“This Place is Death” Review: Charlotte Is (Not) Annie
So Charlotte is dead. After avoiding death for the whole season, she finally lost to the time jumps, but not before revealing some pretty major twists. Not only does she speak Korean, but she also used to live on the Island.
If she’s to be believed, she was a child on the Island and her parents worked for the DHARMA Initiative, but one day a scary man told her to leave and never come back. Obviously hearing of a red-headed girl who lived on the Island as a child makes every Lost fan think of Annie, Ben’s childhood friend, but does that make any sense?
Ben was born in the early 1960s, putting him just over 40 when Charlotte came to the Island. Clearly the producers are already playing with time, as Michael Emerson is currently 54 in real life.
However, Rebecca Mader is still in her 20s, so in order for her to be Annie, she’d have to be playing a character 10-15 years older than herself. This would seem to stretch the plausibility of the show, but I suppose that’s hardly an issue when we’re dealing with time travel and Black Smoke Monsters.
Adding to this speculation is an interview in the latest issue of TV Guide where Sterling Beaumon, who will play a young Ben Linus in several upcoming episodes, said that he was told one of these three theories is true:
1. Ben is Locke’s Brother
2. Charlotte is Annie
3. Miles is Dr. Candle’s Son
Obviously the Charlotte/Annie connection is the logical one. Given time travel and the fact that Richard Alpert never ages, the age difference could easily be explained away.
But I still can’t bring myself to believe this. Instead, I’m going with answer C, that Miles is Dr. Candle’s son, the one crying in the opening scene of this season.
The fact that Charlotte was the first to die goes along with the theory that the longer you’ve been on the Island, the sooner you develop nosebleeds, and while Charlotte and Juliet are explained, why was Miles the second to get a nosebleed?
The suggestion is that he’s been on the Island longer than Juliet. She’s been there for about three years, so he must’ve been there longer. The only explanation is that he used to live on the Island as a young boy, and since the opening scene of any season is probably important, maybe this was just another Easter Egg we’ll learnt o enjoy later on.
Is it just me or was there a large footprint in the mud right next to Danial and Charlotte as the camera was panning out after her death and which resembled the 3 toed statue? Also, great episode even if it was a little low on the excitement but there were a lot of little interesting things to keep folks busy. God I love this show!!!!!
Comment by Safi — February 11, 2009 @ 8:27 pm
Perhaps Annie is Charlotte’s Mother and they left the island before the purge. I’m still going on the theory that Ben and Locke are brothers. Both their Mother’s names were Emily and both of them gave that little “Call him John, ” “Call him Benjamin.” By chance, both John and Ben find this out and become allies in the end?
Comment by Dale — February 11, 2009 @ 9:26 pm
Dale, that’s just parallelism.
Comment by Victor — February 11, 2009 @ 10:52 pm
I have a feeling that after Locke turned the wheel he put an end to the whole time jump thing. Now Sawyer, Juliet, Miles ect will be stuck in the time inwhich he turned the wheel.
If they are stuck in some time other than 2005, then the O6 may come back to an Island inwhich Sawyer and crew are not present??
As for Locke, how the hell is he going to get to all the o6 with a bone coming through his skin? This really sucks, after the episode “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham,” I hope Locke (a living walking Locke) still has some part in the show. LOST would be nothing with out Jon Locke. The guy just keeps things interesting. I cant wait to see what happens next week and all season for that matter. One last thing-Christian Sheppard couldnt help Locke to the Wheel. I think this proves that he is some sort of spirit or ghost.
Comment by Geoff — February 11, 2009 @ 11:35 pm
Did anyone else otice a couple things. 1) The “sickness” Rousseau has mentioned before on the show didn’t seem to be related to coming or going from the island like what Desmond had. It seemed to be caused by the Smoke Monster. Robert seemed to have gained some insight as to it’s greater role. 2) Ben was suprised twice. First when Desmond walked up and then when Desmond mentioned Faraday’s mother. It’s rare to see Ben suprised.
Comment by Adam — February 11, 2009 @ 11:56 pm
I dont think I am even going to guess because I will be wrong, just like every other theory about this show. They always have something better.
Comment by Dan — February 12, 2009 @ 3:48 am
We’ve known that Charlotte spoke Korean for a while now.
One of the reasons that Rousseau thought everyone was sick is probably because the 3 of them went down with 5 arms and came up with 6. The one who was forced down must’ve regenerated his arm somehow, cause his old one was still sitting on the ground and his dead body clearly had 2.
