Lost 2.13: "The Long Con"

Cafe Society
181

That’s much clearer, and much more insightful, thanks!

I don’t see it that way (big shocker, I know!) - I see him as honestly wanting to do the right thing, be the right person, and not necessarily knowing how. In short, I think his motives are pure.

I don’t see him trying to play a role and deciding to fuck anyone who gets in the way. I see him as wanting to play a role and not having the tools/experience to pull it off. Put another way: he honestly believed that “Aaron was in danger and that he had to do something”; not “He was looking for a way to play himself up as the grand protector and Aaron presented a viable means to pull that off”.

To see what’s going on in his head and his reactions, it helps to look at the pattern of betrayal that he’s experienced. Male role-models are important to him. When his brother got hooked he was first appalled, but then because big bro did it, he joined in. He had a sense that this was wrong (see the scenes with his brand new nephew), but faith that his bro would come through. When his brother 1.) didn’t but then 2.) kicked him to the curb, he felt betrayed. Big brother basically screwed him, and then left him to fend for himself. While you or I might have seen Big Brother doing what he needed to do, Charlie was too dependant on his bro as a role model to separate his own needs. Co-dependant, sure - but these are drug addicts - you shouldn’t expect Buddah. . .

Same thing with Locke: when Locke was “helping him” through the drug addiction, Charlie really latched on. And Locke did a decent job until he got tired of it and weaned Charlie. This could’ve probably been a good thing, but it was followed almost immediately (in island time) by a negative action. . . The automatic assumption that Charlie was using again, and the overly aggressive smack down. So the character that /had/ been trying to (seemingly) help Charlie pull his shit together first abandoned him and then betrayed him.

All, of course, in Charlie’s mind. I don’t think it necessarily excuses his actions (particularly not w/ regard to Sawyer), but it explains them. The actions that should be excused are his irrationality because hell - EVERYTHING is irrational on the Island, no?

Of course, we’re outside looking in, but at this point it seems like everyone should be aware that weird shit happens to everyone.

So is it understandable? YES. Is it Excusable? Maybe. And I have a difficult time coming down as hard on someone if I understand where they’re coming from, particularly if I feel that their motives are pure, and especially if the rest of the crew have been dicks.

182

I’m not sure the ‘others’ are still carrying on any experiments. I doubt it. I think it’s more likely that they are trying to increase the size of their population for survival reaasons, and somehow they know how to pick the people that the island can’t control. The ‘good ones’. Perhaps people without the kinds of character flaws that make them vulnerable to whatever it is the island is doing to them.

But this is pure speculation on my part. I can’t really cite any evidence for it.

183

Yeah, I can see this. I’m not completely convinced about Charlie, but the two most damning things, as I’ve said previously - look how he treats his “best friend” Hurley all the time…

And really, is there any selfless/good/pure way to look at what he did in the last episode? He can’t think that letting Sawyer have all the power is a good idea - he’s just trying to lash out at Locke because he’s become friends with Claire. There’s really no pure motivation to read into that - it’s not like he’s trying to protect her from Locke, who is no threat to her in any way - he’s simply jealous and is willing to cause harm to people (Sawyer isn’t exactly the most benevolent dictator) just to lash out.

184

Also, I got interested in that Glenn Miller radio broadcast. Remember the radio station was WXR. So I got wondering if there was any significance to that. I figured a 3-letter radio station ident meant it had to be old.

It turns out that 3 letter radio stations starting with W were reserved for ship-based radio stations in the Pacific, starting in 1912. Four-letter station idents began in 1927.

However, there is an exception for call signs between WUA to WVZ and WXA to WZZ, which were reserved for the U.S. Army.

The ident WXR was in fact that of a U.S. Army base in Kodiak Alaska in 1945. The fact that the station was playing Glenn Miller would put it right in that timeframe.

So, in terms of Lost theory, there are a couple of possibilities. Either the writers knew that WXR was a U.S. military station in 1945, in which case they were literally listening to a signal from the past, or the writers didn’t realize there was an exception for the military and used WXR because they figured it would be the callsign of a radio station of a ship in the region, and that’s why the reception was so good.

My money’s on the former. I think they actually picked up a signal from 1945. Perhaps this means the island exists sort of ‘out of time’, or the mysterious effects of the island have somehow captured and replayed those signals. The way the signal originally faded in and out is indicative of picking up a long-distance ‘skip’ signal, so I think they were actually listening to a transmission sent from Alaska in 1945.

