This episode opens with a close-up, not of someone's eyes, but of that hole in the middle of an acoustic guitar. I've been playing guitar for ten years, so you'd think I'd know the name of that hole, but I only know it as that blasted place that I'm always dropping picks into. The camera then pans up to the frantic eyes of Charlie, who's doing his best to strum some chords. He's having trouble, though, what with the profuse sweating that I'm assuming has to do with heroin withdrawal. Even worse, his nail polish is chipped beyond repair. Locke strolls up and suggests they go for a walk. Charlie declines, but Locke insists, because he says the fresh air will do Charlie good. Whuh? All they have there is fresh air. I bet Locke just can't help himself from wanting to use his rejuvenated legs as often as possible. up: he organizes a soccer game and karate tournament.
On the beach, Jack has found the front and side mug shots of Kate, which appear to be printed on a piece of paper, and he's studying them when she says, from behind him, "I take better pictures than that." Is she coming on to him? "Smaller, too, if you want something for your wallet." I don't know about Jack, but sign me up (even though I feel misled by Dan Kwa's recaps, because the first time I watched an episode, I was dismayed to discover that Kate Beckinsale was not, in fact, in the cast). Jack claims he just came back for a few things and the picture was in with his stuff. Rather than explain it (and he doesn't ask), she asks him if he's really leaving the beach for the cave. "Call me a broken record, but caves are natural shelter, and a hell of a lot safer than living here on the beach." She thinks he's "mad" at her. He says he's not, but he doesn't understand why she won't come with him, which he quickly corrects to "us," and then we rehash that argument from last week over whether they're more likely to get rescued if they're on the beach or whatever. "Sayid has a plan," she says, and then we get some semi-awkward exposition about Sayid trying to triangulate the distress signal -- the one that's been running for 16 years, Jack helpfully reminds Kate -- to find its source. "The woman that left it, she wasn't rescued," he says. "What makes you think it's going to be any different for us?" "I believe it," she says. Well, that don't necessarily make it fuckin' so, says Jack, only he phrases it thusly: "Well, I wish I shared your faith." And Sawyer saunters up and makes a crack about wishing he could share a few things with Kate his own self. He's there because he heard Jack was "vacating the premises," and he figured he'd lay claim to Jack's apparently prime piece of beachfront property before anyone else did. "I can fix this place up real good. Might even find someone to share it with me," he says, looking at Kate, who's too busy throwing smouldering looks at Jack's departing back to notice. Oh, Jackie, we crashed and you led us to safety. But now you're walking away, oh Jackie...
Now we're in the jungle with Charlie, which is enough to give me a flashback to 'Nam. Locke is nowhere to be found, like nice walking partner he is, and Charlie's whispering, "Locke?" because he's scared. Rustling and snarling noises from the bush, so naturally Charlie says, "Locke, is that you?" I can't see how any of these crash survivors are going to manage to live more than a day or two in the bush if they continue to display such an incredible inability to distinguish human noises from, you know, WILD FUCKING BOARS, but never mind, because the boar now appears to be charging him, and Charlie manages to combine the Thousand-Yard Stare of Impending Flashback with a 100-metre dash, which is quite a feat.
Charlie's in confession, but it's not like it usually is on television, where a character is going for the first time in years; Charlie says it's been a week since his last confession, which makes him a good Catholic. What makes him not quite such a good Catholic is his confession to the priest that he had physical relations last night with a girl he didn't even know. "Anything else?" says the priest. Yeppers, says Charlie. "Right after that, I had...relations with another girl. And straight after that I watched while they had...relations with each other." The priest says, "Let me know exactly when I'm supposed to start feeling sorry for you, my son." No, wait, that was me. "You see, it's my band, Father, Driveshaft," says Charlie, like maybe the priest will have heard of them or something. Charlie explains that they've been playing the clubs in Manchester. "And we've been getting some heat...a following. And, you know, the girls! There's some real temptations that come with the territory, if you know what I mean." The priest says they all have temptations. True, Father; it's just that some people's temptations are cooler than others. "But giving in to them, that's your choice," he says. Make a note of that there, that choice thing. It figures prominently this ep. "As we live our lives, it's really nothing but a series of choices, innit?" Charlie says he's made his choice, and that he's going to quit the band. You know, for a guy who's in a band named Driveshaft, he seems a little bit too concerned about the availability of groupie sex.
