Original airdate: 1/25/06
Previously on LOST: Sayid accidentally put Charlie on Temptation Island by showing him the contents of the Mary statues.
Things kick off in flashback land, presumably, as two young boys eagerly open presents on Christmas morning. Well, only one boy actually, as all of the boxes are addressed to Liam. Mom walks in and tells young Charlie that his present is in the corner covered by blankets. It's a piano, which Charlie is very excited about. Mom tells him his talent will get them all out of there. (No pressure) Charlie turns around to see a grown-up Liam agreeing with her. Just as a now grown-up Charlie is about to play a tune on the piano, he is interrupted by a butcher chopping meat in the living room telling him that he won't get anywhere unless he learns a trade. When Charlie finally starts playing, he is transported back to the edge of the island he currently calls home. He hears baby Aaron crying from inside the piano and tries desperately to open it. There is an ominous rumbling coming from the jungle now and when Charlie turns back around, the piano is tipped over and floating away in the tide. At this point, Charlie wakes up from his dream in a cold sweat. He races over to Claire's tent but finds neither mother nor son. He does find Sun, though, and she steers him about twenty feet to the left where Claire and Aaron are happily playing with John Locke. Charlie sees this and instead of approaching, he slinks into the shadows to watch them. This cues the creepy LOST title screen.
Later, Charlie finds Claire alone and tries to talk to her, but she will have none of it. He apologizes and wants things to go back to the way they were before. Claire tells him that there is no "before"; they were just two strangers on a plane who became friends.
Charlie walks away and flashes back to the hospital where he met his newborn niece, Megan, for the first time. Liam is conspicuous by his absence, so Charlie explains to his wife that he missed the flight home. One scene later, Charlie arrives home to find his brother strung up on heroin and oblivious to the fact that he is a new father. Charlie sternly tells Liam that he had better clean himself up.
On the beach, Hurley reluctantly asks Sawyer if he got to know Libby on the long walk home and if she is cool or not. Sawyer sees right through the feigned casualness and teases Hurley about a love connection. Speaking of which, Sawyer next focuses his aim on making sure Kate notices Jack and Ana-Lucia coming out of the jungle yet again. If Kate is jealous, she doesn't show it.
Near the shore, Charlie is practicing his guitar when he hears Aaron crying. Oddly, the cries are coming from the ocean. Finding no one to help, Charlie dives into the water. This is either a dream or a continuity error since we learned way back in "White Rabbit" that Charlie does not swim. I'm going with the former. Especially since after he is done fishing Aaron out of the water, Charlie sees his mother and Claire in biblical attire warning him repeatedly and robotically that he has to save the baby. Hurley appears and asks Charlie what he is doing, but it turns out this isn't part of the dream. Charlie wakes to find that he is holding the baby on the beach in the middle of the night with no clue how he got there. From afar, Claire is flipping out that Aaron is gone, but Hurley calls her over. Charlie stumbles toward an apology, but Claire doesn't wait for it before giving him a hard slap.
The next day, Hurley and Sawyer are playing Blackjack. Hurley has a King and a 2, while Sawyer is the dealer showing a 6. Figure out what that means, obsessed nerds! I'll get you started: Hurley's last name is Spanish for king and 6+2=8, which is one of the cursed numbers. Discuss. Anyway, Hugo can't quite understand why he should stand on 12 with the dealer showing a low card, so Sawyer welcomes the distraction of Libby walking by. Hurley is a little gun shy about making his move, so Sawyer yells for her and disappears into his tent. Hurley meekly waves at her and receives what looks like- yes, they are bedroom eyes.
In the jungle, Charlie meets Locke coming out of the hatch. (BTW, how pissed must Locke be that he spent half of last season trying to blow open the hatch door when there was a regular door all along?) Charlie tries to explain about his sleepwalking and asks Locke to talk to Claire for him. Locke sidesteps this and asks straight up if Charlie is using again. Charlie responds to this with anger and says that he and Mr. Eko burned the entire stash along with the prop plane. Locke advises giving Claire more time and space since it takes that to win back trust.
