What is clearly evident is that Dominic Monaghan will still be on the show next episode. Taking his face away from us and them would be a very ballsy move.

But if he had stayed dead in this episode, but then came back later as a hallucination or was brought back in some other way, would that still be non-ballsy? I guess I just don't get the emphasis on the writers' cojones in risking the wrath of Dom's fanbase as opposed to telling the best story.

ETFGrammar & clarify

I was surprised cleolinda didn't recognize the straight razor, too, dcp. I don't think Sawyer intended to actually use it, though. I think he was more interested in how Sayid would react to thinking he would.

I guess for me, killing off Dom's character, at least for an episode ('cause mind you, not all the major players are onscreen every episode) would have been more powerful.

However, since we still have not gotten utterly and definitively into fantasy yet, there wasn't any way to have him only mostly dead for that long, and still come back in a (presumably) practical and physical way.

Until Sayid stole the maps from Danielle, did anyone have any proof that they were actually on an island? Or were they just guessing?

Cleolinda was writing from memory and screencaps. I'm thinking she missed exactly what Sawyer had in his hand due to there being no "HEY LOOK!" insert shot of the item to screencap.

Otherwise, we're back to did Sawyer tell Hurley his real name, or was his name listed as Sawyer on the manifest.

His name would be listed as Sawyer, as he was traveling/living under that name. Even in the flashback.

My question is if the first name was Tom...

I think I mentioned my theory that he is Dread Pirate Sawyer. The man he took his name from wasn't really named Sawyer, either. He was also looking for the man named Sawyer who caused the death of HIS parents...and so on.

did anyone have any proof that they were actually on an island?

They were on a plane from Sydney to L.A. They diverted towards Fiji but didn't make it that far. It is reasonable for them to conclude that they are on an island in the Pacific Ocean.

I guess I just don't get the emphasis on the writers' cojones in risking the wrath of Dom's fanbase as opposed to telling the best story.

There are a gazillion stories, and there's no way I can say having him revived then and there was the best story -- can you?

But I can say, I do appreciate a story that's told because of the story, when I can't rely on meta things (like Dom's not getting fired, especially not outside of sweeps) to convince me of how things are going to turn out.

Keeping him dead for a while and taunting his fanbase? Not precisely gutsy, but it would be completely hysterical, and I'd have loved it for that reason.

didn't recognize the straight razor either

I really believed it. He may have come back (wrong) but I believe he died as much as I believe Buffy did in Prophecy Girl. So to me it was effective enough, I guess.

I have *totally* separated Merry from Charlie. They might as well be 2 different actors to me now. That's good acting.

I agree. I look at Merry and think "that can't be an ex-rock god with an ex-smack habit."