What Is Up With Charlie's Freaky Dream?
Charlie's dream or actually dreams in Fire + Water are
very similar to Claire's dream just before Ethan took her,
Locke's dream that led to Boone's death and Eko's dream that
led to the discovery of The Pearl. So any ideas what led
to these dreams? Was Aaron really in danger? And if he was
who was warning Charlie about it? The Island? Jacob? Heroin
withdrawl? And was baptism the answer or a misreading of the
message?
The Gunslinger in The Waste Lands told Eddie, a
character very much like Charlie, that "Dreams are powerful."
So in this case, true or false?
Friday, October 26, 2007
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7 comments:
So far to me, most of the dreams are annoying, unnerving, and unexplained "Twin Peaks" moments in the show. Although they seem to serve some kind of purpose in the actual episode by causing characters to act in certain ways, dreams like Charlie's are so freaky and obscure that I prefer to not even think about the possibility that they may mean something, because I'm afraid that TPTB won't ever explain them to us anyway. They must mean something to TPTB, but I have no clue what they are supposed to mean to the viewers. So I've just resigned myself to think that they are important to the character in some way, by either driving them to do sane or insane things, and that's where I stop my analysis.
Granted, I came to this conclusion after a ton of attempted analysis initially. But a dead end is where those thoughts led me so now I'm too frustrated to try to figure them out anymore. I would love to hear what anyone else has thought out about them! :-)
I'm glad you asked this. I think Charlie's dream is one of the strangest and most interesting moments on the whole series. I'm guessing that the source of the vision is the same as those of Locke and Claire, and that the likely suspect is this Jacob character. I don't think it has anything to do with heroin withdrawal, as it seems more or less confirmed that Charlie didn't start using again.
As far as I can tell, the dream symbolically indicates where the story is going. The purpose of it seems to be that Charlie must protect Aaron, which re-enforces the notion that the baby will play a larger role later in the story. Why baptism? Whatever sent the vision seems to have an absolute moral sense in regards to spirituality, so baptism might have the same rationale behind it as the death of Eko. Of course, like you said, it's also possible the message was being misread. But either way, I'd say the idea of Charlie being meant to protect Aaron is genuine.
The dove is interesting . . . it emerges from a plane crash in the jungle, then as it flies over the sand, it casts a shadow parallel to itself, creating the image of a black dove. The black/white thing here very possibly symbolizes two prophets, one light and one dark. Who or what those prophets are is up for grabs, but I think this imagery is telling us something big that we won't understand until retrospect. Could the doves represent Aaron or Walt, or Aaron and Walt. Weird that the dove flies off over the ocean . . . Walt left the island, and Desmond's vision suggests these new bad guys might be nabbing Claire and Aaron. (Perhaps Charlie's death allows this chain of events to happen -- a chain of events where the baby falls into the hands of the wrong people. So perhaps Jacob was trying to stop this).
Also, the religious symbolism of Charlie's mother as an angel and Claire as an angel/Virgin Mary is probably significant, as is Hurley emerging in the place of John the Baptist. The Claire as an angel/Mary thing is obvious . . . the idea of being the mother of a prophet or leader. Hurley as the Baptist suggests he plays a bigger role in the story than we've seen, but it's hard to speculate exactly what at this point.
Wow PAA! Nice analysis especially of the dove stuff. I like the Aaron/Walt black/white stuff especially. It could also play into that Walt being more than Ben expected thing. Trying to fit a square peg (Walt) into a round hole (Aaron) or some such thing. I think misreading may be happening on the part of more than 1 group on the Island.
I also am not sure how far to push the symbolism of the dream. Will Hurley be one crying in the wilderness "prepare ye the way of the Lord?" Arguably Hurley was performing that sort of role in S3 when he nudged Sawyer into a leadership role. He's done it at other times on the Island as well, though it's generally much more subtle than John the Baptist ever was.
While I don't know if Aaron will be turn into a savior sort of figure it would be interesting to see something like that happening. I guess we need to remember that John the Baptist was Jesus' cousin and Jack is Aaron's uncle. So maybe Jack is preparing Aaron's way.
This sort of discussion is what I love about LOST. All of this could have no relevance whatsoever, but the fact that knowledge about the symbolism of medieval art, the Bible and Catholicism could better help me understand what's going on shows a respect for my intelligence that I appreciate in my entertainment.
i like the analysis but don't think tptb were putting that much thought into it. i think the point of the dove's shadow was to show that it was an allusion to the painting.
As far as the dream itself, i believe that it was Charlie communing with the island, & Jacob by extension. I think Jacob/the island wants the losties to redeem themselves, fulfill their wishes, and at that moment Charlie wanted nothing more than to be a hero, a protector to Aaron & Claire.
I can't decide if Aaron was placed in peril by the island or if Charlie was somnambulancing about, picking up sleeping babes, but i'm leaning towards the island having a more direct hand in things.
Wow, very thoughtful comments everyone! :-)
Yes, someone does seem to be trying to warn him. Interestingly, there's hidden audio in the scene that suggests someone is trying to kill Aaron and that someone disagrees with this decision.
Also, don't forget, we also saw a dove fly up out of Otherville in the S3 premier...
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