Turns out Cassidy did mighty well for herself in her divorce, so well that Sawyer wants to kick back on an island (not an Island) and sip mojitos for a few decades. But Cassidy loves the con life, and wants to enact one long con before mojitos can be enjoyed.

Sawyer's in a cafe: a cafe that just so happens to be the one in which Kate's mother works. And wouldn't ya know it: Kate's mom is his waitress! Golly! His buddy-in-con Gordy shows up, wondering how the long con on Cassidy is going. Oooh, burn. But Sawyer's having a change of heart about the target Gordy handpicked for him six months earlier. Sawyer refuses to do the con, but Gordy insists that failure to do so will leave both him and his lady friend riddled with bullets.

Sawyer comes into Cassidy's house, and confesses that she's the long con. She's furious, but less so when she learns that the only reason his partner is outside her house is because he refused to give Gordy her money. He moves the money from a briefcase into a duffel bag, tells her to go to a motel in Sioux City, and wait for him. They each tell the other, "I love you," and part ways before either are killed.

We see the end of the previous scene from inside the house. Sawyer walks to the car ostensibly inhabited by Gordy, only...no Gordy to be seen. He counts Mississippis, then walks back in the house. He pulls out another black duffel bag from a chair in the dining room, flush with cash. (So, Cassidy has a fun surprise waiting for her in Sioux City.)

16) The Mythology

Well, I did make a point to quote Sayid and Hurley for a reason. This episode marks the first instance in which the possibility of time travel was introduced. (According to this interview, the show wanted to introduce it as early as Season 1, but it was rejected by the network. So, essentially, ABC has gone from being against the word "time" to greenlighting frozen donkey wheels. That's progress.)

23) The Moment

Learning that Charlie and Sawyer willingly put Sun in harm's way to affect what amount to petty vendettas.

42) In Retrospect

1. This episode was the low point for both Sawyer and Charlie as characters. Charlie’s redemption arc took place over the next season and a half, while in many ways Sawyer's arc is still on the upswing. I'd like to think his heroic jump off the chopper isn't his finest moment, and that he and Juliet can still affect some good back on the Island in Seasons 5 and 6.
2. As hinted at earlier: in some ways, this is not a very good episode. The motivations of Charlie and Sawyer are suspect at best, and it turns out there's almost no one that trusts anyone else at this point. You could be tempted to think you've invested a lot in a show with no one particularly likeable in the cast. But in hindsight, this type of episode was absolutely needed in order to inject the proper amount of mistrust needed to let a certain visitor stir things up even more in the episodes to come.
3. Don't be surprised to see Cassidy interact with one or more members of the Oceanic 6 in the upcoming season.

108) In Summary

Now, while I have come around to the idea of this episode being necessary to set the stage for Ben's arrival in the camp, I do think it was a rather clunky way of doing it. For a show that slowburns so many plot points and simmering tensions, a lot of the interactions in this episode come COMPLETELY out of left field. For example, Kate decides to hate Ana Lucia due to plot necessity, not organic character development.

Given how often the show gets these things right, it's disappointing when they get it wrong. But still, it's a small quibble, in that the actual long con on the Island is fairly brilliant, executed by a man who knows how to manipulate people's emotions. Of course, we will soon meet a man who has him schooled in that field.

Leave your thoughts about this episode below!

Ryan also posts every 108 minutes over at Boob Tube Dude, then peruses Zap2It's Guide to Lost Facebook group.

Comments

Everything you said is true, this episode was mostly about setup that wouldn't be paid off for seasons at a time. This is most likely why the episode seemed so "clunky", not so much due to execution of the plot (that's a problem on its own), but because the plot points themselves seemed clunky and unneccesary at the time.

What I did take from this episode, however, is that end scene when Sawyer stands triumphant and calls Jack and Locke out for how they were leading the camp. In hindsight, although he was going about it the wrong way, Sawyer had a point as the camp divided into two sides in Season 4, both following men who were so BAD at working with each other that they let Sawyer pull the rug out from under them - and in Season 4, they led everyone to ruin.

It's also interesting how Sawyer took over a role as an authority figure by taking the guns, and in Season 5 (we assume) he becomes the camp's leader in the absense of Jack and Locke. And just like Jack and Locke, apparently his leadership led to 3 years of "very bad things" happening on the Island.

Other Sean | Sep 21, 2008 3:59:27 PM | #

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Ryan, you're doing a great job. It never would have occurred to me that this episode set up the atmosphere of distrust that allowed Ben to so easily manipulate Locke and the others. I just wish that reading your posts didn't remind me of the dreaded Ana Lucia.

Do we know for sure that Cassidy will be back?

Carol Ann | Sep 21, 2008 4:02:53 PM | #

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For the longest time, I have figured the radio station Hurley & Sayid heard was coming from an old Armed Forces Radio broadcast, possibly during WWII. It makes more sense now, considering the time-space disturbance that surrounds the Island.

I thought this was a good episode for Sawyer. It made his character stronger, and certainly set things up for his future storyline. However, didn't they cheapen it by having him loose the guns in a bet? Also, I thought we were hinted at the Tampa Job in this one (maybe that's later). I didn't remember the connection with Cassidy/Kate & Sawyer/Kate's Mom originally, and I do think Cassidy will pop up again.

Shaggysteve | Sep 21, 2008 8:17:01 PM | #

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see, I think the Kate and Ana Lucia thing seemed a bit more organic than you give them credit for. maybe Kate doesn't have any legit reason, but from her point of view, this chick is the only other alpha female around, who shows up, is spending a lot o ftime alone with Kate's sorta-man Jack, and... oh yeah, killed Shannon. she probably is just looking for a reason to call her out. up until this point, Kate is the queen bee.

tonester | Sep 22, 2008 9:16:23 AM | #

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Carol Ann, Cassidy comes back in Season 3, episode 15 "Left Behind" when there is a flashback about Kate.

Patti | Sep 22, 2008 12:30:48 PM | #

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Patti, I think Carol Ann was asking about Seasons 5/6.

I don't have any insider info on this, it's just a strong hunch she'll factor into some part of the Oceanic 6's scheme to get back to the Island. After all, a good con artist is always in need, yes?

Ryan | Sep 22, 2008 12:37:23 PM | #

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BTW, Zap2it's own Korbi has a few Lost tidbits in her Emmys coverage you might wanna check out:

http://blog.zap2it.com/korbitv/2008/09/emmys.html

Ryan | Sep 22, 2008 1:41:29 PM | #

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Ryan,

Thanks for the link. There was more info there than I thought there would be. It's very exciting, can't wait for season 5.

Patti | Sep 22, 2008 2:10:42 PM | #

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Ryan, thanks for the link to Korbi. I agree Cassidy might be back, possibly to be revealed to Kate as Sawyer's baby mama? Or do we think that's who Kate was talking to in an S4 episode, when she lied and told Jack she was talking to a playgroup mom?

Carol Ann | Sep 22, 2008 5:00:50 PM | #

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This has to be the episode where Saywer goes as low as he can go....I guess some people have to be the bad boy and he likes it and maybe he thought he was losing his bad boy status on the island. Funny how when Jack, Locke, etc. have their summit that Sayid is not included....could this be because Ana is there? I would think he would be more important to the group. With this episode, you can see why Naveen Andrews probably began to get discouraged with his character as he mentioned in TV Guide awhile back. But overall not a bad episode...kind of what the whole season two was where we had some good episodes, some clunkers of great magnitude and mostly decent episodes which tend to payoff more in the future.

Jacoby | Sep 23, 2008 10:51:51 AM | #

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