S5Ep15 - Follow the Leader

Hello my dear friends –

What's nice about flashback-free, heavy-on-the-action episodes like “Follow the Leader” is that they’re a blast to watch, yet easy to dissect. Which is especially good news for me, since – as those of you connected to me on Facebook and/or Twitter know – the lower level of my condo flooded with nasty sewer water two hours before the show came on last Wednesday, and I've been dealing with the cleanup ever since. I'm pretty sure Smokey had something to do with it.

Rather than focusing on any one character, the penultimate episode of Season Five spent all of its time on the Island, switching back and forth between the events of 1977 and those of the present day (by Lost’s calendar). I’m going to cover the scenes set in the past first, then the Locke-driven segments, and then end by slightly amending the Finale Theories I included in my last post.


SOMETIMES TWO PEOPLE JUST DON’T GET ALONG
AND IT’S TIME TO HIT THE ROAD

The hour began just like “The Variable” ended, with Faraday getting shot in the back by his dear old mum. This time, we saw it from Jack and Kate’s perspective out in the jungle. After Kate convinced her ex that charging the Hostiles’ camp in a blind rage was not a good idea, they tried to make a run for it. Unfortunately, Jack soon experienced the Charles Widmore version of a “drive-by,” and was knocked to the ground when his skull became closely acquainted with the butt of a rifle.

After bringing the spoils of his hunt back to camp, Widmore’s dreams of toying with his prisoners were dashed when Eloise informed him that Jack and Kate were not from the Dharma Initiative, despite their snazzy jumpsuits. She ordered her lackeys to take the captives to her tent. And while Jack and Kate waited for Eloise to arrive, things got reeaaaallly interesting.

Why? Because Kate asked The Mad Doctor what he hoped to accomplish by following Faraday’s plan, and his response was something along the lines of, “Erase the last three years – which, by the way, includes meeting you.” He argued that “enough" of that time was out-and-out misery. Kate – rightfully offended -- was like, “You can live your life over and over and over until the end of time, but you will never have anyone as good as me ever again – bastard!”

But honestly, though, I don’t think that Kate’s incredulity stemmed only from thinking about the brief time she was romantically involved with Jack off of the Island. Let’s not forget that for the better part of those three years, she was Aaron’s mom, and she’s now smart enough to realize that that experience was perhaps the most positive thing in her life – one that she didn’t want any part in annihilating. Then, of course, there was also the flash of fear in her eyes when Jack mentioned the possibility of Flight 815 landing in LA as it was "supposed" to in September 2004. Being hauled off to jail by the smug marshal isn’t exactly a scenario that Kate would want to transpire.

And so, the two were at an impasse.

Now, you all know that I don’t give a flying Hot Pocket about the love quadrangle, but I have to say that things are not looking good for anyone out there who’s still hoping for “Jate” to prevail. From Kate’s point of view, why would she ever want to be with a man who just said that he’d like to erase all memory of her? To erase from existence every experience they had together? If any Jaters would like to flame me, all I ask is that you at least include an answer to that question along with your rant.


AND I'VE MADE UP MY MIND
I AIN'T WASTIN' NO MORE TIME

Jack and Kate’s little scuffle came to an end when Eloise arrived and Jack had to try to tell her what was going on. “Your son… he took off his tie. A tie that had special protective powers. Removing it was an accident -- an accident I think we can undo.”

Because Hawking remembered capturing Dan – with his tie on – in 1954, she was sold. Her own handwriting in Dan’s journal didn’t hurt, either.

Now it was just a matter of informing Charles of her plans to head out into the jungle with Richard and the two strangers who had just been caught spying on the Hostiles’ camp. Charles not-so-subtly placed a protective hand on Eloise’s stomach, and whispered something about her “condition” as he urged her in hushed tones to reconsider. The general consensus is that Hawking is pregnant with Daniel in 1977 (unlike what I guessed in my last post -- that he was most likely already born). That would mean that Faraday was eighteen or nineteen years old when he was a professor in 1996… which is I suppose is plausible since we learned in “The Variable” that he was the youngest doctorate to graduate from Oxford. I never really thought that he was five or six years younger than Charlotte, though… but whatever.

Quite frankly, I’m not really interested in sweating the details of these sorts of timelines anymore. But I should probably mention that the only other guesses for who Eloise could be pregnant with are: a) Penny (though most people don’t think that’s the case, as Ben indicated that having a child with “an outsider” was cause for Widmore’s banishment over a decade later, and Eloise is not an outsider), or b) some other character that is yet to be revealed or that we may have already met.

Pregnant or not, Eloise was hellbent on following her future son’s journal instructions. So the foursome made their way to the “pond entrance” of the chamber where Jughead had been stowed away. But that was as far as Kate was willing to go. She probably had time to think about her exchange with Jack while they traipsed through the bush, and she realized that she had to bring in reinforcements to try and stop him. She took about three steps before a shot rang out. (How many of you thought she’d been hit? I did.) And then another. He of the Black Tank Top to the rescue! The funny thing is that although I’d seen Sayid in the previews for this episode, I was completely surprised when he popped out from behind a tree, gun blazing. Needless to say, I was happy that he’s now reunited with a few of his old peeps.

OK, so maybe Sayid's just back with one of the 815ers. There was really no convincing Kate to stay, especially after she heard that Sayid was disappointed Little Ben had survived. This time, Eloise and Richard were just like, “Ah, what the hell,” when Ms. Austen stomped back toward Dharmaville.


WHOOMP!
THERE IT IS

First off, let me just say that I would’ve definitely been a goner had my life depended on swimming through the underground tunnel that led to Jughead’s chamber. So kudos to Richard, Eloise, Jack and Sayid for having the lung capacity to get the job done. But are we really supposed to believe that they’re now somewhere directly underneath the Barracks? The tunnel was long… but it wasn’t that long. Maybe they’ve just crossed over to the outer-boundaries of Dharma’s land or something.

Regardless, I guess all that really matters is that Jughead was where Hawking said it would be. It wasn’t technically "buried" as Daniel had instructed in 1954, though. On that note, it’s a complete mystery as to how the bomb got to its present location in the first place.

JACK: You wanna tell me how we're gonna get a bomb out of here?
RICHARD: The same way we brought it in.
JACK: I assume you don't mean through the pool.
RICHARD: It's a 12-foot long, 40,000-pound hydrogen bomb. No, not through the pool.

