Lost
“Homecoming”
Originally aired February 9, 2005
Oh, Charlie. Charlie, Charlie, Charlie. How is it that in any given situation, you manage to mess up the plan? It’s like instinct with you. Folks tell you exactly what the plan is, and what your role is in it, and yet you always manage to do the opposite, screwing everything up. The plan is: you’re going to steal from this wealthy family. Except you get found out when you land in the hospital for a terrible case of withdrawal while carrying the stolen property. The plan is: you are going to take a real job and live a respectable life. Except that your withdrawal symptoms make you vomit onto a copy machine and send you to a hospital — also, see above. Alright, the plan is: we catch and NOT KILL Ethan. Repeat: DO NOT kill Ethan. Except that you do. And the worst part of all this is you’re not acting maliciously. You’re not intentionally doing the wrong thing … in fact, you’re trying to do the right thing by everyone, including your junkie, thieving friend. And yet … somehow … you keep messing up the plan.
Is it because of your whole “carpe diem” approach to life? The whole, let’s not worry about the future, let’s just live in the moment and do what feels good, attitude? Because if that’s it, it’s not working out for you, and it’s time to rethink it. Maybe you should come up with some kind of, oh, I don’t know, plan.
Hey! Did you know that Charlie was a drug addict? It’s true. Somehow (a coma? amnesia?) you may have missed the other 8,000 references to Charlie’s drug problems, but believe it or not, he used to be addicted to heroin. He turned to heroin when his brother Liam was mean to him this one time, and then his band fell apart, and Charlie was left with a nasty horse habit with no means to support it.
Charlie has made friends with another junkie, this guy named Tommy, who is concerned that they’re running out of their stash. “Carpe Diem!” proclaims the little Hobbit — which his friend Tommy doesn’t understand because he wasn’t forced by his friends to go see Dead Poets Society, and watch Robin Williams shriek about seizing the frickin’ day until one kid is forced to kill himself so he doesn’t have to hear it anymore. Tommy’s got a plan, though. He’s going to put Charlie to work. The two go into a bar, and Tommy points out one Lucy Heatherton, daughter of Francis Price Heatherton, who is quite rich, and Lucy will be Charlie’s target for the evening. Charlie marvels at how Tommy is able to collect this information, and then makes his way over to Lucy and her friends where he lays on the charm offensive. Tommy, greasing the wheels, plays a little “You All Everybody,” as Charlie works the “neg.”
Lost note: Charlie, Tommy, and the con. Obviously, Tommy has set Charlie up to rip Lucy off, right? Tommy serves as Charlie’s information gatherer, just as Gordy does for Sawyer in “The Long Con,” and Mikhail does for Benry. For a good con to work, one must have at least a little information on the victim to best manipulate them. You have to know them.
And apparently, Charlie and Tommy’s plan is successful: Lucy brings Charlie home after their first date, giving Charlie an opportunity to scope out the joint for easily stealable items. Like this cigarette case, maybe? That was once owned by Churchill (really? Because I thought Churchill was a cigar smoker …)?
Because her father collects items owned by the great leaders of the empire? And Charlie should really meet her father who is off buying a paper company in Slough. Perhaps Charlie should come for dinner!
Which he does. Lucy’s father, Mr. Francis Price Heatherton, is funny and charming, not unlike Charlie himself. In fact, he’s like Charlie in a number of ways: for instance, he was in a band back in the day. They were called The Protestant Reformation, which as he admits, is a terrible name for a band. Mr. Heatherton decided to give the band up once he was married and Lucy was on the way — he felt he needed to be responsible and provide for his growing family. A man has to think of the future, yo.
Hey! Speaking of your future, how’s the band doing, Char? Any new albums coming out? And poor Charlie suddenly comes to the realization that Drive Shaft is really truly over … his brother Liam has left the band to be with his daughter, just like Mr. Heatherton had done, and is on the path of responsibility and respectability. So what shall Charlie do?
