Charlie doesn’t have to die!!!

Desmond is wrong. Not because his vision was wrong, but rather because it was incomplete and therefore his interpretation was incorrect.

How could I know his vision was incomplete when we were not shown it? “Elementary, my dear Watson…” We have seen two of Desmond’s visions. One when he was thrown backwards into time, and one where he was thrown into the future. In both instances his journey was viewed from a first person perspective: his. At no time did he see things that were outside his own physical perceptions. He may be unstuck in time, but he is not omnipresent.

Desmond tells Charlie that he sees Claire and the baby get on a helicopter, so we know Desmond returns to the beach. He _knows_ that helicopter will never come unless Charlie goes to the Looking Glass Station. The plan was not for them both to go down, but for only one of them. While Desmond was willing to take Charlie’s place, he still never suggested they both go. So, if Charlie was meant to go alone, Desmond would not be able to see what happened after Charlie went into the water. Whether Desmond’s vision included Charlie wacking him with an oar or not, Desmond’s vision of Charlie ended around the point Charlie entered the water.

Whether Desmond’s vision included his ‘nap’, he certainly never saw Charlie return to the surface. It was not unreasonable for him to assume Charlie drowned, especially since Juliette has (incorrectly) informed them that The Looking Glass is flooded. Assuming Desmond returns to the island, and the castaways are able to contact the ship, it is reasonable for Desmond to assume (in vision and real-time) that Charlie flipped the switch. (More likely he will convince the underwater amazons to flip it.)

Now, one could hypothesize that Desmond knew the Looking Glass wasn’t flooded, and that somehow Charlie flooded the station at the same time he disabled the jamming signal. Could happen, but still Desmond couldn’t know about it unless he was there; which would contradict him being on the beach to see Claire escape in the helicopter.

Given the logic of the show, and their attention to detail and plot consistency, Desmond didn’t see Charlie die. Desmond guessed. Charlie doesn’t have to die purely because of Desmond’s incomplete first-person vision.

All hail Charlie the Hero, may he yet live!

-Chris Knight

ps. I have added a follow-up post explaining why Charlie should not, in fact could not, have drowned the way they show portrayed.

4 Replies to “Charlie doesn’t have to die!!!”

  1. OUTSTANDING LOGIC!!! I wonder why I never thought of it. I need not point out that this episode shows Charlie to be a true hero twice and his courage three times. His barehanded defense of Nadia against a knife wielding attacker, his jumping into the pool despite his fear of water (I’ve known people with such a fear and they would never do what he did), capping it all with his diving to certain death to save Claire and Aaron. During the first season we saw him risk his life to save Jack. After all this, he still doesn’t get the respect he deserves from the other Lostees. Charlie is the one person they must not kill off, because he is the only one who truly represents the “everyman” hero that real life heroes are. Besides, he’s not a victim (by personality) or murderer, and lacks any serious character flaws. Its no wonder the island restored his life after Ethan hanged him. The island seems to like people of good character.

  2. I don’t think that chrlie should die becuase they can still do so much more like if he had issues with his father, his childhood, or if someone broke up with him and he’s still sad about it.Plus Charlie is such a main character and Claire will be pissed. So i hope they get Charlie back.

  3. if they kill charlie they kill of a part of lost.. he is the best character in the programme and shouldn’t die…

    even if he doesnt appear back, i think they should make charlie appear in the final episode of the whole programme and rescue them all.

Leave a Reply to Matthew Cancel reply

