Haven’t read the thread yet, just scanned for keywords (episode not over.)
I liked it when Jack found Charlie’s “L,”
“Do you think it just fell off?”
“The Leaves of Lorien do not fall lightly.”
Heh heh.
Okay, about Locke. Was he trying to lead them down the wrong path when the group split up? Did he “lose” the trail on purpose (first time he’s failed at anything)? Was he trying to get rid of Boone so that he could catch up with the others (others being Ethan/Claire/possible others)?
Or was he sincerely helping search and just happened to get bested by Kate the amateur tracker?
Is the show just trying to make him look suspicious to mess with our heads?
I refuse to believe he’s evil, so if he is doing something deceptive, it’s because he knows something about the island, and is acting secretively in the best interests of the group.
I think Locke, following his ‘gut’ or whatever, has found where “they” took Claire, while Ethan was using Charlie and his fingerwraps as a diversion to lure his pursuers away from Claire’s location.
They really had me going with Charlie’s “death” for a few moments. I actually shouted at the tv when Jack gave up trying to resuscitate him the first time. “No way, they can’t kill the hobbit!!” :eek: Followed immediately by, “Jack, try some more. It almost always works–this is television!!” :mad: Then: “I can’t believe it. They’ve killed Charlie.” 
It certainly seemed to be a prolonged resuscitation. I also thought Charlie was in pretty good shape afterward; I mean, he seemed to be in shock, but he could talk in a semi-normal voice.
Ahhh, the magic of television. 
January?! :eek: You’ve gotta be kidding!!!
We had the same brainwave, my friend.
I’m curious; what kind of tree was Charlie hanging from?
And as for Locke; he’s demonstrated a lot of wilderness survival and tracking skills. I wonder what his background was prior to being paralyzed.
Miscellaneous thoughts:
Jack heard Claire scream, but Kate didn’t. What does it mean?
Even without Charlie’s using the word “they”, the way he was strung up looked like it took more than one person to do.
Sayid and Sawyer’s conversation: interesting. I sensed some respect there. At least they were able to forget their animosity long enough to have a more-or-less straight discussion of what Sayid found. Did nobody else in the caves bother to ask Sayid what he had been doing for a week? Or are we meant to assume that it happened off-camera?
If anyone in the episode qualifies as a redshirt, it’s whoever went with Michael on his search. Did they even show who it was? Scott and Steve, maybe?
Anyone else chuckle at the exchange between Walt and Sawyer? Sawyer speculates that Ethan might just be lying about his name, which would explain the manifest thing (though it does indeed appear he’s one of the Others), and Walt tells Sawyer that it would be just stupid to lie about your name. Heh. Cracked me up, what with Sawyer running about with an assumed name.
(Sorry for the loss of good formatting) Can we add an item to the list? I would like to not hear about which actors (other than those seen in next week’s previews) have continuing roles in this show. If I’d known for a fact that Dom Monaghan is featured in future episodes, for example, I’d have smashed something during the resuscitation scene. At this point I don’t want to know if even Jack or Locke lives to act in another episode.
I hate myself for loving this show so much. When Charlie appeared beyond medical help, I figured they can’t possibly let him live now; it’s such a cliche. And yet I’m more relieved he’s still with us than pissed at the cliche. These writers are so good they can pull off such a hackneyed scene and still make me cry when he’s dead, and fall off my chair when he lives. (I accepted his death, in 20 seconds or so, on the belief that he’s accomplished his mission; he kicked heroin; he’s free to exit Purgatory. So glad that was wrong.)
Thought for sure he had brain damage when he wasn’t speaking. If your heart’s not beating for some minutes, brain damage becomes really likely if you live. On this island all bets are off, naturally.
Claire’s scream – for such a practiced screamer, her scream was unrecognizable to me at first. Sounded metallic, electronic to me. I think it was a Dream Scream, especially since Kate didn’t hear it.
Ugh. Kate. I swear, if she says “I’m coming with you!” one. more. time. I’m going to throw a brick. Now THERE’s a cliche for this show. They should kill her off. 
Oh come on, have a heart. It’s her first real TV gig, and it’d be cruel to send her back to doing Live Links ads.
