Lost/Every Man for Himself

Every Man for Himself
Season 3, Episode 4
Airdate	October 25, 2006
Production Number	304
Written by	Edward Kitsis Adam Horowitz
Directed by	Stephen Williams
← 3x03 Further Instructions	3x05 → The Cost of Living
Lost — Season Three

Every Man for Himself is the fourth episode of the third season of Lost, and the fifty-third episode overall.

Sawyer discovers just how far his captors will go to thwart any plans of escape he and Kate might have, and Jack is called upon to scrub up in order to save the life of one of "The Others." Meanwhile, Desmond's behavior begins to perplex the survivors when he starts construction on an unknown device.

Starring: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Mr. Eko), Naveen Andrews (Sayid), Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond), Emilie de Ravin (Claire), Michael Emerson (Ben), Matthew Fox (Jack), Jorge Garcia (Hurley), Josh Holloway (Sawyer), Daniel Dae Kim (Jin), Yunjin Kim (Sun), Evangeline Lilly (Kate), Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet), Dominic Monaghan (Charlie), Terry O'Quinn (Locke), Kiele Sanchez (Nikki), Rodrigo Santoro (Paulo).

Guest Starring: Michael Bowen (Danny Pickett), M.C. Gainey (Tom), Kim Dickens (Cassidy Phillips), Ian Gomez (Munson), Paula Malcomson (Colleen), Bill Duke (Warden Harris).

Co-Starring: Dorian Burns (Corrections Officer), Dustin Geiger (Matthew), Ariston Green (Jason), Hunter Quinn (Prison Tough #1), Peter Ruocco (Agent Freedman), Christina Simpkins (Munson's Wife).

Plot Overview

The Island

• At the Oceanic survivor's beach camp, Desmond informs Claire that there's a problem with her shelter's roof and offers to fix it. Charlie cuts into their conversation and tells Desmond that he'll handle any problem with Claire's shelter. Desmond tells them he was just offering to help and leaves. He comes across Paulo, who is busying himself by using the beach as a driving range, and borrows a 5-iron from him. Desmond eventually constructs a large bamboo structure with the 5-iron mounted to the top with wires running from it down into the ground. Hurley asks what it is, but Desmond simply tells him it's an experiment. Just then it begins to rain and lightning strikes the 5-iron.
• Inside Jack's cell at the Hydra, Juliet brings him some more food. Frustrated with Juliet's lack of answers, Jack asks her if he should talk to Ben instead as he believes he's in charge. Juliet explains to him that they make decisions together, but Jack counters her claim by telling her Ben seemed happy to let her die when he had a broken plate at her neck. It seemed to Jack that Ben made that decision on his own. Juliet tells Jack that she doesn't answer to Ben as Ben enters the cell, telling her the sub is back, they have a situation and she needs to come with him immediately. Juliet exchanges glances with Jack before following Ben out.

  While eating the food brought to him, an intermittent signal comes over the comm system in his cell and he can hear Sawyer yelling. Later, Jack is able to hear a fuzzy conversation going on over the communication system, but Juliet enters in surgical scrubs spattered with blood. Jack demands to know what they did to Sawyer, but Juliet tells him the blood isn't his and she needs his help. A hood is placed over his head and he's lead by the Others past the cages holding Sawyer and Kate, but a loud klaxon is aired over the speakers to prevent them from getting Jack's attention. Lead inside a building, Jack is shown an operating room with Colleen on a table. Jack notices several X-rays of a spine, but Juliet tells him they aren't Colleen's. Jack attempts to stop Colleen's internal bleeding while Ben, Tom and Pickett watch from an observation room above. Colleen flatlines and Jack calls for a crash cart, but Juliet tells him its broken. He attempts to resuscitate Colleen, but is unable to bring her back.

