Lost: Outlaws Rewatch

May 8, 2023 9:38 PM - Season 1, Episode 16

Sawyer and Kate chase a boar.

S1E16: Outlaws (Lostpedia | transcript): air date 16th February 2005 • writer Drew Goddard • director Jack Bender • days 29-31 on the island • Sawyer flashbacks

Eye • get under the bed, don’t make a sound • whispers in the jungle • boar took your tarp? • perhaps he wanted to go camping • Hibbs • we both know you ain’t the killing type • I’ve got some revenge to tend to • carte blanche • if you want to drink, you’ve got to play • I never killed a man • drink • drink • peed on my shirt! • Locke’s shaggy dog story • James • Christian in Sawyer’s flashback • some people are just supposed to suffer • you’re not alone; don’t pretend to be • Duckett • it’ll come back around • boar staredown • RAFT • why the Sox will never win the series • no reason

Chris Carabott, IGN: Lost Flashback: "Outlaws" Review

What we have here is an intelligently written series of conversations that deal with revenge, murder and what really happens to a person when they take another human’s life. It’s a clever follow-up to Charlie shooting and killing Ethan last episode and it delves deeper into the psyche of some of the show’s more intriguing characters.

Nate Owens, The Rumpus Room: Re-Lost: Outlaws

The opening scene, where a young James hides from his murderous father, is surprisingly grim. It needs to be, because it helps us understand the depth of Sawyer’s quest for revenge. Sawyer is usually so canny, but his rage clearly blinds him to Hibbs’ trick. And Josh Holloway does a fantastic job of showing that struggle between holding on to bitterness and rage, and understanding that it won’t make him feel better.

Myles McNutt, AV Club: Lost (Classic): “Homecoming”/“Outlaws”

We can draw a distinction here between two separate flashback structures. The “flashback” in “Outlaws” is Sawyer traveling to Australia to hunt down and kill his namesake, who he’s been told is running a Shrimp truck in Sydney—the glimpses of his childhood are nightmares Sawyer has in the episode itself, direct flashbacks he’s haunted by in light of the fact he shot and likely killed an innocent man in his quest for vengeance before getting on Flight 815.

Jeff Jensen, Entertainment Weekly: “Lost”: The price of killing a man

In the aftermath of “Outlaws,” Sawyer’s importance to the larger unfolding drama that is Lost was elevated significantly. He is truly Jack’s analogue — a complicated, tortured soul who is not as evil as everyone thinks, just as complicated, tortured Jack isn’t nearly as good as everyone thinks. I loved Sawyer’s final scene with Jack, spitefully withholding from his rival what he knows about Jack’s dad. It’s a testament to how sympathetic Sawyer has become (and how smug Jack has become) that I didn’t mind seeing Sawyer hurt Jack this way. More so than Kate and Charlie, Sawyer has emerged as Lost‘s most moving and essential redemption story.

Rewatch companion: THE STORM: A Lost Rewatch Podcast - S1, E16: "Outlaws" with Kristin Russo

Dave Gonzalez: “I really like how this storyline doesn’t necessarily go the non-stereotypical route — if you do a lot of money lender/mob stories in your spare time — but I do think this one has the emotional anchor with that opening flashback to make Sawyer sympathetic. Both in the flashback and I think more on the island. Since he has been, you know, flirting with how much he wants people to interact with him in the past couple of episodes.”
Joanna Robinson: “This is a much more human character than the guy who’s like: I’m going to lie about whether or not I have someone’s inhaler just to make sure everyone hates me.”
Dave Gonzalez: “I’m gonna steal a diary just so I have it.”
Joanna Robinson: “Yeah, they visit those themes in this episode, because Jack mentions that idea: you want people to hate you, or you think you’re destined to have people hate you or whatever, just like my father, something like that. But that’s more natural; the way Sawyer behaves in this episode is more identifiably human to me than the early version of him. And you know, that’s all part of them trying to peel back the onion on these characters; we get sort of these inhumane versions before we peel back the onion and get the more human core of them. But I like where we are on the Sawyer trajectory in this episode. Because it’s not like Charlie, the arc is not complete, because he still at the end of the episode doesn’t tell Jack. If Sawyer was like, everything’s fixed and I have healed my flashback wounds, then he would have been like: hey doc, guess what, I met your dad in a bar. But he’s not there yet. And so with one hand he gives the gun back, and with the other hand he withholds his information. He’s on the path but he’s not done with his journey. And that's a great place to be for a character like Sawyer.”

“Well, looks like we got something in common, after all.”

L O S T

posted by We had a deal, Kyle (4 comments total)

Currently streaming in the US on Hulu (subscription) and Freevee (free with ads); in the UK on Disney+; and available for purchase just about everywhere. Next episode will post mid-week.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 9:42 PM on May 8, 2023

This is the return to form, I think; what a great episode.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 1:45 PM on May 9, 2023

I love the drinking game, but I push back on the idea that Kate's never had the opportunity to play.
posted by Night_owl at 6:19 AM on May 10, 2023

That's kind of the seams of the writing showing though, isn't it? They need to explain the game to the audience; and thus it's necessary for one character to explain it to the other. It doesn't ring true for Kate, but I think they paper over that gap by having her immediately zing Sawyer with "never implied that I went to college".

It's such a great scene; I think making the "takes a drink" responses no-verbal really makes it work, you get pulled into the rhythm of it, and then boom: Sawyer changes the game by making his question a confession.

Or at least that's mostly how I read it. But Sawyer never reveals information that he doesn't want others to have; so it is at least partway also him probing Kate for information that he already suspects the answer to.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 6:28 PM on May 17, 2023