Charlie Pace/Claire Littleton (LOST)
TITLE: All Roads Lead Here
AUTHOR: Kristen (chicafrom3)
FANDOM: Lost
PAIRING: Charlie/Claire
DISCLAIMERS: Charlie, Claire, and the whole of the Lost universe belongs to JJ Abrams, Damon Lindelof, and a bunch of other people who Aren't Me. No infringement intended, just expressing my admiration.
SPOILERS: Run straight through Live Together, Die Alone.
NOTES: Transcript excerpts from Lost-TV. Picture-heavy, mainly courtesy Lost-Media. Much love and adoration to fwe for betaing and telling me what made sense and what didn't.
It's not your typical Island, and they aren't your typical castaways.
Oceanic Flight 815 crashed on September 22, 2004, a thousand miles off course with no radio contact on an Island no one knew anything about. As time went by, the crash survivors began establishing a way of life on the Island, and came into contact with the hostiles: wild boar, polar bears, an insane Frenchwoman, rough weather, and the unknown "Others".
But survival wasn't the only thing on their minds. With no one to turn to but each other, the group of strangers began forming bonds with each other: friendships, rivalries, alliances, and romances.
Forty-nine people from the fuselage survived the doomed flight, another twenty-two from the tailsection, making a total of seventy-one; after sixty-five days on the Island, forty-five remained.
This essay is about two of them.
Living is easy with eyes closed
Charlie Pace was a good Catholic boy from Manchester until the band he started with his brother Liam, DriveSHAFT, started gaining a following. Charlie found it difficult to resist the temptation of a rock and roll lifestyle, complete with drugs and girls, and even more difficult to reconcile the way he was living with his religious beliefs. Things only got worse once the band was signed to a record label and started making it big, and after a vicious fight with his brother, Charlie turned to heroin and fell into a downward spiral.
Being a bubblegum pop sort of band, DriveSHAFT didn't remain in public favor for long. Charlie struggled to hold on to the last gasps of fame, unable to turn back to the life he'd had before. A brief romance with Lucy Heatherton showed him that a normal life could be just what he wanted, but in the end even his desire to prove that he could be responsible was unable to stand against his drug addiction and Lucy broke things off, accelerating his downfall.
Seizing upon the chance to make DriveSHAFT a big name again, Charlie headed to Australia to coax his now cleaned-up-and-responsible big brother Liam to rejoin the band as lead singer. Liam refused, and an angry and hurt Charlie decided to try his luck anyway, boarding flight 815 to Los Angeles.
Charlie's two driving characteristics are his desire to prove himself as a responsible adult and his need for external validation. Unfortunately, his impulsive nature and addictive personality usually end up shooting him in the foot whenever he tries to help.
Catch a falling star
Claire Littleton lived a rather unremarkable life. Apparently abandoned by her father (who may or may not be Dr. Christian Shephard) at a young age, she nevertheless harbors a fond memory of him singing her to sleep with "Catch A Falling Star" when she was a child. Her relationship with her mother is neither close nor stable; when she worries about being disowned, her boyfriend says practically, "She [your mum] practically has already."
A warm, friendly girl with an avid interest in astrology but a healthy skepticism for psychics, Claire moved in with her boyfriend Thomas after she discovered that she was pregnant. However, three months in, the responsibility started to be too much for him, and he cut bait and ran.
Claire subsequently decided to give her child up for adoption, reasoning that she wouldn't be able to raise him or her on her own. However, she was stalked by a psychic named Richard Malkin (later revealed to be a fraud) who insisted that she must be the one to raise her child. When she finally broke and agreed to listen to his plan, he immediately performed a 180 and told her that there was a couple in Los Angeles who had agreed to adopt her child and who were "good people". Claire obviously thought he was insane, but accepted the money he gave her along with a plane ticket to LA on flight 815.
Predominantly defined as "the pregnant girl" and later "Aaron's mother", Claire managed to prove her worth to the group of survivors, even organizing a memorial for the people who died in the crash.
