[Kalimac]

Thanks, Saucepan Man and Meela - I'm glad I wasn't the only one seeing that. (Part of me was thinking that I was really overinterpreting things when I started thinking about the shades of irony in Faramir's voice). I'm more solid in that view now - especially since it explains something that annoyed me a lot in the theatrical release, which was, why DID he let them go? He's been presented with no solid, warfare-related reasons to do so and has the threat of death hanging over his head if he does. <P>Now, however, he looks like someone in a situation that he was really uncomfortable with from the get-go, so it's a lot more believable to see him snatching at the first sign that he should let them go and acting on it. And it was nice to see his concern for them extending to showing them the way out, and trying to keep Gollum behaving himself. Wonder why he didn't give them any food, though? No time, maybe.<P>Incidentally, about that "penalty of death" clause. That wasn't in the book, so far as I remember. Anyone want to bet that the tension between Faramir and Denethor in ROTK has just been ratcheted up another twenty notches or so? Eesh, that puts another light on the pyre completely...