At the age of eight, James Ford's parents were swindled out of their life savings by a conman who went by the alias "Sawyer". Sawyer slept with James' mother and when his father found out, he killed her and then himself, an event that James witnessed firsthand. James wrote this letter to Sawyer, hoping to deliver it to him personally. James became a confidence man himself and adopted the name "Sawyer" at age 19, attempting to use the same trick as his nemesis in order to obtain the money needed to pay off some men. He was persistent in tracking down the original Sawyer in order to have his vengeance, and to give him the letter he wrote as a child. Despite his vendetta against the original Sawyer, James became the very man he had been hunting.
The letter, as read by Kate in the episode "Confidence Man", says the following:
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"Dear Mr. Sawyer, You don't know who I am but I know who you are and I know what you done. You had sex with my mother and then you stole my dad's money all away. So he got angry and he killed my mother and then he killed himself, too. All I know is your name. But one of these days I'm going to find you and I'm going to give you this letter so you'll remember what you done to me. You killed my parents, Mr. Sawyer." (episode transcript) |
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When Locke incarcerated his own father Anthony Cooper in the Black Rock, he also brought Sawyer to meet him. Sawyer discovered that Cooper was the original "Sawyer". Sawyer gave Cooper the letter and made him read it. Cooper read part of the letter, but refused to finish it. He then tore it up, prompting Sawyer to murder him. ("The Brig")
As a boy in 1976, young Sawyer (then James Ford) is seen writing the letter at his parents' funeral. His pen runs out of ink, and Jacob introduces himself and gives him a working pen. After he leaves, Sawyer's uncle Doug arrives and reads what James is writing and tells him he shouldn't seek revenge but move on because, "What's done is done." He makes James promise he won't finish writing the letter and James agrees. ("The Incident, Part 1")
Trivia
- Sawyer's letter is included as a prop in the Sawyer action figure. In this version, the phrase "you had sex with my mother" is changed to "you slept with my mother".
See also
- Letters - disambiguation page listing other letters in Lost