Anyway, he leaves the confessional, dips his fingers in the holy water and crosses himself. Then he hears what sounds like insouciant and possibly sacrilegious tapping! Sure enough, in one of the front pews is someone stretched out, feet up, drumming his hands. This is Liam, whom Charlie chastises, which earns him a "relax, choirboy." Liam's brought "tidings of great joy" -- specifically, a recording contract. "You're going to be a rock god!" Charlie just stares, half thrilled, half frightened.
Back in the jungle, Charlie is 100 percent frightened, what with the wild boar running him down and all. But just before the boar shish kebabs him, it's caught up in some net trap, and Locke pokes his head out from the nearby brush. "Nice work, Charlie!" he yells. "You make excellent bait." Holy shit, that is not cool. Charlie gives him a surprisingly hard-looking glare for a guy who looks like he weighs all of about sixty pounds. "I'm glad I could oblige," he spits. "Now give me my bloody drugs." Locke just looks at him, but I'm thinking that after using Charlie for boar bait, the least Locke can do is hook him up.
You know, it's been several episodes now, and that creepy silent floating "LOST" graphic still gives me the chills.
Charlie demands his drugs from Locke, saying that he needs them. "And yet, you gave them to me," notes Locke, which pisses Charlie off: "And I bloody well regret it! I'm sick, man! Can't you see that?" And Locke says Charlie is stronger than he thinks, and Locke's going to prove it; he says he'll let Charlie ask for his drugs three times, and on the third time, Locke will give them to him. Ohhhhh-kaaaay... "Just so we're clear, this is one." Charlie wants to know why Locke is doing this, and why not just throw the drugs away, and then the audio must have gone all screwy on my television, because I did not hear Locke say, "Annoying plot device." Instead, he gives Charlie a bunch of guff about how if he threw the drugs away then Charlie wouldn't have any choice, and making choices instead of just acting on instinct is what separates us from the animals. Fortunately, Locke has just captured an animal, towards which he can point with one of his knives. Charlie just glares at Locke's sanctimonious bald head. Maybe someone can clue Locke in to what addiction actually is before he starts spouting off on choices.
Over on Science Lesson Beach, Sayid is jamming a makeshift antenna in the sand, and it miraculously stands up. He's got two more, one of which he'll take into the jungle, the other one Kate will take, and they'll stake out a triangle about two kilometres per side. If the distress signal is coming from somewhere within the triangle, Sayid will be able to pinpoint it. Oh, but there's a contrivance -- I mean, a "problem." The batteries are dry, or something, so they'll only have a minute or so for the whaddayacallit, so everybody has to be in position before they start whatevering to find the source of the distress. Boone wants to know how they're supposed to know when they're all in position. Sayid reaches into a bag and pulls out -- much to Kate's skepticism -- bottle rockets. "Thank god for fireworks smugglers," says Sayid. Smugglers? What is this, The Hardy Boys? Anyone get the feeling that whenever the Lost gang has something they're not really supposed to, the explanation is going to be "smugglers"? Yeah, because fireworks smugglers FLY their explosive materials on transoceanic flights to the U.S., instead of just driving up to Mexico. But let's just go with it, shall we? Anyway, the three of them will set off the rockets to let the others know they're in position, and then they can turn on their antennas. But there's another problem: the battery in the transceiver is dead, and the transceiver's rather important in this whole exercise. A battery in a laptop would be great, but apparently this flight didn't have anyone smuggling laptop batteries. Kate's got an idea where to look.
And we go right to her confronting Sawyer, since he's been hoarding stuff like a packrat since the crash, so she doesn't believe that he doesn't have a single laptop. He smirks and says she must be a little testy after her "breakup" with "Jacko." And Kate, who doesn't seem to be all that concerned about actually getting a battery, says it must be exhausting "living like a parasite: always taking, never giving." Sawyer smirks some more, and she digs a little more by saying that Sawyer likely doesn't care if they get off the island because he's got nothing to go back to. "Nobody to miss, and no one misses you," she says. More smirking. "You're feeling sorry for me," he says. "I don't feel sorry for you," she says. "I pity you." They speak English in Australia, right? Or does "pity" have another meaning over there, other than "to feel sorry for"? Anyway, Sawyer pulls out a laptop, grabs the battery, and tells her all she had to do was say please. More smirking, from both of them. Yawn. Are they rescued yet?