  Jack is handcuffed to the table with Colleen's body until Juliet returns. She explains that she's a fertility doctor and not used to death, and how she should have gotten Jack sooner. But Jack tells her it wouldn't have mattered as Colleen was already beyond help when she got there. Juliet asks him if he was lying to make her feel better, but Jack tells her that he doesn't care how she feels. He asks her about the X-rays he saw. They belong to a man forty years old who has a large tumor on his spine, so he wonders who he's there to save.
• Out in the cages at the Hydra, Pickett opens Sawyer's cage for another day of manual labor when he gets a call over the radio. Sawyer and Kate watch as Ben, Juliet, and Tom pass by their cages with Colleen on a stretcher carried by two Others. With smug satisfaction, Sawyer surmises that they - the Oceanic survivors - were the ones who shot Colleen. Pulling the water dispenser out of its trough, Sawyer activates the dispenser machine and the water empties onto the ground and forms a puddle outside the cage. He tells Kate that, next time someone comes to take him out of his cage, he'll wait until they're standing in the puddle and shock them by pushing the dispenser button. He believes he'll be able to take the shock, but the Other won't and it'll give him enough time to grab the keys and escape. Ben eventually approaches Sawyer's cage and asks him for his weight and age. Satisfied with the answers, Ben steps in the puddle and begins to open the cage when Sawyer grabs his arm and hits the dispenser button, but nothing happens. Ben informs him that they turned off the power and then beats him unconscious with a telescopic baton.

  Sawyer eventually wakes up inside the Hydra, secured to a table in a cell similar to that of Jack's. One Other (Jason) forces a bit into Sawyer's mouth while another Other plunges a large needle into Sawyer's sternum. Sawyer wakes up, again, but with a bloody bandage on his chest. Ben and Tom enter the cell with a rabbit in a cage. Ben violently shakes the cage while yelling at the rabbit, and the rabbit eventually stops moving. He tells Sawyer the rabbit had a pacemaker inserted and set to deliver a shock whenever it got too anxious, excited, frightened - or if it tried to escape. Placing a heart-rate monitor watch on Sawyer's wrist, Ben tells him that his active heart rate should be around 140, which is when his pacemaker will cause his heart to explode. The watch is to monitor his pulse and will beep to warn him if his heart rate gets close to the danger zone. Ben warns Sawyer not to tell Kate what they did to him or that they're watching them, otherwise they'll put one inside her.

  Once back inside his cage, Kate tells Sawyer that she thinks she can slip through the bars at the top of the cage, but Sawyer tries to get her to drop the idea. Loud klaxons are aired over the speaker system and the two watch as the Others lead a hooded Jack near their cages. They try to get his attention, but the loud noise prevents the attempt from succeeding. Shortly afterwards (after Colleen has died), Pickett storms up to Sawyer's cage, removes him and throws him up against Kate's cage. Pickett beats Sawyer badly, while demanding to know if Kate loves Sawyer. Kate tells him to stop, that she loves Sawyer, and Pickett leaves. Alone again, Kate tries out her plan and is able to get out of her cage, but she can't free Sawyer from his cage. Unwilling to live him behind, Kate climbs back into her cage. Inside the Hydra's control room, Ben and Tom watch what happened. Very early the next morning, Ben rouses Sawyer from his cage for a little walk. As they near the top of a cliff, Ben reveals to Sawyer that the rabbit was merely sedated and they never put a pacemaker inside him. At the top, Sawyer discovers that they're on a second island from the one they crashed on. Ben tells him the island they're on is roughly twice the size of Alcatraz Island, and he wanted Sawyer to know there's nowhere to run.

