Wow. Poor Charlie. I simultaneously feel so sorry for him, and at the same time, understand the anger of the others, which is part of the reason I feel so sorry for him.

I mean, he's not using, and even though he lied about hording the Madonna statues, the main inciting event in the ep occurred not because of that lie or because he was using, but because of a huge hallucination/vision that he had no control over. He is certainly responsible for endangering everyone by starting the fire, but I feel bad for him because part of the crisis stemmed from that hallucination, and demons that are haunting him other than the heroin. I'm not excusing him by any means, but at the same time, I sympathize with him.

This is the first time we've seen Locke use physical violence towards another castaway out of anger. The closest he came before was conking out Boone in Hearts and Minds, and that was a calculated attempt to help him conquer his Shannon-related demons.

At the same time, I wondered if at times the others were being a bit self-righteous and unfair. Charlie was right in mentioning the other hallucinations that the others had seen. I also notice that he didn't mention the fact that when Claire was attacked by Rousseau in Raised by Another, it was Jack who thought she was imagining/dreaming it, and Charlie who defended her. Why doesn't Charlie just ask Jack or Kate or Sayid, who've all seen the other "hallucinations" to point this out to Claire, and tell her that he had one on the night he "sleepwalked" with Aaron?

I also thought that if they thought Charlie was using again, there were things they could've done other than just push him away. I mean, Locke goes on about how Charlie has given up the right to be trusted? Locke? Wasn't it Locke who lied to the others about going out hunting for boar and looking for the kidnapped Claire's trail, when he was just digging up the hatch with Boone? Here, he went out on excursions for the sake of his own curiosity, while claiming a more altruistic motive, and in part because of this, Boone got killed. Sure, Boone is at least partly responsible for his own accident, but Locke had an enormous amount of influence over him. And now he's moralizing to Charlie?

I liked how Sawyer goaded Hurley into chatting with Libby, and Ana's poking around with Jack as to whether he's "hittin' it" with Kate.

Missed the first 20 minutes . TrekGrrl called *exactly* at 9PM needing to be picked up from a friend's house.

Mediocre episode, IMO. I didn't really get into the story much this week, the characters seem to be acting a little crazier than usual. Oh well, they can't all be spot on eps.

I do feel some sympathy for Charlie. His first incident with Aaron is completely not his fault. Just the island screwing with someone else. Then again, I can understand why everyone turned against him. Claire wants space and he doesn't really give it to her. Locke's suspected for a while that he's been using again and the stash of Virgin Marys all but confirms it for him. Locke shouldn't be giving lectures on trust, anymore than Jack had the right to believe he could stop Michael last week. But I get why everyone's against him at the end. Starting a fire, abducting Aaron, and taking him to the ocean seems pretty darn crazy. Couldn't he have just tried to get Eko to talk to Claire for him about the baptism?

Maybe its the island messing with people's minds?

At the end, Charlie pulls his hood over his head. I half expected his eyes to change color and glow. Is he turning to the Dark Side?

I really hope that having Charlie and his band in diapers doesn't turn out to be a "jump the shark" moment. Usually that happens when one of the cast dresses up in a chicken suit. But they already had that, didn't they?

I think the band in diapers was to show how far the mighty had fallen and that they where trying to ride the one hit wonder thing a bit too far. Sort of how some former stars wind up hawking the wierdest things on tv.

And yeah I definately heard the vader theme when charlie did that.

I thought that the hood was supposed to represent his isolation from everyone else. Which may lead to a dark path. We'll see, I guess.

Locke's behavior bothered me in this episode. Let me start by saying that this probably--actually, definitely cannot be classified as a nit. It's more of a discussion piece. Basically, my wife and I were watching this and we felt the same way.

Throughout the series, Locke has been benevolent towards everyone, without prejudice or favoritism. Some examples:
* He helps free Boone from the influence of his step-sister
* He helps Charlie on the road to recovering from his addiction
* He helps the entire tribe find food
* He makes a crib for Claire
* He finds Vincent and then lets Michael take credit for the find, to strengthen their ties
* He helps rescue Walt from the polar bears
* He helps the group try to bait "the others" with Ethan
* He tries to rescue both Claire and Michael

The point is, Locke has been a "superman" of sorts, but one who seems to do things for the sake of helping others without prejudice. But in this episode, it seemed like he was prejudiced against Charlie in favor of Claire. His punching of Charlie just seemed, I don't know, "wrong," not in the spirit of the character we've come to know. Yes, Charlie was way out of line. But smashing him in the face THREE TIMES? Does Locke have a thing for Claire, and is he letting that cloud his judgment and decisions?