Charlie's strumming on his guitar again, when Hurley and Jack come along lugging baggage. Hurley's complaining about how much the bags weigh, and Jack explains that he packed everything they might find useful. I'd find it useful to know why Hurley would complain about the weight of the bags at the end of the little portage, but that's okay. Charlie volunteers to help, since he used to lug Driveshaft's equipment around before they got roadies. He grabs a bag, but before Jack can warn him about the broken zipper, he spills pill bottles all over the place. Charlie apologizes. Jack says it's okay, and grabs Hurley to go get the rest of the bags while Charlie cleans up. Naturally, though, as soon as they're gone, Charlie starts rummaging through the bottles. Just as naturally, Jack comes back and wonders what Charlie's doing. Charlie makes up an excuse about having a headache, so Jack takes the bottle he has and notes that it's diazepam, which is for anxiety. Hey, that's the stuff from "Metal Gear" that you need to steady your aim when you're using the sniper rifle! Uh, not that I still play video games or anything. At least, not often. Although, if I was in a plane that crashed, and wasn't able to play a daily game of "NHL 2005," I'd look something like Charlie does. Shit, the real NHL has been locked out for a month and I look terrible. Well, not "terrible," exactly. After all, I'm getting more sleep, because I'm not staying up to watch games on the West Coast. And I've lost a little weight, since I'm exercising more after work instead of watching hockey and eating junk food, and I'm spending more time with the future Mrs. Daniel, which is nice for both of us, and...where was I going with that? Oh, yeah. Oilers rule! So Charlie says he was looking for aspirin, and Jack, the DOCTOR, finally notices that Charlie don't look so hot and tells him to go get some water. Charlie continues to try to clean up, so Jack has to pretty much order him to stop: "Charlie, I got it. Go take care of yourself, man. I don't need you right now." Charlie stomps off, picks up his guitar, and the bonging of a church bell brings us back to Madchester, where Liam and Charlie are apparently not just at a church but at a seminary or something, and there are nuns walking around, all the better to take offence at Liam saying, "Come on, Charlie! You are bloody Driveshaft!" as he tries to convince Charlie, who writes all the songs, not to leave the band. Liam tries to use the fame argument, but Charlie says he only cares about the music. "I love the band. It's not who I am. Sometimes I just get lost in it." Liam promises that he'll look out for Charlie, that they'll look out for each other, because that's what brothers do, right? So we've got an English band with two brothers, one who writes the songs and the other, who's named Liam, who sings them, is that right? The writers didn't work too hard on this one, did they? Charlie agrees to stay with the band, but makes Liam promise that if things get too crazy they'll just walk away. Liam agrees, and then says, "Blur is bunch of fucking knobbers." Okay, we get it. "You're the rock god, baby brother," says Liam.
Back at the spring, Jin (played by the tastefully named Daniel Dae Kim) is tending to his wrist, which is being rubbed raw by the handcuff on it. Sun comes by, and says, in Korean, that he should have the doctor look at it, but he says it'll heal. Then he notices the skimpy top she's wearing, making him the last male to do so. He says it's indecent, and I really must beg to differ. He tells her to cover up, and she just looks at him and tells him that "it's too hot." And getting hotter!
Hurley's lugging over a guitar case to Charlie. "Dude, this yours?" And Charlie gets all "why, yes, I am the bass player from Driveshaft" on him and starts going on about how he's written a lot of tunes on that guitar, and Hurley just rolls his eyes and tells him that Jack needed it moved because it was in the way.
So Charlie stomps on off into the cave to confront Jack, saying that lots of people look up to him but Jack treats him like a child. Jack, naturally, is a little confused about what's got Charlie all worked up, and tries to calm him down. "You don't know me! I'm a bloody rock god!" yells Charlie. And I don't know if we're supposed to think that the force of Charlie's words are what triggered the cave-in, but the cave starts collapsing around them. Hurley, Sun, and Jin and some no-names come running up just in time to see Charlie emerge from the rubble. His hood is now up. I guess that's what saved him. "Where's Jack?" yells Hurley, and Charlie stands there silently pointing at the rubble in a shot that lingers a little too long. Commercials.
As Hurley and Sun start poking at the rubble, Charlie's explaining that he and Jack were talking and the roof caved in, and it all happened so fast, but no one's listening. Hurley yells at Charlie to go down the beach and get help. Charlie scurries off. "And make sure you tell Kate!" yells Hurley. Yes, that's what's most important here. Making sure Kate knows. Christ.
