It's been almost a month on the Island. I'm going to guess that this was Day 24 and 25 on the Island. Two people we knew died in this episode, so now we only know 19 out of 45 people alive on the Island.
So this was the second Charlie episode, and I'm thinking that the flashbacks in this episode take place before that final scene between Charlie and Liam in the first Charlie episode. I don't really have any way to confirm that, but that feels right to me.
To tell the truth, I felt like the flashbacks really dragged the pacing of this episode down. I understand what they were trying to do. The idea of this episode was that Charlie used to be this good for nothing who would try but ultimately fail to be a worthwhile human being. The idea of him wanting to protect someone, a motif found in the Jin and Sun relationship in this episode, and to the blossoming Sayid and Shannon flirtation, is an interesting one, and I was very happy with the ending between Claire and Charlie, but I don't know if the flashbacks were really necessary. There was so much good stuff in this episode without it.
Why the hell was Sawyer, the only person we know of to have failed to kill a man from point blank range invited on this blazing pistols mission? I'm glad that Kate, the one person we know can DEFINITELY handle a gun got in on the mission as well.
I like the exploration of the dynamics of leadership among the survivors in this episode. Jack is the leader, but he's pretty much the first among equals among the top tier of the leadership. Sayid gets stuff done, and when it comes to organizing the survivors, he always takes part. Then there's Locke who is sort of like the military leader of the group. These three form a sort of triumvirate of leadership in the tribe, with Boone, Kate, and Charlie being their quasi lieutenants, and Hurley seeming to take a sort of PR position. Well at least that's how it played out in this episode, but I'm interested to see these dynamics shift and change. It's interesting how these informal roles come into being, and I would like to see how those in leadership positions would handle following orders. And of course, Sawyer is the outlaw and doesn't participate in any of this until it's time to fight.
The other thing I enjoyed about this episode quite a bit, was the brief scenes between Jin and Sun when they don't have any idea what is going on. I think Sun is going to break and reveal that she can understand English soon, or else there's no way these two will be able to participate in any main plot antics.
I'm back on the "Boone sucks" train. all he had to do was stay awake for guard duty, but no he couldn't handle that.
Scott is dead. Poor guy. We knew absolutely nothing about him except his name prior to this episode, and the fact that it's not Steve.
Ethan fucking Rom.
So the set up to the confrontation with Ethan was very cool. I enjoyed watching Jack beat on Ethan, but I felt like it was sort of a let down considering the set up. I thought it was going to be a much more intense fight that required the entire alpha team (Jack, Sawyer, Kate, Sayid, Locke.) I did love that Charlie killed Ethan, though for a moment I was like "who shot him?" I also really enjoyed that Charlie's brutality didn't freak Claire out, because I was afraid it would. Instead the cute and wonderful ship continues.
I don't know which I like more, Claire/Charlie or Shannon/Sayid.
Rating: 7 out of 10 jukeboxes that play DriveShaft!
If they had cut the flashback, and focused instead on some of the current dynamics among the survivors I would have enjoyed this episode a whole lot more. I enjoy learning more about these characters, but the series has reached a point where I feel the characters are all well established, and the most interesting thing is to just watch them interact. I think I would prefer just watching Charlie tell Claire the story of his relationship to Lucy, then actually watching it unfold. I like these characters, and I don't feel the need to saturate the show with one shot characters for their flashbacks.
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