On the island:
Sawyer is known for collecting and hoarding items from
the plane crash and for being the resident smart-talking
rebel on the island. Along with Shannon, he is one of the
island's most prolific sources of colorful, often insulting
nicknames for other castaways and island locations. These
mannerisms make him easily hated and despised by most of
the islanders, although it eventually transpires that he
purposely incites others into hostility against him; Kate
eventually uncovers his tragic past and forces him to admit
his inferiority complex, and Michael, noting that the otherwise
entirely self-centered Sawyer seems eager to volunteer for
dangerous tasks, theorizes he may be suicidal.
Initially Sawyer is Kate's most aggressive suitor, making
various crude advances toward her, at one instance extorting
a kiss from her, but as time passes on, the two seem to
develop a genuine friendship, both sharing a background
as criminals and fugitives tormented by guilt. He kills
time on the island by reading books (such as Watership Down,
which is "about bunnies" and A Wrinkle in Time)
salvaged from the plane; this has caused Sawyer to develop
hyperopia, forcing him to wear reading glasses made by Sayid.
His voice also seems to entertain and comfort Claire's baby.
While on the raft, he is heard singing Bob Marley's "Redemption
Song", in a bit of metaphorical happenstance. When
Sawyer, Jin, Michael, and Walt encounter another boat at
sea whose passengers demand that Walt come with them, Sawyer
pulls a gun, given to him by Jack before they left, to protect
Walt. He gets shot by "The Others" and goes overboard.
After the boat leaves, he climbs onto the wreckage of the
raft with Michael and pulls the bullet out with his fingers
from his shoulder. Due to infection and a loss of blood,
Sawyer becomes ill and passes out in Abandoned. Michael,
Jin, and Mr. Eko make a stretcher for him and proceed to
carry him back to their camp. Back at camp, he is taken
to the hatch, where Jack declares him septic. In "What
Kate Did", he is feverish, and says to Jack "I
love her". Several minutes later, he attacks Kate and
asks her why she "killed" him. She takes this
to be a sign that her deceased stepfather Wayne, whom she
killed, is seeking her from beyond the grave, and flees
the hatch. She later returns and explains herself to Wayne
in the form of Sawyer; he awakens from the fever, having
no idea what she is talking about. Kate escorts him through
the hatch, and out to the jungle; Kate is visited by the
black horse she has been seeing, which Sawyer also witnesses.
After unlocking Locke and Jack out of the gun cache, they
go out on a trek to find Michael. John asks Sawyer why he
doesn't use his real name, James Ford, and where he got
the name Sawyer. When the Others confront the hunting party,
Sawyer is shot again, but only grazed in the face by a bullet.
The leader of the Others, whom Sawyer nicknames "Zeke,"
threatens Kate; Sawyer is obviously shaken and angered at
the possibility of losing her, and hugs her when she is
finally released. When they get back to camp Sawyer comforts
Kate in saying that he would have done the same thing that
she did.
In "The Long Con" Jack raids Sawyer's tent and
tells him that he stole medicine from the hatch. Kate and
Sawyer hear Sun screaming and run to her. They find her
unconscious and bring her back to camp. They later go back
out to where she was attacked and Sawyer says that the bag
used to cover Sun's head was not the same as the one used
by The Others on Kate, making Sawyer suspect that someone
from camp did it. Sawyer goes to the hatch to tell Locke
that Jack and other survivors are coming for the guns. That
night, Sawyer tells everyone that if they want a gun, they
need to get it from him. Kate confronts him later in the
night, and asks him why he has to make everyone hate him.
He replies that at least she still likes him. Even later
that night Sawyer meets up with Charlie. Sawyer had employed
Charlie to pretend to be an Other and "kidnap"
Sun and that he had planned the entire thing. He later tells
Charlie that he has never done a good thing in his life.
Before the crash:
A native of Tennessee, Sawyer, whose real name is James
Ford, is a con artist who has taken on the alias of the
con man known as "Sawyer", who was responsible
for the destruction of his family.
The original Sawyer had an affair with the young James
Ford's mother in order to con his family out of their life
savings, prompting James' father to murder his mother and
then commit suicide out of grief. Vowing revenge, in an
ironic twist Ford finds himself in financial trouble and
is sucked into the world of con artistry himself, adopting
Sawyer's profession and even his specific modus operandi
to survive, using his looks to seduce women and divide families.
He also takes the original Sawyer's name as an alias and,
perhaps, as a symbol of his own self-loathing.
One of Sawyer's cons is a divorced woman named Cassidy,
who tells him that she did not get a significant settlement
in the divorce proceedings. While getting dressed, Sawyer
accidentally opens a briefcase filled with fake cash bundles,
which is one of his favorite cons (meant to give off the
impression that he is rich, so he can more easily con his
victim into giving him money meant for an investment). Cassidy,
however, sees through the con immediately, but is also intrigued,
asking Sawyer to teach her how to con someone. The two scheme
a jewelery con by overpricing fake goods, and con two men
at a gas station. Cassidy later asks if he can teach her
how to pull off a "long con", and reveals that
she got $600,000 from her ex-husband. Sawyer is later at
a diner having lunch with Gordy, his partner, who tells
him to keep doing his con on Cassidy despite Sawyer's feelings
for her. Sawyer returns to the house and tells Cassidy to
run because Sawyer's partner Gordy is going to kill them,
and points to a car waiting outside. He reveals that the
"long con" is Cassidy herself, and that he knew
about her money from the beginning. He then sends her off
with a bag which he appears to have stuffed with the money.
However, this was all part of the con: the car was empty
and the real money was hidden in another bag, ready for
Sawyer to take once Cassidy left.
Before the crash, James is told that the man who ruined
his childhood, the same man from whom he took his alias
Sawyer, was in Australia. James goes there and kills him,
only to find out he has been set up and the man he has killed
was not Sawyer. Before making his final decision to kill
the man who he thought was "Sawyer", Sawyer meets
a man in a bar who, after the crash, he realizes was Christian
Shephard, Jack's father. Sawyer does not reveal this encounter
to Jack until Exodus: Part 1.
In Boone's flashback in "Hearts and Minds", an
uncooperative Sawyer is dragged into a police station by
two police officers. This is later revealed to be because
of Sawyer's participation in a bar fight. A policeman informs
Sawyer that the man he has head-butted in the bar was the
Australian Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.
He is deported from Australia and banned from ever returning,
thus ending up on the fateful flight. The Australian authorities,
who are aware of Sawyer's real identity, deport him under
his real name and it is listed as such on the flight manifest.
It has not been explained why Hurley, who had the passenger
manifest list, continues to refer to him as "Sawyer".
Hurley later shares the manifest with Locke, however, and
Locke eventually reveals to Sawyer in "The Hunting
Party" that he was aware of Sawyer's real name and
occasionally calls him James. |