Kate's walking through the jungle with Sayid. She wants to know what the odds are of his plan working. He responds by asking what the odds were of them surviving that plane crash. That bad? Kate says people survive plane crashes all the time, but Sayid says, "Not like this one." He says that the tail section broke off while they were still in the air and the plane cartwheeled through the jungle, yet they escaped with nothing but a few scrapes. "How do you explain that?" he says. She suggests they were just lucky. "No one's that lucky. We shouldn't have survived," he says. Her opinion is that things just happen, and between that and her "faith" comment earlier, I've had just about all the little banal philosophical nuggets I can handle from her.
Back on the beach, Charlie is running past all the non-speaking extras to enlist the help of cast members, including Boone and Mercutio, who yells at "Scott" to come. The extra says, "I'm Steve," and another says, "I'm Scott." Now's not the time, guys. No more lines for you! Boone remembers he has another job to do, so he runs over to Shannon, who's lazily sunning herself. to me on the couch, Dan Kwa's attractive lawyer wife says, "She looks way too good for someone who crashed on a deserted island eight days ago." (When Dan Kwa asks you to fill in for him, he ain't kidding.) He explains to her the whole triangulation thing and stresses the importance of firing off the bottle rocket and only turning on the antenna once all the rockets have been fired. She's all, "Who in the what now?" and he urgently asks if she can handle that. She smiles and says of course she can. Look, there's no one else there? With Shannon, I don't think it's a question of whether she can do any given task as much as whether she will do it. And judging by the force with which she's rolling her eyes at Boone as he runs off, I'm thinking her compliance rate with this particular task won't be so stellar.
Charlie's on his way back to the cave-in before he remembers that informing Kate of the accident is much more important than digging the island doctor out from under several tons of rubble. Sawyer, who's shirtless (and those of you who have expressed disappointment at Sawyer's allegedly very ordinary torso have made me very sad, and ensured that once I am done this recap I will spend all my free time doing crunches, preferably on a treadmill, if I can figure out a technique to do both simultaneously), says that Kate and "Moo-hammed" went off into the jungle, and he promises Charlie he'll saunter on after them and let them know the situation. He tells Charlie to get back to doing whatever it is that he does around here. Because Sawyer is such a valuable member of the team, you see.
Also more important than digging Jack out? Flashing back to some concert, in which Jack and Liam are all smiles, standing back to back onstage. Back to back? What was the last band to actually do that, Van Halen? If they're from Madchester, shouldn't they be gazing at their shoes? Everything's all happiness and serviceable rock music until they get to the chorus of the song, which appears to be "You All Everybody" or "You Are Everybody" or "We Are Not Oasis" or something along those lines, and it's clear from Charlie's glare that Liam seems to be hogging Charlie's part of the chorus. Liam takes no notice of the angry hobbit with the bass guitar.
Backstage, Liam's the one getting all the hugs and the kisses and congratulations and such, while Charlie continues glaring until he confronts Liam with a "what the hell was that?" Liam apparently thinks it was another "kick-ass show" and that Liam was "bloody brilliant," but Charlie's annoyed because he's supposed to sing the chorus to "You All Everybody," not Liam. But it's about the music, not the fame, right? Liam explains that he's sorry, but he just got caught up in the moment and the "fans wanted it" or something. Charlie starts explaining that if he starts the chorus, and then Liam comes in, it's -- only he never gets to explain what it is, because they're interrupted. It's probably "more rockin'" that Charlie was going to say. That's what I'm going with, anyway. Liam's distracted by the arrival of some blonde woman. And also, drugs! Which Liam seems to keep in little film canisters. Charlie, the bass player in a massively popular English rock band, has apparently never seen drugs before. At any rate, he's never seen his brother with them. Liam catches his sibling's shocked stare and says, "Chill, baby brother," and he retires into another room with the blonde.
Back at the cave-in, an assembly line has already been formed to clear rocks out of the rubble. Mercutio puts a stop to that as soon as he arrives, despite Hurley's urgent reminder that Jack's in there, because he wants to check it out in case it's unstable. When Hurley starts to wonder how he'll know, Mercutio cuts him off with an "eight years in construction." Walt says they should get his bestest buddy Locke, who Hurley tells him is off in the jungle killing things. Mercutio examines the area where everyone was digging, then says this section is load-bearing, and they need to find a place where there's no danger of the wall collapsing in on them, which is...right around the side! He starts organizing the diggers, telling them to work in fours and go slowly, and those who aren't digging should be clearing the rubble and bringing water. Walt watches his dad take charge, with a look that unmistakably says, "Wow. My dad may not be a weird old bald white guy with a gajillion knives, but he's all right."