185

Or Sayid’s a much better comm tech than he is a torturer.

186

Well, to be honest I only vaguely remember the times he’s interacted with Hurley. . . there haven’t been any recent ones (in real-time) that I recall. But I won’t argue on this point.

Of course not - because things are now Different (capital D). Now, he’s been pushed a little over the edge. IMHO there was an enormous difference in the way Charlie carried himself in the last episode vs previous episodes (Kudos to Dominic Monaghan - I’m really enjoying his acting!). Gone was the obsequious person trying to please, fit in, be good natured. Instead, he seemed very self contained, and very bitter.

He appears in 2 scenes (IIRC) - the scene at the beginning where Sawyer razzes him, and in the “reveal”. In both, he seems a lot colder and a lot more focused. Again, I have to reference his reply to Sawyer over the offer for the statue. Old Charlie “I told you, I’m not using!” New Charlie “Like I couldn’t have just taken it if I really wanted it”. . . WAAAAAAAAAY different.

And if he’s using his newfound personal strength for bad, well (as I mentioned) payback’s a bitch. I think that he /is/ out to screw his mates, and after getting screwed by them I get a sense of schadenfreude towards the rest, not outrage towards him.

Of course, I like Sawyer, too. He’s one of the few characters that I’ve ever seen pull off the “actuallly, I’ really am a bad man” attitude without coming across like a Melodrama Villian (“you must pay the rent!”).

Are my misanthropic tendancies showing? :wink:

187

How good a comm tech do you have to be to pick up a signal that hasn’t existed for 61 years?

188

Really good…

Oh, and since I don’t think anybody’s mentioned it… the look Kate gave Sawyer at the end of his “sheriff” speech made me think she might be thinking of paying him a little visit in the middle of the night…

189

It’s awful how attractive bad boys can be. It’s been my downfall on more than one occasion. :slight_smile:

190

I’m not sure that’s the kind of visit she had in mind…

191

The funny thing is, a lot of fans think that Hurley’s line “Just kidding” was the producers’ wink at the fans, saying “Naw, it’s not time travel.” I don’t see it that way. I think it’s very possible that time distortions are involved and that this was to throw people off the scent.

192

Yeah, but after Hurley said, “Just kidding”, they cut to Sayid, and he had a very serious, very thoughtful expression on his face. Kind of a, “You think you’re joking, but you could be more right than you know” look.

It doesn’t have to be time travel. For example, I seem to recall somewhere along the way that extraterrestials may be involved. What if a planet, say 30 light-years away, received aa broadcast and decided to send it back as an acknowledgement that they existed? That’s what they did in Contact. Of course, there’s no scientific way that they could limit the broadcast to just the island from that kind of distance, but I might forgive the writers if they are trying something clever like that.

Or it could turn out that the reason the signal is so strong is because someone like Rousseau recorded it in 1945 and is rebroadcasting it for whateve reason. The one thing I don’t think it is is a normal shortwave signal being received from a regular station. The call letters don’t work for that. Maybe it’s an ‘oldies’ station rebroadcasting complete recordings from 1945, but that just seems unlikely.

193

Bravo, Misery - many good points.

The main thing I recall is when Hurley is talking about his feelings for Libby and Charlie immediately starts talking about Claire rather than supporting his “buddy.” But then I saw this as less Charlie being a jerk than as a humorous way of showing how fixated guys can be on the purty girls, even when wrecked on a mysterious island. It’s a far cry from that to fake-kidnap Sun and help Sawyer git sum guns.

Yes, absolutely. Good observations. We <3 you, Dominic!

I see this as further evidence of Charlie’s f*cked-upedness. His ‘plan’ to humiliate Locke is basically a dumb idea, probably won’t be successful, and will only serve to further distance himself from acceptance by the group.

Well, here’s another whole issue. I wonder why they spent all of season 1 and most of the beginning of this season making us LIKE Sawyer, just to have him go back and say “actually, I’m an asshole - psych!” Sure he did a lot of jerky things at the very beginning, but there’s a lot more evidence to show that he’s deep down (WAY deep down) someone who done bad who wants to make good: he hoarded supplies, but always handed them over when there was a real need (gave Hurley the manifest, gave Kate the booze without even blinking when Boone got crunched), he turned on the antenna for Kate in “Moth”, he tried (ineptly) to mercy-kill the marshall, he helped build the raft, he tried to fight off BB in the raft-attack, he told Jack what Jack’s dad told him in the bar, not to mention killing a bear, and so on. You could argue that some of these were self-serving in that they would help him get rescued or, you know, not eaten - but mostly he’s been shown to be a softy in a crunchy shell.

