Charlie Harper

Charlie Harper is the main character of the sitcom Two and a Half Men. At the end of the series he becomes an antagonist.

He is played by Charlie Sheen.

History
When Charlie's mother Evelyn was pregnant with him (for 7 and a half months), his parents thought that he was going to be a girl, since the ultrasound showed no signs of a penis. According to Evelyn, Charlie was always "a little drama queen" when he grew up. After his father died of food poisoning, Charlie and his brother Alan had three stepdads. The first, Harry Luther Gorsky, left Charlie's and Alan's mother for a young woman (Charlie refers to Harry as "a little tyrant"), and Evelyn was also present at his funeral, the second was a twitchy gay man from Texas who called him and Alan "buckaroos", and the third was "the Carpet King", a fat guy whom Charlie liked the most because he had "a grateful daughter". Well into his 40s, Charlie believed "the Carpet King" owned a carpeting business until his mother explained that the man's name was actually sexual slang rather than his profession.

When Charlie was young, he was ashamed of his younger brother Alan, and when Alan had his first school day, Charlie told everyone at school that Alan was his shaved monkey (he later explained he did this because he always wanted a shaved monkey). He also gave his brother full-time wedgies and annoyed him whenever he could. Charlie drank a lot when he was a teenager, was a chain smoker, and constantly ran away, nevertheless his mother did not mind because he always came back, and generally didn't care about her sons. He once even, when he was 16, drove to Tijuana, Mexico with a school nurse. When he was 17, he almost married a woman whom he thought to be his love, but relented, and as Charlie says, if he didn't, he would today be married to a "65-year old retired belly dancer". Charlie constantly bemoans Alan's and Jake's presence in his house but generally seems happy that they are around, because they are the only people who have known him for a long time and remain in his daily life. When Alan was surprised to find Charlie did not have their mom's cell phone number in his contacts list, Charlie told him "If I can't eat it, bang it or bet on it, it's not in my phone." On a later episode, it is shown Charlie does get his mother's number. In fact, he has it on the speed dial address that he finds appropriate for her, "666".

Charlie and Alan have a strained relationship with their mother and often try to avoid her at all costs, and Charlie refers to her as "a Satan". Not much is known about their biological father, Francis Harper, except that when Charlie looks back he says he was a horrible son to him. Interesting enough, Evelyn, even after multiple marriages, still keeps her first husband's name (Harper) rather than her maiden name (which is never mentioned). Charlie also once had a vision of his father Francis telling him to take care of his mother, which shocked him, but when he saw an old gangster film, he realized that he "misunderstood" him, and to actually kill her when he is able to.

Charlie is often selfish towards Alan. In one episode he made Alan go on a date in spite of being sick with the flu, merely in order to afford him (Charlie) the opportunity to have "revenge sex". In another episode when Alan got upset in a bookstore and wanted to miss a movie that they were going to see Charlie replied, "So I'm supposed to miss the movie just because you had a nervous breakdown. Don't you think that is a little selfish, Alan?" Furthermore, after Alan's second divorce Alan tells Charlie that he needs him in front of a crowd of people to which Charlie retorts, "Anyone know a Charlie?" He additionally derives enjoyment from rubbing his own success in Alan's face and further complicating Alan's situations just for the fun of it. He is particularly nasty about Alan's situation with Judith, especially since he told Alan not to marry and tried to bribe him with a $1000 prostitute.

While Charlie loves his nephew Jake and, at the beginning of the show, used him to get dates, he often makes jokes revolving around Jake's apparent lack of smarts, and often states that he is destined to be a doorstop or a fry cook, and states that he is not a kid, but a "gassy dwarf". Nevertheless, it is often shown that ultimately Charlie loves Jake, and sometimes acts like a father to him, giving him some wise advice about him and Alan.