I’m assuming that the finale will reveal how Jughead was transported to its current location, but in the meantime my guess is that Smokey had something to do with it. We already know how he likes those underground chambers.

Before we revisit what the rest of the 1977ers were up to in this episode, let me share my conflicted thoughts on Ms. Eloise Hawking. From everything we’ve seen of her gray-haired version, we can deduce that she believes that the past cannot be changed – or that it would be disastrous to try to do so. She was upset when she thought Des might veer from his predetermined path when she met him in the antiques store in “Flashes Before Your Eyes.” And she knew she was sending her son to death – by her own hand – when she encouraged him to take Widmore up on his job offer, but she still went through with telling him to go.

However, the forty-year-old version of Ellie clearly believed that there was a way to change the past. She was desperate to turn back time in order to save her son – desperate enough to help Jack attempt to detonate Jughead.

So why the drastic change in Ellie’s beliefs over the next thirty years of her life? Perhaps she came to learn that the universe would course-correct no matter what she did. We got the sense from “Flashes Before Your Eyes” that she’d experienced some part of a time loop over and over and over again. She had not only seen Desmond enter the antique store before, but had also witnessed the man in the red shoes be crushed by scaffolding, or killed in some other way, countless times. (How else would she know he was going to die?) Similarly, she learned the hard way that despite all of her attempts to change the past, she always ended up killing her son. And – more importantly – she realized that doing so was necessary for the greater good. Daniel had to die in order for the "right" chain of events to unfold. The frustrating part is that we Lost fans still don't know exactly what was or wasn't supposed to happen.

On a related note, everyone who hollered at me for being too tough on Ms. Hawking in my last write-up can rest assured that my feelings have softened a bit now that I’ve seen her remorse over her actions at the camp in 1977. You all know that I’ve always suspected some sort of time loop is in effect on the show, and I can’t imagine how it would feel to be a character like Eloise who may actually be fully conscious of that loop and have to experience an awful event like murdering her child – or seeing him die in some other fashion -- time and time again.


Alright, let’s head over to the Barracks, where the action was even more disturbing.



I’M GONNA GIT YOU SUCKA

Not surprisingly, Radzinsky finally snapped and -- in his heightened state of agitation -- was able to usurp control from wimpy Horace. Yet all he could think to do was attempt to beat Sawyer into submission in order to learn what Kate did with Little Ben. Then, of course, Phil stepped in with an idea of his own about how to loosen LaFleur’s lips.

Here is one prediction I’m willing to bet on: Phil will die. Oh, yes. He will die. Not only will he die… his death will be epic.

We’ve seen Sawyer get the beat-down from multiple characters over the years, but until this episode, when Random Hostile (named “Erik” in the transcript) manhandled Kate and Phil slapped Juliet, I don’t believe we’ve ever seen such intentional violence against any of the female Losties. Sayid already blew Erik away, so now it’s only a matter of time before Snarky Phil meets his maker. Will it happen in the finale? I would think so… the interrogation scene is fresh in our minds, which would make watching Sawyer get revenge all the better. Waiting eight months for a Sawyer/Phil showdown once the series returns in early 2010 wouldn't be nearly as satisfying.


I CAN'T KEEP IT A SECRET ANYMORE
WHOA, WHOA
I CAN'T HIDE IT 'CAUSE EVERYBODY KNOWS

While things were escalating at the barracks, Dr. Chang spied Hurley shuffling off into the jungle to join Jin and Miles. The three men were trying to decide what to do when Chang popped out of the brush and demanded to know whether or not Faraday had been telling the truth about being from the future. I have to say that this scene -- with Hurley’s ridiculous responses to the scientist’s questions – might just be my favorite funny scene in the entire series. It’s at least in the top five. I just died when Hurley relented, “All right, dude, we're from the future. Sorry.” Classic.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much of a “moment” between Miles and his father once it was out in the open that they were related, but then again, Chang had to worry about getting Lara and Baby Miles the heck out of dodge. So he ran back to the Barracks and thankfully interrupted Radzinsky’s Sawyer-bashing. In return for a map to the Hostile’s camp, Radzinsky agreed to let Sawyer and Juliet leave the Island.

From the woods, Miles saw Chang force his wife (with Baby Miles in tow) onto the submarine – and being a you-know-what about it in the process. I’m glad that they showed the light bulb go off in Miles’ head as he realized what all of us had already figured for some time: “It's the only way he could get her to leave.”


HEY NOW, HEY NOW
DON'T DREAM IT'S OVER

Next, the Jin/Miles/Hurley trio watched as Sawyer and Juliet also boarded the sub. Hurley figured that Sawyer must have a plan and that he would surely never choose to abandon the rest of them, but I’m thinking that – based on Sawyer’s giddiness about the prospect of buying Microsoft stock and betting on the ’78 Cowboys – he had finally made peace with leaving the Island, and everyone else on it, behind.

Once in the vessel, he and Juliet shared a great moment as they mentally prepared for their new life together back in the “real world.” But – OF COURSE – no sooner had those two re-declared their love for each other than who should show up, but Kate. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who groaned out loud when she climbed down the ladder.

Since we saw the sub begin its journey, I really have no idea what’s going to happen with Kate, Sawyer and Juliet in the finale. Jack’s actions are surely going to affect all of the time-travelers; I maintain that whatever he does – or fails to do – with Jughead will be what sends them back to their rightful year. So I can’t believe that the sub’s going to get too far away from the Island before Kate talks Sawyer into finding a way to break free and return to help their friends. If I were her, I would say something like this: “Jack wants to completely erase the last three years of all of our lives. And if what he does works, the two of you will have never met and you’ll have no memory of your time together. James, you’ll be successfully deported from Sydney to LA, while Juliet will continue to be held captive on the Island by Ben. Are you guys willing to risk Jack succeeding?”

I think we all know what their answer will be.


The scene has certainly been set for some major drama to go down in 1977 during the finale. But it’s not like everyone was singing "Kumbaya" on the Island thirty years later, either...


AND YOU’RE REALLY
A MILLION YEARS OLD
YOU CAN’T FOOL ME

The present-day action kicked off with Ageless Richard, who was working on one of those ship-in-a-bottle thingies. The assumption most people are making is that this must mean there’s a connection between Richard and The Black Rock (the similar looking ship that’s now resting in the middle of the jungle), whereas others just interpreted this scene as another reinforcement that Richard has a lot of time during which he can undertake such complicated hobbies.

