Games People Play

The other night I was watching my favourite show, Lost, the best show on television, and I had a Killing Me Softly moment.

I've always known that songs can do that to you, but this is the first time a TV show did it to me.

* * *
A boar has twice attacked Sawyer, causing Sawyer to believe that the boar is out to get him; that it's personal. Sawyer decides to hunt the boar, but tracking is not one of his skills. Kate offers to help, on the condition that Sawyer grant her "carte blanche," that is, anytime she wants anything from his stash, he has to give it to her, no questions asked. He agrees. Darkness falls, no boar has been found, and so Sawyer and Kate make camp for the night.

Sawyer cracks open a tiny plane-size liquor bottle, and drinks from it.

Kate: "Where'd you get that?"

Sawyer: "Plane."

Kate: "Got any more?"

Sawyer: "I got lots more. Of everything."

Kate: "Are you going to give me one?"

Sawyer laughs. Considers.

Sawyer: "All right, Sassafras, you want a drink, you gotta play."

Kate: "Play what?"

Sawyer: "I never."

Kate: "What's that?"

Sawyer: "Call it a way to get to know each other better. For example, I know you never been to college."

Kate: "What makes you say that?"

Sawyer: "'Cause if you had, you'd know about I never."

Kate: "All right, how do you play?"

Sawyer: "It's simple. You say I never, then you finish the sentence. If it's something you did, you drink. If it's something you didn't do, you don't drink."

Kate: "Sounds complicated."

Sawyer: "Learn by example: I never kissed a man. Now you drink, because you have kissed a man."

Sawyer is smirking as he says this, because Kate kissed him in last week's episode. Under duress. At his request, as part of a bargain. But still.

Kate drinks.

Kate: "I never implied I'd been to college."

Sawyer drinks.

Sawyer: "I never been to Disneyland."

Kate shrugs.

Sawyer: "Now that's just sad!"

Kate: "I never wore pink."

Sawyer drinks. Kate laughs.

Kate: "I knew it!"

Sawyer: "I never voted Democrat."

Kate: "I never voted."

Sawyer drinks.

Sawyer: "I never been married."

Kate hesitates, then drinks. Sawyer is surprised.

Kate: "It didn't last very long. I never blamed a boar for all my problems."

Sawyer drinks.

Sawyer: "I never pretended I cared about having carte blanche because I wanted to spend time with someone."

Kate drinks. They sit in silence for a while.

Sawyer: "I never killed a man."

Kate hesitates, then drinks. Sawyer hesitates, then drinks.

Sawyer: "Well, looks like we have something in common after all."

* * *
It's more than just him calling her Sassafras.

* * *
In the next story, Postmodern Sass and Ned's Atomic Dustbin reflect on Jack's recent vacation. Later, when season three of Lost begins, Postmodern Sass wonders if she's falling out of love with her favourite show.