'Lost': Letters from the Flame, 'The Variable' edition
As promised: the long-awaited return of "Letters from the Flame"! You had a bunch of pressing questions concerning "The Variable," and I have answers."Lost" fans want to know about Daniel's accent, Eloise's exile, and a certain journal's overall importance. Let's get to it!
Why doesn't Daniel have a British accent like his mother and father? Do you think he raised in the United States?
Patti
If you knew you were raising your son only to ensure that he would die at your hands, you'd probably send him to another country for boarding school as well. The impression I get from the few sketches in "The Variable" is that after the conversation at the piano, Eloise did everything she could to avoid direct contact with Daniel, even when he was going to graduate school nearby. (I assume this since Faraday sent Desmond to find her in Oxford, not Los Angeles.)
In what way do you think Faraday meant when he said Jack and Co. weren't supposed to be in the past, and how can 1977 Ms. Hawking get them back to the future?
Other Sean
1977 Eloise knows where the bomb is. That's what Faraday is looking for. It's not due to her intimate knowledge of the Lamp Post and her mad skillz in determining event windows. He needs to know where she helped to bury it in order to help destroy the exotic matter at the Swan site.
As far as Jack and them not being there, I think Faraday's point is twofold: one, that time travel is inherently unnatural and dangerous; and two, they are more than likely unwitting agents in Eloise's plot. Now, here's the potential irony, one I'll explore more tomorrow: what if her plot was actually to send them back to help save her son?
Do you think that Eloise gets exiled from the island because she killed adult Dan or does she leave because she knows she has to get her still young and living son off the island?
Chris
We have not seen an Other punished for killing a non-Other. We have seen punishment for Other-on-Other violence in the form of Juliet's trial in The Episode That Shall Not Be Named. In TETSNBN, it's strongly hinted that Juliet would have died if not for Jack's intervention. As such, she's merely branded, marking her as an essential outsider in her society. But at least we have a good sense of the rules of the society.
The answer to Chris' question depends on if Daniel Faraday is himself an Other at the time of Eloise shooting him. This gets into the tricky game of "Guess Faraday's Age!" Now, he's a professor at Oxford in 1996, so it should be safe to assume that his younger self was somewhere else in Tent City during his own murder, maybe playing cards with Ben as he heals while Renaissance Fair Widmore does a Maypole dance nearby. If so, the "eye for an eye" approach in TETSNBN would be in play, with possible mitigating circumstances due to time travel.
However, given the weird way in which time can work on the show, and the fact that we can't even 100% assume Widmore was telling the truth about his paternity, I'm not closing the door on some other more convoluted theory involving Richard Alpert, donkey wheels, and Mr. Cluck's Chicken Shack. We subscribe to one theory about most "Lost" mysteries at our own peril.
Did Dan know his mom would kill him?
ak
No, but I think he went back to the Island thinking it would be a one-way trip. I think Jeff Jensen persuasively argues that Faraday didn't go to detonate Jughead himself, but instead set of a series of events that would through everything on the Island into chaos. Rather than put the onus on himself to alter history, he did the equivalent of putting some MF'ing snakes on a MF'ing plane and set a whole lot of people into motion. As such, he changed the variable from one to many in order to assure success.
I assume that after seeing Charlotte in 1974, he wormed his way into Ann Arbor thanks to a few choice insights and a falsified backstory that made his skillset desirable for Dharma. He spent his years in Michigan looking for a way in which to save Charlotte in some capacity, and only went to the Island when his hand was forced by the appearance of Jack, Kate, and Hurley. Seeing them signaled something was very wrong, and potentially dangerous. A trap, perhaps.
But here's a more fascinating question: why wait until six hours before The Incident to show up? Can we just chalk this up to narrative necessity, a dramatic device designed to increase the tension for the final few episodes? Or is the threat in fact made up by Faraday in order to spring people into action, a lie instantly crafted in the wake of his shock at seeing the Class of '77 photograph? BrandonB might have a clue.
Does Faraday's little brown journal contain a map to find the Holy Grail?
