Episode Report Card Sobell: B | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT "Fancy thinking the Beast…"
By Sobell | Season 1 | Episode 16 | Aired on 02.15.2005
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Wow, Sawyer's a sucker. A hot sucker, but a sucker nonetheless: he was manipulated by fellow con artist Hibbs into killing a guy who owed Hibbs money. And now, the debtor's been reincarnated as a massive boar with a grudge. After spending all episode searching for one boar while saddled with another bore (Kate), Sawyer finally realizes that maybe he and guns don't go together and he passes on killing the pig. This doesn't mean he's been redeemed -- we also find out via flashback that Sawyer ran into Jack's father in some Aussie dive, the ex-surgeon blubbered about how much he loved his boy, and Sawyer sees no need to pass this on to Jack. Yet.
In other island news: Hurley continues to identify potential psychotic breaks in the making and take steps to fix them, because he is awesome. This time, he sees that Charlie's all torn up inside over plugging Ethan, and gets Sayid to knock Charlie's head back into place. Also, Kate continues to woo Jack, lest she be forced to survive on a desert island with only one man panting after her. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
As the first non-Dan recapper to ever tackle this show, I feel obligated to warn y'all up front: I have no attractive wife, lawyer or otherwise. I hope this won't be an impediment.
So the episode begins with a woman waking up a little boy, then telling him to hide under the bed. "He's here," she adds, just in case the screaming voice and the sounds of someone pounding on a door aren't cluing him in. She then drills the little boy on the importance of hiding under the bed and not coming out, no matter what he may hear. There's some tense back-and-forth on the subject, helped along by a bellowing. The woman tells the little boy she loves him, then runs out of the room, closing the door.
She heads out of the room, and we watch the boy huddle under the bed while we hear her yelling, "Stop it! Go away! What the hell is wrong with you? I'm calling the police!" Not to get all Wednesday-night quarterback here, but wouldn't have calling them before engaging an irate intruder have maybe been a good idea? In any event, the camera switches between the little boy and the closed door, and we hear her continue to scream questions right up until the moment she's shot.
And now the powers that be ratchet up the tension further by showing the kid silently crying in fear. The background pianist is leaning on the Key of Foreboding, and we hear heavy footsteps before the door opens. We see a pair of cowboy boots standing before the bed, and the kid scoots back even further. The pianist leans extra hard on the key just in case we're not already braced for something terrible to happen. Then the man sits down, we hear a gun cock...and the guy sitting on the bed shoots himself as the kid flinches underneath.
Cut to Sawyer waking up with a start, all sweaty and bare-chested. I imagine some of you may need a moment to compose yourselves. Take your time. He wakes up more fully, looking relieved yet weary, and then his expression changes as he registers that there's a giant boar disrupting the décor in his tent. Sawyer decides that the way to treat a giant pig is to lunge at it while hollering. Sawyer soon discovers that he's not going to be the Pig Whisperer any time soon: the boar runs out of the tent, taking the tarp with it. The half-clad Sawyer gives chase, bellowing like a banshee and waving around a metal rod like he's running the 4X400 relay in the Redneck Olympics.
He then pelts into the jungle. It's not like he's had any exposure to polar bears or Tom Cruise's wayward cousins, so there's nothing to be afraid of here, right? Or maybe there is. As Sawyer heads back, he happens to notice that there's a lot of voices whispering faintly, just on the edge of his hearing. And finally, someone whispers loudly, "It'll come back around."
Sure enough, the credits come back around. Those voices know things!