S6Ep11 - Happily Ever After

Hello my dear friends -

Well, I had a good run... but it's come to an end. While I was able to keep up with my Lost recaps much more than I thought I would at the beginning of the season, my project-juggling skills have finally reached their limits. From here on out, until the finale, I'm going to have to keep things especially short and sweet. In case you missed this post, I have a book manuscript due in mid-May, and at this point it needs 99% of my energy.

So... here are my overall thoughts on and random remarks about "Happily Ever After."

- When Des woke up and Widmore was explaining where he was, did you catch that little twitch on Des's face near his mouth? I was like, "Oh, lord, he is going to UNLEASH!" And that's of course what happened.

- For once I was semi-right about something... last week I guessed that Des was needed because he'd turned the failsafe key and had absorbed some sort of electromagnetic property within himself. And that does look to be the reason Widmore needs him. This week we only saw them testing Desmond to see if he could still withstand an EM surge... so it's still not clear exactly what else Zoe and her team are trying to accomplish with Desmond's help. Since Widmore mentioned "sacrifice," the obvious guess is that whatever they intend to use Desmond for will kill him. I'm envisioning dropping him down into one of the Island's other electromagnetic pockets or something like that. But I still don't really understand why... I don't understand what doing something like that would achieve... unless Widmore needs everyone to go back in time AGAIN and either 1) not detonate Jughead, 2) not ever let Charlie turn off the blocking signal and/or not ever let Jack make contact with the freighter, or 3) something else. But since Widmore controlled the freighter, #2 doesn't really make sense. Hell, NONE of it makes sense. Anyone have any ideas as to what exactly Widmore is trying to use Desmond for and more importantly, why? If it doesn't have to do with "undoing" something, what could he be up to? Is there something related to the electromagnetic energy that Widmore suspects will rid the Island of the MIB once and for all?

- Once Des went into the EM surge I knew we'd see Alt Flight 815 again. But the weird thing was that when Des paused at the arrival board, Flight 815 was the only flight showing no status. In light of everything else that happened in this episode, I found that odd -- like maybe it's a clue that this timeline is still in "flux" status -- more on that later. (And remember in my premiere write-up I mentioned that Des had a wedding ring? Well, clearly he's not married in the Alt. So either that was just a production error or something SO bizarre is going on that it is totally beyond my abilities to decipher.)



- I also was not surprised to see Des working for Widmore. Did you notice that in Widmore's office there was no longer a painting of a polar bear but rather one of what looked to be Jacob and the MIB's stone scale?



- So Des and Widmore are all lovey-dovey and Widmore is sharing drinks of MacCutcheon's with his favorite employee... even though in the original timeline he said Des wasn't worthy. Then he gives him the assignment of looking after Charlie. I immediately thought something bizarre was going on when, after his release from jail, Charlie just walked right into traffic. Knowing what we know now, I'm figuring that he was either trying to have another near-death experience in order to have a vision of (presumably) Claire again, OR he didn't think he could be killed.

- Des ended up having his two flashes of Penny (within the sideways-flashes of the overall episode) when 1) he, like Charlie choking on the plane, was also in a life-or-death situation -- nearly drowning in order to save Charlie, and 2) he was experiencing another form of radiation in the MRI machine.

- After his talks with Charlie, Des figured out that something odd was going on. He became determined to find Penny, and when he got thisclose, Eloise (who's married to Widmore in this version of events) told him to "stop looking." Very similar to how she tried to prevent him from buying the engagement ring in the original timeline. Did you notice how she had a mini panic attack when Des first showed up, too? So obviously Eloise knows what's going on and might be the only character who always knows what's up, no matter what timeline it is. (It's not clear that Widmore has any clue that something strange is afoot.) And since in "Flashes Before Your Eyes" she wore the telling Ouroboros broach, I figured her pins this time meant something... so thanks to LLL reader David E J for suggesting that they might represent parallel timelines.


- Drumroll, please... and a big round of applause for The Return of the Skinny Tie (and its owner, Faraday, of course)! While I was thrilled to see him again, I did think his conversation with Des was a little far-fetched (which I realize is kind of silly for me to say in the context of this show). I mean, connecting his out-of-nowhere journal scribblings with quantum mechanics is one thing... but then connecting that to the fact that he probably set off a nuclear bomb in another timeline?!? That is a bit of a stretch, no? Whatever, I don't mind, but it kind of bugged me at the time. I'll chalk his ability to piece together the puzzle up to his overall brilliance... or the possibility that maybe he knows more than he let on to Des.

- Faraday gave Des the deets on where to find Penny, and I gotta say that I started welling up just seeing Penny running up and down the stadium, before she and Des even interacted. I also gotta say that if I were her and all of a sudden some dude appears alone with me in a gigantic, empty stadium and asks me out, I would be worried. Even if he was a gorgeous Scotsman. But I guess love at first sight has a strange effect on people, huh? The important part, however, is that once Des and Penny shook hands, he fainted. And from that point on, it seemed pretty clear to me that he started REMEMBERING what was going on between the two timelines. This might be because Penny is his Constant. Regardless, when he awoke in the Electromagnetic Chamber of Doom, he was all dazed... but smiley. And continued to be that way, even when Dead-Eye Sayid took out Widmore's team and asked Des to come with him.

- When Des flashed back to the Alt timeline, he was still all dazed and smiley, and it wasn't just because he had finally found Penny. It was because he knew what he had to do... and his knowledge of the Island timeline carried over. That's why he knew he needed the 815 manifest (shout-out to driver Minkowski, by the way! Who knew he was such a skeezeball with all that talk about prostitutes and whatnot?).

- The only thing I can't figure out is exactly what Des is going to do once he finds the 815ers. Is he going to try to nearly kill them so that they, too, can experience visions of the other world? And for the record, I don't think this is all coming down to a "love conquering all" thing. That's certainly a possibility, but it really doesn't apply for all of the characters. I especially can't figure out how Des would convince Jack, who has a SON in the Alt timeline but not in the original, that they were meant to live other lives. Speaking of that...

- What I think is going on is that both timelines we've seen this season are like two outcomes of a Schrodinger's Cat experiment. I can't remember if the Cat paradox was ever directly referenced on the show, but I know it was by Dom Monaghan's character on FlashForward, ironically enough. Basically I think that until the characters make some sort of final choice... or until the MIB either succeeds or fails in what he's trying to do, BOTH timelines exist. Then, depending on the outcome of people's choices, one timeline will eventually go POOF.

- I still have absolutely no idea how everything will all come together, though. Seriously. NO IDEA.

- What I DO know, and perhaps what is way more important anyway, is that I counted THREE instances of "brotha" in this episode. YESSSSSS. I also threw up a fist-pump when "You All Everybody" played. So many great moments in this episode, huh?

That's all I can do this time, guys. Hope it was better than nothing. And a HUGE shout-out to Hawaii-based LLL reader Jenna M, who sent me these pictures she snapped of Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond) running the Tag the World Triathalon in Waikiki last fall. I told her I absolutely had to "share the lusciousness" with you all.




Until next time,
- e

S5Ep3 - Jughead

Hello my dear friends -

First things first: Is that me in front of the Jughead tower?

Maybe it is... and maybe it IS!

As you can see, the Others clearly followed Faraday's advice and buried the bomb (hello, mysterious concrete area under the Swan hatch) because it's no longer precariously suspended from the structure... phew.

There once was a point in time, however, when the Island was very much in danger of nuclear annihilation. So let's kick things off with a trip back to 1954...

(And in case you missed the posts about my Lost tour of Oahu this past October, they are spoiler-free MUST-READS and can be found here.)


SPEAKING IN TONGUES

I was wrong; the angry British-sounding dudes were in fact Others. Others dressed in U.S. military garb... but Others nonetheless.

Juliet figures out what their deal is after "Jones" and "Cunningham" start whispering in Latin. Apparently, all Others must learn the dead language in order to be able to communicate when the going gets tough (even though Patchy and Ms. Klugh yelled to each other in Russian during their standoff with the Lostaways in "Enter 77"... but I digress). While it was obviously surprising to find out that these guys were Others/Hostiles, I felt the even bigger shocker was that Juliet knows a lot more about her old group than we might have previously assumed. Namely, she told Locke and Sawyer that "Richard's always been here" and that he's "old."