Despite his selfish attitude, Charlie can be caring at times. Though Charlie often chastises Alan for being a "sponge", Charlie has continued to provide two out of his three bedrooms to Alan, without rent, and seemingly provides all of his meals, even when the two dine out together. In many occasions, he has stood up to Jake for Alan when Jake started badmouthing his father. He also cares a lot for Jake, even though he has trouble admitting it. In the episode "Ate the Hamburgers, Wearing the Hats" Jake gets an injury and Charlie goes out of his way to make sure that he's all right. In the episode "w:c:twohalfmen:The Mooch at the Boo" Jake and his neighbor, a pretty girl named Celeste, disappear together and Celeste's ex-football player dad came looking. When they were found kissing Charlie later said to the father (Jerome, played by Michael Clarke Duncan) that he would take the beating intended for Jake instead. While Charlie knows that Jake's new sister Milly could be his niece, he tells Alan not to get involved in his possible daughter's life furthermore or to reveal the possibility of being his daughter, because it will most likely cause further hate and disdain between Alan and Judith, as well as Herb (who is unaware that Alan and Judith had an affair while he was strained from her), and ruin Milly's life.

Charlie watches a lot of sports on TV, mostly football, basketball, and baseball. He has little interest in athletics per se. Rather, Charlie is a frequent gambler. He watches sports to keep tabs on his investments, and bets on horse races, football matches, etc. Two of his favorite sitcoms are Dharma and Greg and Becker, but he revealed in "Fart Jokes", "Pie", and "Celeste" that he does not like Sex and the City and in "Celeste" he told Alan that he [Alan] was gay for watching it.

Despite his affluent and worldly-wise persona, Charlie can be remarkably naïve about everyday matters. In "Last Chance to See Those Tattoos", Alan observes that Charlie does not really understand how web pages and the Internet work. In "I Can't Afford Hyenas," Charlie is shown to have no understanding of how to care for his own living expenses because he entrusts an accountant with managing his cash flow and paying the bills, but the accountant is actually swindling him. When his accountant is busted by the authorities, Charlie is not even aware of a problem until he receives notices from the bank that his accounts are delinquent, his credit cards are maxed out and his car is in danger of being repossessed. He is twice shown to have no (or to have subconsciously blocked all) awareness of Oedipus: first when Rose has to explain him to look under "Oed..." when he fetches a dictionary to understand her diagnosis of his Oedipus complex; and again a year later when Rose presents Charlie a copy of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex during his relationship with Evelyn's doppelgänger Lydia, and he displays utter ignorance of the plot. How to operate his own washing machine to clean his clothes is a mystery to him, and he genuinely believes the machine will telephone him when the cycle is complete (as mocked by Alan). In the final few months of his life after Chelsea left him, he reverted to his old ways, drinking excessively, gambling, taking marijuana to help him sleep and partying hard for hours. This began to affect him psychologically and physically; he aged considerably, gave himself a haircut which was mocked by Alan, broke several toes and received a black eye from one of his adventures in Las Vegas, he became depressed after Chelsea left and eventually Rose when she supposedly got married.

Reported death
Charlie Harper was reported by Rose to have died in Paris after being struck by a train. The season 9 premiere featured his funeral with one of Charlie's trademark bowling shirts and a pair of cargo shorts hanging by his closed casket. Rose explained that he had proposed to her in Paris and the next few days had been happy but when she returned from shopping one day, she found him showering with another woman. The next day he fell off a Paris Métro platform and was struck by a train, his body exploding "like a balloon full of meat". (It is implied by Rose and suggested by Berta that Rose was responsible for Charlie's death with the statement "Never cross a crazy woman".)

Aftermath
Following his death, Charlie has been frequently mentioned by his surviving (though very few) loved ones. It tends to be in a disrespectful manner and secrets and previously unknown details about his life emerge, including revelations that he was a bisexual, and a zoophile.

After his funeral his ashes are delivered and Alan decides to spread them on the beach but spills them after being scared at seeing Walden Schmidt at the window, soaking wet. In "Those Fancy Japanese Toilets", Charlie is shown to have kept a private journal. He kept it in a safe deposit box at the bank, and after he died, the bank contacted his mother about it. She gives the journal to Alan, who becomes fascinated with it, as the entries give an insight to a whole new side of Charlie that he never saw before. It is revealed that Charlie had postulated about the various causes of his death, including liver failure and being pushed in front of a bus, and that he questioned his condescending behavior towards women. It's revealed that when Charlie first met his nephew Jake, he believed that he was to have a bright future ahead of him, but secretly thought he was not Alan's biological son (implied by him to Alan years prior). It is also hinted that, despite all the criticism and abuse, he actually idolized his brother and missed him when he moved in with Lyndsey, however he knew at the same time that he would be back "before long".