Sayid and Kate, strolling through the jungle. Now, Sawyer went running after them, but he's somehow managed to catch up to them by arriving from the opposite direction, which is a pretty cool trick. And he's greeted with a "what the hell are you doing here" from Kate, and she adds a "what makes you think I'm interested in anything you have to say" when he says he came to tell her something. And for those of you who think Kate was kind of harsh on him, please review TWoP's policy on posting after consuming hallucinogenic drugs. I know Sawyer has shaggy blonde hair and adorable stubble and all, but he's been nothing but a sexist, racist asshole since the crash, and you reap what you sow. And the argument that in such a dire situation people need to work together to survive is, if anything, more indication that Sawyer needs to change his behaviour than that Kate needs to be nicer. And when Sawyer clenches his jaw all hurt-feelings and declines to tell Kate about the cave-in (opting to pretend that he's just there to help them instead), well, it's just more proof what a prick he is. Sorry, Sawyer-lovers. Kate's skeptical that he's there to help (and she's right to be), and he says that if she acts any more surprised he'll be offended.
Locke is still skinning that damn boar and has managed not to get attacked by any of the other boars that you'd think would obviously be in the vicinity. Charlie's lost any pretence of urgency as he wanders up to tell Locke about the cave-in. "Is anyone trying to get him out?" says Locke. Charlie says there's a bunch of people there. "Then why aren't you with them?" asks Locke. Charlie says nothing, and Locke says that Charlie didn't come here to tell him about Jack. "I want my stash, Locke," says a quite distressed Charlie. "I can't stand feeling like this." Locke says he wants to show him something, growing on this ol' metaphor tree over here.
It's a cocoon, and Locke asks Charlie what he thinks is growing in there. Charlie, all what-the-fuck?, says, "I don't know, a butterfly?" Locke says it's much more beautiful than a butterfly: it's a moth. "Moths spin silk. They're stronger, faster." Charlie wants to know what the point is, and Locke explains that the moth is struggling to get out right now. Locke could help it, by taking his moth-cocoon knife out and widening the opening, but then the moth wouldn't be strong enough to survive. Charlie continues to stare, because the anvil hasn't hit him yet. "The struggle is nature's way of strengthening it." Locke points out that this is the second time Charlie's asked for the drugs. "Ask me again and it's yours." Why Charlie doesn't immediately say, "Okay, for the third time, can I have them then?" is anybody's guess. Here's what bugs me about Obi Lockenobi's bullshit: if he just throws Charlie's drugs away, Charlie's going to struggle just as much, won't he? The moth analogy would work a little more if there was another little moth in the cocoon, a little bald moth with a knife telling the first moth that he could help him get out, but won't. That little bald moth is a bit of a prick. Commercials.
Working. Digging. Grunting. Digging. Sweating. The would-be rescuers are making good progress, good enough that Hurley starts yelling for Jack. "Come on, dude, answer me." Eventually the dude does. Yay! He's alive! Incredible that they didn't kill off the lead seven episodes into the series, no? But before the celebration can begin, Jack yells that he's pinned and can't move. The rescuers start murmuring, "How do we get him out?" but Mercutio silences that. Jack asks after Charlie, and is informed that Charlie made it out alive. "Tell Mr. Rock God thanks a huge frigging bunch!" yells Jack. Well, he doesn't. But wouldn't you?
Sayid, Sawyer, and Kate have hiked their way to where they're going to put the second antenna. Sayid sends Sawyer scurrying up a tree, and the surprisingly minimal backtalk from Sawyer consists solely of a sarcastic "yes, boss." As Sawyer leaves, Sayid reminds Kate to look for Sayid's bottle rocket at five o'clock, and then it's her turn. Then, turning an eye to Sawyer, Sayid says, "I don't trust him." "Who does?" shrugs Kate, smiling. Sayid goes further: "I don't trust him with you." Awww. That's sweet. Too bad she's spoken for, Sayid. "I can handle him," says Kate. ["And I can 'handle' Sayid, if you know what I mean. And I believe that you do. Electronics experts are hott." -- Sars]
Back at the hole, Mercutio says they can't make the hole any wider, and since Jack can't move, someone's going to have to go in there after him. Hurley expresses a little surprise that Mercutio wants someone to crawl through the tunnel they just dug. "I think he means someone smaller," says Boone, I guess because there's never a bad time to make fat jokes. Jin starts babbling, and we don't get subtitles, and a weary Hurley says, "Dude, we don't understand Chinese." Korean, Mercutio corrects him, much to everyone's surprise. Sun gives him a look as well. Man, nothing brings together disparate cultures like pretty women in skimpy clothing. "I'll do it," says the returning Charlie, but Mercutio says he's too shook up. Mercutio thinks he can do it himself, but Charlie stops him by asking him who'll look after his son if something happens to him. I think from Charlie's comments here that a lot of people assumed his brother was now dead, likely from an overdose, but Charlie only actually eliminates people who have loved ones on the island itself. "I'm alone here. No one on the island." He turns to Mercutio. "Let me do this." Mercutio knows he's right, since -- damn, did you see Sun?