While we're sure that Juliet used to reside in Miami, we still can't tell if these, um, other Others also once lived elsewhere, or if they were born on the Island. (Since many have British accents, I can only assume Richard brought at least some of them from the outside world.)

That's going to be a pretty important thing to figure out, because...


SAY MY NAME, SAY MY NAME

Once Locke hears that Richard should be at the camp site, he charges down there like the badass he is and demands to speak with him. It's at this point we find out that "Jones" is not Jones, but rather Angry Young Charles Widmore. (While I was wrong about Jones and crew being soldiers, you must give me points for mentioning that their accents reminded me of Widmore's in my last post!)

For me, the highlight of the episode was Locke's huge "You've got to be kidding" grin when he learned Jones' true identity. Now it makes even more sense why Locke didn't shoot Jones when he escaped in the jungle -- he literally couldn't. The gods of time travel wouldn't let him.

Which is too bad, because Widmore was quite the little punk, wasn't he? At the very least he deserved a little nick in the bum, don't you think? From the looks of his tense interaction with Richard, it seems as though he didn't like being ordered around. My guess is that Widmore eventually got too big for his britches and was banished from the Island. Maybe he even tried to overthrow Richard or whomever Richard reports to.

On that note, who DOES Richard report to? Obviously the name "Jacob" meant something to him, because that was all he needed to hear in order to agree to a conversation with Locke. But Ben had told Locke that nobody -- including Richard -- had ever seen or spoken to Jacob except for him (until Locke also did). Granted, Ben could have been lying, but that doesn't make me any less confused about the mysterious Jacob. He was evidently a presence on the Island twenty years before Ben arrived, or Richard wouldn't have treated Locke so civilly.


FOREVER YOUNG
I WANT TO BE
FOREVER YOUNG

Just as Future Richard had forewarned, 1954 Richard didn't recognize Locke. I think we can say that this camp encounter is the first time Richard has ever met our bald hero. He's nowhere near ready to accept that Locke is his new leader (much less tell him how to leave the Island), and he informs Locke that the process of finding a Head Other takes a long time. In response, Locke -- right before the next flash occurs -- urges Richard to go visit him when he's born. We know from "Cabin Fever" that Richard did just that, and continued to find Locke at other points throughout his life.

I would have never guessed that Richard had been tracking Locke throughout the decades because Future Locke told him to, so I really got a kick out of that revelation. In addition, I think this scene may have proven two additional things:

1) No one had time traveled on the Island before the '50s

1954 Richard was like, "Oh, reeeally?" and came very close to making the "cuckoo" gesture when Locke tried to tell him about the instructions from Future Richard (I loved the "I certainly don't want to contradict... myself" line). Since Juliet said that Richard has "always" been there, you would think that he would not be fazed by Locke's comments if he'd ever encountered time travelers before (or had experienced time travel himself). But both Richard and Ellie (in a later scene with Daniel) don't appear to be buying into the "we're from the future" explanation. This leads me to believe that 1954 is the first year in which the Others become aware of this specific power of the Island (notice that I said "become aware of," not "use").

Now I have even more questions about the Frozen Donkey Wheel. If Richard has always been on the Island and the FDW moves the Island through space-time, shouldn't he have been well-versed in time travel by 1954?

Maybe... but maybe not. You may recall that the chamber in which the wheel is housed had hieroglyphics all over the place (like the ones on Ben's secret door). Perhaps the FDW was built before Richard was born? I mean, the guy had to have been born at some point, right? If this were the case, then Richard might not have been aware of the FDW's existence -- or what it did when turned -- if it had never been used during his time on the Island to date.

There's another explanation for why Richard isn't quick to believe Locke's time-traveling tale. Let's say Richard really has always been on the Island since the dawn of time and does know about the FDW. But since the turning of the wheel has no effect his people (as proven in this episode and "Because You Left"), he has no reason to ever suspect it would cause anyone else to start skipping through time. To Richard, the FDW is solely a means of protecting the Island from invaders. Whenever it had been turned in the past, the only people on the island were Others or natives (because they'd probably killed everyone else), so there had been no weird side effects, so to speak.


2) Richard really is ageless.

Previously, many wondered if time travel was behind Richard's unchanging appearance. While I think this is still a remote possibility, it seems less likely now that we've witnessed his talk with Locke and heard what Juliet had to say about him. We've seen Richard in at least four decades now -- decades that he definitely appeared to be living in and not just popping through -- and he's always looked the same. We actually have no reason to believe that any of the Others have ever time traveled, especially since they are staying put when the Lostaways and Freighties are skipping around and since they used to be able to come and go from the Island in the submarine. Therefore, I'm still calling him Ageless Richard until somebody gives me an extremely compelling reason not to.


WHAT'S YOUR NAME
LITTLE GIRL
WHAT'S YOUR NAME

Elsewhere on the Island, Charlotte, Miles and Faraday had been captured by a different group of Others. As they're being marched to the camp site, we see that Daniel fully understands Miles' ability to communicate with the dead -- something we may have suspected but didn't have proof of before.

We're also introduced to Ellie.

This is where I need to take a moment to throw a tantrum.

See, something was revealed in the "enhanced" airing of "The Lie" that gave us a major clue about Ellie. I can't really treat it as a spoiler, but since it wasn't included in a new episode I know most Lost fans didn't catch it. I think it's just awful that The Powers That Be handled doling out this information in such a way. The bad thing is, there's no telling when -- if ever -- this same clue will be given in an upcoming episode. So I've decided to talk about it, and if you don't want to know what it was, then skip ahead TWO sections to "It Ain't Me."

For those of you still reading, what we learned in the enhanced version of "The Lie" is that Ms. Hawking's first name is Eloise. By the way, we have never heard her last name spoken on the show, either -- we've just figured it out from transcripts. Grrrrr. Anyway, it would be really stupid at this point if the Ellie we met on the Island in 1954 doesn't grow up to be Eloise Hawking. There's nothing overtly spectacular about that idea except that it was most likely Daniel's talk of being "from the future" that led her to become interested in time travel at some point after 1954.

What's infinitely more intriguing, however, is the theory (which I briefly mentioned last week) that Ms. Hawking is Faraday's mother. Now that we've been introduced to Ellie, I'm leaning toward believing this one. Here's how I think it could all work...


MAMMA MIA
HERE I GO AGAIN

Ellie -- who always had a soft spot for that strange dude with the skinny tie she captured in the jungle when she was a young woman -- gets pregnant several years later and decides to name her son after him. As in, she names her son after... her son (hello, Back to the Future). Some think that Widmore may have been the father, making Penny and Daniel siblings (or at least half-siblings). Ellie and Charles had a falling out (there could've been several reasons behind their split -- let's not pretend that Widmore's a nice guy), and they either left the Island together or separately. I think that while Charlies may have been banished, Ellie was probably dispatched to the outside world in order to become one of the off-Island Others that Richard -- and eventually Ben -- call upon for help. If she disapproved of how Widmore acted on the Island or perhaps knew of his plans to try and run the show, it would explain why she's now working with Ben.

But back to Baby Faraday...

For reasons unknown, Daniel is given up for adoption almost immediately after he's born. This would explain his different last name and lack of an accent. However, if Widmore was really his father, why would he choose to raise Penny and not Daniel? I don't have the energy to speculate about that right now, but suffice it to say that Widmore was aware of Daniel's research, regardless of whether or not he was his father. We learned in this episode that Widmore had been financially backing Daniel's experiments at Oxford and continued to care for his ill-fated test subject, Theresa. Widmore was also likely behind the selection of Faraday for the freighter's science team.

Although Daniel may not have had any contact with his father or even know who he was, at some point later in his life he was either reunited or had contact with his mother. The nerdy scientist genes were in his blood and once Ms. Hawking learned of Daniel's research, she realized that it was in fact her own son who had visited her on the Island all those years ago. She became even more determined to keep the Island safe, and intercepted Desmond at the antique store in order to try to convince him to fulfill his button-pushing destiny.

