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"Every Man for Himself" is the fourth episode of Season 3 and the 51st episode overall in the series. Sawyer's rebellious attitude causes Ben and the Others to conjure a plan to keep him in check. At the beach, Desmond starts to mysteriously seek certain items for some kind of construction.
Synopsis
Flashback
Sawyer in prison
This episode is centered around Sawyer, in prison, after he conned Cassidy. It begins with him fighting in a ring with a fellow inmate, and he wins the match. As they walk back to their jail cells, he sees a man beating up another inmate; his friend tells him it's Munson recently jailed for stealing 10 million dollars from the government. Sawyer wins Munson's trust after he predicts the Warden will try and take his money and use his wife against him.
When Munson meets with Lila, his wife, Sawyer meets with Cassidy and is very cruel and abrupt with her, even after she throws down a picture of a baby. The infant is Clementine, Sawyer and Cassidy's daughter.
Clementine's picture
Sawyer leaves angrily, but later he betrays Munson and tells the Warden where the cash is. He had told Munson never to get attached because you'll only get hurt because of it. The last six years of his sentence are commuted, and when asked where to put his commission for giving up the information, Sawyer tells Treasury Agent Freedman to put it in a bank in Albuquerque under the name of Clementine Phillips.
At the Hydra
Jack begins the episode with confronting Juliet about the conflicting authorities within the Others. Juliet insists there is a common authority, and it is not Ben who makes the decisions; however, this is proven doubtful when Ben demands that she come quickly to assist the group returning with Colleen, who was critically wounded by Sun.
Sawyer and Ben fight in the cage
Sawyer realizes that it's Colleen who has been shot, so Pickett might be preoccupied with concern for her. He decides to strike back against his captors and plan an escape. His idea is to move the water pipe leading to the trough and connect the electricity from the warning button to the water which leads outside the cell, in order to electrocute himself and the Other standing in the puddle which he has created. As Ben edges ever closer to the puddle, Sawyer considers his chances. Ben asks Sawyer how old he is (at first Sawyer says 32... then admits to being 35) and how much he weighs (Sawyer says around 180). When Ben steps into the water, Sawyer grabs him and pokes the button several times, but there is no charge. Ben tells him they turned it off. Ben then proceeds to beat Sawyer with a collapsible baton to the point of unconsciousness.
Tom and Matthew stand over Sawyer, about to inject him
Sawyer reawakens; he is restrained upon a table. As he regains consciousness he can hear Tom discussing with Ben the fact that for the past two days they have been "blind" and that the communications have been down. Two Others named Jason and Matthew come and stand over him while Tom and Ben watch. Sawyer starts yelling, and then one of the two men tells him to bite down on a stick, "for the pain". Sawyer starts to panic when an other squirts liquid out of a huge needle. The two lean over Sawyer, and whilst he's screaming through the stick, Jason tells Matthew to "just do it how they do in the movie." During this, Jack can hear Sawyer's screams through the supposedly broken intercom in his cell.
The white bunny
Sawyer reawakens once more; Tom lays a cage containing a white bunny with the number 8 on its back upon his chest. As Sawyer begins to question what's going on, Ben begins to furiously shake the cage, frightening the bunny, which panics, then falls still. Ben tells Sawyer the bunny had a pacemaker implant in him, and that so does Sawyer. He is told if his heart rate approaches 140, his heart will explode; Ben attaches a watch to Sawyer, which monitors his heart rate. It will begin beeping if Sawyer's pulse goes over 125bpm. As insurance, Ben declares that the same fate will befall Kate if Sawyer misbehaves or tells Kate what happened to him.
Sawyer is brought back to his cage, and Kate is given some new clothes. When Kate begins to change clothing (presenting an unclothed back to Sawyer); he cannot avoid interest, and naturally his pulse-monitor starts beeping. Kate questions him regarding the beeping, and Sawyer does his best to avoid the question. He douses himself with cold water in an effort to lower his pulse and angrily shrugs her queries off.
Jack being transported to the operating room
Jack is listening to idle gossip from Others coming through the intercom when Juliet rushes in, her clothes spattered with blood, to ask him to help save Colleen. On the way to the surgery, a hooded Jack is marched past the Hydra's bear cages while klaxons blare loudly to drown out Kate and Sawyer's calls to Jack. Despite this, Jack appears to turn his head toward Kate and Sawyer's shouts.
