"Confidence Man" is the eighth episode of the first season of Lost. The episode was directed by Tucker Gates and written by Damon Lindelof. It first aired on November 10, 2004, on ABC. The character of James "Sawyer" Ford (Josh Holloway) is featured in the episode's flashbacks. Sawyer is accused of stealing Shannon Rutherford's (Maggie Grace) inhaler, and Sayid Jarrah (Naveen Andrews) tortures him in an attempt to find out where it is. In the flashbacks, Sawyer's life before the crash is revealed, showing his scams as a confidence man.
The episode was intended to make Sawyer look like less of a belligerent, as he had generally acted as the antagonist in previous episodes. It also set the stage for the love triangle between Kate, Sawyer, and Jack. The episode was first broadcast in the United States on November 10, 2004, earning 18.44 million viewers. It received mostly positive reviews, although a few reviewers discussed aspects of the episode that they felt did not blend in well with the rest of the episode and series.
Plot
Flashbacks
Sawyer is in bed with a young woman, Jessica (Kristin Richardson). After he declares his love for her, she realizes he is late for a meeting. As he rushes to leave, his briefcase falls open, revealing thousands of dollars in cash he claims she was not supposed to have seen. Sawyer then informs her that he is meeting someone to get money for an investment that will triple his cash in two weeks, and Jessica tells him that she will get additional money from her husband, David (Michael DeLuise), so that she and Sawyer can split the profit. Later, Sawyer is revealed to be a con artist in debt with a loan shark, Kilo (Billy Mayo), who demands his money back, plus fifty percent, by the next day. Sawyer goes to Jessica's house to finalize the deal, but reconsiders upon seeing a small boy (Jim Woitas), their son, emerge from another room. He suddenly calls off the con, drops his briefcase of money, and rushes out of their house.
On the island
It is Day 9, September 30, 2004. On the beach, Sawyer catches Boone Carlyle (Ian Somerhalder) searching through his stash of items he salvaged from the crash, and Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) attends to a wound on the head of Sayid. Sayid reports his failure in triangulating the distress signal, and the destruction of the transceiver by his attacker. Shannon brings a bloody Boone to the caves, where he explains to Jack that Sawyer beat him, and that his sister Shannon's asthma has become a problem. Many of the survivors become convinced that Sawyer is hoarding some inhalers from the wreck. Jack unsuccessfully demands the inhalers from Sawyer, and when Kate does the same, Sawyer says he will give up the inhaler if Kate kisses him. Kate calls his bluff and challenges him about the letter he often reads. Sawyer makes Kate read the letter aloud. The letter is addressed to "Mr. Sawyer" and explains that Mr. Sawyer had sex with the letter writer's mother and stole all of the letter writer's father's money, resulting in the father killing his wife and himself.
As Sayid and John Locke (Terry O'Quinn) discuss the attack on Sayid, Locke suggests that Sawyer is the culprit, since he is doing well for himself on the island, hoarding other people's possessions, and also seems to dislike Sayid. Meanwhile, Shannon begins to have trouble breathing due to her lack of medication and panic resulting from this problem. Jack tries beating answers out of Sawyer by punching him, but stops when he sees others' disapproval. Then with Jack's approval, Sayid ties Sawyer to a tree and tortures him for answers, revealing that he has tortured people before.
Sawyer finally agrees to give up the inhalers, but only to Kate. He again says he will hand over the medication if she kisses him, which she reluctantly does, only to be told by him that he does not have the medication after all. Kate elbows Sawyer, and an enraged Sayid attacks him, stabbing him in the arm and hitting an artery. Jack arrives to stop the bleeding and save Sawyer's life.
Sawyer wakes up the next day, October 1, 2004, with his arm bandaged up, while Kate looks on. She tells Sawyer that she knows the letter was written when Sawyer was a kid, and also works out that the letter wasn't written to Sawyer, but him. He tells Kate that his real name isn't Sawyer and that the letter was written to the real Sawyer, a con man, who ruined his family. He ended up becoming a con man himself, so he took the name Sawyer as an alias. He snatches the letter from Kate and tells her not to feel sorry for him and to leave.