Sawyer reminds me of a guy Peter Berg told a story about on "Dinner For Five", a friend with, as he put it, authority issues. They were on location in South America and were stopped by bandits who made them get out of their cars and held them up at gunpoint. His friend refused to put his hands up when told, because he didn't want to do what they told him, even though he could have gotten himself and his friends killed. Berg said he and all the other guys were hissing and swearing at the guy to do what the guys with automatic weapons pointed at them said, but he didn't want "To give them the satisfaction." He finally put his hands up..about halfway.

For some guys, death or pain is less important than feeling in control, even if that feeling is not based in reality.

Evidence ita is a judgmental bitch:

They should have shot his ass. Just his, and left the rest of them alone.

Yeah, ita, that's how I felt--that's why I remembered the story.

Well, maybe not should have, but he was a self preservation instinct-deprived fool for not assuming that they would. There are things worth dying for, but IMHO avoiding being bossed around to the extent of raising one's hands isn't one of them.

From what I've heard, smack withdrawal is rough for a few days (Charlie should be pining for a pair or two of unsoiled jeans in his size now), but then basically over, and it's nowhere near as difficult as alcohol withdrawal. He'd still be psychologically addicted, but not suffering physical withdrawal.

Plus, we know he had been rationing his smack for two weeks, tapering off by force of will. I wonder if that has anything to do with how much withdrawl one gets. I mean as opposed to someone who is using ever increasing does until they have to be hospitalized, I guess.

I gather that it can be tapered to lessen symptoms to some extent. Lots of junkies don't actually take it enough to become physically addicted in the first place.

They also do methadone substitution just like with morphine addiction.

There are things worth dying for, but IMHO avoiding being bossed around to the extent of raising one's hands isn't one of them.

Exactly. This is how I felt about Sawyer and the torture, since the hurt me because I'm bad angle doesn't hold up for me WRT to his motivations. So, yeah, Robin, I see why Sawyer puts you in mind of that guy, and I think I'll go with that.

[ETA: Oh, never mind about this part.]

Why did Sawyer not give it up and admit he didn't have the inhalers before he got pieces of wood jammed under his fingernails?

the more i thought about it, the more i thought that there were more motives behind him just taking the torture. i do think he wants to be punished, but i also think he wanted to teach them a lesson. he knows that they think they have this moral high ground when it comes to him and i think he wanted to show them(and Kate) that they weren't as pure as they pretended to be.

remember the throw-away line from The Moth when Sawyer told Kate that he and Jack weren't that different?

I think my real problem with not getting Sawyer and the torture is that I'm just incredibly squicked in a way that the word squicked doesn't even convey by the concept of things shoved uner the fingernail. I doubt I'm alone in that. So. My issues come to the fore. But I am not the character. I must remember this.

he knows that they think they have this moral high ground when it comes to him and i think he wanted to show them(and Kate) that they weren't as pure as they pretended to be.

Ah, now this I can see. Still not worth the fingernail stuff to me, but...

me either, Jen. that just means we're not masochists. yay!