Kate's anxiously awaiting Sayid's signal, much to Sawyer's amusement, who notes how often she's checking her watch. She tells him -- not for the first time, apparently -- that she'll fire off the flare and he'll turn on the antenna. He jokingly thanks God she's there to keep reminding him of the plan. "It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it," she says, whatever that's supposed to mean. So, since they're now friends, he asks her what she sees in Jack. "What is it about him that makes you all weak in the loins?" She looks at Sawyer like he's something she just scraped off the bottom of her shoe. "You try to be a pig or does it just come naturally?" she says. He theorizes that it's because Jack's a doctor (and her failure to hide her smile lets him know there's some truth to that). "Ladies dig the doctor," he says, and adds that if he had a couple of Band-Aids and some peroxide he could run the island. "You're actually comparing yourself to Jack," says Kate, incredulously. Sawyer gets scowly and says that the differences between the two of them aren't so big. "I guarantee you if he had survived a few more weeks on this island, you'd have figured that out," he says. Oh, he's got Kate's full attention now. "What did you just say?" she says. Sawyer acts like he slipped up, but I don't buy that. "Aw damn, didn't I tell you? Word from the valley is Saint Jack got himself buried in a cave-in." Kate's stricken. He tells her to look on the bright side: now she's got someone else to pity (or, at the very least, someone to feel sorry for). She throws the bottle rocket in Sawyer's lap (unfortunately, without lighting it first) and takes off a-runnin'.
Back at the cave-in, Charlie's getting some incredibly valuable advice like "be careful" and "go slow" and the like from the rest of the gang. He's taken a flashlight and a bottle of water with him. You know what else would be good? Travel Yahtzee. It's awesome. The dice are set in this plastic thing so you don't have to roll them in the car and have them go under the seat and stuff. So into the tunnel he goes, and for a brief second I think he's going to come out in John Malkovich's brain. Instead, he flashes back to a confrontation he had with his brother. He finds Liam in his dressing room with some champagne and groupies. Charlie throws the groupies out, and he's none too impressed because Liam skipped sound check and doesn't come to rehearsal anymore. Liam suddenly remembers they have a show to do, and starts rooting around for some heroin. Charlie decides it's time to walk away from the band, like Liam promised they would. Liam thinks Charlie's off his head. "You're killing yourself with this junk! You're killing Driveshaft!" "I AM DRIVESHAFT!" roars Liam, who follows that up with the observation that no one even knows who the "sodding" bass player is. And he wonders what the hell use Charlie is if he isn't in Driveshaft. And Liam exits with a brilliant "piss off!"
And so, Charlie turns to drugs. Yes, that's really it. He just takes some drugs sitting on Liam's makeup table.
Back on the island, Mercutio's allegedly professionally designed tunnel starts to collapse around the rock god, who appears to need to burrow about four kilometres to reach Charlie, who I thought was basically at the cave entrance when everything collapsed, but never mind. Fortunately, he squeezes himself into the cave just before the tunnel seals itself back up behind him. Nice one, Mercutio.
Right, so all of the would-be rescuers are freaking out over the second collapse, worried about Jack and Charlie running out of air (even though I don't think they have any way of knowing if the two of them are actually still alive). Mercutio yells at everyone to shut up because he's trying to think. And great, just what we need is Kate running up so she can start in with her grief and concern that you might expect from Jack's wife of 25 years and not from a crash co-survivor. "Where's Jack?" she yells a couple of times, and maybe someone can explain to her what a cave-in is, because I'm guessing if she wants to know where Jack is, the big ol' pile of rubble is a pretty good damn clue. Nobody wants to tell the distraught Mrs. Jack anything, until Hurley finally jerks his head towards the rubble and says, "He's in there." Kate wants to know if Jack's alive, and Mercutio tells her everything that's happened. Then Kate asks a very good question: "Why isn't anyone digging?" Maybe Locke came by and explained to everybody that they could help Jack and Charlie by widening a hole for them, but they'll be stronger if they make it out themselves. And Kate heads back to what appears to be the hole where the tunnel was that just collapsed. I don't have "eight years in construction" or anything, but that seems to fall on the "bad idea" side of the ledger, doesn't it? Only Mercutio doesn't say anything this time. I guess he knows that when you care about someone as much as Kate does, God himself will erect Magical Buttresses of Love for you.
