George Mitchell recently compared the negotiations at Stormont to a cowboy film. "When I was a kid in Maine, every Saturday at the movies the cowboy serial episode would end in a cliff-hanger. Would the hero survive until next week? It's been much the same here," he said in Belfast during an interview with the Los Angeles Times.
It's not quite clear who is the hero of the Northern talks - perhaps Senator Mitchell himself? But despite the strain of travelling back and forth across the Atlantic and having to be apart from his wife, Heather, and their young child, the chairman of the talks said the process was "a worthwhile cause" and he was committed to seeing it through.
Republicans, or at least the mainstream of the movement, would probably nominate Gerry Adams as the talks hero. As they would see it, he has secured a second ceasefire against formidable odds and brought his party into historic face-to-face negotiations with the British and the unionists.
Certainly there have been moments over recent years when Mr Adams seemed to be hanging onto the political cliff-edge by his fingernails. He had to absorb considerable stick from the political establishment when the IRA went back to war last year. Now he has secured a place for his party at the table but the Ulster Unionists remain adamant they will not engage or do business with him in any way.
There was encouragement for Sinn Fein in a recent New States- man interview with Dr Mo Mowlam. The Northern Secretary had qualified praise for the party's demeanour in the talks. "I have been impressed. In the long term, what their ultimate goal is I can't say."
There are those, inside and outside the UUP, who would regard David Trimble as the hero of the hour. The fact that he kept his party at the table and withstood fire and brimstone from the Democratic Unionists and the UK Unionist Party has stood to his credit with the wider world.
He also received a ringing endorsement from the conference of his party and the UUP executive. The high-wire act has worked for Mr Trimble so far but he now enters perhaps the most difficult phase of all. When the detail emerges of what is on offer and what must be conceded, will his followers hold their nerve?
The UUP strategy appears to be, very simply, to make a deal with the SDLP and continue to ignore Sinn Fein. Under the "sufficient consensus" rule in the talks, the vote of the republicans is not required to approve an agreement.
But it is hard to see the SDLP agreeing terms that are utterly intolerable to Sinn Fein. Mr Adams may never get to spit and slap the hand of David Trimble in the time-honoured fashion of sealing an agreement but he will be a significant if perhaps invisible presence all the same. The loyalist leaders have won kudos for what is seen as their pragmatic, no-nonsense approach. They have the advantage over Sinn Fein in that a settlement cannot be approved without their support: they are essential to the achievement of sufficient consensus on the unionist side.
But some of them, at least, are keenly aware that this is a doubleedged sword. On the one hand, they will be under pressure to agree, so that the process can move forward; on the other hand they will have to "sell" their positions to their supporters. Sinn Fein will not have a veto over progress in the talks but it will have the luxury of being able to abstain on, or even oppose, the terms of a settlement without wrecking the process.
The somewhat lethargic pace of the talks has exacerbated internal difficulties in both loyalist and republican ranks. A more purposeful process would ease the strain on both sets of leaders. Here is where Senator Mitchell's mettle will once again be tested. He will have to steer the two-week process of bilateral talks which begins on Monday. It will be his job to narrow down the differences and stress the areas of agreement. Senior UUP sources said they were hoping to embark on an intensive process of one-to-one negotiation with the SDLP. They are well aware the two governments will be putting pressure on the participants to advance the talks.
Sinn Fein and others have accused the UUP of failing to take the talks sufficiently seriously. There has been criticism of the attendance record of some senior unionists, and other participants have complained that the UUP relies too much on its younger members from the legal profession - the so-called "baby barristers" - to beef up its delegation at the plenary sessions. UUP sources said senior members were becoming more involved since the beginning of substantive negotiations and this would intensify with the start of face-to-face talks with the SDLP. For their part, SDLP sources said the party was "determined, willing and anxious to engage". The talks were entering a "defining period". Government sources in Dublin struck a positive note: there was a "widespread conviction that a deal is on" even though "everybody has their own version of what is acceptable".
Bertie Ahern is due to meet Tony Blair next week, probably on Friday. The two leaders will have a chance to review progress in the bilaterals. They know better than most what a crucial time this is. The peace process is on a cliffedge and heroism on all sides is badly needed.