In "Thank You for the Intercourse", Walden redecorates the house and therefore donates Charlie's piano to an orphanage. Alan suffers a mental breakdown, after realizing how much he misses Charlie and starts to act like him because of it, even picking up women with much success. Jake and Walden are worried about Alan's strange behavior and Walden then brings Alan to a mental institution after tricking him into believing that they were going for a trip to Las Vegas and that he stayed at the Bellagio penthouse suite.

Charlie is re-introduced into the series in the episode "Why We Gave Up Women", portrayed by Kathy Bates. While Alan is hospitalized for a mild heart attack, he awakens to find a strange woman sitting at the foot of his bed, dressed like Charlie and smoking a cigar. She also introduces herself as Charlie. Still not convinced, Alan asks her questions that only the real Charlie could answer, and she does so correctly. Charlie proceeds to explain that he ended up in Hell, and, as part of his punishment, must live eternity in the body of a large, older woman, albeit with a pair of testicles (he does not consider his new form all bad, as he is able to grope his own breasts). Charlie advises Alan to turn his life around and become self-dependent for once. After the meeting, Alan decides to rent an apartment, which is very low-grade. The following night, Charlie reappears to Alan, and admits that he did not care if Alan changed, but was happy that even though he is dead, he was finally able to get him out of his house. Later, after Alan fakes a second heart attack, in the hospital, Charlie appears to Jake, trying to hint who he is after addressing him by his old pet name "Tater Head", but Jake fails to understand. Annoyed, Charlie goes back to Hell, escorted by two sexy women, where he wistfully complains about not having a penis any more.

According to Chuck Lorre, the show's producers were so impressed with Bates performance, that they were considering bringing her back in the recurring role of "Alan's demonic spirit guide". Bates did not return to the show after this appearance.

Charlie is mentioned briefly in the season 10 episode "A Big Bag of Dog", when Walden has an emotional breakdown upstairs in the master bedroom over a breakup, Berta says that Charlie used to have emotional meltdowns over breakups in that bedroom, too. He is mentioned in the season 10 episode "That's Not What They Call It in Amsterdam" when Rose returns, Alan asks Walden if she told him that she was stalking his brother, and again when Rose is unsure whether to date Walden as he lives in Charlie's house, but Walden insists that has nothing to do with Alan or himself. He is referenced to by Walden in "Something My Gynecologist Said" when he is talking about this fake book he is writing, about a man called Alan who lives with his brother in a beach house, but the brother dies by being pushed in front of a train, and a billionaire comes and buys the house. Berta mentions him in "I Scream When I Pee", when saying that she didn't think she could work for anyone besides Charlie, but says that Walden is the greatest boss she ever had, after he comes to cheer her up on her birthday and buys her a car. Alan briefly mentions him in "Advantage: Fat, Flying Baby". He is mentioned again in the season 10 finale, "Cows, Prepare to Be Tipped", when Alan reveals that Charlie left Jake two of his last cigars for when Jake graduates college. Alan and Jake smoke them and laugh heartily. In "Big Episode. Someone Stole a Spoon", after a wild party at the beach house leaves an intense mess with wreckage, Walden come out into the living room and says, "It looks like Charlie Sheen's house!", referencing not the character, but the actor himself.

