Lost - Greatest Hits

*** / ****

Ben's a liar. If he says the night is black, take a peek out of the tent or Dharma station, because it's probably, most certainly daylight. When you hear a conversation about an underwater station called The Looking Glass mentioned as being filled with water, don't expect that to be true. If you get wind that Ben will be conducting a raid the next night, anticipate it to happen that night. When Charlie holds his breath, swims to The Looking Glass, and finds his way through a hatch inside, the fact that the Others are there waiting with guns pointed shouldn't be a surprise.

Charlie hearing from Desmond that he has a vision of a helicopter rescue for Claire and Aaron, that elation is short-lived. With soft, sympathetic voice and face, Desmond informs Charlie he must die.

Alex sending her hidden beau on a mission to inform Jack about Ben's earlier raid and Rousseau lending support to Jack to upend Ben's plans is quite a mother-daughter alliance, no matter how inadvertent it might seem.

When Jack says, with Danielle’s help (through her rigged trap explosives), they will blow Ben and the Others all to hell, it just feels too good to be true. To see  Ben suffer after what we were witness to in The Man Behind the Curtain would be ideal and, dare I say it, satisfying, but he has too often gotten his way. So to see Jack’s plan about luring the Others into a trap (they infiltrating a camp with no pregnant women to kidnap, just KABOOM!) and defeating them, I can’t even imagine viewers of the time the episode aired were willing to fall for it.

We all know Charlie’s days are numbered. Desmond knows. Charlie knows. It is inevitable. So Charlie can make the eventual demise a memorable and heroic one. Can you imagine carrying the weight of that? For Desmond to have to endure seeing Charlie die so many times and Charlie having to wait on just how he’ll die and when—that kind of burden can be quite unkind. Both characters show that weight. Charlie making a promise he can’t keep to Claire about protecting her and Aaron, with Desmond pacing in angst just needing to get something off his chest; this lingering foreboding just never leaves. It is the wait for the end that exists.

Charlie’s redemption story has especially been a pleasant evolution during the third season as he has built up good will after some seriously questionable actions regarding Claire and Aaron. By the end of this episode, Charlie was saying goodbye to both on very good terms, with his Top 5 “greatest hits” from his “no good life” written in magic marker throughout when allowed moments to himself. Desmond is curious about it, but Charlie waits until the two of them are on an “outrigger” (furnished by Karl when he arrives to warn Jack at his girlfriend’s urgent request) heading to The Looking Glass before revealing the list for Claire to read later. Desmond offers to go in Charlie’s stead, but this is his duty, using an oar to knock him unconscious. This is Charlie’s mission, Desmond has other matters to eventually tend to.

Jack at odds with Sayid over what they need to do is a good piece in the episode because priorities are in order as their plans are rushed ahead of time due to the news of Ben’s sending ten armed men to fetch their women (and kill the men if necessary). Jack is told to take a few to the radio tower following Rousseau so that her signal will not interfere with Naomi’s walkie-talkie to her freighter. But Juliet revealing that Ben has a signal going out from The Looking Glass to interfere with anyone else’s signal (only allowing his own and the Others to signal out from the island) is what sets Charlie’s mission in motion. Desmond tells Charlie he sees him flipping a switch…and drowning.

The Oceanic survivors working together to defeat the Others has Jack returning to his leadership position although Sayid does challenge him to act like it. Bernard practices shooting as Rose argues with Jack about staying with him. Jin wants to know what Juliet says on the audio tape regarding his being sterile with her just telling him she was seeing an ultrasound of their child. The explosive plot won't be ready so the idea of shooting tents with sticks of dynamite is substituted. The women will be moved and men armed. The battle preparation is at hand.

Good Charlie bits include rescuing a woman from an alley burglary, a talk with Naomi about Manchester and his having a hit band record, receiving a ring from his brother during a warm moment, and an affectionate moment with Claire and Aaron. It's a nice goodbye for Charlie after quite a tumultuous experience on the island.