Even though I know the mini-ship that Richard was building doesn’t look exactly like The Black Rock, I do think this scene was meant to remind us of that slave ship, as its history definitely has to be explained before the series is over.





Richard doesn’t get much further on his project, however, as he is interrupted by The Return of John Locke. Locke sure knows how to make an entrance, doesn’t he? Much like he carried his dead-father-in-a-body-bag in "The Brig," he marched up the beach with a boar slung over his shoulders when he finally returned to "his people." Only this time, he was no longer desperately seeking their approval – he knew he was their leader, and he was there to take charge.

Ben and Sun were hanging back a bit, and Ben shared with Sun that Richard’s role could be likened to an “adviser.” Interesting. Between that bit of information and some of the things that transpired later between Locke and Richard, I’m starting to get the impression that the Ageless One might not be as all-knowing or powerful as some of us had previously assumed.

All Sun cared about, though, was that Richard had been on the Island in the ‘70s. Richard confirmed that he remembered Kate and Jack from that time because he watched them die. However, he didn’t say anything about also making a deal with Kate in 2004 -- the deal that allowed her and others to leave the Island in return for saving Ben from Keamy’s men. So what's up with that? Is this proof that Whatever Happened Might Not Have Happened?

I’m going to address this in my amended finale theories section at the end of this post. For now, let’s continue on with the present-day Island scenes.



THERE'S NO BEGINNING
THERE'LL BE NO END

Locke got right down to business and began ordering Richard around. They immediately set off (with Ben, per Locke’s request) to help Other Locke with his gunshot wound. As Richard and Ben seemed seriously surprised to see Other Locke stumble into view, I can only assume that they really didn’t understand what had been happening to a subset of the Losties after Ben turned the FDW.

And since it was Locke who instructed Richard to tell Other Locke that he was going to have to die in order to be able to bring all of his people back, two things have been cleared up (kind of):

1) Richard wasn’t getting information from Jacob, or the Island, or anyone else when helping Other Locke. I had previously assumed that Richard had some special knowledge about what was going on with the time-travelers, and knew that the Island would not allow Locke to return after turning the FDW… unless he was dead. Now it seems that we have another "compass situation." Locke and Richard have been passing the compass back and forth over time, so it’s hard to know where the object originated. Similarly, it’s no longer clear if Locke even had to die in order to return to the Island. He just made Richard tell him that because it’s what had always happened.

2) Like Eloise, Ben might be conscious of the possible time loop. Part of me thinks that Ben killed Locke out of hatred and jealousy, and only brought him on Ajira 316 because he knew the ruse of “the Island needs everyone to come back” was the only way to convince Jack to return. In this scenario, Ben never actually thought that Locke would be resurrected, and so all of his shock at seeing his old nemesis alive again is real.

But there’s another part of me that is convinced that Ben has seen all of this play out before. He killed Locke because he knew he had to… because of the conversation he would come to witness between Locke and Richard in the future where Locke states that he must die. Yes, this is confusing, but I believe that if a character knows that they’re in the time loop, they can retain information from both past and future events in that loop. As there is clearly something that both Ben and Eloise are trying to prevent and/or ensure will happen in this loop, they have to be extremely careful about how they go about influencing other characters, and they have to be thoughtful about their own actions as well.


YOU SAY YOU WANT A LEADER
BUT YOU CAN'T SEEM TO MAKE UP YOUR MIND

After they’d finished with the little “errand” of saving Other Locke, Richard, Locke and Ben returned to the Others’ camp. Aside from a group that was over at The Temple, Richard indicated that all of Locke’s new people were with them there at the beach. Hearing this, Locke called everyone over and made a big speech about how he was annoyed that they’d been taking orders from the likes of Jacob without ever seeing him. He then proceeded to invite the group with him to go pay a visit to the mysterious cabin-dweller.

This did not please Richard.

RICHARD: I'm starting to think John Locke is gonna be trouble.
BEN: Why do you think I tried to kill him?

So perhaps now is the appropriate time to address a question I’ve been getting a lot ever since “Follow the Leader” aired. Do I, Erika, the one who named her site Long Live Locke, like the “new” Locke? This may surprise you, but the answer is no. I’m not sure if I’m just freaked out because the more confident he acts, the more I’m convinced that he may be a zombie or Smokey, or if I just simply prefer the Locke who was in love with the Island and believed in destiny but wasn’t so into being “the leader.” All I can hope at this point is that his newfound confidence doesn’t end in disaster.

There’s good reason to worry. Despite what he said to Sun, Locke admitted to Ben that he had no interest in reuniting with the rest of the 815ers. His sole focus is killing Jacob. ?!?! I think Ben’s face at the end of the episode pretty much summed up the audience’s reaction: “Saaaay whhhaaaat?”

Since I’m willing to give Locke the benefit of the doubt, I can only assume that the writers were trying to trick us into believing that destroying Jacob would be “bad,” whereas it might actually be what Jacob needs. Let’s not forget that Jacob asked Locke to “help” him in “The Man Behind the Curtain.” Now that the Island seems to be whispering things in Locke’s ear, maybe The Bald One knows that this is what must be done in order to not only enable Jacob (whoever he is/was) to rest in peace, but also to ensure that the "right" side wins in the war that Widmore believes is coming to the Island. Remember, at the same time Locke is leading his peeps to confront Jacob, Ilana and Bram have taken Lapidus and the other 316ers captive and seem to be gearing up for a fight.

I have one more thought about all of this Jacob stuff, but if you don’t want to know the episode title of the finale, please skip ahead to the next bold-titled section.

Are you episode-title-avoiders gone? Good. For the rest of you, the two-hour season-ender is called “The Incident,” and of course everyone’s been assuming that it refers to the event that necessitates the building of the Countdown Timer o’ Doom at the Swan – the event that releases a ton of energy that Faraday was going to try to counteract by detonating the hydrogen bomb. Whatever Jack does may either prevent this incident… or cause it. However, now that we know Locke’s plans, what if The Killing of Jacob is actually “the incident?” I mean, obviously something’s going to happen back in 1977, too, but a lot of times the episode titles have double meanings, and so I’m pretty sure that if Locke is successful in his attempt to do away with the never-before-seen order-giver, that’s going to have some serious consequences, too.



