Ten Greatest Lost Episodes - # 9
Episode nine on the countdown is our first look into the tumultuous past of James Ford. “Confidence Man” is the eighth episode in season one and begins to weave the tale of how and why everyone’s favorite wreckage scavenger came to be known as Sawyer. The contents of his mysterious letter are revealed, and we see him in action as a con man a few years before boarding Oceanic Flight 815. On the island, the search for Shannon’s asthma medicine leads to Sawyer’s stash. After refusing to hand over the meds, Sawyer is tortured by Sayid with Jack’s approval. Only after a passionate kiss from Kate, intended to elicit the meds from Sawyer, does he reveal that he never had them at all.
Both the writing and acting in this episode are brilliant. Holloway gives an incredibly convincing performance throughout, so much so that it’s hard to decide when to hate him or love him. Prior to “Confidence Man”, Sawyer had come across as a selfish, abrasive individual who wanted nothing to do with the rest of the survivors and continuously sacrificed the greater good for his personal gain. In “Confidence Man” though, we see the human in Sawyer. We see that his life has been immensely difficult, with the loss of his parents at a young age perpetually haunting him. Although his aim was to screw Jessica and her husband out of $160,000, his compassionate side comes through when he realizes they have a young child and he refuses to carry out the con that would undoubtedly tear apart their family and ruin the life of their child. His anger is not directed at all of society, as he may believe himself, but at the real Sawyer. Because of his tragic childhood, Sawyer has adopted the life of a villain, but he proves to have a caring side and listens to his heart more often than he’d like to admit. 


As “Confidence Man” introduces the viewer to another side of Sawyer, it also serves as a turning point in the attitudes of the survivors. This is the first episode in which it is clear that rescue is fading from their minds. Sayid’s torturing of Sawyer is the moment in which we see that the camp is not bound by the conventional rules of society any longer. As Sawyer points out in “Walkabout” a few episodes prior, they are now “in the wild”. The survivors are beginning to feel the stress of their situation, and when tempers run high, violence is an increasingly accepted means to an end. As we see the good in Sawyer, we are conversely shown the dark side coming out in the rest of the camp. 


As far as advancing the overall on-island plot is concerned, “Confidence Man” does not provide a great deal of movement. It’s rare that an episode that isn’t loaded with mythology or big-time reveals can be considered a top episode, but “Confidence Man” succeeds. It is a self-contained episode, introducing conflicts and solving them in the same forty or so minutes, and while this hasn’t always been well accepted by viewers, the execution by the writing staff and the cast is superb. “Confidence Man” provides action, romance, twists, and turns; everything we’ve come to expect from a great Lost episode. 


Do the masses agree? Where would you rate “Confidence Man”?
Why are you spreading something as fluffy as a top-ten list over ten weeks, instead of just posting it as a single list? That’s bizarre, man. Ten weeks? For a top-ten list? Seriously? Where’s that guy who used to always say “Where’s the new content?” when you need him?
Comment by The Compass — November 10, 2008 @ 7:13 pm
What exactly do you guys expect to see? The show hasn’t been on since May, everything surrounding it is kept notoriously hush-hush, and anything that could by any stretch of the imagination be deemed a “spoiler” is total anathema.
If you feel there is so much obvious material just dangling out there ready to be harvested and contributed to this site, then for God’s sake put down your 12-sided die and take matters into your own hands.
The whining that goes on here is embarrasing and pathetic. If you don’t like what you see then for crying out loud do yourself and everyone around you a favor and take a freaking hike…
Comment by SomeoneWithALife — November 11, 2008 @ 6:39 am
Yea, honestly post all 10 shows in one post. I think its a good idea to discuss and talk about each episode. What fun would it be if Brian just listed all 10? How does The Compass even watch lost if all he wants is instant results? The show and the writers have purposely put meaning into almost every line and its all open to discussion. All you haters can keep hating on this site, while people who enjoy the show and enjoy the talk around it can listen to different perspectives on it.
Comment by WorldofWarcraftWizard — November 11, 2008 @ 7:09 am
I don’t mind putting out the top 10 over 10 weeks it is something good to look forward to.
I do have to point out the that the old DocArzt’s new page has a steady 4-5 updates per week that aren’t “spoiler updates”.
Don’t get me wrong I love this site and visit it daily, but I do see where it lacks in the updates.
Comment by TWR — November 11, 2008 @ 10:27 am
Whatever, dudes. The vast, vast majority of posts have, for months, been complaining about this site, and for good reason. Why? Because that’s all there is to say anymore. Other Lost sites have had NO problem coming up with new content, regardless of the hiatus. Why does this one? The excuse just doesn’t wash.
