thanks tiggy!

Maybe Vincent is in cahoots with Ethan. His arrival did pull Sayid and Locke, who are arguably the most capable fighters, away from the others.

Along the lines of the in-cahoots theory, I think it's possible that Locke was in with Ethan, and allowed the perimeter to be breached, by knowing that the sea was exposed. The SO disagrees, because of his later behavior, but Locke was the one who was trying to make sure that Ethan didn't get killed, only captured. The SO thinks that if he were, he would have let Ethan know what was going on, so he wouldn't have walked into a trap. I'm not so sure.

Also, where were the Others? Did Ethan really come in for his victim without any help at all?

Maybe killing Boone as he slumped over there sleeping for hours on end struck Ethan as too easy?

I wish it had been someone besides SuperJack that brought Ethan down and beat him up when Claire started screaming for help. Sayid or Locke would have been fine, and Kate superb (Hey, she knows pistol-whipping technique!) given the increasing tinges of chauvanism they're injecting into his character.

Yeah, I agree, Matt. My basic reaction to that scene was, gee, Jack's got issues.

I wish it had been someone besides SuperJack that brought Ethan down and beat him up when Claire started screaming for help. Sayid or Locke would have been fine, and Kate superb (Hey, she knows pistol-whipping technique!) given the increasing tinges of chauvanism they're injecting into his character.

I'm not sure I'd call picking Sawyer over Kate chauvinism, unless you are referring to something else. Jack isn't watching the show, all he knows is that Kate is a criminal, claims to have killed someone, and lies like she breathes. We know that she's an ace shot; he doesn't even know that she can use a gun. Sawyer OTOH successfully shot a charging polar bear, which indicates accuracy and a cool head. I am not a Sawyer fan by any means, but in those circumstances I'd have given the gun to Sawyer too.

Of course, if I wasn't on TV I'd go through the other 30 redshirts and find another person who was competent with a gun and wasn't a fuckhead like Sawyer, but given the constraints of TV, ie, Thou Shalt Give It To One of the Main Characters, Sawyer's a pretty obvious choice and it's somewhat to Jack's credit that he didn't let his personal issues with Sawyer get in the way.

BTW, is TWOP giving everyone else error messages? I can't tell if it's saying my system is blocked or if everyone's is.

BTW, is TWOP giving everyone else error messages?

Yeah, the forums have been down since last night, it seems.

Oh, I can understand Jack's reluctance to hand a gun to someone he saw suffer an apparent emotional breakdown after admitting that she killed a man (what I can't understand is him being all chummy and flirty with her in the next episode). But in general he seems to be taking on a very stereotyped outlook - earlier dismissing Kate as not dangerous because she's a woman, keeping Claire in the dark about a very active danger directed towards her (presumably to avoid her being overcome by a case of the vapors), assuming that it should only be men on the hunt (when for all he knows there could be a female castaway who was a target shooting champ back home but is unaware that guns and ammo are currently available). He's growing a snout and tail as we speak.

If I'd been Jack the gun that went to Sawyer would have been handed to Claire instead, to keep concealed on her person in case Ethan grabbed her again.

WRT the actual plan, it also seems silly that the mechanics turned out the way they did when Jack's original fear was that they'd end up shooting each other. Everyone in a circle, guns pointed to the center. Good one.

(Not that I could have put a better plan together on my own, but still.)

I doubt it was part of his plan that they stand in a circle, but more that it's reflexive to surround that way.