Daniel goes on to name the mouse that he uses for time-travel experiments after his long-lost mother (it's the thought that counts). The last time he'd seen or heard from her, she was in Oxford (once again -- all of this is just a theory, we actually have no proof that Hawking's ever been at Oxford), so that's where he instructs Desmond to go once the time-skipping starts on the Island. When Daniel meets the young version of his mother in 1954, he doesn't appear to recognize her, but does say that she looks like someone he "used to know." Daniel may have no clue that his mother's ever been on the Island herself... the only thing he's definitely sure of in the future is that she rocks a mean hooded cloak, has mad science skillz and knows a thing or two about the space-time continuum.

Back in the outside world in 2007, Widmore knows where Eloise Hawking can be found when Desmond comes to visit him. This could be because she's his ex-girlfriend/wife/baby mama or simply because Others have the tendency to keep track of one another. If we are to assume that Daniel's mother is indeed Hawking, then we know that Widmore's pointed Desmond in the right direction; the mysterious lady is now in Los Angeles... assisting Widmore's nemesis, Ben.

It kind of all makes sense, doesn't it? It does if you don't think about it too much! But if you have more questions, read on... I'm not totally done with the Widmore stuff.

But I am done with the on-Island events. Time for the outside world. I don't know about the rest of you, but I welcomed the return of the familiar one-character-focused format for the off-Island scenes. And since that character was Desmond, all the better.


IT AIN'T ME
IT AIN'T ME
I AIN'T NO FORTUNATE SON

About a year after he left the Island, Des became the proud poppa of one Charlie Hume. No, I don't think there is any way that this Charlie will somehow grow up to be either Charlie Pace or Charles Widmore, so banish those confusing thoughts from your head right now and never (do you hear me? never!) try to convince me that either scenario could transpire. I'll have none of it.

What I do think will happen, however, is that Penny's dad will eventually come to meet his grandson and this scene will go down:

WIDMORE: Why, you named him after me! I'm honored.

DESMOND: Are you CRAZY, brotha? He's named after a GOOD man, not after you, you evil bastard. He's named after a man who sacrificed himself so that his friends could live! Now can I get a round of 'You All Everybody' out of respect?


Is anyone else out there more than a tad worried for Lil' Charlie? I thought Penny was acting very weird in this episode -- like she understands a lot of what's going on but is hiding that knowledge from her husband. Then of course we had Desmond's totally obvious, foreshadowing response to her plea that he never return to the Island: "Why in God's name would I ever go back there?" (In TV Show Land, that means he's definitely going back.) By the end of the episode she's telling Desmond "we'll go with you" to L.A. in order to find Daniel's mother... but I got the sneaking suspicion that she and Lil' Charlie will also end up going back to the Island with Des. Which would drastically increase the odds of Des and Penny being the Adam and Eve skeletons, don't you think?

Finally, I feel like now is the time to mention a theory my brother's had for a long time. It's one I've never wanted to seriously consider, but this episode made me feel like things may be headed in this direction: Sun and Not Really Dead Jin will be the "happy reunion" of the series, but Desmond and Penny's relationship will end in tragedy. Think about it -- we already got our happy reunion of Des and Penny (two of them, in a way, if you count the tearjerking phone call in "The Constant"). How can it not be all downhill for them now? I seriously hope they live happily ever after, but I'm growing more concerned that Desmond's going to have to sacrifice himself to make things right in the universe. And let's not forget about Ben's threat to kill Penny in revenge for Widmore's men killing Alex. I weep for Lil' Charlie's future!

Presently, however, Penny and Lil' Charlie are safe on their boat while Desmond sets foot on that other island... Great Britain.


TURN OFF YOUR MIND
RELAX, AND FLOAT DOWNSTREAM
IT IS NOT DYING
IT IS NOT DYING

The year is 2007, and Des is hell-bent on finding Daniel's mother at Oxford. But the school has no record of a Daniel Faraday ever having worked at the esteemed university. Desmond doesn't give up, though, and instead busts into Faraday's old lab. Some beret-wearing dude who's keeping the lab under lockdown shoos Desmond away, but not before mentioning that others have come looking for the quirky scientist. He also gives Desmond the name of "that poor girl" Daniel had worked with.

Looking oh-so-smooth in his aviator shades, scarf and feathered hair, Desmond next pays a visit to Theresa Spencer. From what her sister says, it's pretty obvious that Theresa's consciousness has been doing some time traveling -- the same kind that Desmond experienced in "The Constant." It's unclear from the picture Desmond found whether or not Daniel and Theresa were simply colleagues or also romantically involved. (What was clear from that picture is that Daniel was once the Mullet King.)


Regardless, we can assume that she'd been working with Daniel on his experiments, something went awry, and now she's permanently jumping through time in her mind. Which can only mean that she's never found a constant... but shouldn't that also give her a brain aneurysm and kill her? How exactly is she able to be kept alive? And did Daniel abandon Theresa and leave for the U.S. because he thought he'd be able to find a cure for her condition there? Or did he simply flee out of guilt... remember that the only time we saw him in the U.S., he was looking pretty depressed and scruffy.

The most important information we got out of Desmond's time with Theresa and her sister was that Charles Widmore had been financially backing Faraday's research at Oxford and continued to pay for Theresa's care. Des came very close to having a Sawyer-like "Son of a..." moment when he heard Penny's dad's name once again. And then off to Daddy Widmore's office he stormed.

Before we turn away from Theresa, though, I feel like I should mention two other theories about her, even though I don't subscribe to either:

- Theresa used to be Boone's nanny, of "Theresa falls up the stairs, Theresa falls down the stairs" fame.
All we know about this nanny (besides her name) is that her accident happened in 1988 (when Boone was six) and she broke her neck... we don't know if she died. The two Theresas could be one in the same if she was fairly young in her nannying days: an 18-year-old in 1988 would be 37 in 2007, when Desmond's visit takes place. But even if they were the same person -- what does that mean? It might be another one of Lost's infamous character crossovers, but I don't think it holds much significance.

- Theresa is the same woman in the painting we've seen in two of Ben's homes in the Barracks.
Yes, both women are blond, but the timing doesn't work out -- Daniel's Theresa wouldn't have been born when Roger and Ben first came to the Island, and there's no reason to think that she ever physically time traveled in order to meet those two. I'm still going with the theory that the woman in the painting is Ben's mother.

Back to Desmond's quest...


AND I, GET SICK WHEN I'M AROUND
I, CAN'T STAND TO BE AROUND
I, HATE EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU

I know I wasn't the only one who lost it when Desmond came face to face with Widmore. I was definitely expecting that two goons would pop out, put a bag over Desmond's head and carry him off to some dark chamber where he would be forced to spill everything he knew about the Island. But the exact opposite happened: Widmore gave him the address of Daniel's mother and pretty much didn't do or say anything else, except ask if Penny was OK and warn Desmond to stay out of the whole mess.

So what in the Holy Polar Bear Painting is going on?

Before I get into my theories on this one, I think it's worth reviewing the highlights of past Desmond, Penny and Widmore encounters:

- Penny meets Desmond at a monastery (right after he'd turned in his robes) -- she was there picking up wine for her father's company. (Let's not forget that at this same monastery, there was a picture of Ms. Hawking with Desmond's mentor, Brother Campbell).
- Desmond eventually informs Charles Widmore that he intends to propose to Penny. Widmore doesn't approve and tells Desmond that he's worthless.
- Desmond still buys an engagement ring, meeting Ms. Hawking in the process. She, like Widmore, tries to talk him out of proposing.
- Des and Penny break up. But while Desmond's consciousness is time traveling, he visits Widmore again (during an auction of the diary from the Black Rock's first mate) and asks for Penny's new address. Widmore gives it to him, but Penny and Des do not get back together.
- Desmond ends up in military prison and Desmond writes Penny letters during this time. Widmore intercepts all of them, and meets Desmond after he's released. Widmore attempts to bribe Desmond to stay away from Penny now that he's a free man.
- Desmond decides to "regain his honor" by entering the round-the-world sailing competition sponsored by Widmore Corporation. Penny knows that he's entering the race.
- Libby has a chance encounter (or was it?) with Desmond in a coffee shop and randomly offers him her recently deceased husband's boat.
- During the race, Desmond crashes on the Island.
- When Naomi lands on the Island, she's carrying a picture of Des and Penny. The freighter Naomi was on was sent by Widmore (even though Naomi herself was recruited by Abaddon, whose overall role we have yet to figure out).