Comment by MikeyV — February 12, 2009 @ 4:22 am
Actually, unless the loss of an arm hit the French team twice, the man who lost his arm was Montand, and there is no evidence he grew it back. There is more evidence to suggest that something happened to the team after descending, as, from the state of the arm, it’s clear they either never came back that way, or came back through in quite the rush.
Comment by Uncommon Valor — February 12, 2009 @ 6:32 am
anyone get a capture or translation to the hiroglyphs?
Also this have given me ides on new theories (prolly wrong but still fun)
Comment by Nemesise1977 — February 12, 2009 @ 8:13 am
I don’t know if anyone mentioned this but 1. the Temple is where Ben was sending Alex and Karl 2. The sickness was probubly just the others’ persuasive recruiting them and trying to take Russeau’s baby 3. I think that Ben “looking surprised” is just a Muse…something tells me EVERYTHING is playing in his favor.
Comment by Karl — February 12, 2009 @ 8:59 am
Ben’s “surprised” didn’t strike me at all as surprise. Maybe a quick bit of processing of the events leading up to Desmond’s arrival, but not surprise.
You want to see a surprised Ben? Go back and watch Keamy execute Alex. That’s surprise.
Comment by Hanto — February 12, 2009 @ 9:14 am
Forget Ben being surprised. I was blown away by the scene where both Jack and Sun are discussing killing him, and he slams on the brakes and shouts at them, telling them that if they knew what he was doing for them, they would never stop thanking them. I found that a very powerful scene, as it gave Ben an extremely sympathetic role to play, if even just for a moment.
Anyway, Montand didn’t regrow his arm. He probably never came back. There were quite a few Frenchmen, and only three of them were on the beach when Jin stumbles upon their camp. Montand and probably a few others never returned from the pit.
Last thing: Ben is certainly not Locke’s brother. That’s just a completely illogical conclusion to jump to. Locke and Ben have completely defined sets of parents. First of all, Locke’s father comes to him for a kidney because of their shared blood. Second of all, we actually see Ben come out of his mother’s vag. Out of those three theories, I think the best choice is Miles being the son of Candle. However, it seems to me that, no matter whether Charlotte being Annie or Miles being Candle’s son is correct, there’s going to be somewhat of a problem as far as ages go. Neither of them appear to be the right age to fit those roles.
Comment by besch64 — February 12, 2009 @ 9:52 am
Of course Charlotte is not Annie. She is English and Ben did not recognize her at all when he saw her recently. I’m not a professional writer, but I can tell you that is a terrible set up for a love story if you don’t even recognize the woman you have been pining away for all your life. The Charlotte as Annie was debunked long ago.
Charlotte isn’t dead. Why would Miles spend 2 minutes telling her that his Mom would save them if she wasn’t going to? Would have been much more dramatic to just let her die since they did had to add the speech, Ms Hawking will save Charlotte by getting her off the island thanks to Danielle Farraday. Ms. Hawking will take Charlotte from the island when she leaves thus raising Charlotte in England!!! So in fact, Farraday telling Desmond to get his Mom to help, directly saves Charlotte because Ms. Hawking takes Charlotte from the island and raises her as her own though she probably isn’t related and at the end of the day she is saved thanks to Farraday.
Miles has been and is the logical choice to be the baby, how John is passing it off as the surprise choice is beyond me. The comic-con video it became instantly recognized that the baby would be Miles, the 1st episode of this season backed that up more.
Absolutely stupid that they revealed Jin last week as being alive. WHen Ben told Sun that he didn’t kill Jin because Jin is still alive
there was NO payoff because we already new this. They dropped the ball on this, it could have been set up better
by transitioning to Jin washing up right after, not a week before. Way to avoid suspense, writers!
Danielle Russo had an interesting character, why not give her an entire show in the old flashback format? Would have been
much more interesting then just seeing her, the back story was worthless in last nights episode about her.
Also, looks like Danielle made up the whole disease story, calling Jin a carrier. How does she now if the disease could be carried? The only two people on the island she knew both went in the cave, how could it be contagious? Talk about an anti-climactic reveal, this wasn’t half as horrible as she made it out to be in season 1.
Why does Charlotte speak Korean? Paik is involved with the island somehow, perhaps she is connected to Paik and learned Korean through him?
Do the islanders realize three years have past or have they only been time traveling for a matter of days? Or has Jin been at sea for 3 years on a raft?
According to Farraday bringing back the people who left at that point is where they leave science behind. So we get back
into faith, there is a temple and Locke has to rise from the dead at some point.
Charlotte says ”
Don’t let them bring her back? They implied Sun, but perhaps there is an island godess that competes with Jacob as a god vs devil that could be re-incarnated when all the Losties come back.