Inside the Pratcave, Charlie uses his special rock-god powers (you know, pushing) to get the big stone off of Jack. And now Jack's shoulder is dislocated, or maybe it was all along but he didn't know with the rock on him or whatever. At any rate, Charlie's going to have to pop it back in, and there's a little bit of "I can't" and "yes you can" back-and-forthing between the two of them and finally Charlie yanks on Jack's arm and Jack yells like a little baby, and then I'm all, wind chimes? Because we hear wind chimes, and I couldn't believe that the people who'd been in this cave before bothered to put up wind chimes, but then we are of course flashing back again with Charlie, who's now knocking on someone's door.
And that someone is Liam, who apparently didn't die of an overdose. Thing is, though, he looks exactly the same as the drug-using Liam, only now he's wearing a sweater and glasses (signifying sobriety, I guess, while Charlie's oversized sunglasses signify that he's been a total junkie since we last saw him, since there's not really enough time to get into it over the course of an hour-long episode). Liam's quite chuffed to see Charlie, who pretends this visit to Sydney is just a friendly one -- but then Charlie explains that he's set up a reunion tour for the band, eight weeks of touring (opening for some band called "Meat Coat"? The hell? I propose that the person with Lost who's in charge of coming up with these fictional band names be fired immediately), first gig in L.A. But Liam, who's playing with his daughter in his suburban backyard, ain't interested. Not now that he's wearing glasses and a sweater, anyway. "Charlie, I don't want to come back," he says. Charlie tells him that the promoters won't book Driveshaft without Liam. "So I'm asking," he says, taking off his sunglasses for that extra-beseeching look, "as a brother, the way you asked me." But Liam ain't havin' it. "You were with me the night I missed Meghan's birth. You were the one I was stumbling around Dresden with trying to find a sodding fix." And it takes Liam, a former user, a really long time to pick up on Charlie's jitteriness before he accuses him of still using, and saying that Charlie was supposed to get help. "You did this to me! It was about the music!" yells Charlie, and adds that Liam took the music away from him. Liam finally seems to recognize that he's being something of a hypocrite, and asks Charlie to stay with him and Karen for a few weeks so he can get some help. Charlie gets up to stomp off and Liam yells that he's just looking out for him. "You never looked out for me!" yells Charlie, turning to look at Liam, who does a nice job of looking hurt and shamed at the same time. I mean, from what we've seen, it's certainly true, innit?
Back in the Pratcave, Charlie's still jittery and sweaty. Not any more than how we've seen him before, but perhaps now that Charlie's all covered in dirt and in a dark cave, Jack can finally pick up on the signs. "How long has it been, Charlie?" says Jack, who apparently studied Lenny Briscoe's technique for delicately broaching the subject of substance abuse with obvious addicts. Charlie at first pretends not to know what he's talking about, but then realizes there's not much point. "Almost a day and a half," he says. Jack asks how the withdrawal's going, if he's having any hallucinations. Charlie jokes that other than the conversation he had with Jack in the jungle about an hour ago, not really. "I could have helped you through this," says Jack, but Charlie says Jack thinks he's useless and a junkie to boot. "Useless? You're not useless," says Jack, who points out that it took a lot of guts for Charlie to come through that tunnel to get Jack. "I won't forget that," says Jack. I love that Jack's example of why Charlie is useful is that he tried to rescue…Jack.
And just as Charlie starts to delve into how the cave reminds me of a confessional, he hears the soft beating of tiny wings. There's a moth, right behind Jack. Jack doesn't appear to hear or see it, although he never specifically says so. Charlie follows the moth up into a recess in the ceiling, and he begins to dig.
Outside, Kate's clearing out the collapsed-once-already tunnel, even as Mercutio tries to get her to take a break (this after we've seen a couple of shots to indicate how exhausted everyone else is, just so we're clear about how intent Kate is here). Kate just glares at him and keeps going. Shut up, Mercutio! She's a good digger!