Take a job, is what. Charlie accepts a job from Mr. Heatherton as a copier salesman, infuriating Tommy. Charlie has gone off-script here. He was only supposed to go in, find something to steal that Tommy could pawn, and get out again before Lucy could figure out what had happened. But thanks to his recent epiphany regarding Drive Shaft, Charlie has come to grips that he needs to reconsider his future. ‘Cause it ain’t going to be happening with the band. Tommy, however, is pretty certain that without a fix, Charlie’s withdrawal is going to ruin any future Charlie has planned for himself. As withdrawal is wont to do.
Lost note: As I mentioned earlier, Tommy and Gordy are very similar characters. In “The Long Con,” Sawyer meets Gordy at Kate’s mother’s diner, where Gordy berates Sawyer for falling for Cassidy, their mark:
GORDY: So, tell me you got her.
SAWYER: Yeah, I got her.
GORDY: All 600 grand?
SAWYER [looking uncomfortable]: All 6.
GORDY: You fell for her. Oh, come on, you’ve got to be kidding me.
SAWYER: Look, it’s got nothing to …
GORDY: Hey, I found that bitch.
SAWYER: Her name is Cassidy.
GORDY: Well, I waited 6 months while you and Cassidy played house. Now, if you think …
SAWYER: I ain’t doing it.
GORDY: You know what’s making you stupid right now? It’s your damn hormones. You think you’re in love, but you’re not. You know, a tiger doesn’t change his stripes, James. You’re a con man, just like me. And it’s not what you do, it’s what you are. Do I make myself clear?
Come Monday morning, Lucy helps Charlie get ready for his big day. He nervously appraises himself in the mirror, as Lucy help adjust the tie on the new suit she just bought him. Charlie is a mess of nervousness, uncertainty, and serious withdrawal, and I mean, how daft is Ms. Lucy? Look at him! The bright red rings around his bloodshot eyes? The shakes? Has she not seen Trainspotting?
Lucy assures Charlie that he needn’t be nervous, her father has already put the fix in and demanded that Charlie’s sales targets buy two copiers to make him feel better. Because Mr. Price is awesome, and Charlie really should steal from him the moment his daughter leaves the room. But, alas, that’s exactly what he does. As Lucy retrieves the briefcase she bought for Charlie, Charlie swipes Winston’s cigarette case. Let’s get you to work, Charlie! Lucy will be driving you this morning to make you feel just that much worse.
Lost note: As I’m certain Jane noticed, Lucy helps Charlie prepare in front of the mirror. At this moment, Charlie is face to face with two possible Charlies: he can either continue being a junkie has-been, or he can embrace a new life, a new Charlie. One who is responsible and is able to provide for a family. Which shall he choose?
And here’s what’s tragic: Charlie really tries. He goes into that sales meeting, he tries to demonstrate the awesome speed of the C815, things go wrong, then things go really, really wrong, and things go as bad as they possibly can as Charlie vomits directly onto said C815 copier. Oops. But don’t feel bad! Because this is supposed to be a wacky scene as evidenced by the wacky banjo music that plays throughout. Withdrawal is hi-larious! F’reals. Comedy gold.
Following his disastrous sales pitch, and subsequent hospital visit, Charlie stops by the Heatherton place to try to apologize to Lucy. But Lucy? Not interested. Seems the EMTs found her father’s cigarette case on Charlie’s person when he went to the hospital, and, for some reason, Lucy found that to be less than charming. Lucy finally understands that the whole relationship was simply a con, and that Charlie never really cared about her, but she doesn’t understand why on earth he took the job. Why’d he go so far? And Charlie? He sincerely feels terrible about the whole thing, and he explains that he simply wanted her to think that he could take care of her. You’ll never take care of anyone, Lucy spits back. Poor Charlie! Chin up, little hobbit! It’s not true! You’ll take care of someone soon enough, I promise!