And the 12-sided dice joke fell flat. Try something original next time you want to insult people like a 10-year-old, just for expressing their opinion. Come up with better retorts–or, hey, better yet, grow up and recognize that people have a right to express themselves.
As far as taking a hike if someone doesn’t like what they see…take your own advice. You don’t agree with the vast majority of people posting here? Take a hike. It won’t make a difference to anyone.
Comment by Whatever — November 11, 2008 @ 11:10 am
Someonewithalife,
I agree.. people like to complain and it’s annoying..BUT the situation here is a bit different… this site use to be one thing.. very informative.. and very active.. I know that as a major fan (on a massive/nerdy/obsessive scale) of lost.. this was one site that I looked forward to checking regularly.. the site was purchased/taken over by buddytv.. and it saw an almost instant and continuing decline in quality.. while yes, the posts bitching about the site are constant.. you have to realize the frustration of having something you enjoy and care about (regardless of how pathetic that might be).. stripped down to what amounts to a half ass site.. that misses major happenings and is littered with links.. and no offense to the people writing the articles.. you probably dont even like lost that much.. this is probably a job.. anyway.. even with the hiatus.. there is tons of cast news.. media news.. spoilers/filming news.. other sites keep active with polls.. discussions.. etc… this is why people are annoyed
Comment by Ssjm1221 — November 11, 2008 @ 2:46 pm
Also I think this would be a good opportunity for the readers to make their OWN top ten lists.. post and discuss.. I’m sure that’s more of what the writer is looking to accomplish with his/her list
Comment by Ssjm1221 — November 11, 2008 @ 2:51 pm
I like that people say that other sites have a ton of “updates” per week which is so not true. There hasn’t been any legitimate last information as of late.
Also - I think the point of spreading them out is so that each episode can be discussed. Therefore, in order to not be a hypocrite and maybe in hopes to stop the arguing and start the discussion:
I personally think that Confidence Man is a great episode because it is exactly what the flashbacks are meant for. The formula of last has become just that - a formula. When we focus on an individual character, we gain nothing. The Confidence Man is the perfect example of what a character-centric episode should include - character development for said character. Finally, we see the characters grow, change, evolve. That was what was so great about Lost. I think the show has lost the ability to evolve their characters.
Comment by obviouslyaware — November 11, 2008 @ 5:03 pm
“I like that people say that other sites have a ton of “updates” per week which is so not true. There hasn’t been any legitimate last information as of late.” Sorry, but that’s completely false. Other Lost sites DO regularly offer new content. Just because you say they don’t doesn’t change the fact that they do, as any glance at those sites can immediately confirm.
Comment by Luko — November 11, 2008 @ 5:52 pm
Totally off subject here but as stated at the top I thought that “confidence man” was more off a filler episode back when the writers didn’t know how long Lost would go on for.
And further off topic I think that “Pilot” should be number 1 in the list as it was the catalyst for all this heated disussion/argueing !!
Comment by moylee — November 11, 2008 @ 10:21 pm
Ok boys, it’s time we all start growing up and start acting like adults so we can discuss some damned LOST around here already.
I thought this episode was a great flashback episode, but the on-island happenings were a bit lame. I thought the whole Shannons inhaler bit was kind of rediculous, granted that’s probably what would have happened to a stupid bitch like that in real life, I just don’t like her period so I guess nothing she does is good to me. The whole break in the civility of the islanders was pretty game-changing though. I mean not only Sayid but Jack who was supposed to be the level headed leader of the pack both break down and resort to physical means to get something they want.
It was nice to see Sawyer wasn’t as much of a bad guy as we were originally lead to believe. He was kind of forced into the attitude he had about things. A trauma like having your mom shot just down the hall by your father that then proceeds to shoot himself no more than one foot away from you… that’s got to mess a guy up. That one episode was what began to open up to us the possibility that James had a lot of good in him that was just being repressed by this “Sawyer” character he had turned himself into. Knowing what we do now about Sawyer and looking back he has certainly come a long way from who he was then. Only after killing the real Sawyer, the man who indirectly made him into who he was, could he shed the remnants of that bad guy persona and rise to his true potential. Now he’s a baby saving, helicopter jumping hero of sorts. Sadly it sort of seems inevitable that Sawyer returns to the dark side eventually since there’s really nowhere else for his character to go but death, and let’s hope that doesn’t happen anytime soon.
