Starring: Jeremy Davies, Josh Holloway, Matthew Fox, Ken Leung, Jorge Garcia, Daniel Dae Kim, Elizabeth Mitchell, Evangeline Lilly, Henry Ian Cusick, Eric Lange
Greetings fellow LOST junkies, in honor of Daniel Faraday, and in an effort to get this blog up much earlier than I usually do, I have taken the liberty of writing this week’s article as more of a rambling scribble of thoughts – kind of an homage to Faraday’s journal. It’s also an experiment I’m conducting, to see if getting this up before 5PM PST, I might generate more comments during the week. Also, I was pretty impressed with some of my findings last night, and I wanted to be among the first to post them – thus giving me ownership of certain thoughts and theories I have, in particular regarding the possibility of Faraday surviving that gunshot, and the importance of eating Indian food.
We’ve Seen This Before
Well now we know who the “majorish” character who gets killed this season don’t we. Or do we? It looked like it might be Juliet, but knowing this was a Faraday-centric episode, as well as the 100th episode of the series I was fairly certain if anyone was going to get offed, it would be Danny Boy. But, did he really die? I wonder. I’ll address my suspicions later in the article.
Of Course Des is Fine
So Desmond is fine. He still throws a mean left man with a bullet under his heart. Glad to see he’s keeping his promise to Penny. I’m assuming since she didn’t say (although assumption is a dangerous practice with this show) that Mrs. Hawking is NOT Penny’s mom as I predicted before.
Sacrifices
It was an episode of sacrifices. Mrs. Hawking, Charles Widmore, Daniel Faraday, and even Miles, all made some sacrifices in this episode. Mrs. Hawking finally confirms she’s Faraday’s mother, looked horrified when Penny suggested she might be Ben’s mother.
By the Way
By the way, does that Star Trek movie look amazing or what?
Knock Knock. Who’s There? Fara. Fara who? Farah Fawcett Majors. It’s 1977… No No, Just Kidding, It’s Me, Daniel Faraday
Faraday and Miles wake Jack up, he can barely focus. Faraday tells Jack his mother made a mistake. Jack and company weren’t destined to be part of 1977 Dharma, and their future lies elsewhere. (Presumably the future) Wasn’t it dark when Miles lands? It’s bright in the morning when Faraday gets to Jack’s place. What’s up with that?
Lil Faraday braces and big ears. Faraday the sensitive child musician promises his mother he will “make time” for his music. What’s the one thing every good musician possesses? Good timing.
I Love It When They Give Us a Wink
Jack knocks on his old rival’s door to announce that Faraday’s back, to which the island’s head of security quips, “Love to trade theories with you on this, but I don’t have the time.” (A nice nod to message blogs/message boards like this all over the internet.)
LaFluerSalawyer
Old Jack was peeking through again, questioning SawLaFleuryer (or whatever we’re calling him nowadays) about what could possibly be so important at 6 in the morning.
Juliet lets him in. Jack gave FleurSaLawyer (or whatever we’re calling him nowadays) a disgusted look. It took a lot of self-control for Jack not to call LaSawFleuryer out for mismanaging the tactic of beat up and kidnap.
How Many Miles to China?
Two Chinese Miles. Faraday tries to confront Dr Chang about the impending doom, and hopes to convince him with the very same logic I dropped on this very site not scant weeks ago. Basically he asked him what are the odds of two Chinese Miles on one teeny island. I hope this doesn’t mean that I’m about to be shot in the back by my 1977 mother any time soon.
Faraday demands Chang order evacuation electro magnetic energy. In 6 hours, an energy 30,000 times more powerful than what killed that Dharma worker, is going to start wreaking havoc on the island.
I’m From the Future.
Chang pulls the same disbelieving stance that Faraday had when Desmond made a similar claim at Oxford in the episode, “The Constant.”
Faraday tells Miles he’s making sure his father does what he’s supposed to do. Seems that the good doctor cares enough for his wife and baby boy, that he orders them off the island, proving he loved his family very much. He sacrificed his family because he must have felt the slightest bit of truth.
