Ah, yes, that reminds me I meant to ask ages ago about this.

I saw the episode were Alex was goading Hughie in the bedroom and Hughie was herded out by Jason.

At the time people were saying this is the third time he's goaded Hughie and I meant to ask what happened on the other occasions because that was the first I saw.

(Oh and I'm not questioning it happened - I've no doubt as it's been said several times here - I'm genuinely asking what I missed.)

Totally agree. Ever since he heard the cheers for him, he knows he's in with a shot.

The first time was in the Others house. Hughie and Natalie had been going at it hammer and tongues earlier and then later Charlie tried to be peacemaker between them but Natalie rebuffed it, saying, "I hate him." Hughie responded with, "Why would a woman of her age behave like this?" (or wtte) and Alex jumped in accusing Hughie was making it personal, when we (and Alex) had just seen it was Natalie who'd got personal.

Hughie took the bait and called Alex out for interfering and trying to stir trouble.

The second time was in the main house but I've honestly forgotten the details now. I think it was similar to the third time, where Alex singled Hughie out when he was doing no different to any of the others involved, seemingly just to get a rise out of him.

If that was the case he'd surely be ranting more, not less? Hearing the cheers would have encouraged that wouldn't it?

Thanks.

That casts Alex in a very different light. He comes across as - and "prides himself on" dontcha know - being reasonable and level headed but that Natalie incident sounds dodgy. A peacekeeping, salt of the earth type wouldn't have poked at that hornets nest.

Good to know because I was starting to warm to Alex.

I've whittled them down rightly. There isn't one I want to win. That's a first.

Hughie reminds me a little of a friend I went to Uni with. He's an extremely capable guy, did extremely well in his studies and was also very fair (stuck up for me when I was bullied). He also had an absolutely towering temper which most people got on the wrong side of at some point. There were many times that he lost it in which I actually agreed with his original point, but he became so aggressive in those confrontations that sometimes people feared for their safety. There came a point at which it went too far, someone made a formal complaint and he was suspended for a while pending an investigation and eventually told he'd have to get serious anger management if he wanted to return. But credit to him, after that occasion there were no more problems, he kept his temper and did really well. Graduated with flying colours, I consider him a good friend and he's doing really well for himself.

So my experiences there have reminded me that someone with problems controlling their temper is able to calm themselves down for their own sake and for others, and I have no reason to believe that isn't what Hughie has made an effort to do, quite successfully from what we've seen.