Comment by LockesWife — November 12, 2008 @ 12:26 am
Lockeswife- that was a good recap of what I thought too. And I sure hope Sawyer doesn’t go back to the way he used to be or even worse than that. That would be depressing.
I kind of like that the ten best episodes is divided over ten weeks, it gives us more time to think about them and comment on them. If they all came out at once or even in just ten days no one would have time to comment on anything. Even with a weeks time to comment on it only a couple people will even comment on the actual story. 90% of the posts are about how things are stupid around here.
Comment by Jacob — November 12, 2008 @ 2:17 am
I also thought that Confidence Man was one of the old filler episodes. Though I didn’t mind it at all. I wish we had the luxury of having filler episodes these days. They couldn’t possibly afford giving us any of that with the new seasons seeing as there’s only going to be 17 in both seasons five and six.
I always thought the filler episodes were good because they allowed the writers to delve deeper into who the characters were and just build on the atmosphere of things. The mythology and whatnot didn’t really suffer from the filler in my opinion, it just sort of helped to build on the overall feel of what island life is all about.
The Constant was kind of a filler episode if you consider Confidence Man to be filler. The Constant could be completely cut out and it wouldn’t have made a whole lot of difference to the overall story, but people loved the Constant and so did I. It was one of the best episodes ever but it didn’t really move the story along much at all, and it was almost completely self contained.
Since I don’t want to leave any great episodes out I’m going to list a top 20 in NO particular order:
The Shape of Things to Come
Through the Looking Glass
The Constant
Orientation
Pilot
Walkabout
Exodus
The Other 48 Days
The Long Con
One of Them
?
The Brig
Three Minutes
The Man Behind the Curtain
Live Together, Die Alone
Flashes Before Your Eyes
Lockdown
Trisha Tanaka Is Dead
The Man From Tallahasse
Enter 77
In my opinion and my opinion only the top ten list should consist of ten of the preceding episodes. We already know from #10 and #9 that this is not the case, so I’m already kind of disappointed. While Greatest Hits and Confidence Man were both great episodes, they don’t even fall in the top 20 for me. But we all have our own favorite characters and we all have our own favorite elements of Lost, so there is no possible way to make a top ten list that everyone can be happy with. As you can probably tell from my list I’m a Locke fan, along with Desmond and Ben, that’s why like half of my favorite episodes are centered around them. But in all actuality the only thing you can do to decide the ten best is make a poll and see what the majority thinks, which is usually not what I think.
Let’s see some more commenters with their lists now.
Comment by B*Locke — November 12, 2008 @ 3:26 am
“Other Lost sites have had NO problem coming up with new content, regardless of the hiatus. Why does this one? The excuse just doesn’t wash.”
Is it just me, or has a very obvious solution to your problem presented itself? I’ll leave it as an exercise to the reader to figure out what I mean…
“And the 12-sided dice joke fell flat. Try something original next time you want to insult people like a 10-year-old, just for expressing their opinion. Come up with better retorts–or, hey, better yet, grow up and recognize that people have a right to express themselves.”
You want to distill it down to “rights” then fine. Technically, I could sit in a movie theater and shout unsolicitied criticism at the screen but I don’t because it’s belligerent and disruptive to those around me who are there to take in the presentation. You follow?
Ironic you liken me to a 10 year-old when reading posts like yours conjures the image of a spoiled toddler in a crib shaking the posts because his mommy won’t restart his Wiggles DVD. Seriously if you no longer like the site then have a few more pulls on your pacifier, take your ball, and leave.
Comment by SomeOneWithALife — November 12, 2008 @ 9:34 am
I would not put “Confidence Man” anywhere near the top ten or twenty shows, but I do think it was well done.
“The Long Con” (episode 37 from season two), another Sawyer episode I thought was one of the high points of season two and of the series so far, I would rank in the top ten. It was extremely dark and was a effective “reset” for Sawyer to show what he is capable of, and also made his future reluctant hero turn all the more enjoyable.
What I also liked about season two was this episode was followed by the Sayid centric episode “One of Them” where we learn of his torturer origins. Combined with the “Henry Gale” storyline that was taking place during these episodes, and the depths of the Hatch, I thought the eeriness of the series reach an all time high.
Comment by daTao — November 12, 2008 @ 10:37 am
“Ironic you liken me to a 10 year-old when reading posts like yours conjures the image of a spoiled toddler in a crib shaking the posts because his mommy won’t restart his Wiggles DVD. Seriously if you no longer like the site then have a few more pulls on your pacifier, take your ball, and leave.”
I rest my case completely. Thank you for proving my point so well.
Comment by Luko — November 12, 2008 @ 4:01 pm