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The Long Con is the 37th episode of Lost. It is the thirteenth episode of the second season. The episode was directed by Roxann Dawson, and written by Leonard Dick and Steven Maeda. It first aired on February 8, 2006 on ABC. The character of James "Sawyer" Ford is featured in the episode's flashbacks.

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Plot

Jack and Locke secure all the weapons, medicine, and Virgin Mary statues in the storeroom. Jack puts the six guns in the U.S. Marshal's suitcase, along with the key, in the gun cache. The two agree that no one else should be privy to the combination, and that each one will not gain access without the other being present.

Sawyer remarks that he and Charlie are now the two most hated people on the island. Charlie replies by telling Sawyer he ought to be more concerned about Jack ransacking his tent. Sawyer confronts Jack, who explains that he is simply returning the pain killers which Sawyer stole. Sawyer replies that the pain killers were actually stolen from his "stash" while he was on the raft. Sawyer also points out to Kate that Jack is now confiding in Ana-Lucía rather than her.

Ana-Lucía asks Jack if Locke gave him the combination for the guns, and he responds that he did. Ana feels that the survivors "aren't scared enough" and that they all feel they are safe. Ana then asks Jack for the combination, but when Jack hesitates, Ana tells him she was just kidding.

While Kate is reading to Sawyer, he mentions the army that Jack and Ana-Lucía are forming. Meanwhile, in an attempt to assuage Sayid's grief over the death of Shannon, Hurley attempts to connect with Sayid. Hurley tells Sayid that he went to Rose and Bernard's tent, and got their radio from the Arrow Hatch. Hurley also has discovered that Bernard was the one who picked up Boone's transmission from the Nigerian Drug Plane. He asks Sayid if he can boost the power somehow to help them send another signal, but Sayid says that it would not work.

Sun is working in her garden when she hears a noise coming from the foliage. Suddenly, a burlap bag is put over her head and she is dragged away. Sawyer and Kate hear her screams, and run to her, only to find her unconscious. The two bring her back to camp, and the castaways fear the Others are back. Jack determines that Sun will be fine. Jin, however, demands a gun to seek revenge. Despite Jack's wishes to wait for Sun to regain consciousness before an investigation, Sawyer and Kate return to where Sun was attacked for an inspection. They find the burlap bag, and given that it is a different make from the bag used by "Mr. Friendly" on Kate, they deduce that one of the survivors may have attempted the kidnapping. Kate suspects Ana-Lucía, who she thinks wants to instill fear in the survivors so they will form an army against the Others.

Kate expresses her concerns to Jack, and asks Sawyer to alert Locke that Jack is coming for the guns. Locke decides to move the guns so Jack and Jin can't get at them. Locke leaves Sawyer to "push the button" while he hides the entire arsenal. Jack enters the hatch in search of a gun, but finds the safe empty. Sawyer taunts him and tosses him the pain killers which Jack took from his tent. When Jack confronts Locke about the missing weaponry, Locke defends his actions by pointing out that Jack was about to break their agreement. During this heated discussion, shots ring out and Sawyer enters, wielding an automatic rifle. Sawyer reveals that the incident was an elaborate "long con" to seize the guns and declare himself the "new sheriff in town." Unknown to the rest, the attacker in the garden was Charlie, who agreed to take part in the plot in order to humiliate Locke. Sawyer offers him one of the Virgin Mary statues, but he refuses it. Charlie asks Sawyer how anyone could think of such an ingenius plot, Sawyer remembers his long con of Cassidy for a moment, then replies "I'm not a good person Charlie. I never did a good thing in my life".

Sayid brings Hurley the radio, along with a transmission amplifier to boost the signal. They first pick up the sound of a female french voice speaking, which Sayid assumes is Rousseau's distress transmission, and then they pick up a radio transmission of Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade". Though Hurley initially assumes that they must be close to the transmission source, Sayid explains that, due to radio waves bouncing off ionosphere, shortwave radio signals can potentially travel thousands of miles.

In flashbacks, Sawyer attempts to con a divorced woman named Cassidy. While getting dressed, Sawyer "accidentally" opens a briefcase filled with fake cash bundles made from newspaper. Cassidy, however, sees through the con immediately. She claims that she did not get a significant settlement in the proceedings, and notices that most of the money is newsprint. Cassidy is also intrigued, and asks Sawyer to teach her how to con someone.

The two scheme a jewelery con by overpricing fake goods, and con two men at a gas station. They perpetrate various cons over the ensuing months. Then, however, Cassidy asks if he can teach her how to pull off a "long con", and reveals that she did indeed receive a settlement of $600,000 in her divorce. Sawyer is later at a diner, having lunch with Gordy, his partner. We discover that Sawyer is actually planning to con Cassidy out of her money, and wants to back out, due to his feelings for her. Gordy tells him that he has to continue the con, and threatens both Sawyer's and Cassidy's life if Sawyer doesn't comply.

In the last flashback, Sawyer returns to the house and tells Cassidy to run because Sawyer's partner Gordy is going to kill them, and points to a car outside. He reveals that the "long con" is Cassidy herself, and that he knew about her money from the beginning. He sends her off with the money, packed in a bag. He goes to the car, which turns out to be empty. He then returns to the house and retrieves the real money, which he has concealed while he tricked Cassidy.

Trivia

• One of the books Locke is seen organizing is An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce. The plot of the story concerns a man who survives a hanging and escapes, only to later discover that he did not survive at all, and his escape was actually a hallucination at the time of death.
• The manuscript Hurley is seen reading is called Bad Twin by "Gary Troup", and was published as a tie-in novel by ABC in May, 2006. "Gary Troup" is an anagram for "Purgatory," an oft-speculated theory that has been dismissed several times by the show's creators.
• The song Hurley and Sayid hear over the radio is Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade". Glenn Miller's plane went missing over the English Channel in 1944 and was never found.
• Kate's mother, Diane, appears in the diner scene where Sawyer is meeting Gordy.

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• Lost episodes