Lost/The Brig

The Brig
Season 3, Episode 19
Airdate	May 2, 2007
Production Number	319
Written by	Damon Lindelof Carlton Cuse
Directed by	Eric Laneuville
← 3x18 D.O.C.	3x20 → The Man Behind the Curtain
Lost — Season Three

The Brig is the ninteenth episode of the third season of Lost, and the sixty-eight episode overall.

A newly focused Locke breaks away from "The Others" in an attempt to persuade Sawyer to help rid them of a great nemesis that has caused nothing but pain in both of their lives. Meanwhile, a new island inhabitant discloses some shocking information about Oceanic Flight 815.

Starring: 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).

Guest Starring: Nestor Carbonell (Richard Alpert), Mira Furlan (Danielle Rousseau), M.C. Gainey (Tom), Kevin Tighe (Anthony Cooper), Marsha Thomason (Naomi).

Co-Starring: Kimberly Joseph (Cindy).

Uncredited: Kiersten Havelock (Emma), Mickey Graue (Zack).

Plot Overview

The Island

• After sleeping with Sawyer in his shelter, Kate leaves, telling Sawyer that she has trouble sleeping any where else but her own shelter and implies that she wants to sleep alone. With Kate gone, Sawyer heads into the jungle to go to the bathroom when Locke appears out of the darkness. Questioned by Sawyer, Locke claims to have infiltrated the Others and that he has kidnapped Ben. He wants Sawyer to kill Ben, reminding Sawyer of how Ben tortured him and humiliated him while at The Hydra. Sawyer refuses to kill Ben, telling Locke that he isn't a murderer, but Locke refers to Sawyer's killing of a man in Sydney and tells him the Others have detailed files on all of them. He leaves and Sawyer reluctantly follows him.

  Sawyer is led through the jungle and into the morning, remaining adamant that he isn't going to kill anyone. Locke, however, believes he'll go through with it once he hears what Ben has to say. The two arrive at the Black Rock and Locke informs Sawyer that Ben is locked inside the ship's brig. Locke shows Sawyer to the brig, removing a piece of wood holding the door shut and opens it. Sawyer sees a hooded man chained inside the brig and heads inside, but Locke closes the door behind him and bars it shut with the wood plank. Removing the hood, Sawyer discovers that man isn't Ben but Anthony Cooper, a man Sawyer doesn't recognize.

  Sawyer pounds on the door, demanding Locke opens it but to no effect. Danielle Rousseau appears inside the ship, informing Locke that she's come for dynamite. Locke points out the crates and warns her that the dynamite is unstable, and she leaves with a crate. After removing Cooper's gag, Sawyer threatens to shoot Locke through the door, but Locke points out that there are no bullets in his gun. Cooper reveals to Sawyer that he's Locke's father. Sawyers questions him as to how he arrived on the island, but Cooper tells him he was driving on I-10 in Tallahassee when someone rammed him from behind, putting him into a guardrail at over 70mph and the last thing he remembered was a paramedic smiling at him as an IV was inserted into his arm. When he came to he found himself gagged and restrained, and a door opened to reveal the man he threw out a window, his dead son Locke. Questioned by Sawyer as to what he means by dead, Cooper tells him Locke survived the fall but was permanently paralyzed, but Locke was killed when the plane he was flying on crashed into the Pacific. Sawyer tells him that he was on the same plane and they crashed onto an island, but Cooper tells him they found the plane at the bottom of the ocean. He believes they're dead, including himself, and they're in Hell. Exasperated at Cooper's comments of how they're in Hell, Sawyer turns his questioning as to why Cooper threw Locke out of a window. Cooper tells him that Locke was becoming a nuisance after he conned Locke out of a kidney. Sawyer's interest is piqued at the word "con" and asks Cooper his name. Cooper simply tells him a con man goes by man names and that he's been known as Alan Seward, Anthony Cooper, Ted McClaren, Tom Sawyer and Lewis Jackson. Sawyer stops him at "Tom Sawyer", and Cooper tells him Huck Finn was taken and the ladies loved the name, that it made him charming. Sawyer tells him that's his name, too.

