Fire + Water

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“Fire + Water”
Lost episode
Charlie returns to his drug stash.
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 12
Guest stars	Neil Hopkins (Liam), Jeremy Shada (Young Charlie), Zack Shada (Young Liam), Sammi Davis (Mrs. Pace), Vanessa Branch (Karen), Craig Young (Director of Commercial)
Written by	Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz
Directed by	Jack Bender
Production no.	212
Original airdate	January 25, 2006
Episode chronology
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"The Hunting Party"	"The Long Con"
List of Lost episodes

"Fire + Water" is the 36th episode of Lost. It is the twelfth episode of the second season. The episode was directed by Jack Bender, and written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. It first aired on January 25, 2006 on ABC. The character of Charlie Pace is featured in the episode's flashbacks.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Plot summary

The episode begins with a dream/flashback, where Charlie (as a child) is given a new piano. His family wants him to use his musical talent to "save" them and get them out of their current impoverished circumstance, but his father, dressed as a butcher, appears, saying, "He ain't savin' no one, he is," and cuts the head off of a doll with a cleaver. The scene changes to the island's shoreline, where Charlie hears the sound of a baby crying from inside of his piano, and realizes that it is the baby Aaron. He tries to open the piano, but it is pulled out to sea. Charlie then wakes up from his nightmare and rushes to check on Aaron, who he eventually learns is being safely cared for on the beach.

In the next flashback, Charlie is seen in a hospital, where Karen, his brother Liam's girlfriend, has just given birth to a daughter, named Megan after Charlie and Liam's mother. However, Liam’s increasing drug habit is causing problems: It prevented him from showing up at the birth, and is interfering with the brothers’ band, Drive Shaft. When Karen throws him out, Liam turns up on his brother’s doorstep, but abuses Charlie's hospitality by secretly selling his piano, defensively claiming that he needed the money in order to travel to Australia to get a job and enter rehab, "for his family."

Back on the island, Charlie again hears a baby's crying from the direction of the ocean, and sees Aaron's cradle floating away. He swims out to save the baby and bring him back to the beach, where Claire and Charlie’s mother, dressed as angels, repeatedly call out to Charlie that he must "save the baby." Hurley also appears, dressed as John the Baptist. Charlie awakes from his dream, finding that he is holding Aaron, but with no memory of how it happened, at which point a frantic Claire runs up and takes her baby back from Charlie, after slapping him across the face.

When Charlie tells Eko about his dreams, Eko, who once spent time as a priest, says that the dreams might mean that Charlie does need to save the baby. Charlie goes to Claire and expresses his concerns about Aaron being in danger, meaning that they must baptise him, but Claire no longer trusts him.

Charlie heads to his hidden stash of heroin-filled Virgin Mary statues, but Locke follows him and confiscates them, despite Charlie's protestations that he was going to destroy them himself. Locke then stores the statues in the hatch, in the same room where the guns are being secured.

Later that evening, Charlie sets a fire as a diversion, and then steals Aaron and runs to the ocean. Locke persuades him to give the baby back, and then punches Charlie repeatedly, leaving him breathless and barely conscious.

At the end of the episode though, Claire seeks out Eko herself, and at her request, he baptizes both her and her infant son.

Lost
Production:	DVD releases \| Episode list \| Season 1 \| Season 2 \| Season 3 \| Soundtrack
Main characters:	Ana Lucia \| Ben \| Boone \| Charlie \| Claire \| Desmond \| Hurley \| Jack \| Jin \| Juliet \| Kate Libby \| Locke \| Michael \| Mr. Eko \| Nikki \| Paulo \| Sawyer \| Sayid \| Shannon \| Sun \| Walt
Supporting characters:	Alex \| Bernard \| Christian \| Cindy \| Ethan \| The Others \| Pickett \| Rose \| Rousseau \| Tom
Organizations:	DHARMA Initiative \| Hanso Foundation \| Oceanic Airlines
Elements:	Crossover list \| DHARMA Initiative stations \| Flight 815 \| Mythology \| Thematic motifs
Miscellaneous:	Gary Troup \| In popular culture \| Lost Experience \| Rachel Blake \| Video game