YOUR GUESS
IS AS GOOD AS MINE

I’m not going to paste in the three finale theories I discussed in my last post, but if you want a refresher before continuing on, you can find them here. Below I’m simply going to tweak them a bit based on things we learned in “Follow the Leader.”


1) Desmond is The Variable

As this theory is based on Desmond making the “wrong” choice at some point during his time on the Island, not much that happened in this latest episode affects it. If only Desmond can change things, then we’ll most likely see Jack fail to set off Jughead and counteract the energy release at the Swan. So it will appear that Whatever Happened, Happened… but next season we’ll see that Des can in fact set things straight. That will involve him having to return to the Island and perhaps choose a side in “the war.” So when Richard said that he watched the Losties die in 1977, that's only because it looked like they were wiped out during the energy release at the Swan, when in reality they simply disappeared as they were transported thirty years into the future.

2) Free Will Wins

Jack is successful in detonating Jughead and preventing the energy release at the Hatch site. However, that has some unintended consequences. The good (?) news is that for the versions of the 815ers that are children in 1977, they will either never get on flight 815 in September 2004, or if they do, the plane will not be brought down by Desmond failing to push the button, because the Swan will never be built in the first place. However, the bad news is that the time-traveling 815ers who are on the Island as adults in 1977 are all going to be killed by the Jughead explosion. So Richard wasn’t lying when he said that he saw them die.

Admit it – that would be a pretty crazy cliffhanger if we saw almost all of the main characters die, right? Sure, in our guts we’d be like, “There’s no way they’re going to stay dead”… but it would still be pretty shocking, especially to the millions of “normal” fans who don’t read Lost blogs or message boards and who haven’t thought about all of this stuff that much. It would definitely ensure that everyone tunes back in for the final season next winter.

However, what does that mean for Season Six? Does it mean that the Island’s version of 2008 that Ben, Locke and Sun are experiencing is one in which the Swan was never built? Is the reason (albeit another "compass-like," circular, confusing reason) why Jack, Kate, Sayid and Hurley didn't end up in 2008 with Sun when Ajira 316 landed because they were already dead in the Island's new timeline? (I really have no idea how that could be explained on the show, but I thought I would throw it out as an idea.)

There would surely be some sort of violent fan uprising if the majority of the main characters remained dead during the bulk of the final season, so I can only assume that Locke, Ben, Hawking, Desmond or Widmore would do something to turn back the clock once again. There's even a crazy theory making the rounds that all of the Losties' dead bodies from the 1977 Jughead blast are what's in Ilana and Bram's crate, and that they'll somehow be brought back to life once the crate is opened. To the people perpetuating that theory, I can only say... have another drink!

3) Destiny Wins

This theory doesn't change very much, except that it needs to account for Richard saying that he saw the 815ers die in 1977. I'll chalk his comment up to the Losties disappearing in front of Richard's eyes during a blast and he interpreted it as them getting blown to pieces and dying.


I will make one more finale prediction, and this is the one I’m standing behind more than all of the other predictions I’ve made this season: I’m completely wrong about what will happen in the finale, and the three theories above will be shot to hell by 7:15 PM CST on Wednesday, May 13th.



BEST LINES OF THE EPISODE


[Locke walks into the Others' beach camp carrying a boar carcass across his shoulders.]
LOCKE: I brought dinner.



LOCKE: [Shouting to Ben, who’s sitting on the beach] Ben, I'd appreciate it if you'd join us.
BEN: [Shouting back] What, John, don't you trust me here with my former people? Afraid I'll stage a coup?
LOCKE: I'm not afraid of anything you can do anymore, Ben.
BEN: Well, in that case, I'd LOVE to come.




DR. CHANG: Your friend Faraday said that you were from the future. I need to know if he was telling the truth.
HURLEY: Dude, that's ridiculous.
DR. CHANG: What year were you born? What year?
HURLEY: Uh... 1931?
DR. CHANG: You're 46?
HURLEY: Yeah. Yes, I am.
DR. CHANG: So you fought in the Korean War?
HURLEY: [Pauses] There's no such thing.
DR. CHANG: Who's the President of the United States?
HURLEY: All right, dude, we're from the future. Sorry.




SAWYER: We'll buy Microsoft.
JULIET: Excuse me?
SAWYER: Then we'll bet the Cowboys in the '78 Super Bowl. We're gonna be rich.




JACK: I didn't think you'd come.
SAYID: Well, if this works, you might just save us all. And if it doesn't? At least you'll put us out of our misery.



LOCKE: I'm not interested in being reunited with my people.
BEN: What do you mean? You told Sun--
LOCKE: I know what I told her, but that's not why we're going to Jacob.
BEN: Then why are we going to Jacob?
LOCKE: So I can kill him.



A FEW MORE THINGS...

- There is going to be an hour-long recap episode entitled "Lost: A Journey Through Time" preceding the finale and beginning at 8 PM EST. The two-hour finale will air at 9 PM EST.

- I'll be participating in a Day of The Finale live chat with Ryan from Zap2It's Guide to Lost. Those of you who tuned in for our last chat know how much fun it was, so I hope you can join us this time around as well. Here's the link -- be there or be square! It's currently planned for 2 - 5 PM EST on Wednesday. This is a perfect opportunity to goof off at work... and also a great chance for those overseas to join in on the fun.

- Reader Mike P was lucky enough to attend an early screening of "Follow the Leader"... presented at Ohio State University by none other than executive producer Carlton Cuse. Mike P passed along some non-spoilery information from that night's Q&A session, so despite the fact that I'm a little peeved at Carlton for hanging around the campus of my alma mater's sworn enemy, I figured other LLL readers might be interested in what was discussed. I've paraphrased Mike's notes below:

Q. What happened to Rose and Bernard?
A. They did not just disappear, we will see them again.

Q. Aside from deciding to make Michael Emerson a permanent member of the cast [I talked about how Emerson was initially only contracted for three episodes a few write-ups ago], are there any other Alternate Versions of Lost stories you can share?
A. One character we'd planned to do more with was Eko, but the actor playing him really did not like living in Hawaii at all and wanted to leave.

Q. Any plans for the Zombie Season? [This is something often joked about in the Official Podcasts.]
A. We've thought about what we could do... maybe something as a Season Six DVD extra, but there are no firm plans.