Instead, Charlie keeps scrabbling. He can see light! And hey, now he's crawling along a human-sized tunnel that they didn't notice before! And now, here's his hand breaking through the earth all "Thriller"-video into the fresh air and sunshine.
Apparently Charlie and Jack stopped for a shower on their way back to the cave-in, because when they show up for hugs -- Kate for Jack, Hurley for Charlie; life still ain't fair, even though Charlie gets a "Dude, you rock!" from Hurley ("rock"? We get it. No, seriously. We get it) when Jack credits him for finding the way out -- they're much cleaner than they were in the cave, even before they went crawling through the earth to freedom. I'm sure Andy Dufresne wouldn't mind knowing how they did that.
And that's the end of that chap-- oh, wait. Sayid's little triangulation plan, which I'm sure has about as much chance of success as any given Gilligan's Island scheme. He says a little prayer ("allahu akbar") and fires off his bottle rocket. On the beach, Shannon is holding forth on how stupid Malibu guys are (I'm not kidding) with some no-name survivor who is mute and therefore can only point at the bottle rocket going off in the background. Either that or "Scott" and "Steve" selfishly blew the speaking-lines-for-extras budget with their mini-Abbott and Costello routine earlier. Shannon swears a whole lot and then shoots off her rocket as well. Sayid sees it, and waits for Kate's. When we see it go off as well (without showing us whether Sawyer lit it or someone else), Sayid excitedly grabs the transceiver and starts whatevering with it. He locks on to a signal, but before he can figure anything out, he's struck on the back of the head with a stick by an assailant we can't see, and he falls to the ground, out cold. Commercials.
Night has finally come, with everyone gathered around the spring for cocktails. Hurley brings Charlie some water, then asks if he's okay, because he doesn't look so good, but Jack jumps in waaaaay too quickly and says a couple of times, not suspiciously or anything, that Charlie's got the flu. Hurley calls him "man" a few more times before leaving. Charlie looks gratefully at Jack, then spies Locke. "I think I'm going to stretch my legs," he tells Jack, and heads off toward Locke. Martin, who appears to have been unaffected by the cave-in and near-deaths of a couple of the survivors, tells his dad that this place is "cool" and wants to know if they can stay there. Mercutio's response is to turn and look at Sun for a long moment, who sees him looking and holds his gaze. It's nice that Mercutio is really getting the whole "attentive father" thing down, isn't it?
Kate has ripped up a bunch of grubby old rags into what she calls a sling for Jack, and naturally he's quite pleased, since she is I guess proving her usefulness by providing something for him. She gently gets all "told you so" on the subject of cave safety, but he says the collapse was just a fluke, since Mercutio checked out the integrity of the rest of the caves and gave them the big ol' thumbs-up, and I hate to spoil the party, Jack, but can I just point out that there were TWO cave-ins, which makes it more than a fluke, and Mercutio was also the guy overseeing the construction of the tunnel that collapsed, so pardon me if I don't move all my shit into the Collapsing Caverns in the middle of Giant Boar Acres, fresh water or no, okay? Kate's heading back to the beach, because she wants to find out if Sayid's plan worked, because then they'd be -- "one step closer to getting off this island," he finishes for her, and then they kind of avoid looking at each other. You know, you two could still have sex even if you got off the island, you idiots. Well, Kate might be in jail. Still, there's always conjugal visits. He thanks her for the sling again, and she gazes lustily at him as she says, "You're welcome," and still he doesn't move in for the kiss. Moron.
Locke is...brushing the boar with...a leafy branch, or something, and I can't imagine what he might be doing other than infusing the boar with some chlorophyll or something, and this whole Locke-the-King-of-the-Jungle thing is really starting to get to me. Charlie comes up and asks for his drugs again. "Give them to me," he says. Locke gives him a hard look. "This is the third time," he says, IN CASE ANYONE FORGOT. Everyone following along? Great. "I've made my choice," says Charlie, so Locke gives him the drugs, which Charlie stares at, and then, to everyone's utter surprise, I'm sure, throws on the fire. Locke smiles. "I'm proud of you, Charlie. Always knew you could do it." Charlie hears wings flapping again, and looks up. And there's another goddamn moth, flapping up into the night sky. Ironically, the higher the moth flies, the lower I'm grading this episode. For a show that's seemed to enjoy leaving a lot up to the viewer, this ep was a whole lot of hand-holding, wasn't it?