You Don't Scare Me
Charlie and Claire met on the Island shortly after the crash and got off to an unambitious start: he coopted a wheelchair in order to help her rescue a particularly large suitcase from the wreckage. Some lighthearted joking ensued (when Claire admitted that she wasn't married, and then tried to play it off with a comment about how "modern" she was, Charlie's response was "Well, who needs men, right? Bloody useless."), but the conversation ended on an awkward note when Claire asked about the hike up the mountain and Charlie was unable to tell her the truth about the transmission. (Tabula Rasa)
Charlie then went on to flirt with Shannon, while Claire organized a memorial service for the fuselage burning.
But when Claire passed out from dehydration shortly after, Charlie and Michael were the ones to immediately jump to her rescue, and Charlie sat watch over her almost continuously until Jack returned with water.
CLAIRE: When are they going to rescue us?
CHARLIE: Soon.
CLAIRE: Thanks, Charlie.
CHARLIE: For what?
CLAIRE: People don't seem to look me in the eye here. I think I scare them. It's like I'm this time bomb of responsibility just waiting to go off.
CHARLIE: You don't scare me.
When it was revealed that Boone was the one who stole the water, Charlie was disproportionately furious with him, because Claire could have died. (White Rabbit)
The survivors divided into two groups: loosely speaking, the optimists, Claire among them, remained camped on the beach in hope of rescue, while the pragmatists, Charlie included, headed inland to natural shelter and a freshwater supply. Thus separated, and Charlie further preoccupied by his ever-dwindling heroin supply, they didn't see each other for a few days. When they finally did, Charlie had sought her out under the pretense of delivering water and presumably as a way of taking his mind off of withdrawal. He took it on as his personal mission to convince her to move off the beach and into the caves, where Dr. Jack could keep an eye on her and the as-yet-unborn baby. She was reluctant, but eventually made a deal with him: if he got her a jar of peanut butter, she'd make the move.
Sadly, there was no peanut butter to be found amongst the rapidly-dwindling supplies, which lead Charlie to his most inventive move yet: he presented Claire with an empty jar, and talked her into imagining the smoothest, creamiest peanut butter she'd ever tasted. Claire moved to the caves that afternoon. (Confidence Man)
When Claire's nightmares had her screaming bloody murder in the middle of the night, Charlie was the one who moved to wake her up. He pursued her to make sure that she was all right, and to offer his friendship-and even when she rebuffed his offer, he didn't stop working to ensure her safety. When she decided that the caves weren't as safe as the beach was and headed back through the jungle, Charlie pursued her: and was therefore the one beside her when she thought she was going into labor, which he seized upon, for some reason, as the most opportune time to tell his secret:
CHARLIE: Just listen to me. I'm not going to let anything happen to you. I might not know what I'm doing but I'll figure it out. If I can kick drugs I can deliver a baby. Let me explain. I'm a drug addict. I was a drug addict. I'm clean now.
CLAIRE: Get Jack.
CHARLIE: Right.
He was also the one with her when "Ethan Rom" mades his move, resulting in both of them being kidnapped. (Raised by Another)
Jack and Kate managed to find Charlie and bring him back to camp, but Claire remained missing. Charlie was despondent throughout this time period, far from his normal, snarky self: he refused to talk for a good chunk of time; he broke down in open tears when Rose comforted him; and he even gave in to his temptation to read Claire's diary, which gave the first real, concrete evidence that Claire cares for Charlie as well as vice versa:
[I] realized I really like Charlie, something about him that's just so adorable and sweet. Even in a scary place like this Charlie makes me feel safe. (Special)
When Claire finally returned to the camp, it was without any memory of the events in between boarding the plane and waking up at the caves. Of all the things that were scaring her, Charlie's unexplained attachment had to be high on the list; and yet she took the chance on confiding in him and trusting him when he told her that they were friends. Something in her wanted to trust him, even after he shot a man in front of her, and the first memory that returned to her was that of peanut butter. (Homecoming)
For the first time, it was Claire who was pushing their relationship forward, step by small step: Rather than being sought out by Charlie, she sought him out to talk about the fact that she'd had dreams with him in them. (Outlaws) As she slowly reacclimatized to life on the Island, it was Charlie she spent most of her time with, going on several walks with him.
JIN: [Speaks in Korean] Claire.
CHARLIE: Claire? What about Claire?
JIN: [Speaks in Korean]
SUN: He says Claire's with Kate. She's in labor. [Sun asks Jin a question in Korean]
CHARLIE: Claire's having the baby? [to Jin] Where, where?
