Lost/Fire and Water

Fire + Water
Season 2, Episode 12
Airdate	January 25, 2006
Production Number	212
Written by	Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz
Directed by	Jack Bender
← 2x11 The Hunting Party	2x13 → The Long Con
Lost — Season Two

Due to MediaWiki limitations, the title is incorrect. The correct title of this episode is Fire + Water.

Fire + Water is the twelfth episode of the second season, and the thirty-seventh episode overall.

When Charlie's vividly surreal dreams lead him to believe Claire's baby, Aaron, is in danger, Locke suspects Charlie may be using again. Meanwhile, Sawyer encourages Hurley to act on his attraction to Libby.

Starring: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Mr. Eko), Naveen Andrews (Sayid), Emilie de Ravin (Claire), Matthew Fox (Jack), Jorge Garcia (Hurley), Josh Holloway (Sawyer), Daniel Dae Kim (Jin), Yunjin Kim (Sun), Evangeline Lilly (Kate), Dominic Monaghan (Charlie), Terry O'Quinn (John), Harold Perrineau, Jr. (Michael), Michelle Rodriguez (Ana-Lucia), Cynthia Watros (Libby).

Guest Starring: Neil Hopkins (Liam).

Co-Starring: Vanessa Branch (Karen), Sammi Davis (Megan Pace), Jeremy Shada (Young Charlie), Zach Shada (Young Liam), Craig Young (Commercial Director).

Plot Overview

The Island

• Charlie has a very vivid dream of his childhood piano drifting out to sea, while Aaron's cries emanate from inside the piano. Awake, Charlie rushes to Claire's shelter and finds the cradle empty. He anxiously asks Sun if she has seen them and Sun points out where they are. He finds her holding Aaron on the beach as Locke comes up to her, playing with the baby and talking with Claire. Later that day, Charlie brings Claire some nappies for Aaron and tries to smooth things over, but Claire tells him she needs some space. Charlie has another dream where he swims out to sea and saves Aaron in his cradle. Bringing him ashore, Charlie sees his mother and Claire, dressed as angels, on the beach. Together they tell him Aaron is in terrible danger and only Charlie can save him. Hurley wakes Charlie up and asks him what he's doing as it's night and Charlie is holding Aaron by the beach. Claire wakes up the camp with her shouting about her baby missing, and Hurley tells everyone it's okay and that they're over at the water. Charlie tries to explain himself, but Claire slaps him and leaves. In the jungle, Charlie talks to Locke when he leaves the Swan and tries to explain his actions the previous night. Locke asks him if he's using again, but Charlie dodges the question until finally telling Locke that he and Eko burned the plane and all the statues. Locke tells Charlie that trust is a hard thing to win back and that he should leave her and her baby alone for the time being. After talking with Eko, Charlie tries to talk to Claire and tell her that they need to baptize the baby. Kate stops him from getting too close to Claire and tells Charlie he has to leave. Going to his stash of Virgin Mary statues, Charlie breaks one and holds the heroin baggies in his hands. Locke appears and tells Charlie that he's disappointed in him. Taking the statues from Charlie, Locke tells him he's given up the right to be believed and leaves. That night, Charlie sets a fire near the beach camp. As the castaways form a water line to fight the fire, Charlie sneaks into Claire's shelter and takes Aaron. Claire sees Charlie with Aaron and yells for help. Charlie eventually gives up Aaron, but as he tries to apologize to Claire he's beaten badly by Locke. All the gathered castaways disperse, leaving Charlie by himself.
• After his dreams regarding Aaron, Charlie finds Eko marking trees with X's. Eko tells him those trees are the ones he likes. Charlie tells him about his dreams and Eko tells him they might mean something, that maybe he needs to save the baby. After Charlie tried to kidnap and baptize Aaron, Claire goes to see Eko. She has him baptize herself and Aaron.
• While Kate is helping exercise Sawyer's shoulder, Hurley asks him about how well he knows Libby. Unable to get any help out of Sawyer, Hurley leaves as Jack and Ana-Lucia come out of the jungle, and Sawyer makes a suggestive remark to Kate about what they're up to. Later, Sawyer and Hurley are playing cards when Sawyer spots Libby carrying clothes to be washed. He tells Hurley his moment is now and yells out Libby's name as he disappears into his shelter, leaving Hurley by himself to return Libby's wave. The two go the Swan and Hurley helps Libby with the laundry. Hurley asks her if he knows her from somewhere other than the flight, but Libby tells him he stepped on her foot when he got onto the flight.

The Flashback

• Flashback: Charlie

At a hospital nursery, Charlie is looking at a baby girl. Karen, the baby's mother, appears and the two hug. She tells Charlie that she named her baby Megan, after Charlie and Liam's mother. She asks Charlie where Liam is and, covering for his brother, he tells her that Liam missed his flight from Germany but will be with her soon. Returning to his loft, Charlie finds Liam passed out on a couch with a tourniquet around his arm. He wakes Liam up and tells Liam he needs to clean up and get down to the hospital to see Karen and their daughter.