When Desmond strides into Widmore's office in "Jughead," seven years had passed since the last time the two had seen each other (in Widmore's car after Desmond was released from prison).

Some people have always assumed that Libby was working for Widmore, who somehow "sent" Desmond to the Island via the sailboat in order to permanently keep him away from Penny. But now that we know so much more about Widmore and his decades-long search for the place he used to call home, I don't think that theory is viable. If Widmore knew how to get back to the Island in 2001, he would've either gone himself or sent the freighter team at that point, right? It seems more likely that, in keeping with an overarching theme in the show, it was simply Desmond's destiny to land on the Island.


YEAH, WE'RE PLAYING THOSE MIND GAMES TOGETHER
PROJECTING OUR IMAGES
IN SPACE AND IN TIME


As you may remember from my last post, I'm becoming increasingly convinced that Desmond's "free will" actions -- specifically his role in delaying Charlie's death -- are to blame for setting off the disastrous sequence of events that have transpired on the Island since December 2004. Both Hawking and Widmore have come to realize that Desmond is the key to making things go one way or the other, and so they've each tried to influence what he does.

When Ms. Hawking first met Desmond, she told him that he absolutely must abandon his relationship with Penny because his purpose in life was to go to the Island, push the button in the Swan hatch and save the world from destruction. She tried to convince him that he pretty much had no choice, because the universe would always course-correct.

Widmore, on the other hand, is using a much more subtle approach. In 1996, Desmond got Penny's new address from Widmore.
Without it, he would've never been able to learn her phone number and tell her to expect a call from him on Christmas Eve, 2004. And as we all know, if Des didn't talk to Penny that day, he was a goner.

Now Widmore's given Desmond even more help by providing him with Faraday's mother's address. I'm sure many people thought, "Wait a second, if he knows where this woman is -- especially if it ends up being Hawking who's working with his arch-rival, Ben -- why doesn't he bust over there himself and try to thwart their plans to bring the Oceanic Six back to the Island?" I think the reason why Widmore isn't taking any action on this one is because: 1) he's in (or thinks he's in) cahoots with Sun to kill Ben already, and 2) he knows that whatever Desmond will do will actually work to his advantage.

Widmore landed himself the #1 Most Mysterious Character title (and that's saying something) for me this episode. How did he come to be on the Island in his Other days? How, why and when did he leave? Was he ever there at the same time as Ben? Why exactly does he hate Ben so much? How did he go on to become such a powerful businessman? Who else is helping him in his quest to return to the Island?

Needless to say, I think we'll be learning much more about Daddy Widmore over the rest of the series. Who would've thought when he made his first brief appearance back at the end of Season Two that he would be at the center of so many mysteries on the show 2.5 years later? Not me!



BEST LINES OF THE EPISODE

LOCKE: Who are these people?
SAWYER: Well, gee, I didn't have time to ask that, with Frogurt on fire and all.

(After the group is captured and thrown into the Others' tent)
MILES: We are so dead.
FARADAY: Hey. No, no, no. We are not so dead. We're gonna be fine. We just need to keep it together until there's another flash. All right? Then all this disappears.
CHARLOTTE: And when's that gonna happen?
FARADAY: Could be five minutes. Could also be 5,000 years.
MILES: That's--that's just awesome.

SAWYER: So who taught you Latin?
JULIET: Others 101. Gotta learn Latin--language of the enlightened.
SAWYER: Enlightened, my ass.

CUNNINGHAM: The rest of your people are either captured or dead.
SAWYER: What? What makes you say that?
JONES: That idiot shouted out, "Meet at the creek." We knew exactly where they were going. We sent a group after them.
SAWYER: Well, maybe I should've said it in my secret language.

RICHARD: H--how did you escape?
JONES/WIDMORE: I ran.
RICHARD: And it never occurred to you that they might follow you?
JONES/WIDMORE: Follow me? Their leader is some sodding old man. What, you think he can track me? You think he knows this island better than I do?

SAWYER: I hate to bust up the "I'm an Other, you're an Other" reunion, but Faraday--the guy that's actually gonna save us--is being death-marched into the jungle right now.
LOCKE: Good luck with that.

SAWYER (to Juliet, after Locke leaves): What about you? You wanna stay here in Crazytown or help me rescue the geek?

(Richard approaches from one of the tents.)
LOCKE: (Sighs) My name is John Locke.
RICHARD: Is that supposed to mean something to me?
LOCKE: Jacob sent me.
(The two stare at each other for several moments.)
RICHARD (to jones):Put the gun down.
JONES: What? Richard, you can't seriously trust him.
(Richard walks over to Jones and slaps the rifle down.)
RICHARD: I said... put the gun down, Widmore.
LOCKE (to Jones): Your name is Widmore? Charles Widmore?
WIDMORE: What's it to you?
LOCKE (smiling): Nothing. Nice to meet you.

I'll wrap up this post with a comparison of how the Jughead area looked on the show...


...and what it looked like when I visited Oahu this past October (my picture was taken from the opposite direction -- notice the two small white trees).


At least the Others clean up after themselves.

Until next time,
- e

S4Ep5 - "The Constant" Subtraction of Years From My Life

Hello my dear friends -

As I'm sure you've already guessed, I--like millions of other people--love love LOVED "The Constant." I would rank it as my #2 favorite episode of the series (with #1 remaining "Walkabout," Locke's first flashback--you know I gots ta stay true to my main man!). We can now state with conviction that there are two things in this world that are certain, besides death and taxes: Locke-centric episodes will always be awesome, and Desmond-centric episodes will also always be awesome.

I was unfortunately slightly spoiled going into "The Constant"; I knew that it was going to be about Desmond, but thankfully I didn't know anything else. When we saw right away that this wasn't going to be a "normal" set of Desmond flashbacks like the ones in "Catch-22" and "Live Together, Die Alone," but rather another head-trippy round of apparent time-traveling like in "Flashes Before Your Eyes," I shouted out at the TV: "YEEEESSSSSSSSS!!!!" Right then, only minutes into the hour, I was sure that the episode was going to rock.

It was going to rock like the helicopter rocked as Frank diligently tried to hold it steady on the correct bearing, despite the approaching storm. Frank succeeded in finally getting his new crew to the freighter, but not before Desmond experienced the "side effects" that we later learn Daniel had known about. All of a sudden, Desmond wakes up in his old military barracks, and then seconds later when he's back in the helicopter, he no longer recognizes Sayid. This prompted me to yell, "HOLY #@#*$(#%@!!!!!" at the TV. How's that for the first five minutes of the show! When the "BOOM" sound rang out and the commercial break started rolling, I just sat there, stunned.

Since this episode was unusual in that the real-time events and the flashes melded together, I'm going to attack it as chronologically as possible. I have a few general thoughts (including the latest audio podcast debrief) that come after the scene-by-scene analysis , and then I've also added some additional commentary on "Eggtown" at the end.


DOES ANYBODY REALLY KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS?
DOES ANYBODY REALLY CARE (ABOUT TIME)?

Since Frank is perhaps the furthest thing there is from a gorgeous blonde, he wasn't able to pull one over on Sayid, who immediately noticed that the time of day went from evening to the middle of the afternoon in an instant once the helicopter broke through the storm.

SAYID: What's happening to Desmond? Your friends know what's wrong with him.
FRANK: Well if they do, they're not sharing it with me.
SAYID: Then perhaps you'll share how we left in the helicopter at dusk and landed in the day.
FRANK: Listen. I don't know what's happening to your buddy, alright? But you gotta trust me when I tell you this. I am here to help you.