The Flashback

• Flashback: Sawyer

At a prison gym, Sawyer is boxing with another inmate and knocks him down. The guard tells Sawyer that's enough, and Sawyer helps the other inmate up from the canvas. A mandatory lock down is enacted and the inmates return back to their cells. As they do, Sawyer notices an inmate getting beat up and inquires as to who he is. The guy he was boxing tells him the guy is called Munson, and the rumor is he ripped off the government for $10,000,000, but the government hasn't found the money yet. He motions to the Warden and notes that Munson would be a dead man if the Warden didn't keep breaking up the fights. Later, Sawyer approaches Munson in the sewing shop while on cleaning detail. He points out to Munson the special treatment he's been getting; being put on tote bag duty after only a week while Sawyer's still been pushing trash carts after nine months. He tells Munson that the Warden is giving him the special treatment in a play for the ten million: butter him up and then use his wife against him. Sawyer doesn't want the Warden to get that money after the Warden has made his life a living hell. The Warden appears, threatening to extend Sawyer's sentence with a single phone call. He drops the apple he was eating and Sawyer grudgingly picks it up and continues his cleaning detail.

Waiting in the visitation room, Sawyer watches as Munson argues with his wife over something before his attention turns to his visitor — Cassidy Phillips, the woman he performed a long con on. She refers to him as Sawyer, but he tells her his name is James Ford and she should know it too since she got it right when she pressed charges. Wanting to get to the point of her visit, Cassidy shows Sawyer a picture of a baby girl. Cassidy tells him the baby girl is his daughter, Clementine. She tells Sawyer that they're living in a little place in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and thought that he might write her a letter. Upset, Sawyer tells Cassidy that he has no daughter and leaves.

Later, Munson talks with Sawyer and tells him he was right. He asks Sawyer to move the money for him as his wife has hired a private investigator and will find the money eventually. Thinking if over, Sawyer declines the offer as its too risky for him. But Munson pleads with him to do it, otherwise the Warden will win.

Sawyer is later brought to the prison gym where the Warden and a Treasury Department official are waiting. He reveals the exact location of the ten million dollars to the official. The Warden informs Sawyer that, as agreed, the remaining six years of his sentence will be commuted. The Treasury Department official tells Sawyer that, after the money is recovered and confirmed, he'll receive his "commission". Sawyer asks that his commission be sent to a new account at any bank in Albuquerque under the name Clementine Phillips, but the money can't ever be traced back to him. The Warden congratulates Sawyer for lying and cheating his way out of prison.

Notes

Mysteries

• How do the Others get from their island to the main island? Do they have a submarine?

Possible Answer: They may have a submarine, Ben burst into Jack's cell to tell Juliet that "the sub is back".

• Who is Jack there to save?
• If Jack is there to perform spinal surgery, what are Kate and Sawyer there for?
• What was the purpose of Desmond's "experiment"?
• Why would the Others need to have a fertility doctor on the island? Is this in any way connected to what happened to Claire in "Maternity Leave"?

Answers

• The Others may want Jack so he could remove a tumor located on a spine. (2x23 - Live Together, Die Alone) This is likely also what Ben's deal is about. (3x03 - The Glass Ballerina)
• The Hydra is located on a small island adjacent to the island where the Oceanic survivors crashed. (3x01 - A Tale of Two Cities)
• If the Others do indeed have a submarine, this explains how they could slip onto the Pala Ferry dock from the water.

The Cursed Numbers

• There are 4 swans in the cartoon Jack was watching.
• Sawyer's number in prison was 840. 8 and 4 are two of the numbers.
• The rabbit had the number 8 on its fur.
• Munson's $10 million was hidden inside unit 23C of a storage facility.
• The last number visible on Colleen's heart monitor as she flat lines is 16.

Scrutiny

• There seems to be some kind of conflict about who's in charge among the Others. The way Ben behaves and what Juliet says seem somewhat at odds with each other.
• Ben says to Sawyer, "I tell you a guy gets too lonely and he gets sick." Even though he adds that he is quoting from Of Mice and Men, he could be referring to the person with the spinal tumor.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Colleen dies from her gunshot wound, despite Jack and Juliet's efforts.
• Sawyer discovers that he, Kate and Jack are on a small island.
• Desmond performs a test to see if he really can predict the future.

