Confidence Man (Lost)

"Confidence Man"
Lost episode
Sawyer considers burning the letter he wrote in 1979.
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 8
Directed by	Tucker Gates
Written by	Damon Lindelof
Production code	106
Original air date	November 10, 2004
Guest stars
Michael DeLuise as David Kristin Richardson as Jessica Billy Mayo as Kilo Jim Woitas as Boy
Episode chronology
← Previous "The Moth" Next → "Solitary"
Lost (season 1) List of Lost episodes

"Confidence Man" is the eighth episode of the first season of Lost. The episode was directed by Tucker Gates and written by Damon Lindelof. It first aired on November 10, 2004 on ABC. The character of James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway) is featured in the episode's flashback.

Plot

Flashbacks

Sawyer is in bed with a young woman, Jessica (Kristin Richardson). After he declares his love for her, she realizes he is late for a meeting. As he rushes to leave, his briefcase falls open, revealing thousands of dollars in cash he says she was not supposed to have seen. Sawyer then informs her that he is meeting someone to get money for an investment that will triple his cash in two weeks, and Jessica tells him that she will get the money from her husband so that she and Sawyer can split the profit. Later, Sawyer is revealed to be a con artist in debt with a loan shark, Kilo (Billy Mayo), who demands his money, plus fifty percent, by the next day. Sawyer goes to Jessica's house to finalize the deal, but reconsiders upon seeing a small boy emerge from another room. He suddenly calls off the con, drops his briefcase of money, and rushes out of their house.

On the Island

On the beach, Sawyer catches Boone Carlyle (Ian Somerhalder) rifling through his stash, and Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) attends a wound on the head of Sayid Jarrah (Naveen Andrews). Sayid reports his failure in triangulating the distress signal, and the destruction of the transceiver by his attacker.

Later, Shannon Rutherford (Maggie Grace) brings a bloody Boone to the caves, claiming Sawyer beat him. Boone then explains to Jack that Shannon's asthma becomes a problem, and everyone becomes convinced that Sawyer is hoarding some inhalers from the wreck. Jack unsuccessfully demands the inhalers from Sawyer, and when Kate does the same, Sawyer says he'll give up the medicine if Kate kisses him. Kate calls his bluff and challenges him about the letter he often reads. Sawyer makes Kate read the letter aloud. The letter is addressed to "Mr. Sawyer" and explains that Sawyer had sex with the letter writer's mother and stole all his father's money, resulting in the father killing his wife and himself.

As Sayid and John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) discuss about the attack on him, Locke suggests that Sawyer is the culprit, since he is doing well for himself on the island, hoarding other people's possessions, and also seems to dislike Sayid. Meanwhile, Shannon is beginning to have trouble breathing, due to her lack of medication and panic resulting from this problem. Jack tries punching answers out of Sawyer, but he stops when he sees others' disapproval. Then with Jack's approval, Sayid ties Sawyer to a tree and tortures him for answers, revealing that he has tortured people many times before.

Sawyer finally agrees to give up the inhalers, but only to Kate. He again says he will hand over the medication if she kisses him, which she reluctantly does, only to find that he does not have the medication after all. Kate slaps Sawyer, and an enraged Sayid attacks him, stabbing him in the arm and hitting an artery. Jack arrives to stop the bleeding and save Sawyer's life.

Sawyer wakes up the next day with his arm bandaged up, while Kate looks on. She explains that she figured out from the bicentennial label on the envelope that the letter was not written to Sawyer, but by him to another man. He tells Kate that after a con man ruined his family, he ended up becoming a con man himself, so he took the name Sawyer as an alias. He snatches the letter from Kate and tells her not to feel sorry for him and to leave.

Despite pleas from Kate, Sayid sets off to explore the island's shoreline in self-imposed isolation, needing time to come to terms with his actions in torturing Sawyer, while Sun-Hwa Kwon (Yunjin Kim) helps Shannon by making a eucalyptus salve to clear her bronchial passages. Charlie Pace (Dominic Monaghan) convinces Claire Littleton (Emilie de Ravin) to move to the caves. Sawyer attempts to burn the letter he wrote, but he finds himself unable to go through with it.

Development

The episode was written to humanize Sawyer and set up the love triangle between him, Kate and Jack. It also shows the moral ambiguity of characters to reveal more of their personalities, with the ones introduced as heroes doing things that are not heroic - Jack beating Sawyer and eventually asking Sayid to torture him - and a villainous one proving to be not much of a bad person - Sawyer's backstory and flashback.^[1]

Reception

This episode attracted 18.44 million American viewers.^[2] Chris Carabott of IGN called the episode "a well-written, fascinating character piece that does an excellent job of bringing Sawyer into the spotlight" and praising Josh Holloway's performance saying that "The success of this episode begins and ends with Josh Holloway. So far, we know that he's good at playing Sawyer: The Tough Guy, but now he has to sell a multilayered fragment of a human being who hates himself for becoming the man who destroyed his family. Holloway succeeds in creating a character that quickly unravels throughout the episode as his terrible secret is revealed" and "Holloway does an exceptional job of conveying Sawyer's disgust as he realizes what he was about to do". He also goes on to saying that "Sawyer's relationship with Kate is explored and it's a refreshing change after having 'Jack & Kate' forced upon us for the last several episode. As much as Jack and Kate appear to be better suited as a couple, Sawyer and Kate share far better chemistry. It's obvious they share a far deeper bond and that Sawyer has a superior understanding of Kate than Jack ever will". He gave it a final score of 8.4/10^[3]

References

1. ^ Lost on Location - "Confidence Man". Lost: The Complete First Season - The Extended Experience, Buena Vista Home Entertainment. Featurette, disc 7. Released on September 6, 2005.
2. ^ "Weekly Program Rankings". ABC Medianet. November 16, 2004. http://abcmedianet.com/web/dnr/dispDNR.aspx?id=111604_05. Retrieved 2008-07-30. 
3. ^ Lost Flashback: "Confidence Man" Review , IGN

External links

• Confidence Man at the Internet Movie Database