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Thursday, January 26, 2006

heaven is just a shot away

After some catching up, we see a painting of John the Baptist doing his thing to Christ, with a dove flying out from the sun. A lil’ Charlie in bunny slippers comes down the stairs, walking pretty damn slowly for a kid on Christmas morning. Lil' Liam is opening up his presents, unwrapping a huge Voltron. (I was always more of a Grandizer/Gaiking kid myself.) Charlie can’t find any presents with his name on it, they’re all for Liam. I think anyone with a brother or sister has had this dream before. Charlie’s mom, Megan, comes in and unveils his present, a stand up piano. She tells him, “you’re special, love. (there it is again, everyone’s parents call them special… kinda like in real life, huh?) Someday you’re gonna get us out of here. All of us.”
- The family doesn’t look like they’re doing too badly though… does she mean Charlie’s gonna end up saving everyone from the island in season 8? Lil’ C takes his place at the piano, and the Liam under the tree is now all grown up and wearing a diaper, still playing with Voltron. There’s a white dove ornament hanging on the tree next to him. “You can’t save your family if you don’t play.”
Now it’s a grown up Charlie sitting at the piano (still in lil' C’s pj's) Dad the butcher is chopping meat (like Fred Flintstone driving around with bald feet), telling Charlie he’s saving no one with his music, that he needs to learn a trade. He’s standing at a butchers block, and there’s a freezer with some hacked up baby doll parts behind him. Old Liam is on the couch now, still in his bubbies, playing with his Voltron. Dad chops the head off a baby doll – he looks more Hawaiian than British, but he’s bald like Locke. Mom and Liam implore Charlie to save them, and suddenly he’s back on the island playing the piano - now with a baby crying inside it - in the surf. He tries to open it with his fate-taped fingers, but it doesn’t budge. He’s distracted by something huge moving thru the trees in the jungle, and when he turns back to the piano, it and the baby inside have washed out to sea. He wakes up and frantically starts searching for Claire and Aaron (Jack woke up kinda frantically at the start of the last episode, too). He finds them on the beach with Locke, and backs into the shadows of the jungle before they see him.

L O S T

Claire’s writing in her diary when Charlie brings over some nappies he made for Aaron. He apologizes again, but Claire tells him she needs her space for now. Telling Aaron to take care of his mum, he walks off.
Flashback to Charlie looking at a newborn baby girl in the hospital. His sister in law, Karen, greets him. She’s named the baby Megan, after their mom. Charlie is touched. He makes an excuse for Liam not being there. He gets to his place later on, where he finds Liam on the nod. He left a lit cigarette on Charlie's prized possession, the Christmas piano. The place looks a bit like the swan station, but with Driveshaft posters on the wall. The piano has a cheesy “Drive across America” tour poster above it, and there’s a gold record on the wall. Charlie wakes Liam and puts away his gear. Liam lets him know he left him some. Charlie tells him to clean himself up and get to the hospital; he’s got a daughter named Megan and he’s “a sodding father now.”

On the beach Kate is helping Sawyer with some physical therapy. (it’s a damn shame Lost isn’t on skinemax. That would have a whole ‘nother meaning.) Hurley wants to know how well Sawyer got to know the tailies, especially Libby. Sawyer asks “jabba” if he’s got a love connection brewing - Hurley stammers a bit and trudges away. Jack and Ana walk out of the jungle together. Sawyer tells Kate it’s the third time he’s seen this, “whadda ya suppose they’re doing out there?”
Kate looks a little bit jealous.

Charlie’s playing his guitar… I thought he was gonna break a string tuning it up. I wonder if he has spare sets? ‘Cause that would suck… no cats to gut on the island either. He hears the baby crying and sees Aarons crib bobbing out in the waves, then calls for help and jumps in. He gets the crib ashore and scoops Aaron out of it, looking up to see that the beach has turned into a golden painting. His mom and Claire are there, dressed as haloed angels. They tell him the baby is in danger and only he can save him, creepily speaking over each other. A prop plane buzzes in from the left, diving into the island - this happens very quickly and on the extreme far left border - at the moment of impact, there’s a golden flash as a dove flies out from the background and over Charlie’s shoulder. Hurley emerges from the jungle dressed in robes. “Charlie? What are you doing?” Charlie wakes up to find himself standing with Aaron on the beach at night, Hurley talking to him. Claire and pretty much everyone else come running over. Claire takes Aaron from Charlie, and as he tries to tell her about his dream she slaps him and turns away.