Ben objects to Jack entering the surgery. When Juliet explains that Jack can help because he's a doctor, Ben starts to say, "Well this isn't why...", but Juliet cuts him off by saying, "Do you want her to die?". While scrubbing up before entering the surgery, Jack sees some X-rays on the wall. Ben, Tom, and Pickett are watching from an observation room. Jack and Juliet try to save Colleen, but she suffers a cardiac arrest and Jack asks for a defibrillator. Juliet tells him that this has not happened before, and that they do not have the batteries for the defibrillator again. Jack immediately goes into emergency mode, but he cannot save her.
Kate escaping her cage
In a fury, Pickett goes outside to the bear cages and attacks Sawyer, who doesn't fight back. Pickett brutally assaults Sawyer in front of Kate's cell, demanding to know if Kate loves Sawyer, repeatedly punching Sawyer in the face until he is very raw and bloody. Kate, sobbing, throws her arms through the cell bars and clutches Sawyer from behind. She finally cries she does love him, and begs him to stop. Pickett leaves.
Ben has left Jack handcuffed to the table where Colleen's body lays, purposely. However, Juliet arrives. She tells him that she is a fertility doctor, and has not experienced death much before. Jack says she couldn't have done anything - and Juliet asks if he's saying that to make her feel better. He scoffs that he doesn't care about making her feel better. When Juliet goes to unhandcuff him, he tells her that the X-rays outside are of a man in his 40s with a large tumor on his spine. Jack says he is a spinal surgeon, and knows he is there to remove that tumor in the X-ray. He asks who is he really there to save.
Kate manages to escape by squeezing between the bars in the top of her cell. She is disturbed that Sawyer will not talk about what they did to him, and demands they escape together. Sawyer tells her to go alone, but she will not, trying to break his lock. When Sawyer says "if you really love me, run" --- Kate tells him that she only said that to make Pickett stop hitting him. As she climbs back into her cage, Sawyer screams "Every man for himself!" Kate explains her decision to stay: "Live together, die alone."
Jack confronting Juliet about the X-rays
Later, Ben wakes up Sawyer and takes him for a walk. Sawyer makes a joke about Ben killing the rabbit, and jokes that Ben would like Of Mice and Men for its puppy-killing. The further they climb up a ridge, Sawyer's heart monitor goes off, and he is uncomfortable with this. Sawyer asks if Ben brought him up to the mountain just to kill him. Ben stops him and tells him that he doesn't have a pacemaker in him. He brings out the bunny labeled 8 and tells him the bunny only had a sedative and isn't dead, because they aren't killers. Sawyer tells him that it could be another bunny, and Ben agrees, yet showing him the rabbit was not the point of this walk.
Sawyer discovering a shocking revelation
As they climb over the hill, Sawyer is stunned to see another island across from the one they are on. Ben announces that the nearby island is Sawyer's island, and that he cannot escape from his cell, because he will have nowhere to go. Ben also quotes from Of Mice and Men, saying that even men get lonely and mentions Sawyer only gave in when he threatened Kate and perhaps Sawyer should be aware he's only trying to distance himself from her, when he really does need her. Ben tells him to return to his cage, and Sawyer, unsettled, follows.
At the survivors' camp
Desmond tells Claire she needs to move down the beach, so he can fix her roof. Claire insists it is fine, as does Charlie, who says he can fix it himself. Desmond reluctantly agrees and walks off.
Hurley looks on in amazement as Desmond's intuition proves accurate
He then later sees Paulo hitting golf balls into the water and asks to borrow a golf club from him. Desmond constructs a large tower, with the club at its top. Hurley asks if it's art, and Desmond says no, that it's an experiment. He also turns down the fruit salad Hurley offers. Just as Hurley is about to leave, Desmond suggests he wait a moment.
A spontaneous rainstorm falls on them. Claire's roof is broken, and water splashes over Aaron. Claire and Charlie sweep him up and cover him, with Charlie staring at Desmond.
Just then, a lightning flash occurs, and the lightning strikes the tower, making it a lightning rod. The wires that Desmond used appear to be burning. Charlie first looks around in shock, but then stares confusedly at Desmond.
Trivia
- Tom told Ben that it has been two days since the sky turned purple and the comms (or communication system) between the Others are down and inoperative. This is the 3rd reference to a purple sky: first by Claire, second by Hurley (talks to Desmond in "Further Instructions"), and now by Tom.
- This is the second episode to draw its title from a line from the speech delivered by Jack to the survivors in "White Rabbit": "Every man for himself is not going to work. If we can't live together, we're all going to die alone."
- In response to Sawyer's "It's every man for himself," Kate simply states, "Live together, die alone." This occurred directly after she said that she only stated she loved him to save him.
