CHARLIE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

Hrmmm.... What if Roald Dahl wrote a Lewis Carroll sequel?

The last few minutes of "Greatest Hits", the penultimate episode for the third season of 'Lost', has had me on a TV high since Wednesday. And that's rare for this jaded sofa yam; I haven't felt this hyped about an episode since, well, okay, a week before with the "Five Years Gone"/"String Theory" episode of 'Heroes'. But even so, it doesn't happen that often.

And I chalk it all up to the revelation of the Looking Glass station. I should have known better than to believe anything Ben tells people, so I should have expected that the producers wouldn't have created such an elaborate display of underwater effects just to have the hatch actually flooded.

And then to have two chicks with guns trained on Charlie as he dragged himself out of the hatch's moonpool? Yowza!

I never understood the hue and cry calling for Charlie to die on this show. Sure, there were times when he was a mopey drag and even taking a dip in the dark side for a bit, but who wants a character with no changes in his personality? That gets boring.

I didn't want Charlie to die, but I was resigned to the idea that it was going to happen this episode. I can't go around saying I'm in it for the ride come what may on 'Lost' if I can't accept what the show's creators present to me.

He may still die in the season finale on Wednesday - there was nothing about that prediction of Desmond's to say that it all had to happen at once - but I'm now hoping he makes it into the fourth season. That's because Charlie is the best hope to further explore this new location for the show. (Although Desmond is also another likely candidate: it appeared that in the preview, he arrives in the Looking Glass as well, brothuh, and has a showdown with Mikhail - how'd he get down there?)

But I just like the idea of Charlie in this Sealab harem for most of the fourth season, perhaps even succumbing to the temptation of a little threesome with the two gun-toters. (It wouldn't be the first time, as we also saw in this episode. But in that case, I don't think they had weapons.) And that could drive a new wedge between him and Claire without having to go back to the Well of the Horse.

But if not? Well, I'll just have to suck it up and accept what I get from Messrs. Lindelof and Cuse. There is some comfort in knowing that actor Dominic Monaghan, who plays Charlie, is okay with the prospect of dying since the role already achieved the goal he set: to make people not think of him as a Hobbit first.

But since I'm always delving into the inner reality of Toobworld, I'm concerned more for Charlie than I am for Dom.....

BCnU!
Tele-Toby