I agree. His character arc is one of my favorites in any TV series, ever. I went from not being able to stand him to wanting him to succeed with everything in me.

And I'm glad you put the spoiler tag on your post. You may have caught that Richie was the "incredibly flawed" character that I was referring to. I didn't want to be direct about that because a lot of the impact of "Forks" comes from the fact that you don't see it coming. Loved it.