Season 1, Episode 16:
Outlaws
"That's why the Red Sox will never win the damn series."
Written by Damon Lindelof, Drew Goddard, & Monica Macer (uncredited).
Directed by Jack Bender.
"You know why they call Australia down under, don't you? Because it's as close as you can get to Hell without being burned."
— Christian Shephard
FLASHBACK! Many years ago, young James Ford is woken up by his mother as his father pounds on the door to their home. She orders him under the bed so that James's father will think he is at his grandparents' house. Finally, Mr. Ford breaks in and shoots his wife. He enters his son's room, sits on the bed and shoots himself, to the horror of his son.
Sawyer wakes up on the island without a shirt on. He hears rustling and realizes that there's a boar in his tent. He hits it and it flees, along with his tarp. He chases after it to no avail. In the forest, he hears the whispers, one of which says "It'll come back around". The next morning, he talks with Sayid (who is clearly amused by the situation) about what happened. Before he leaves to go after the boar, he asks Sayid what he heard in the jungle after escaping from Rousseau.
FLASHBACK! Sawyer enters a hotel room with a woman. Before they can get down to business, a former associate of Sawyer's, Hibbs, makes his prescence known. After sending the girl out of the room, Sawyer assaults Hibbs, reminding him that he told him he'd kill him if he ever saw him again. Hibbs replies that he's here to make things right and that Sawyer isn't the killing type. Hibbs tells him about Frank Duckett, a former Con Man living in Australia. According to Hibbs, Duckett is the same con-man who conned Sawyer's mother, which led to the murder-suicide of his parents.
Kate returns the gun she borrowed in the previous episode to Jack. All of the guns have been returned save one: Sawyer's. She offers to get it back. Jack is skeptical and tells her to let him keep it, not wanting her to owe Sawyer anything. At the caves, Claire (who is beginning to regain her memories) approaches Charlie and asks to go for a walk. Charlie, still in shock from killing Ethan, refuses. Meanwhile, Sawyer finds his tarp and hears the whispers (including the same one telling him "It'll come back around"). The boar appears and chases him as he drops his tarp. It knocks him into the mud, and Sawyer vows to kill it.
FLASHBACK! In Australia, Sawyer purchases a gun to kill Duckett. The shopkeeper warns him that if he finds he's not a killer, there's no turning back.
Hurley and Charlie bury Ethan. Hurley is concerned about Charlie's behavior and approaches Sayid. He asks if Sayid ever suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and asks Sayid to talk to Charlie. Meanwhile Sawyer attempts to track the boar, but fails at it. Kate offers to help him in exchange for carte blanche. Sawyer agrees. That night, they play a round of I Never. This provides some amusing tidbits of trivia about the two (Kate has been married, Sawyer wore pink in The '80s, and neither of them have ever been to Disneyland). Things quickly turn serious when Sawyer implies that Kate is only interested in carte blanche to spend time with "the only person on this island that just don't belong". The game ends with the revelation that both Kate and Sawyer have killed a man.
That night, Sawyer has a nightmare about his parents' death, with his father being replaced by a boar saying "It'll come back around". He wakes up to find that the boar has once again destroyed his camp. The two are greeted by Locke, who is looking for things to salvage from the crash. He tells them a story about a dog that lived with him after his foster-sister died, suggesting she had been reincarnated as a dog.
FLASHBACK! Sawyer goes to shrimp cart Duckett runs, but is unable to kill him. He goes to a bar where he meets Christian Shepard and buys him a drink when Christian explains he misplaced his wallet. "Some people are born to suffer." Christian tells Sawyer. "That's why the Red Sox will never win the damn series." He tells Sawyer about his son and how he can't bring himself to call him and apologize. Christian encourages Sawyer to go after what he seeks if it will bring him peace. Sawyer returns to the shrimp cart and prepares himself.
Sayid talks to Charlie about how he once executed a man who placed a car bomb that killed a woman and her children, and how he had nightmares following it. He tells Charlie that he's not alone and that he shouldn't pretend to be.
Kate and Sawyer find the boar's wallow. Sawyer catches one of the babies and tries to use it to lure the father out. Upset, Kate knocks him over and leaves, telling him to find his own way home.
FLASHBACK! Sawyer shoots Duckett and begins reading his letter. Duckett is confused: He explains that he was going to pay Hibbs the money he owed. Before he dies, he says "It'll come back around". Sawyer is horrified to discover he killed the wrong man and flees.
Sawyer finds the boar and prepares to shoot, but doesn't. When he sees Kate was watching, he tells her it was just a boar and the two head back to camp. Charlie finds Claire and tells her he's ready to go for a walk. While Jack chops wood, Sawyer returns the gun. Sawyer explains that he "made a deal" with Kate, Jack says "That's why the Sox will never win the series". When Sawyer asks further, he learns that Jack's father was also a doctor and died in Australia. Jack wonders why Sawyer is asking about his father, but Sawyer says nothing more.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Accidental Murder: Sayid tells Charlie about how, when he was in the Republican Guard, a policeman's car was rigged with a bomb but killed the man's wife and children instead.