The next day Hurley’s playing blackjack with Sawyer. Sawyer’s dealing and he’s got a six of diamonds showing. Hurley’s got a two of hearts and king of clubs. Sawyer knows to assume the dealer always has at least ten not showing, Hurley doesn’t. I hope he didn’t go to Vegas with any of his money… Sawyer points out Libby walking by with her laundry, and tells Hurley to go help her. “I’m sure you got a load you need to drop in, don’t ya jethro?”
- damn, they can get away with that?!?! heh heh heh
Charlie’s waiting for Locke outside the station door. He tells Locke he was sleepwalking the night before, and asks if he could put a good word in for him with Claire. Locke asks straight up if he’s using again, and Charlie tells him about he and Eko burning the plane and the stash. Locke doesn’t look too happy about this, but he believes Charlie. He tells him that he should just leave Claire and the baby alone for a while.

Flashback- Driveshaft is on a set, and Liam is barely conscious. They’ve completely sold out; they’re shooting a commercial for “bubbies diapers” in an oversized crib, dressed in diapers with rattles and pacifiers, dancing badly. There’s a fluffy white teddy bear in one corner, and a stuffed polar bear in the other. “You All Every Butties!” groan. I wish this part was a dream. It used to seem like Driveshaft was the second coming of Oasis, but I think that was just Charlie’s interpretation of it. Hurley’s recollection of them seems more accurate. Liam falls down, apparently not for the first time, and when Charlie refuses to go on without him because he’s family, the director fires them. His assistant looks kinda like Libby. Speaking of whom… she and Hurley are doing her laundry under the hatch. She asks if the “washer and dryer are newer than everything else in here.” (so did we, libby.) Hurley’s just happy as long as it washes clothes, although you wouldn’t know that from what he’s wearing. She starts flirting with him and he gets an odd look in his eye. Is this how women would treat him when they found out what he was worth? He asks if he knows her from somewhere. She says other than the flight, no. She remembers him because he stepped on her foot. He was the last one on the plane, sweating and wearing his headphones. I get the impression from the way she looks at him when he’s not looking that she’s lying, or at least hiding something here. Not because she’s an other though, I think she knew about his money before they were even on the plane. Was she following him around trying to set up a chance encounter? Maybe she worked for the lottery (with the woman Sawyer slept with?), or is just a gold digger who saw him on TV? Was she a doctor/patient at the same mental institution as he was? Either way, she tries on a dress to distract him from trying to remember where he knows her from. It works for now; Hurley thinks she looks “awesome.”

Eko’s marking some trees near the beach when Charlie comes over and asks what he’s doing. “I’m marking trees.” He asks why. “cause these… are the ones I like.”
Weird. I think he’s planning to build a church here. Charlie asks if he told Locke about the statue from the plane, and Eko says no, why would he do that? Charlie’s convinced the “bald wanker’ knows something. Worried about his stash? He tells Eko about his golden dream and the message of the baby needing saving. Eko asks Charlie, “What if you do need to save the baby?” Moments later, Charlie is pushing past Kate to get to Claire and Aaron. He tells Claire the baby’s in danger, and that they need to baptize it. (of course that’s how a priest would interpret the dream…) Kate's pushing Charlie away as Locke overhears him saying that they ‘need to do this, that Eko can do it.’
Very nice and creepy shot of Locke with some chill-inducing music. What is he thinking?!?

Jacks helping Ana build her shelter, and gives her a huge piece of tarp. Don’t you think it would have all been claimed by now? She wants to know why Jack did what beardo told him to do in the woods, and Jack tells her he had a gun to Kate’s head. “You hittin’ that?” She has a little more class than Sawyer, who woulda just asked if he’d a been droppin’ his load in ‘er. Still, Jack’s taken aback. Ana explains, “…plane crash, we (“we”? slip up here Ana?) both survive, nice beach. She’s hot, you’re hot, it’s what people do.” It’s what Ana wants to do.

While checking on his stash in the jungle, Charlie smashes one of the Mary full of H’s open, and holds the heroin in his hands. He flashes back to songwriting at the christmas piano as Liam walks in. (there’s a Kinks poster on the fridge – troubled rock brothers, all) Karen’s dumped him because she doesn’t trust him around the baby. After he dropped it. D'oh. Charlie tells him everything’s gonna be okay cause he’s writing a song about two brothers. 'Two brothers that should have been butchers', Liam asks?