C@ckblocking Mom
Graduation, we finally meet Theresa, but Daniel’s mother doesn’t seem nearly as happy as we are to meet her son’s new romantic interest. Mrs. Hawking is kinda bitchy, and Daniel is a serious Momma’s boy. Focusing energies on work. Hawking she is destined to shot her own son, at close range, in the back, and yet she’s willing to make the sacrifice. Operating under the assumption Mrs. Hawking is a good guy, what greater good could possibly be worth that sacrifice?
“The women in your life will only be terribly hurt.” Of course she is including Charlotte and Theresa, but what she really means but isn’t saying is she, Eloise Hawking, will be terribly hurt.
Dazed And Confused And Full of Curry
Kashmir Café…. Don’t know much about the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. So I turned my attentions to Google, which in turn suggested I check out a Wikipedia link. - which is where I realized that Kashmir was in fact in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Ka means "water" and Shimir means "to desiccate". Hence, Kashmir stands for "a land desiccated from water" but that didn’t seem like enough, and I kept humming the eponymous song by 1977 rock gods, Led Zeppelin. The first lines of that particular tune are,
“Oh let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dream
I am a traveler of both time and space, to be where I have been
To sit with elders of the gentle race, this world has seldom seen
They talk of days for which they sit and wait and all will be revealed
I believe I may have mentioned once or twice that LOST is not my only drug of choice, and way before LOST ever aired, I spent a good deal of time with Led Zeppelin and the natural accessories a teenage boy might enjoy in my parents’ basement.
Oh yeah, here are some more lyrics. Notice the mommy comment.
Oh, I been flying... mama, there aint no denyin
Ive been flying, aint no denyin, no denyin
Widmore’s name is revealed at lunch. Mommy Dearest gives Daniel the journal which will undoubtedly prove very important, to borrow a phrase from another drug culture seventies band, in the days of future/past.
“No matter what, remember, I will always love you.” She omitted the important line, “Even if my past self shoots you in the back during your future travels in time.” Ahhh, a mother’s love.
What Are We Calling Him?
Sawyer (or whatever we’re calling him nowadays) gathers the troops. The options as he sees them are take over the sub, or head back to the beach and “start from square one.”
Ms Manners
Mrs. Hawking may have raised her son, only to eventually kill him, but she didn’t raise him to be ill-mannered. He calls Dr Chang “sir” and he goes out of his way to apologize to Jack for being rude.
Cheer up Juliet
Juliet has a very fatalistic outlook since Jack and crew wandered back into their lives.
Does Caroline Know How Widmore Takes His Tea?
The woman Caroline appears to be just a caretaker. Does she know Widmore, was she hired by him? Who opens a door to a stranger and invites him in for tea when they’re in charge of a mentally unstable patient? The fact that she seems American by her accent and yet offers Widmore tea leads me to believe she knows Widmore well enough to know he’s English. As good ol’ American Sawyer proved earlier on in the episode, we Yanks offer our guests punch and pound cake. (Which is exactly what he gave to Phil before he tied him up in the closet – a punch and a pounding. Clever writers those fellas, eh?)
Wired Magazine, “The Impossible Gets Real”
Widmore knows Faraday was “dismissed” from Oxford. Clearly this dismissal was because Daniel exposed Theresa to his experiments. He protested that he tested the research out on himself.
Widmore is once again looking like a good guy. He fessed up about staging the plane crash in the Sundra Trench. Maybe Ben is also a good guy? I’ve been saying that for a while, and I’m not prepared to back off that theory just because it’s possible Widmore is also a good guy, who happens to be strategically positioned against Ben and his team. As we saw a couple times in this installment, good is a relative term.
The Good Guys
I’m sure Phil no longer thinks Saywer (yes dammit, that’s what we’re calling him again.) is a good guy. Going with that logic, Radzinsky undoubtedly feels righteous in his decision to open fire at who he perceives as the bad guys.
So is it possible that Benjamin Linus and Charles Widmore, and Eloise Hawking, and let’s throw in Richard Alpert, Mr. Paik, and while we’re at it, let’s lump in Ilana and Bram as good guys too. Is it possible each of these people are at the core of it, all good guys with different priorities, different motives and different ways of going about doing what is needed to achieve their desired end results? Of course it is. AND, by the way, it’s also possible that Jacob, or the Island is the actual bad guy all this time. I don’t know if I believe that myself, but I have floated it out before, and just felt this section was an appropriate place to reintroduce that thought.
