Rewatching LOST: 1.07 “The Moth”

Charlie is forced to deal with the consequences of his heroin withdrawal, while Sayid’s attempt to locate the French woman’s transmission meets with a surprising result.

• While practicing his guitar, Charlie suffers the effects of drug withdrawal after giving Locke his heroin. Locke talks Charlie into going for a walk, but instead Charlie gets chased by a boar — a boar that Locke catches, having used Charlie as unwitting bait. Furious, Charlie demands that Locke return his drugs to him, but Locke refuses, saying he’ll only do it after Charlie asks him three times.
• Jack goes down to the beach to retrieve some personal supplies, and he and Kate again discuss why she won’t join him at the caves. Sawyer intrudes, calling dibs on Jack’s old tent as his new place to stay.
• Sayid and Kate, still trying to track the source of the French woman’s transmission, draft Boone to help with distributing the antenna array. Sayid has managed to repair the damage caused when Kate dropped her antenna from a tree, and is finally ready to try the experiment in earnest. But there’s a catch: all three have to be activated at the same time, along with the modified transceiver, and they don’t have enough batteries. Kate manages to get batteries from Sawyer.
• Kate intuits that Sawyer has no interest in leaving the island because there’s nothing for him to get back to, nor anyone out there who misses him.
• After repeatedly being talked down to by Jack, Charlie confronts him in a small cave, and ends up shouting so loud at Jack that he causes a cave-in. Charlie manages to escape, but Jack’s trapped inside. Hurley sends Charlie to the beach to get help. At the beach, Charlie enlists the help of Michael, Boone, and several others. Kate and Sayid have left to set up the antenna array, so Sawyer volunteers to find them and tell them what’s happened. When he catches up to Kate and Sayid, Kate displays hostility at his smug charm, so he changes his mind on the spot and doesn’t tell them about Jack’s accident. Instead, he says he’s there to help them set up the antenna array. While waiting for Sayid’s signal, Sawyer goads Kate to tell him what she sees in Jack, and then accidentally lets slip that Jack’s been hurt. She leaves the antenna in his care and runs for the caves.
• Back at the caves, Michael takes charge, relying on his years of experience at construction work to ensure that the rescue efforts don’t make things worse. After a lot of careful digging, they manage to make a small hole, allowing Jack to report that he’s alive but pinned down by rubble.
• Before joining the rescue party, Boone hurriedly puts Shannon in charge of turning on his antenna when Sayid gives the signal.
• Charlie reports the accident to Locke, who’s carving up a boar for food. Charlie begs Locke for his drugs, but Locke doesn’t give it back, as this is only the second time he’s asked. He shows Charlie a moth cocoon, and compares its struggle to be free of its cocoon to Charlie’s struggle against his addiction — a necessary strengthening process for both.
• Michael says one of them needs to squeeze through the hole to help Jack, and Charlie — feeling that he has something to prove to the others, who all seem to regard him as useless — volunteers for the job. As he’s crawling in, the tunnel collapses behind him, and he narrowly escapes into the inside of the cave without being pinned down himself. Outside, Kate arrives and insists they keep digging. Charlie digs Jack out from under the rubble, but Jack’s shoulder is dislocated and Charlie has to pop it back in. Jack soon lets on that he’s figured out that Charlie is going through withdrawal. As they make jokes and laugh over what’s sure to be their last few minutes alive, Charlie spots a moth flying in the cave. He traces its origins to a hole at the top of the cave, and the two of them escape on their own — much to the surprise of the survivors outside, who are still trying to dig them out.
• Kate is overcome with emotion at seeing Jack alive again, and throws her arms around him in relief. The others congratulate Charlie on a job well done.
• At the appointed time, Sayid says a quick prayer and turns on his antenna. The other antennae are switched on at the same time, and Sayid immediately begins to acquire a signal on his modified transceiver. But before he can complete his data capture, he’s knocked out from behind by an assailant we do not see.
• Walt approves of the caves, and asks Michael if they can move there from the beach. Michael checks out the integrity of the rest of the caves and deems them safe for living in.
• Late that night, Charlie feels bigtime withdrawal symptoms, but when Hurley inquires if he’s feeling okay, Jack covers for him by saying he has the flu. Charlie spots Locke returning to the caves, and goes to speak with him privately. Meanwhile, Kate presents Jack with a makeshift sling for his shoulder before returning to the beach.
• Charlie asks Locke for his drugs the third time, and Locke hands them over as promised, but Charlie throws them into a fire, much to Locke’s approval.

• The caves are roughly one mile inland from the survivors’ beach camp.
• Charlie has an older brother named Liam, who was the lead singer of their band, Drive Shaft.
• Charlie wrote all of Drive Shaft’s songs.
• Charlie lived the rock star lifestyle once his band started to become famous. But he was Catholic and his conscience finally got the better of him, so he decided to quit the band to avoid sinful temptations. Moments after making this vow, Liam informed him that Drive Shaft had just been signed to a professional recording contract. Charlie agreed to continue with the group on the condition that if he said the band is done, they would all walk away, including his brother. Liam agreed. Some time later, while performing their signature song “You All Everybody” on stage, Liam got caught up in the excitement and fame, and sang Charlie’s part. Charlie then witnessed Liam taking heroin with the help of a female fan. At a bigger show some months or years later, Charlie became frustrated with his brother’s increasingly wild antics and demanded that they close up shop as a band, as they agreed they would. But Liam’s ego had become out of control, and when he put Charlie down and refused to quit the band, Charlie took some of his brother’s drugs for the first time. Years later, after the band’s fifteen minutes of fame had run out, Charlie visited his brother in Australia, and things had changed drastically in the interim: Liam was clean and had settled down with a wife named Karen and daughter named Megan. Charlie tried to convince him to help reunite the band, but Liam realized that Charlie was still on drugs. Liam had no interest in returning to the “rock god” lifestyle; instead, he was only interested in helping Charlie break his addiction. The two of them argued heatedly about Charlie’s refusal to get help and Liam’s refusal to rejoin the band, and Charlie stalked away — straight towards his booked flight on Oceanic 815.
• Michael has eight years of experience working in construction.

• Sayid’s question to Kate is perfectly legitimate: How did the survivors escape from the violent crash of Oceanic 815 with “nothing but a few scrapes”? Was it just “blind, dumb luck” as Kate suggested, or was there another reason?
• Who knocked Sayid out when he was trying to triangulate the source of the French woman’s transmission?
  Answered in 1.21.
• Why did this person knock Sayid out?
  Answered in 1.21.

• “The Moth” is the first Charlie-centric episode of the series.
• Locke’s discussion about humans having the ability to make their own choices echoed the same advice the priest gave Charlie in his flashback. This would not be the last time that discussion of the importance of choice is discussed on the series.
• “The Moth” marks the first appearance of the redshirts named Steve and Scott. They will be referenced repeatedly throughout the first season as a running joke aimed at the nondescript extras filling out the crash survivors.
• Drive Shaft’s song “You All Everybody” was first referenced in the Pilot episode of the show, when Charlie broke out in an acappella rendition of the song. Here, we see it performed with full instrumentation, on stage.
• Locke has now converted his first “disciple,” if you will, in Charlie. There will be others.

Image credits: “Rewatching Lost” logo by Robin Parrish. Season 1 cast promotional image and Oceanic Airlines logo: American Broadcasting Company.