Characters

• Jack discovers that he's to operate on an Other's spine to remove a tumor.
• Kate declares her love for Sawyer, but later tells Sawyer she only said that to stop his beating.
• Sawyer has a daughter in Albuquerue, New Mexico named Clementine Phillips.
• Colleen was married to Danny Pickett.

Referbacks

• 2x01 - Man of Science, Man of Faith: In reference to Desmond's odd behavior, Charlie suggests they have to get him another button to push.
• 2x13 - The Long Con: Cassidy Phillips, the woman who visited Sawyer in prison, is the woman he performed the long con on in which he had second thoughts.
• 2x18 - Dave: While talking to Desmond, Charlie tells him he was helping Eko build a church.
• 2x23 - Live Together, Die Alone: Charlie references how he was helping Eko build a church before Eko "exploded." While Sawyer regains consciousness inside the Hydra, he overhears Tom talk about the sky turning purple.
• 3x01 - A Tale of Two Cities: While talking to Juliet, Jack refers back to holding her hostage with a broken plate.

Trivia

The Show

• Purple Sky: As Sawyer regains consciousness from his beating at the hands of Ben, he overhears the tail-end of a conversation between him and Tom. Tom tells Ben that, in the two days since the sky turned purple, they've been "blind" and their communications system is down.
• The Communication System: Although Juliet told Jack that the comm system in his cell hasn't worked in years, it appears to just barely work in such a capacity as to pipe in intermittent communication from the outside. Jack was able to hear Sawyer yelling while being administered the shot for his "pacemaker." He was also able to hear the following conversation:
  Voice One: "Everything's under control."
  Voice Two: "Yeah? You know what he's doing?"
  Voice One: "He knows what he's doing."
  Voice Two: "It was a mistake bringing those two here."

Behind the Scenes

• Location, Location, Location: Some interior shots of the prison Sawyer was incarcerated at were filmed at the Halawa Correctional Facility in Aiea, HI.

Allusions and References

• A Corny Concerto: The cartoon Jack watches is the 1942 A Corny Concerto, the Looney Tunes parody of the 1940 Disney feature-length classic Fantasia. A Corny Concerto is comprised of two segments. The one Jack watches is the latter one, set to "The Blue Danube" by Johann Strauss. In the segment, a mother swan swims with her three little cygnets, but when a black duckling tries to join the trio, she rejects him. However, when a buzzard snatches the three cygnets, the duckling proves himself a hero by rescuing them, and he is allowed to join the brood.
• Sawyer the Thunderer: Upon successful completion of hitting the levers and switches, the music the machine in the polar bear cage plays is "The Thunderer" by John Philip Sousa. Sousa was an American composer and conductor best known for American military marches. "The Thunderer" was composed in 1889.
• Chinatown: Sawyer refers to Pickett as "Chinatown" and remarks about his stuffy nose. In the movie Chinatown (1974), Jack Nicholson plays a Los Angeles private investigator named Jake Gittes. In the course of his investigation, Gittes has part of his nose sliced by a thug and wears a bandage over it.
• Costanza: While talking to Munson, Sawyer refers to him as "Costanza." George Costanza was a character on NBC's Seinfeld. Costanza and Munson are both short, pudgy, balding men.
• Ben Kahuna: Sawyer refers to Ben as the "big kahuna." "Big Kahuna" is a slang term for the person in charge of something.
• Lost Fiction: While preparing to plunge the massive needle into Sawyer's chest, Jason (one of the Others) tells the Other with the needle that he has to "go through the sternum. The sternum. Like in the movie." In the movie Pulp Fiction (1994), John Travolta's character, Vincent Vega, delivers an adrenaline shot to Uma Thurman's character, Mia Wallace, by plunging a large needle through the character's breastplate.
• Of Mice and Men: In Sawyer's flashback he's seen reading Of Mice and Men, a novel written by John Steinbeck and first published in 1937. The novel tells the story of George and Lennie, two migrant farm workers in California during the Great Depression, who dream of purchasing their own small farm, where Lennie hopes to raise rabbits. In the flashback, Sawyer asks Munson, "Mind if I go back and see if George gets his farm?" On the island, Sawyer references the novel to Ben, telling him he'd like it as puppies get killed in it. Ben quotes the novel back to Sawyer. The rabbit with the "pacemaker" may also be a reference to the novel. Just as Lennie's dream of raising rabbits is nothing but a fantasy, so, too, is Sawyer's pacemaker. Further, the climax of the novel is set in motion when Lennie accidentally kills the bullying ranch owner Curley's wife (after he has already broken Curley's hand). The parallels between Curley and Danny Pickett are unmistakable.
• Every Man for Himself: The episode title is used by Sawyer to describe their situation at the hands of the Others. Sawyer also used it in season two's "...and Found" while talking to Jin.
• Live Together, Die Alone: Kate uses this phrase as a retort to Sawyer's "every man for himself." It's also the episode title of season two's "Live Together, Die Alone" and was used by Jack in season one's "White Rabbit."
• Alcatraz: When Benjamin shows Sawyer he is on a separate island, he asks, "You ever been to Alcatraz? Taken the tour?" Alcatraz Island is located in the San Francisco Bay. It formerly housed a maximum security prison which—due to the strong currents, cold temperature and 1.25-mile journey to the mainland—was thought to be inescapable. In fact, in the 80 years the island served as a prison, 36 men attempted 14 escapes, but only six of them made it more than a few feet off the island. Of those six, one was immediately captured before he reached the mainland, one was swept away by the currents, caught and treated for shock and hypothermia, and four are officially listed as "missing and presumed drowned," although their bodies were never recovered. Today, the island and prison is a National Historic Site which has guided tours of the facility.

