'Lost': Greatest Hits

Charlie Pace. Has-been rocker, cleaned-up druggie, would-be baptizer: this is your life! The first and only Charlie-centric episode of Season 3, it's also the finest Charlie-centric episode in Lost history. Then again, that's slightly faint praise, as almost anything would be better than him throwing up in a copier. That being said, there's nothing faint in my praise of this episode, which provided wonderful character moments and arranged the pieces for the mind-blowing season finale.

(To read my original take on this episode, go here.)

Greatest Hits

4) In Short

"You'll cry, everybody!"

8) Island Action

An unseen figure runs through the jungle. When he gets to shore, we see it's Karl, who takes a boat and hurriedly paddles to the main Island.

Speaking of the main Island, Jack's leading the Lostaways to parts unknown. As they walk, Desmond hesitates slightly. Charlie thinks it's Flash Time, but Des insists that it's not. Jack announces to the group that they have reached their destination. He and Juliet once again explain how they've been keeping Juliet's work for Ben secret. Sayid thinks this is all groovy, this new truth tactic they've discovered, but why are they all the way out in the middle of nowhere?

Jack calls for Danielle, who looks like she's just had the most delicious milkshake ever. Jack asks her to show them what they've been cooking up. She uncovers a metal box, grabs two wires, and blows a nearby tree to smithereens. Now, the Lostaways know Danielle has dynamite, and the Others know their exact position. Awesome.

Jack explains the plan: for the first time, they have the upper hand on the Others. The Lostaways know what the Others want, and they know when they are coming to get it. With a look that approaches madness in his eyes, he announces that when the Others come to the marked tents for the pregnant women, they will get blown to hell. (He does everything short of shouting, "THEY ARE WHO WE THOUGHT THEY WERE!" Which would have been awesome.)

Charlie is writing something on a piece of paper: "#5: The first time I heard myself on the radio." Naomi asks him who they are going to war with, as if that sassy lady doesn't already know. Talk soon turns to Charlie's involvement in Driveshaft. She didn't know the band before the crash, but their popularity skyrocketed in the wake of the Oceanic 815 seabed discovery. Charlie looks pleased by his "posthumous" success, until he sees Desmond giving him the old "you're gonna die, brutha" look from afar.

Elsewhere on the beach, Danielle tells Juliet and Jack that they'll be ready by the following night. As Jack walks from the tent, Sayid announces his plan to go to the radio tower and use Naomi's satellite phone to contact the freighter. Juliet says it's futile: the Others are jamming all signals from leaving the island via a station called the "Looking Glass." She doesn't know where it is, but Sayid thinks he just might have an inkling.

Charlie gets called away from Family Time with Claire by Desmond. He's ready for the bad news. Here's what Des saw: Claire and Aaron getting into a helicopter, lifting off, and leaving the Island. Charlie's elated, but there's a catch in Des' sad eyes. The catch? For them to leave, Charlie has to die. There's no other way. And this time, Des can't stop it from happening.

Charlie's adding something new to his piece of paper: "#4: Dad teaching me to swim at Butlins." Des wants to know what's on the paper, but Charlie's not talking about that. He wants to know how he's gonna die. Des informs him that he's inside a hatch, he flips a switch beneath a blinking light, and then drowns. Charlie wants to be positive that Des saw Claire and Aaron get off in his vision. Des nods, and Charlie steels himself up for what's to come.

Sayid lays out the schematics of the Looking Glass pulled from The Flame earlier in the season. Juliet tells them that Ben told the Others that the station flooded after an accident. Because, you know, blindly trusting Ben is an awesome way to go through life. As the three ponder a way to get into the station and turn off the light, Sayid comes up with a possible way to do so. Unfortunately, said way is in fact one-way, with a swimmer able to possibly disable the jamming signal but unable to swim back up in time.

As Jack calls this plan like it is, Charlie volunteers for swimming duty. He tells Jack he can hold his breath for four minutes, and can easily come back up. Jack stands up, preferring to focus on Operation Kill Others versus Operation Contact Help, and again here come the crazy eyes. They are a squintier version of Ben's, I swear. It's like he obtained them via osmosis in New Otherton.

In what passes as "quality time" on the Island, Rose and Bernard tie together wire for explosive. Nearby, Sun and Jin are participating in the same activity. Jin quietly asks when she's going to fill him in on what Juliet said on the tape. Sun merely says the baby is healthy. At that moment, Karl arrives on the beach and is met with a perfect form tackle from Sayid. Sawyer pulls Sayid off his favorite star-gazing cage buddy in time for Karl to tell the Lostaways the Others are coming tonight, not tomorrow. The Lostaways hysterically all stare like they suddenly have Season 1 Jin levels of English comprehension, which forces Karl to clarify: "They're coming right now!"

