Greetings,
While I enjoy a good challenge in my life, I try to avoid things that I know will cause me frustration and put me on the road to a massive headache. So that raises the question of why I spent six years watching a little show called Lost. Something tells me I am not alone in this.
For those of you who don't know, Lost was a show about a group of people whose plane crashes into an island. And that's about where the simplicity comes to a screeching halt. Within the first episode, we realize that maybe this island is not your average place, and as time goes on, it just gets more complicated. The questions about what was happening continued to stack themselves on each other, while the answers became practically non-existent. We kept telling ourselves that, when the show was completely over, it would all make sense. Well, the show ended and most people would say that is not what happened. I have a theory about what it was all about that made it make sense (a little) to me, but I'm not going to get into that today. And you may be wondering why DID I spend so much time watching something that caused me so much cerebral agony. I can explain that, metaphorically.
I see the entire series of Lost as a very messy closet filled with designer clothes. If you back yourself up and try to take in the whole picture, you will be very overwhelmed by it all. You may even cry. But if you take out one article of clothing, you can look at it and say, "This is a really amazing dress, and I want to wear it". See, if every time you watch Lost you thought about that big picture, it would ruin it. That's why I stopped doing that. I just watched the episode that was in front of me in the moment, and, you know what, I could really enjoy it that way. Each week, I was entertained with good writing and good actors, so they actually did their job quite well. Therefore, I don't think that watching Lost was a waste of time.
Okay, enough exposition.
Now, in my opinion, Lost is not a show of which you can choose favorite episodes. The show was too "serial" for that. What you can do is pick favorite moments. So I sat down intending to make a list of such. Turns out, though, that every moment on my list was centered around Sawyer. Of course. He was my favorite character. Why? Well, there's the obvious reasons first off. I am a woman, and he looks how he looks. That's the foundation. But he was funny, and also damaged and wounded, and, like a lot of women, I fall into the trap of wanting a guy I can fix. Yep, we love a project. Of course, the bad boy with a good heart is a total cliche at this point, but I think this character, like a lot of them on the show, was very complex. So he wins the prize of getting this list done in his honor.
I must admit, though, had this been a Top FIVE list, it probably would have been a Sawyer AND Hurley dedication. Yeah, a lot of things had to do with the two of them together. Funny how people would always ask you, "Kate and Jack, or Kate and Sawyer?" Forget that. My favorite couple on the show was Sawyer and Hurley. So you'll see a lot of Hurley here, too. Hope you don't mind. Oh, and by the way, I will be giving spoilers, so enter at your own risk. Here we go.
#10. Teaching Jin English - This incident took place in an episode centered around Hurley finding an old hippie van and recruiting Sawyer, Jin and Charlie to fix it. There's a scene where Sawyer sits with Jin, drinks decades old beer and teaches him "the only three things a woman needs to hear". What do we need to hear? 1. "I'm sorry." 2. "You were right." and 3. "Those pants don't make you look fat". He says something so jerkish and yet women still want him . . . because he's hot. Yeah, tell me again about how difficult life is for the pretty people.
#9. The Boar - There have been many epic battles between man and beast throughout history. This is no exception. Sawyer is convinced that a boar is out to get him, so he goes on a hunting expedition to get justice for his stolen tarp (aka. his makeshift tent). Ya know, he would have looked far less insane if he would have just told everyone he was going to kill it to provide food for them, instead of this lopsided Jaws: The Revenge motive.
#8. Digging Out the Bullet - At the end of season one, Sawyer, Jin, Michael and Walt set out on their homemade . . . sorry, island made raft to try to get everyone rescued. Surprise! It didn't work, and they were ambushed by the pirate-y Others to kidnap Walt. Somewhere in there, Sawyer gets shot. Afterwards, with Jin MIA somewhere in the ocean and Walt gone, he and Michael are left adrift on the remnants of their raft. So does Sawyer do what you're supposed to do and leave the bullet where it is in case an artery was hit? Of course not. He's a man! He takes one of his dirty, saltwater soaked hands and digs out the bullet!! Well, at least he screamed and didn't pretend like it didn't hurt. Take it where you can get it.
#7. Ready, Aim, Fire! Yeah, Try Not to Forget That Middle Part - So when the plane crashed, a Federal Marshall was mortally wounded by being impaled with a piece of metal. Only the audience knows this at the time, but he was transporting Kate. The guy wants someone to shoot him and put him out of his misery. Jack won't do it, because he's Jack, but guess who will? Yes, so Jack thinks Kate is going to do it, once he finds out she has a gun, but it's Sawyer who walks out, having done the deed . . . maybe. Next thing we hear is the guy coughing. He's not dead! How does that happen? Well, instead of shooting him in the head like any normal person would do, Sawyer thought it prudent to shoot the guy in the chest because he was "aiming for his heart". Perhaps, that was meant to be a little symbolism, but he got the lung, which would cause someone to die very, very slowly. If he's trying to disprove the idea that Southern people are stupid, he failed miserably. Speaking of which . . . Okay, Sawyer is a proud redneck, and you'd think that would mean he could shoot a gun and not miss the target, especially when the target is about a foot in front of him! Maybe they should have put the guy on a tree stump between two cans of beer and given Sawyer a gun with a scope on it. It would have made him feel more natural and able to get the job done.
