Baptism By Fire.

Fire and Water

Original airdate 01/25/06



So this is the one where Charlie slides down that slope to craziness, just like Michael. Or they've at least made a detour to irrational obsession.

They can't all be mind-blowing episodes and like last week's, this one was not. But I was drawn in to Fire and Water more than I was with The Hunting Party, for reasons I don't think I can explain.

The story was pretty straight foward and it didn't really touch (directly) on the island mystery, but there were a few items of interest (or questions raised) for me:

**I can almost sense a pattern emerging among the folks who have seen visions (or hallucinations, whatever you'd like to call them). The ones I can remember are

Jack - His father
Kate - The horse
Charlie - The baby in peril
Michael - The computer chat (tenuous, but he coud have been imagining it: 1) he used it for a purpose other than inputting the code and there wasn't another "incident" and 2) when Jack looked at the computer there was nothing on the screen)

All visions seem to spring from each person's strongest desire (subconscious or otherwise): Jack has unresolved issues with his dead father; Kate desires the freedom that the horse represents (weak, I know); Charlie, unable to 'save' his real family, is now faced with the loss of his new family; and Michael's desire is to find Walt, a child he let go of long ago and just got back in his life. Just food for thought. Can anyone think of others?

**I was disappointed with the characterization of Locke in this episode. I really thought he was acting out of character. I'm not sure what Locke has invested in Claire and the baby, at least emotionally, but he seemed to be awfully mean and unforgiving toward Charlie. I was as annoyed by Charlie's behavior as anyone else - he really is borderline retarded, I think - but to dismiss him outright was just plain wrong. It's not like weird shit doesn't happen on the island. Um, Locke, you not only survived a fairly catastrophic plane crash - you were no longer paralyzed, dude. At least give Charlie the benefit of the doubt.

**I think the casting people did a remarkable job with the Young Charlie - he was a dead ringer!

**So I think the loss of the piano (in both reality and in the dream with Aaron inside it) is supposed to represent the loss of family to Charlie. It was bought for him by his mother, who charged him with using it to save the family. Once his brother sold it from under him and left the country, he lost the last ties he had to his family.

**There was a ton of religious symbolism in this episode - the painting in Charlie's childhood home, the vision of his mother, Claire and Hurley as figures from the painting, the Virgin Mary statues, all the water/baptism stuff - but what significance it all had besides being representative of Charlie's religious background, I don't know.

**Why was Eko marking trees that he "liked"? And did Charlie burn those trees down when he started that fire?

**Is all this "baby danger" connected somehow with the psychic who put Claire on the plane?

**The Hurley/Libby stuff was nice. She gives me a weird vibe, though. Is she the mole? Or is she just hiding some horrible secret like the rest of them?

**I don't EVER - and I mean EVER - want to see that diaper commercial segment again in my life.

Next week: Repeat of season 1's "Numbers", the one where Hurley wins the lottery. I sense some number-related action in the next new episode!

And speaking of the next new episode (Feb 8), if they kill off Sun I swear I will never watch this show again. I swear.