Season 2, Episode 13: "The Long Con"

THE LONG CON
The Long Con is the title of this episode. Sawyer
explains to Cassidy in his flashback that a "long con"
is the big one. He says it's when you get someone to
do something and make them think it is their idea.
Ironically, he got Cassidy to do everything as part of
HIS long con. And it turns out that he was conning all
the castaways all along as well, so that ultimately he
could gain power, get the cons, and force Jacke/Locke
out of power. He got Kate to turn on Jack/Ana Lucia,
go to Locke to hide the guns, etc. - all thinking it
was her idea when really he planned the whole thing.

When Sawyer meets with his "partner" at the diner, and
he tells him that he fell in love with Cassidy, his
partner tells him that it's useless because eventually
she will see the real Sawyer and she won't like what
she sees. I think this is actually what happened with
Kate. On the island, she and Sawyer have had this
flirtation and she has grown
to like him, then once she realized that he was just
playing her, that she was a part of the long con, she
saw the "real" Sawyer and she did not like him. Notice
the look she gave him when he made his big speech at
the end. She is definitely not happy that she was
"used."

TRUST ISSUES
We've seen the issue of trust come about several times
in past episodes. Libby said this to Michael about why
they threw him, Sawyer and Jin in the pit. Kate also
said she has had "trust issues" refering to her past.
And now in this episode, we see the lines of trust
being crossed between Jack and Locke. When Jack asks
Locke for the combination to the locked closet, he
doesn't want to tell, but says he'll give it to him
more as a backup in case something were to happen to
him. They make a promise to one another that they will
never open the door without consulting the other
first. Later, Ana Lucia asks Jack what the combination
was, and he doesn't tell her. She was half-joking, but
I
think she is upset that he clearly doesn't trust her
enough to tell her. And as we see, he eventually
questions her about her whereabouts when Sun
disappeared. Kate put the idea in his head, asking him
"How well do you know Ana Lucia" which causes him to
doubt everything, losing trust in everyone. Same goes
for Locke/Jack. Locke moves the guns because he no
longer trusts Jack. Everyone is turning on one
another, going back on their word.

THE SICKNESS
The French Woman has talked about the "sickness" that
her team got, and how she had to kill them all because
of it. Desmond has also talked about this sickness. I
think that this "sickness" is actually the idea of
people turning on one another. We have already seen
this begin with
the survivors, they are turning on eachother, they
can't trust anyone. Just like Rousseau said, she had
to kill her team because of it. I think this
"sickness" is just what happens when people are left
out in the wild, they turn on one another and
eventually begin to kill their own. It's a sickness,
as in a dimentia that takes over their mind, causing
them to become "savages." Ana Lucia has talked about
becoming savages, the Others have forced it upon them.
Everyone is starting to go a little crazy, and soon
enough they will be at war with eachother.

GOING TO WAR
Jack and Ana Lucia have schemed up this plot to build
an army, to go to war. We assume it is to protect
themselves from the Others, but in reality they will
end up going to war against eachother. Just as Locke
predicted early in the 1st season, when put out in the
wild like that, HUMANS are the worst predator of any
kind, turning on one another
and eventually going to war.

When Jack ran into Zeke and the Others in the woods,
they emphasized that they would not hurt them if they
just left them alone. And from what we have seen so
far, they really have not hurt anyone.
They have taken people, but we still don't know the
reasons they took them, and it may end up very well
being for some kind of GOOD reason. They do only take
the good people, so who knows. But they
really have not shown any violence against them. When
they took Walt, they could have easily killed the
three on the raft, but they didn't. When they ran into
them in the woods, they could have killed Kate but
they didn't. All of the violent situations so far have
taken place among the survivors themselves. So it's
ironic that Jack wants to start a war when really they
have no reason to.