JIN: [Speaks in Korean]
SUN: [asks Jin something in Korean] He says he thinks she's okay, but she's in pain.
When Boone suffered terrible injuries and lay dying, Charlie stepped up to help Jack as best as he could, combing the camps to find a blood donor, but he instantly forgot about Boone's trauma when confronted with the idea of Claire in trouble, and his only thought was of how quickly he could get to her so that she wouldn't give birth alone. And even Jin, who speaks little to no English, recognized the bond between the two of them: he kept Charlie out of the way like a good dad in the waiting room, and when the baby was finally born and placed in Claire's arms, Jin offered Charlie a congratulatory handshake which turned into a celebratory hug. (Do No Harm)
And Charlie was by Claire's side every step of the way in the early days of her son's life. He walked out with her to present him to the rest of the survivors. He got Sun to help him convince Claire to let him baby-sit so that she could get some sleep; he bestowed the nickname 'Turniphead' on the infant; and he was the one who discovered that Sawyer's southern drawl acted as a lullaby for the child. He stepped into the role of daddy, and Claire was all too happy to let him. (The Greater Good) And when Rousseau kidnapped the child (now named Aaron) in order to trade him to the Others for her own lost daughter Alex, Charlie immediately plunged into the jungle with Sayid to get him back, every bit the protective parent.
SUN: They will bring him back.
CLAIRE: Don't say that.
SUN: They will.
CLAIRE: How do you know that?
SUN: Because he said he would. Charlie will bring your baby back.
It was obvious to everyone how much Charlie adored Claire and Aaron, and how much he would do to keep his promises to them. And he did: he returned with the baby in his arms, to be rewarded with a tearful hug from an overjoyed Claire. She fussed over the wound he sustained in the journey, and it was clear from the look on his face that there was nowhere else he'd rather be but there. (Exodus)
But things soon started getting bumpy.
On the way to find Aaron, Charlie and Sayid stumbled across the plane that killed Boone, stuffed with heroin-filled Madonna statues. Charlie gave in to temptation and took one, stashing it in his bag. While he didn't actually use the heroin inside, the temptation was there, affecting his behavior, especially when Claire started asking why he was always carrying around a Virgin Mary statue. (Adrift) Meanwhile, Claire was starting to chafe at Charlie's over-protectiveness and the way he so effortlessly filled the role of father:
CLAIRE: Charlie read me the riot act last night for waking him. And as mad as it made me -- turns out he was right. You know, it's like we're playing mum and dad to this baby. Yet, I don't remember marrying him. [Locke laughs] No, seriously. I mean, we're practically strangers, him and me. For all I know, Charlie could be some religious freak.
And Charlie's inability to back off only made things worse between the two of them. (Abandoned)
But when Eko revealed to Claire what was really in the statue Charlie carried around so protectively, that's when everything went to hell.
[Charlie approaches Claire as she's packing up his stuff.]
CHARLIE: Claire?
CLAIRE: You lied to me, Charlie.
CHARLIE: I know I did. I'm sorry. I just -- it made me safer to have it around.
CLAIRE: Look, I can't have you around my baby, okay?
CHARLIE: Claire, I...
CLAIRE: Charlie, I don't want you sleeping anywhere near us, okay? Just go.
[We see Charlie walking in the dark with a torch. He stops and reveals a hiding place with a cache of Virgin Mary statues. He adds another one to his collection.] (The 23rd Psalm)
They remained at the cool, distant level Claire had set until Charlie started having visions (or hallucinations, or dreams, or whatever they are). The recurring motif in all of his visions was the need to save Aaron, and with Eko's quiet advice he came to the conclusion that Aaron needed to be baptized. Which led to the exceedingly ill-advised plan to set the camp on fire, steal Aaron out of his crib, and take him to the ocean for an impromptu middle-of the-night baptism.
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.
CHARLIE: I have to do this. I need to. I'm not going to hurt him.
CLAIRE: You're hurting me, Charlie.
