looooooost in the wilderness

[jaina]

Okay, here's the thing. I love Charlie. I loooooove and adore Charlie, and Claire, and everything related to Charlie/Claire. OTP twu wuv 4EVA, yo. However.

When the efforts to revive Charlie dragged on and on, and he still wasn't breathing, I started to think, "My God. They might actually just leave him dead. They might kill off a main character in the first half of the season." And as sad as that made me (see above re: Charlie love), I found myself really drawn to the idea. It would've been a great bit of storytelling. Not only would Jack have failed to miraculously save yet another person, but he actually would've *caused* Charlie's death because Ethan warned him to stop following. So Jack's status as Miracle Worker would've been damaged, and the reality of death on the island would have been driven home again. Damn, that would've been cool.

But no. Instead, Charlie wakes up, Jack is the hero once again, and I'm irrationally annoyed at the Lost PTB for a cop-out. At least it looks like we might have a profoundly changed Charlie from this.

I think I'll choose to believe it was the island that revived Charlie, not Jack. Actually, that leads to some interesting possibilites. Perhaps Ethan's group is not in league with the island-- maybe the island is trying to get rid of Ethan et al, and sees our crew as a way to do it. Eh?

Comments

[portnoyslp.livejournal.com]

I actually couldn't agree with you more. I think ML and I were both staring at the screen, being both horrified and incredibly impressed with JJ Abrams -- perhaps more impressed than with Whedon's disposal of Doyle, really. And then they brought him back, and it felt like Abrams had a failure of nerve or something.

They could probably even have kept Dominic on for a while, having Charlie appear as `visions' ala Jack's Dad.

[padawansguide.livejournal.com]

I'm torn to be honest. Because I totally agree - it would have been really effective storytelling. But at the same time, I said to the TV "If Charlie dies, I'm never watching this show again!!" :-) So while I do have a bit of disappointment, I am very relieved.

I do think the island could have had something to do with reviving Charlie though. After all, Locke was paralyzed.

And I liked Doyle on Angel and was bummed that he was killed off too. :-)

[nmissi.livejournal.com]

Let's see if I can recreate my thought processes from last night.

"oh, shit, It's Charlie! They hung Charlie! He's dead. Oh, they wouldn't really. This is a hallucination or something, Jack's wigging in the jungle now. That's not really Charlie, is it? Oh my god, hes not breathing. Oh, God, he's dead. I'm never watching this show again. Ever. Never. Assholes. Oh, fuck. He's beating the corpse. He's pounding on Charlie's poor, mutilated corpse. Shit shit shit. I hate this show. I hate hate hate hate it. I'm never watching this again. I'm going to turn it off right now- Dammit stop pounding on the corpse already! Fuck me, it worked. Charlie's alive! Yay! Charlie! Love this show. I love this show. Oh, crap. Now Jack's a hero again. Bugger."

bump in the road

[(Anonymous)]

well, what it did for me was interrupt that "willing suspension of disbelief" that is so necessary for fiction (and most presidential campaigns) to be successful. first i thought, oh damn, charlie's been hanged -- but since he seems rather resilent (after all, he kicked a major drug habit with no more ill effect than the symptoms of a mild case of the flu), figured he would be revived/saved by jack and kate. however, as the scene dragged on and on, my thoughts turned to "are they going to kill off dom (notice the switch from 'charlie')?, they can't do that, he's a major player in this undertaking!" and that was proved right when he began breathing again. in the end, was left with the feeling that neither jack nor the island revived dom/charlie, but rather the writers did. wth luck, will slip back into the fiction with the next episode. :-)
qui-gon d

[jainamsolo.livejournal.com]

If they'd actually gone through with it, I definitely would've ranked it above Doyle's death, since that one was out of necessity. Killing off Charlie would've been a truly, truly courageous thing to do. Sadly, though, I think the majority of Lost watchers are the sheep-like folks who would've screamed bloody murder. I'm reminded of the original plan for Jack-- introduce him in the Pilot as the hero, then kill him off. But they decided against that one, too.

[jainamsolo.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine posted elsewhere about the possibility of the island reviving Charlie-- that it was Charlie's "rebirth," a chance to "discard his old self" and begin fresh. I wonder if one by one, all the survivors will have their own rebirth experiences that will tie them closer to the island...

Damn, I love this show!

[jainamsolo.livejournal.com]

LOL! Stupid hero Jack. "Someday you're going to be wrong, and I hope I'm there to see it."

Re: bump in the road

[jainamsolo.livejournal.com]

Pesky writers, always interfering with our characters... *g* Yeah, it did throw me into thinking about the show as a fictional entity rather than being immersed in it the way I usually am. I hear we may be getting some Boone backstory in the next episode, so let's hope for some good fiction. :)

[padawansguide.livejournal.com]

Ooh, that's a very interesting theory! I love the show too! :-)

I read the spoilers!

[tresjolie9.livejournal.com]

I read the spoilers, and knew they would not be killing off Jack. The actor has way too much of a fan following for them to risk doing something like that!

However I certainly agree with you that doing that would have been an interesting and bold move for the series. It would have hammered home the fact that the island is a dangerous place, and that they are struggling to survive. Jack's gulit over Charlie's loss would have been a great way of exploring his character, a lot more than the death of the unknown snorkler!

In all honesty I'm starting to get the feeling that the Lost writers are lost. In the begining it looked like they had a general idea of where they are going, however as the season is progressing, with the storylines becoming increasingly confusing, it seems like they are simply coming up with stuff as they go along.