#6. Reading to Aaron - So there's a baby on the island named Aaron, and babies cry, loudly. Sawyer does not like this, obviously. But in a totally unpredictable twist of fate, little Aaron develops a liking to Sawyer's voice. Wow! Did not see that one coming. So the only way to keep the baby quiet is for Sawyer to read to him. Yeah, because he couldn't have just gone somewhere that the baby wasn't and let everyone else deal with it. Oh, no.
#5. The Banishment Vote - Sawyer is a con man, but every now and then, even the best con man can get hoodwinked. That is what happened here. Hurley manages to convince Sawyer that the group was going to have a vote on whether or not to "banish" him from their community. So in order to not have this happen, Hurley makes Sawyer think that if he magically becomes nice, people won't vote against him. What happens? He magically becomes nice. Well, pretends to be nice. Eventually, he learns that Hurley pulled a con, and angrily confronts him. Hurley's defense? "Wasn't it nice being nice?" Mm-hmm. Hi, I'm Hurley, and it is impossible to stay mad at me.
#4. Learning the Back Story - One thing I really liked about Lost in the beginning was the flashbacks. So basically, we knew more about the characters than they knew about each other. We knew the reason as to why they were the way that they were. We spent seven episodes trying to figure out just why Sawyer was such a jerk, and then in episode eight, we got an answer. Sawyer (not his real name), as it turns out, had a difficult childhood to say the least. The very least. Long story short: Mom cheated on Dad, lost all their money, Dad killed Mom then himself in the presence of the little boy. Rough. I normally hate the Bad Mommy or Bad Daddy excuse, but it was so tragic here that I let things slide. Plus, we're talking about Sawyer, so . . . you know.
#3. Frog Gigging with Hurley - You know how there are some people who are bugged by every little thing. I know them. Sometimes I am one of them. As is Sawyer. There is menacing, trilling tree frog that is keeping Sawyer from getting sleep . . . in the middle of the day. He wants to get rid of it but needs help. No one wants to do so. He seems to be on his own, until he catches Hurley hoarding food and threatens to tell everyone. Painted into a corner, Hurley goes with Sawyer on his frog gigging expedition. Oh, and by the way, I feel the need to mention that Sawyer does this with a pistol in his pants. I am not speaking metaphorically here. He takes a shotgun with him and has it in his belt. To paraphrase Lewis Black on his own tale of guys going gigging, I guess the gun is so if you can't catch the frog, you can just blow its head off. Luckily, Sawyer does catch the frog in his hands and it's tiny. Hurley tries to get Sawyer to give it to him so he can take it to a beach far away and out of ear shot. Good idea. Better idea? Crushing the frog in your hand, which is exactly what Sawyer does. Oh, and Lost sound editor? Thanks a pant load for the squishing and crunching noises as he did so. It just made it all the more real.
#2. Getting Revenge - I feel the need to warn once again on this one - MAJOR spoiler alert! Okay, when we discover Sawyer's back story, we find out that he holds one man responsible for ruining his life, a man he intends to kill one day. But how can he even find this man, let alone kill him if he's stuck on a deserted island? Well, not to worry. Thanks to the magic of the Others. Okay, Locke finds Sawyer and takes him to this shack where a man is waiting, and Locke locks both of them inside. This man is Locke's horrible father that the Others brought to the island. Locke will get to be their new leader if he proves he can kill his own father. Okay? He can't, so he wants Sawyer to it. Why? Well, as the episode progresses, we learn that Locke's father is the man who Sawyer has been searching for all his life. What a coincidence! Sawyer ends up going totally Rambo on the unapologetic man, strangling him with a chain. That is awesome! Afterward, Locke takes back the body to the Others convincing them that he, himself, had killed his father, but not before convincing Sawyer that he had done the right thing. Sure, why not? I kid, but, in amongst all the unanswered questions, this reveal was superb for the fans.
#1. The Hurley Fight - Yes, I said fight, not argument. There is a difference in my world. I think I can sum this one up quickly. Sawyer picks on everyone. He calls everyone by amusing if not completely offensive, and sometimes racist, nicknames. Hurley got the brunt of the abuse and one day, he could take no more. Hurley literally attacks Sawyer, pushing him into the ground, knocking down a tent and pummeling him, uttering every cruel nickname Sawyer ever bestowed upon him. Fantastic. It is literally the funniest thing I ever saw on this show. So it gets the number one position here.
Now that I have finished this list, I feel it necessary to give some credit to the actor who portrayed this character - Josh Holloway. Josh Holloway, in real life, is a gentleman, a family man, an all around good guy. Basically, he is nothing like the character he portrayed. So my attraction was never toward him; it was all about the Sawyer, a man with whom I could have a really good argument, a man whom I could "fix", a man who would then be eternally grateful to me. Seriously, though, Josh Holloway did a fabulous job with this character. He made Sawyer what he was, which was my favorite. I may not miss the headaches, but when it comes to Lost, there will always be a part of me that misses things like this.
Love and full moons,
Becky the Writer