Definitely off-camera – hell, Walt knew that Sayid reported that there were “others” on the island – and he probably didn’t get it from the horse’s mouth.
I think Sawyer was simply out of the loop because he tends to alienate people.
Tell me about it! To make it worse, in January we’re gonna have two nights of addictive Jack-flavoured TV each week. My head will explode.
I didn’t think I could have taken it if we’d lost our Charlie. Whew!
Hurley now owes Walt $20,000.00.
Hurley is a warrior of…the gamer world? Or something else?
As much as I love Locke, I don’t fully trust him now. I don’t think he will ever want to leave this island, since it apparently gave him the ability to walk (walk again?).
Surely, the psychic could not have foreseen that Claire would have ended up a prisoner…Just how far into the future could he see?
NCB: Ya gotta love it. Red Shirts!! Yeah!
“Piss-poor captain.” Wha ha ha!
A WAG about Walt and his “luck”:
I’m thinking it may be less “luck” than it is an unconscious manipulation of his environment? Let us not forget the comic book/polar bear episode, here. If his “other dad” noticed his ability to be lucky (i.e. avoiding an accident at the last minute, etc), it’s possible that the kid has some way of bending the odds in his favor, but is yet unaware of his powers.
Cruelest. Episode. Ever. Particularly when they’re going away until sweeps. That’s not a cliffhanger that I want to left on for a few months.
You know, that Charlie trick is a thing they can only pull once. I think everyone here has been on the edge of their seat knowing that it’s just a matter of time until one of the major characters that we’ve come to love dies to demonstrate how dangerous the island is and it really looked like we had our first victim. But if they keep pulling the same trick its going to lose impact.
I did get a bit nervous when the bratty sister was worried and Kate said there’s no place he’d be safer than with Locke. That last sequence with Locke apparently knowing where he was going creeped me out. Did he know that was there before he tossed the flashlight?
I think he was following a trail, just not the right one. If the steel underground thing is their home or something else important to them, there’d probably be a big trail to it.
Or he’s the Archangel Michael. BATTLE!!
It might have been a banyan. I’ll look again.
I noticed that Charlie had a black blindfold on. Was this on him throughout the jungle trek or was it just for his execution (and did they offer him a cigarette?)?
Also the skin around his eyes was real red there for a bit. Makeup malfunction or something more?
Me, too. I even quoted that same scene to my “Lost” watching group.
Couple of other things;
The scream that Jack (and us, but not Kate) heard sounded like a big jungle cat to me. Anyone else?
Boone was asking Locke if he was still following a trail. Locke didn’t directly answer, instead saying something like “I feel it, don’t you?” just before they found the Hollow Metal Mystery Thingy[sup]TM[/sup]. I take this to mean that the answer was “no”.
Speaking of the HMMT, I thought it looked curved and painted a dark green, along with sounding like thin plate steel. This makes me think of a military aircraft.
(And wasn’t Ethan quite unexpectedly good at hand-to-hand?..hmmm)
I don’t think Locke’s going to be deceptive about anything. When Boone asked him what he did “back in the world,” I thought for sure he was going to make something up or be evasive so as to preserve his image as the Great White Hunter.
Instead, he was completely honest, and Boone just decided he was being humble. That in itself may benefit Locke, but he wasn’t trying to convince Boone of anything. That little scene I think shows Locke’s true nature. He’s been through a lot and has become stronger as a result. Deception in his eyes is probably what weaker people do to overcome the strong, and he sees himself as one of the strong.
Another nice sequence was Jack trying to butt heads with Locke during the search. Locke kept a rational grasp on the situation, but when it became clear he wasn’t going to win Jack over with reason he let Jack come along. He could have resorted to deception or force, but he let Jack make his own decisions. Everything so far points to him being protective and trustworthy.
Of course, he DID trick Charlie into being boar bait a few episodes back, but that supports your idea that he might trick the castaways if he thought ultimately it would be in their best interest…
EZ
Another thing;
I’m glad we got more backstory on Jack, but does that mean the rest of our castaways don’t get any at all? Inquiring minds still want to know about how and why some of the other folks ended up on The Flight.