Interesting idea there. Maybe there is something going on that we won't see for a bit. Sort of the daddy issues thing in reverese?

Locke was angry because Charlie put others' lives in danger by deliberately starting a fire (not to mention putting whatever precious supplies they had in there at risk), and kidnapping Aaron. Locke may have felt he gave Charlie and chance, and Charlie abused his and everyone's generosity, and deserved a bit of a thumping to knock some sense into him.

I'm sorry Luigi but Locke was acting rather off his usual feed this entire episode. Like he had somethign out for Charlie totally.

I mean Locke is usually the jedi there is no anger but peace kinda guy. This episode its like he was going through the whole passion sets you free dark side thing against charlie.

Not letting charlie explain, not giving him the benefit of the doubt or anything. Especially considering how it was Locke who did see a vision of the plane himself and has been one of the first to believe and accept the "mystical" qualities of the island.

I'll agree charlie did mess up big time with the fire but he had been pushed to no end by that point and apparently does care about padme (er claire and aaron) and wants to be a father figure for her and aaron. (Which is it just me or does it kinda feel like Charlie didnt have a great relationship with his dad either, ie his dad was apoor butcher and didnt agree with his decision to go into music, or am i just reading too much into things?)

Also going back to rosseau. Didnt she warn to watch out for strange behavior among the survivors? That her people started turning against each other? Could we be seeing the begingin of something like that now? The turning of charlie to the dark side or locke?

And I heard Libby say that about the washer and all but it didnt click until you pionted that out as I got distracted a few moments later. I wonder what that means. Think sears delivers that far?

Everyone has their limits, R. Charlie pushed Locke past his. Showing the excess of those limits is part of how writers develop characters. They don't have them act the same exact way all the time. Look at Mike going all crazy holding Jack at gunpoint before locking him in the closet before going after Walt.

For that matter, look at how Charlie acted seeingly out of character!

Speaking of Hurley and Libby, I recently saw the second half of Season 1 recently, and in Exodus part 1, I'm pretty sure that we saw when Hurley got on the plane, and of the two people standing in front of the door, neither looked like Libby.

True, I'll give you that everyone has their limits. I'll accept that. But Locke is one of the last people on the show I would have expected to react so "forcefully" to the stress or hitting the limits of his patience. And yes character development is usually shown by interaction of this nature but having Locke find some other more peaceful way to interact without going all john wayne on him would have been more challenging and interesting to me. But maybe that is some kind of affect of the island. Increaseing people's rage/anger and decreasing their selfcontrol in regards to such?

I didnt really see charlie acting that much out of character. He is a heroin addict (reformed) and the temptation of those statues would be quite severe I am sure. Also the stress of wanting to do ,as he feels it, the right thing and not being able to either explain it or get the others (the survivors not the other others) to understand him kinda pushed his buttons.

As for Walt I can perfectly sympathize and understand why he reacted the way he did. he is a father. Threat Forces have taken and are holding his son. Anyone who is not on his side in rescuing his son are his enemies. I would probably have reacted in a similar fashion. You dont mess with a truely caring parent's children without risking your life.

As for Walt I can perfectly sympathize and understand why he reacted the way he did. (Of course, you meant "Michael" here.)

Well, a rerun tonight, saving up episodes for sweeps (the month of February). I tell you what, if they don't start answering some questions soon it's going to put me off. I mean, most of the major mysteries are still left up in the air. I wouldn't mind if they went only three seasons including next year, if they would just show some progress. I'd hate to have it all come down to the final episode.

Influx ummm no I was talking about the sequel series set 15 years into the future when walts adopted son (which is aaron's and the yet to be born daughter of sun and jin) is taken by the last of the other other's them membership who came out of the second secret hatch in the top of the mountain. They are gonna call it The Next Lost Generation. (Either that or return to Lost Island)

(oops yeah I was thinking one thing and typed another.)

I know it would be nice to be given a few more answers to what is goign on and stop stringing it along. But then again this show is kinda like a striptease. Try not to get too excited about the end and enjoy what is coming off.

"This is the first time we've seen Locke use physical violence towards another castaway out of anger."

He also whacked Sayid on the head to prevent him from following the signal.