Later, the members of Drive Shaft are on a film set and Liam is in terrible shape. Charlie reminds him that they need this gig and to get it together. The director calls everyone to the set, telling them they have only twenty minutes to wrap and they need to get it right this time as they're on take 53. The band disrobe to reveal they're wearing nothing but oversized diapers with giant pacifiers around their necks. The set is a giant crib and they're shooting a commercial for "Butties" diapers with the lyrics "You All Every Butties." As the start filming, Liam falls out of the set and the director stops the shoot. Charlie tries to salvage the situation, but the director tells him they were only hired as a favor to their lawyer. He tells Charlie to ditch Liam, but Charlie refuses and the director fires them.

At Charlie's loft, Liam shows up while Charlie is composing music on his childhood piano. Liam tells Charlie that Karen kicked him out because he dropped Megan. Distraught, Liam tells Charlie that he's got no money, nothing, and doesn't know what to do. Charlie tells him he's writing again and shows him what he's composed so far. Liam is impressed with what Charlie has so far and thinks it could work, but asks Charlie if he's got any drugs.

Sometime later Charlie shows up at his loft and discovers his childhood piano is missing. Liam tells Charlie that he sold it for money. Charlie figures he used it for drugs, but Liam tells him he's been clean for two days. He tells Charlie that Karen was going to leave him and take Megan with her. She's got an uncle in Australia who is going to get him a job, and there's a rehab clinic in Sydney. He needed the money from Charlie's childhood piano to buy plane tickets to Australia for him and his family. Charlie tells him that he's Liam's family, but Liam tells him he'll call when things settle down and leaves.

Notes

Mysteries

• Where does Hurley remember Libby from?

Scrutiny

• Libby says that Hurley probably remembers her from the plane. He supposedly stepped on her foot when he boarded. However, we see in Exodus, Part Two that Hurley was the last one on the plane. Libby accurately described Hurley on the plane, but since she was sitting in the tail section it seems unlikely that he stepped on her foot.

Arc Advancement

Characters

• Claire and Charlie's relationship comes to a rather bitter end when he tries to steal Aaron.
• Locke and Charlie become at odds with one another over Charlie's behavior and actions.
• Clarie asks Locke to temporarily stay by her shelter at night.
• Hurley works up the courage to talk with Libby.
• Eko baptizes Claire and Aaron.

Referbacks

• 1x07 - The Moth: Charlie's brother Liam mentions that he missed his daughter Megan's birth, and in this episode we find out why.
• 1x07 - The Moth: While confiscating the Virgin Mary statues from Charlie, Locke refers back to when he gave Charlie a choice about giving up his drugs but now he's making that choice for Charlie.
• 1x19 - Deus Ex Machina: In one of Charlie's dreams, a plane can be barely seen crashing in the background of the island. This is the Nigerian drug smuggler's plane that Locke and Boone discovered.

Trivia

The Show

• Pan 'n Locke: After Kate ushers Charlie away from Claire when he tries to tell her that Aaron needs to be baptized, the camera pans around from the back of Locke's head to his face. This is a very similar pan to the one at the end of Tabula Rasa when Locke is watching Michael and Walt reuniting with Vincent.
• Plus: There may be a reason why the title is "Fire + Water", instead of the more commonly used "Fire and Water". "Fire and Water" is an expression indicating how two things are opposites. "Fire + Water" is not quite the same; when you combine fire and water, both are destroyed, creating something different: steam. Also, the + signifies the cross, hinting at the religious context of the episode.

Allusions and References

• Battersea: As Charlie is running after the director of the diaper commercial after Liam blows it, a building with smokestacks is visible in the distance. This is the Battersea Power Station in London, and was CGed into the shot as a tribute to Pink Floyd (the power station appears on the cover of Pink Floyd's "Animals").
• Widmore: A sign was CGed on the Battersea Power Station for "Widmore Construction." Executive producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof said the sign was meant to be more visible to viewers and something to watch for, but the sign ended up being much smaller than anticipated.
• The Baptism of... The Baby's Gone!: The episode opens with a shot of The Baptism of Christ hanging in Charlie's family home. This work was finished around 1475 by painter Andrea del Verrocchio and portrays St. John the Baptist baptizing Jesus by pouring water over his head. In Charlie's later dream, elements from this paining were combined with people and objects in his life. In example, his mother and Claire appear as the angels holding Jesus' garment.
• Voltron, Defender of Heroin: In Charlie's first dream about his childhood, Liam can be seen playing with Lion Voltron. Voltron was a Japanese anime that aired in the early 1980s. Voltron centered around Voltron force, a team of five young pilots who commanded five robot lions, which could be combined to form Voltron. Voltron protected the planet Arus from the evil King Zarkon and his Robeasts.
• Jabba the Hurley: Sawyer refers to Hurley as "Jabba." Jabba the Hutt is a slug-like alien gangster in George Lucas' Star Wars series of movies.

Quotes

• Locke: Charlie, come on, give him to me.
  Charlie: Who the hell are you, John?! Aaron's not your responsibility! Where were you when he was born?! Where were you when he was taken?! You're not his father! You're not his family!
  Locke: Neither are you, Charlie.

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