While I'd also prefer him to not be the rapist, the show has definitely set it up to be a believable scenario.

The most important thing to take away from this episode going forward is Rousseau's role as an unreliable narrator.

Hey, your sim-husband was faithful!

Well, you're here, so clearly that didn't work out so well.

It really is terrific. The game is all about war, sex, and backstabbing, which made the mod an obvious winner.

Smokey can take whatever form he wants. The "corpse" rule is an assumption by islanders (and fans) with no factual basis. Smokey breaks that "rule" numerous times, (off the top of my head) specifically when it appears to Eko as the people he's murdered.

It's not said explicitly, but it was the MiB. It fits far better than any other explanation.

I have to admit that as soon as I learned the premise, I was immediately disappointed that they didn't cast Naveen Andrews.

We have only one example to base assumptions about how life must develop on other worlds. For all we know, one dominant species (like humans) may be the outlier, not the norm.

Absolutely, I wasn't suggesting Locke was incompetent, just that the islanders initial view of him was painted by a deception.

One correction/clarification: Locke didn't kill the boar. Smokey did.