Q. When will the polar bears be explained?
A. I thought they were fully explained - Dharma was testing how the Island affects "aggression and stuff" with them, after the Purge they escaped the cells, swam over from Hydra Island, bred and made more polar bears, "and then Sawyer shot one." The end.

Q. But what about the one Charlotte found in Tunisia?
A. Oh, yeah, well, hmmm... I dunno. Maybe it wandered too close when someone turned the donkey wheel?

Q. Why did you decide to base the Dharma Initiative in Ann Arbor/the University of Michigan? [For those of you who aren't into sports, the college at which this talk took place, Ohio State, is bitter rivals with U of M.]
A. We needed "a good Midwestern state" and there was an active peace and love and anti-war scene at U of M, and they had good archival footage they could use.

Q. Where are your favorite and least favorite episodes?
A. Favorites: "The Constant" and the Season 5 finale. Least favorite: "Well, this one time we did an entire episode where Jack laid around on a beach, flew a kite, and got tattoos. That's when we figured out maybe we don't need to know absolutely everything about these characters' back stories... We make fun of that episode a lot internally." [The episode is "Stranger in a Strange Land" -- or -- "The One with Bai Ling."]

[I'm going to make the answer to this one invisible in case you consider it a spoiler... highlight it if you'd like to know.]
Q. What about Vincent?
A. "I promise, even if we kill of every single person that's ever been on the show and destroy the Island, Vincent will survive Lost." [e says: Yay!]

Thanks again for sharing this with us, Mike P! Take note, world: Wolverines and Buckeyes CAN get along.


OK, everybody... have a WONDERFUL time watching the last two hours of Season Five – I have no doubt that they will be fantastic.

See you on the other side,
- e

S5Ep14 - The Variable

Hello my dear friends -

I was pretty sure that "The Variable" was going to be a Faraday flashback, so when the hour began with doctors rushing a stretcher-bound Desmond into the hospital, I was completely thrown. At first I thought, "Did Daniel do something in Ann Arbor in the '70s to cause an alternate reality in which a can of baked beans didn't protect Des from Ben's bullet and Des didn't then proceed to beat the crap out of Ben?" Next I figured that we were going to see Daniel in the waiting room, and learn that he'd finally figured out a way to physically time travel (without the help of the FDW) and was there to convince Des that he had to go back to the Island because he was "the variable." Obviously I was all kinds of wrong.

The episode was in fact Faraday-centric, though you could probably argue that we learned just as much -- if not more -- about his mummy Eloise through both the flashbacks and the present-day sequences. What I learned is that I definitely don't like her. At all.

Let's get the "Evil Mom" flashbacks over with first, shall we?


DAN ABNORMAL
NOT NORMAL AT ALL
IT'S NOT HIS FAULT
WE MADE HIM THIS WAY

Rare is the child who wants to play the piano and doesn't have to be carried kicking and screaming to his music lessons. However, Young Daniel Faraday was not your normal kid. He not only loved plinking out tunes on the ol' ivories, but he was also able to keep Raymond Babbitt-esque track of the metronome beat-count at the same time. Unfortunately for him, his mother wasn't exactly a fan of extracurricular activities... or free will.

ELOISE: Daniel... do you know what destiny means?
DANIEL: No.
ELOISE: Destiny means that, if one has a special gift, then it must be nurtured.

Uh-uh, lady. That is not what destiny means. In fact, it pretty much means the exact opposite. But I'm singing to the choir here, aren't I? Surely all of you had the same creeping suspicion as the show progressed... the feeling that Hawking was going to make Daniel's life a living hell in order to ensure he did what fate demanded he do. Didn't she ever stop to think that if her son's destiny was truly to be a geeky physicist, that that's what would've happened no matter what -- even if he toured with Billy Joel or Elton John or got a job at a dueling piano bar on the side just to earn some extra cash?

Alas, she wasn't about to risk Daniel losing focus for any significant period of time. There would be no Happy Meals, no Nintendo, and no Saturday morning cartoons for Little Dan, much less any piano-playing. In fact, now that we have confirmation that Daniel's parents are Hawking and Widmore, I think it's safe to assume that Eloise gave her son the same last name as scientist Michael Faraday (Mr. Electromagneticism Extraordinaire) simply to go the extra mile in pleasing that fickle bitch called destiny.

Over a decade later at Dan's graduation from Oxford, we see that his mom still can't deal with him having a life outside of his work. She refused to acknowledge Theresa as anything more than her son's research assistant, and then whisked Daniel away to a tense lunch. Only after she learned that her ex had given Dan a huge grant did she lighten up a little bit... but then left before he even opened the gift she got him: a journal. (Was I the only one expecting that the pages were already going to be full of Faraday's scribblings? Was I also the only one who first thought that the gift would be the freakin' skinny black tie?)


I DON'T REMEMBER
I DON'T RECALL
I GOT NO MEMORY OF ANYTHING AT ALL

The next flash began just like the second episode of Season Four did, with Faraday getting all teary-eyed over the Oceanic 815 wreckage footage on the news. However, this time around we got to see what happened moments afterward: Widmore showed up on Daniel's doorstep and offered him a job. Through their conversation we learned that Daniel had tested his time-travel gizmo on himself, which ended up adversely affecting his memory. Afterward he apparently tried it out on Theresa and the results -- as we saw when Desmond paid her a visit in "Jughead" -- were disastrous. So I think we can now put the mystery of why Daniel was crying about Flight 815 and why he was playing the card game with Charlotte in "Eggtown" to rest: his consciousness had been through the wringer and had probably jumped around in time, though he no longer could remember those experiences.

Next, Widmore dangled a carrot in front of Faraday -- the promise that going to the Island would fix his mental issues and restore him to his rightful nerdalicious state.

But Dan remained doubtful and seemed to be leaning toward sticking with his normal routine of being waited on hand and foot by some woman named Caroline. Life was good -- she made him eggs! And we all know what a big deal eggtastic breakfasts are on this show...

So of course his mom had to come and ruin Dan's dreams of enjoying a life of leisure. In the only scene of the night that made me cry, she encouraged him to take the job Widmore had offered:

FARADAY: You really want me to... to go?
MS. HAWKING: Yes.
FARADAY: Will... [voice breaks] will it make you proud of me?
MS. HAWKING: [Whispers] Yes, Daniel. It will.
FARADAY: [Sighs] Then I'll do it.

It's so much worse now that we know what Eloise knew! Grrrr.


