The thing that I found interesting and that I liked is that Sayid really seems to realize to what extent his actions were wrong and actually does apologize to Sawyer in addition to leaving the group for a short period of time. Jack, while he does realize it was wrong, seems to... feel it less than Sayid, perhaps because he wasn't the one physically committing the act. I do agree that the timing and use of it in the show worked, but I've found that torture in television shows doesn't actually shock me anymore since it's seen rather often.

What I like about Lost is that it's embracing the dark/gray sides of its characters.