Bad Charlie. No wonder Claire wouldn't even speak to him for quite a while. (Fire + Water)
It was almost two weeks later before he managed to formally approach her again, this time proffering a gift of a pneumatic injector and a liberal supply of an unknown vaccine. He was very careful to assure her that he had tested it on himself first to make sure it was safe, and she accepted it-but before he could ask to spend more time with her, Michael's return distracted her and the moment was gone. But that same day Charlie threw the heroin-filled statues into the ocean, and at Ana-Lucia and Libby's funeral, it was his hand Claire grabbed on to for support. At least subconsciously, he was still her rock, and he was still fighting to be someone worthy of her attention. (Three Minutes)
Of course, he didn't have much time to revel in that moment of connection before Desmond showed up with a boat, two separate groups set out to confront the Others, and Eko and Locke started up an electromagnetic war with Charlie and Desmond playing backup. After a dynamite explosion and an EMP that nearly killed him, Charlie managed to make it back to the beach camp, dazed, concussed, and half-deaf but alive, and Claire was obviously happy to see him still standing.
[We see Charlie and Claire sitting by a fire at the beach.]
CLAIRE: What happened out there, Charlie?
CHARLIE: You want to hear the part about me nearly being killed by the flaming fireball -- or the flying fork?
CLAIRE: I want you to be serious.
CHARLIE: Nothing happened.
CLAIRE: Well, something happened. I mean that noise, and the sky turned that weird violet color.
CHARLIE: Did it?
[Claire turns away exasperated and Charlie smiles. Claire examines a wound on Charlie's arm.]
CHARLIE: Ow, ow.
[Claire kisses him.]
Wherever their relationship goes in the future, it will surely not be a smooth ride, but at least they can take comfort in the fact that they've fought through so many obstacles already and come out the stronger. (Live Together, Die Alone)
It's the best bloody peanut butter I've ever tasted
Charlie and Claire tend to have a reputation for being "fluffy" when in reality they're anything but! Charlie's a man of much insecurity and a need for external validation; Claire's abandonment issues, dating back to her father and her boyfriend, interfere with her ability to get close to Charlie, and her independent nature suffocates under his need to prove his responsibility.
In addition, an addict is always addicted to something; the fact that Charlie has, in effect, replaced heroin with Claire and Aaron isn't a good thing, or a healthy one. I built my dreams around you[1] is lovely as poetry, dangerous as romance. They're setting themselves up for destruction.
I came into Lost with the pilot episode, having been the recipient all summer of rumors and enthusiasm on a message board I frequent often. From the way everyone was talking, I thought it might be fairly interesting, and I decided to join in on watching the pilot to see if it was entertaining, but from that first shot of a tennis shoe hung disturbingly in a tree, I was hooked. A sharp character drama where the Island residents were first sketched out as stereotypes and then developed into multidimensional people who blew those stereotypes out of the water, it was exactly my kind of show. I plunged into the fandom head first, right from those early days when no 'ship was too outlandish and Sawyer/Shannon was as popular as Sawyer/Kate.
With Tabula Rasa came the first proper meeting of Charlie and Claire, and it blew my mind. I ship for angst, primarily, and here were these two people, each of whom could bring enough angst and baggage to a relationship for three or four people. And they clicked, they were charming together with chemistry that outshone any other Island relationship. By the time White Rabbit was over, I had adopted Charlie/Claire as my very first true OTP; I simply could not imagine either one of them with anyone else.
Unlike most of the romances developing on the Island, like The Love Triangle Of Doom, Charlie and Claire never really seemed to admit that they were a romance. It was a friendship first, and then it skipped right to playing mum and dad, with no courtship, awkward flirtation, or jungle kissing in-between. They simply fell into the habit of being with one another, and it was comfortable-except when they started actually thinking about it, and then everything started falling apart, and I started shipping them harder. I rarely go for the straightforward and fluffy.
Perhaps the most telling part of their relationship, for me, was the fact that while Charlie had flirted with every unmarried girl on the Island before falling into being Claire's protector, his flirtations had always begun with something along the lines of "Did you know that I'm a famous rock star?" But with Claire, he never seemed to find it important for DriveSHAFT to be brought up; in fact, he rarely mentioned the band to her at all, even when it formed the basis for his conversations with everyone else around him. With the rest of the survivors, he was Charlie Pace, Rock Star; with Claire, he was just Charlie.
To sum up, it's an angsty, dangerous, unsteady, codependent relationship complete with a baby and a stash of heroin, and yet it somehow manages to masquerade itself as fluff with a jar of invisible peanut butter. What more could you ask for?
collage by AnaB.