How 'bout we take a break from Daniel's extremely depressing life story and make a quick stop in 2008 to check in on the Hume clan?



THE FUTURE'S NOT OURS TO SEE
QUE SERA, SERA

I'm now convinced the most important scene of the night was one I originally didn't pay much attention to: the exchange between Penny and Hawking in the hospital's waiting room.

MS. HAWKING: I came, Penelope, to apologize. Your husband has become a casualty in a conflict that's bigger than him, that's bigger than any of us.
PENNY: What do you mean? Is Des gonna be okay?
MS. HAWKING: I don't know. For the first time in a long time, I don't know what's going to happen next.

So here's my take on all of this. Let's revisit Season Three, when we saw Hawking try to convince Des of what he was "supposed" to do in the trippy "Flashes Before Your Eyes." She told him that if he didn't fulfill his destiny of going to the Island and pushing the button in the Swan, then everyone in the world was going to die.

But knowing what we know now, I can't help but think that she may have been fibbing a bit about Desmond's purpose. Yes, he definitely took over resetting the Countdown Timer o' Doom after he accidentally killed Kelvin (who was planning to abandon his hatchmate)... but what else did Des do? He caused 815 to crash. Maybe Hawking knew that without Desmond, certain things critical to the ongoing protection of the Island -- including one John Locke landing there -- wouldn't happen.

You might be thinking, "But if Hawking is so gung-ho about destiny, why did she feel the need to say anything to Des at all? Why wasn't she secure in the fact that if Desmond's fate was to end up pushing the button, then the universe would see to it that Desmond ended up pushing the button -- with or without her help?"

My answer to you would be, "Because Hawking has always known that DESMOND is 'The Variable.'" That's why, when the Scotsman's life hung in the balance in the hospital, it was the first time that Eloise panicked and realized, "Oh, crap, now I'm like the rest of the bloody fools on this planet and have no idea what's going to happen." Hawking knows that only Des can right whatever action he made in the past that set off "the wrong" chain-reaction of events on the Island. Forget about The Incident at the Swan... all of that was supposed to happen. The hatch was supposed to be built, 815 was supposed to crash, etc., etc. But once Des started messing with Charlie's fate, that's probably when things went awry. I've made this argument a lot this season, so I'm not going to repeat it all again here... I just wanted to say that this scene between Penny and Hawking strengthened my belief that Desmond's the key to fixing everything, and that's why "the Island's not done with him yet," as Eloise said earlier this season.

Two more things that support this theory:
- Why would Hawking turn up at the hospital to see what happened to Desmond in the first place, if he wasn't critical to helping the universe to course-correct? (And on a side note, how did Widmore get there so quickly? Wasn't he in London a few hours earlier when Ben called him from the marina?)

and

- This episode's title was "The Variable." But Daniel -- in his rant to Jack before he ran off into the Hostile's camp -- only talked about variables in equations. He always used the plural form of the word. I admit that I could be reading too much into things at this point, but I believe that the episode's title was a clue that Daniel had it all wrong in his final exchange with Jack when he said, "Us. We're the variables." They are not the variables... there is only one variable, and it's Desmond.

Have I convinced you yet? No? That's OK, because I'm not totally convinced myself. "Desmond is The Variable" is just one of a few theories that I feel the most strongly attached to. I'll discuss the others at the end of this post.

Before we head back thirty years, I should probably quickly mention the fact that two mysteries were solved through the scenes I've covered so far: 1) Widmore did stage the Oceanic crash (though technically this was confirmed in the clip show the week prior), and 2) Widmore and Hawking are Daniel's parents, meaning that he and Penny are most likely half-siblings.

Finally, let me say here, for the record, that I'm really nervous about how Little Charlie was left alone in the hospital. Really. Nervous.

And now, to the Island.


DON'T COME AROUND HERE NO MORE
WHATEVER YOU'RE LOOKING FOR
HEY!
DON'T COME AROUND HERE NO MORE

Fresh off of the submarine, Faraday asked Miles to take him to Jack because he was freaked out to see his old Island buddies in the 1977 Dharma Recruits picture. At the barracks, Daniel learned that his mom gave The Mad Doctor her standard "it's your destiny" line in order to get him on Ajira 316. Then Faraday had Miles drive him to the Orchid, where we saw the season's opening scene replayed from a slightly different angle. After Chang ordered his workers to stop drilling near the FDW chamber, Daniel trapped Miles' dad in the elevator and tried to convince him to evacuate the Island because of a supposed impending catastrophic incident at the Swan. But Chang was like, "You're on crack -- stay away from me, freak!" Since Miles wouldn't play along with Daniel once the men were all together above-ground, Chang drove off in a huff as an exasperated Faraday looked on.

But once Chang had left the area, Daniel's temperament changed a little bit. I think all he'd wanted to do was put the ideas in Chang's head that 1) Miles might indeed be his son... from the future, and 2) something reaaaalllly bad was about to happen on the Island. He probably didn't actually expect his fellow scientist to drop everything and obey his commands right then and there. Perhaps Daniel knows that something else will transpire over the next few hours that will convince Pierre of the need to get his people to safety? Who wants to bet that we see Chang force his wife to leave with their baby son before the season's over?

While we're on the topic of Daniel's interaction with Chang, I should probably mention the building mystery around the Comic-Con video I linked to in my last post. If you haven't seen it, you might want to check it out here, or else the rest of this section will make no sense. A lot of people -- myself included -- assumed that the voice in the background was Faraday. I watched the clip again moments ago and still believe that's the case. But now we know that Daniel dies shortly after he saw Chang at the Orchid... so when in the heck was this video made?

I'm pretty stumped on this. There are a few ideas I have for what could be going on, but all of them are pretty weak:

1) The voice was not Faraday's. Some people think it may be Miles, which I guess is a possibility, but I don't see why Miles would be all upset that "this is never going to work" like Daniel would've been. Maybe the voice belongs to someone else entirely.

2) Daniel doesn't die. He's not only saved by the Hostiles after his mom shoots him, but then he also goes on to totally convince Chang about everything he told him earlier in the day... so much so that Chang changes out of his lab coat, into a velour track suit, makes the video while Daniel tapes it -- and while Lara and Baby Miles annoy him in the background -- all within a matter of hours before The Incident happens. (Doesn't seem likely, does it?)

