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Lost: Greatest Hits

Nadia: "You are a hero, sir. And don't let anyone ever tell you differently."

This was an amazing, moving episode. It was very much Charlie's last hurrah. The weird thing was that he didn't hurrah. It was like leaving the punch line off the end of a joke.

But it was still the best Charlie episode so far, and possibly ever. I actually started crying not once, but three times, when Charlie was saying goodbye without saying goodbye: to Aaron, to Hurley, and to Desmond. The goodbye to Claire wasn't as emotional, although his choice of his number one "greatest hit" definitely was. And he could indeed die in the finale, after all.

#5 The first time I heard myself on the radio
#4 Dad teaching me to swim at Butlin's
#3 The Christmas Liam gave me the ring
#2 Woman outside Covent Garden calls me a hero
#1 The night I met you

The flashbacks to the best five moments of Charlie's life told us what was really in Charlie's heart. I noticed that none of them actually involved performing, which I thought was telling. They included the Covent Garden scene in Desmond's vision where Charlie was playing in the street and got caught in the rain, except we didn't see Desmond. We did see Sayid's Nadia, though, because she was the woman in the alley that Charlie saved.

There was water in all of the flashbacks, which must have been deliberate because water will supposedly be the death of him. It was pouring rain in two flashbacks, there was young Charlie afraid to jump into a pool in the third, and it was snowing during the Christmas flashback in Helsinki. The last one being on the beach is stretching the water thing, but still.

I was also strongly affected by the rest of the plot. Taking the women and killing the men? Positively medieval. There is no one to save them, and nothing they can do but what they're doing: fight back the best they can. I can feel a Shakespearean bloodbath approaching, and I'm feeling actual dread about it.

Will Jack's strategy work? Desmond "saw" Claire and Aaron getting on a helicopter; will rescue finally come via the radio tower? Well, then the show would be over, and there are three more seasons to go. Maybe some of them will get rescued, but not others; they could write several characters out that way without killing them. I'm religious about avoiding spoilers and I have absolutely no idea how this is going to play out. But all signs point to it being massive.

Character bits:

Charlie was junior swim champion in northern England. Or he says he was.

The DS on Charlie's ring stands for Dexter Stratton, one of his ancestors. That's where they got the name Drive Shaft. The ring was passed down father to son. Charlie left it for Aaron, but Claire didn't see it and left it behind. This implies that the line will stop with Charlie.

Jack is now uberleader. He may be right, he may be wrong, but it's all up to him, like Buffy in season seven. At least he left Sayid in charge of the military part of his plan, which was smart.



Sayid's bullet wound is nearly healed. That was quick. Magic-y heal-y island.

Desmond offered to risk death in Charlie's place, and he meant it. He's quite a guy.

Charlie was being cruel to be kind, but he was right: Hurley really wouldn't have fit into that skinny boat.


Rose and Bernard are finally back. Their absence has been noticeable.

Was Alex skinning a dead white rabbit? Deliberate Alice in Wonderland reference? There must be many bunnies on the Island since we've seen so many of them.

Naomi, who is from Manchester like Charlie, told him that there was a huge memorial service for Charlie and a greatest hits album for Drive Shaft.

We still don't know what happened to Locke. We'd better find out next week.

Bits and pieces:

— It's been ninety days. That makes it near Christmas in 2004, right?

— Finally an answer to where that cable on the beach goes: Looking Glass station. Lost really is just a looking glass world, a backward version of the real world. Does that hint that this is an alternate universe?

— Danielle got dynamite from the Black Rock. Juliet marked the tents with white rocks. This reminded me of the black and white stones that Adam and Even had, as well as the backgammon game.


— In the first flashback, the van's license plate was YRE20L. It's sort of like "lottery" spelled backward, isn't it? The volume number on the radio station was 23. Charlie said he could hold his breath for four minutes, and he was the fourth person to walk by the alley where Nadia was being mugged.

— Charlie was wearing an interesting tee-shirt with crossed mallets and ideograms. Anyone know what it means? Maybe it just represented the cross, i.e., sacrifice. (I've been informed that the words on the left mean "courage, bravery" and the ones on the right, "belief, faith." Courage and faith. Makes sense.]

— Charlie, of course, was the one to say the word "lost" this week. "I'm lost."

— Sayid and Bernard are two of the shooters. Is Jin the third?

Quotes:

Desmond: "I'm sorry, brother. But this time... this time, you have to die."

Charlie: "It's the five best moments in my sorry excuse for a life. Greatest hits."


Charlie: "So. First plane crash?"
Claire: "What gave it away?"
Charlie: "I can always spot the newbies."

This is a four polar bear episode. It's certainly the best episode about Charlie,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

2 comments:

  1. You are absolutely right about this episode being the best Charlie episode ever. I cried through most of it. The top five moments, seen as flashbacks, were all so lovely and gave us such an insight into this man. I was waiting for number one to be about Claire, but it was even better than I had hoped. Plus, we finally got a kiss.

    And, can I just say, for a guy who has said he can't swim since the first episode, he did a hell of a job getting into that room.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I always hold my breath when Charlie swims to that moon pool.

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