TV Review: Lost Episode 2.12

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

From ABC: When Charlie's vividly surreal dreams lead him to believe Claire's baby, Aaron, is in danger, Locke suspects Charlie may be using again. Meanwhile, Sawyer encourages Hurley to act on his attraction to Libby.

My Rating: 2 out of 4

Tonight's episode of Lost titled Fire & Water lost me almost from the very beginning. In fact, I didn't see this episode as necessary to move things forward with the story of the plane crash. This is a Charlie centric episode, and we continue forward with the story line of him keeping the Virgin Mary statues filled with heroin. No one knows that he saved some of the statues from the fire.

Claire still wants nothing to do with him, but this feeling gets considerably worse once things begin to happen. Charlie begins having real weird dreams involving her baby, Aaron. In fact, during one of them he appears to sleep walk and take the baby from its crib. Claire wakes up to find the baby gone, and she freaks out. By that point, Hurley has spotted Charlie and the baby, and he alerts everyone else once he hears Claire's frantic screams. Claire takes the baby from Charlie, and all doesn't bode well for the two. In fact, she looks even more angered with him than before.

Charlie mentions about his dreams to Eko, and the other man suggests that the baby needs to be baptized. This puts the idea into Charlie's head. Locke also approaches Charlie, and the two talk. Charlie makes clear that the statues were all burned. Locke believes him, or he appears to in any case. Charlie ends up trying to go to Claire to tell her the baby is in danger and needs to be baptized, but everyone seems to be protecting Claire from Charlie. Kate won't allow him near her. She does hear what he has to say, and she is confused by it. She later asks Locke about what Charlie said, and Locke explains baptismal by calling it the way babies are sure to get into heaven.

Locke ends up following Charlie after this encounter, and Locke finds the statues Charlie had been hiding. He takes them because he states Charlie no longer has a choice when it comes to the statues, but it appears he doesn't Claire about the find. That night Charlie takes the baby again to the ocean with the intent to baptize the baby himself. First, he sets a fire so the islanders are all distracted, so he can get close enough to take the baby.

When Claire notices he has the baby, she begins to scream, and everyone's attention is averted to her and the baby. They all approach Charlie, and Locke starts to talk him down. At first, Charlie lashes out at Locke, but he ends up giving him the baby. Once the baby is safe in his mother's arms, Locke punches Charlie a few times, and then Charlie watches as everyone leaves him there. The next day Jack comes to Charlie to fix him up. Jack makes sure that Charlie doesn't have any future plans. Claire approaches Eko about the baptismal, and Eko proceeds to baptize her and the baby.

Charlie's problems weren't the only story in this episode. We also had a minor sub plot having to do with Hurley and Libby. His crush on her is deepening, and Sawyer discovers it. Sawyer encourages Hurley to go after the woman, but he is shy. Jack and Ana Lucia also have a scene in which they discuss the events of last week, and she asks him about he and Kate. I loved that short scene. I wish we saw more of the tallies, other than Eko.

I just didn't feel this episode did much for the series. It didn't move anything forward. We know Charlie had a heroin problem, so the flashbacks only show us why he is acting the way he is with the baby. It didn't introduce anything. In fact, this episode took us back by reintroducing the story line with the baby, and its possible connection to something evil. The baby is in danger, and he has been, even before he left Claire's womb. This episode brought that back to the surface, but then made everything well with the baptismal.

I feel this is probably one of the weakest episodes of this season, and it just lost me altogether. I also didn't really appreciate how the series has now made Charlie some huge villian and outcast. Sure, he has problems, but he thought he was trying to help. He just went about it the wrong way.

If you missed tonight's episode, you can find it on iTunes in the morning. A preview for what's next on Lost can be found here courtesy of txvoodoo on live journal. For all the latest in Lost news and discussion, head on over to my forum, where you can find my Lost thread here.