Episode 304 - Every Man for Himself

Written by six from the blog The Lost Chronicles on 05 Apr 2007
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Episode 304
Every Man for himself

Oh, my word! I take back every nice thing I’ve ever said about Ben. He’s a slimy toad, and he needs to get his come-uppance. Sorry Ben, it’s every man for himself now.

This was an episode of mixed emotions, and I think it contained many clues and little bits of information. One of the most painful things for me to have watched was Danny beating Sawyer up. It was brutal!

Sawyer didn’t even try to fight back, I wonder if he could have even if he did try. I think that by then, he had totally bought into their whole pacemaker scam and, despite himself, couldn’t allow Kate to be placed in any danger.

I’m surprised at Sawyer though. Even I questioned the feasibility of a pacemaker being inserted in the way it was. I know nothing about medicine or cardiology, but common sense would tell me that recovering from this kind of thing would take more than an hour or two, and it would take more than someone sticking a great big needle in your chest.

I once heard someone say “Never con a conman” but here Ben tells Sawyer that the only way to gain the respect of a conman is to con him. He also tells him that they (the Others) are better conmen than Sawyer. And I’m inclined to believe him. Every thing that they have done so far has been to deceive and cast doubt in the minds of the Losties. Ben did it with Locke, and now he’s done it with Sawyer.

This makes the Others far more dangerous than I thought because of the lengths that they are willing to go to for what they want. But what is it that they want? I still don’t have any idea of what exactly it is that they want.

Still on the topic of Sawyer, I wish he and Kate would just admit that they really do care about each other and get over with it. But I do understand their reluctance to do so. Sawyer admitting that he cares goes against everything he’s forced himself to believe. Which is why he turned his back on Clementine, I guess.

Clementine, for those who were not paying attention, is apparently Sawyer’s daughter with Cassidy, the woman he conned in “The Long Con”.

Kate not admitting her feelings for Sawyer are real is partly because she’s scared, and partly because Sawyer pisses her off at times. I think that she wants him to care, and her telling him that she just said that she loved just to stop Danny beating him was to hurt Sawyer. He looked hurt, in any case.

As much as this pains me to admit, I must state that I have developed a very grudging respect for Kate. Her returning to her cage when she could have escaped is either the most bravest thing she’s ever done, or the most stupidest. “Live together, die alone” she tells Sawyer. Sigh. Are the writers going to rehash old episode titles now? I can just picture it:

Hurley: Dude. Look at what Kate did.
Charlie: Well, it’s every man for himself….
Ben: Well, she was raised by another...
Kate: Blame Dave, Dave did it.

Anyway, before I get carried away, why did it take Kate 2 days to realize that she could climb up and out through the bars in her cage?

The big moment of the episode was Ben revealing to Sawyer that they are on a completely different island – one located opposite the Losties Island. I didn’t, not even for a moment, consider that Otherville could have been located anywhere else but on the Losties Island. The possibilities that this presents are endless. Unfortunately, it also presents us with a few more unanswered questions, in true Lost fashion.

We also had limited Jackass time. I thought that Jack would refuse to help Cole – the injured Other. But with the Hippocratic Oath and all that, I guess he had no choice. But hell, its Jackass, he would have tried. Although, I think he didn’t try as hard as he usually does. Remember him pounding life back into Charlie?? He let this one slide without the extra effort.

Desmond, on the other island, is still being all mysterious and I swear he’s getting better-looking with each passing episode. So now Charlie has a “whoa” moment and realises that all is not right with the island’s resident Scot. Claire clearly noticed nothing.

Hmmm. I wonder what will become of Desmond’s new psychic powers. A story-line as delicious as this one can’t be left to fade of into the ocean.

And this we have learnt this episode

• Paulo doesn’t play golf with the 5 iron. He seems to have a remarkable chip on his shoulder
• Juliet was a fertility doctor. Hmmm.
• The Others have a sub. Which I am going to assume is a submarine. How else would they get to the losties island so stealthily?
• The Others are aware of the hatch implosion
• Hurley makes a mean fruit-salad.
• Kate really needs a brush. Somebody please give the woman a brush.
• Jack doesn’t like cartoons.
• Its possible that Jack was kidnapped to remove the tumour from one of the Other’s spines

Some Interesting Trivia

• The Other - Cole (short for Colleen) dies in this episode after being shot by Sun the night before in "The Glass Ballerina". This makes Sun the next in the long list of 815 survivors who have taken another human's life either murderously, unintentionally or in self-defence. The list includes :

Kate
Ana-Lucia
Desmond
Michael
Sawyer
Eko
Charlie
Sayid
Sun

• The episode title "Every Man for Himself" is an allusion to episode 205 "...And Found". In this episode, Sawyer says to Jin, "In case you haven't noticed, it's every man for himself".

Also, early in Season 1 in one of Jack's speeches he says "Every man for himself is not going to work. If we can't live together, we're going to die alone".

Some Extra screencaps that are nice to look at