If this is a pattern, he's going to quickly become a liability to other people's survival on the island rather than an asset. For practical reasons only tangental to the guy's sheer assholishness, Sayid would have done better to slit his throat than let him go.

::note to self, if ever stranded on an island with Matt, do NOT, under any circumstances, become impractical::

I meant how Sawyer could have rigged a time delay to set off his bottle rocket right after Sayid's rocket went off.

Well, that's where the theory falls apart, and Sayid was too intent on hating Sawyer to think through it that far. He didn't want to.

Crap. I honestly didn't want to be right. Now we, the viewers, are still expected to consider Sawyer as a viable suspect.

Of course, Sawyer could have convinced Scott or Steve to set it off for him.

Probably a stupid question, but now I don't remember it clearly- how many rockets did we see go off, and did we see everyone shoot them? I remember Kate, and then Shannon and New!Girl on the beach. Where did Sawyer's rocket go off in that?

(I'm pretty firmly in the 'Locke causing trouble' camp, but I just cleaned out TiFaux of all but two VM eps, and now I can't check.)

Sayid is pissed off at Sawyer and looking for an excuse to go Lord of the Flies on him. Locke plays into this by quoting MacGuyver at him.

The other possibility, sadly, is that this gets filed in the same folder as "triangulation means locating the source within a triangle".

Kate was in caveland. We only saw Shannon shoot her rocket, and then we saw a rocket go up from where, we assume, Sawyer was standing.

Probably a stupid question, but now I don't remember it clearly- how many rockets did we see go off, and did we see everyone shoot them? I remember Kate, and then Shannon and New!Girl on the beach. Where did Sawyer's rocket go off in that?

Sawyer lit off Kate's. She had run to the Jack-in-the-cave in.

That's right. I remember now.

To be fair, I have read people saying that the triangulation method Sayid used could work. It just uses one more reference point/antenna than was actually necessary to get a bead on the signal.

But yeah, Locke's cigarette fuse theory only works if Sawyer were precognitive and capable of knowing in advance exactly when Sayid's rocket would be going up. Plus, far easier to just not turn the antenna on if he wanted the venture to fail, and then ambush Sayid in the jungle at whatever point suited him best for the personal smackdown.

I'm firmly in the 'Sawyer set off the rocket, and Sayid was too intent on believing on Sawyer's guilt to pay much attention to the illogic' camp.

Hmmm. It also strikes me that, if the island has the power to grant wishes as some of us have theorized, then Sawyer got exactly what he wanted deep down. He's hated by everyone. I mean, obviously, he brought it upon himself by being a fucked-up jackass, but the dude is a con man after all. He could have insinuated himself into others' grace by being a schmoozy charmer if he wished.

Oh, this bit of Cleolinda's recap just killed me:

Kate would like to point out her displeasure with her fist, and punches Sawyer but goooood. Sawyer does not ask Kate if that's all she's got, let's put it that way.