Season 1, Episode 16: Outlaws

Sawyer and revenge are central in this episode as the spotlight shines on his pursuit of the real Frank Sawyer as well as a malicious boar that seems to be taunting him. Much of the major revelations come in flashbacks during this episode unlike many hour-long parcels.

MAJOR PLOT POINTS

With her angry husband beating down the door, Sawyer's mom hides her young son under his bed and tells him not to come out no matter what he hears. And what he hears is his angry father shoot his mom then sit down on his son's bed and eat his own gun. Sawyer's real name, of course, is James, which we learn later in the episode, but he adopted the name Sawyer as a reminder of the man whose con crippled his family and made him who he is.

A con-man nemesis, Hibbs, comes to visit Sawyer as he's running a new con and claims to know the whereabouts of the real Sawyer. Hoping to read him the letter he has carried for a couple decades, and possibly murder the jerk, Sawyer goes to Australia based on Hibbs' information. Upon first confronting "the real Sawyer," he finds that he doesn't have the nerve to commit murder. But a chance meeting with Christian, Jack's drunken father in a dive bar, convinces Sawyer to go through with the murder as a way to ease his suffering. After blasting the shrimp-van operator, he begins reading his letter and discovers it was a setup by Hibbs. He didn't kill Frank Sawyer but instead murdered a man who owed Hibbs money.

Also during the discussion with Christian, there is a reference to Australia as hell, which is curious and fuels certain theories about the show's ultimate meaning, but Christian also says: "It's fate. Some people are just supposed to suffer. That why the Red Sox will never win the damn Series." It's that last part that Jack repeats in Sawyer's presence, cluing him in to the fact that he met Daddy Shephard — and heard Daddy Shephard relay how grateful he is for his son, how proud he is of Jack and how much he admires the courage it took for him to get him fired. Sawyer, of course, doesn't tell Jack just yet.

On the island, a boar rifles through Sawyer's things as he sleeps and hooks his roof tarp upon squealing off into the jungle. Sawyer, who becomes the next to hear the whispers in the jungle, tracks down his tarp the next morning, but is once again attacked by the boar. Sawyer is now convinced the boar is out to get him, so he's determined to get the boar as a measure of revenge. Kate winds up trying to help him find the boar — the two play I never during a night in the jungle, when we learn she once was married and both are killers. That night, Sawyer dreams the boar is his father; it also rifles through his things and pees on his shirt while leaving Kate's stuff alone. Eventually, Sawyer confronts the boar and has a chance to shoot it at point-blank range, but decides to let it go in peace.

QUOTABLE

"What I'm saying is, you look a man in the eye and point a gun at him, you find out who you really are, mate. And should you find that you're not a killer, there's no refund." — The gun dealer in Sydney when Sawyer buys a revolver to shoot his namesake