  Sawyer asks Cooper if he's ever been to Jasper, Alabama and Cooper tells him he has. Cooper jokingly asks Sawyer if he's supposed to be Sawyer's daddy, but Sawyer tells Cooper that Cooper killed his daddy. Sawyer pulls out the letter he wrote as a young boy to the real Sawyer and hands it to Cooper, telling him to read it. Cooper reads out the first few lines before stopping and asking Sawyer if he took his name for some kind of revenge kick. Sawyer orders him to continue reading the letter, but Cooper tells him not to get so worked up over a con he worked two dozen times. Sawyer interrupts him, telling him his mother's name was Mary. Cooper thinks back and claims to remember a Mary from Jasper, telling Sawyer that she practically begged him to take her money and rescue her from her sorry little life. He tries to pass the blame on to Sawyer's father, telling Sawyer that it's not his fault Sawyer's father overreacted and pulled a murder-suicide. Since he believes they're in Hell, he suggests Sawyer finds his father and take it up with him instead. Sawyer yells at him to finish the letter, but Cooper tears it up. Enraged, Sawyer chokes Cooper to death with the chains inside the brig. Locke opens the door to the room and thanks Sawyer.

  Outside the Black Rock, Locke tells Sawyer he can head back to the camp. Sawyer asks him why he did this, and Locke tells him Cooper ruined both their lives and that he had it coming to him. Locke reveals to Sawyer that Juliet is a mole and collecting information on which of their women is pregnant. Ben is planning on raiding the camp in three days to kidnap the pregnant women. He wants Sawyer to warn the camp as he's not returning, revealing to Sawyer that he was never undercover with the Others, rather he's following his own path. He hands Sawyer the tape recording Juliet made at The Staff, evidence to back up Sawyer's claim. Before Locke leaves, Sawyer asks him if he really was paralyzed before the crash. Locke simply tells him he's not paralyzed any more. As Sawyer heads back to camp, Locke carries his father's body back to the Others.

• Desmond, Charlie, Hurley and Jin carry the parachutist to the beach camp under cover of darkness, hiding her inside Hurley's shelter. In the morning, Charlie gathers some food when Jack greets him and asks to come with them the next time a camping trip is planned. Charlie returns Hurley's shelter, telling Desmond that they should tell Jack, but Desmond believes that Jack can't be trusted. Instead they get someone they can trust, Sayid.

  Sayid is brought to see the woman, Naomi Dorrit. Naomi reveals that she was part of a search and recovery team, and took off from a freighter approximately eighty nautical miles north-west of the island. Turning to Naomi's claims of how Oceanic flight 815 was found, she tells Sayid that the plane was found at the bottom of a 4-mile deep ocean trench off of Bali. Robotic cameras were sent down to inspect the wreckage, and all the bodies were there. However, she wasn't looking for Oceanic flight 815 but for Desmond. Her company was hired by Widmore to conduct a search around a set of coordinates that Penelope gave them. The coordinates were for a location in the middle of the ocean and Naomi believed it was a fool's errand, but she was flying back to the freighter when the clouds cleared and she saw the island. However, her helicopter's instruments began to malfunction and she was forced to jump. Sayid doubts Naomi's tale, sarcastically asking her if she has no means of communication with her freighter, but Naomi hands him her satellite phone.

  Sayid attempts to fix the inoperable satellite phone outside as Hurley watches, remarking to Hurley that the phone's technology is more sophisticated than anything he's seen. Putting the phone back together, Sayid powers it on and it successfully remains on. However, there's some kind of interference preventing the phone from picking up a channel and sending a transmission out. Kate discovers the two with the phone, and Sayid is forced to explain the situation to her, asking her to keep it quiet.

  On the beach, Jack and Juliet share a meal together when Kate approaches them. She asks to speak to Jack in private, but Jack insists that anything she has to say she can say in front of Juliet. Juliet agrees to leave, but Jack tells her to stay. Kate decides to tell Jack anyway, telling him Juliet's the reason no one in the camp is willing to tell him there's a woman in Hurley's tent that parachuted onto the island. She tells Jack that the woman's ship is only eight miles away and, if she can find a way to communicate with it, they'll all be rescued. Jack asks her why nobody told him, and Kate replies that it's because no one trusts him. Juliet tells Jack that they should tell Kate, but Jack refuses and tells her not yet.

The Flashback

• Flashback: Locke

8 Days Ago
Inside a room at the barracks, Locke discovers his father, Anthony Cooper, tied up and gagged. Ben claims that Locke was the one who brought him to the island. Locke removes Cooper's gag to ask him what's going on, but Cooper bites his hand. Tom tazes Cooper to release Locke's hand from Cooper's mouth. Cooper asks his son "don't you know where we are", but Tom closes the door between the two and Ben refuses to elaborate on Cooper's words. Instead, Ben reveals to Locke that they're moving to a new place and invites Locke to join them. Locke agrees.

