The survivors of a plane crash are stranded in a mysterious, remote tropical island in the South Pacific. Among the survivors there is Jack, a doctor, Kate, a former prisoner, Charlie, a rock star, Sayid, an Iraqi military man and John Locke, a mysterious man who used to be paralyzed before the crash but is miraculously cured after the crash.

In this episode, "The Long Con", two months have already passed. Sawyer has almost died after being shot by "the others", the mysterious people that inhabit the island. John Locke and Jack are in charge of the survivors and have stashed a bunch of rifles and guns in a hatch in order to avoid trouble. Sawyer, tired of taking orders, tricks John Locke to hide the guns by telling him that Jack is planning to use them to attack "the others". Locke hides them and Sawyer steals them. While Jack is having an argument with Locke about him hiding the guns, Sawyer fires a shot in the air and interrupts them. He talks to everybody: he is done taking orders, he has the guns now and he is the one in charge.