Charlie clips and caps of this episode up at Beyond Grey

• Written By: Jennifer Johnson & Paul Dini
• Directed By: Jack Bender
• Backstory: Charlie
• Featured Storylines:  Sun/Jin/Michael, Sawyer, Locke

The Moth


The Caves: No eyeball opening this time, but a shot of Charlie’s hand strumming the strings of his guitar. He rubs the sweat out of his eyes, clearly not doing well in his withdrawal. Locke approaches him and asks him to come for a walk with him. Charlie refuses, but Locke insists.

The Beach: Jack is looking at Kate’s mugshot pic. Kate comes up behind him and tells him that she takes better pictures than that, and asks sarcastically if he wants one for his wallet. He tells her he came back to gather some stuff up to take back to the cave. He reiterates the safety of the caves, and they discuss a little bit about that, and we get a little expository dialogue to catch us up to speed about how long they’ve been there and what’s going on with the signal. Sawyer interrupts them, intending to move into the shelter and starting to hit on Kate. Jack leaves.

The Jungle: Charlie is wandering around, looking for Locke. He hears animal noises, and starts to run…. Right into a….

--flashback—

Charlie is in a confessional booth, describing a multitude of sexual sins. He blames it on being in the band. The priest tells him that life is all about choices, and making the right ones. Charlie says he has to quit the band. He walks out to find his brother sitting with his feet up on a pew. Charlie starts in on him, but is interrupted with the news that they’ve just been signed to a recording contract.

The Jungle: we see that Charlie is being chased by a boar, and suddenly, the boar is tripped up into a net. Locke thanks Charlie for being good bait. Charlie glares at him and asks for his drugs back.

--commercial break—

Locke and Charlie argue a bit about Charlie’s drugs. Locke tells him he’ll let him ask for his drugs back three times then he’ll give them back. Charlie complains that Locke is torturing him, and Locke spouts a few platitudes about choice being what separates us from animals.

The Beach: Sayid is explaining to Boone and Kate how they’re going to try to triangulate the radio signal, using flares as a way to let each other know when to turn on their recievers. Sayid talks about needing more battery juice for the transciever but he can’t find any laptop batteries. Kate says she knows where to find one

Kate is snarking on Sawyer about how he must be lonely and have a pointless life to hoard stuff. He hands over a laptop battery.

The Caves: Hurley and Jack are dragging in luggage. Charlie offers to help, bragging about lugging the band’s equipment. He grabs a bag, only to spill its contents—pill bottles-- everywhere. He starts sorting through the bottles, and Jack comes on him. Charlie lies and tells him he was looking for aspirin for a headache. Jack tells him to just sit down while he and Hurley do more stuff. Charlie sits down and glares into a…

--flashback—

Charlie and Liam are walking out from the church, and talking about the band. Charlie wants to quit, but Liam talks him out of it. Charlie says he’ll keep going on the condition that when he says enough, they’ll quit. Liam agrees, and they run off, chasing each other across the courtyard.

The Caves: Sun attends to Jin’s raw wrist, which is still wearing half of the handcuffs. He notices that she’s wearing just a camisole and tells her to cover up. She pointedly tells him it’s too hot.

Hurley brings Charlie’s guitar case to him. Charlie starts trying to brag about the band, and Hurley shuts him down, saying that Jack just wanted him to put the case somewhere else.

Charlie hunts Jack down in one of the back caves, and starts raving at him about being treated like nothing, and getting all uppity about being a rock god. Apparently this declaration disturbs the real rock gods, who proceed to start a cave-in. Charlie dashes out, but Jack is trapped in the rubble.

--commercial break—

Hurley and the gang start shouting for Jack. Hurley tells Charlie to run down to the beach to get help, and to be sure to tell Kate.

Kate and Sayid are walking through the jungle, talking about fate and probability. Sayid’s arguing that surviving the crash was one in a zillion possibility.

The Beach: Charlie runs up to Boone and Michael to tell them. Boone and Michael grab a few red shirts and get ready to go. Boone realizes he can’t go because he’s supposed to be ready to set his antenna off. He runs up to Shannon and explains to her what needs to be done. She blows it off, but agrees.

Charlie is looking around for Kate to tell her. Sawyer says she’s not around, explaining Kate and Sayid ran off. Saywer says he’ll go find them and tell her, and condescendingly pats Charlie on the shoulder, telling him to go back to doing whatever it is he does.

--flashback—

DriveShaft in concert, singing their one hit tune. Liam starts singing the chorus, and Charlie glares at him. After the show, Charlie confronts him, Liam blows him off and goes to schmooze with a chick who hands him a baggie of drugs. Charlie sees this and gives Liam a WTF look. Liam tells him to chill.

The Caves: Michael and co dash in, ready to help. Walt asks where Locke is, and Hurley tells him he’s out killing stuff. Michael tells the assembled that he used to work construction, and they have to be careful how they move the rocks to not bring the rest of the cave down. They start moving the rocks.

In the Jungle: Sayid and Kate are approached by Sawyer. Kate immediately starts giving him lip. He starts to tell her about Jack, but he doesn’t get very far before Kate shuts him down. He stops, and tells them that he’s there to help them instead.

Locke is gutting the boar he caught. Charlie approaches him, tells him about Jack. Locke ascertains that others are helping to try to free him. Locke asks Charlie why he’s not helping, and quickly surmises that Charlie’s not there to tell him about that, but to get his drugs back. Charlie begs for them. Locke finds a moth’s cocoon and starts in on a big spiel about how he could help the moth out of it, but the moth would be too weak to survive. Charlie looks ashamed.

