Season 5-6

Season: 4-5, Episodes: 20, Faction: DHARMA Initiative/Freighter/Survivors

Overview

Charlotte Staples Lewis was a gifted cultural anthropologist who grew up on the Island, where her parents were members of the DHARMA Initiative. She eventually escaped with just her mother, leaving her dad (and possibly two younger sisters) behind. She spent the rest of her life trying to find the Island again. This was mostly due to her mother’s insistence that she had made it all up, and for a chance to find her father again. She then finally parachuted back onto the Island on day 91, as part of the freighter science team. After initially being held hostage in Locke’s group, Sayid traded her freedom for Miles. She arrived at the beach camp with Daniel Faraday (who she reciprocated feelings for), where her presence aroused the suspicions of the survivors due to her secrecy and dishonesty about their mission, as well as her attitude to the others. She eventually gained trust when she and Daniel diffused deadly gas from a DHARMA station. Following Benjamin Linus’s turning of the frozen wheel and the increasing frequency of the time flashes that ensued, Charlotte began suffering the effects of temporal displacement, because of her time on the island as a youth. Eventually she became unable to travel with the other survivors, and succumbed to the illness 16 days after her arrival on the Island, dying by Daniel Faraday’s side.

Time Flashes

5×01 – Because You Left

   

Charlotte was at the beach camp when white light immersed the whole of the camp, and the various makeshift structures disappeared from sight. When Daniel arrived back on the Zodiac she was overjoyed to see him alive and well, having thought he may have been on the freighter when it exploded, sank and disappeared, and the two embraced each other. She then followed Daniel as their group headed to the Swan to try and analyze the events in progress. She displayed her anger and annoyance when Sawyer struck Daniel, becoming very protective. Later, while conversing with Daniel, her nose bled in a manner similar to that of Minkowski and Desmond when they were unstuck in time in “The Constant”. She made an off-hand comment she had not had nosebleeds since she was a child. Daniel displayed serious concern and fear, but then managed to cover it up convincingly and effectively by saying it was just the sight of blood that was disturbing him. Daniel then told Charlotte to return to the beach while he recovered his backpack from the jungle. (“Because You Left”)

5×02 – The Lie

   

Back on the beach, around two hours afterward, and after another timeshift, Charlotte hugged Daniel when he reappeared, claiming he had gotten lost while looking for his pack. Later that evening while he was doing calculations, Charlotte approached him and gave him some fruit she had found while they were in the jungle. She explained to him, her headache was consistent, was not going away, and was getting increasingly worse. Of more concern, she seemed to be suffering from severe and peculiar memory loss. She was unable to remember her mother’s maiden name for a short time, which was obviously of great concern. Suddenly looking serious, revealing the true intent of why she had approached him, she asked Daniel if he knew why this was happening. Before he had time to answer, Miles approached the camp with a boar he had found dead. Soon after, the camp came under heavy attack from an unseen group firing flaming arrows from within the jungle. Charlotte and Daniel, sticking close together, fled into the jungle, with Daniel helping Charlotte when she fell over while running away. (“The Lie”)

5×03 – Jughead

   

However, soon after reaching the rendezvous point at the stream, Charlotte, Daniel, and Miles were captured by a group of Others, led by a young woman named Ellie. The three remaining members of the freighter crew were then taken back to a camp being occupied by the Others, and led to a tent where they were held captive. Charlotte’s headaches became worse as their journey towards the camp progressed. As leverage, Daniel offered to help deactivate the bomb, citing his love for Charlotte as the reason he would not detonate it instead, as he would ‘never do anything to harm her’. Before he departed, he admitted to Charlotte, he was telling the truth and did love her. She expressed skepticism about him telling the truth to Richard Alpert, as she felt it was only so he would be more trusting. Daniel then departed with Ellie, going to the bomb. Charlotte remained in the tent with Miles, crying slightly to herself after he left, until the survivors time-traveled once again. When the flashing light of the time travel happened, the survivors were all reunited. Daniel ran over and embraced Charlotte, however when they let go, Charlotte’s nose began bleeding profusely, and she collapsed onto the ground, unconscious. Daniel huddled over her and grabbed her in obvious distress and fear moments later. (“Jughead”)

5×04 – The Little Prince

   

Charlotte was incapacitated for over ten minutes as a concerned Daniel and Juliet attempted to revive her. Eventually, she regained consciousness, but was initially slightly confused, not remembering Daniel, although, apart from a slight headache, she said she felt fine. Along with the rest of the group, she trekked back to the beach camp to collect the Zodiac so they could sail around the horn of the Island and reach the Orchid. Along the way, Daniel told Charlotte she would be able to rest when they reached the zodiac, to which she replied, “you’re sweet, but you don’t have to baby me, I’m fine”. Eventually, they reached the beach camp after enduring another time-shift. They found the camp deserted, the zodiac missing and two canoes beached on shore. They took one of the canoes and began sailing to another part of the Island, but along the way they were waylaid by unseen assailants firing guns at them from another canoe. They survived the attack when another timeshift brought them back in time to 1988. After landing on another shore of the Island during an extremely violent storm, Charlotte found some scattered items and the recent wreckage of a sailing vessel strewn about the beach. She immediately alerted the other survivors to her curious discovery. (“The Little Prince”)

