Season 2, Episode 12: "Fire + Water"

TITLE
"Fire Plus Water" (fire= danger, water=cleansing)

RELIGIOUS SYMBOLISM
- The show opens with Charlie's dream. He is a little
boy, running down the stairs on Christmast morning.
The first thing you see is actually a painting on the
wall of Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist, with
a dove above him and two angels at his side. This is
later the exact picture explained by Eko when he is
telling Claire what baptism means.

-Charlie has dreams about Aaron being in danger. We
know from an earlier episode that Aaron is the name of
Moses's brother. In Charlie's dream, he sees Aaron in
his cradle floating away in the ocean. This is just
like the story of Moses, whose mother put him in a
cradle and floated him down the river, which she did
to SAVE him, and he ended up being raised by others.
As we know, Claire has had issues in the past about
her baby being raised by others, and she was going to
give him up.

- Charlie says that finding the heroin was the island
testing him, a "temptation" of sorts. This is kind of
a reference to the Garden of Eden.

- Charlie wants Aaron to be baptized. Eko explains to
Claire that baptism will wash away the sins, and she
looks like she is troubled about her own past sins and
wants to be baptized herself. Eko baptizes them both.

BEING SAVED
There have been a ton of references in past episodes
about being "saved." Not only being saved from the
crash, but also being "saved" in more of a religious
sense. When Sawyer woke up from the coma, the first
thing he asks is "are we saved?" In this episode,
Charlie struggles with the need to "save" Aaron. In a
hallucination, he sees Claire and his mother as
angels, saying "You have to save the baby, he's in
danger." Then when he takes Aaron while sleepwalking,
and Locke finds him standing in the ocean, Charlie
says "I just wanted to save him." Locke tells Claire
that "Charlie feels like he has to save the baby
because he can't save himself." Also, in Charlie's
dream at the beginning, his mother gives him the piano
and says "You're special Charlie, you have to save us,
you have to get us out of here." Then when Charlie
writes the song about the 2 brothers, the last line he
sings is "Together now, we can be saved." And now
Claire and Aaron with the baptism are "saved."

YOU ARE SPECIAL
Lots of references to being "special." Walt's stepdad
told Michael that strange things happen when Walt is
around, that he is special. Locke's mom also tells him
that he is "special." Jack's dad told him he wasn't
like anyone else, he was "special." Last week when
Zeke (pirate guy who took Walt) told Jack that "the
boy is fine, he is a special boy." And in this
episode, Charlie's mom tells him he is special.

I think that those are are considered "special" really
do have some kind of special powers. We already know
that Walt can see things and has abilities. Locke
seems to have those same abilities, he knows things
about the island and has this wisdom about him. I
think that perhaps Charlie may have something about
him as well...the fact that he is dreaming that Aaron
is in danger may in fact be true. If he is "special,"
he may be able to foretell something bad happening to
Aaron. I think for sure we will see in coming episodes
that Aaron is in danger. He will probably be taken by
the Others.

DO I KNOW YOU?
In the hatch, Hurley asks Libby if he has met her
before, somewhere else. She seems caught off guard and
makes up a ridiculous story about him stepping on her
foot on the plane. Then she tries to distract him by
changing her shirt into a sexy one. I think that they
definitely connected somewhere before the crash. Libby
has said in the past that she was a psychologist, and
we know that Hurley was in a mental institution.
Perhaps she treated him or saw him there? I have also
read (possible spoiler here) that Libby is in fact a
compulsive liar and she herself was IN the mental
institution, that she made up being a psychologist.
I'm sure we'll see a flashback down the road where
they do in fact know eachother.

POLAR BEARS
- We've seen polar bears throughout the show...first,
an actual polar bear in the jungle. The polar bear in
the comic book. And last night, in the flashback where
Charlie's band was shooting the video where they were
dressed up as babies in a giant playpen, there was a
stuffed polar bear in there as well.

WHAT IS UP WITH LOCKE?
Locke is starting to act all high and mighty. Where
does he get the right to make decisions and tell
people what they can or can't do? (reference to his
flashback, "don't tell me what I can't do!") He told
Charlie he was not letting him make a choice this
time, he was making the decision for him (about the
heroin). When Charlie took Aaron, it was Locke who
persuaded him to give him up to HIM (rather than to
Claire). And when Claire came to him to see if she
could sleep in the hatch, he said no. (why does he get
to decide who goes in there?) Also at the end, you see
him changing the lock in the hatch and locking the
guns AND the virgin mary statues inside. It's like he
is trying to control everyone and decide what they can
and can't do. Him and Jack are both fighting for that
power (man of science vs. man of faith). When Jack
said they are going to start a war, I think that was
also foreshadowing as to the survivors also going to
war amongst themselves (Lord of the Flies).