Memorable Moments

• Kate pleads for Pickett to stop beating Sawyer, only getting him to stop by tearfully telling Picket that she loves Sawyer.
• Kate tells Sawyer that she knows he's lying to her about what they did to him, and that makes her more scared then anything they've done before,
• Sawyer tells Kate that if she does love him, to leave him behind, and Kate says she was lying, and gets back into the cage, saying "live together, die alone".

Quotes

• Desmond: Don't mind me, brother. I'm just gonna take one of your clubs. Hurley said it'd be all right.
  Paulo: Hurley, huh? This mean you're off to save the day?
  Desmond: So, uh, I can take one of these?
  Paulo: Take the 5-iron. I never use it. That way when you die in the jungle, doing whatever you're doing, I don't have to go looking for it.
  Desmond: Thanks, mate. [Paulo hits a "golf ball"] Y'know you might wanna, um, square your shoulders a bit more.
  Paulo: You play golf?
  Desmond: I'm Scottish. Cheers.
• Juliet: I'm a fertility doctor. I'm not used to death.
  Jack: What was her name?
  Juliet: Col. It was short for Colleen. I shouldn't have, uh- I should have come to get you sooner.
  Jack: It wouldn't have mattered. There wasn't anything more you could have done. She was... She was dead before you got her on the table.
  Juliet: Are- Are you just saying that to make me feel better?
  Jack: I don't... I don't care about making you feel better.
• Kate: (to Sawyer) I don't know what they did to you, but I know it's made you scared enough to lie, and that makes me more scared then anything they've done before!
• Sawyer: (to Kate) Damnit, go! It's every man for himself!
  (Kate gets back into her cage)
  Kate: Live together, die alone.
• Ben: You ever been to Alcatraz? Take the tour? Right now you're standing on a small island roughly twice the size of Alcatraz. And that over there... That's your island. The one you've come to know and love. I just wanted you to know there's no where to run.
  Sawyer: You did all this just to... just to keep me in a damn cage?
  Ben: We did all this because the only way to gain a con man's respect is to con him. And you're pretty good, Sawyer. We're a lot better.