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Lost: The Moth

Liam: "Face it. If you're not in this band, what the bloody hell use are you?"

I've wondered about the content of Charlie's character. Turns out Charlie was a devout Catholic who was seduced by the Dark Side when he became a rock god. Charlie's brother Liam said that Charlie was nothing without the band, and that was exactly how we were seeing him and how Charlie saw himself – as a drug addict and a loser.

White moths are a symbol of re-birth. Charlie was the moth; he had to help himself out of his cocoon. The fact that a moth led Charlie toward the light and out of the cave (a cave that reminded Charlie of the confessional) was not a coincidence. There is also Plato's allegory of the cave, as someone wrote to tell me. They even showed Charlie digging himself out as if he were emerging from a grave. Charlie was reborn. He is now someone else: the better someone else that he was before.

Charlie risked his life to rescue Jack, and Jack protected Charlie's secret. Like Kate, Charlie had to heal Jack (dislocated shoulder) so that Jack could heal others. Locke, mighty hunter and Island prophet, played an important role here, too; I really loved his "three step plan" that helped Charlie decide what he really wanted. Jack may be their leader, but Locke is their guide.

In other news, Sayid made another attempt at locating the distress signal. Note that there were three points of the triangle they used to try and isolate the transmission, and Charlie had three opportunities to ask Locke for his drugs. (Three is a magical and holy number.) Anyway, there were comical aspects to Kate and Boone taking off and leaving the triangulation attempts to the ditzy Shannon and jerky Sawyer.

I don't think I've mentioned yet how much I like Sayid, the voice of reason. He did receive a signal, but someone (or something) didn't want him to see it. Who knocked him out? Who was missing? Was it the Island? After all, the Island actually seemed to react when Charlie said he was a "bloody rock god" – that was when the cave-in occurred. The Island may not want them to find the French woman. Is the Island a living entity?

More speculation. Sayid and Kate actually talked about the Big Question:

Kate: "People survive plane crashes all the time."
Sayid: "Not like this one."

Are the survivors all dead? Are they souls in some sort of purgatory, perhaps?

Character bits:

Why was Charlie on the plane to L.A.? He was from Manchester, and he was visiting Liam in Sydney; they weren't going to get the gig in L.A. as the opening act for "Meat Coat" unless Liam was part of the band. And Liam said no. Did Charlie just go to L.A., anyway, hoping to talk himself into the job? Or did Liam change his mind, and die on the plane?


Charlie (or Dominic) has a tattoo on his right arm as well as his left. Couldn't see it, though.

Michael and Walt have probably just moved to the caves. Kate sure wanted to, too.

Michael has eight years of construction experience that made him very useful in the cave-in.

The pregnant Claire (Emilie deRaven) was not in this episode and not listed in the credits.

Bits and pieces:

— This episode did not open with Charlie's eye. But we got a closeup of his face with both eyes in the opening scene.

— It has been eight days since the crash. There are still 46 survivors.

— The hand coming up from the ground reminded me of Carrie.


— More meaningful looks between Sun and Michael. Plus, she stood up to her husband by refusing to cover up when she was hot. How long until she starts talking?

— The song performed by Driveshaft, "You all, everybody," sounded a lot like "Power to the People."

— The definition of "allegory" is a story in which the characters and events symbolize some deeper, underlying meaning. This show should be called "Allegories R Us."

Quotes:

Jack: "You want to grab the rest of those bags?"
Hurley: "Oh, could I?"

Jack: "Charlie found a way out."
Hurley to Charlie: "Dude, you rock."

Good, but too heavy-handed with the symbolism for me. Two out of four polar bears,

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

3 comments:

  1. I agree with you on the heavy-handed symbolism, but I have always liked the story of the butterfly/moth emerging from the cocoon stronger after the struggle. it's not a new one.

    Two Sawyer points. I know, but I like the guy. The first is that he refers to Jack as "Saint Jack" when he is talking to Kate, obviously being ironic. Later, Jack tells Charlie that he is no saint. I liked that small touch. This show has a lot of them.

    The second was the way Sawyer took over Jack's tent even before the man had moved out of it. Similarly, he seems to be "moving in" on Jack's girl. There is real heat between Sawyer and Kate. Although she is nasty as hell to him, she cannot ignore him.

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  2. Charlie (or Dominic) has a tattoo on his right arm as well as his left.

    I'm pretty sure that's the tattoo that Dominic Monaghan got with the rest of the Fellowship of the Ring (except Ian McKellan) during the filming of the LotR trilogy.

    (I am ashamed that I know that. I also don't know why I know that.)

    This is the first episode of Lost that I don't love, for the reason you mentioned, Billie: the symbolism is too heavy-handed.

    I did enjoy the show of Charlie and Liam coming out of the church, though. I'm pretty sure we see that same location in "Flashes Before Your Eyes," used as a very different setting. It's nice to know there's a courtyard in Hawaii that can double for all of England.

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  3. Rewatch Comment: After this episode my son said “I think the island is alive, and shows them what they need to see to help them.” Whoa. I think he might be right. Or maybe he’s wrong. Oh the joys of watching a show again after 10+ years.

    But at this point what have we seen:
    - Locke saw the ‘island’, experienced a miracle, and became the man he always wanted to be.
    - Jack saw his ‘father’, who led him to water and shelter, which was a need at the moment.
    - Charlie saw the moth, which led him and Jack to an escape from the cave in.
    I don’t think Kate or Sun saw anything though?

    ReplyDelete

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