# Which character on Lost is the least believable to you? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 18, 2005, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-character-on-lost-is-the-least-believable-to-you/326699 "2005-10-18T02:41:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-character-on-lost-is-the-least-believable-to-you/326699/21 "2005-10-18T20:07:26Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > My vote goes for Ethan. How the hell was he that strong? Why was he so fanatical about Claire? How did he come back on Threshold and play _exactly the same character?_ Yeah, when I saw superstrongfreak take four bullets in the chest on Threshold I almost peed in my pants. Talk about being typcast! Anyways, I’d have to pick Kate. Too frickin’ perfect in every way. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/96bed5/32.png) [@Cat\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Jones)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-character-on-lost-is-the-least-believable-to-you/326699/22 "2005-10-18T20:39:41Z")
**BabaBooey** (& **VC03** ) will you ever give Hurley/the actor a break ??? I don’t hear complaints about anyone else not having lost weight ! Not that he’d be the first person you’d notice any loss on in any case, for crying out loud I mean Shannon should be skeletal by now. That’s like asking how why Michael’s hair seems to be growing quicker than anyone else’s, why no ones has got sunburnt, how Claire got back into such great shape so soon after the birth, why Kate hasn’t got hairy armpits … we’re talking fiction here guys. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![GraceTX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c4cdca/32.png) [@GraceTX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GraceTX)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-character-on-lost-is-the-least-believable-to-you/326699/23 "2005-10-18T22:15:17Z")
> [@Cat Jones](#): > > **BabaBooey** (& **VC03** ) will you ever give Hurley/the actor a break ??? I don’t hear complaints about anyone else not having lost weight ! Not that he’d be the first person you’d notice any loss on in any case, for crying out loud I mean Shannon should be skeletal by now. That’s like asking how why Michael’s hair seems to be growing quicker than anyone else’s, why no ones has got sunburnt, how Claire got back into such great shape so soon after the birth, why Kate hasn’t got hairy armpits … we’re talking fiction here guys. :rolleyes: And they’ve at least tried to explain Hurley’s lack of weight loss. When Charlie said something about it, Hurley said he was losing weight and had tightened his belt a few notches. It wouldn’t be that noticeable since he’s so big. Personally, I think Jorge Garcia does look a little smaller than he did last season. Not a lot smaller, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s dropped a few pounds in real life. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-character-on-lost-is-the-least-believable-to-you/326699/24 "2005-10-18T22:26:36Z")
> [@Airblairxxx](#): > > My vote for least believable character has to be Sun, the Korean babe. She learned English and her husband didn’t know? R-i-i-i-i-g-h-t. And Jin was able to get an important job in a huge Korean company and didn’t know any English? I found that very hard to believe. He would have needed a college degree to get that job and he would have learned some English. He should at least be able to read English. ---
**Author:** ![Cubsfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-character-on-lost-is-the-least-believable-to-you/326699/25 "2005-10-18T22:26:56Z")
> [@Dewey Finn](#): > > Well, Locke’s recovery from his paralysis is pretty far-fetched. I think at some point we will find out why that happened. My guess is it has something to do with the island and if he leaves the island he will be crippled again. Heck, I think at some point we will find out alot more about Locke. I think we’ll find out that he really was in the military before the kidney thing. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-character-on-lost-is-the-least-believable-to-you/326699/26 "2005-10-18T23:02:04Z")
So far, the only \*\*real \*\*character was Arzt, the high-school science teacher who blew himself up. All the others should have gotten themselves knocked off many times over; he’s the only one who actually did it, with perfect poetic justice. But there’s something about Dominique that just bothers me. I know she’s supposed to be a big mystery, but she seems way too intense for someone who’s been dealing with the island for such a long time. Yes, she’s obviously been through several levels of hell, but I find her even more over-the-top than Sawyer. Disclaimer: I just started watching the show this season, and have just finished watching the Season 1 DVDs. So I might have a different perspective from seeing things in the wrong order. (By the way, I’m convinced they all died in the plane crash, and the island is a type of purgatory. But that’s just me.) ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-character-on-lost-is-the-least-believable-to-you/326699/27 "2005-10-18T23:07:28Z")