Frank completely avoided answering the question. Combine what Sayid noticed with what Daniel began to explain to Jack and Juliet--"Your perception of how long your friends have been gone... it's not necessarily how long they've actually been gone"--and it seems a little more certain that time is moving at a different pace on the Island (and not just by 31 minutes) than it is elsewhere.

However, even though at this point it is not entirely and utterly clear what day it is on the Island (vs. the freighter), the respective dates are definitely not too far off from each other. Desmond and Sayid helped clue us fans into the date on the freighter by noticing the calendar in the communications room, which indicated that it was December 24th, 2004. On the Island, it is widely believed to be Day 96, which would be December 26th. Either the timeline that fans have established for the Island is wrong (Lostpedia has it blown out in extreme detail here), or there's an up-to-2-day differential between the two locations. And no, I wouldn't expect that Sayid would know exactly what day it was supposed to be on the Island, so I don't think that December 24th would've jumped out at him as being wrong.

If you think that I can possibly even begin to explain what is going on with all this, then I am sorry, but I have failed you miserably. I have no idea what is going on anymore. If there's not a difference in the dates on the Island vs. the freighter, then I don't know how to explain the time lag that Daniel noticed in his experiment, much less the delay there appeared to be (to those on the Island) with the helicopter reaching the freighter. If the dates are two days apart, then I'm even more dumbfounded, because I don't see what would be so significant about that (I thought if there was going to be a time difference, it would be in years, not a few days). My confusion only intensified after Daniel Vintage '96 entered the picture, but I'll get to that later.


'CAUSE I GOT FRIENDS IN LOW PLACES

Once on the freighter, Desmond is whisked away to the sick bay by two new faces: Keamy and Omar. On the way, they mention that they know they must still be in the South Pacific because their last stop had been Fiji. I got the sense that these guys, while concerned that Frank had brought Flight 815 survivors back, weren't outright "bad." In fact, one of the things I was not expecting at all was how downright civil the freighter crew was.

After Desmond is locked in the medical hold, he proceeds to have another episode, which again brings him to his time in the military. After he snaps back from this latest flash, he is stunned to hear another man in the room (who is strapped down to a bed) whispering, "It's happening to you, too, isn't it?"

I was surprised when we found out that poor guy was none other than George Minkowski. Obviously Regina, who we have yet to meet, wanted to keep Minkowski's deteriorating state from the crew who went to the Island. After explaining what he believed caused his fragile condition, George also tells Desmond and Sayid that someone had recently destroyed the freighter's communication with the mainland, and then took them to see the damage for themselves. The most obvious suspect for "freighter sabotagouer" is of course Ben's mole.


TIIIIII-I-IME, WHY YOU PUNISH ME?

But I'm skipping ahead, now aren't I? Before Desmond got a chance to chat with his fellow time-jumper, Frank (who I'm so glad is turning out to be a good guy) comes down to the medical hold with Sayid and they manage to keep the other freighter crew members at bay while Desmond talks to Daniel on the phone.

It becomes immediately obvious that Daniel knows exactly what is happening to Desmond... so much so that he digs out his journal and tells Desmond that the next time he has a flash, he must get himself to Oxford and find Daniel Vintage '96. At this point in the show, I was literally bouncing up and down on my chair and clapping. Too insane! Too insane!!!!


DESPITE ALL MY RAGE I AM STILL JUST A RAT IN A CAGE

Unfortunately, I didn't like (love) '96 Daniel as much as I like (am obsessed with) Island Daniel. He was a little bit meaner, didn't you think? Maybe it was his grunge hairdo. Everyone was angry back in those days. At least he still was rockin' his tie. But seriously, something major must happen to him over the next eight years that will soften his personality a bit. At least we now have a better idea as to why he appears to be suffering from short-term memory loss on the Island... he never donned any protective head gear when he ran all of his experiments on Eloise.

[DAN puts on a special coat.]
DESMOND: What's that for?
DAN: Radiation.
DESMOND: Do I get one?
DAN: You don't need one. For prolonged exposure, I do this twenty times a day.
DESMOND: So what do you put on your head?
DAN: (chuckles) Yeah.

After Desmond provided the needed data for Daniel's experiment, we see Eloise finish a maze like a pro... a maze she's never been in before (and more curiously, never technically gets trained for "in the future," since she dies). Most importantly, we learn that during the brief moment she was catatonic, her consciousness was traveling into the future. This is key to what's been going on with Desmond--both in this episode and in "Flashes Before Your Eyes." He was never time-traveling in the Back to the Future or The Time Traveler's Wife sense... his physical body never went anywhere. The super-jolt of radiation and electromagnetically-charged power that hit him when he turned the fail-safe key somehow enabled his mind to hijack his consciousness at another point in his life, while his body stayed put.

Des becomes frustrated by Daniel's apparent lack of interest in helping him, so he not-so-gently reminds the professor that they both end up on an Island together, and that Future Daniel specifically told him to come to Oxford. Daniel's response: "Why would I go to an island?"

That question, while not that big of a deal, at least proves that Daniel, in 1996, was most likely NOT involved with Dharma/Widmore/Abaddon/or whatever organization is leading the Island mission he joins in the future. They most likely find out about his experiments and subsequently recruit him--at least that's my guess for now.


ALL MIXED UP, DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO, NEXT THING YOU TURN AROUND AND FIND THE PERSON IS YOU

Poor Des wakes up again on the freighter, and stares into the mirror, bewildered by his own unkempt long hair and haggard appearance. "I look like bloody hell, brotha!"

I should not be joking about this scene, though, because I actually thought it was one of the saddest of the night. Could you imagine staring into the mirror and seeing yourself aged eight years--looking about as far from a clean-cut military dude as possible? And on top of it, you're in the bottom of a ship in the middle of nowhere with some guy who you don't know (although he knows you) and another freak tied down to a bed who claims to understand what's happening to you. And all you recognize is your ex-girlfriend who's in a photo that's randomly in your pocket, and you can't figure out why your shirt appears to have no buttons so as to expose your bare chest for all to see?

Admit it, you'd be scared. Maybe not about the shirt because you feel like you look damn good in it, but otherwise, you'd be scared.

This is the scene where Minkowski finally introduces himself, and then goes on to say that he used to control all communications to and from the ship, and that he was told to never answer any of the calls that recently started coming through from Penny. Further, he reveals that it was only two days ago that someone destroyed the equipment that had been used to communicate with the mainland. What didn't make sense to me was how George would know who Desmond was, if he never actually answered any of the calls from Penny. How would he know Des was Penny's boyfriend... how would he even know Desmond's name? Perhaps the Captain briefed him on the Penny's background or something. But at least we now know that the freighter team was aware that Penny had located Desmond and was also searching for the Island, even though they did not want to help her in any way. We also know that Penny must have known enough about the freighter to find a phone number for it... which means that it could possibly be a ship that is ultimately under the control of Widmore Corporation (more on that idea later).

As Sayid begins to think up a plan to escape from the sick bay, Minkowski points out that he and Desmond "must have a friend on the boat," because the door is now mysteriously open. The friend is obviously either Frank or Ben's mole. I'm guessing the latter, since Frank was supposedly getting a smack-down from the captain (and probably wouldn't have felt the need to do his good deed anonymously).

While on the way to the communications room, George says that he and another crew member, Brandon, wanted to see the Island, so they took a small tender out into the ocean on their own. Shortly thereafter, Brandon started acting strangely, so they turned around and came back. Brandon then died, and Minkowski started having his flashes. He seemed to think that the freighter will eventually make it to the Island, and then then "this" would happen to everyone.