- Pacemakers do not work the way Ben described. Rather than applying a "kick-start" to the heart when the heart is excited, pacemakers deliver a small shock during every cardiac cycle to regulate heart rate. Implantable defibrillators do work in a similar manner to what Ben described, responding to various types of cardiac arrhythmia with a high voltage shock. Implanting either device is a delicate procedure requiring several specialized devices and specific training. Immediately following surgery, most patients will be able to feel the device both from the inside and through the skin.
- Jack hears voices through the intercom three times:
- (1) Christian Shephard's voice saying, "Let it go", echoing his advice to Jack about Sarah. Juliet suggests this is a hallucination.
- (2) Sawyer's shouted protests just before a large hypodermic syringe is plunged into his chest.
- (3) An apparent discussion between Others, just before Juliet asks for Jack's help treating Colleen.
- Speakers are shown on the background when Ben and Sawyer goes up to see the Island's view.
- The bank Kate helps rob in "Whatever the Case May Be" is located in Albuquerque.
- Juliet tells Jack that as a fertility doctor, she is not used to death. However, in DOC, she tells Sun she has lost 9 patients.
Cultural references
| Cultural references (direct references only) |
|---|
| Art • Automobiles • Games • History • Literary works • Movies and TV • Music • Philosophy • Religion and ideologies • Science |
- Sawyer calls Munson "Costanza" in reference to the Seinfeld character George Costanza.
- Sawyer calls Munson "Murgatroyd" in reference to the cartoon character Snagglepuss, who in turn is a reference to Bert Lahr's character the Cowardly Lion in the 1939 film version of the Wizard of Oz.
- Sawyer calls Pickett "Chinatown" in reference to the injured and bandaged nose of Jack Nicholson's character Jake Gittes in the 1974 Roman Polanski film Chinatown.
- One of the Others stabs/injects Sawyer in the sternum "like in that movie". The movie is most likely Pulp Fiction where two men have to inject a woman with adrenaline using a very big needle.
- The cartoon Jack is watching is entitled "The Blue Danube".
- The white bunny numbered 8 is almost certainly a reference to Stephen King's On Writing. King describes a caged white rabbit with the number 8 painted on it as an example of the power of words to transmit pictures and ideas.
- Both Ben and Sawyer reference Of Mice and Men.
- The heart rate monitor Sawyer is made to wear is a Suunto (most probably model Advizor), and is labeled as manufactured by "pacelabs 514". "pacelabs 514" is really a "Spacelabs 514" (U.S. Patent #4715385) which is a common heart monitor that was manufactured as early as 1981.
- In the prison scene, there is a man in the background with a very odd Left hand [1]. Another weird hand is seen in The Glass Balerina(behind Kate) [http://lostdude.com/lostpics/ManBehindKate.Hand/ManBehindKate.htm
].. Here's a zoom in of that [2] Don't Know what it means.
Recurring themes
| Recurring themes |
|---|
| Animals • Black and white • Character connections • Children • Coincidence • Death • Deceptions and cons • Dreams • Economics • Electromagnetism • Eyes • Fate versus free will • Games • Good and bad people • Imprisonment • Isolation • Leadership • Life and death • Literary works • Mirrors • Missing body parts • Nicknames • The Numbers • Pairings • Parapsychology • Parent issues • Pregnancies • Psychology • Rain • Redemption • Relationships • Religion • Revenge • Salvation • Secrets |
- Sawyer conned Munson into letting him help him hide his millions; the location of the money is given to the Warden Harris and Agent Freedman in exchange for Sawyer's freedom. (Deceptions and cons)
- Sawyer denied fathering Clementine, but arranged for money to be left to her in a bank anonymously. (Parent issues)
- Jack is unable to save Colleen's life -- "she was dead before you put her on the table." Later, Jack is purposely forced to wait while handcuffed to the gurney with the dead body. (Life and death)
- Juliet says the crash cart is broken, wasn't previously needed, because "we haven't had anything happen before." She later says "I'm not used to death." (Life and death)
- Pickett wants to kill Sawyer. (Life and death)
- The rabbit is apparently killed but Ben later tells Sawyer it was only unconscious. (Life and death)
- Munson's 10 Million was hidden in a store quick facility off 441 in unit 23c. (The Numbers)
- Sawyer's prisoner ID number was 840, and Munson's was 248. (The Numbers)
- It is raining when Kate slips through the bars of her cage. (Rain)
- A storm passes by, and lightning hits Desmond's lightning rod. (Rain)