Lost: Season 1 Episode 8 "Confidence Man" Review

"Baby, I am tied to a tree in the jungle of mystery.  I've just been tortured by a damn spinal surgeon and a genuine Iraqi.  Of course I'm serious."

-James "Sawyer" Ford

The 8th episode of Lost follows Sawyer (Josh Holloway) as he catches Boone (Ian Somerhalder) digging through his stash.  Sawyer beats up Boone and Shannon (Maggie Grace) brings her injured brother to Jack (Matthew Fox).  Boone explains that Shannon has asthma and her inhaler has run out, but that he has more in his luggage.  Boone spotted Sawyer reading a book that was in Boone's suitcase and came to the conclusion that Sawyer has the medication.

Sayid (Naveen Andrews) is on the warpath to find out who attacked him and destroyed his equipment.  He interrogates Locke (Terry O'Quinn) who suggests Sawyer may have improvised a slow-fuse on his rocket to give himself an alibi.  Locke gives Sayid a knife to protect himself.

Jack confronts Sawyer about the inhalers and things nearly get physical until Kate (Evangeline Lilly) intervenes.  She tries to get Sawyer to give up the inhalers by saying she knows Sawyer isn't as bad a guy as he pretends to be.  She's seen him reading a letter over and over again and knows he feels something when he reads it.  Sawyer forces her to read it out loud and she learns it is from a young kid.  Sawyer seduced the kid's mother and stole their money, which made the father kill his wife and himself.  

When Shannon starts to have problems breathing, Jack attacks Sawyer, who does not fight back and refuses to give up the inhalers.  Jack and Sayid finally have enough and drag Sawyer into the jungle where Sayid tortures him and threatens to cut out an eyeball.  Sawyer agrees to tell Kate, but only if she kisses him first.  She relents and kisses him.  Sawyer confesses that he never had the inhalers and found Boone's book when it washed up on shore.  Sayid doesn't believe him and he and Sawyer fight, which results in Sawyer getting stabbed, but Jack manages to save him.

Sun (Yunjin Kim), with help from Michael (Harold Perrineau), manages to concoct an herbal remedy that stops Shannon's asthma attack.  When Sawyer awakens, Kate confronts him.  She has figured out that Sawyer wrote the letter when he was kid and the Sawyer isn't his real name.  He took the name after he became a con man himself.  Later, Sawyer contemplates burning the letter, but decides against it.

Sayid leaves the camp to scout the island after breaking a promise to himself that he would never torture again.  Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) manages to convince Claire (Emilie de Ravin) to move to the caves after getting her some imaginary peanut butter.

In flashbacks, we see Sawyer attempting to con a husband and wife out of their money after he had seduced the wife.  Just before he gets away with it, he sees that they have a kid.  He calls the con off and leaves the money behind.

What Works:

This episode is primarily a character study for Sawyer and, boy, is it interesting.  Up to this point, Sawyer's been primarily an antagonist and the sort of bad boy of the group, but this episode really humanizes him.  He's a messed up guy.  When I first watched this show, I was in 5th grade, so a lot of what was going on in this episode went over my head, but now I've realized how messed up it is that Sawyer took the name of the man who caused his parents death.  That's insane.  This episode shows us how complex Sawyer really is and it does a great job.

Josh Holloway is fantastic and shines in every scene he is in.  Of course the man is charming, as usual, but he gets to really stretch his acting muscle from rage to being distraught.  It's a powerful performance especially in his scenes with Evangeline Lilly.

The torture sequence is really well executed.  The bamboo chutes looked extremely painful and Holloway, Naveen Andrews, and Matthew Fox really sell what they are doing in this scene.  Sawyer's screams have stuck with me for years and years.  

Finally, I really liked the subplot about Charlie trying to find peanut butter for Claire.  It gives us a really cute scene where they eat imaginary peanut butter together.  This is one of my favorite scenes with the two of them.

What Sucks:

My only complaint with the episode comes from the scene between Sayid and Locke.  The whole using a cigarette as a slow-fuse thing makes zero sense to me.  There is no way Sawyer would have been able to make a slow fuse precise enough to make the rocket go off at the right time.   I don't buy it for one second.  Now, of course, we know that Locke was the one who attacked Sayid, not Sawyer.  Locke was just trying to throw the blame on someone else.  Fine, but Sayid is a smart guy.  He should have realized what I did; that there was way Sawyer could be the attacker.  It feels like a forced reason to get Sayid to torture Sawyer.

Platinum Polar Bear:

The Platinum Polar Bear is given out to the character that was the most useful in a given episode.  For "Confidence Man" the Platinum Polar Bear goes to Sun for being the most logical thinker out of the castaways and finding a solution to Shannon's asthma attack that didn't require inhalers.  This is Sun's first time receiving the award.

Verdict:

"Confidence Man" is a very memorable episode of Lost and an excellent character study of Sawyer.  The development he gets in this episode is phenomenal, Josh Holloway gives a fantastic performance, the torture scene is brutal, and the Charlie/Claire subplot is sweet.  I don't like that Sayid bought Locke's B.S. about a slow fuse, but this episode has still got it going on.

 9/10: Great