[1] - from the song Fairytale of New York, Shane MacGowan/The Pogues
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AUTHOR: Kristen (chicafrom3)
FANDOM: Lost
PAIRING: Charlie/Claire
DISCLAIMERS: Charlie, Claire, and the whole of the Lost universe belongs to JJ Abrams, Damon Lindelof, and a bunch of other people who Aren't Me. No infringement intended, just expressing my admiration.
SPOILERS: Run straight through Live Together, Die Alone.
NOTES: Transcript excerpts from Lost-TV. Picture-heavy, mainly courtesy Lost-Media. Much love and adoration to fwe for betaing and telling me what made sense and what didn't.
It's not your typical Island, and they aren't your typical castaways.
Oceanic Flight 815 crashed on September 22, 2004, a thousand miles off course with no radio contact on an Island no one knew anything about. As time went by, the crash survivors began establishing a way of life on the Island, and came into contact with the hostiles: wild boar, polar bears, an insane Frenchwoman, rough weather, and the unknown "Others".
But survival wasn't the only thing on their minds. With no one to turn to but each other, the group of strangers began forming bonds with each other: friendships, rivalries, alliances, and romances.
Forty-nine people from the fuselage survived the doomed flight, another twenty-two from the tailsection, making a total of seventy-one; after sixty-five days on the Island, forty-five remained.
This essay is about two of them.
Living is easy with eyes closed
Charlie Pace was a good Catholic boy from Manchester until the band he started with his brother Liam, DriveSHAFT, started gaining a following. Charlie found it difficult to resist the temptation of a rock and roll lifestyle, complete with drugs and girls, and even more difficult to reconcile the way he was living with his religious beliefs. Things only got worse once the band was signed to a record label and started making it big, and after a vicious fight with his brother, Charlie turned to heroin and fell into a downward spiral.
Being a bubblegum pop sort of band, DriveSHAFT didn't remain in public favor for long. Charlie struggled to hold on to the last gasps of fame, unable to turn back to the life he'd had before. A brief romance with Lucy Heatherton showed him that a normal life could be just what he wanted, but in the end even his desire to prove that he could be responsible was unable to stand against his drug addiction and Lucy broke things off, accelerating his downfall.
Seizing upon the chance to make DriveSHAFT a big name again, Charlie headed to Australia to coax his now cleaned-up-and-responsible big brother Liam to rejoin the band as lead singer. Liam refused, and an angry and hurt Charlie decided to try his luck anyway, boarding flight 815 to Los Angeles.
Charlie's two driving characteristics are his desire to prove himself as a responsible adult and his need for external validation. Unfortunately, his impulsive nature and addictive personality usually end up shooting him in the foot whenever he tries to help.
Catch a falling star
Claire Littleton lived a rather unremarkable life. Apparently abandoned by her father (who may or may not be Dr. Christian Shephard) at a young age, she nevertheless harbors a fond memory of him singing her to sleep with "Catch A Falling Star" when she was a child. Her relationship with her mother is neither close nor stable; when she worries about being disowned, her boyfriend says practically, "She [your mum] practically has already."
A warm, friendly girl with an avid interest in astrology but a healthy skepticism for psychics, Claire moved in with her boyfriend Thomas after she discovered that she was pregnant. However, three months in, the responsibility started to be too much for him, and he cut bait and ran.
Claire subsequently decided to give her child up for adoption, reasoning that she wouldn't be able to raise him or her on her own. However, she was stalked by a psychic named Richard Malkin (later revealed to be a fraud) who insisted that she must be the one to raise her child. When she finally broke and agreed to listen to his plan, he immediately performed a 180 and told her that there was a couple in Los Angeles who had agreed to adopt her child and who were "good people". Claire obviously thought he was insane, but accepted the money he gave her along with a plane ticket to LA on flight 815.
Predominantly defined as "the pregnant girl" and later "Aaron's mother", Claire managed to prove her worth to the group of survivors, even organizing a memorial for the people who died in the crash.
You Don't Scare Me
Charlie and Claire met on the Island shortly after the crash and got off to an unambitious start: he coopted a wheelchair in order to help her rescue a particularly large suitcase from the wreckage. Some lighthearted joking ensued (when Claire admitted that she wasn't married, and then tried to play it off with a comment about how "modern" she was, Charlie's response was "Well, who needs men, right? Bloody useless."), but the conversation ended on an awkward note when Claire asked about the hike up the mountain and Charlie was unable to tell her the truth about the transmission. (Tabula Rasa)
Charlie then went on to flirt with Shannon, while Claire organized a memorial service for the fuselage burning.