CONSTANT CRAVING

In the next Oxford flash, Desmond sees that Eloise has died. But Daniel is more concerned about the fact that Des claims to have been gone for only five minutes in the future, whereas his body was actually zonked out in Daniel's office for about 75 minutes. Des is like, "Yeah, but what about the dead rat, brotha!?!?" Daniel explains that he believes Eloise's brain short-circuited--that an aneurysm killed her. He thinks the only way to prevent this same fate from befalling Desmond is for Desmond to find "a constant"--something that is present in both time periods of his life that he's flipping between. This constant will serve as his mind's anchor, and will prevent him from becoming "unstuck in time" (a shout-out to Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five) like his pet rat did... which will also hopefully keep him from dying. Desmond knows that his constant can only be Penny.


IT'S GONNA TAKE MONEY, A WHOLE LOTTA SPENDING MONEY

As Penny had hung up on Desmond the last time he called her and had since changed her phone number and moved (anyone else getting the impression Des was a stalker?), our favorite Scotsman had no choice but to track down her dear old dad, who will forever be "Caleb from The OC" to me. Desmond found him doing what mega-rich people like to do... bidding on random stuff for ridiculous amounts of money at snooty auctions. But in this case, what Mr. Widmore was bidding on was quite interesting. It was the journal of the first mate from the Black Rock--the ship which is now in ruins in the middle of the jungle on the Island. You can refresh your memory on everything the auctioneer said about the Black Rock ledger here, but what I think is most important is that the diary had been kept in the Hanso family up until the auction in 1996. Its last owner was Tovard Hanso (who we can only assume is related to Alvar Hanso (CEO of The Hanso Foundation, backer of Dharma) and Magnus Hanso (believed to be the great-grandfather of Alvar, and possible commander of the Black Rock, and most likely buried on the Island, according to the Hatch Map).

The Hansos had the ledger in their family for nearly 150 years... why were they giving it up now? Was there nothing of importance in it or something? And why was Widmore after it?

Regardless, we now know that Widmore had the ledger in his possession for about five years before Desmond entered the Widmore-sponsored sailing competition in 2001, during which Des ended up on the Island. I have always had a sneaking suspicion that perhaps Widmore wanted Desmond to end up on the Island. Let's not forget that Libby was the one who gave Desmond the sailboat (claiming it was her "late husband's"), and you know something totally fishy was going on there. Could she have been working for Widmore? I'm now wondering if Widmore is perhaps in a race against Hanso and Dharma for control of the Island. Thinking about all this stuff has made me quite positive that we'll probably see Libby again at some point in perhaps someone else's flashback. She was at the mental institution with Hurley, too... something's just not adding up about her.

Back to the old rich white dude... did anyone else besides me think it was not only really bizarre, but also kind of gross, that Desmond was talking to Penny's dad while he was at the urinal? Why'd that have to be the setting? Couldn't they have been walking down a hall or something? Maybe it was meant to underscore the fact that Des never felt like he was good enough for Mr. Widmore, so the only time he could get his attention was while the businessman was otherwise occupied going to the bathroom. All I know is that it was weird. But in the end, Mr. Widmore did in fact give Desmond Penny's new address.

This struck me as extremely strange, too. Why would he do that? If you wanted some guy away from your daughter, would you give him her new address? I think not.

Now I'm launching into Conspiracy Theory Mode. Remember when Desmond first met Penny, back at the monastery? She came to pick up wine and he helped her load it into her truck. Could that have been a chance encounter? Sure. But when you consider the fact that the head monk had a picture on his desk of the very same mysterious lady who Desmond encountered during his first bout of time-jumping (Ms. Hawking), it seems a bit more suspicious. While I do honestly believe that Penny loves Desmond, I can't help but wonder if Mr. Widmore was involved in setting up that initial "chance" encounter between the two. If Mr. Widmore was associated with Ms. Hawking, who knew that Desmond would eventually end up on the Island (as well as time-jump), and who also seemed to be familiar with the ability herself, then perhaps Mr. Widmore knew that it was critical to be able to follow Desmond's life closely. If his own daughter got involved with Desmond, it would be the perfect way to keep tabs on his whereabouts.

However, why then would he intercept all of the letters Des wrote to Penny during his time in prison, or try to pay Des off to stay away from Penny down the road? That part doesn't really fit in with my theory. Maybe after a while he figured that he could keep track of Desmond on his own or something. Which would explain why Mr. Widmore showed up in person when Des was released from incarceration.

Penny may have eventually put all of this together and then launched her own search for Desmond, unbeknownst to her father.

One last thing on the Mr. Widmore: Matchmaker Theory... in "Flashes Before Your Eyes," when Desmond encountered Ms. Hawking in the jewelry store and she freaked out when he actually went through with buying the ring, they had this exchange:

DESMOND: I don't know what you're on about.
MS. HAWKING: You don't buy the ring, Desmond.
DESMOND: How do you know my name?
MS. HAWKING: Well, I know your name as well as I know that you that don't ask Penny to marry you. In fact, you break her heart. Well, breaking her heart is, of course, what drives you in a few short years from now to enter that sailing race -- to prove her father wrong -- which brings you to the island where you spend the next 3 years of your life entering numbers into the computer until you are forced to turn that failsafe key. And if you don't do those things, Desmond David Hume, every single one of us is dead. So give me that sodding ring.

The producers later confirmed that "every single one of us" does mean "everyone in the world" (some people thought she was only referring to time-jumpers, or a certain subset of people).

So maybe if Mr. Widmore and Ms. Hawking are in cahoots (which once again is only a theory of mine, not anything that's been substantiated on the show yet), it's not necessarily for an evil purpose. Maybe they both honestly believed that if Desmond didn't fulfill his destiny on the Island, the world would end. And maybe Mr. Widmore was afraid that if Des got back together with Penny, he wouldn't get to the Island... so he did everything in his power to make sure that didn't happen.


WAIT FOR ME, PLEASE... WAIT FOR ME.
ALRIGHT, I GUESS THAT'S MORE THAN I SHOULD ASK.

Things become a bit more frantic on the freighter, when Minkowski starts bleeding heavily from his nose (just like Eloise had done before she died), has a seizure, gasps "I... can't... get... back," and then keels over. By this time, Desmond's nose is also bleeding. You must believe me when I say that I was about to have a seizure myself at that moment--I was so freaked out that they were going to do away with my #2 man. My mind was racing--thinking of reasons why The Powers That Be would or would not kill him off.

With both Sayid and Desmond realizing that it was indeed critical for Desmond to reach Penny (though Sayid probably figured he was enabling a "dying wish" for his friend, rather than actually saving him), Sayid flipped back into MacGuyver mode and miraculously repaired the freighter's phone line. (I had to laugh when they had initially entered the room and there were cut cords everywhere... each time Sayid "fixes" something they seem to up the ante for him.)

We then see Desmond's next 1996 flash, where he arrives at Penny's new home and pleads with her to give him her phone number--and swears that he will only use it in eight years, on Christmas Eve, 2004. Curiosity got the best of Penny, and she complied with his request.


TIIII-II-II-IME IS ON MY SIDE, YES IT IS

Finally, we came to the climactic scene where Desmond made the call to Penny in real-time. It is a damn shame that The Powers That Be couldn't have found a way for this episode to air on Valentine's Day (rather than airing the one where Sayid, uh, kills his girlfriend), because when Desmond finally got through to Penny--who confessed that she'd been searching for him for the past three years--well, that scene must've melted even the coldest of hearts.

I was SO SCARED when the phone kept ringing and ringing... at first I was wondering, "WHY THE HELL ISN'T SHE ANSWERING?!?!" Then when they cut back to 1996 and Desmond was walking in the street outside of Penny's house, I was having all sorts of heart attacks and thought, "Oh, good God, he's going to get hit by a car and then real-time Desmond is going to disappear." Moments later, during the emotional Desmond and Penny reunion call when they were both yelling "I love you!" back and forth into the phone, I was positive that Desmond was going to collapse and die. I know I wasn't the only one who was worried about all of these scenarios! It's a good thing none of them came to pass, because I would've led the attack on and subsequent sit-in at the writers' offices. I did re-watch the scene again later and enjoyed it a bit more when I knew it wouldn't end in tragedy.

Instead of a morbid ending, we received confirmation that Desmond has been "cured," as he once again recognized Sayid.