Daughter
In season 11, a woman knocks on Walden and Alan's door, and introduces herself as Jenny, Charlie's daughter, which surprises Alan to the point of shock, as he never knew that he had a daughter, but amuses Walden. According to Jenny, the last time she saw him alive was at her fourth birthday. Hurtful because Charlie didn't want to marry her, Jenny's mother banned him from ever seeing Jenny again. Wanting to somehow provide for Jenny, Charlie would send a lucrative check to the family every month up until his passing. Alan reveals to Jenny that he kept his brother's ashes and put them in the liquor cabinet. He spills his ashes twice in the same day but is happy when he finds 2 quarters in them. It is also the first time Walden mentions Charlie by name, after previously only referring to him as "your brother" or "Alan's brother", he wishes there was something else other than Alan that Charlie would have left behind. Berta begins to tell Jenny stories of Charlie's life but Walden stops her and asks if she has any stories for Jenny that don't include drugs, alcohol or hookers, Berta is unable to recall any more stories than ones that include those things. Later at Pavlov's, Jenny, Walden, Alan and Evelyn toast to Charlie as a father, brother, son and guy who got hit by a train so he could buy his beach house.

In the second episode Evelyn says to her boyfriend that she wasn't the greatest mother to Charlie and Alan, and that she wants to make up for it with Jenny. She asks Jenny if she wants to see pictures of her father at the police station as they will have more pictures of him than she ever took. Walden talks to Charlie's ashes for the first time in season 11, asking him for a sign of advice on what to do about his love life and thanks him for the house, stating, "you'd have to be on crack to give all this up". Jenny claims that in her entire life, Charlie only wrote to her once asking "Are your friends 18 yet?"

Return
In the series finale, "Of Course He's Dead", it is revealed that Charlie is not dead but survived an attempt on his life by an angry Rose after she found him having sex with a hooker and a goat on their honeymoon. Rose binds and gags him and returns Charlie to the United States where she confines him to a pit under her house in Sherman Oaks. He escapes after four years, collects $2.5 million in royalty money, and sends messages to Alan, Evelyn, and Walden, warning of his imminent return and threatening revenge against them. He also sends Jenny, his former girlfriends, Berta, and Jake generous checks. In the last moments of the finale, a helicopter is transporting Charlie's grand piano to the house but it falls and hits him on the head as he is about to ring the doorbell to the beach house. No one was particularly happy that Charlie is alive because he was planning to kill them, and because the characters had moved on with their lives and become a closer family unit than they had when Charlie was alive and lived in the beach house.

Despite speculation that Charlie Sheen would make a cameo appearance, he does not appear in the program. Instead, his character is depicted via animation as a re-enactment of events when Rose is explaining what happened in Paris and by a stand-in in the last scene which only shows Charlie from behind.

According to showrunner Chuck Lorre, writing in the vanity card that appeared at the end of the episode, Sheen was offered a role in the finale where he would have "walk[ed] to the front door in the last scene, ring the doorbell, then turn, look directly into the camera and go off on a maniacal rant about the dangers of drug abuse. He would then explain that these dangers only applied to average people. That he was far from average. He was a ninja warrior from Mars. He was invincible. And then we would drop a piano on him. We thought it was funny. He didn’t. Instead, he wanted us to write a heart warming scene that would set up his return to primetime TV in a new sitcom called The Harpers starring him and Jon Cryer. We thought that was funny too."

Love life
Charlie's love life is a recurring theme in his character. He is an alcoholic womanizer who has engaged in decades of frequent one-night stands, prostitutes, casual sex, and "relationships" of short duration, in stark contrast to his brother Alan's inability to garner much female attention. Even though Charlie usually never calls any of his partners again after he had sex with them, there are a few relationships on the show that lasted longer than one night, notably his neighbor Rose, who continues to stalk him after they spent one night together, and Jake's ballet teacher Mia, whom Charlie was actually in love with, and almost married in Las Vegas. He usually dated much younger women, but starting in season 5, he pursued relationships that were a change of pace for him. He started a relationship with a respected judge played by Ming-Na and later with a substantially older single mother/author (w:c:twohalfmen:Susan Blakely), but he later blew it with both women. In season 6, Charlie proposes to his girlfriend Chelsea (Jennifer Bini Taylor, who has also played three other roles in earlier seasons) just to get her to return his love for her. At the end of season 8 he goes off with Rose to a romantic getaway in Paris, which ultimately resulted in his 'death'.

