Lost: Season 2, Episode 13 "The Long Con" Review

"There's a new sheriff in town, boys!  Y'all best get used to it."

-Sawyer

Season 2, Episode 13 of Lost kicks off with Jack (Matthew Fox) and Locke (Terry O'Quinn) locking up all of the guns in the armory.  They are the only two with the combination.  Locke informs Jack that Sawyer (Josh Holloway) has taken some medication and Jack raids Sawyer's tent to get it back, which angers Sawyer.

Sun (Yunjin Kim) is attacked and knocked unconscious, which causes an uproar in the camp.  The groups suspects the Others are responsible, but Sawyer points out some logic gaps in that idea.  Kate (Evangeline Lilly) suspects Ana Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez) is behind the attack to get her hands on the guns and to scare people into joining her army.  Jack and Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) prepare to get guns out of the armory only to find Sawyer has beaten them to the hatch and tipped off Locke, who has hidden the guns.

Jack confronts Locke in front of the camp, but Sawyer appears with a gun in hand.  He reveals he played all of them and now he has all of the guns and ammo.  Later, he meets up with Charlie (Dominic Monaghan), who was the one who attacked Sun and followed Locke while he hid the guns.  Charlie did it to get revenge on Locke.  He asks Sawyer how he came up with the plan.  Sawyer says it's because he's not a good person.

Hurley (Jorge Garcia) presents Sayid (Naveen Andrews) with the radio the Tailies found to try and cheer him up, but Sayid rebuffs him.  Later, Sayid changes his mind and enhances the radio and he and Hurley listen to some music.

In flashbacks, Sawyer attempts to pull a con on a woman named Cassidy (Kim Dickens), but she immediately calls him on what he's doing.  She asks him to teach her how to con people and they fall in love over several months.  All of this actually is part of a long con Saywer is running with his partner, Gordy (Kevin Dunn), but Sawyer wants to back out.  Gordy threatens to kill Sawyer and Cassidy, so Sawyer goes through with the con and takes all of her money.

What Works:

"The Long Con" is an extremely rewarding episode the first time you watch it and again on the rewatch.  It's a great episode, filled with paranoia, the first time you watch.  As the castaways question who to trust, the episode makes you feel anxious and it's very effective.

When you rewatch it, knowing Sawyer is behind everything, it's even more fun.  Watching Sawyer play everybody against one another is excellent.  He's having so much fun and you can't help but root for the scoundrel.  Everyone else is being so petty and gullible that it's easy to enjoy Sawyer's heel-turn.

Charlie still sucks, but they use terrible Charlie in a great way.  He's embraced this dark path and is less annoying about it, plus he doesn't have much screen-time.  This is much better than how he was used in Fire + Water.

The flashbacks are also really solid.  I love the callback to Sawyer's con in Confidence Man and Cassidy immediately calling him out on his B.S. is a great way to establish her character.  It's also a sweet story that ends on a dark note.  This episode is about Sawyer regressing to his villainous side both off and on the island and these stories compliment each other well.  

What Sucks:

I got nothing for you.

Platinum Polar Bear:

The Platinum Polar Bear goes to the most useful character in a given episode.  For "The Long Con," this was a tricky decision.  Most of the characters spent the entire episode getting played by Sawyer.  By default, I have to give it to Hurley for trying to cheer Sayid up with the radio.  It's nice to see Sayid get snapped out of his funk.  Honorable mention to Sawyer for his excellent con, but that doesn't really help the group out.  Impressive work though.  This is Hurley's 5th time winning this award, which ties him for second with Jack and Sayid.

Verdict:

"The Long Con" is one of the best episodes of season 2 and Sawyer's best episode overall.  Both the on island story and the flashbacks are great and the episode even improves on the rewatch.  It's a lot of fun, even if it's a dark chapter for our survivors, and it has definitely got it going on.

 10/10: Amazing