SAYID: I'm sorry, the power source went dead, that's all we have.
DESMOND: Thank you, Sayid. It was enough.
SAYID: Are you alright now?
DESMOND: Aye. I'm perfect.

Damn straight, you're perfect, brotha!

This is the point in time when I started cheering and clapping and bouncing up and down on my chair again. But thanks for taking five years off of my life while getting me to that point of elation, Damon and Carlton--you bastards.


EVERY DAY, EVERY DAY, EVERY DAY I WRITE THE BOOK

HOLD ON A MINUTE! The show had one more scene left.

In the last few seconds, we see Daniel sitting alone on the Island, flipping through his journal. He finally gets to the page he's been looking for, which reads: "If anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume will be my constant."

So this proves that Desmond did in fact meet Daniel back in the day. We have already witnessed Daniel's memory issues, so perhaps that's why Daniel didn't recognize Desmond when they met earlier on the Island. I don't know why Daniel wouldn't have thought his snazzy tie could be his constant (because he said it just needs to be a thing that you care deeply about that's around in both time periods...), but whatever. I guess perhaps it was a different tie, which is unfortunate. As for Desmond? I have no idea why his current self (before getting in the helicopter) wouldn't have remembered the strange events that took place in his life in 1996, which included meeting Professor Faraday. And what about when Penny tracked Desmond down at the stadium right before he left for the sailing race in 2001? I believe we saw their entire conversation in "Live Together, Die Alone," and she didn't say anything like, "So... um... are you still planning on calling me on Christmas Eve, 2004?"

There are a lot of little scenes like that which don't really make sense now that we know that Desmond's mind has traveled back and forth in time more than once. I personally don't care if they ever "explain" all of the little inconsistencies--I think we're way beyond the point of being able to expect answers to the multitude of questions this show has raised over the course of its run so far. As Cuse (producer) himself said last summer at Comic-Con: "Ultimately there are mysteries about the world of the show that will always remain mysteries, that's the nature of life, the world, and that'll be part of the show, so I can't imagine we'll come to a conclusion where every question you have, every mystery will satisfactorily be answered."

That's called "setting expectations," folks! I don't need those explanations to enjoy the show, though--it's supposed to be escapism, right? It is for me, at least. So far, my favorite episodes have been those in which the things that go down are beyond the realm of scientific possibility, so I'm not complaining.


I REMEMBER WHEN, I REMEMBER, I REMEMBER WHEN I LOST MY MIND...
THERE WAS SOMETHING SO PLEASANT ABOUT THAT PLACE

If you're anything like me, after "The Constant" ended, you just stayed put in your seat for a little while and tried to process everything that had happened over the course of the hour. And then you gave up but still went to bed happy after such an uplifting episode.

Now that I've had a few days to work through everything, I came up with an assortment of confusing questions and thoughts related to this last installment of the story.

From the little I've read on the message boards about this episode, I know that most people won't agree with me here... but I can't help but feel like "The Constant" provided us with some much needed closure on the whole "time-travel" question (whereas most people feel like it opened a new can of worms). Here's what I've deduced from both of Desmond's episodes that dealt with his consciousness jumping around:
- Only those who have been previously exposed to large amounts of radiation and/or electromagnetism will be affected by the time-jumping phenomenon when they approach or leave the Island. Therefore, I don't think any of the other Lostaways will start having Desmond-like flashes of the past or future. This episode wrapped up Desmond's time-jumping storyline completely. He is cured now and isn't going to be having any more flashes of the past or the future (unless perhaps he does try to return to the Island, which there's currently no reason to do). All that's left for him now is a face-to-face reunion with Penny. If Sayid, who was crawling around with Jack in the bowels of the Swan hatch, which he believed to be built over a radioactive site, wasn't affected when he left the Island, then I highly doubt anyone else from Flight 815 is going to be. Locke was definitely exposed to the craziness that ensued when Des turned the fail-safe key, as he was also in the hatch at the time, but since I don't think Locke is going to leave the Island (at least of his own will), I don't think I have to worry about him experiencing the side-effects.
- While I don't expect that there will be any more time-jumping by other characters, it still doesn't rule out the possibility of a time loop. A time loop would mean that the characters are living and re-living a certain period of time over and over again--like in the movie Groundhog Day. It's not the same as time travel. Desmond's time-jumping can easily exist within a time loop. The key to breaking the loop is for the characters' consciousnesses to realize what's going on, which would propel them to take different actions than they've done in the past. I have always maintained that if a time loop is occurring, then some characters (like Locke) are more in tune with what's going on than are others (like Jack). I will admit, however, that I'm less convinced of a time loop than I was even just a few episodes ago.
- I am positive that Ben is not time-jumping via his mind like Desmond was. Ben is physically leaving from and returning to the Island. Why else would he have all those passports? If only his mind was traveling, he wouldn't need them. Nor would he be able to make use of his huge stash of money, or his luggage, et cetera. I'm pretty sure that Ben has figured out a risk-free way to come and go from the Island. If he has never been exposed to radiation, he wouldn't encounter any difficulties in his travels anyway.
- There is a slight chance that "the sickness" Rousseau thought her crew had caught on the Island was actually them becoming "unstuck in time" like Minkowski. However, she indicated that they caught the sickness after being on the Island for two months... whereas it seemed to affect Minkowski, Desmond and Brandon immediately.
- One last comment on what I deem to be the closing out of the time-jumping storyline... I think it's important to remember what the producers said about the overall timeline in a special podcast they did last fall. "Daphne" in the transcript below is a fan who called in with a question. [You will also see in the Podcast Debrief section that they essentially repeated all of this same logic again in the podcast which aired last week.]

Daphne: As far as the fast-forward goes that we saw at the end of Season 3, is that a definite occurrence that takes place? Or is that something that is one possible future that could very possibly be changed, if Jack makes it back to the Island, to maybe be able to change whatever happened?

Carlton: You know, we're not big fans of the idea of multiple futures, and... I think that it kind of robs the story of its stakes, in a certain way. So, you know, we're working very hard to kind of, basically, maintain "the future is the future," and it's not... we're not gonna go back and sort of recast the future by affecting events in the past, and then all of a sudden having a completely different future.

Damon: Yeah you know, we're not saying that, you know, time, and space-time, and the ability to sort of travel through time is not gonna continue to be a motif on the show... but sort of everything we have to say about um, you know, what the effects of time traveling are, is in "Flashes Before Your Eyes." You know, specifically in the scene between Desmond and Ms. Hawking. The rules that she basically explains to Desmond are the rules that we basically live by in the writers room [e: the rules she explains are that you can't change the future... and if you try, you will fail, because the universe will always "course correct."]. But, you know, basically the future is fixed and...

Carlton: And not... and not parallel futures.

Damon: That's right. It's, you know - Jack and Kate ARE going to get off the Island, and he is...
and he is... he IS gonna grow a very large beard, and...

Carlton: And buy a RAZR phone.

Damon: Yeah, all those things are gonna happen.

While many people know that the producers have stated that any time-jumping will not alter the future, and while Daniel specifically also stated that (just to remind us viewers) in "The Constant," some fans simply refuse to believe it. I am not one of those fans. I think we have no choice but to believe what the producers said above (and again in the latest podcast), and to just accept that not everything is going to make perfect sense after Desmond's time-jumping... but in the whole scheme of the show, the things that don't fit together perfectly aren't that significant anyway.


BEST LINES OF THE EPISODE

SGT: What's the matter, Hume? Did you not hear me?
DESMOND: I'm sorry, sir. I was...I was having a dream, sir.
SGT: You were having a dream, were you? And what were you dreaming about, that it took you so sodding long to get to your mark?
DESMOND: I was in a helicopter, sir. And there was a storm, sir. And I don't remember the rest, sir.
SGT: Well, at least it was a bloody military dream.