--commercial break—

The rock moving crew are doing their thing, and they manage to make a small hole. They call out to Jack, who responds that he’s trapped inside. Jack asks where Charlie is and they tell him he made it out. The gang look at each other, trying to figure out what to do.

Back in the jungle, Sayid hands the antenna to Sawyer to post in a tree. He tells Kate he’s reluctant to leave her with Sawyer, She says she can handle him.

The Cave: Michael says there’s no way they can make the hole much bigger, and that someone needs to crawl through to Jack. Jin starts talking, trying to help, but Hurley shuts him down, saying he doesn’t speak Chinese. Michael tells him that they’re Korean. Sun gives him a little smile. Charlie comes up behind and offers his services, telling everyone that they have responsibilities to other people, and he’s there alone.

In the Jungle: Kate and Sawyer start chatting as they wait for their cue to set off the antenna. Saywer asks what the big deal is about Jack, saying he could do what Jack does, and slipping in a comment about Jack being in the cave-in, implying he’s dead. Kate flips out on him, and runs off, leaving him with the flare.

The Caves: Michael is explaining to Charlie how to get through the hole. Everyone wishes him luck and he starts crawling in.

--flashback—

Charlie is pushing his way through a backstage crowd that largely ignores him. He enters the dressing room where Liam is consorting with a bunch of starfuckers. Charlie clears the room, much to Liam’s dismay. Charlie bitches Liam out for missing the soundcheck for the show they’re about to do. Liam blows him off and stumbles over to the table, digging into his stash. Charlie tells him this is it, after the show, they quit the band and cancel the tour. Liam barks back at him, telling him that no one even cares who the bass player is and Charlie would have nowhere to go without him. He storms out, leaving Charlie to sob into the mirror, looking at Liam’s stash.

Back in the cave, another rumble starts. Charlie barely manages to squeeze through to the other side. He finds Jack, and tells him he’s there to rescue him. They laugh in relief at each other.

--commerical break—

The Caves: The gang are talking about whether they should dig again, mentioning that the interior cave could run out of air with it closed off again. Kate comes in, asking where Jack is. They explain to her what happened. She asks why they’re not digging and starts doing so. They follow suit.

Inside the inner cave, Charlie tries to free Jack. Jack says his shoulder is dislocated and Charlie needs to help him get it back in. Charlie freaks out, but Jack reassures him that he can do it. He explains what needs to be done. A bit of tension and Charlie yanks the shoulder back in alignment.

--flashback—

Charlie walks up to the front door of a pleasant-looking house. Liam, nicely cleaned up, answers the door, asking what Charlie is doing in Sydney. In the back yard, Liam picks his daughter up from her swing as Charlie explains that they have an offer for a big new tour, if they get the band back together. They sit down and chat, Liam saying that’s not the life for him anymore, noting that he missed his daughter’s birth because of it. Charlie pleads with him. Liam notices Charlie is still tweaking and says he should get some help. Charlie snaps back that it’s Liam’s fault that he’s like that. Liam tries to get him to stay and get cleaned up, but Charlie storms off, saying he has a plane to catch.

Back in the interior cave, Jack figures Charlie out, and asks when his last fix was, and whether he’s had hallucinations. He asks why Charlie never said anything. Charlie says it’s because he felt useless. Jack tells him that he was very brave to come rescue him, and that he’s not useless at all, and that he’ll always remember that, though that probably won’t be long as they’re using up oxygen. Charlie notes that the cave is small, and feels like confession. Jack notes that Charlie doesn’t seem like the religious type. Charlie says he used to be and jokingly asks if Jack wants to hear his confession, though it might take a while. Jack laughs and says he’s no saint, either. Suddenly, Charlie spies a moth behind Jack, and realizes there must be an opening somewhere. He follows the moth up, and finds the hole.

Back in the outer cave, the gang are still digging away, Kate leading the pack, when Walt notices Jack and Charlie are back. Delighted and relieved hugs all around, and Jack credits Charlie with finding the way out. Charlie smiles shyly as he’s congratulated.

In the Jungle, Sayid sets off his flare. Back on the beach, Shannon’s gabbing away when she sees Sayid’s flare. She quickly lights hers. Sayid waits for the last flare, which comes, and starts up the transciever. He watches the signal raise in strength and then…. WHACK! Someone cracks him over the head.

--commercial break—

The gang are gathered around the fire in the cave, Charlie shivering and hunched over. Hurley notes he looks bad, and Jack covers for him, saying he has the flu. Locke is basting the boar over the fire, and Charlie gets up to go talk to him.

Walt asks Michael whether they can live at the caves. Michael looks at Sun, who eyes him carefully.

Kate sits down next to Jack, giving him a crudely-fashioned sling for his arm. She gives him some shit about the “safe caves.” Jack tells her Michael has checked the rest of them out and deemed them safe. Kate says she needs to get back to the beach to talk to Sayid about the transciever project.

Locke is basting away. Charlie approaches and asks for his drugs back. Lock makes a face at him, and asks if he’s sure. Charlie says he’s made his choice. Locke hands the baggie over. Charlie stares at it for a moment, and then tosses it into the fire. Locke smiles at him, says he’s proud of him. Charlie notices a moth flying around and tearfully smiles up at it.

--end episode 7--