and the scene swings back from "the ballsiest move in the history of genre television" to "criminally manipulative."

I know I'm biased by the Joss love, but I'd place several Mutant Enemy moments as ballsier than that. Angel killing Jenny Calendar, "Close your eyes," and "And yet, somehow, I just can't seem to care" all come to mind.

Oh, how this cracked me up:

The jungle. Jack is flailing through a meadow like a muppet. I think Jack has problems.

Since Charlie wasn't staying dead, how can that scene be ballsy?

Killing a hobbit and keeping him that way? I think the Kittens could probably take lessons from Dom's fan base. That'd be ballsy, and why I didn't think it was happening, certainly not just after sweeps.

Sorry Liese, about the spoil. When I wrote it, I was cynically thinking no one on my friend's list would have bought the fakeout, and figuring it was mildly vague.

Since Charlie wasn't staying dead, how can that scene be ballsy?

I think she was referring to the hypothetical scene in which he stayed dead with the "ballsy" statement. MostlyDead!Hobbit got "criminally manipulative" instead.

Mmm. In my head the scene swung from potentially ballsy (at my least cynical) to the manipulative side.

I don't think it would have tripped my OhPlease!ometer nearly so badly if not for the dramatic pause for tears between resuscitation attempts.

But a TwoP poster had the best idea I've heard: Charlie dies, Jack & Kate bury him or leave him in the jungle, then later on around the campfire he comes strolling out of the jungle all better. The creepiness and WTF?!? factor would offset any cop-out.

Maybe he did really die, and the Mysterious Island Powers brought him back.

Didn't he really die? Jack thinks it was him that brought him back, but he may have been a gimme.

Well, yeah, he did really die. I meant really dead as in can't be brought back by heroic human means. I think it was Island-intervention, not Jack-intervention, that brought him back.

Further, I was a little disappointed that it was him not on the manifest. Woulda been nicer if it wasn't. Maybe it wasn't! Maybe it's still Sawyer-Mr.-It's-Stupid-To-Change-My-Name!

Liese, that was my initial crackpot theory, but didn't Hurley specifically say at the beginning of this last ep that it was Ethan who wasn't on the manifest?

I think it's entirely possible that Island Mojo, rather than Shattered Sternum, was what brought Charlie back from ex-Hobbiton.

OMG cleolinda is the best, even when she fell asleep during rewatching:

I think the fumes from the Boone-Shannon chemistry are starting to mess with my head.

Sawyer finds what looks like either a pair of nail clippers or a very tiny pair of pliers left by some Keebler elves and makes snip-snip gestures. NOOOO! NOT A MANICURE! SAWYER, YOU MONSTER!

Sawyer: "Jigga whaaaat?" So: French woman, still alive, may be other people on the island, Sayid isn't sure what to believe. And then they have makeup sex. What? Don't lie, you know they did.

[re: Walt's lucky throws] Given that he also had a polar bear in his comic book and got Mercutio to promise to look for Vincent the Yellow Doomrador once the rain stopped (RAIN: *stops*), I find this interesting.

Dad's all like, "This is my life. Look at all the good I've done. I was hard on you because that's how you temper steel. If you don't sign this, I'm going to have to fly to Australia and drink myself to death in an alley," or somesuch shit.

[then after Jack squealed on his father] Jack's father just looks at him, like, "Drunk in Australia it is, then."