And that someone will be one little lady with a memory that just happens to be on the fritz. Locke, who just happened to find Claire out in the middle of the jungle, brings her unconscious body back to camp. She wakes up and immediately begins shrieking — seems that she has no idea who these people standing over her are. In fact, Claire remembers nothing. Nada. Zilch. She doesn’t remember the plane crash, or Ethan, or what happened to her while she was with him, or who any of the other survivors are for that matter. So she’s of no help in the whole Who’s This Ethan Dude, and Why Is He So Interested in Kidnapping Pregnant Chicks mystery. Once she stops screaming, and Jack’s had an opportunity to ask her a few questions that she didn’t have the answer to, Charlie attempts to chat with her, and make her feel a little better. He returns her diary and suggests that maybe it will help her recover her memory.
The rest of the survivors are abuzz with gossip about Claire’s return, and Sayid’s not convinced that perhaps Claire didn’t escape Ethan, but was released by him, sent by him. And her amnesia? Sayid thinks it’s a crock. None of this goes over well with Charlie who opts to go back to the caves to keep Little Miss Memoryless company.
On his way back to the caves, Charlie runs into Jin and begins chattering at Jin about how nice it must be to simply take care of his wife and not have any real idea what’s going on, or be involved in all the craziness, or have to take part in making decisions, or worry about behemoths or French transmissions or THUNK! or rocks being flung via slingshots by dudes named Ethan, except that he does because Jin got knocked unconscious by a rock to the head thanks to that last one.
Oh, and here’s Creepy Ethan now! And look at those fresh scratches on his cheek! He grabs Charlie by the throat (ouch) and threatens Charlie that if the survivors don’t return Claire to him he will begin killing the survivors at a rate of one survivor per day that they don’t give her back and Charlie will be saved for last. Well, that’s mighty considerate of him!
Lost note: Here’s what’s interesting: the scratches on Ethan’s cheek. Where’d they come from? Presumably Claire, right? But we learn in “Maternity Leave” in season 2, that Alex led Claire out of the Caduceus Hatch and into the jungle where Danielle found her. There was no confrontation with Ethan, or, really, any attempted escape. So, who scratched Ethan?
Charlie informs everyone else about Ethan’s diabolical plan, and folks are of mixed minds as to how to deal with the situation.
Charlie: KILL HIM!
Jack: Let’s track him down!
Locke: Circle the wagons, only tell a few folks about the threat, and then, you know, hang out.
Jack: Tell everyone and move them all to the caves!
Locke: Hey. Genius. What if Ethan’s not alone, and they intend for us to all go to one location like a bunch of sheep so they can slaughter us.
Jack: Hmmm. Hadn’t considered that.
Locke: That’s right, so STEP OFF.
Charlie lies to Claire and tells her that nothing’s going on.
So, apparently Locke has been going around telling everyone (except Claire) what’s happening, because Kate approaches Jack who’s sharpening a stick and suggests that he use the key that he’s been wearing around his neck. See, because the key opens the Halliburton case? Which has four 9mms and a bunch of ammo? And they could arm some folks? With real weapons? Instead of pointy sticks? But Jack is all, no way! Someone will just end up shooting themselves in the foot or something and then I’ll have to treat them, and I’d rather spend my free time crying.
But I’m being cynical: their plan involves more than just pointy sticks! They have bags … of cans? That fall? From trees? Totally unclear what that’s about, but Sayid, Locke, and Boone seem pretty pleased about it, so OK. They are going to have guys posted every 20 meters, making sure that no one enters the “perimeter.” And Boone’s all Oooh! Oooh! I’ll stand guard! And Locke’s like Great! We’re counting on you, little buddy! But Sayid rolls his eyes. And with cause.
Charlie feels responsible for Claire’s abduction, blah, blah, blah.
Nighttime: Boone is standing guard. Boone is falling asleep….aaaaaand…he’s….out.
Daytime: Yep. Boone’s asleep. And, UH-OH! The bag of cans has fallen! ALERT! ALERT! Boone finally wakes up (way to go there, slacker), and goes running into the jungle and finds … Vincent. Locke and Sayid follow him, and mock him, and that’s when the woman on the beach screams. Everyone goes running over there to find Sceve. Who is dead. Way dead. It was convenient for Ethan to pick off a red shirt, but how’d Ethan get past all their guards and perimeter?