Anyway, Widmore tells Daniel the island will heal his mind. When Daniel asked. “Why are you doing all this for me?” Before Widmore could look him square in the eyes and tell him he’s a man with tremendous gifts, and it would be a shame to see them go to waste,” my girlfriend Jennifer, shouted out, “Because he’s your father!” Right after that Faraday sobs, “You sound like my mother,” and Charles Widmore, once again showing genuine human emotion, cannot conceal his secretly proud smile. Score one for Jennifer.
White Picket Fences
Sawyer is having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that he doesn’t really belong in a time and place he’s happily called his home for the last three years. Sawyer finally got himself a pretty doctor/mechanic girl who can cook, a steady job, the respect of his co-workers - except for the one he sucker punched and tied up in his closet – he’s got it all but the proverbial white picket fence, and now he knows he has to give it all up.
Sawyer tries to slam the brakes on Jack’s plan to run to the Others with Kate. He even commits a relationship breach of etiquette and calls Kate by her rarely spoken (anymore) nickname in front of his ladylove.
This does not sit well with the suddenly glass is half empty Juliet, who seems to take some sort of perverse pleasure in coolly blurting out the security code to the sonic fence, “141717.” Usually numbers have relevance in this show. Unless I’m forgetting something, I’m failing to come up with the particular importance of those specific digits.
Miles is staying with Sawyer and Juliet. He too has spent the last three years calling this island home, and his allegiance is not only to his friends, but to his “family.”
Lil Charlotte
“I’m not allowed to have chocolate before dinner.” That was something the adult, time-skipping Charlotte muttered before she eventually died, and our man Faraday, if he was paying attention, (and I assume he was if he can keep track of the metronome clicks) would have to have realized.
Faraday tells Lil Charlotte she has to leave the island, and then proceeds to impart some previously never uttered before information to the tiny carrot-topped tot. (Regrettably, we the audience were not privy to his secret message.)
What a Prick!
Good guy or not Radzinsky is a total dickhead, douchebag, f*ckstick, jerkwad. I know he thinks he’s doing the right thing, but it’s guys like him who made me give up playing recreational softball, that and my hamstring is now has the flexibility and give of an old wet shoe lace. But you know the guy I’m talking about. The guy you’re embarrassed to say is on your team. If you think Radzinsky is a prick as the overzealous, insanely paranoid Head of Research, I’m betting he’s twice as big a tool as the third base coach at the annual Dharma Softball Games.
By the way, Faraday should never carry a gun. And talk about Faraday being a Momma’s boy. All that happened was a bullet scratched his neck. I’m betting Sawyer has been the recipient of rougher hickeys, and Faraday behaves like his head is barely hanging on by one of my worn out hamstrings. Happy to see him land a shot on that twat Radzinsky though.
Make Mommy Proud and Go To the Island So She Can Shoot You, Dear
Mrs. Faraday drops in on her son to encourage him to go back to the island so she could shoot her sad, imbalanced son square in his unsuspecting back.
I love Fionnula Flanagan. The actors on this show are really impressive. Michael Emerson never disappoints, Terry O’Quinn is phenomenal, Alan Dale (Widmore) always delivers. I rarely go on about television acting, but this cast is sensational.
You Won Juliet, Be Cool, Huh?
Juliet is jealous of Kate. Sawyer’s in love with you, baby, no need to carry petty jealousies. He may slip up and call Kate Freckles now and then, but you’re the one who made Sawyer happier than he’s ever been before. Of course he still has your back.
Radzinsky and his storm troopers bust into Sawyer and Juliet’s pad and before long find the nasty little secret Sawyer’s been hiding; Phil. Ok, it would be no picnic being Radzinsky’s prisoner, but I still contest it would be better than being on the same softball team as him. What a total cock that guy is.
…And This is Why You Guys Pushed That Button
On the way to find his Other mother, Faraday sits down to explain to Jack all about the Swan Hatch, and the electro magnetic energy, and the button that needs to be pushed every 108 minutes. A button that Desmond will one day fail to push, causing Oceanic 815 to crash, which will send the freighter. I like that Jack is forced once again to come to grips with the fact that Locke was right about having the faith to push the button.
