2.12 Fire + Water

In a dream, Charlie gets a piano for Christmas, a reward for his musical talent, and his mother sees him as the ticket to get her family to a higher rung. Charlie’s butcher father thinks he should learn a trade. Cut to Charlie playing piano on the beach, where he stops when he hears Aaron’s cries coming from inside the piano. He hears the whispers of the Others and is distracted as the piano floats out to sea…

Charlie wakes up in reality. When he sees the baby gones, he panicks, but everything is okay. Charlie watches a Claire lets Locke hold the baby, and his face clouds over and gets mean.

In flashback, Charlie is at the hospital, admiring Liam and Karen’s baby, Megan. Liam didn’t make it. Charlie says it is because he was in the van with the gear and it blew a tire on the way to the airport. But Liam is back at the apartment; he supposed to be cleaning up, but instead he’s been shooting up.

Kate is helping Sawyer do his exercises, while Hurley asks Sawyer about Libby. When Jack and Ana emerge from the jungle, Sawyer said it’s the third time he has seen them together, and wonders what they’re doing out there.

Charlie is playing guitar on the beach when he hear cries and sees Aaron’s pram floating far out in the ocean. No one else is around. Charlie goes in and saves Aaron, then turns and sees his mother and Claire, in a bible-like picture, their heads circled by haloes. They tell him the baby is in danger and he has to save him. Hurley shows up and asks Charlie what he is doing. It is the middle of the night, and Charlie has stolen the baby and is standing near the ocean. Claire wakes up and finds the baby missing at this point, and she and most of the other survivors run to the surf and find Charlie, who has no explanation for his behavior. Claire slaps Charlie hard in the middle of his pointless explanation.

Sawyer tries to encourage Hurley to make a move with Libby, even going so far as to call her name, then duck into his tent, so that she thinks Hurley said hello to her.

Deep in the jungle, Charlie spies on Locke as he emerges from the hatch. When Charlie asks Locke to put in a good word for him with Claire, Locke retorts by asking Charlie if he is using again. Charlie gets agitated, complaining that many others have had weird experiences (like Kate seeing the horse) but they never get accused of using. Charlie tells Locke that all of the statues were burned.

In flashback, Liam is in such a trashed state that he ruins the chance for Driveshaft to make some easy money doing a nappies ad.

Libby and Hurley are doing laundry together. Libby seems to be flirting, especially when she tries on a sexy top behind Hurley’s back. Just before that, Hurley studies her face and asks her if he knows her from somewhere other than the plane.

Eko is marking trees. Charlie worries about his sanity and tells Eko about his dreams. Eko thinks the dreams may mean something – he tells Charlie that the baby needs to be baptized. An agitated Charlie rushes to Claire and gets his message across, even while being forcefully detained by Kate. Locke looks on inscrutably.

Jack brings Ana a tarp for her structure. Ana wants to know if he is ‘hittin’ that’, meaning Kate. Jack denies it.

Charlie returns to his statue stash and takes one out. He holds the bags in his hand and flashes back to an evening at the piano, when, while composing a song, Liam shows up after being kicked out by Karen. Karen felt Liam is dangerous because he dropped Megan. Charlie’s new song sounds good and Liam wants to write all night, just like the old days – but first he wants to shoot up.

Charlie continues to stare at the two bags of H as Locke shows up. Locke steps in, takes all the statues, and ignores Charlie’s statements that he was simply testing himself. Charlie pleads with Locke to hide this incident from Claire; for the sake of the baby’s safety, Charlie believes Claire must trust him again. Locke simply walks away.

On the beach, Claire asks Locke if she and Aaron can sleep in the hatch, but Locke says it isn’t a good place for a baby to sleep since the loud alarm goes off every 90 minutes. Locke suggest that he move his stuff down and camp next to her for a few nights, and she likes that idea. Next, Claire asks Locke what he knows about baptism.

Someone is in the jungle at night, gathering moss and sticks for a fire. Charlie emerges from the jungle nearby and ignores Sayid’s request for help with a structure. Moments later, Sayid sees the fire growing in size and approaching the camping area. Sayid sounds the alarm and almost everyone heads over to help with containers of water. Locke tells Claire to stay with Aaron. Everyone is at the fire, and Claire is watching, and Charlie is just behind her, undetected.

In flashback, Charlie returns to the apartment to find that Liam has sold his piano and used the money to pay to take his family to Sydney, where a rehab clinic and a job awaits. Charlie is abandoned, wondering about his own family or lack thereof.

Charlie steals the baby and takes it to the surf’s edge to baptize it. Claire, Locke, and the other arrive and manage to convince him to give the baby back. As soon as the baby is safe, Locke unloads on him with a flurry of punches to the face.

In the morning, Jack examines Charlie on the beach, treats him, and tells him he needs stitches. Charlie admits to starting the fire. Jack wants a pledge that Charlie will never do something like that again. Charlie wants to talk about not using foremost, but he also promises.

Eko examines the fire scene. Claire asks Eko if he is a priest and talks about baptism.

Locke changes the combination on the gun locker. Eko baptizes Claire and Aaron, so they can be together if something happens.

Locke stores the Virgin Mary statues on a high shelf in the gun locker.

At night, Charlie sits alone by the fire, stares intently, and slowly raises the hood on his jacket: the moth returning to his coccoon.

Comments

This episode starts with flashbacks of Charlie from past episodes. Thinking about his lies concerning the Virgin Mary statues, a nut of an idea was rekindled in my head. What if Charlie is lieing about more than just that? How trustworthy is he? When he killed Ethan, was he protecting Claire or protecting his new-found allegiance in the Others society?

Hurley calls the other survivors ‘Tailies’.

Nits

Where did Jack get that nicely folded tarp from? Do they carry a lot of tarps on the plane?

Memorable Moments

• Claire, Hurley, and Charlie’s mom as biblical characters

• Good prosthetics as Jack sews up Charlie’s facial wound

Quotable Quotes

"There isn’t any danger, Claire. Charlie just feels like he has to save the baby, ‘cause he can’t save himself."
- Locke

Eko: Do you know what baptism is?
Claire: It's what gets you into heaven.
Eko: It is said that when John the Baptist baptized Jesus the skies opened up and a dove flew down from the sky. This told John something: that he had cleansed this man of all his sins. That he had freed him. Heaven came much later.