Good question! Locke’s pretty sure that he came from the water, whatever that means. Hurley remains an optimist: maybe Sceve drowned? Kate points out that Sceve’s neck, arms, and fingers were all broken, so no. And, really? The fingers? Why’d he take the time to break all of Sceve’s fingers? Doesn’t that seem like overkill?
So they have a funeral for Sceve (FINE. His name was Scott Jackson.), and no one really knew him, and they always confused him with Steve (hence the name Sceve), and now he’s dead.
Back at the caves, Claire notices that everyone is looking at her funny, so she asks Shannon what the dealie is, and Shannon tells her. And now Claire’s REALLY mad at Charlie. Who she yells at for lying to her. He tries to explain that he was just looking after her, but Claire isn’t interested. She doesn’t need a tiny miniature wee slip of a junkie looking after her, thank you very much. And, after all, he hasn’t done such a great job in the past.
Jack consults with Locke again, wondering if Locke can track Ethan. Locke can but he won’t. See, they’re on Ethan’s turf, and therefore he has the advantage. But Jack, of course, has a trick up his sleeve, or rather around his neck. He takes Locke to a hidden location where he has left the Halliburton, and reveals the guns to Locke. Whose eyes light up. Merry Christmas, John! Santa brought guns!
So the survivors hatch this plan wherein they are going to use Claire as bait to lure Ethan out, surround him and then bring him back to Cavetown for further questioning courtesy of their resident interrogator. Charlie’s a’gin’ it, but everyone continues to ignore him, so it doesn’t really matter. And? Also? Claire’s willing to do it. So, you know, who cares what Charlie has to say about it.
Charlie, doing some quick math, realizes that they only have three men for the mission (Jack, Locke, and Sayid) but four guns, and he asks if he can have a gun, too. No. Sad Charlie pouts as Jack urges the group to come up with a game plan: “Sayid, you’re the soldier. Locke, you’re the hunter.”
However, Locke points out that Charlie did have one valid point: they have four guns, why not arm four men? Just not Charlie. In fact, Jack is more willing to arm Sawyer over Charlie, which is saying something. Jack asks Sawyer to join them and surprise, surprises, Kate demands to come along, too. Ha ha! No can do this time, little lady! We’re all out of guns! Wouldn’t you rather go knit a scarf or paint your toenails with Shannon, or something? clucks Jack. But Sawyer apparently still has the marshal’s gun, and offers it up to Kate, so poo on Jack.
Right, so the group — now Jack, Locke, Sayid, Sawyer, Kate and Claire — head into the jungle, and they shove Claire out into the middle of nowhere and they wait.
Soon enough, Ethan comes snarling out of the middle of nowhere and tries to grab poor, hugely pregnant Claire. But ’tis cool — Jack’s there! LAAAADIES AND GENTTTTLEMEN! INTRODUCING IN THIS CORNER, JACK “WHAT’S WRONG WITH A MAN WHO CRIES?” SHEPHARD. AND IN THIS CORNER, REIGNING MIDDLEWEIGHT CHAMPION, ETHAN “DUDE, HE’S LIKE A LESS-CREEPY TOM CRUISE WHICH IS SAYING SOMETHING BECAUSE HE’S REALLY CREEPY” ROM!!! LET’S GET READY TO RUUUUUUMBLE!!!!!!!
Jack wins.
Everyone comes out from behind the trees, shouting and yelling, there might have been some more fighting, but I don’t really care about fight scenes, and the point is, they’ve got Ethan. He’s down, and everyone has agreed to not shoot him. Everyone, that is, but Charlie, who promptly shoots and kills him. Whoops. Why, oh why? Why’d you do it, Char? Well, because he wasn’t going to let Ethan anywhere near Claire ever again. Also? Ethan wasn’t going to talk. Which is totes true.