At the Others Camp, six hours earlier, Alex is shocked to see Ben return. Richard's equally shocked, but Ben needs to find the next best thing to Pickett: Ryan. Because all men named Ryan are inherent bad-asses, people. He wants Ryan to take his ten best, snag ALL the women, and kill any men dumb enough to get in their way. Ben declares this the will of Jacob, which makes you wonder how many other things were accomplished under such false pretenses. Alex bolts into the jungle, finds Karl, and sends him to the Lostaways camp. Reminded that Sawyer and Kate once saved his life, he agrees to do so.

We're back on the beach, with everyone up to speed. Danielle tells Jack they aren't remotely ready to bomb every tent. Sayid's idea: load up the white tents, and shoot the dynamite from afar with guns. Karl offers up his gun, which makes Hurley squeal. Hee. Jack's new plan: leave three shooters behind to shoot the tents, as Charlie goes for a swim and Danielle leads everyone to the radio tower. Everyone got that? Good.

Item #3 on Charlie's list goes down on paper: "The Christmas Liam gave me the ring." Claire's mad that Charlie kept her in the dark about his deep-sea diving expedition. Charlie asks her not to worry about him while he's gone, and hey, it's a little misty in here. Charlie holds Aaron for one last time, putting him in the crib, and here come the water works. Aaron reaches up to grab Charlie's nose; Charlie tells Aaron he loves him. Charlie then shares a last kiss with Claire and heads towards the cable.

Item #2: "Woman outside Covent Garden calls me a hero." Desmond is fashioning Charlie a weight belt to help him get to the bottom faster. He asks Charlie if he can really hold his breath for four minutes. Charlie replies, "Does it really matter?"

Nearby, Bernard impresses Sayid and annoys Rose with his marksmanship. She doesn't want to leave her husband behind. Jack informs her that if Bernard misses his target that night, it won't matter where any of them are. Sayid surprises Jack by announcing he's staying behind in Jack's place. "This was MY idea!" cries Dr. McWhiney. Sayid finally points out that Jack can't separate killing Others with rescuing Lostaways. Sayid reminds Jack he called himself a leader earlier in the day. "It's time you started acting like one," Sayid says, because he rules all.

OK, Kleenex Time, y'all. Hurley runs over to Charlie, wanting to help. He's sick of explosions and hiking: he's a good paddler. Charlie's heart breaks as he tells Hurley he can't go because he's too big. Hurley wells up, telling his best friend that was uncool. As he walks away, Charlie hugs his friend, with Hurley unaware of what's about to happen. Aaaaand I'm a mess. Fabulous.

Jack and Kate share a great "it's almost the end of the season, time to make a long hike with life or death implications" moment. The three shooters left behind? Bernard, Sayid, and Jin. As Claire takes Aaron from the crib, we see Charlie's ring left behind.

Down the beach, Des and Charlie find the cable, and use it to pull themselves out into the ocean. Time for #1: "The night I met you." He asks Des to hand the paper to Claire. On it? The five best moments of his "sorry excuse" for a life. Des offers to go in Charlie's place down to the Looking Glass. Charlie acquiesces, but as Desmond turns around, Charlie knocks him unconscious with an oar.  He takes the weight belt off of Des, leaves the note behind, and dives into the water.

Before he starts to weep uncontrollably, Charlie dives towards the Looking Glass. We're as shocked as him when he comes through the station's moon pool and finds absolutely no flooding at all. It's seemingly abandoned, but filled with air. OK, maybe not so abandoned, as two women suddenly appear, aiming rifles at Charlie. Aaaaand scene.

15) Charlie's Greatest Hits

Charlie's trying to fix Driveshaft's van in the middle of nowhere in rain-soaked England. Frustrated, Charlie announces that he's quitting the band: they have no money, no sales, and no fans. But just at that moment, they hear something: "You All Everybody" on the radio for the first time. So, no quitting the band then.

As a child, Charlie's father urges him to jump in the public pool. Charlie doesn't want to, thinking his father will pull a Lucy to his Charlie Brown. Liam swims by and insists his father won't catch him. Offscreen, a boy can be heard calling for a someone named Desmond. Hmmm. Charlie overcomes his fear, leaps in, and is surprised when his father pulls him out from under the water. "I did it!" shouts an elated Charlie.

It's Christmas morning, and Santa brought Charlie a threesome. Cheeky, Santa. Liam wakes him up and shares an early morning bottle of vodka with his baby brother. He then offers Charlie a family heirloom: a ring passed down from generation to generation. Even thought Liam is the first born, Big Brother senses that Baby Brother will be longer for this world, and that Charlie is the responsible one in the family. Charlie agrees to hold the ring, but not take it.