- Animal Nemesis: Sawyer develops a short-lived, but ardent animosity with a boar that wanders into his tent one night. The boar continues to harass him, attacking him in the jungle, destroying his supplies (while leaving Kate's untouched), and peeing on one of his shirts. The boar is implied to be a reincarnated Frank Duckett getting back at Sawyer for killing him, but once Sawyer has the animal dead to rights and decides not to shoot it ("It's just a boar," he says), it never bothers him again.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: Sawyer catches a piglet and tries to use it to lure the boar out, clearly distressing the small animal. Kate calls him out on this and smacks the piglet out of his hands. Sawyer claims (unconvincingly) that he wasn't going to hurt it.
- Blatant Lies: Sawyer denies hearing anything in the jungle... immediately after questioning Sayid about the whispers he heard after he left Rousseau.
- Brief Accent Imitation: Christian does a quick Australian accent while mocking them for thinking Americans "can't hold their liquor."
- Call-Back:
- Sawyer asks Sayid about what he heard in the jungle after Rousseau let him go.
- Jack and Kate recall the events that included Sawyer being tortured and Kate making out with him for something that Sawyer never had in the first place.
- As he and Sawyer drink in a bar, Christian remarks that he misplaced his wallet, which Jack found in Christian's hotel room.
- Death Glare: Sawyer gives Kate a subdued one during their game of I Never, when she brings up his letter for "Mr. Sawyer".
- Dramatic Irony: Christian remarks that Australians think that Americans can't hold their liquor; the audience is aware that Christian's death will be the result of excessive drinking triggering a heart attack.
- Drowning My Sorrows: After failing to kill Frank, Sawyer goes to a bar and ends up drinking with Christian during the final hours of his life (and inadvertently contributing to Christian's death by splitting a bottle of tequila with him).
- Due to the Dead: Despite Ethan's actions, Charlie and Hurley go to the trouble of burying his body (albeit a ways away from where the survivors bury their own people).
- Epic Fail: Sawyer spends hours trying to track the boar, but ends up following either Boone or Charlie, birds, a rockslide, and even himself.
- Everyone Has Standards: Kate was willing to help Sawyer track the boar, partly out of amusement at his predicament and partly to get a favour from him, but when Sawyer starts threatening a helpless piglet to lure the boar out, Kate knocks the animal out of his hands and abandons Sawyer to find the boar himself.
- The Faceless: All the audience ever sees of Sawyer's father is a pair of cowboy boots as he walks into his son's room to commit suicide.
- Flashback Nightmare: The episode opens with Sawyer having a nightmare about the night his parents died.
- Gaining the Will to Kill: Sawyer, described as "not the killing type" by Hibbs, initially can't bring himself to kill Frank Duckett, even believing him to be the man who destroyed Sawyer's family. After a talk with Christian, however, Sawyer summons the resolve to go through with the murder, much to his regret.
- Given Name Reveal: While Frank is making small talk with him, Sawyer gives his real name: James.
- Global Ignorance: Hurley asks Sayid if he got Gulf War Syndrome. He replies that it was the Americans who got it.
- Harmful to Minors: Sawyer's previous centric episode revealed that his father murdered his mother, then committed suicide. This episode establishes that the young James was home when it happened, and his father shot himself in his son's room while James was hiding under the bed.
- Heel Realization: Christian tells Sawyer that what Jack did now leaves him feeling proud and grateful, implying that he's realized the wrongness of the actions that cost him his medical license. He cannot, however, bring himself to call Jack and actually tell him all this, as he is "weak".
- Hypocritical Humor: After Kate doesn't drink at "I never been to Disneyland", Sawyer remarks "oh, that's just sad"... even though he didn't drink either.
- I Never: Sawyer and Kate play this while camping for the night. They learn that Sawyer has never kissed a man, neither of them have been to college or Disneyland, Kate (unlike Sawyer) has never worn pink, Sawyer is a Republican while Kate has never voted, Sawyer's never been in love or married but Kate has (the marriage didn't last long though), Sawyer's had several one-night stands, and they've both killed someone.
- It's Personal: Infuriated over being "harassed" by a boar, Sawyer insists on going after the animal himself rather than going the practical route of just asking Locke to find and kill it for him.
- Manipulative Bastard: Hibbs tricks Sawyer into killing Duckett for failing to pay him some money he owed him by telling him that he was the conman who caused Sawyer's parents' deaths.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane:
- It's not revealed whether the boar that attacked Sawyer really was a reincarnated Frank Duckett out for revenge or an ordinary boar that happened to pick up his scent.