Later, Claire approaches Charlie and tells him that for some reason she remembers peanut butter, and Charlie reminds her that it was imaginary peanut butter.
Claire wants to trust Charlie. Yeah, good luck with that, sweetheart. You don’t remember this, but he’s a recovering addict, soooo … you know … just …. good luck.
Alright. “Homecoming.” Here’s an example of an episode that was (in my opinion, of course) just alright when it initially aired. Certainly not one of my favorites. But, a funny thing happened. The writers returned to this episode to draw parallels between Charlie and a couple of other characters, notably Sawyer and Desmond (and a little bit to Jin). And in doing so, suddenly this episode which I had previously dismissed as being a little, well, boring, became somewhat more interesting.
Charlie, like Sawyer and to a lesser degree Kate and Shannon, is pulling a romance con. Now, he certainly isn’t going for the big bucks like Sawyer, his intention was only to grab something that he could pawn for some quick heroin cash. But he plays on Lucy’s affections to make her let down her guard, just as Sawyer (and Cooper) do to their victims. Which is interesting because Charlie and Sawyer don’t really interact all that much, or bear any other similarities, with the exception that they both fall in love with women on the island.
More interesting to me are the similarities between Desmond and Charlie, because these two characters obviously do interact in a profoundly significant way on the island. And in their pasts, both men have to deal with trying to work for and impress their love interests’ very rich, very powerful fathers (as did Jin with Mr. Paik). But the fathers are very different: Mr. Heatherton genuinely likes Charlie and understands him. Mr. Heatherton has the soul of an artist, and he appreciates Charlie’s desire to become responsible as well as what kind of sacrifice that requires. He gave up music to become a husband and father, like Liam, Charlie’s brother, and he seems sincerely interested in helping Charlie find his way along this path, too.
Mr. Widmore, however, is another story altogether. Penny, like Lucy, tries to set her boyfriend up with a job working for her father, Charles Widmore. The results are much less successful. Charles Widmore offers Desmond a job, but when Desmond explains that he’s actually there to ask Mr. Widmore for his daughter’s hand in marriage, Widmore is less than receptive. Seems he doesn’t think Desmond is good enough for his daughter or think that Desmond will ever be a “great man.” Not only that, but Widmore goes so far as to actively attempt to keep them apart.
So, remember, Desmond did a stint in military prison for going AWOL? When he is released, Widmore is there to greet him with all the letters that Desmond had written to Penny that he clearly intercepted, and a case full of cash in an attempt to bribe Desmond to stay away from Penny. Here’s what’s cool: When Desmond gets into Widmore’s car, he notices the boxes on the seat, and he asks Widmore if he brought him a present.
Widmore’s response? “Actually, 2 presents. One of these boxes contains your past, Hume. The other, your future. Go ahead, open it.” Which is cool for a couple reasons. 1. There are all the time-travelling implications right? Desmond has 2 presents. Desmond is later able to not only travel back to the past, but he is able to see different possible futures. It’s all about time with Desmond, right? 2. But, also there are the 2 different boxes that represent 2 different possibilities for Desmond. The box of letters represents his life with Penny, domesticity, etc. and the box of money represents rejecting the life with Penny and embracing greed.
Here’s the thing! This is also the choice that Charlie faces! When he’s preparing for his first day on the job, he is faced with the choice between two boxes: the briefcase that Lucy gives to him as a present or the cigarette case. The briefcase represents the life with Lucy and domesticity and the cigarette case represents rejecting the life with Lucy and instead embracing greed (for drugs). What’s fun about this is that Desmond doesn’t take either box: Desmond rejects Widmore’s attempt to buy him off but he also rejects being with Penny–he takes off in a boat rather than be with her. Charlie, on the other hand, takes both, which is ultimately an impossibility. He can’t have it both ways, which he discovers soon enough.
