The Brig (2 May 2007)

Locke tells Sawyer that he needs to come with him to kill Ben. But the man Locke wants him to kill is actually his father--who also happens to be a figure from Sawyer's past.

Director:

Eric Laneuville

Writers:

Jeffrey Lieber (creator), J.J. Abrams (creator),

Stars:

Naveen Andrews, Henry Ian Cusick, Emilie de Ravin

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Naveen Andrews	...	Sayid Jarrah
Henry Ian Cusick	...	Desmond Hume
Emilie de Ravin	...	Claire Littleton (credit only)
Michael Emerson	...	Ben Linus
Matthew Fox	...	Jack Shephard
Jorge Garcia	...	Hugo 'Hurley' Reyes
Josh Holloway	...	James 'Sawyer' Ford
Daniel Dae Kim	...	Jin Kwon
Yunjin Kim	...	Sun Kwon (credit only)
Evangeline Lilly	...	Kate Austen
Elizabeth Mitchell	...	Juliet Burke
Dominic Monaghan	...	Charlie Pace
Terry O'Quinn	...	John Locke
Nestor Carbonell	...	Richard Alpert
Mira Furlan	...	Danielle Rousseau

Storyline

Locke comes back to the survivor's camp and lures Sawyer, telling him that he had kidnapped Ben and wants Sawyer to kill him. He brings Sawyer to the old vessel, the Black Rock, and locks him in the brig with his father. After an ironic conversation, Sawyer realizes that Anthony Cooper is the man that deceived his mother and responsible for the destruction of his family. More of Locke's three days with the Others at their new camp is shown. There Ben urged Lock to prove his worth to them by killing his father, whom they brought to the island. But Locke does not have the heart to do it and plots to have Sawyer kill Anthony Cooper for him. Meanwhile, Desmond, Hurley, Charlie and Jin secretly bring the mysterious and wounded woman, Naomi, back to the survivors camp and hide in Hurley's tent. Hurley tells the secret to Sayid so he tries to fix her radio to contact her vessel which lies about 80 miles away. But Kate sees the device and reveals the secret to Jake and Juliet. Locke releases ...

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Plot Keywords:

trust | choking | revenge | father son relationship | murder | 

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 May 2007 (USA)

Filming Locations:

O'ahu, Hawaii, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bad Robot, Touchstone Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

43 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

James 'Sawyer' Ford: Why did you throw Locke out a window?
Anthony Cooper: He was becoming a nuisance. I conned him into giving me one of his kidneys. He never got over it.
James 'Sawyer' Ford: Conned?
Anthony Cooper: Yes sir, conned.
James 'Sawyer' Ford: What's your name?
Anthony Cooper: Hmm?
James 'Sawyer' Ford: Your name.
Anthony Cooper: A conman goes by many names friend. I've been Alan Seward, Anthony Cooper, Ted MacLaren, Tom Sawyer, Louis Jackson, and Paul...
James 'Sawyer' Ford: Tom Sawyer.
Anthony Cooper: I was young and Huck Finn was taken. And the ladies loved that one. Made me charming.
[...]

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Crazy Credits

The producers gratefully acknowledge the cooperation of the people of Hawaii and their Aloha spirit.

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Connections

References Tarzan the Ape Man (1932)

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Soundtracks

"End Title"
(uncredited)
Written by Michael Giacchino
Performed by The Hollywood Studio Symphony

User Reviews

Brilliant, one of the best episodes of "Lost"

"The Brig" is absolutely brilliant and really one of the most satisfying and memorable pieces of television I've ever seen. While the beach camp story wallops forward leading into the now inevitable confrontation with the Others Locke gets Sawyer and Anthony Cooper in the same room for one of the most emotionally explosive and fascinating scenes in the entire series. The on-island flashbacks are the best of their kind, revealing the bare essentials of Locke's character and developing his controversial (among fans) relationship with Ben.

All the drama is nicely balanced by a healthy dose of humor in the episode. The beach camp story is generally far lighter in tone than the pitch-black brig scenes (bar the hilarious cameo by Rousseau) and the flashbacks, but there's some especially good comedy in this episode. You simply have to love Hurley and Jin's late night interaction with Sawyer while they were guarding the tent Naomi was in. As expected from a Damon Lindelof/Carlton Cuse script even the potentially bad sections are written very well. The closest thing to a flaw in this episode is Kate's snitching, but it really hasn't bothered me at all on repeat viewings, and the emotional impact of the episode is strong enough to overcome it anyhow.

Director Eric Laneuville is up there with Jack Bender as far as directors on this show, and on TV in general, actually, go, and there's some especially beautiful shots in the flashbacks, and a real maturity to his approach in shooting the brig scenes. The performances are absolutely phenomenal as well, this might be Josh Holloway's best episode and the rest of the cast don't disappoint either, especially Terry O'Quinn's beautifully understated performance. There is such a haunting sadness to his behavior here which works far better than an exaggerated display of anger or tears would have.