I like Hurley too, he seems to be turning into a very important person on the island. Even though he's not the one making the big decisions he's making all the personal connections.

Jack's still the defacto leader, but they work more in a tribal council way, although I'm not sure if all the secrets are out there. Did Kate, Jack, and Charlie ever tell the whole story about the pilot?

I love the fact that Hurley is not just the Fat Funny Guy. He brings the humor, yes, but he's also by far the most attuned to emotional needs of anyone in the informal island council. And I think it's very much run that way, as askye said. Which is I think both much healthier than dictatorship, and one of the reasons I like Jack so much; back at the beginning when everyone couldn't make a decision without running to Jack, it would have been easy for someone with a more unpleasant or more powerhungry turn of mind to consolidate power, set up some enforcers, and have himself a little kingdom. Instead he was very laissez-faire outside of critical items.

I have to admit I've come around on Hurley for much the reasons JZ articulates. Communities need glue. He's the glue guy.

"Come around"? You didn't like him before? It's like I don't even know you.

Sawyer had been hunting the real Sawyer for years. If he knew Hibbs (?) rep I want to know why he just trusted the information that was given to him.

I get the impression that Sawyer's plan for finding RealSawyer consisted largely of wandering around conning people and calling himself Sawyer, figuring eventually he'd run into him at one of those conman conventions they're always having. After a decade or so of not being invited to the ConCon, I suspect he may have begun to notice some of the flaws in his otherwise brilliant plan.

Seriously, Sawyer makes Spike look like Dr. Moriarty. Good face work this ep, though.

"Come around"? You didn't like him before? It's like I don't even know you.

Well you would know me if you'd actually read this thread where I kvetched about the early Hurly love (which I thought unwarranted). But I do think he's doing the stuff which can pull the castaways into a community.

The sum total of my analytical thought about this episode: Mmmm. Sawyer pretty.

No, I'm lying. There was also: Mmmmm. Sayid pretty.

I never liked Charlie all that much. His having found the balls to shoot the guy who hanged him made me respect him for about 30 seconds, but that's gone now too. Sure, he's cute and charming, but that only goes so far; I want some cake under the icing, some meat under the gravy. Charlie's always come across (to me) as weak, without enough strength of will to accomplish anything on his own, someone who desperately wants the approval and guidance of others. His pathological need to take care of someone fits right in with his pathological inability to take care of himself. Sure, he killed Ethan to protect Claire, because otherwise he'd have to have killed him because he was scared of him, and Ethan made his uselessness very obvious, which was possibly even more offensive than hanging him.

I'm sorry Ethan's dead. He had a backstory that was actually interesting. I hope we get to see it. (Plus, I kinda thought he was hot. Despite the violent and crazy. Or maybe because of. Since he's not actually real and here, I'm safe to be as twisted as I like.)

it's ALL. ABOUT. CHARLIE.

My feelings for Charlie are inconsistent. The woobie Charlie bugs me, but I find myself overcome with the cute. The self-centered-all-about-me Charlie fits one profile of the rock star character ego that is a part of the Charlie package. His character would not be so interesting for me if not played so well.

Profit

On DVD in September! Finally!

Whee! I have the tapes from the Bravo showing, but that DVD must be owned.

The sum total of my analytical thought about this episode: Mmmm. Sawyer pretty.

No, I'm lying. There was also: Mmmmm. Sayid pretty.

I love Dana. Also, she is pretty.

I enjoyed this week so much more than last. It is quite a job to balance creative characters and plots with mass audience appeal. I wish them well.

My love of the interesting villain character shocks my loved ones. My hippie chick personality embraces make love not war and rejects all things confrontational in real life. DH is still baffled that I will leave the room when fights break out in sports events or the news shows violent events, yet I love my fictional bad guys and squee with glee over gory death and big explosions. My Evil has to be far removed from reality though. Lost and Alias can have Evil delicious characters and I will enjoy the hell out of it. When I find Evil characters in media that resembles reality I get shaken and can’t enjoy the character because in my self-imposed sheltered existence Evil doesn’t exist.

DH is still baffled that I will leave the room when fights break out in sports events or the news shows violent events, yet I love my fictional bad guys and squee with glee over gory death and big explosions. My Evil has to be far removed from reality though. Lost and Alias can have Evil delicious characters and I will enjoy the hell out of it.

I get this. It may be the same sort of thing that lets me watch Pulp Fiction with no problem, but that won't let me watch Hotel Rwanda. Even though the latter is a recreation of appalling events, I'd still be sitting there thinking that these particular awful things happened to real people, and I would have trouble watching that. But made up characters doing awful things to other made up characters? Yeah, sure, if that's what the story calls for. I'm enjoying the heck out of Sayid's character, even though he's done some really dreadful stuff in both the main story and his flashbacks, things that would make me not much care about his inner journey of redemption or whatever if he was a real person. But as a character it's interesting to me.