> [@Stinkpalm](#): > > The whole thing with the triangulation of the signal. His rigging of the aircraft radar for the boat. Then he manages to know exactly what to do to fix a smoked PC? > > The guy is what? 30 years old max? It’s not like he would have been some seasoned vet in the Iraqi Army. And Iraq doesn’t exactly have the most state of the art equipment to train it’s troops. > > I’m an Electrical Engineer in the USAF and I can tell you that Comm officers in the USAF know shit about shit. Of course there are occasional bright bulbs out there, but for the most part they are glorified help desk technicians. Without a Technical Order to follow most have a tough time doing much of anything. Well, I’m 31 years old and I can fix pretty much anything on a computer. That also applies to most basic electronics. So, it’s not that impossible to believe. How he fixed a smoked transformer, of course, is another question. And why he’d close the case before restarting the computer. Nope. Not unless you know it’s working. Especially when you have a time limit until THE END OF THE WORLD! AAAAAH! -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Cubsfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-character-on-lost-is-the-least-believable-to-you/326699/28 "2005-10-18T23:14:41Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > Well, I’m 31 years old and I can fix pretty much anything on a computer. That also applies to most basic electronics. > > So, it’s not that impossible to believe. > > How he fixed a smoked transformer, of course, is another question. And why he’d close the case before restarting the computer. Nope. Not unless you know it’s working. Especially when you have a time limit until THE END OF THE WORLD! AAAAAH! > > -Joe That’s great but I still don’t beleive that you could take random broken equipment that you’ve never even seen before from a plane wreck and piece it all together into a working radar for a wooden raft. With no proper tools at that! I just don’t buy it. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-character-on-lost-is-the-least-believable-to-you/326699/29 "2005-10-18T23:21:03Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > But there’s something about Dominique that just bothers me. I know she’s supposed to be a big mystery, but she seems way too intense for someone who’s been dealing with the island for such a long time. Yes, she’s obviously been through several levels of hell, but I find her even more over-the-top than Sawyer. Dominique? You mean Danielle, the crazy French woman? She’s almost stretching the bounds of believability, yes. She has some major survival instincts for having been a scientist in her past life. I’m generally pretty accepting of flubs in fiction; nobody’s really made me go “Oh come _on_!” at the TV yet. Though admittedly, Charlie’s flat denial of Hurley’s fortune is annoying as anything. Those types of “comical” misunderstandings, where one character doesn’t even take a second to try and clear the confusion up, constantly drive me up a wall. But even then, Charlie’s got an excuse: he’s most likely edgy from the heroin (or lack thereof, and knowing it’s in his backpack), and he’s too preoccupied with Aaron, as if he were the father. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2005, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-character-on-lost-is-the-least-believable-to-you/326699/30 "2005-10-19T04:47:10Z")
> [@Cat Jones](#): > > **BabaBooey** (& **VC03** ) will you ever give Hurley/the actor a break ??? I don’t hear complaints about anyone else not having lost weight ! Not that he’d be the first person you’d notice any loss on in any case, for crying out loud I mean Shannon should be skeletal by now. That’s like asking how why Michael’s hair seems to be growing quicker than anyone else’s, why no ones has got sunburnt, how Claire got back into such great shape so soon after the birth, why Kate hasn’t got hairy armpits … we’re talking fiction here guys. :rolleyes: The problem is that in the show, they are now at about 40 days in. You know what else has a “40 days on an island” premise? Survivor. Countless viewers watched Richard Hatch’s rapid and significant weight loss when _he_ was “stranded on an island” for a month. The character of Hurley is ridiculously, laughably unbelievable at his current weight. They could easily have salvaged razors from the plane, and who knows? Maybe the women are just that shallow as to still shave their underarms. And Claire’s weight