So both men turn their backs on safety, stability, domesticity either deliberately or, in Charlie’s case, by not being able to make a real decision. Of course, turning one’s back on the “safe” life is how most great adventures start. Odysseus would never be the epic hero that he is known as now if he had decided to stay at home and do a little weaving with Penelope. No Great Man gets to be great by hanging out and mowing the lawn, I’m afraid — or at least that’s what mythology would have you believe. And sure enough, it’s because Desmond and Charlie reject domesticity they find themselves on the island where they discover the courage and heroism that they felt they needed to be able to provide a nice domestic life off the island. If that makes any sense.
And while we’re on that whole “redemption” tip, note the use of the word “fix” in this episode. I’ve discussed this before in regards to Charlie, but in this episode we have two separate uses of the word “fix:” a hit of drugs, and to rig a situation. But it’s the unused definition of the word — to repair — that is the relevant one. Charlie needs a fix. Charlie needs to be fixed. Charlie will be fixed on the island when he finally chooses domesticity and a family over drugs. And when he finally does sacrifice himself, he dies as a hero rather than as a pathetic junkie.
But at this point, Charlie is still struggling to figure out what his role is. Everyone else has a clearly defined purpose. In fact, moments after Jack essentially tells Charlie that he will not be coming along on the mission to get Ethan, there is a funny little line that is almost obscured by the soundtrack. Jack tells Sayid and Locke their “game plan:” “Sayid, you’re the soldier. Locke, you’re the hunter.” It wasn’t just two episodes ago that Locke tells Jack, “So go back, be the doctor. Let me be the hunter,” when they head out to find Charlie and Claire. And if you’ll remember, in “Further Instructions”, where Locke is all obsessed with the idea that he’s a “hunter” not a “farmer,” and then Eddie, the young undercover cop proves him wrong. Later, after Locke has saved Eko from the polar bear, he assures Locke that he will find Jack, Kate and Sawyer because he is, indeed, a hunter. Locke knows who he wants to be: The Hunter. And Jack essentially assigns Sayid his role/archetype: The Soldier. Jack is The Healer/The Miracle Worker. Kate is The Fugitive/The Runner. Sawyer is The Conman. But Charlie? Charlie is still trying to shake his former identity: The Junkie, and adopt a new one: The Family Man/Claire’s Hero.
And while he’s a step closer to being that (he did dispatch the major threat to Claire on the island, after all), he still isn’t just yet. And in part, that’s because he’s still adhering to his carpe diem approach to life, and not following the plan. In fact, he urges Claire to “seize the day” as late as “Par Avion,”, a notion that he later rejects when Desmond begins lurking around being all creepy and all-seeing again. First, let’s talk about the whole carpe diem thing, shall we? The phrase carpe diem comes from an ancient Roman poem:
Leuconoe, don’t ask — it’s dangerous to know —
what end the gods will give me or you. Don’t play with Babylonian
fortune-telling either. Better just deal with whatever comes your way.
Whether you’ll see several more winters or whether the last one
Jupiter gives you is the one even now pelting the rocks on the shore with the waves
of the Tyrrhenian sea — be smart, drink your wine. Scale back your long hopes
to a short period. Even as we speak, envious time
is running away from us. Seize the day, trusting little in the future.
The poem? Written by this dude named Horace. And pretty relevant to Charlie, no? This was his philosophy once he became a junkie and had little faith or confidence in his future. And thus, he can only think about the next hit, and finds himself stealing the cigarette case, ruining his chance for a future with Lucy. And he uses the expression again in “Par Avion” when he doesn’t want to deal with Desmond’s prediction for his future (Don’t play with Babylonian fortune-telling either …). The thing is? It’s only when Charlie chooses to trust in the future that Desmond predicted for him, it’s only when he goes along with the plan — the plan described to him by Desmond — the plan perhaps set out by the universe — that he is finally able to become what he was destined to be: Claire’s hero.
Or so we can hope …
Video for the week — an official teaser for season 4. No worries, no spoilers!
6?
Lost originally aired on ABC and is now available to stream on Hulu and IMDb.
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