Ship-sighting
With Season 4, a whole slew of new questions, answers, and hints have come. We saw Desmond finally connect to Penny in real time. We've learned that only six of the survivors make it off the island (publicly, at least), along with Ben who seems to have teleported himself to the middle of the Sahara. There is an apparent time discrepancy on and off the island, as demonstrated with Faraday's rocket experiment. The whole thing might be some sort of elaborate game between Widmore and Ben.
However the most interesting aspect of this season thus far has been the introduction of a new relationship, between Charlotte and Faraday: "Charladay". Once a fantasy fan 'ship that provoked derision from other fans, it was suddenly confirmed last episode. Although it was a surprise to some fans, to believers like myself, it was the obvious next step...
In The Economist, when Sayid returns from the Barracks with Charlotte, she and Faraday are excited to see each other, with Faraday even putting her arm around her. This in particular caught my attention -- generally, people on Lost are strangers to each other. I believe Charlotte and Faraday have a past relationship, unknown to us. They are very obviously friendly with each other, more so than they are with the other Freighter People. This is evident with the animosity Miles treated Faraday with in Confirmed Dead and in the lackluster relationship between Frank and Faraday. Much like the Numbers in Season 2, the interactions between Charlotte and Faraday have been a consistent string of nice little things for observant fans to look for.
The clues about "Charladay" have been subtle. When Charlotte decides to stay on the island, Faraday does too, awkwardly. Not to continue with his experiments, but because she had decided to stay. Charlotte soon encourages him, confidently stating that remembering two out of three cards is progress. He gives her a cup of water in The Constant (mundane things are always of importance!), and cuts her off when she starts to get too sarcastic for her own good. In The Other Woman, Charlotte encourages him again and protects Faraday from physical harm. She is audibly worried for him when Juliet out-wrestles her. When Faraday scolds Charlotte about her attitude in Something Nice Back Home it is reminiscent of an old married couple bickering. Charlotte smiles when she overhears Sun and Jin gossip about her and Dan, and later, when Jin threatens him, she reveals that she can speak Korean and immediately agrees to his terms. The two characters are practically always seen together, seem very content with each other, and have looked out for one another on numerous occasions.
I've never been a big fan of the relationship aspect of Lost. I like Desmond and Penny, but that was established as a firm relationship before the actress for Penny was even cast. Rose and Bernard are nice as well, but they too were setup long before Bernard was introduced. Charlie and Claire was a roller coaster ride and Charlie has since died. Sayid and Shannon never really clicked in my book. The Harper-Goodwin-Juliet-Jack-Kate-Sawyer-Ana Lucia love polygon is a bit of a mess. I preferred to concentrate on the mysteries – the Smoke Monster, DHARMA, and where exactly all of Jack's chest hair went. Charladay is the first "ship" I've truly enjoyed watching develop. It has just enough unknown back story to make for an interesting and compelling relationship, similar to Jim & Pam on NBC's The Office.
Love is a central theme of Lost. It's nice to finally watch the blossoming of a relationship that makes sense and isn't complicated by a love triangle. I hope that you enjoy watching Charladay develop as much as I have. Please, visit the Lostpedia chat (Java) and discuss it. We've also been busy trying add as much as possible to the Charladay article here on Lostpedia – any help there would be much appreciated!
15 comments:
Great analysis danhm, I hope we can expect more Lost love blogs in the future. I think the only love that overshadows Charladay is Desnelope.
Here's an interesting theory: Remember the episode where the four "freighter people" are introduced? Remember in the flashback when Faraday is crying when watching the newscast about Flight 815? I remember there was a woman in the room with him that asked what was the matter, and they never showed her face. I would have to go back to watch it to see if the woman had an accent or anything, but perhaps the woman could very well be Charlotte. Just an idea.
you left Ben out of the polygon. Ben's crush on Juliet that is. and hey...if the wild speculation that Ben may be the father of Aaron rings true, then the polygon gets an, er, um, protrusion of sorts with Claire and Charlie along for the ride. OMG my head hurts —
Did you miss the thing about Ben controlling the smoke monster? What about Christian being alive? Or the deaths of Alex, Rosseau and Carl? Or how about the time travel? Or Sayid working for Ben? Or Kate taking care of Aaron off the island? Or Michael's reintroduction?
"Hell yeah she knows!" :)
In reply to bakes's theory: I just checked the scene where Faraday is in his house watching TV and there is an unknown woman with him, and her voice does not sound like Charlotte's.
It's not clear to me that there is a relationship there. It's possible there is the beginning of a relationship, but I'd say it has not taken off yet.
Also, I wouldn't expect they knew each other before they got on the freighter, but perhaps they developed a friendship for each other very quickly while being on the freighter. Sometimes that happen: sometimes people bond very quickly with others.
A reason why these two persons may have bonded quickly is easy to see: they are both intelligent and highly educated. Daniel has been seen teaching in Oxford, and Charlotte has obtained a PhD from Oxford. So if they have met before they got on the freighter, then my bet would be they met in Oxford.
Even if they had not met before they got on the freighter, this is the kind of thing that would drag people together, especially in new circumstances and with a company of people with different backgrounds. (More so being in the company of ruthless mercenaries such as Keamy and Cia.)
Well studied and well written. The only thing that doesn't make sense to an outsider (it made sense to me but I had to really think about it) is why Charlotte agreeing immediately to Jin's terms would have anything to do with her relationship with Faraday. Of course, one interpretation is that she cares about him. But another one, equally valid, is that she doesn't want anyone to find out her murky past (my theory is that she's hired by Sun's father which isn't that far-fetched given the wild connections between the characters we've already seen). But a good job nonetheless! Though the coolest of the new characters is the ghosthustler everyone loves to hate - Miles! He's more secretive and less obvious to figure out than Sawyer, but yeah, I agree with Hugo about the similarities. So if opposites attract, then we have one hell of a conflict waiting for us between Sawyer and Miles...
Or they could be brother and sister ala Shannon and Boone. I mean, we were lead to believe they were in a relationship until Shannon said Boone was her brother. They also had different last names. Of course, it didn't take as long for us to discover Shannon and Boone's actual relationship, but it's still a possibility... Isn't it? Or I could be delusional. I've been up for 48 hours. I'm about to crash...
I'm not convinced that there is a full blown relationship there. To me it seems pretty one sided. I hate Charlotte. Her character is interesting in the fact that I don't know much about her but I think she's just mean. Faraday has an obvious crush on her and to me, it seems like she is either leading him on or refusing to let her actual feelings for him show. She seems to be pretty indifferent towards him if you ask me.
Most interesting aspect of this season thus far?
Errr... really? I mean .... uhm ... are we watching the same program here?
My only question is "When is Faraday going to take off his tie?"
I also was wondering where Jack's chest hair went! :)
The most obvious and most interesting relationship is the one on the flash forward between Sayid & Ben. It's not romatic in any sense but how did they become so close...or rather how did Ben convince Sayid to go on a murdering spree for him? I think it has more to do than just Nadia. And hey Broxred, how could Ben be the father of Aaron? Wasn't that boyfriend she had in Australia the father?
youre joking, right? of all the new devlopments this season, you pick this? and give it the genius hollywoodized name of 'charladay'? nice work.
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