Lower Decks

LOST
“The Variable”
Originally Broadcast Wednesday, April 29th, 2009

In the 100th episode of LOST, we didn’t get the usual explosive antics usually associated with a show’s centennial episode.  Instead, we finally get around to exploring one of the more intriguing characters on this show: Daniel Faraday.  In only 20 episodes on the show, Daniel has found a way to make a big impact.  And in this one, he might have firmly entrenched himself in the show’s mythos.

I don’t know how they do it.  Despite giving me several signs and should-be-obvious foreshadowing, I didn’t see it coming.  It was staring me right in the face, and I was still surprised by it.

But as much as I hated to see it, it was time.  Not necessarily for Daniel to die, but I was getting nervous for everyone.  This show, known for some sudden and unexpected deaths, had gone far too long without killing off anyone of consequence.  And like Daniel said in the episode (foreshadowing #5 if I counted correctly), anyone could die at any moment.

But Locke came back.  Ben was spared…twice.  And, honestly, I don’t think Charlotte counts as a significant death.

Daniel, however, is a huge death.  He has been a gigantic driving force on the show this season, and he might’ve been the one who most understood what was going on (more than Locke, more than Ben, more than even Richard).  With him gone, I think getting things fixed is going to be a very serious chore.

Because think about it.  With the confirmation that he’s Widmore’s son, with Hawking, he’s tied into everything.  He’s directly related to Ben’s greatest nemesis and the woman who helped the Losties get back to the Island.  He’s Penny’s half-brother and thus little Charlie’s half-uncle.  And he’s apparently in the short list of people “cured” by the Island.

And let’s not forget that he came up with a plan to “fix” everything – not just the people displaced in time.  If Daniel’s plan is ever carried out, it will basically erase everything that’s been done on the show.  The Losties will never land on the Island, and most of them would have never met each other.

Think about that for a second.  Kate and Jack/Sawyer would’ve never met.  Locke would’ve stayed paralyzed and would’ve continued to feel meaningless.  Sun and Jin would’ve stayed distant.  Rose would’ve died from her illness.  If the couple in Los Angeles was real (dubious), Aaron would’ve been given up for adoption.

Then again, think of all the good that could come from it.  Charlie, Boone, Shannon, Libby, Ana-Lucia, and Eko would’ve stayed alive (along with the 100+ people who died in the crash or on the Island), and no one from Oceanic 815 would’ve been caught up in the Island’s mysterious ways.

Of course, I don’t think the plan is going to work, but this is LOST we’re talking about.  I can’t completely rule out the idea of the season ending in 2004 with Oceanic 815 landing safely in Los Angeles.  It would certainly be the kind of “WTF” moment that the show loves to throw out at the end of the season, and it’d certainly get me excited about the sixth and final season.

But that’s all later.  Let’s stick with this one.

We learn that Daniel’s mother, Eloise Hawking, has been pushing him towards science from a very young age.  Throwing out ideas like “destiny” and “gifts” his whole life, we get to see why Daniel always seems so focused and motivated – he’s basically been “trained” to be a scientist ever since his childhood.

From her first appearance on the show, Hawking has seemed to be a supernatural figure.  She appeared to Desmond with information from the future that she couldn’t possibly know, and she understood enough about Ajira 316 to get the Oceanic Six back to the Island.

But now everything seems to be coming together.  Hawking might simply know so much because Jack and Kate told her everything.  That might be how she knew that Daniel would die on the Island, that Desmond needed to press the button, and that Jack and Company needed to go back to the Island.  And it certainly explains why she drove Daniel so hard towards science – to make sure that things happened the way they were supposed to.

It might also explain why Hawking, herself, didn’t want to go back to the Island (which would make her the first person to leave the Island that didn’t) – she knew that she needed to stay off-Island to get the Oceanic Six back and that she wouldn’t be going back with them.

So maybe Hawking isn’t supernatural at all…she was just given a lot of information in 1977.  Very interesting stuff.

Another interesting fact from Daniel’s past was his “condition” – it seems his experiments didn’t just destroy Theresa Spencer’s life – it also destroyed his own memory.  Which explains why there were so many memory-related issues with Daniel last season (the fact that it took him a second to remember his own name when he met Jack and the memory experiment he did with Charlotte) – the Island was curing him of that.

The thing that sucks about Daniel dying is that there are still unanswered questions about him.  Why was Widmore funding his research?  What was he doing when he was off-Island in Ann Arbor?  What was the experiment that caused the conditions of himself and Theresa?  And, of course, what the heck else is in Daniel’s famous journal?

There are also questions about Eloise and Widmore, Daniel’s birth, and other stuff quasi-related to Daniel…but I’m guessing we’ll get some of those answers in the next three episodes.

Back to the plot – Daniel arrives back on the Island, claiming that he came back because he saw the picture of Jack, Kate, and Hurley in 1977.  When Jack tells him that Hawking was the reason why he came back, Daniel starts a plan into motion to fix everything.  He wants to detonate the Hydrogen Bomb during the “Incident” to negate that energy underneath the Swan.

