Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: A | 5870 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT I Once Was Lost, But Now Am Found
By Cindy McLennan | Season 6 | Episode 17 | Aired on 2010.05.23
Backstage, Kate is coaching Claire, who warns her the baby is coming, now. Of course it's then that Charlie wanders backstage. Claire snarls: "WHO ARE YOU?" Charlie: "I'm with the band." Oh, dear. Kate saves his life by sending him for blankets and water and then she sets out to deliver Aaron for the second time (third if you count Sawyer's seeing her do it during the time jumps). The second time she tells Claire to push, she flashes back to Aaron's island birth. It's brief, but it's enough to bring her to tears. Claire's still laboring and crying so Kate kind of shakes it off and tells her to push again. Kate's flashback lasts much longer this time. When it's done and her epiphany is complete, a single, perfect womanly tear rolls down her cheek.
We hear Aaron cry and when Claire finally sees him, she flashes to the first time Kate handed her her newborn. Confusion and pain mingle with the joy on her face, and Kate hands Aaron right over. How frigging funny would it have been if she'd taken the baby and run? I mean, that's what Kate does, yeah? As Claire holds the baby, she cries and flashes back to his original birth. Back in the Sideways she says, "It's Aaron. It's Aaron." She breaks my heart as does The Look the two women share.
Charlie returns. "I brought a blanket." Claire and Kate realize who he is. When Kate thanks him, he already has a tear welling up underneath his right eye. "It's just a blanket." Kate: "Then go ahead and bring it to her." Charlie mutters that he couldn't find any water as he crouches by Claire's side and covers her up. When she takes his hand, the flashbacks begin. Poor hugely pregnant Claire trying to sit gracefully, that first night on the island. Imaginary peanut butter. In the present, Claire says his name. He flashes again. Claire and Charlie laugh by the fire. He plays guitar while she trims his hair. Claire scoops up Aaron, brings him to Charlie and kisses him on the cheek. Claire kisses him on the lips. Back in the present, his face positively crumbles. He grabs her face, she caresses his. Aaron cries. They kiss. Kate looks at them with a mixture of love and loneliness. Then Charlie starts talking to the crying Aaron. This is the sixth time I cry. But I'm a little miffed about that, which I'll address in my commentary. Can't do it now, because here's Desmond -- coming to retrieve Kate and send her on Mission Impossible: Wake-Up-Jack.