Episode Report Card Daniel: D+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Baptism by liar
By Daniel | Season 2 | Episode 12 | Aired on 01.24.2006
That night, a shadowy figure gathers brush and kindling together in the grass. From the shoes and the hoodie and the ring, we can tell it's Charlie, but since the shots seem to purposely avoid showing his face, I wondered if we were supposed to figure out that it wasn't actually Charlie…but then it's revealed to be Charlie a few moments later anyway, so I'm not exactly sure what the cinematic sleight-of-hand is all about.
Anyway, Charlie lights his kindling on fire, and stomps out of the brush past Sayid. Is Sayid even on the show anymore? Did he piss off the producers or something? Or are he and Lost on a break and is he going to turn up on someone else's show before getting back together with Lost and apologizing for doing the other show? Sayid asks Charlie for a hand with some Rube Goldberg-esque contraption that he's fiddling with. "Now's not a good time, Sayid," snarls Charlie. Wow, snubbed by Charlie. Sayid shrugs off the slight, and then notices that someone has digitally inserted a bright square of burning brush into the jungle, which you'd really think he'd have noticed already. "Fire!" he shouts, and starts running through the camp. And everybody's awake, apparently, but nobody saw this fire until just now. So they gather up their buckets and containers and special fire-retardant tarps and other such firefighting accoutrements, and the Lostaway Volunteer Fire Brigade springs into action. Locke unnecessarily tells Claire to stay with Aaron. At least, you'd have thought it was unnecessary, but Claire strolls so far away from Aaron that she might as well have been fighting the fire herself, allowing Charlie a moment to stroll out from the brush with his hoodie up (more sinister-looking!) and stare at Aaron for a long moment until we go into flashback.
Charlie arrives back at his flat via the lift (presumably after driving up in his lorry) and hangs his jacket up. Then he notices that the piano's gone and he starts shouting for his brother. Liam, incredibly still there, says he sold the piano. And returned for a fun little confrontation with his brother? Charlie asks if the money went up Liam's "sodding arm" and Liam says he's been clean for two days. "Two days? Well, happy anniversary!" spits Charlie, and Liam is all, "Well, how long have you been clean?" Charlie says nothing, because touché. Liam says Karen was going to leave him and take Meghan. But she's got an uncle in Australia who has a job for him, and there's a rehab clinic he can go to; he just needed the money to get them there. "I have to do this. I have to take care of myself, for them. For my family." "I'm your family!" shouts Charlie, which could be a big part of the reason why Liam's high all the time, if you ask me.