Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: A+ | 1112 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT Ob La Di, Ob La Da Life Goes On, Brothah
By Cindy McLennan | Season 6 | Episode 11 | Aired on 2010.04.06
Back to Jax: Desmond says what's really real are the two choices he's presenting to Charlie. He can keep drinking or go with Des. "Now before you make your choice, realize that if you stay here, it will very likely result in the extermination of your musical career." Charlie: "And if I go with you?" Des: "Twenty minutes, you'll be luxuriating in a five star hotel, right on the harbor front. Charles Widmore, one of the most powerful men in this town, will owe you a favor." Charlie doesn't think that sounds like a choice. Desmond says, "There's always a choice, brother." Charlie looks at Des carefully. His eyes light up, but the rest of his face remains neutral.
As Des drives Charlie toward their destination, Drive Shaft's "You All Everybody" comes on the radio. Charlie spares Des his season 1 falsetto and instead tells him some Drive Shaft backstory. "You All Everybody" was "The beginning of everything great." Des says he likes it, "for what it is," but mostly I think he's just trying to get his nasty charge to his final destination. Charlie then tells Desmond he feels sorry for him -- thinking he's happy -- thinking he's got it all. Acting like you're stupid people, wearing expensive clothes.
Charlie then presents Des some choices of his own. He can either let Charlie show him what he's talking about, or he can get out of the car. Before Desmond even gets a chance to scoff heartily, Charlie takes the wheel, which is not at all like Jesus taking the wheel. He wrests it from Desmond's grasp and plows them right into the water. There seems to me to have been more than adequate time for Des to hit the brakes or shift into neutral, so I had a hard time finding the lead up to the crash credible, but once it's done, it earns its keep. The car sinks to the bottom of the marina -- waters into which our original recipe Desmond will plunge when he stops Benjamin Linus from shooting Penny.
As the car fills up, a conscious Des tries to rescue an unconscious Charlie. When it doesn't work, he swims to the top, takes a breath, and goes back under. When Des knocks on Charlie's window, Charlie springs to life and holds up his hand. I think it's blank at first, but suddenly, it reads, "NOT PENNY'S BOAT." Desmond reels back. When he takes another look, it's blank, again. Charlie seems to leave the building, so to speak. He sinks back in his seat, eyes closed or nearly so. Sideways Des sets to work on doing the one thing his original recipe tried hardest to do, back on Craphole -- saving Charlie. Finally, he frees him, and drags him up through the deep, to the pier, where they wait for help. Commercial.