AN OCCURANCE AT OWL CREEK BRIDGE
This is the book that was in Locke's hand when he was
"sorting" the books and alphabetizing them in the
hatch when Sawyer came to warn him about Jack. (I
think he was really looking through the books to find
more clues about the film, but that's a different
story). Anyway, this book takes place during the Civil
War. As we know, every song, every
book, every prop that the writers show has some kind
of significance as to why they chose that particular
thing. I think this book was in there
because of its relevance to the Civil War era -
members of the same society going to war against
eachother.

HOW CAN I HELP YOU, JAMES?
This is what Locke says to Sawyer when he comes to
warn him. He is the only one that calls him by his
"real" name. Maybe this is a sign that he can see who
the "real" Sawyer is. Sawyer then tells him about
Jack, and Locke in turns asks for Sawyers help. This
is the first time that Locke has asked for help,
nonetheless from Sawyer. Interesting that both of them
go by their last names, yet both of their "real" names
are biblical characters (James and John) - as we know
there are a lot of religions implications in the show.
In the Bible, James and John are both disciples of
Christ.

KATE'S MOM
When Sawyer goes to meet his partner at the diner, it
is Kate's mom who is the waitress. They only show her
face for a few seconds, and she has one small line,
but I recognized her immediately, most notably her
voice. It's definitely her. Probably no significance
in them meeting, but just another one of those
coincidences that all the survivors are
connected and have all come across eachother in their
pasts. Sawyer now has seen Kate's mom in the diner,
had a conversation with Jack's dad in the bar in
Australia, and saw Boone in the police station.

WHO HAS THE POWER
Sawyer tells Locke that he came to warn him, just
because he knows it will piss of Jack. Charlie tells
Sawyer the he helped him in his con because he wanted
to make Locke look like a fool. Kate is hurt and upset
that Jack has teamed up with Ana Lucia to start the
army, without asking her. It seems that everyone is
getting upset because Jack and Locke are the two
leaders. People want to bring them down, which is
exactly what Sawyer did with his scheme. As he tells
Kate..."you run, I con." It's who he is, and he is
never going to change. Like Kate said, it's not
necessarily that HE wants to be in charge, he just
doesn't want Jack/Locke to be. He wants people to hate
him, he LIKES being the bad guy. When Charlie asks him
how he could think up such a think, he says "I'm not a
good person, Charlie. I never did a good thing in my
life." Once again we see reference to GOOD vs. EVIL.
As we have seen, the others only take the "good"
people, so Sawyer has no chance of being taken. Also
the other survivors all seem to be struggling about
being a good person or not (Kate is distraught about
being "good," Eko went from good to evil to good
again, Charlie struggles with being good and wanting
to "save" the baby, etc.)

RADIO SIGNAL
When Hurley first brings the radio to Sayid, he says
there is no use looking at it. This emphasizes that he
has lost all hope, he doesn't even care anymore. (Just
like when Ana Lucia got that same radio, she turned it
off when they heard the signal from Boone, she said
it's no use, it's THEM. She had given up hope) -
Anyway, Sayid finally comes around and gets the radio
to work. They have a crystal clear sound of a popular
1940s song. He says the signal is from WXO.
Apparently, this is the radio station at Univ. of
Michigan - which is where the DeGroots (Dharma
founders) started out.

CHARLIE - the devil?
As we saw last week, Charlie wanted to "save" Aaron,
he was struggling with his heroin addiction, and there
were all sorts of religious symbolism throughout his
flashbacks. Now, we see the darker side of him. He was
willing to hurt Sun, just for the sake of making Locke
look like a fool. We assume he did it to get the
heroin back, but that was not the case. In fact, he
didn't even take the heroin from Sawyer. He did it out
of pure evil. At the end when he was standing there
with his hood wrapped up over him, he was in a way a
symbol of the devil. As we have seen in the theme of
this show... everything comes down to good vs. evil.
Eko seems to take on the role of the religious, "good"
person. Maybe Charlie is the role of the bad guy, the
devil. We assume it is going to be Sawyer, but I think
Sawyer tries to hard to make himself the bad person
(like Kate said, he WANTS people to hate him) that I
think deep down he may be a good person after all. (it
will just take a while for that to come out). Charlie
seems to just be doing it out of pure evil, though.