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2.12 Fire + Water Charlie: "Kate sees a horse: nothing. Pretty much everybody's seen Walt wandering round the jungle. But when it's Charlie, it must be the bloody drugs, right?" I'm not really sure what happened in this episode. Okay. So Charlie tried to save his brother, and was betrayed. In fact, Liam took Charlie's salvation, the piano, away from Charlie and sold it to save himself. And now, like Liam, Charlie has hit bottom and lost his "family." The piano and Aaron were both supposed to save Charlie, and both were taken from him. Bummer. The dreams were fun, full of wildly transparent symbolism. The opening shot was of a large print of "Baptism of Christ." It was Christmas (more Jesus), and Liam was in a diaper. Charlie was given the piano. Their father, the butcher, was chopping meat and beheading a doll. Then Aaron was trapped in the piano that went out to sea. Charlie had the bandages saying "FATE" on his fingers again. We had a partial recreation of "Baptism of Christ," with the dove flying toward the ocean, and Megan and Claire as the angels. (Who was Hurley, though? Jesus? John the Baptist?) But the Island sequences were outright confusing. Did Charlie just go bonkers? Was the Island just testing Charlie? Were the Others somehow manipulating Charlie to take the baby out to them on the boat? It even occurred to me that Charlie was actually receiving divine guidance in the form of dreams, and was just interpreting it really, really badly. If Claire represented the Virgin Mary and Aaron was the Christ child, then Locke has usurped Charlie's role as their protector -- Joseph, as it were. (Come to think of it, Locke took Virgin Mary away from Charlie twice here, in the form of Claire and the heroin statues.) I think Locke lost patience with Charlie the moment Claire and Aaron were in danger from him, and frankly, I can't blame Locke; he's a protective sort, and Claire and Aaron have been a primary target of the Others, after all. We saw Charlie's side of the story, but think of how it looked from the outside. The truth is, I don't understand what the writers were doing here with Charlie. What is Charlie's function on the Island? If Charlie is indeed important to Aaron's survival and has now been completely ostracized from the group, then Aaron is now in more danger. In the final scene, Charlie hooded himself. Charlie and Liam talked about becoming butchers, like their father. Were these hints that Charlie will become a butcher, a killer? Or was it simpler? When Aaron finally does disappear, will Charlie be blamed? Character bits: -- I didn't think that Locke was attracted to Claire before, but I have officially reconsidered. -- Kate and Sawyer were still acting like a twosome, while Jack and Ana Lucia spent quality time alone together in the jungle. Sawyer thought they were making love, but it was probably something to do with Jack's "army." -- Libby appears to like Hurley and was flirting with him in the Hatch, even though he stepped on her foot on the plane. -- Sawyer called Hurley "Jabba," "Jethro," and "Hoss." (Star Wars, the Beverly Hillbillies, and Bonanza?) Sawyer also tried to help Hurley with Libby by calling her name and walking off to make it appear that Hurley called her. -- Why was Eko marking the trees that he liked? Bits and pieces: -- I was mildly uncomfortable with the baptism scene that Locke so well described as "spiritual insurance." Let's hope it eased Charlie's mind. -- The painting "Baptism of Christ" was by Verocchio, but some of the figures were painted by his students and it is believed that the young Leonardo da Vinci painted the foreground angel, the one "played" by Charlie's mother Megan in the beach dream. It's an odd print to have in a private home. "The Last Supper" is much more common. -- Why did Locke lock :) up the Virgin Mary heroin instead of destroying it? Was it just his reluctance to discard anything when resources were limited? Heroin could certainly be valuable for medicinal purposes. Or to control Charlie. -- The Drive Shaft poster was for the Drive Across America tour. The stars and stripes were in red, white and black. -- The first dream sequence showed Aaron's crib floating in the ocean. Moses and the bullrushes. -- Libby pointed out what many have noticed: the washer and dryer in the hatch are newer than the other appliances. Think about what this implies. -- "Fire + Water" cancel each other out. Charlie was trying to do something good, and it had the opposite effect. -- The commercial was for "Butties" diapers. "You all every Buttie." Liam screwed up Charlie's chances to make money with a diaper commercial. More "saving the baby" symbolism. Quotes: Charlie (to Liam): "Now, clean yourself up. You're a sodding father now." He could have been saying that to his future self. Eko: "Have you even considered that these dreams mean something?" Charlie: "Like what?" Eko: "What if you do need to save the baby?" Ana Lucia: "She's hot, you're hot, it's what people do." Jack: "I'm not 'hittin that.'" I think Ana Lucia was checking out how strong her competition was for Jack. Two out of four polar bears, Billie |
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