3) There are multiple timelines at play and in one of them, Daniel and Chang work together to not only attempt to change the course of events, but also call for Dharma to be reformed in the future.

4) The video was never shown on the series, so it doesn't even matter. It was just something to keep a bunch of nerds occupied over the summer -- and it worked. Joke's on us!


IT'S ALL ENDING
WE GOTTA STOP PRETENDING
WHO WE ARE

Miles and Faraday returned to Dharmaville to find a meeting of the minds underway. After a short debate, the majority of the group decided that the jig was up and they needed to go back to "square one" (the beach), whereas Jack and Kate agreed to help Faraday find his mother out in the jungle. And with that, everyone took off in different directions.

Faraday made a heartbreaking stop at the swing set, where we heard Adult Charlotte's last words repeated by her younger version: "I'm not allowed to have chocolate before dinner." And then Daniel -- despite his better judgment -- said to her what he swore he wouldn't say. Or at least we can be pretty sure he did... the camera panned back while he supposedly warned her to never return to the Island once she'd left.

I know I keep harping on this, but I once again had visions of The Time Traveler's Wife while Adult Daniel and Young Charlotte talked. The faraway shot of the two of them at the swing set reminded me of this promotional still I saw of the TTTW adaptation that's coming out this fall. It would've been even cooler if the movie stuck with the little girl (Clare) being a redhead and the guy (Henry, played by Eric Bana) being all gangly.




Next, Jack, Kate and Daniel got themselves some guns, but before they could head out into Hostileland, Radzinsky and his crew went berzerker and a pretty cool shoot-out ensued. However, Kate was able to get her group to safety thanks to her Jeep-driving skillz. While she disarmed the sonar fence, Faraday made a little speech (reiterating the ominous point Miles made in "Whatever Happened, Happened") about how any of them could be killed. That should've been a big hint about his fate... but it definitely went right over my head. I've been thinking for a while that either Juliet (who was wearing a red shirt in this episode, for God's sake) or Sayid were doomed this season, so I guess the possibility of Daniel dying never even entered my mind.

Back at the barracks, Sawyer and Juliet were in the process of packing up their things and bidding adieu to the happy life they'd built together for the past three years. I really liked how they played off of each other in this episode, with Sawyer being the more emotional one and Juliet being the first to accept the reality of the situation. What I didn't like was how easily they were captured by Radzinsky. Boo.

Finally, we saw Jin and Hurley head out to meet the others after gathering up their stuff. Anyone else no longer confident that there's a guitar in Hurley's guitar case? I don't think it's a weapon or anything, since he had to get through airport security with it in LA, but I'm just starting to wonder whether there's something more than a guitar inside. (On that note, I'm still hoping we eventually get to see what/who changed Hurley's mind about boarding Ajira 316...)


JUST AS I THOUGHT IT WAS GOING ALRIGHT
I FIND OUT I'M WRONG
WHEN I THOUGHT I WAS RIGHT
IT'S ALWAYS THE SAME
IT'S JUST A SHAME
THAT'S ALL

Jack, Kate and Faraday stopped to rest for a bit before they reached the depths of Hostileland. It was at this point that Faraday rattled off his master plan for preventing The Incident at the Swan. Did anyone else see the fire ignite in Jack's eyes when Daniel came to the end of his rousing speech?

DANIEL: "Us. We're the variables. People. We think. We reason. We make choices. We have free will. We can change our destiny."

I think this was a very clever way for the writers to provide a motivation for Jack to reclaim his old leadership position on the Island. Let's face it, he's been pretty lost (pun intended) so far in 1977 -- shuffling around with his janitor's mop and following Sawyer/LaFleur's orders. But when Daniel said the magic phrase, "free will," I definitely saw a "Hell, yeah!" look cross The Mad Doctor's face. Rewatch the scene. You'll see it, too.

I'll revisit why this is so important in the next section, but there's no avoiding a discussion about what happened once Faraday left Kate and Jack and made his way (in a Dharma jumpsuit... uh, not the brightest idea) into the Hostile's camp.

He came face to face with Ageless Richard and kept a gun on him while he demanded to see Eloise. Then, he threatened to shoot Richard on the count of three. When the shot rang out, I swear that I still didn't think that the victim could possibly be Daniel. De Nile ain't just a river in Egypt, folks!

Alas, Faraday had in fact been shot by his own mother, which he pointed out right before dying -- and right as the reason for her being such a cold-hearted you-know-what all those years became clear. And yes, I'm pretty sure he's dead (link goes to a TV Guide interview with the producers about this topic). This IS a pretty good Death Face, after all.


If only he'd written "NEVER -- UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES -- TAKE OFF YOUR TIE" in his journal. I'm pretty sure that black, skinny neckpiece would've somehow kept Daniel out of harm's way.

Rest in peace, Faraday. You will most certainly be missed.

Finally, in case you're wondering whether or not Eloise will believe that she just shot her own son, the reason I think she will is because Baby Daniel has to already be alive. It's 1977, and by 1996 when Des visits him at Oxford in "The Constant," he's a professor. Surely he couldn't be younger than nineteen at that point. Also, I'm pretty sure we'll find out (or can infer) that Eloise named her son after the curious dude who flashed in and out of their camp in 1954. (Meaning, she named her son after... her son.) That's why she had this look on her face upon hearing Daniel's last words:



She put everything together and realized what she'd just done.



WHERE DO WE GO?
WHERE DO WE GO NOW?
WHERE DO WE GO?

Now what's going to happen? The only dude who had any clue as to what was going on just kicked the bucket?!?!

With only one episode left before the two-hour finale on May 13th, I've started thinking about theories in the context of the following two questions:
1) What would make for a jaw-dropping Season Five cliffhanger?
and
2) How would the final season of the series play out based on that cliffhanger?

I've never been one to tie myself to a single theory, and I don't think that there could ever be one overriding explanation for everything that's gone on in the show. So here are the three theories I'm considering as Season Five comes to an end -- they only deal with the question of whether or not the Losties will be able to change the past... and not any of the other mysteries like "What is the Smoke Monster?"

(I haven't visited other Lost sites to come up with these theories as spoilers always seem to be around every corner when the finale nears each year. So rest assured that these are just my own thoughts and are not based on known spoilers.)