3 Days Ago
The Others set up camp in a large clearing. Locke helps Cindy set up her tent, noticing members of the Others watching him as if they're in awe. Cindy tells Locke to not mind them, that they're just excited he's there as they've been waiting for him. Before Locke can question her, Tom tells him that Ben is asking to see him. Arriving at Ben's tent, Locke finds him listening to an audio tape. Ben tells him it's a recording Juliet made and that she's gathering information at Locke's former camp, determining who of the survivors are pregnant so they can take them. Ben gets out of his wheelchair, revealing to Locke that, since he arrived, he's been regaining the use of his own legs. He's eager to show Locke what the island can do, but Locke is not yet ready. Locke must show them that he's ready and willing to join them, to make a gesture of free will and commitment, and Locke's gesture is to kill his own father.

At night, Ben rouses Locke from his sleep, telling him it's time. He leads Locke to a nearby pillar that Cooper is tied to and hands Locke a knife. With his gag removed, Cooper snidely remarks on how Ben expects Locke will kill him and that Locke is spineless. Locke hesitates, noticing the Others gathering near the pillar to watch the killing. Cooper tells Ben that they've been through this before and Locke only wants his daddy, but Locke tells him to shut up and presses a knife against Cooper's throat. Ben urges Locke to go through with it, telling Locke that he'll otherwise be the same pathetic man who was kicked off a walkabout tour. Locke is unable to kill Cooper and Cooper makes a snide remark to his son, but Ben knocks Cooper unconscious with his walking stick. Turning to the gathered Others, Ben announces that Locke is not who they thought he was.

2 Days Ago
Sitting alone overlooking the Others' camp, Locke unravels the bandages covering the wound from Cooper biting his hand. He discovers it's been completely healed. Richard Alpert appears, introducing himself to Locke and taking a seat next to him. Alpert reveals to Locke that Ben wanted to embarrass him in front of the Others, that Ben knew he wouldn't kill his own father. When word got back to the Others that there was a man on the plane with a broken spine that could suddenly walk again, people became excited because that could only happen to someone who was extremely special. Ben, however, doesn't want anyone to think Locke's special. Alpert is revealing this information to Locke because Ben has been wasting their time with novelties like fertility problems and they're looking for someone to remind them that they're on the island for more important reasons. He wants Locke to find his purpose and the only way to do that is for Cooper to die. Since he knows Locke won't do it, he gives Locke a dossier on James "Sawyer" Ford and suggests he be the one to kill Cooper.

1 Day Ago
Locke wakes up to find the Others packing up and preparing to leave. He finds Ben and learns the Others are moving, but Ben has decided Locke isn't accompanying them. He is to stay behind with Cooper, but they'll leave a trail that Locke would be able to track. However, Ben warns Locke to not follow them unless he's carrying Cooper's dead body on his back.

Notes

Mysteries

• Where and what is the "old place" Ben is leading the Others to?
• What is Rousseau planning to do with the dynamite?
• What is it that Juliet wants Jack to tell Kate?

Answers

• Anthony Cooper, Locke's father, is the real Sawyer. (1x08 - Confidence Man)
• Penelope found the general location of the island. (2x23 - Live Together, Die Alone)
• Anthony Cooper is really on the island. (3x13 - The Man from Tallahassee)
• Locke's hand was bandaged because Cooper had bitten him. (3x15 - Left Behind)
• The Others went to a clearing with an ancient column. (3x15 - Left Behind)
• The helicopter pilot's name is Naomi Dorrit, and she claims she was sent by Penelope Widmore to look for Desmond. (3x17 - Catch-22)
• The Oceanic plane crashed into the sea near Bali and is lying in an ocean trench about 4 miles deep. This, and the fact that all passengers are still on board, is based on video footage from underwater robots. (3x18 - D.O.C.)

The Cursed Numbers

• The Oceanic plane is said to be lying in an ocean trench 4 miles deep.
• Ben refers to how Cooper through Locke out of an 8-story window.

Scrutiny

• Bali: Naomi claims the wreckage of Oceanic flight 815 was found in an ocean trench off the coast of Bali. This seems very unlikely, considering Bali is in nearly the opposite direction of Oceanic flight 815's Sydney-Los Angeles flight path. The Oceanic pilot also claimed they were turning back to Fiji before they crashed, so it's assumed the pilot knew he was east of Sydney and relatively near Fiji rather than west of Sydney and near Bali.
• What's in a Name?: Among the aliases Cooper claimed to have gone by, one is "Alan Seward". However, in "The Man from Tallahassee", Cooper went by the name "Adam Seward", not "Alan Seward". But it may be possible Cooper went by both first names on different cons.
• In Portland after all?: When Sayid switches on the satellite phone, the map that appears on the display shows concentric circles around a point in the northwestern United States. This could be taken to suggest that the phone's signal is originating there.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Sawyer kills Anthony Cooper, a.k.a. Tom Sawyer.
• Locke informs Sawyer that Juliet is a mole.