situation, being a new mother stranded on a friggin’ island with no fatty food supply, is actually far more believable the the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man not being able to drop a perceptible amount of weight. Seriously, after seeing Survivor, they should have known that casting a morbidly obese guy who wasn’t going to lose weight would shatter the suspension of disbelief. Sure, paralyzed guys can walk again, fine. But fat people stranded on an island with uncertain food sources _do not stay fat_. (Another recent one to add to the list: Surgeons _do not cry_ at their patient’s bedside when they see that the patient is recovering, explicably or not.) I agree that nobody looks believably thin; Survivor is basically un-oglable with all the rail thin starving people. So everybody is probably 20 pounds or so heavier than they would be if they were really on that island. Except Hurley. He’s so far over the top as to be insulting to the viewer. ---
**Author:** ![crazyjoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@crazyjoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazyjoe)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2005, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-character-on-lost-is-the-least-believable-to-you/326699/31 "2005-10-19T16:40:50Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > In the real world, they have these devices called “televisions” on which one can watch “documentaries.” I, myself, have, in this way, seen Chernobyl. With the lots of concrete. > \* Yeah? You think Iraqi militia members watch a lot of TV? Or use the internet a lot? I have a feeling that Saddam, being the type that he was, suppressed quite a bit of that sort of thing. But then, what do I know? Maybe he saw the Chernobyl documentary while he was in Australia. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2005, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-character-on-lost-is-the-least-believable-to-you/326699/32 "2005-10-19T18:31:30Z")
> [@crazyjoe](#): > > But then, what do I know? Not much. Iraqi State TV had a fairly robust international news department. People who preferred to get their news (and entertainment) from other sources were free to use satellite TV services. Iraq was no Afghanistan – while there’s no denying that Saddam was abusive when it came to his political enemies, Iraq was one of the most progressive nations in the region in many ways – in particular its connection to the rest of the world. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2005, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-character-on-lost-is-the-least-believable-to-you/326699/33 "2005-10-20T04:36:05Z")
> [@BayleDomon](#): > > Dominique? You mean Danielle, the crazy French woman? Yeah, sorry, I meant Danielle. Another thing about Hurley: he never seems to have trouble keeping up with the others, as they trek around on the island. I’d expect him to get winded and lag behind, yelling “Hey guys, wait up!” I doubt that a guy his size has that kind of stamina. But maybe they’re deliberately making him non-pathetic, so we don’t think of him as Piggy from _Lord of the Flies._ ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/96bed5/32.png) [@Cat\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Jones)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2005, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-character-on-lost-is-the-least-believable-to-you/326699/34 "2005-10-20T06:10:30Z")
**Ellis Dee** - I have never seen Survivor, know not who Richard Hatch is … I might say something similar on the Sayid / Chernobyl thing - who didn’t know it was/is encased in a concrete sarcophagus ? True \*\*Ponster \*\* and I had recently seen a documentary but both of us thought Chernobyl before Sayid said it. Anyway I assumed that the OP was asking about ‘character’ while Hurley seemed to be attacked on the basis of his ‘physique’ alone (and yes, yes I know they are linked) but it sounded like you were attacking the actor too. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2005, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-character-on-lost-is-the-least-believable-to-you/326699/35 "2005-10-20T23:05:17Z")
> [@Cat Jones](#): > > I might say something similar on the Sayid / Chernobyl thing - who didn’t know it was/is encased in a concrete sarcophagus ? True \*\*Ponster \*\* and I had recently seen a documentary but both of us thought Chernobyl before Sayid said it. As did I. As soon as Sayid mentioned his theory about something being encased in concrete I said to my girlfriend, “Like Chernobyl”. My own personal, “huh?” was when Sayid mentioned that he’d gone through like 8 FEET of solid concrete. Umm…how? -Joe [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-character-on-lost-is-the-least-believable-to-you/326699.md?page=1)