5×05 – This Place Is Death

   

Charlotte and the others continued their lengthy trek to the Orchid, while experiencing increasingly frequent and more damaging time flashes along the way. After another double attack of flashes, Charlotte collapsed, bleeding profusely from her nose. As Daniel and the others tried to revive her, she spoke rapidly in Korean, not making much sense. Then, in English, she told Jin, “she” must not return to the Island because “This place is death.” While the others discussed what to do with her, Charlotte’s consciousness seemed to slip between time, much like that of Minkowski and Desmond. She referenced many past experiences in her life, speaking in a childlike voice, i.e. “you know what my mum would say about me marrying an American”. Unable to move by herself, Locke refused to allow anyone to help Daniel with carrying Charlotte the rest of the way. She urged a reluctant Dan to leave her behind and accompany the rest of the group to the Orchid, which he refused to do. Before the others left, they discussed how they would find the station if it was at a point in time when it had not been built yet and, in a rare moment of lucidity, Charlotte mysteriously told them “you will find it at the well”.

   

A little while after the other survivors continued on to the Orchid and Charlotte’s condition had dramatically worsened, she confessed to Dan, she remembered how she grew up on the Island as a child, and had left it with her mother at an early age. She also mentioned the DHARMA Initiative, having been on the Island while they were still functioning there. Despite her mother’s assertion that she had merely invented the Island, Charlotte believed otherwise, and had been searching for it ever since. She was desperately trying to find her dad, which is why she became a cultural anthropologist. She also confided to Daniel, as a child, a “crazy man” told her that she must leave the Island and never return, or she would die. Realizing she was going to die on the Island as a result of the repeated time jumps, she finally recognized that man as Daniel, warning her from the future. After telling him this, she experienced one more moment of madness due to her repeated time jumps. Smiling, she said she was “not allowed to eat chocolate before dinner”, remembering when she met Daniel as a child, and then tragically died as he comforted her. (“This Place Is Death”)

Post-Death

5×08 – LaFleur

   

When the final flash occurred and the living members of Sawyer’s group were transported to the 1970s, Charlotte’s body remained in the time in which she died. As the time flash occurred, her body disappeared in front of Daniel as he moved through time and left her behind. The rest of Sawyer’s group came back for Charlotte and Dan, and Juliet consoled him over Charlotte’s death. (“LaFleur”)

1974

5×08 – LaFleur

   

When the rest of the survivors became part of the DHARMA Initiative, Daniel noticed a young Charlotte among the members with her mother. He quietly exclaimed her name and she waved at him, before running out of sight.  (“LaFleur”)

1977

5×14 – The Variable  |  5×15 – Follow the Leader

   

Daniel, Sawyer, Juliet, Jin and Miles would later witness key events from Charlotte’s childhood, including her exodus from the Island. (“The Variable”) (“Follow the Leader”)

6×04 – The Substitute

   

Just beyond the opening of the Cliffside cave was a room in which Jacob had written the last names of his candidates on the walls and ceiling, with a number preceding each one. Charlotte’s surname Lewis was crossed out, presumably because she had died. In the cave, her number was 140. (“The Substitute”)

6×05 – Lighthouse

   

Her surname was also written on The Lighthouse Wheel. According to the wheel, the number her number was 104. (“Lighthouse”)

In the flash sideways, Charlotte Lewis was an archeologist who worked with Dr. Pierre Chang at the Golden State Natural History Museum in Los Angeles.

6×11 – Happily Ever After

   

A few weeks prior to the Oceanic 815 flight, Daniel Widmore saw Charlotte in the museum where she worked, eating a chocolate bar. He later told Desmond that he was instantly attracted to Charlotte and felt as if he had ‘already loved her’. (“Happily Ever After”)

6×08 – Recon

   

After the Oceanic 815 flight had landed, Pierre Chang’s son, Miles Straume, set her up on a blind date with James Ford. James approached Charlotte at the bar of a restaurant and introduced himself. They sat down to eat and got to know each other by discussing what they did for work. Charlotte asked James why he chose to become a cop. They ended up having sex at James’ apartment, and afterward, Charlotte asked him if she could borrow a t-shirt to wear to bed. James told her, she could find one in his dresser. When she looked in his dresser, she found a notebook labeled “Sawyer,” and a picture of a young boy and his parents fell out. She recognized the young boy as James, and then opened up the notebook to replace the picture. Inside she discovered a newspaper article about James’ father killing both himself and James’ mother. When James saw Charlotte looking at the notebook, he became very angry and told her to leave.

   

Later, James went by her apartment in Santa Monica with a sunflower and some beer to apologize. Charlotte told him he blew his shot with her and closed the door on him. (“Recon”)

6×16 – What They Died For

Later, Miles mentioned to James that Charlotte would be attending a benefit concert that night, causing James to pass on Miles’ offer to go. (“What They Died For”)

6×17 – The End

   

In the band room, on the night of the concert, Charlie Pace had passed out and was woke up by Charlotte. Also in the band room, was Daniel Widmore who introduced himself to Charlotte. She was later seen watching the Drive Shaft and Daniel’s concert. (“The End”)

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