From the beginning of Lost few
characters received such instant devotion as that of Charlie Pace. Part of it
was no doubt due to Dominic Monaghan’s name recognition - Lord of the Rings had recently
completed its dominance at the box office and the Oscars not long prior to the
series debut in September of 2004, which made Monaghan the most recognizable
face in the first season. But much more of it had to do with the character of
Charlie, who in many ways was more relatable than so many of the other
characters we would meet on the series.
It’s not that any of the other
character’s backstories wouldn’t turn out to be more emotionally resonant or
even capable of causing more connection with the fan base. It’s because
Charlie’s story was arguably the most familiar one even to those of us who,
like me, don’t know the first thing about rock music and didn’t realize that I
was in a sense hearing the story of Oasis. It’s one that, if anything, has
become more poignant in the decades since Lost aired because we keep
seeing variations on it over and over. A rock star becomes successful very
quickly, falls from the public eye just as fast, and becomes a victim of
substance abuse, eventual addiction, and an early death. We have already seen
how the island has offered freedom to Kate and Locke (in different ways) and
it’s just as clear its offered it to Charlie, who is now going through a detox
without the benefit of Betty Ford.
One of the greater pleasures of Lost in
the early seasons was the relationship between Locke and Charlie. Locke was
clearly capable of great wisdom and insight but the majority of the characters
would reject it. Charlie’s relationship would be more complicated then most of
the characters, but a lot of that is fundamentally due to how much Locke is
invested in Charlie’s recovery. This is clear from the moment he and Charlie
begin their discussion about him wanting his stash back. John is not religious
in the sense that Charlie is, but when he unintentionally echoes what his
priest told him about choices in the first flashback, it resonates with Charlie
in a way that no one else on the series could really have talked to him about. Jack
does recognize what Charlie is going through as well (and in this sense, is
more qualified to walk Charlie through it then John is) but it is telling about
what Charlie thinks about both men that he only opens to Jack when he thinks
death is imminent and is more willing to go to John first about the emotional
feeling.
There’s a clearly different in help that
in a sense Locke is superior to Jack on (which considering what we will learn
about Jack as the series goes on, is deeply ironic). Jack is capable of helping
Charlie with his addiction but only in a strictly clinical sense. Locke is
capable of understanding something that, for all Jack’s medical experience, he
just can’t get. In order to give up an addiction, the addict has to want it. For
all the heavy-handed nature of the metaphor of the moth, it comes to the core
of the episode: Charlie has to find inner strength not just to admit his
problem, but to be able to reject the source. When Charlie makes his choice at
the end of the novel, Locke is dismayed – until he realizes that Charlie has
listened to him and knows that he has to make it.
Charlie’s backstory will get tiresome
perhaps a bit quicker than the rest of the ones we hear, but there’s little
denying just how painful it is when we hear it.
It will become a running joke eventually as to how many of the problems
the characters we meet have because of their families, but Charlie’s is an outlier
because his problems are not because of his parents but rather his brother.
There’s an argument that all of Charlie’s problems can be laid at the foot of
Liam, who forces them to become rock stars even though Charlie has doubts at
the start, Liam gets all the glory while Charlie does all the work, Liam falls
deeper and deeper into addiction and it is only through Liam’s downward spiral
that Charlie follows his brother (perhaps in a broken way because he thinks
it’s the only way to stay close to him) and by the time his brother does walk
away, Charlie is too far gone to accept the half-assed offers for help Liam
gives him in the final flashback. All of this no doubt has led to Charlie
having a massive inferiority complex, and the way so many of the characters
dismiss him as useless (or in Sawyer’s case, outright bully him) has done
nothing to help him during this low point. When Charlie goes into rescue Jack,
it is no doubt because of the responsibility he bears for causing the cave-in
in the first place, but also because he still feels no one will miss him if he
dies in the attempt. It’s a sad moment,
and its to the show’s credit that Charlie manages to redeem himself not only in
his own eyes, but in that of the entire camp.
When the crisis involving the cave-in
begins, it is interesting to observe the unity that comes. Jack is in a
position where he can’t give assistance for the first time in the series, and
it is a good choice to see Michael stepping up. Up to this point, Michael has
been used almost entirely in connection with his relationship to Walt, and this
is the first time he gets to show what he is capable of in a crisis. Much of my
frustration with how Michael’s character is handled by the writers is based on
how exceptionally they did in Season 1.
From this point on, he is part of the community and the actions of the
island, and one of the biggest failures of this series is how utterly they
would wreck his character in the years to come. (Though to be fair, they might
not have had a choice in part of it.)
Some will also begin to have problems
with Kate very soon, and I have little doubt much of it has to do with the
whole Jack-Kate-Sawyer triangle that in this episode is finally made part of
the series. Fans will expend a lot of
vitriol at Kate because of the ways she spends almost the entire series
flitting back and forth between Jack and Sawyer, using one when it suits her
needs and flitting to the other when it doesn’t. It doesn’t help matters that
her mood towards both is always complicated, to say the least: she clearly is
far more devoted to Jack – the minute she hears he’s in danger, she runs to the
caves and practically kills herself trying to save him. But the minute she
knows he’s safe, she goes back to the beach – with Sawyer. Sawyer clearly has a
better understanding of Kate, but she spends much of the first half of the
series basically treating him with barely veiled contempt. This is clear in
every interaction they have in this episode, and for all Sawyer’s efforts to
act like an unfeeling jackass, there’s no doubt it must sting when he goes to
see Kate to do the right thing and she’s basically attacks him the minute she
lays on him. Is it contemptible how he responds? Yes. But its hard not to argue
she kind of deserved it. Kate is more complicated then this, as we shall see,
but I do understand why so many fans would have issues with her. (For the
record, I always loved her character and still think she’s one of the best ones
in the entire series.)
Its also worth noting that the elephant
is addressed, and that the discussion does not come between Jack and Locke, but
rather Kate and Sayid. The two are among the most rational ones throughout most
of the series, so its interesting that Sayid raises the fact how remarkable it
is that they survived the plane crash with barely any injuries. When Kate
shrugs it off to “blind luck”, Sayid says: “No one’s that lucky.” At this
point, both characters are devoting all their energy to getting off the island
and are in fact going into the jungle to make one more attempt to get rescued,
so neither dwell on it for long and neither will ever directly address this
issue again for a very long time.
In a way, this scene may fundamentally
lay the groundwork for one of the greater frustrations that many have with the
series: all of the strange things that are going on around them, and no one
ever talks about them. In this case one character asks a question that in a way
is the most important one of the series, and another says that the answer
doesn’t matter. At this point in Lost, the argument can be that they are
struggling to survive and get rescued. But in retrospect, its maddening that
Jack, who is trying to lead the struggle to survival, is not capable of deal
with what it will take to survive, which means facing the question.
Perhaps that is why when dealing with the
issue that is fundamental to his own survival, Charlie knows that he has to go
to Locke rather than Jack to be sure of it. And the final moment when we see a
smile of unadulterated relief on his face, makes it clear that Charlie might
have made the right choice there too.
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