The episode was directed by Jack Bender and written by Jennifer Johnson and Paul Dini.

Meanwhile, Sayid Jarrah (Naveen Andrews), Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly) and Boone Carlyle (Ian Somerhalder) attempt to triangulate the signal of the French woman's broadcast.

Soon after, his brother, Liam Pace (Neil Hopkins), tells Charlie that Drive Shaft has gotten a recording contract.

Charlie doesn't want to sign the contract because he has qualms about the sex and drugs the band engages in.

Sayid Jarrah (Naveen Andrews), Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly) and Boone Carlyle (Ian Somerhalder) attempt to find where the French transmission is coming from, so they make a plan to turn on antennas at different points on the island in an attempt to triangulate the signal.

At the caves, Charlie searches through Jack Shephard's (Matthew Fox) medicine supply for something to ease his heroin withdrawal.

Using his construction experience, Michael Dawson (Harold Perrineau) leads the rescue attempt with Steve Jenkins (Christian Bowman) and Scott Jackson (Dustin Watchman).

Nature and struggle make people stronger, Locke says, indicating to Charlie that he needs to fight through his suffering.

J. J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof told Monaghan that if he wanted to write the song that would be Charlie's "one hit wonder", they would consider using it in the show.

The lyrics were inspired by an incident on The Phil Donahue Show, where Matt Reeves, who was close friends with producers Bryan Burk and Damon Lindelof, saw a female audience member yell out, "You all everybody, acting like it's the stupid people wearing expensive clothes.

[6] For "The Moth" the producers contacted Los Angeles-based singer Jude to write a full version.

"[10] The TV Critic gave the episode a 68/100, writing that it falls between being "obvious and cheesy" and "beautifully paced and structured".

The eponymous metaphor—delivered by Locke—is one of the series’ most blatant, and the moth’s consistent reappearance in the episode calls a lot of attention to the construction of the narrative.

"[12] IGN staff rated "The Moth" as the 36th best episode in all of Lost, explaining, "The moth of the episode's title appears both as a metaphorical and physical symbol of the struggle to find strength within yourself, as Locke explains to Charlie, and to take charge of your own life without relying on anyone else to do it for you.

"[13] In a review focusing solely on "The Moth", Chris Carabott of IGN gave the episode a 9/10, writing that the episode "does a great job of utilizing screen time for most the major characters on the show", and that "Locke's analogy of 'The Moth' in comparison to Charlie's situation perfectly encapsulates what many of the characters are going through on the island.

"[14] In a ranking of all of Lost's episodes, Emily VanDerWerff of the Los Angeles Times placed "The Moth" at number 102, complimenting Monaghan and O'Quinn's acting, but criticizing the storyline for containing "nonsensical drug abuse storytelling.

"[15] "The Moth", along with "Pilot" and "House of the Rising Sun", won a PRISM Award for Charlie's drug storyline.