Characters

• Anthony Cooper is revealed to be Tom Sawyer, the con man responsible for the death of Sawyer's parents.
• Locke is unable to kill his father, so he tricks Sawyer into killing him.
• Sawyer learns that Locke was paralyzed before the crash, but has miraculously healed.

Referbacks

• 1x04 - Walkabout: Ben urges Locke to kill Cooper, referring to how Locke was kicked off his walkabout tour. In the flashback for "Walkabout", Locke was barred from being included on the walkabout tour he paid for.
• 1x16 - Outlaws: Locke refers to the man Sawyer killed in Sydney. In the flashback for "Outlaws", Sawyer killed a man who he believed was the real Sawyer. Locke also refers to the murder-suicide Sawyer's father committed, which is seen in the flashback for "Outlaws".
• 1x18 - Deus Ex Machina: When Locke hesitates in killing his father, Ben remarks that it's because he thinks there could still be a reasonable explanation as to why his father stole his kidney. In the flashback of "Deus Ex Machina", Cooper conned Locke out of one of his kidneys.
• 3x04 - Every Man for Himself: Locke tries to convince Sawyer to kill Ben, reminding Sawyer of how Ben beat him, tortured him and humiliated him. In "Every Man for Himself", Ben beat Sawyer unconscious, had a needle plunged into his chest conned him into believing a pacemaker had been implanted.
• 3x05 - The Cost of Living: Sharing a meal with Juliet, Jack asks her if she misses cheeseburgers yet. In "The Cost of Living", Juliet brought a cheeseburger to Jack inside his cell.
• 3x11 - Enter 77: Sawyer refers to Locke returning from his "blow-up-everything-that-could-get-us-off-the-island" tour. In "Enter 77", Locke blew up The Flame, the Others' means of communication with the outside world.
• 3x13 - The Man from Tallahassee: Sawyer refers to Locke returning from his "blow-up-everything-that-could-get-us-off-the-island" tour. In "The Man from Tallahassee", Locke blew up the Others' submarine. While talking with Ben, Locke refers back to Ben's talk of a "magic box" in "The Man from Tallahassee". When Locke hesitates in killing Cooper, Ben remarks that it's because he still thinks Cooper might have an explanation as to why he threw Locke out of an 8-story window. This happened in the flashback for "The Man from Tallahassee".
• 3x17 - Catch-22: While talking with Naomi, Sayid refers to her helicopter crashing. In "Catch-22", Naomi's helicopter crashed while traveling over the island.
• 3x18 - D.O.C.: Ben listens to the recording Juliet made while at The Staff. In "D.O.C.", Juliet made the recording after determining Sun's date of conception.

Trivia

The Show

• Not a Hunter: In "Further Instructions", Eddie told Locke that he is not a murderer. To prove the point, Locke cannot kill Cooper, even though Cooper tried to kill him.

Behind the Scenes

• Location, Location, Location: The Others' camp is located at Hakipu'u Valley on Kualoa Ranch, a 4,000 acre working cattle ranch in Kaaawa, HI.

Allusions and References

• Tarzan: Sawyer refers to Locke as "Tarzan". Tarzan is a fictional character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs and first appeared in a 1912 novel entitled Tarzan of the Apes. He is the son of a British Lord and Lady who were marooned on the coast of Africa by mutineers. His parents died when he was an infant, but he was raised by Great Apes. The character has appeared in twenty-three sequels to the original novel, and numerous films, television shows, comics and other media.
• Tom Sawyer: Tom Sawyer is the juvenile protagonist of a number of novels by the American writer Mark Twain. In one of the best-known chapters from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Tom tricks a number of people into doing his work (painting a fence) for him. In this episode, Locke tricks Sawyer into killing Cooper for him.
• Naomi Dorrit: The protagonist of Charles Dickens' novel Little Dorrit is called Amy Dorrit. The novel is a satirical criticism of social inequality, inefficient government offices and the institution of debtors' prisons.

Memorable Moments

• Sawyer finally gets his revenge on the man who ruined his life.