You can’t change the past from the future, but they, Faraday, Jack, Kate and all, are in the present. They can change the future from becoming the past, because they possess free will. They are the variables. Faraday’s plan is to negate the energy under the Swan. Which means the hatch will never be built, which means the plane will not crash on the island on route to Los Angeles from Australia. It will land. I can’t imagine that sounds like a fun trade off for one 2003 fugitive from justice, Kate Austin. His plan is to detonate Jughead, the hydrogen bomb.
Jenn Scores Again!
For the first time in a long time Mrs. Hawking doesn’t know what’s going to happen next. My girlfriend Jennifer knew. She knew ol’ Eloise was going to haul off and smack Charles Widmore in the mouth if he dared mention his parental link to the boy she sent off to the past to shot in the back. Score another one for Jennifer.
Was That a Prudent Plan?
I have a real hard time wondering why Faraday, an admitted firearms novice, thought brandishing a weapon in a strange camp, squeezing off a round or two, pointing the gun at Richard Alpert, and counting down from three was going to get him anything but shot, but unless that was his plan, it was a pretty stupid move by a pretty smart guy.
By the way, I’d like to point out that Eloise’s defense to Richard for shooting Daniel was “he had a gun on you.” That seems to blow holes in any of those Richard Alpert is an immortal theories.
My Evidence
Ok, here’s why I don’t think Daniel is necessarily dead. Aside from the fact that a young Ben Linus suffered a more serious gun shot to the heart (which then mysteriously moved over to the other side of his chest) Daniel has to live in order to be heard in this famous Comic Con clip.
Listen for Faraday’s voice off camera at 2:36 of this clip.
I think Faraday is alive, and if there is indeed a majorish death, I’m now banking on Juliet
In Closing
So until next week, fire up your Hi-Def TV, (Imperative if you’re expecting to make out the name of a certain Indian restaurant.) make sure you hit the record function on your TiVo, (For multiple viewings, and freeze framing purposes immediately after watching the show the first time.) keep your laptop nearby, (You’ll never know when you might need to Google lyrics of songs you’ve sung while in an altered state in a basement in Jersey.) load up that bong, (For some of us, LOST isn’t our only drug of choice.) and get ready to get LOST.
I'm usually too late to get to comment on here, but today I am the lucky number one. Anyway I was really sure that Daniel was going to be Charlotte's Father. Unfortunately this episode debunked that theory. So now I am really curious to know what it is that Daniel tells her in secret on the swing. I have to think there is more to the reason he loves Charlotte soooo much. We he is so headstrong in saving her if they only knew each other for the breif time they were brought to this island, besides the fact that he already has his lady friend in a coma waiting for him to fix her. Unless that is the tie in, in some way. I don't know. Next!
more people survive bullets than die from them on this show. so it would be a very big assumption to assume that daniel (or should i call him twitchy) is dead. although i still go "OOOOOHHHHHHHH SHIIIIIITTTT!!!!" when ben or desmond or daniel gets shot. pretty sweet ending. of course, i don't think we can rule out alpert's not being immortal yet either. not until he gets shot and dies, like so few role players do.
damn, we're so close to the incident that i can taste it. for a few minutes there last night i thought we might get there. but i doubt its jughead because that would probably destroy the entire island. (i'm no physist like twitchy so i don't know the awesome power of a hydrogen bomb, but didn't they stop building them because they were too powerful?) i think chang is on his way to unleash the island's fury as we speak.
also, what i really liked about this episode was all the confirmations we kept getting. it was like bang, zoom, i already knew all that. (but didn't really "know", you know?) now we're left to wonder who is penny's mumsie? those old island boys sure do sleep around. probably somebody we know and penny share a mother...
Now it's being said that the Comic Con video was just a sneak peak at what fans could expect on the show, but not actually part of the timeline....which I honestly think is bull and possibly the writers covering their tracks after they decided to kill Faraday. I unfortunately think he's dead, which pisses me off since he was my favorite character of the past two seasons, mainly because things happened when he was around. I doubt that they can really use variables to alter the future, I still believe in whatever happened, happened. Faraday's death is further proof of whatever happened, happened. But we'll see. Still a great episode, another great performance from jeremy davies. I wish he's not dead, but I doubt it.
