LOST Rewatch: Outlaws

The episode starts with a flashback of Sawyer remembering how his father killed Sawyer’s mother before committing suicide. He wakes up and sees a boar, chasing it into the jungle, where Sawyer hears the whispers.

Later, Sayid laughs at the fact that boar took Sawyer’s tarp. Sawyer says “Laugh it up Muhammad” to Sayid. But then he asks what Sayid heard in the jungle, and what the whispers said. We later hear the whispers, and one of them says “It’ll come back around.”

In another flashback, Sawyer is told where to find a man who is allegedly the person who robbed his parents, leading to their deaths – running a shrimp truck in Sydney, Australia. But it turns out that Hibbs, who told him, lied about who the man was. It was just someone who owed Hibbs money. The dying man’s last words are, “It’ll come back around.”

John Locke tells a story about a death in his family, and the belief that an animal is the presence of a person who had died.

Sawyer met Christian in a bar. Christian said that Australia is called “Down Under” because it’s as close as you can get to hell without getting burned. He also talks about fate, saying that that’s why the Red Sox will never win the World Series. He says that he is proud and grateful to his son for what he did for him – it took more courage than he has. He says he could fix everything with a phone call, tell him everything, but he doesn’t because he’s weak. He asks Sawyer whether the business he has in Australia will ease his suffering. When he tells Christian it will, then Christian says he should go do whatever he has to do, if he doesn’t want to end up like him.

Sayid talks to Charlie about killing someone – even someone who deserved it. That will still be with you the rest of your life.

Sawyer eventually confronts the boar, looks it in the eye – and decides not to kill it.

The episode ends with Jack using the expression his dad used to “that’s why the Sox will never win the Series.” When Sawyer asks him about it, Jack explains that it is something his father used to say, to blame fate rather than himself for things. Sawyer realizes that Christian was Jack’s father, but doesn’t tell Jack about meeting him.

One of the things that seemed to come most out of the blue in the final season was the suggestion that the whispers were the voices of the dead who couldn’t move on. But I had never really managed to catch what the whispers said, and looking at transcripts had not really helped. But that would fit with this episode’s depiction of the whispers uttering the final words of a man who might still be unable to move on, with this scene perhaps freeing not only him but also Sawyer/James, his murderer.