Charlotte marries an American? Who is it? Time sickness flash forward to when she marries Daniel Farraday in the future?? Damn I’m good.
Look for the well? How old is Charlotte!? Who would have built the well? The black rockians? Wasn’t Dharma so she must predate them significantly despite saying she was raised by Dharma.
Who is Charlotte’s dad? Ben? Annie mother who died in child birth, Charlotte unknown daughter?
Daniel told little Charlotte not to come back to the island ever. We obviously see Faradday in the Dharma days in the season premiere and at comicon. The Daniel we are following hasn’t done that yet, but he
loves Charlotte for some reason that has never been explained and when he goes back in time he will try to save her
by telling her not to return, because he sees her die when she comes back. He couldn’t change time because she died.
This would have been a lot more interesting if it had been revealed as part of a Charlotte centric flashback and forward episode
like the old Lost days.
What’s with the anti-Ben talk from christian?
It seems like Christian and Ben are on opposite sides of the game, who is right?
Did Locke tell Jack his dad says “Hello” in a previous episode and that drives him to drink or I’m I just connecting random dots?
Comment by BlutoSchmooto — February 12, 2009 @ 10:39 am
In regards to Geoff’s post. I heard someone say that the anagram for the name of the company on the van that Ben had was “Reincarnation”. It’s the van that transported Locke to the “friend’s deli” and then to the church to see Ms Hawking.
I also started wondering about the view of the others in the jungle and the child with the teddy bear. Doesn’t Aaron have a similar bear? I have thought from the beginning that they are really dead “in real time”, hence the they shouldn’t have left comment and they are going to be in some sort of time loop. The voices and the dead people they see are all them and the others who have died (or bodies- ie Shepard)on the island. I think we may find out that there are many more people that are connected to each other. Children of former members of the island who shouldn’t have left. Therefore they shouldn’t exist. And need to remain on the island.
Comment by Good — February 12, 2009 @ 12:02 pm
Sorry, forgot to add, I also think Ben had Sayid’s wife killed and he found out that’s why he feels manipulated by Ben after killing all those people in rage. Just like Ben hired the lawyer to get Kate to want to come back to the island with Aaron.
Comment by Good — February 12, 2009 @ 12:08 pm
Also, Marvin Candle is asian, so his baby must be asian, and Miles is asian, so he must be the baby. And also, Jin is Marvin Candle, and Miles is Ji Yuon.
QED
Comment by German — February 12, 2009 @ 5:14 pm
BlutoSchmooto, What the hell are you talking about? Do you even watch this show? Almost nothing you said made any sense. German, Thats just stupid. Come on. Seriously
Comment by Adam — February 12, 2009 @ 8:21 pm
“”" I have thought from the beginning that they are really dead “in real time”, “”"
So what of people like goodwin and ethan? Are they doublely dead? Both in real time and loopy time?
Comment by Andy — February 12, 2009 @ 9:06 pm
I know this is a longshot, but what if the “Ben” that is reuniting the 06 is actually Locke? Before he turns the wheel Christian says that he has faith that Locke will think of something to get them to come back. Knowing that none of them will trust him, Locke alters his appearance to look like Ben. I know this is far fetched, but nothing seems impossible anymore. As for locke’s body in the coffin, I have no idea how to explain that.
Comment by Mr. Sinister — February 13, 2009 @ 5:04 am
i don’t know what all of you are smoking, but i want some… you can find me at the Bean in Koreatown. seriously.
i know all of us Lost nerds love our crackpot theories, but… damn.
Comment by ianmalachi — February 13, 2009 @ 12:27 pm
In regard to the comment left by Andy. Time for them is not linear. Locke can be dead and also alive. You can have two different “times” at the same time hence two of the same person, so to speak. Sawyer sees Kate but Kate is home right. For the ones left on the island time still passes but just like pieces from different line segments. Things don’t show up until they are changed in the present past (lives being relived) like Faraday seeing Desmond. He didn’t remember that conversation until it happened in the present past. Time catches up after events have been changed in the past. Bad analogy but how about “Back to the Future” the picture of his family disappearing. You can’t change the past but you can influence people to make different decisions. It’s only “loopy” time for Faraday and the others left on the island. So the long answer to your question is yes they can.
Comment by Good — February 13, 2009 @ 3:36 pm
any chance that Charlotte is Daniels Daughter???????
Comment by eamonn — February 16, 2009 @ 9:54 am
Sorry if I’ve missed this somewhere else, but is there a connection between the gal with the accent who was holding a gun on Daniel in “Jughead” and Charlotte? Is she maybe Charlotte’s mom?
Comment by Keith — February 17, 2009 @ 4:22 pm