Charlotte and Three Card Monty

One of the most curious scenes in "The Economist" had to be when Charlotte and Dan were playing some cards on the beach.

Dan would look at the backs of the cards and try to guess the card, while Charlotte waited for his response and then turned them over. Most curious is, this is not a two-person game. Dan could easily have dealt three cards, guessed them, then turned them over himself. Why is Charlotte involved?

Let's look at the facts. We know that back in the real world Dan had a caretaker. My original theory about this was he was paralyzed -- just like Locke. But when I saw him stand up for the first time on the island, he didn't seem surprised to be walking. Second fact: a caller on Dharmalars mentioned that card tests like this are often associated with autism.

So, Dan may be autistic. And maybe not borderline autistic, if he needs a caretaker. But I don't think this is the case. Even highly functioning autistics do not look people in the eye often when talking, and Dan clearly does.

Back to: his legs are broken. While I'm on this: Why did he cry while watching the Oceanic footage? Why does anyone cry when they watch TV: they see suffering. Hmm. But the Oceanic plane at the bottom of the ocean had no survivors, and no suffering. Unless: Dan can see another dimension where the plane did not crash. And those survivors are suffering.