So everyone should know by now where I stand on the Charlie/Claire thing. Well over the last 2 new episodes, I have really taken an interest in the direction that Claire seems to be heading, and am very interested in how it will play out. I have felt for some time now that the C/C relationship was rather contrived, for all of the reasons that Claire gave last night: They were strangers, yet seem to be playing mom and dad to Aaron and Charlie seems so intent on being there, but they do not really have a relationship. Having had 2 kids of my own, I can appreciate the route that Claire's character has taken recently. She is coming out of a hormone fog and realizing that her "knight" is a stranger and is getting too close for comfort now. She is also starting to become part of the group now. She has taken an active effort to get to know other people. Not being completely isolated by her new baby (which is easy to do)has afforded her to start seeing other people and start thinking more about what is going on on the island on a personal level. The way I see it: the whole C/C thing started off innocently enough with him looking out for the pregnant girl that was all alone, and fulfilling his need to protect a woman. Then you had the kidnapping, the hanging, the amnesia, the birth,him committing murder on her behalf, plus all of the other scary things that have happened that have escalated Charlie's need to protect Claire, and has lead to more protective feeling towards her and her baby.....but it is not a relationship. Claire does not have feelings for Charlie and is starting to feel that this is not a healthy situation. Claire reaches out to Locke about this, but in a reserved way, and has it proven once again when Charlie shows up and acts like Locke is intruding in family affairs. Locke completely understands Claire's feelings and what she was trying to say because he has intuition......he is also concerned for the reason that he knows what is in the statue that Charlie is carrying. Claire might know that Charlie did drugs (if she has regained her memory) but Locke is fully aware that this is an unstable drug addict with a loose temper and knows that proper care must be taken when discussing the issue of Claire to him in order to not cause more harm. I also started thinking about how Claire would get Charlie to back off. They are trapped on an island. They do not have the option of just parting ways for a while until the "spell" wears off. Charlie would either have to leave, or be forced to see them everyday. Claire could just start trying to put space between them, but she will also be giving up some of the freedoms that having Charlie around has given her. Another option would be for Claire to start forming relationships with others around her and introducing more people into her life and the routine that has been established with Charlie and Aaron so that Charlie is slowly weeded out. I really liked this aspect of the story because it posed a situation that I think more than one of us has been in at least once. Where you just got kind of tossed together with another person and things were kind of groovy at the time, so you stayed together and external forces just seemed to keep you two together, then you wake up one morning and realize that it isn't a "relationship" like a man and woman should be, but don't know how to stop it. And seeing Locke and Claire and Aaron together somehow seemed so "good". I think there might be a real possibility that there will be a lot more Locke and Claire in the future. When I started thinking more about that, I could see how they could end up finding a relationship together. Locke who has been abandoned, used, or abused by anyone he loved, or wanted to love, in his past (so far) and never had any family to speak of and feels quite alone with nobody that really loves him or needs him ...and Claire that (so far) has had no real strong male influence in her life, who is all alone with a new baby that until just before it was born, she was sure she wasn't going to keep. And there was the overwhelming sense of some sort of redeeming quality for both of them, Locke to finally able to prove that children are something that can be loved and cherished,and that he is worthy of love (also the whole special purpose that he was told he had if you are buying into the whole Aaron is special thing) and Claire can find redemption for what she see's are her sins of wanting to get rid of the baby and find more confidence in her parenting abilities, I can see the two of them filling each other's emotional needs and finding a strong bond and purpose in each other. It may not ever happen, but it was fun to think about. This does still leave the question of what will happen to Charlie if there is no longer a "Claire and Charlie" to keep him around...but without further evidence of Claire moving on, it's hard to predict where that could go.http://www.livejournal.com/community/pondering_lost/88945.html#cutid1