Funny now you finally see me standing here
Funny now i'm crying in the rain
All alone I tried to be invincible
Together now
(Liam joins in) we can be saved.
(yeah, sounds like a hit, Charlie...)
Liam likes it though, and needs a fix.

Back to now, and Locke catches Charlie with the H in his hand. Charlie tells him he came out there to get rid of it. I think I believe him, he knows it never would have worked out for his brother, Karen and Megan if Liam hadn’t kicked the junk, so for Charlie to get Claire and Aaron back, he knows he has to get rid of this for good. Locke doesn’t believe him though. He packs the statues away in his bag as Charlie pleads with him, telling him that the island put the statues there to test him. Locke tells him they’re there because he put them there. Charlie tells Locke he has to believe him when he says that Aaron is in danger, and Locke tells him he’s given up his right to be believed.

Later on, Locke's filling up his water bottle as Claire and Aaron come over. Locke asks “Hey, how’s our boy?” - he sounds like the creepy Terry O’Quinn stepfather of old here. Claire thinks she and Aaron would be safer if they could sleep in the hatch, but Locke tells her the alarm would keep the baby up. Does he have other reasons for not wanting her to stay down there? He offers to camp next to them on the beach for the next couple nights, and she accepts. She wants to know if he knows anything about baptisms, and tells him Charlie told her Aaron needed to be baptized, that he was in danger. He tells her baptism is a kind of spiritual insurance, so a kid can get into heaven should anything happen. Subtly working on her fears here? Locke tells her there’s no real danger (you know, besides the others, the monster, and the whole stranded on a not-so-deserted island thing), Charlie just wants to save Aaron because he cant save himself. He gets ready to go, and seems to consider telling Claire about the statues in his pack, but decides against it. That night Charlie sets a fire in the trees near the camp, apparently to distract everyone and get Sayid some screen time. Some exciting scenes of firefighting here! Charlie sneaks up behind Claire and Aaron in the camp.

Flashback- Charlie arrives home to find his christmas piano gone. Liam tells him he's sold it so he can get his family to Australia. Karen’s got an uncle there who will give him a job, and he’s gonna get into a rehab program in Sydney. He runs off to the Brixton tube station with Charlie yelling after him, “What about my family?!”
The volunteer fire brigade have gotten the flames almost completely out. Charlie snatches Aaron from the crib, but doesn’t get more than a few steps away before Claire notices and chases him down to the waters edge while crying for help. Charlie looks out of his mind (or strung out? I don’t think so, he looks more Jack/Michael crazed) telling Claire that he has to save Aaron. The bright half moon (isn't the half moon usually vertical, not horizontal?) in the distance casts no reflection on the water - reminds me of the Truman Show for some reason. Locke runs up, followed quickly by everyone else. Charlie tells Eko to tell everyone what he told him, that the baby needs to be baptized. “This is not the way.”
Locke tells him to hand the baby over, and Charlie goes off on him, telling him the baby is neither his responsibility nor his family. Locke reminds him that he’s not family either. Charlie tells Claire he’s not going to hurt Aaron and she tells him that he’s hurting her. Locke takes Aaron from Charlie's arms and hands the baby to Claire before beating the shit out of him. Everyone walks off, leaving Charlie alone and bleeding in the surf.

The next morning Jack comes by to stitch up Charlie. Charlie confesses to starting the fire, but swears he hasn’t used. Jack just wants to be sure that it wont happen again, then gets to stitching. Graphically. ow.
Eko’s checking out the charred remains from the fire, it looks like Charlie burned the area around the trees he was marking. The new church grounds, baptized by fire? Claire comes over and asks him his priestly take on baptism.
“It is said that when John the Baptist baptized Jesus the skies opened up, and a dove flew down from the sky. (the plane?) This told John something. That he had cleansed this man of all his sins; that he had freed him.”(is the island John the Baptist? - and wasn't Jesus born without sin?)
Claire hasn’t been baptized herself and is worried she and her son won’t find each other in the afterlife if Aaron is baptized. Eko’s solution is obvious, he baptizes them both. (I wonder if Walt was ever baptized?)
Under the hatch Locke is changing the combination to the armory again, after giving it to Sawyer, Jack and Kate last week. He lock(e)s the statues in there. Does he know they could come in handy at some point and is hoarding them for that, or is he being sinister? There’s no sinister music cue to say so…

That night by a fire on the beach, Charlie lifts his hood and stares alone into the distance.

L O S T
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