Personality
Aside from narcissism and unresolved mother issues Charlie is a pathological playboy. He is charming, very confident in his words and movements and manipulative. Coming from a broken home, like many children Charlie has commitment issues, he harbours a lot of resentment and anger towards his mother in fact his entire lifestyle of promiscuity was a pathological way to spite her. His relationship with Evelyn is estrnaged to a fault. Charlie has difficulty expressing his emotions and veils his feelings with sharp, cutting insults mostly to his brother and nephew. He seems to blame nearly all of his problems he has as an adult to his mother. Charlie was insecure about his age and when he was losing his girlfriend to an attractive young builder he had his teeth whitened, then dressing as he belived that young people would do and ignored the fact that he couldn't stand her and instead bought her love with jewels

Stemming from his motherhood issues Charlie is misogynistic and although he claims his life is a testament to his love of women it is really not, his entire lifestyle revolves around one night stands and then completely avoiding the person. Overall Charlie has very little regard for his actions however he is no way heartless as when he began to hallucinate all of his former romantics and possibly, psychologically regrets his actions. One of the few times he actually showed regard was with Miss Pasternak, Jake's former teacher and after he had a meaningless encounter with him that ruined her life and career, Charlie tried to get her back on her feet but then ran out on her once again.

Throughout all of the series Charlie has always questioned his sexuality, one of his own theories was that his constant pursuit for women was a way to over compensate. He actually spent an entire hour telling a psychologist of his possibly Homosexuality. It has been implied that Charlie has had intimate interactions with men albeit they were all unintentional, the first time was during threesome with his friend and girlfriend when she gave up the two still kept going and the second time was when he had kissed a man at a bar because he was "tucked, taped and gorgeous." Charlie is somewhat of a creature of habit, he is only accustomed to the environment he himself had created and was left very uncomfortable in a different place this was such as when he tried to spend an entire night with his girlfriend Chelsea and actually tried to leave, the only reason he came back was when he replaced the bed sheets, toilet covers, toilet paper and slept only on the right side of the bed which he was all accustomed to.

Charlie has a deeply layered psychology, he has been to a therapist dozens of times. For example he has an extremely selfish personality, he is constantly seen putting his needs before others and has countless sexual encounters without any care of the other person. Charlie is very shameless using his own nephew and on rare occasions his brother to manipulate women for his own personal gain. Charlie's only concern appears to keep his sex life active and puts this before Alan and Jake's concern or wellbeing.

His commitment-phobic personality comes from a pathological fear of getting hurt and has difficulty even saying "I love you." But despite this Charlie was in no way incapable of feeling love or can't commit to another person. The two strongest relationship Charlie has had was with Mia and Chelsea, people he both ended up proposing to but whose engagement was destroyed. Another long-lasting relationship was with Rose, a one-night stand, turned stalker, turned friend and romantic partner. However this did not stop him from cheating on her, an act that ended with an attempted murder.

Charlie lives in a sort of blissful ignorance. He considers himself the king of the castle but remains unaware of what actually happens in his house, it took him months to discover that both his sofa and cabinet had been replaced after they were ruined and this was only because Alan had pointed this out. He was also completely oblivious that Kandi and Melissa were living in his house for weeks. When Charlie was hitting on a nurse, he had no idea that the two had already gone out and cheated on her with her roommate. He also had a tendency to repeat past mistakes over and over again, an example of this would be when he had thrown out his back during a sexual encounter and then hit on the nurse that was seeing him.

Charlie's initial opinion on children were that of an utter dislike and cluelessness, he describes Jack's school classes as "25 little pre-pubers without a snootful" and whenever there was a pregnancy scare which was false he would actually do a little dance. However it's needless to say that Charlie has never disregarded the thought of having children which was shown just before he was about to have a vasectomy and then later changed his mind in case he ever did have kids. Overtime he becomes more responsible towards kids being able to change his girlfriends baby with constant gagging. When another ex-girlfriend returns with a child who looks remarkably like him, Charlie envisioned what it would be like to be a father but decided to give him child support instead as he believed that both the mother and the child would be better without him. Charlie possessed an overly domineering personality, he was reluctant to any kind of change whether it were insignificant or massive going into a hissy fit about a ceramic bowl that Alan had bought and then angrily destroying it. When Melissa had invited a group of friends without consulting him, Charlie commanded that they leave only for him to after everyone else refused.

