Charlie and the Church
Like Locke, Charlie doesn’t like anyone telling him what he can’t do. Despite the letters that he wore on his fingers in season one that spelled ‘FATE,’ Charlie wants to make his own decisions and be in charge of his life. Unfortunately, as he has repeatedly demonstrated this season, Charlie makes terrible decisions. He shot Ethan before anyone could question him, hoarded several statues full of heroin, obsessively interfered with Claire’s baby, and helped Sawyer steal the armory guns. However, all of these self-serving actions stand in sharp contrast to his most recent activity: helping Eko build a church. Charlie offered Eko a palette of wood to use as building material early in the church’s construction, but the process of rebuilding his own spirituality had began much earlier and couldn’t have been done without Eko’s help. Because Charlie is a reactionary character who often acts without thinking of the consequences, he needs subtle guidance from someone wiser than he is in order to think things through and make good decisions.
In season one, Locke helped Charlie overcome his drug addiction by letting him choose to quit heroin on his own. Locke took Charlie’s heroin supply and said that he would return it if Charlie asked for it three times. This method gave Charlie the time to thoroughly think about the heroin’s effect on him and choose to throw it into a fire. After Charlie discovered and subsequently squirreled away a heroin supply on the island, Locke abandoned all pretensions of freewill and demanded that Charlie surrender his drugs, even resorting to violence to take them.
Charlie did not respond well when Locke refused him a choice. Even though he didn’t really want the heroin, he still wanted revenge on Locke for taking it. Locke’s forceful methods of taking the drugs directly led to Charlie’s involvement with Sawyer’s con to steal the armory guns. Charlie explained his motivation as simply, ‘to make Locke look foolish.’
In the episode 2x12 – Fire + Water, Eko established trust with Charlie by offering him a statue filled with heroin to replace the one he had broken earlier. He didn’t lecture Charlie about the evils of drugs or condemn Charlie for using them. He simply handed Charlie a statue with no stated expectations about whether it would be opened or not. This action made it clear that he wasn’t going to force Charlie to quit using drugs. Because Eko has great patience (who else could go for 40 days without speaking), he was the most capable of allowing Charlie the time he needed to decide to change.
When Eko was first shown cutting down trees, I believed that he played coy about what he was building because the show’s producers were concealing some great surprise. However, now I realize that Eko’s initial refusal to say what he was building piqued Charlie’s curiosity. Had Eko simply said that he was building a church when Charlie first asked him why he was marking certain trees, Charlie would most likely have lost interest immediately and gone back to stare at his heroin statues. Rather than preaching to him about the need to serve others (or some other moralistic lesson), Eko let Charlie choose his own level of involvement with the church’s construction. Eko didn’t even invite Charlie to help until he willingly brought building supplies. By the time Eko finally revealed his secret (sometime between episodes 2x18 – Dave and 2x19 – S.O.S.), Charlie was fully committed to the project.
The difference in Charlie’s personality is striking. Since starting work on the church’s construction, he has not mentioned his drugs or hung out with bad influences such as Sawyer. He has also stopped obsessing about Claire and discrediting Locke. By throwing his heroin in the fire and agreeing to help build the church, Charlie has twice shown that he will choose to make good decisions when he is given the chance. However, he has also displayed a remarkable quick ability to regress back to his self-serving ways once his good influence stops focusing attention on him. Now that Mr. Eko has dedicated to push the button in the hatch (the same distraction that caused Locke to stop focusing on him), it will be interesting to see how Charlie handles having to make decisions on his own once again.
In season one, Locke helped Charlie overcome his drug addiction by letting him choose to quit heroin on his own. Locke took Charlie’s heroin supply and said that he would return it if Charlie asked for it three times. This method gave Charlie the time to thoroughly think about the heroin’s effect on him and choose to throw it into a fire. After Charlie discovered and subsequently squirreled away a heroin supply on the island, Locke abandoned all pretensions of freewill and demanded that Charlie surrender his drugs, even resorting to violence to take them.
Charlie did not respond well when Locke refused him a choice. Even though he didn’t really want the heroin, he still wanted revenge on Locke for taking it. Locke’s forceful methods of taking the drugs directly led to Charlie’s involvement with Sawyer’s con to steal the armory guns. Charlie explained his motivation as simply, ‘to make Locke look foolish.’
In the episode 2x12 – Fire + Water, Eko established trust with Charlie by offering him a statue filled with heroin to replace the one he had broken earlier. He didn’t lecture Charlie about the evils of drugs or condemn Charlie for using them. He simply handed Charlie a statue with no stated expectations about whether it would be opened or not. This action made it clear that he wasn’t going to force Charlie to quit using drugs. Because Eko has great patience (who else could go for 40 days without speaking), he was the most capable of allowing Charlie the time he needed to decide to change.
When Eko was first shown cutting down trees, I believed that he played coy about what he was building because the show’s producers were concealing some great surprise. However, now I realize that Eko’s initial refusal to say what he was building piqued Charlie’s curiosity. Had Eko simply said that he was building a church when Charlie first asked him why he was marking certain trees, Charlie would most likely have lost interest immediately and gone back to stare at his heroin statues. Rather than preaching to him about the need to serve others (or some other moralistic lesson), Eko let Charlie choose his own level of involvement with the church’s construction. Eko didn’t even invite Charlie to help until he willingly brought building supplies. By the time Eko finally revealed his secret (sometime between episodes 2x18 – Dave and 2x19 – S.O.S.), Charlie was fully committed to the project.
The difference in Charlie’s personality is striking. Since starting work on the church’s construction, he has not mentioned his drugs or hung out with bad influences such as Sawyer. He has also stopped obsessing about Claire and discrediting Locke. By throwing his heroin in the fire and agreeing to help build the church, Charlie has twice shown that he will choose to make good decisions when he is given the chance. However, he has also displayed a remarkable quick ability to regress back to his self-serving ways once his good influence stops focusing attention on him. Now that Mr. Eko has dedicated to push the button in the hatch (the same distraction that caused Locke to stop focusing on him), it will be interesting to see how Charlie handles having to make decisions on his own once again.
posted by Chris at 9:14 PM
1 Comments:
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