Charlie's singing "Wonderwall" in Covent Garden, in a scene that looks an awful like the one Desmond saw back in "Flashes Before Your Eyes." As Charlie walks home in the rain, he spies a mugging going on in an alley. After a moment's hesitation, he sprints forth and attacks the mugger with his guitar case. After chasing off the mugger, we see the woman in peril: it's Sayid's Nadia. She tells him three other people simply watched her get mugged, which makes Charlie a hero. She tells him never to forget that.

It's the night of the plan crash. Hoodie Pace spies a very pregnant Claire in the near distance. He offers her a blanket; she's already got one. But he insists she's warming for two. She smiles and takes the blanket. "So, first plane crash?" he jokes, and this is heartbreaking: he's full of hope, both about their prospects on the island and prospects for their relationship.

16) The Mythology

So let's leave discussion of the Looking Glass Station until next time, as it gets a major workout then. Let's instead look at a question that's been nagging Lost fans: was Desmond's final flash accurate?

After all, if it's not, then Charlie Pace died for nothing. And no matter what your take on Charlie is, that's pretty harsh. I'm no Charlie Super Fan here, but I was utterly and completely invested in his character over the last two episodes of Season 3. His self-sacrifice not only turns the wheels of the plot forward, but affects major characters such as Hurley and Claire in ways that are still being felt. But did he sacrifice himself for them, or for something else entirely?

If you're an optimist, then you can look at Des' vision as a dream deferred. Yes, someday Claire and Aaron WILL leave the Island via helicopter. It will happen at some point during Season 6, after the two are finally reunited upon the Oceanic 6 plus Ben plus Locke plus another seemingly dozen people also return to the Island. In this viewpoint, Des' vision is accurate but incomplete, unable to paint an accurate timeline/timeframe for the actions. It also presents final causality.

If you're a pessimist, then you've got two options. One is that Des' visions are predicated on a lack of interference and a lack of prior knowledge on the part of Charlie. That is to say the visions only come true if Desmond does absolutely nothing. Des eventually swimming down to the Looking Glass "changes the picture," so to speak, and renders Claire's rescue null and void.

The OTHER option in the pessimist camp is that Des' visions cannot inherently be trusted, as they derive from what can be described as an unreliable narrator. The first visions were put into Des' head specifically for the Looking Glass mission. By the time the characters arrive at this crucial point, the two men trust in the veracity of the visions unfailingly. So when Des sees the one thing that would justify Charlie's death, both men simply execute the preordained plan.

Now, that's a reach, to be sure, but it's a fascinating one. We've already seen how the "light" and "dark" factions of the Island have been waging war on and off the Island: why couldn't they do so inside of Desmond's head as well? It's probably no coincidence that this was the last vision Desmond ever received. Was the "work" done upon Charlie flipping the switch? And if so, whose work were these two men doing? Does the fact that "Charlie" still talks to Hurley on behalf of the Island a clue that perhaps this visions were anything but benevolent?

Interesting questions, I feel, and ones I'm interested to see you wrestle with in the comments below.

23) The Moment

Charlie saying goodbye to Hurley is the type of moment that only long-form storytelling can achieve. It's a small miracle of a moment.

42) In Retrospect

1. It still bugs me that Charlie starts his list before realizing this is the time he really is gonna die. Now, had he made this list intermittently throughout the season, I would understand it more. But it reeks of plot convention versus character action.
2. The payoff of Season 1's mysterious cable is one of the great "Aha, they totally know what they're doing!" moments of the show. Or, a brilliant retcon. You be the judge!

108) In Summary

Very few episodes did more to redeem the existence of a character more than this one did. While Charlie wasn't a loathed character in the way that your Ana Lucias or Paulos were, he wasn't exactly a fan favorite, either. When the "Charlie's gonna die" story finally revealed itself midway through Season 3, you all everybody didn't seem too depressed, if I remember the message boards around that time correctly.

But at least in my eyes, this show effortlessly launched Charlie's character into the sympathetic stratosphere, finally merging his inherent flaws with his innate goodness to create the Charlie Pace Liam always knew was inside of his little brother. He went beyond a washed-up rocker, ex-junkie, and sarcastic sidekick into the realm of a loving man before our eyes in this episode, and it's a spectacle to see.

Next up: we go through the looking glass. And nothing's ever, ever the same.

Leave your thoughts about this episode below!

Ryan also posts every 108 minutes over at Boob Tube Dude, then peruses Zap2It's Guide to Lost Facebook group. He also encourages you to join the all-new Zap2It's Guide to Lost Twitter feed. Pretty soon he'll have as many platforms as MIkhail has lives.