1) Desmond is The Variable
I covered this one a bit earlier in this post, but here's how I think it would play out this season and next: The Losties try to follow Daniel's journal instructions to prevent The Incident, but they fail. Season Five will end with the chaos of The Incident taking place, which includes something that makes all of the 815ers return to 2008. Alternatively, something Locke does in '08 may help the time-traveling group get back to their rightful year.

In the meantime, Penny and Des are going to find out that Charlie has been kidnapped and they will be told he was taken to the Island (whether that's true, I'm not sure). Season Six will then show Des and Penny back with the others on the Island, which gives Des a chance to correct whatever it was he messed up the first time around, as he is The Variable. Des and Penny might end up in the past, and they might end up as the skeletons in the cave. While Des is doing his thing, the 815ers will spend the season fighting "the war" on the Island in 2008. The series will end with us finding out whether or not Des was able to change the past.

2) Free Will Wins
Daniel was right -- the Losties can change their destiny... or at least the destiny for the versions of themselves that are still kids in 1977. So Season Five will end with the hydrogen bomb exploding and The Incident being prevented and the 815ers looking at each other like, "That. Just. Happened." I still think that they'll somehow return to 2008 when the bomb goes off, and now we'll have Jack vs. Locke all over again, as both characters have been emboldened by circumstances that strengthen their original Science and Faith stances. Jack was able to prevent The Incident (score one for free will!)... and Locke was resurrected by the Island (score one for destiny!).

Season Six will start off with the 815ers not understanding why they're still on the Island if they stopped the chain of events that Daniel warned them about. But they will soon come to understand that their pasts cannot be changed... only the pasts of their 1977 baby/kid selves and beyond are affected.

The best character to help explain this Miles, since we've now seen two of him on the Island in 1977. If the hydrogen bomb goes off and The Incident is prevented, Adult Miles will still have come to the Island in December 2004 because Charlie, who will have still crashed on the Island via Flight 815 in September of that same year, will have opened up communications. But Baby Miles will have a totally different life now that The Incident has been avoided in his present. He and his mom might not be sent away from the Island, or even if they are, he might reunite with his father and go on to live a completely different life from one of a scamming ghostbuster. Get it? So once Season Six tries to explain that in a way that will make sense to the average viewer (good luck, guys), the series will focus on the 815ers in 2008. They're still on the Island and still need to fight "the war."

The series will end with both the present 815ers finding a way to leave the Island and having to make the decision whether or not they want to go back home (Jin and Sun definitely will because of their daughter, but I'm not sure if anyone else will) AND a shot of the Flight 815 that the other version of themselves (who were kids in 1977) boarded landing safely in LA. If they were on that flight at all.

Confusing, I know... but I like it. This is what I hope happens.


3) Destiny Wins
Season Five will end with the Lostaways failing to prevent The Incident, after which they will be transported back to 2008. Season Six will probably continue to have Jack hellbent on changing things until he learns he can't with the help of New Locke. They'll all band together to fight "the war."

Since "whatever happened, happened," the final season will fill in all of the pieces that have been missing for each character and will explain all of the other mysteries without having to deal with multiple versions of events. The series will end with the 815ers facing a choice whether or not to stay on the Island forever or leave for good. And, as many of us have suspected all along, we'll see Flight 815 crash all over again and Jack wake up in the jungle.

All three theories above share the following elements:
1) The time-traveling characters will return to 2008, most likely by the end of Season Five. (Or that will be part of the cliffhanger and we'll see that they're back in 2008 in the first episode of Season Six.)
2) There's no avoiding "the war" on the Island once everyone's back together in 2008. I'm still betting on the fact that it's New Dharma, led by Bram and Ilana with the help of whatever's in their crate. The Losties will have essentially come full circle since their plane originally crashed. They will now work with the Others to help protect the Island from new intruders. Poetic, no?
3) Absolutely nothing that happens is going to "erase" the original Flight 815 crash for the characters we've come to know and love. (Whether or not they can prevent the crash for future versions of themselves, however, is up in the air. See theories 1 and 2.)

I've said before that I think it would be an extremely depressing note for the series to end on if we find out that everything is predetermined and that nobody can do anything to change his or her fate. So I'm hoping either some version of theory 1 or 2 comes to pass, though I admit that they would be much harder to execute than theory 3. For now, however, I can dare to dream.


BEST LINES OF THE EPISODE

MS. HAWKING: ... I'm Eloise Hawking, and I believe it's my son's fault that Desmond has been shot.
PENNY: Your son is Benjamin Linus?
MS. HAWKING: [Scoffs] Good lord, no.

DR. CHANG: That is utterly absurd. What could possibly qualify you to make that kind of prediction? Hmm?
FARADAY: I'm from the future.

FARADAY: Hey, James.
SAWYER: Welcome to the meeting, Twitchy. Good to see you again. Pound cake's in the kitchen. Help yourself to the punch. [To Miles, in a lowered voice] Is he still crazy?
MILES: It's on a whole new level, man.

FARADAY: Well... why would you tell me that?
WIDMORE: Because come tomorrow, you won't remember I did.




SAWYER: Your mother is an Other?
FARADAY: You met her, actually, when the Island was skipping, back in 1954. They were calling her "Ellie."
HURLEY: You guys were in 1954? Like... Fonzie times?

JACK: She can say what she wants to say. Kate... You made me promise to never ask what happened to Aaron, or why you came back here. But I know that reason isn't... it isn't here. [Scoffs] It's not now.
SAWYER: Whatever her reason is, helping H.G. Wells here talk to his mommy ain't got nothing to do with it.

KATE: This is a mistake. He's talking about erasing everything that's ever happened to us, Jack. It's insane.
JACK: We disappeared off a plane in mid-air and ended up in 1977. I'm getting kinda used to insane.
(For once, it's Jack instead of Hurley who speaks for the audience!)

OTHER STUFF

- I'm still getting emails and comments about "the Seanie B situation." So in order to have a place to point people to instead of writing the same responses out over and over again, I included everything anyone would ever want to know about what's going on here.

- I'm on the road yet again next weekend, so chances are high that my next recap will be posted late. Sorry!

- There are so many great Lost-centric games, videos, toys, spoofs, shirts and whatnot out there that I gave up trying to link to everything I came across a long time ago. But something I read recently entertained me so much that I would be remiss if I didn't pass it along. It's a "Lost Haiku" contest that fellow blogger JOpinionated ran on her site. Some of the entries were just awesome, so I encourage you to check it out here.

As always, thanks for reading...

Until next time,
- e