In his role as a big brother to his little one Alan, he was very abusive and bullying towards him, giving Alan wedgies, as a child introducing him to his peers as his ugly sister Alina, placing excrements in his lunchbox, convincing Alan that the washing machine was a time machine then dressing as a pilgrim and threatening to burn him as a witch. However this abuse was somewhat of an inferiority complex, as Alan was mommy's boy, stepdaddy's boy and a grade-A student claiming that someone had to take him down a peg, when needed Charlie can be a very caring big brother as he took Alan in when he was homeless and gave him good advice when he was about to propose to Nancy, a woman he barely even knew. Although he cares about Alan he is incredibly ashamed of him due to his effeminate nature but despite this he did miss him when he moved into his girlfriends house during his 40th birthday. This is the same with Alan who does love Charlie but resents him as his life has turned out perfectly despite his wicked actions and he had yet to receive jusfice however Alan was depressed after his death.

Charlie's opinions on marriage are very low, he simply thinks that is a way of two people to not have sex and resent one another which he thinks is a marriage as it was the one he grew up with Evelyn. However he was also willing to marry someone if he deeply cared for her and was about to with Mia and later Chelsea. When it came to how he performed sexually, Charlie was very egotistical and was left hurt when Linda said he had no new tricks and was left severely hurt when he had discovered that his fiancé was faking her orgasms. Charlie's opinions on religion were never fully explored. As pointed out by Evelyn, Charlie's humour is very Antichrist, he describes his mother as the devil and apparently believes in Hell as he thinks that he's going there. Charlie also believes in a forgiving God and has more than once prayed to him. He also seems to question his own morality as when his old friend abruptly died and envisioned at his funeral that no one would miss him and actually crack a joke.

Furthering on motherhood issues, Charlie has developed somewhat of an Oedipal complex, he had developed a relationship with Linda a woman who was disturbingly alike Evelyn but Charlie himself was completely oblivious to this and even when he found out he still engaged in sexual activities with her. Another relationship was with a much older woman who acted as a way to compensate for the loveless void that his mother could not. Alan also competed for her attention which sparks a sinling rivalry for attention that they didn't have with Evelyn. He was somewhat of an alcoholic, as said by Jake "you can't kill bad feelings with alcohol" which Charlie constantly tries to do but seems aware of this as he thinks that liver failure is one of the causes of his death alongside someone pushing him under a bus and choking on somebody else's vomit. Charlie doesn't hold the law in a high regard, as he was seen with a prostitute and implied to have taken cocaine. He also had a DUI and crashed into a police car.

It's revealed that Charlie also possessed mild stage fright as when he was Charlie Waffles and forced to perform in front of dozens of people and children he instantly refused and only later went on when he was drunk. Alan describes Charlie's lifestyle and himself as a slacker and he is somewhat as his only fear which was worse than performing was an honest living. Like many sibling relationship Alan and Charlie can go from bickering to physical violence, Charlie goes as far to whip Alan with a boot, flicking him in the forehead, whacking him with a stick and actually pouring hot coffee on his crotch. He doesn't normally resort to physical violence to Jake, the only time he has done this is when Chalrie flicked Jak's ear after he was rude to Judith. Charlie is very sly and charismatic, able to use very intricate lies to trick women into getting into bed with him, so far the only woman he seems to fear is his housekeeper Berta and even though she does little to none work around his house Charlie still keeps her around mostly out of terror if he ever actually fired her claiming that what she lacks in skills, she more than makes up for in upper body strength however he still considers Berta as family. While Charlie is reluctant to take on any responsibility and normally relies on other people than his street smarts, if the situation calls for it Charlie can be very responsible for example when Jake was hurt after a basketball game Charlie rushed him to the hospital, when he was tasked with making sure that Jake was dressed Charlie tried to make sure he did but then ultimately gave up. He also tried to make sure that Jake got dressed and sent to school which he did but in a horrific manner