- Locke also tells Sawyer and Kate the story of his foster sister who died and was seemingly reincarnated into a dog. He dismisses it as a silly coincidence.
- Mood Whiplash: Kate and Sawyer's game of I Never starts out as light-hearted and amusing, with jokes about each other's sex lives and fashion choices, before moving into more personal territory about their outsider status and Sawyer's past, and ending with the sobering revelation that they've both killed a man.
- Murder-Suicide: Previously described by Sawyer, this episode depicts the deaths of Sawyer's parents, with his father shooting his mother dead before shooting himself, all while the young James could only listen in horror.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Sawyer is horrified to discover that he killed an innocent man when he realizes Duckett was not the original Sawyer.
- Noodle Incident: The "Tampa job" that Sawyer and Hibbs refer to. All we know about it is that it went badly, and Sawyer blamed Hibbs and swore he would kill him if he ever saw him again after it.
- Not So Above It All: Sayid, of all people, takes a moment to poke fun at Sawyer's troubles with the boar, joking that the boar stole Sawyer's tarp because it wanted to go camping.
- "Not So Different" Remark: While playing I Never with Kate, Sawyer ends the game with "I never killed a man"; they both drink and Sawyer grimly remarks that they have something in common.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Sawyer's mother just barely had time to ask her husband "what the hell are you doing with a gun" before her husband shot her dead with it.
- When Sawyer hears Frank use Hibbs' name, he starts to realise, to his absolute horror, that he's been manipulated into murdering an innocent man.
- One Degree of Separation: It turns out Sawyer was drinking with Christian Shephard in a bar in Sydney the night he died and even inadvertently contributed to his death by sharing a bottle with him.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Discussed and deconstructed; Sayid tells Charlie a story about taking part in a firing squad to kill a man who killed his neighbor's wife and children. Despite feeling no remorse at the time, Sayid found himself replaying the event in his head, and Charlie implicitly admits that he too is feeling guilty about Ethan's death despite what he did.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Tough guy Sawyer admits to having worn pink in The '80s during his and Kate's game of "I Never".
- So Proud of You: Downplayed; Christian wants to call Jack and tell him how proud he is of him for ratting him out, but he's too weak to pick up the payphone and make the call. He never makes it before he dies, though Sawyer relays the message later.
- Sound-Only Death: The deaths of Sawyer's parents; his mother dies entirely offscreen, with her last words and the gunshot that kills her being heard through a closed door. Sawyer's father, meanwhile, is partially seen, but him taking his own life is represented by a just-offscreen gunshot and his legs slumping lifelessly.
- Tempting Fate: Christian mocks Australians for thinking that Americans can't hold their liquor... mere hours before his excessive drinking will trigger a fatal heart attack.
- Troll: Sawyer, true to form, returns his gun to Jack by pointing it at him and saying "stick 'em up".Jack: Trying to be funny?
Sawyer: [grinning] Yeah. - Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Christian unknowingly convinces Sawyer to follow through with killing Frank, and Sawyer, by sharing a bottle with Christian, inadvertently contributes to the heart attack that would kill him later that night.
- Unwitting Pawn: Hibbs plays Sawyer like a fiddle, presenting a shot at revenge as a supposed olive branch, when in reality, he's tricking Sawyer into murdering a man who owes Hibbs money.
- Wham Line:
- Frank Duckett delivers a few after Sawyer shoots him, revealing that he was never the man who conned Sawyer's parents, that Hibbs conned Sawyer into doing his dirty work, and why Sawyer has been hearing the words "it'll come back around" in the jungle.Sawyer: "Dear Mr. Sawyer..."
Frank: Who?
Sawyer: You used to go by the name of Sawyer.
Frank: What the hell are you talking about? You didn't have to... tell Hibbs I would've paid...
Sawyer: How do you know Hibbs?
Frank: You... you don't know, do you?
Sawyer: You borrowed money from Hibbs?
Frank: I was gonna pay... It'll come back around... - In-universe; Jack's remark "that's why the Sox will never win the Series" is one for Sawyer, who realises that the man he was drinking with in Syndey was Jack's father.
- Frank Duckett delivers a few after Sawyer shoots him, revealing that he was never the man who conned Sawyer's parents, that Hibbs conned Sawyer into doing his dirty work, and why Sawyer has been hearing the words "it'll come back around" in the jungle.
- What You Are in the Dark: Sawyer ultimately decides not to shoot the boar, symbolically choosing not to kill Frank Duckett again. When he sees that Kate was watching, he feigns indifference, dismissively saying "it's just a boar".
- Whispering Ghosts: Sawyer hears the whispers as he follows the boar, including "It'll come back around."
- You Are Not Alone: Sayid assures Charlie of this as Charlie grapples with having killed Ethan, and Charlie acts on this advice by spending time with Claire.