Now, in this ep, he’s acting totally out of character - or so it seems. In the flashback it appears he’s willing to screw over a woman he supposedly “loves” (Sawyer = bad man). But, if we remember all the way back to “Confidence Man,” he walked away from a similar con just because Mrs. Lotto-lady had a kid. In another season 1 flashback, he had the opportunity to fulfill his lifelong dream and kill the real Sawyer, but had to really struggle with it. When he ultimately killed the wrong man, he’s still feeling horribly guilty. He might have a messed-up sense of justice and some serious baggage, but that’s not somebody who ONLY has cold, self-serving motives.

So why does Sawyer want the guns? To be “sheriff?” Because they took his stuff? Because he “wants to be hated” (a theory that didn’t sit right with me when Kate brought it up last year)? I don’t think so. I think it boils down to one of two possibilities:

  1. The island-magnifying-weakness theory - Sawyer, when he’s weak, reverts to the self-serving con man, which overrides his higher inclinations to do right.

  2. He recognizes that Locke and Jack are slowly losing their grip and he wants to get the guns as far away from them as possible before they all shoot themselves. I can’t remember the doper that suggested that he might have tossed the guns in the ocean, but I’m leaning that way myself. In other words, he did it for the good of the group, not for his own glory. But he does it in a very Sawyer-ish way which people will accept more readily than if he adopted Locke’s stance of “let’s talk about this before someone does something crazy,” which wasn’t working that well for Locke.

Another half-baked theory of mine is that Sawyer believes that the increased focus on The Others is what is driving the camp apart and everyone bats, and that maybe if he assumes the role of “most hated man in camp” then it will help their little society band together and get back on track. I dunno, though…maybe I want a little too much for him to become the hero.

194

I still think that Sawyer isn’t all that bad.

The people with control of the guns were losing it, bigtime. Grabbing a bunch of guns (to chase after a guy who’d flipped out, grabbed a gun, and gone running into the jungle), getting their asses whooped, and then doing it AGAIN? And one of the guys you’re bringing along on your manhunt is demanding a gun because his wife was attacked?

Is there a much worse idea? What are the odds we’re going to cap Michael while we’re out there?

-Joe

195

Yeah, but that wasn’t his motivation, that was Locke’s motivation. Sawyer just wanted to screw Jack over and hoard the guns for himself. Even knowing that, though, I do agree that Sawyer is all evil-- he’s shown his kinder, gentler side a few times.

196

I agree. This whole island is one big Long Con. Sawyer just might be the safest guy to hang with.

197

Okay, either I’m onto something or I’m totally off-base, because in four pages, nobody else has mentioned it.

How do we know Sawyer moved/stole/has all the guns?
We know Charlie knows where the stash is, but does Sawyer? We only saw Sawyer with the one gun.

He’s a con man, people! That’s what the whole episode is about. If people think he has the guns, that 's all that matters. I don’t think he’s really about hoarding the guns, I think he just wants the respect, and liked it better when he was the local bada**. I think the guns are right where Locke left them, and it’ll just make everyone look even more foolish when they find out that he had them fooled with his theatrics.

What do y’all think?

198

Nah. It makes more dramatic sense to have the guns out of the way. That way, it becomes a contest of wills, not just “who has the AKs.” But they are out there, to serve as nothing else but a McGuffin, if need be.

These people have absolutely zero skill in small-unit tactics. Sayid is the man I would be buddying up to.

199

Really? I totally read her wrong or I was projecting my own feelings onto Kate. Kate thinks she’s a pretty smart cookie. She’s tough and has survived a lot of crap in her life. If I were her I’d be very impressed and a bit amused by the fact that Sawyer was able to put one over on me. Then I’d do him hard and long. :smiley:

Sawyer would be the one person I would trust. He’s one of very few people who doesn’t pretend to be something he’s not. He’s a con man and never pretended to be anything else. If the other people on the island thought that he was softening up or changing, well that’s their mistake.

I like Sawyer much more after this episode. Jack sucks and Locke’s psycho eyes scare me.

200

But Kate does not like feeling used or betrayed… regaurdless of anything else (and the lack of batteries) Sawyer absolutely played Kate.

Kate also went for the Dr type… had it not been for her explosive decision, it’s likely she wouldn’t look at Sawyer twice.