WRITERS: Adam Horowitz & Edward Kitsis DIRECTOR: Stephen Williams
CAST: Dominic Monaghan (Charlie), Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond), Matthew Fox (Jack), Naveen Andrews (Sayid), Yunjin Kim (Sun), Josh Holloway (Sawyer), Jorge Garcia (Hurley), Evangeline Lilly (Kate), Emilie de Ravin (Claire), Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet), Daniel Dae Kim (Jin), Sam Anderson (Bernard), Blake Bashoff (Karl), Marsha Thomason (Naomi), Mira Furlan (Rousseau), Andrea Gabriel (Nadia), Lana Parrilla (Greta), Tracy Middendorf (Bonnie), Tania Raymonde (Alex), Nestor Carbonell (Richard Alpert), Brian Goodman (Pryce), Neil Hopkins (Liam Pace), Joshua Hancock (Roderick), John Henry Canavan (Simon Pace), Jeremy Shada (Young Charlie), Zack Shada (Young Liam) & L. Scott Caldwell (Rose Henderson)
Jack devises a trap for the Others, who are going to kidnap pregnant women. Elsewhere, an underwater station is jamming all phone signals and Charlie's offer to help could have fatal consequences...Season 3 races towards its season finale with Greatest Hits, an episode that continues Charlie's ongoing attempts to avoid predetermined death, while simultaneously setting the grounds for next week's feature-length climax.
Ostensibly, Greatest Hits is a Charlie episode, although the flashbacks don't tell their own parallel story. Instead, the flashbacks scenes are short glimpses at moments in Charlie's past he most remembers (his "greatest hits"), while other flashbacks focus on the Others following Ben's return to camp. I enjoy it when Lost takes a more experimental stance with its structure, as the typical template for episodes is becoming ingrained in my mind -- so it's nice when the writers shake things up a bit.
Dominic Monaghan may not be the most dynamic character on the show, but he's pleasantly earnest and flawed. His romance with Claire has also been one of the more pleasing and realistic relationships beyond the Jack/Kate/Sawyer love triangle. Here, Monaghan does an admirable job with the material and reminds viewers why Charlie deserves some credit as a character. It's just a shame his backstory never seems to stretch beyond fraternal love and drugs.
Matthew Fox finally gets back to leading the group, having been somewhat ostricized this year after a great start with the Ben's surgery plotline. Fox is a charismatic lead and the show always seems stronger when he's acting the Alpha Male, providing Lost with some heart.
The story is a little bit fragmented with its flashback style and central story, where Charlie becomes convinced he must sacrifice himself underwater to ensure Claire's safe escape from the island via helicopter, but still enjoyable as a scene-setter for the grand finale.
At this late stage in the season, it's frustrating that Naomi, a recent addition to the cast, hasn't been given much to do. Marsha Thomason has so far been used as a handy plot-device with her satellite phone, or plugs gaps with her knowledge of off-island life. She's certainly effective in this role, but I can't help feeling her character deserved to appear earlier in the season and be given proper development. Oh well, there's always season 4...
Overall, this is a fairly average episode, eleviated with a burgeoning sense that the shit's really going to hit the fan next week. As ever with episode's where the story's meat is undernourishing, it's the garnish that lingers on the taste buds -- in the shape of intriguing new elements to the show like the Looking Glass underwater station, the return of Sayid's girlfriend Nadia in a flashback and another heart-pounding final shot...
