The reason Charlie Pace died, and why it DOES make sense by WhoIsJohnLocke

This is in response to the poster who thought that Charlie's death was pointless and could have easily been avoided.

You are correct when you say that Charlie's death could have easily been avoided - it could have been. The thing is, is Charlie CHOSE to die, quite obviously. There are two reasons that Charlie chose to drown himself essentially. #1, Desmond had saved Charlie many times before. As Desmond said, he could alter the future but ultimately couldn't prevent what was meant to happen, and that the universe has a way of course correcting itself. Charlie got shot in the throat with an arrow in one of Desmond's visions, and drowned in the ocean trying to catch Claire a bird in another. Desmond works hard to "prevent" these deaths from happening, only to have another vision of Charlie's death soon thereafter, and Desmond and Charlie both realized that Charlie was going to die soon no matter how hard Desmond worked to save him.

The reason Charlie wanted to die at that moment was because before they went to the Looking Glass, Desmond told him that in his latest vision, Charlie flips a switch and drowns, but that if he does it, Aaron and Claire and other 815 survivors would be saved. Charlie was willing to sacrifice his life to save Claire and Aaron, because by doing that, he knew he would be able to finally fulfill his destiny and redeem himself of any past sins. Charlie was also very religious, so he probably felt that if he did this, he would be worthy of going to Heaven. Charlie had endured so much loss and tragedy over the past few years before landing on the island, and instead of dying of a heroin overdose, alone and miserable somewhere, he was able to get clean, come to terms with his past, and attempt to change for the better. Claire gave him a new reason to live, and by coming full circle and getting all of his friends saved, he would go on to become the biggest hero of all the survivors of! 815, which he did become.

The reason Charlie chose to die was because that was the way Desmond said it was meant to happen. Flip the switch, drown, Claire and Aaron get saved. After he flipped the swtich and realized Mikhail was about to break the Looking Glass, he knew that this was Desmond's vision - his destiny. Since he knew what would happen, he decided to allow it to happen and prevent Desmond from putting off his death for another day or two again. He knew that if he altered Desmond's vision in any way, he risked a chance of the future being different from what Desmond saw, and he didn't want to risk Claire and Aaron not being saved, even if it meant drowning right there and then, which he chose to do.

He also did it to save Desmond, who might have died due to the fact that Charlie was talking to Penny. I honestly think that Desmond might be so crazed by wanting to talk to Penny that he would risk drowning, and I think by closing the door, Charlie was hoping to prevent Desmond from dying with him, because he knew how much Penny meant to Desmond.

So the answer is, Charlie simply chose to die. He chose to just lock that door so as not to risk Desmond's safety, and to accept his ultimate destiny in order to get Claire and Aaron saved. That's it.

Oh, and also, it's true that the entire room wouldn't fill up with the window like that, it's just a filming error, kind of a big one if you ask me...