No Incident means no button.  No button means no Hatch.  No Hatch means no crash.

First, Daniel rushes to the Orchid to try and speak with Pierre Chang.  He tells Chang that they need to stop drilling at the Swan site, otherwise the energy will be released.  He does this to make sure that everyone is evacuated (including Miles and Charlotte), but I’m sure it also has to do with the H-bomb plan.

After doing this, Daniel recruits Jack and Kate to bring him to his mother (currently with the Hostiles) because she’d be the only one who could help him.  When he arrives at the Others camp, Richard claims that Eloise isn’t there.  Daniel, holding a gun to keep himself safe, is shot by Eloise seconds later…his last words explaining to Hawking that he’s her son.

Of course, a lot happens in between that.  Daniel, despite promising himself that he won’t, tries to scare/talk little-girl-Charlotte into never returning to the Island.  Jack, Kate, and Daniel, in an effort to get guns from the motor pool, get in a gunfight with Radzinsky.  And Daniel explains that the “whatever happened, happened” rule might not work because all of the displaced people are variables that could change the equation.

Until they actually change something, I’m going to believe that nothing in the past will change.  In fact, I’m sure the whole H-bomb plan will end up causing the Incident…not preventing it.

A lot of the rest of the episode dealt with Sawyer’s plan crumbling.  With Phil locked up in the closet, Sawyer gets everyone together to come up with a plan.  They either need to commandeer the sub or head for the beach.  They come to an agreement that, after all they did, they can’t just leave the Island again, and they start planning to go back to the beach.

Daniel’s plan to run off to the Hostiles doesn’t really impact their plan (Sawyer, Hurley, and Juliet are all still seen preparing to leave), but it does alter the Juliet/Sawyer relationship a bit.  Sawyer, in trying to explain to Kate why she shouldn’t help Daniel, gently calls her “Freckles” – this shakes up Juliet enough to help Daniel get to the Hostiles.

And it shows that the Oceanic Six’s return has really made a negative impact on the lives of Sawyer and Juliet.  They were really happy together, and their lives at Dharma were improved.  Now that the others have come back, everything is falling apart for them…and it seems like Juliet is the most afraid of losing everything.  And the idea that Sawyer might still have feelings for Kate (backed up by her question of whether or not Sawyer still has her back) seems to scare her a lot.

It seems the Jack-Kate-Sawyer-Juliet love quadrangle is still alive.

The con completely crumbles toward the end of the episode when Radzinsky, following the gun battle with Jack and Kate, shows up at LaFleur’s home and finds Phil locked up in the closet.  Sawyer and Juliet surrender at gunpoint.

I wonder why Sawyer didn’t try to explain to Radzkinsky that Phil was the traitor.  It might’ve bought them enough to make their escape, but he didn’t even make the effort.  Maybe he will next week, but I didn’t see why one more level to the con would’ve hurt.  Especially when they were already ready to cut and run.

The rest of the episode continued Desmond’s storyline.  He’s rushed to the hospital following Ben Linus’ attack, and Penny is visited by Hawking.  She apologizes for her son’s actions, and tells Penny that she doesn’t know whether or not Desmond will be okay (like I said earlier, she doesn’t know what will happen next at all – presumably because Jack and Kate leaving was the last thing she knew would happen).

Of course, Desmond’s surgery is successful and he recovers.  Which still make me wonder how, if at all, Desmond will return to the Island.  Is there a chance that his story is done?

After speaking with Penny, Hawking is approached by Widmore outside of the hospital.  They have a short conversation about sacrifice (Hawking realizing she sacrificed her son, while Widmore sacrificed the relationship with his daughter).

While nothing much happened in this scene, I’m exteremely interested in learning more about the Widmore/Hawking relationship.  Now that its been confirmed that they’re “old friends” – it’ll be interesting to see what ended their friendship (I say its over because they were very cold to each other).  I’m hoping we get a lot about it before the season is over.

Because, remember, Daniel got nosebleeds along with the other Oceanic survivors…so I’m guessing he wasn’t born on the Island.  That means that Daniel will presumably be born very soon after 1977…which means that Hawking is about to leave the Island.  And, as we know, Widmore won’t leave for several more years.

There we have it.  We finally learn more about Daniel, and we move closer and closer to the finale.  The Incident is just hours away, Sawyer and company have been exposed, and Daniel is dead.  For the record, we still don’t know why Hurley decided to get on Ajira 316 (and the explanation for the mysterious guitar case).

And let’s please not forget that there’s still a lot going on in 2007/2008 on the Island – Sun, Locke, and Ben are still working to get the 1977 back to the present, and Bram/Ilana have taken Lapidus and are heading back to the main Island.

So just three episodes but still a whole lot going on.  We’ll see if we can sort any of it out next week.