I'm starting to wonder if the other major death this finale will be Juliet offing Sawyer or Kate haha. Or least having a hand in how they die out of her jealousy.
Faraday has to be dead or Mrs. Hawkings "sacrifice" won't mean jack. I really hope we get to see what on Earth he was doing in the DI headquarters which made him change his mind. It was a pretty weak explanation from what he gave. Ooops, I forgot about the variables, we can change things!
Are we suppose to seriously believe that a genius like Daniel Faraday, a man who has been around mathematics and science his entire life wouldn't have accounted for variables before? GTFO is all I got to say. A 6th grader would probably account for them.
The producers have said many times anything outside the show pretty much ain't cannon. And the Comic Con things like Ripum said are always teases of what's next. Like last year when they had the Chang Orchid video which hinted a time travel.
1st of all, the LOST intro blending into the Star Trek trailer? Very nicely done.
I agree with Hanso, poor Dan's dead. If you listen to the end of the video, notice that Chang said "LeFleur, what are you doing?" Again, like Hanso said, I don't think it's canon, more hinting. Notice how he kept rubbing his left hand though?
The scene with Charlotte was pretty sad though, you could see it in his eyes how much it was going to hurt him to do what he did.
(Side note, after watching Lost, Rescue Dawn is playing while I'm writing this and guess who's in it? )
One of the things that I noticed was that Daniel, as much of a gifted boy he was, was not keeping very good time with the metronome. coincidence, or subtle hint?
Wow, I just re-read my ramblings... I have no idea how Faraday makes sense of that journal of his.
Actually I think I pulled things together nicely around the one quarter mark of this article. t's tough to "ramble on" (to borrow from Zep again) for an entire article.
ThrillerSam, Congrats on you're number one ranking today. I haven't figured out the Daniel/Charlotte connection yet either, and I too once believed it was a paternal love. Wonder what it is.
Gingerballs, yeah people eat bullets on this show like I eat cookies. Except I don't have them forcibly launched into my chest.
Ripum, I realize Comic Con videos aren't cannon, but it would suck if they tease us with Faraday's voice and then negate that. That sounds like sloppy planning. I hold out hope I'm right, and Faraday will heal from his bullet wound like Ben, and Des.
Hanso, it could be argued that Mrs Hawking would find it traumatic just to shoor her son in the back, regardles if he lives, but yes, that would be a cop out of sorts. Sort of like a math wiz forgetting about variable. Oh well.
Locke is alive after being dead so Danny Boy being shot is not necessarily his end. Wouldn't a mother be just as pissed that she almost killed her son? Plus, what if she doesn't know that he survived? Jack and Kate being near by (since when can they sneak up on the Others/Hostiles?) may be a variable that allows Daniel to live.
Ellie/Elliose seemed awful trigger happy in the 50's too. I'm not sure a gun being pointed at Richard means he's not immortal.
I thought using the bomb to stop future events was a little odd since it would also stop them from ever going back in time to blow up the Swan and prevent the incident.
This was an all around solid episode, and like every other week, the preview for the next one leaves me pissed that I don't have a wheel in the basement I can turn to move up to next Wednesday night.
just my quick first round comment before i head home from work-
is it possible that even though daniel figured out he was "forgetting" about the variables (people)...might he also still be forgetting that he might STILL be doing exactly what he's supposed to be doing...that it still very well might be that no matter what he does it will come out the same...variable or not. Variables simply cause other variables.....and we've seen a few cases where variables (sayid shooting lil' Ben) has seemingly been "corrected" by the mother of all variables, (no not eloise) the island.
LOGIN
REGISTER
RSS
HOME
I'm usually too late to get to comment on here, but today I am the lucky number one. Anyway I was really sure that Daniel was going to be Charlotte's Father. Unfortunately this episode debunked that theory. So now I am really curious to know what it is that Daniel tells her in secret on the swing. I have to think there is more to the reason he loves Charlotte soooo much. We he is so headstrong in saving her if they only knew each other for the breif time they were brought to this island, besides the fact that he already has his lady friend in a coma waiting for him to fix her. Unless that is the tie in, in some way. I don't know. Next!