Charlie then flashes back to Driveshaft's lowpoint. Standing in a crib wearing diapers and singing a bastardized version of 'You All Everybody' in a diaper commercial. At least they're trying to, anyway. Liam is high again and keeps screwing things up. The director has no choice but to fire the band and advises Charlie to ditch his brother.
[NOTE: I know they call it "the hatch" on the show, but that really bugs me since the hatch is just the door. I am going to call scenes set in "the hatch" what they really are- scenes set in Station Three of the Dharma Initiative.]
Meanwhile, in Station Three of the Dharma Initiative, Hurley and Libby are doing laundry. You would think Hurley would be excited that his crush is changing in front of him and asking what he thinks of a top she found, but he is too distracted by the sudden notion that he knows her from somewhere. Libby says it was on the plane when he stepped on her foot on the way to his seat, but I don't know how much water that holds knowing that Hurley is a former mental patient and Libby is a psychologist.
On the edge of the jungle, Charlie finds Mr. Eko marking the trees he likes. My dog does that, too, only he doesn't use a knife. Charlie mentions that he might be going crazy because of his vivid dreams. Eko asks him to consider that the dreams might be trying to tell him something- like maybe he really does need to save the baby.
This leads Charlie frantically back to Claire's tent where Kate pushes him away. He fights through and tells Claire that Aaron must be baptized. As Kate finally gets him to go away, the camera pans over to Locke who's got his creepy Sling Blade-esque stare going on again.
Later, in the jungle, Charlie seeks comfort from his secret stash of Marys. He thinks back to when he was inspired to write Driveshaft's comeback song. Liam walks in with the news that his wife kicked him out because he dropped the baby. Charlie tries to cheer him up by playing the new song- and it works. But just when things are starting to look up again, Liam spoils it by asking his brother if he's "got any".
As present day Charlie stares his temptation in the face, Locke shows up to bust him. Locke is understandably upset about being lied to and puts the rest of the statues in his bag. Charlie tries to appeal to Locke's love of the island's mystical qualities by saying that the island is testing him, but Locke is not buying what he's selling. Charlie moves on to trying to make him understand that Aaron is in danger but that doesn't work either. "You've given up the right to be believed, Charlie," Locke tells him matter-of-factly.
Locke returns to the beach where Claire asks if she and the baby can stay in Station Three of the Dharma Inititative for a while. Locke doesn't think this is a good idea because of the alarm and offers instead to move his stuff near hers. She tells him what Charlie said about baptism, but Locke blows it off, saying that Charlie just feels like he has to save the baby because he can't save himself.
That night, Charlie starts a fire at the edge of the jungle. When Sayid and the others rush to put it out, Charlie takes a moment to stare at Claire and Aaron from the comfort of darkness. As he's doing this, he thinks back to the biggest betrayal of his young life. Good news: Liam has decided to clean himself up and save his family. Bad news: he sold Charlie's piano in order to afford tickets to Australia, where all this rehabilitation is going to happen. Oh, and he's leaving right now, leaving Charlie in the street screaming, "What about my family?"
As everyone is still working on the fire, Charlie uses the distraction to kidnap Aaron. Claire sees him and tries to stop it, which gets Locke's attention. Now attracting a crowd at the shore, Charlie looks to Eko for support of the baptism theory. Mr. Eko looks disgusted and says that this is not the way. When Locke asks for the baby back, Charlie screams at him that Locke is not Aaron's father or his family. "Neither are you, Charlie," Locke reminds him. Defeated, Charlie hands the baby back and Locke punches him three times, knocking him in the water. Everyone walks away, disgusted and bewildered by Charlie's actions.
The next day, as Jack tends to his wounds, Charlie admits that he started the fire, which Jack kind of knew already. Charlie knows it doesn't matter now, but for the record he never went back to using.
Elsewhere, Claire finds Mr. Eko and asks him about baptism. To keep them from being seperated in the afterlife, Eko agrees to baptize them both.
Meanwhile, in Station Three of the Dharma Initiative, Locke changes the lock on the gun room and puts Charlie's statues in there for safe keeping.
That night, Charlie sits on the edge of the society that Jack built, but it is unclear if this is self-banishment or has been imposed upon him. He puts his hood up and stares into the distance.
Next time: Sun gets abducted, Jack demands the guns from Locke and Sayid picks up a radio signal.
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