But when Claire passed out from dehydration shortly after, Charlie and Michael were the ones to immediately jump to her rescue, and Charlie sat watch over her almost continuously until Jack returned with water.
CLAIRE: When are they going to rescue us?
CHARLIE: Soon.
CLAIRE: Thanks, Charlie.
CHARLIE: For what?
CLAIRE: People don't seem to look me in the eye here. I think I scare them. It's like I'm this time bomb of responsibility just waiting to go off.
CHARLIE: You don't scare me.
When it was revealed that Boone was the one who stole the water, Charlie was disproportionately furious with him, because Claire could have died. (White Rabbit)
The survivors divided into two groups: loosely speaking, the optimists, Claire among them, remained camped on the beach in hope of rescue, while the pragmatists, Charlie included, headed inland to natural shelter and a freshwater supply. Thus separated, and Charlie further preoccupied by his ever-dwindling heroin supply, they didn't see each other for a few days. When they finally did, Charlie had sought her out under the pretense of delivering water and presumably as a way of taking his mind off of withdrawal. He took it on as his personal mission to convince her to move off the beach and into the caves, where Dr. Jack could keep an eye on her and the as-yet-unborn baby. She was reluctant, but eventually made a deal with him: if he got her a jar of peanut butter, she'd make the move.
Sadly, there was no peanut butter to be found amongst the rapidly-dwindling supplies, which lead Charlie to his most inventive move yet: he presented Claire with an empty jar, and talked her into imagining the smoothest, creamiest peanut butter she'd ever tasted. Claire moved to the caves that afternoon. (Confidence Man)
When Claire's nightmares had her screaming bloody murder in the middle of the night, Charlie was the one who moved to wake her up. He pursued her to make sure that she was all right, and to offer his friendship-and even when she rebuffed his offer, he didn't stop working to ensure her safety. When she decided that the caves weren't as safe as the beach was and headed back through the jungle, Charlie pursued her: and was therefore the one beside her when she thought she was going into labor, which he seized upon, for some reason, as the most opportune time to tell his secret:
CHARLIE: Just listen to me. I'm not going to let anything happen to you. I might not know what I'm doing but I'll figure it out. If I can kick drugs I can deliver a baby. Let me explain. I'm a drug addict. I was a drug addict. I'm clean now.
CLAIRE: Get Jack.
CHARLIE: Right.
He was also the one with her when "Ethan Rom" mades his move, resulting in both of them being kidnapped. (Raised by Another)
Jack and Kate managed to find Charlie and bring him back to camp, but Claire remained missing. Charlie was despondent throughout this time period, far from his normal, snarky self: he refused to talk for a good chunk of time; he broke down in open tears when Rose comforted him; and he even gave in to his temptation to read Claire's diary, which gave the first real, concrete evidence that Claire cares for Charlie as well as vice versa:
[I] realized I really like Charlie, something about him that's just so adorable and sweet. Even in a scary place like this Charlie makes me feel safe. (Special)
When Claire finally returned to the camp, it was without any memory of the events in between boarding the plane and waking up at the caves. Of all the things that were scaring her, Charlie's unexplained attachment had to be high on the list; and yet she took the chance on confiding in him and trusting him when he told her that they were friends. Something in her wanted to trust him, even after he shot a man in front of her, and the first memory that returned to her was that of peanut butter. (Homecoming)
For the first time, it was Claire who was pushing their relationship forward, step by small step: Rather than being sought out by Charlie, she sought him out to talk about the fact that she'd had dreams with him in them. (Outlaws) As she slowly reacclimatized to life on the Island, it was Charlie she spent most of her time with, going on several walks with him.
JIN: [Speaks in Korean] Claire.
CHARLIE: Claire? What about Claire?
JIN: [Speaks in Korean]
SUN: He says Claire's with Kate. She's in labor. [Sun asks Jin a question in Korean]
CHARLIE: Claire's having the baby? [to Jin] Where, where?
JIN: [Speaks in Korean]
SUN: [asks Jin something in Korean] He says he thinks she's okay, but she's in pain.