DESMOND: Um, sorry. Are you Daniel Faraday?
DAN: And you are?
DESMOND: Um...sorry, I'm Desmond Hume, and um...I was told I could find you here. I think I've...just been to the future.
DAN: ...the future?
DESMOND: Yes. Uh, I spoke to you there, you told me to come here, to Oxford, to find you, you said you'd help me.
DAN: Why didn't I just help you there, in the future?
DESMOND: Sorry?
DAN: Why would I put you through the headache of time travel, you know? You know what I mean, it just seems a little...unnecessary.

[Minkowski is injected, and immediately relaxes.]
RAY: (to Desmond) And how are you feeling?
DESMOND: What the bloody hell is going on?
RAY: I understand, you're disoriented.
DESMOND: You're not gonna stick me with that, brotha!



[Minkowski collapses head-first onto a table in the communications room. Sayid stares at him.]
SAYID: (to Desmond) After your call, someone needs to tell me precisely what is going on.



PENNY: What's to say you wouldn't call me tonight or tomorrow?
DESMOND: I won't call... for eight years.



OFFICIAL LOST AUDIO PODCAST ON "THE CONSTANT"

[I will forewarn you before I transcribe some of the very teeny spoilers they mentioned.]

I listened to this podcast (held with producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof) after I finished writing this post so that it would not influence my original thoughts on the episode. As you will see, they covered a lot of the questions I had been wondering about.

They began by confirming that they will write five new episodes this season (instead of the eight they had planned before the writers' strike). The three hours we're missing from Season Four will be added to Season Five and/or Six.

They said that writing "The Constant" (it was Carlton and Damon who wrote this one) was extremely difficult: "Like the hardest New York Times puzzle." When they tried to explain it to others on the production team, everyone got really confused.

Next, they repeated their stance on time-travel...

Damon: Just a quick side note about the way we deal with time-travel on the show. We are very paradox-averse. That is to say, when our characters are time-traveling, nothing they do can change the present or the future which you have seen. Which is different from the conventional Back to the Future time-travel story template.
Carlton: Or Heroes. For us, we don't want the audience to not be invested in the flash-forwards. It would be pretty meaningless if they were a changeable reality...
Damon: (interrupts)--Well, as far as time-travel goes. As far as time-travel goes, definitely not changeable.
[I got the sense that Damon was trying to cover a bit on what Carlton had said.]
Carlton: There won't be a different Jack popping up in an alternate reality that is different from the one we established.

They then summarized by saying that there are not multiple universes or multiple timelines or parallel universes that exist for the show's characters. "The rules" Ms. Hawking spoke of about universe course correction were also repeated.

Then guess what? They actually said, "We're sure we're going to get questions like, "So when Penny visits Desmond at the stadium, does she know about when he visited her in 1996?" And to that we just say, refer back to 'Flashes Before Your Eyes.'"

That answer really doesn't make any sense because Penny remembering or not remembering in 2001 about the conversation in 1996 doesn't seem like it is really a course correction-worthy event or something that would cause a "paradox." I think it was their way of saying, "We're not going to cover the small questions like that--deal with it." Which is pretty much what I guessed when I talked about this subject earlier in the post. They moved off of the topic by saying, "More on destiny later in the series."

Next up, they spoke about the fact that, depending on who you talk to, there are either zero, one or two spots left open on the list of the Oceanic Six. They said that some people think that Ben and Aaron are two of The Six. "But Ben wasn't even on the flight!" "But technically neither was Aaron." "Well, he was, but he was in utero." And then they squabbled back and forth for a while. They did say that they will eventually confirm who The Six are just so that there is absolutely no confusion, and that they will do so soon. But not in this podcast.

They ended with a question and answer session as they usually do. Below, there are some minor spoilers... they just confirm high-level things that we will or will not see in the remaining few episodes before the hiatus. If you would rather not know, skip to the next bold heading...

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Q: Where are the Others? We know that Richard and Cindy are off somewhere. Will we see more of Penny and her father? Will we get another Ben flashback?
A: You will learn exactly where the Others are. And you will learn why we haven't heard from them. We will see more of Penny and her father.


Q. Does it matter who the two are that Jack said initially survived the crash but then died, since that was all a lie anyway? Is it the Oceanic Six or the Oceanic Eight?
A. No, it doesn't matter whose those two were. It is the Oceanic Six.


Q. Is the site of the polar bear skeleton in Tunisia one of the "special places on the Earth?"
A. (They didn't completely understand the question, but the response was...) There are certain special places on the Earth and they relate to our show. The dig site in Tunisia is one of them, and another is Ayers Rock in Australia, which we visited in "S.O.S." [e: This is the place Rose and Bernard visited to seek out a healer when she learned she had cancer. He spoke of spots on the Earth that have special healing powers.]


Q. What was up with the card game Daniel was playing? Does the Island cause memory loss? Did Daniel suffer a head injury on his way to the Island? Or did he have a pre-existing condition?
A. They're definitely testing to see whether or not the Island affects memory. It is possible that Daniel suffered a head injury, but more possible that he had a pre-existing condition.


Q. There is a rumor going around that we will find out that Ana Lucia's boyfriend, "Danny," was Daniel Faraday. Can you confirm or deny if this is the case.
A. I can deny. They are not the same person. [e: THANK GOD.]


That was it. And that's all she (meaning I) wrote about "The Constant."


ANOTHER VISIT TO EGGTOWN

I watched the "enhanced" episode of "Eggtown" before "The Constant" aired and thought I'd comment on a few of the information bubbles that popped up during the replay:
- When Locke and Sawyer were playing backgammon, they reminded us of when Walt and Locke first played backgammon shortly after the crash, and how Locke asked him, "Do you want to know a secret?" I had always assumed that Locke told Walt that he used to be in a wheelchair... but now since they're bringing this up again, I'm not so sure.
- They mentioned that the book Sawyer was reading was not only about a fugitive on a deserted island, but also about "a machine that can re-create reality."
- Xanadu was described as "the story of an unusual place where dreams come true."
- The food drops were mentioned... it said that they came on "a regular basis," but didn't connect them to anything going on in any of the hatches.

One thing I noticed on my own when I watched the episode again was that Locke didn't seem the slightest bit fazed when Kate told him about the conversation Miles and Ben shared. She mentioned the $3.2 million and all Locke said was, "Hmm," almost dismissively. It makes me wonder if he knows more about Ben than we think he does.

The latest Lost Video Podcast from ABC is an interview with Evangeline Lilly (Kate) about "Eggtown." For all of you who wondered if Kate's Aaron at the end of the episode was really, definitely, positively Claire's Aaron... it has been confirmed: he is.

Finally, shout-out to reader "cgicgi," who reminded me of an eerie scene from Claire's first flashback, "Raised by Another." It's actually the opening dream sequence, and in light of the twist at the end of "Eggtown," it seems like a prescient warning:

[Shot of Claire's eye opening. We hear a baby crying and see Claire looking around. She sits up and she isn't pregnant. She hears the baby cry, gets up and walks into the jungle to find the baby. We see Locke sitting at a table with a lamp, tarot cards, a table runner, and crystals. He's dealing the cards [but we can't see what they are]. We hear the sound of a sword being unsheathed. There is wind and motion in the trees.]

CLAIRE: What's happening?
LOCKE: You know what's happening.
CLAIRE: But I don't understand. Why --?

LOCKE: He was your responsibility but you gave him away, Claire. Everyone pays the price now.

[Locke looks up and has one black eye and one white eye. We hear the baby crying and see Claire running through the jungle. She sees a crib and goes to it. It has a mobile with Oceanic airplanes hanging from it. There is shaking and a sound of the what the airplane might have sounded like when it was crashing. The planes on the mobile start spinning around, at least one is broken. There are a bunch of blankets in the crib. Claire starts digging through them and comes to a pool of blood. Her hands are all bloody. She starts screaming.]

When the episode aired, I remembered thinking that what Locke said in the dream didn't really make sense, because Claire hadn't given Aaron away. Yes, she was going to once she got to L.A., but that didn't happen. Now I can't help but wonder if the writers put that line in there knowing that Claire would eventually have to part with Aaron in the future.

There you have it. I think it's safe to say that the next episode is not going to be able to hold a candle to "The Constant"! At least Locke's back.

Until next time,
- e