Episode Report Card Daniel: B- | 0 USERS: N/A YOU GRADE IT The Long Con
By Daniel | Season 2 | Episode 13 | Aired on February 7, 2006
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Turns out Sawyer was sick of Charlie's having taken over the "Island's No. 1 asshole" ranking, and also he's mad that people took his stuff while he was on a raft, and he sets in motion an elaborate scheme to wrest some power, and possibly some beer, back from Jack and Locke, who have philosophical differences as to the use of guns. So Sawyer enlists Charlie, still smarting from the Claire dumpage and the Locke beatdown, to stage an attempted kidnapping of Sun. Then Sawyer plants the notion in Kate's mind that Ana-Lucia staged it to drum up recruits for her ninja army, since The Others agreed to leave the Lostaways alone and everything. This is a plausible theory, because why would the totally trustworthy Others lie? Well, whatever. So Kate puts some doubt in Jack's mind as to Ana-Lucia's motives. I don't know why Sawyer needed Kate to do this, since Jack decides it's time to grab some guns anyway, and Kate asks Sawyer to warn Locke about the posse coming down the hatch-hole. Locke gets Sawyer to keep an eye on the timer while he hides the guns -- only Sawyer has Charlie follow Locke, and now Sawyer's got the guns.
Too bad the present-day story was given away (the culprit anyway, if not the motivation) by the Sawyer flashbacks, in which he cons a woman out of $600,000 while pretending to teach her about the conning business. Sawyer might as well have spoken directly to the screen when he talked about getting people to do what you want by making them believe it's their idea. Sawyer does appear to have some genuine feelings for the mark. Which, if you think about it, kind of makes him even more of an asshole.
Also, how did Sawyer get Vincent to go along with the scheme? Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Locke opens the door to the hatch-hole armoury, and Jack walks in with his case full o' guns, and Locke asks if that's all of them, and Jack says all six are there, plus a box of ammo. Locke notes it's nice that they don't have to worry about running out any time soon (because the guns will be locked out of Ana-Lucia's reach?). Then he says he's "grateful" Jack decided to store the guns there. Because the guns belong to Jack and all.Jack glances up and sees the confiscated Virgin Junkie statues on the shelf. Locke notices him looking and says he had to confiscate them from Charlie. "His heroin stash. I figured it might have therapeutic value, if it ever came to that," he says. Jack asks if he was just going to leave them in the statues. Turns out Locke wasn't really interested in smashing open the statues, but Jack can, if he wants to. Or maybe there was a Danish cartoonist on Flight 815 who can do it.
Locke starts to leave, and Jack asks him for the combination. Locke hesitates, then launches into one of his sanctimonious soliloquies about how he's going to give Jack the benefit of the doubt (big of him) and assume he's asking for the combo in case Locke is ever incapacitated, and not because he doesn't trust Locke. "That it would be irresponsible for just one of us to have access to this room, rather than this being an issue of trust." Gotta say that it doesn't sound like Jack's the one with the trust issues, here, Locke. Jack just dryly notes that there are "a lot of cliffs" on this island. Niiiiiiice dig at Locke about Boone. Point for Jack! Locke stares at him for a moment, before nodding and then suggesting that they should agree to consult the other before opening the door. Jack readily agrees, as he's taking the key to the case from around his neck. "Right seven, left thirty-three, right eighteen," says Locke, and asks if Jack needs to write it down, and Jack all smug says that he's got it, like they have to turn even this into a dick-measuring thing. Jack starts to leave, but Locke stops him: "And Jack, you may want to consider locking the medicine in here too." Jack wants to know why he'd need to do that.
As if to answer, we cut to Sawyer, who's shirtless, strolling out of the surf and razzing Charlie, who's setting up a tent on the beach: "Well, well. Look who had to relocate from the suburbs!" He blathers on about how it's just like a woman: she keeps the house, while Charlie gets the crappy apartment. You know, the kind of garbage that's completely unacceptable from men with worse hair and softer stomachs.