Summary: Flashbacks show Charlie's 5 best moments of his life: hearing his band on the radio, learning to swim with his dad, getting his family's ring from Liam, being called a hero by Nadia and meeting Claire on the island. In the present, Ben returns to the others camp and declares that they are immediately going to attack the survivors. Alex tells Karl who then goes to warn the survivors. Meanwhile, Jack tells everyone his plan: the others will come to kidnap the women but when they go into the marked tents, the survivors will detonate dynamite to kill them. The camp prepares for this, but when Karl tells them that the others are coming sooner than expected, plans change. Jack decides that 3 people (Sayid, Jin and Bernard) will shoot the dynamite to trigger it while everyone else will go to the radio tower where Sayid hopes to stop Rousseau's signal so that they can use Naomi's phone. Juliet reveals that the others have been jamming signals and that a flooded underwater station called the Looking Glass must be accessed to turn off the jamming. Desmond sees a vision of Claire getting into a helicopter but Charlie dies in the Looking Glass for this to come true. Accepting his fate, Charlie decides to go to the Looking Glass and stop the jammer. However, when he swims there he finds that the station isn't flooded and he is held at gunpoint by 2 people.
The Good: This whole episode felt like a fond farewell to Charlie, who has always been one of the more well-liked characters on the show. Centering the flashbacks around the best moments of his life was a fantastic choice, one that added a lot more emotion to the episode. Because of this, the episode had a fairly somber and bittersweet vibe as Charlie looks death in the face, accepts it, and decides to relive the best parts of his life before the end. It's very sad stuff, and the flashbacks translate Charlie's best memories wonderfully. On the island, Charlie really has his best episode as a character since "The Moth". We see him saying goodbye to everyone, with particularly touching scenes with Claire and Hurley. Then once he's on the boat with Desmond and ready to die, he finally lets out some emotion in a magnificent scene. Desmond comes off as wonderfully sympathetic when he offers to take Charlie's place, and Charlie feels truly heroic when he refuses that option, resolved to give his life for a greater cause. The storytelling here is superb and it's hard not to feel anything watching Charlie prepare to die. But then in a wonderful twist, Charlie makes it to the Looking Glass and finds it isn't flooded. His glee at realizing he is still alive is a fantastic moment of relief for the character, and is neatly interrupted by him being held at gunpoint, leaving him with a pretty big problem he'll have to deal with in the season finale. The moment is an excellent cliffhanger, and I can't wait to see what happens next. The rest of the episode is mostly solid stuff that lays the foundation for the season finale. We learn Jack's plan, and it's a very dramatic one. There's set-up for a major confrontation between the survivors and the others, and it should be very exciting to see what happens there. The plan seems safe and ingenious at first, but when Karl arrives to say that the others are coming earlier than expected, there's suddenly a sense of danger, one that will surely be explored well in the season finale. This episode does its set-up pretty well, and it's enjoyable to watch. Additionally, there's Sayid being wonderfully logical in this episode which I was a big fan of. First he ensures that something is being done to get off the island by discussing the satellite phone, which is a wonderful piece of writing. Then he later convinces Jack to be the leader by taking everyone to the radio tower. He has a really good episode, and it's nice to see the character being used to drive the story forwards by setting up the dramatic hook of a potential rescue being set up in the next episode. With every storyline picking up steam in a big way, the show seems set to deliver a huge climax to finish off this season. As a final detail, I liked the Easter Egg of Charlie meeting Nadia in the alleys. That was a nice little touch. The Bad: The dynamite demonstration at the beginning of the episode was absolutely stupid. I understand that it was done to provide a more dramatic moment for the audience. But when a show does something baffling for the sake of the audience, that completely destroys my immersion and takes away from the credibility of the show. There are so many flaws with this. For one, why does Jack need to do a demonstration anyways? He could just tell them that they will use dynamite! Going out of his way to do a demonstration has so many drawbacks. For one, that explosion was pretty big, so what if somebody nearby heard that and figured out the plan? That's an unnecessary risk to take. Furthermore, it's such a waste of time and resources (dynamite, wire) to do this random explosion in the jungle instead of working to set up the trap they are actually planning to use. Hell, had Jack not wasted time on this demonstration, they might have been able to set up the dynamite trap on time! I'm not happy with how this show treats murder. We have seen it treated seriously in a few specific cases (Michael, Charlie), but for the most part the concept of death and murder is treated so flippantly. Here Jack suggests that they are going to outright murder so many people, and nobody even brings up morality as an issue. It's so odd because surely somebody here would be against the idea of taking lives, even if it is in self defense. After all, as far as everyone knows, the others aren't even planning on killing anybody! It's inexplicable to me that people like Hurley, Claire and Juliet (she lived with these people for years!) see no problem with this. Charlie being a great swimmer is a very poor piece of continuity as he stated back in "White Rabbit" that he doesn't swim. It's a minor gripe, but I still do wish that they found a different story for Charlie that doesn't hurt the continuity of the show. The Unknown: Will the plan work? Or will it somehow go wrong? I imagine all of the others won't be killed in the explosions. Will they go after the 3 shooters? Will the survivors actually be able to get in contact with Naomi's boat? Who is in the Looking Glass? Why isn't the station flooded? What's going on down there? How is Charlie going to get away from these people? Is he still going to die or has he somehow escaped Desmond's vision? What would this mean for Claire and Aaron? Will they still escape on a helicopter? Best Moment: Charlie and Desmond on the boat. Certainly the most powerful moment of the episode. Character of the Episode: Charlie of course. Conclusion: This was a strong episode of set-up elevated by the emotion from Charlie's story. There were some small flaws in the storytelling, but as a whole this served its purpose and left me satisfied and excited for the season finale. Score: 71
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
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