This episode of Lost brought to you by Ducket's neighborhood shrimp truck. Shrimp so hot it'll make you wanna slap yo mama....or avenge her death.
The episode opens with a young Sawyer witnessing the death of his parents. As he hides under the bed, his father shoots his mother then shoots himself. There are a couple things I am thinking at this point. First of all, we know that Jacob will be paying young Sawyer a visit in the very near future at his parents' funeral. At the same time, on an Island far away, adult Sawyer is happy and content with Juliet and has opted not to try to prevent his childhood trauma from happening. But the other thought going through my mind is how easily little James Ford could have turned into a Dexter Morgan with trauma like that. Lucky for him he only became a con man named Sawyer rather than a serial killer with a conscience. He does have the desire for revenge on the man that was responsible for seducing his mother and stealing the family's savings though.
When one of his old scam artist associates informs him that he has located the man responsible for all of Sawyer's family angst, he hops a plane for Sydney to settle the score. Finding the man working a shrimp truck, he finds it difficult to actually go through with killing him. So he heads to a bar for either liquid comfort or liquid courage. It is there that he runs into a miserable Christian Shephard who is on quite a binge. Christian shares the story of his recent falling out with his son and his belief that some men are fated to suffer. Just like the Red Sox will never win the series. (Back in the good old days anyway!) It is his way of shirking his responsibility in fixing the situation. He encourages Sawyer to do whatever he has to in order to avoid being in the same frustrating situation. After this uplifting pep talk, Sawyer works up the nerve to gun down the man he believes to be the original Sawyer. He quickly discovers that he was mistaken. His old associate had used Sawyer's intense need for vengeance to carry out his own dirty work. Whoopsie. With the dying man's last breath he utters the phrase, "It'll come back around."
This phrase comes back to haunt Sawyer in the jungle as he chases the boar that has invaded his tent and carried off his tarp. Sawyer is very disturbed by the whispers, but the fact that they are saying this particular phrase carries a horror of its own for him. After getting attacked from behind by the boar, he makes it his mission to track and kill the pig. Since this is an Island trek, of course Kate feels the need to insert herself. She offers up her tracking skills in exchange for the privilege of being able to get anything she wants from his stash at any time. She's got her eye on the gun Sawyer refused to give back to Jack after their Ethan escapade.
During the course of their search for Pumba, Sawyer becomes more convinced of the idea that the boar has singled him out to punish him. Locke adds some fuel to this fire by sharing an experience from his childhood. After his sister died in an accident, a dog showed up and his foster mother took it as a sign of comfort and reassurance from her deceased child. She acutally believed the dog was her daughter. When Sawyer finally has the opportunity to shoot the boar he's been hunting, his guilt prevails, and he decides not to. If there is even a chance that this boar is a reincarnation of the man he killed in Australia, he refuses to kill again. He doesn't need any more bad karma.
Meanwhile Charlie is struggling in the aftermath of shooting Ethan in the chest four times. Hurley asks Sayid to help Charlie since Sayid has some knowledge of post traumatic stress disorder. Sayid reaches out to Charlie by sharing the issues he experienced after executing a criminal. Taking a life, no matter how necessary, comes with baggage, and the best solution is to lean on friends rather than seek isolation.
Fulfilling his bargain with Kate, Sawyer goes to give Jack the last of the Marshal's guns. He finds Jack chopping wood and can't resist flaunting his deal with Kate. This leads Jack to utter his dad's favorite saying about the Red Sox. Sawyer realizes that Christian is Jack's father, but he does not share the information with Jack. Not yet. This scene is mirrored in the Season 1 finale in which Jack finds Sawyer chopping wood and gives him a gun to take on the raft. Sawyer tells Jack about his run in with Christian at this point in a very touching scene. So many daddy issues so little time.
In other Island developments:
- Charlie and Hurley bury Ethan. Of all the corpses on the Island, he would be the best zombie!
- Sayid should consider giving seminars to the islanders entitled PTSD: Killing Someone Will Haunt You Even if the Zombie Never Does. There are lots of survivors that could attend!
- Kate and Sawyer play a flirty game of Never Have I Ever. Never have I ever had an airplane bottle that has enough alcohol in it to last for an entire game of Never Have I Ever. Drink up you two.
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