5x14: "The Variable"

A great, great episode, (#3 for me this season behind "This Place is Death" and "Dead is Dead") although a very sad ending as Faraday was one of my favorite characters. But I guess if he is indeed dead and someone had to go, better him than one of our few remaining original characters.

We get confirmation that Eloise hates Linus, as Penny's assumption that Ben is her son revolts her.

Dan seems to be bitter about the destiny thing as he's chatting with Jack--that certainly becomes more fleshed out as the episode proceeds, but how much more would he be with the ending?

Along those lines, it is ironic that Eloise uses words like "destiny" when forcing young Daniel into math and science. The duality of the man of science and man of faith is once again on display, and suggests that LOST walks a middle ground between the two. He is also, by my count, at least the fourth main character to play the piano, joining Charlie (no surprise), Jack, and Ben.

Also interesting is young Daniel's assertion that "I can make time [for playing the piano]". More than you know, Danny.

We see the opening scene of the season, as the DHARMA workers excavate the donkey wheel. But then we see that Daniel attempts to tell Chang that the electromagnetism at the Swan is 30,000 times greater than that at the Orchid (but then why is the wheel there? The wheel seems pretty flipping powerful). Oh yeah, and that he's from the future and Miles is Chang's son. All to make sure that Chang would do what he was supposed to do.

At first I found the meeting of the Lostaways in Sawyer's house a little jarring--that there were so few of them left. But then you remember that Locke, Sun, Sayid, and Claire are all still kicking around somewhere and it makes more sense. And I certainly hope that they plugged Phil's ears or something, because otherwise he's going to have a heckuva story to tell.

Although perhaps that will be the saving grace for our Lostaways. I still believe that Chang will heed the warnings from the future.

I was surprised to see that Daniel got a personal recruiting visit from Widmore, who tells him that the island could heal his memory loss. This scene is great, as we also learn that it was in fact Widmore who faked the wreckage.

Daniel can't help himself and warns Charlotte, telling him that Chang will order an evacuation. What will convince Chang to do this in the four hours before the Incident?

The shootout between Jack and Kate and Radzinsky and company was really anti-climactic; but I guess they needed to throw some action in there somewhere.

Daniel offers his new grand theory of time, which is that people are variables and they can change the course of events. He believes that they can stop the Incident by detonating Jughead and destroying the pocket of energy. But how will they evacuate an entire island in that time period? Oh well, he also heavy-handedly foreshadows that this is their present and any one of them can die at any time. He also thinks that his mother can help them get to where they need to go in time…and where is that exactly? I assume it's 2007, but perhaps it is somewhere else.

Is that really what the Lostaways would want, though? Kate's expression seemed to betray that she was thinking this--"So I'd still be a prisoner?" We know Locke would hate it. And I believe that it can't happen. They may try and try, but they will fail, as losing 95% of what we've seen on LOST would be tough to swallow.

How awful is the scene in which Eloise convinces Daniel to go to the Island knowing what we know now? "It'll make me proud" makes Eloise the coldest character in LOST annals…colder than Ben, colder than Keamy, colder than Michael's ex-girlfriend (I've always had a personal animus for her, although certainly one of those things is not like the others).

Her relationship with Daniel best parallels the relationship between Christian and Jack. Heavy guilt-tripping in an attempt to manipulate their children, while using the bait of the approval they never gave out in even the tiniest doses.

So how about the last scenes off and on island? We learn that Desmond is okay, which is no surprise, although it remains to be seen how he will fit into the rest of this story. Eloise tells Penny that "For the first time in a long time, I don't know what's going to happen next".

It really sizzles in the encounter between Eloise and Charles, though. We learn that they are the parents of Daniel, and we see Eloise bellow "Don't talk to me about sacrifice!" Both of those comments from Eloise make sense when we see Faraday get shot in the back by his own mother on the Island.

So it appears as if Eloise knew that Faraday was her son, and manipulated his whole life (perhaps even conceived him in the first place) in order to manipulate him to come to the Island. Because that's what had to happen, and Eloise is nothing if not devoted to policing time, as we learned when we first met her in "Flashes Before Your Eyes".

A couple of lingering questions, though:

1) What of the Comic-Con video? Obviously, those things are non-canon, but the Season Four Comic-Con tease in the form of the Orchid orientation video did play out in the show, so it's hardly outlandish to wonder if the Season Five tease would as well. I would not in anyway be upset if it proves to be completely non-canon, but I've already seen people ripping others on the net for even mentioning it's existence. Anyone who gets uptight and defensive about theories on a TV show is a grade-A jackass.

2) It's odd that Richard doesn't seem to recognize Faraday, as they did meet back in 1954. However, it is quite possible that he does and simply doesn't do anything to demonstrate it. It is nice to see that he is a little upset that Eloise plugged Daniel. And what would have happened had Daniel shot at him?

3) It was also nice to see that Widmore had at least token concern for Desmond's well-being. The auction house/bathroom (boy, that sounds kind of dirty out of context) scene in "The Constant" seems to indicate that Widmore's true emotion towards Des is something less than contempt.

My takeaway: whatever happened, happened. Faraday comes bouncing back with a brand new theory about variables, and he gets shot by his own mother. You can't change the past. But you may well be able to land yourself in a big pickle by trying to do so.