When Boone suffered terrible injuries and lay dying, Charlie stepped up to help Jack as best as he could, combing the camps to find a blood donor, but he instantly forgot about Boone's trauma when confronted with the idea of Claire in trouble, and his only thought was of how quickly he could get to her so that she wouldn't give birth alone. And even Jin, who speaks little to no English, recognized the bond between the two of them: he kept Charlie out of the way like a good dad in the waiting room, and when the baby was finally born and placed in Claire's arms, Jin offered Charlie a congratulatory handshake which turned into a celebratory hug. (Do No Harm)
And Charlie was by Claire's side every step of the way in the early days of her son's life. He walked out with her to present him to the rest of the survivors. He got Sun to help him convince Claire to let him baby-sit so that she could get some sleep; he bestowed the nickname 'Turniphead' on the infant; and he was the one who discovered that Sawyer's southern drawl acted as a lullaby for the child. He stepped into the role of daddy, and Claire was all too happy to let him. (The Greater Good) And when Rousseau kidnapped the child (now named Aaron) in order to trade him to the Others for her own lost daughter Alex, Charlie immediately plunged into the jungle with Sayid to get him back, every bit the protective parent.
SUN: They will bring him back.
CLAIRE: Don't say that.
SUN: They will.
CLAIRE: How do you know that?
SUN: Because he said he would. Charlie will bring your baby back.
It was obvious to everyone how much Charlie adored Claire and Aaron, and how much he would do to keep his promises to them. And he did: he returned with the baby in his arms, to be rewarded with a tearful hug from an overjoyed Claire. She fussed over the wound he sustained in the journey, and it was clear from the look on his face that there was nowhere else he'd rather be but there. (Exodus)
But things soon started getting bumpy.
On the way to find Aaron, Charlie and Sayid stumbled across the plane that killed Boone, stuffed with heroin-filled Madonna statues. Charlie gave in to temptation and took one, stashing it in his bag. While he didn't actually use the heroin inside, the temptation was there, affecting his behavior, especially when Claire started asking why he was always carrying around a Virgin Mary statue. (Adrift) Meanwhile, Claire was starting to chafe at Charlie's over-protectiveness and the way he so effortlessly filled the role of father:
CLAIRE: Charlie read me the riot act last night for waking him. And as mad as it made me -- turns out he was right. You know, it's like we're playing mum and dad to this baby. Yet, I don't remember marrying him. [Locke laughs] No, seriously. I mean, we're practically strangers, him and me. For all I know, Charlie could be some religious freak.
And Charlie's inability to back off only made things worse between the two of them. (Abandoned)
But when Eko revealed to Claire what was really in the statue Charlie carried around so protectively, that's when everything went to hell.
[Charlie approaches Claire as she's packing up his stuff.]
CHARLIE: Claire?
CLAIRE: You lied to me, Charlie.
CHARLIE: I know I did. I'm sorry. I just -- it made me safer to have it around.
CLAIRE: Look, I can't have you around my baby, okay?
CHARLIE: Claire, I...
CLAIRE: Charlie, I don't want you sleeping anywhere near us, okay? Just go.
[We see Charlie walking in the dark with a torch. He stops and reveals a hiding place with a cache of Virgin Mary statues. He adds another one to his collection.] (The 23rd Psalm)
They remained at the cool, distant level Claire had set until Charlie started having visions (or hallucinations, or dreams, or whatever they are). The recurring motif in all of his visions was the need to save Aaron, and with Eko's quiet advice he came to the conclusion that Aaron needed to be baptized. Which led to the exceedingly ill-advised plan to set the camp on fire, steal Aaron out of his crib, and take him to the ocean for an impromptu middle-of the-night baptism.
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.
CHARLIE: I have to do this. I need to. I'm not going to hurt him.
CLAIRE: You're hurting me, Charlie.
