That's completely not what I said. I said it's setting up when Charlie rediscovers his religion later, under the tutelage of Eko.

Well, our heroes don't have a monopoly on hypocritically smug self-righteousness.

"The Long Con" wasn't really pointless, either. Season one presented the possibility that Sawyer can change his ways.

I don't think auteurs should ever be punished for telling a story.

He also lives on an Island where he believes people are being brought by the will of Jacob.

MORE SPOILERS

I assumed the circle of ash was meant to keep the Man in Black out while Jacob lived in there.

If you want to be specific, it's actually from issue six of Watchmen, Lindelof's favorite book.

Richard does that, actually. He tries to get Locke to supplant Ben as the leader of the Others because he's sick of focusing on fertility issues. And we all know how Ben took to that.

"And a poorly executed Charlie episode COULD have been excuse-able, except almost everything in it gets relatively undermined by the latter half of S2"

I can't remember if it was one the A/V Club or somewhere else, but I read a great article that explained how, in sci-fi and fantasy, viewers have an assumption that characters are always telling the truth, to ground the viewer in the strange world on display.

Charlie's derailment leads directly to him becoming an acolyte of Mr. Eko and renewing his Catholic faith. That is objectively interesting, because the show has always had a spiritual side.

Jacob makes Richard immortal to be the new Panchen Lama of the Others. His role is to select the new leader, not to lead, and to bring lists of the people who come to the Island who should belong to the Others's society.

He's always been gullible. That's the main source of his self-loathing.

The point of Jack's character arc wasn't that he was passionate about his job or saving lives — he was an emotional cripple who couldn't get over his daddy issues about not being good enough.

No basis, aside from the fact that the kid looks eerily like Evangeline Lilly, freckles and all.

Kate didn't even come back for Sawyer. She came back to get Claire and return her to her son. Sawyer was the one who couldn't get over her.

It was perfectly in character. Locke has always been a bitter ball of frustration. Until season two, things have been going fairly well for him. But as the patented Island(tm) techniques he used on his former protege wear off, the cracks in his tranquil facade start to appear (see: him trashing the Hatch after a quip…

Every character gets derailed, more or less, in season two. That was the theme of the season.

Probably because they had to hastily write Ana Lucia out of the story.