Bad Charlie. No wonder Claire wouldn't even speak to him for quite a while. (Fire + Water)
It was almost two weeks later before he managed to formally approach her again, this time proffering a gift of a pneumatic injector and a liberal supply of an unknown vaccine. He was very careful to assure her that he had tested it on himself first to make sure it was safe, and she accepted it-but before he could ask to spend more time with her, Michael's return distracted her and the moment was gone. But that same day Charlie threw the heroin-filled statues into the ocean, and at Ana-Lucia and Libby's funeral, it was his hand Claire grabbed on to for support. At least subconsciously, he was still her rock, and he was still fighting to be someone worthy of her attention. (Three Minutes)
Of course, he didn't have much time to revel in that moment of connection before Desmond showed up with a boat, two separate groups set out to confront the Others, and Eko and Locke started up an electromagnetic war with Charlie and Desmond playing backup. After a dynamite explosion and an EMP that nearly killed him, Charlie managed to make it back to the beach camp, dazed, concussed, and half-deaf but alive, and Claire was obviously happy to see him still standing.
[We see Charlie and Claire sitting by a fire at the beach.]
CLAIRE: What happened out there, Charlie?
CHARLIE: You want to hear the part about me nearly being killed by the flaming fireball -- or the flying fork?
CLAIRE: I want you to be serious.
CHARLIE: Nothing happened.
CLAIRE: Well, something happened. I mean that noise, and the sky turned that weird violet color.
CHARLIE: Did it?
[Claire turns away exasperated and Charlie smiles. Claire examines a wound on Charlie's arm.]
CHARLIE: Ow, ow.
[Claire kisses him.]
Wherever their relationship goes in the future, it will surely not be a smooth ride, but at least they can take comfort in the fact that they've fought through so many obstacles already and come out the stronger. (Live Together, Die Alone)
It's the best bloody peanut butter I've ever tasted
Charlie and Claire tend to have a reputation for being "fluffy" when in reality they're anything but! Charlie's a man of much insecurity and a need for external validation; Claire's abandonment issues, dating back to her father and her boyfriend, interfere with her ability to get close to Charlie, and her independent nature suffocates under his need to prove his responsibility.
In addition, an addict is always addicted to something; the fact that Charlie has, in effect, replaced heroin with Claire and Aaron isn't a good thing, or a healthy one. I built my dreams around you[1] is lovely as poetry, dangerous as romance. They're setting themselves up for destruction.
I came into Lost with the pilot episode, having been the recipient all summer of rumors and enthusiasm on a message board I frequent often. From the way everyone was talking, I thought it might be fairly interesting, and I decided to join in on watching the pilot to see if it was entertaining, but from that first shot of a tennis shoe hung disturbingly in a tree, I was hooked. A sharp character drama where the Island residents were first sketched out as stereotypes and then developed into multidimensional people who blew those stereotypes out of the water, it was exactly my kind of show. I plunged into the fandom head first, right from those early days when no 'ship was too outlandish and Sawyer/Shannon was as popular as Sawyer/Kate.
With Tabula Rasa came the first proper meeting of Charlie and Claire, and it blew my mind. I ship for angst, primarily, and here were these two people, each of whom could bring enough angst and baggage to a relationship for three or four people. And they clicked, they were charming together with chemistry that outshone any other Island relationship. By the time White Rabbit was over, I had adopted Charlie/Claire as my very first true OTP; I simply could not imagine either one of them with anyone else.
Unlike most of the romances developing on the Island, like The Love Triangle Of Doom, Charlie and Claire never really seemed to admit that they were a romance. It was a friendship first, and then it skipped right to playing mum and dad, with no courtship, awkward flirtation, or jungle kissing in-between. They simply fell into the habit of being with one another, and it was comfortable-except when they started actually thinking about it, and then everything started falling apart, and I started shipping them harder. I rarely go for the straightforward and fluffy.
Perhaps the most telling part of their relationship, for me, was the fact that while Charlie had flirted with every unmarried girl on the Island before falling into being Claire's protector, his flirtations had always begun with something along the lines of "Did you know that I'm a famous rock star?" But with Claire, he never seemed to find it important for DriveSHAFT to be brought up; in fact, he rarely mentioned the band to her at all, even when it formed the basis for his conversations with everyone else around him. With the rest of the survivors, he was Charlie Pace, Rock Star; with Claire, he was just Charlie.
To sum up, it's an angsty, dangerous, unsteady, codependent relationship complete with a baby and a stash of heroin, and yet it somehow manages to masquerade itself as fluff with a jar of invisible peanut butter. What more could you ask for?
collage by AnaB.
[1] - from the song Fairytale of New York, Shane MacGowan/The Pogues
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