BrandonB
Now, I think Brandon asked this in jest, but that journal's now the most important item on the Island. It's also a potential key in understanding the reasoning behind Eloise's methods in directing Daniel towards his death in 1977. It is also, I believe, the reason why Eloise Hawking knew so much about Desmond Hume. Moreover, it explains why Eloise is finally at a loss concerning the events of the future: they concern events not described in the journal.
So, no, there's no literal Holy Grail in that book, but it's either a road map of what's to come or a detailed account of what happened. Hell, given the time wonkiness in "Lost," maybe it's both. In either case, I think we'll see Eloise obtain this journal from Daniel's body and use it as a bible of sorts (continuing with the Holy Grail theme). Now, did she use it to ensure his demise, or prevent it? That's what I'll be examining in full tomorrow.
Ryan also posts every 108 minutes over at Boob Tube Dude. He invites you to join the hundreds already in Zap2It's Guide to Lost Facebook group. He also encourages you to subscribe to the Zap2It's Guide to Lost Twitter feed.
I don't think Eloise gets the journal as they clearly show Jack with it in the preview for this week
This show twists my brain in a knot! Why do I love it so much?
R.I.P. Daniel Faraday.
Egg McMuffins!
Ryan,
I like the potential theory that Eloise sent Jack back specifically to have the option to save her son. And I thin jack is @ a place wher he can finally accept that whatever happened didn't happen just by faradst's short moments with gim.
I agre that faradsy knew he wa coming back to die. And its intersting about Eloise perhaps holding tthe holy grail
Does that mewn Daniel knows what lies in the shadow of the statue?
Hey Ryan and the Others!
I think the death of Faraday clears up a few things:
It seems Ellie and Charles were married on the Island and conceived Daniel. Probably they were happy, leading the Others together and raising their son. Than the events of 'the Variable' happen and Ellie and Charles can no longer live with each other. Charles, I imagine, would be less sensitive to his son's death and would be less likely to curse fate on the Island. Ellie leaves with Daniel in order to either fulfill/alter destiny while Charles slowly starts a descent into loneliness. He starts leaving the Island with increasing frequency and falls in love with Penny's mother. He gets reckless and the Island decides to punish him with banishment.
Here we see finally strong motivations for both characters' actions. Their lives center on the pivotal moment of the death of their son and the subsequent incident that alters life on the Island for years. They struggle with knowing where destiny leads and what they must do to fulfill it and are always bitter for their unending personal sacrifices. Much like Ben this provides a humanizing context for everything they have done.
Some thoughts:
*With Jack in the Others' camp could we finally see Christian alive on the Island?
*I don't think Daniel's account of the incident is correct. I still believe whatever happened, happened. Maybe the Incident is caused by Jack trying to prevent it in the first place?
Can't wait for Wednesday. The Variable I believe is the first part of filling in the show's final picture.
I had forgotten the scene Desmond had with Hawking in the Lamp Post:
Desmond: "He said that only you could help them; he didn't say Jack, he didn't say Sun, he didn't say Ben, he said YOU."
Hawking: "But I am helping, dear."
It seems like Faraday considered Desmond to be THE variable, whereas Hawking saw many potential variables and she sent them back to initiate the "throw everything and hope something sticks" plan. Once they arrived in 1977, Faraday realized his mother was on the same page as him, she was just writing a bigger paragraph.
Now as to why Faraday waited until so close to Zero Hour to return to the Island, perhaps he just wanted to enact all his plans at the last possible minutes/hours because that would heighten the direness of the situation; it'd be easier to get people to believe him and/or follow him if there was no time to argue. Clearly, this didn't work for the likes of Sawyer and Miles, but Kate and especially Jack seem to be open to the idea.
I think, however, the more logical explanation is the submarine just has a fixed schedule and this was the first ride Faraday could catch since the Oceanic 6 showed up.
It's fascinating the journal is probably going to be the Rosetta Stone to explain Hawking's entire role in the show. I had always wondered how she knew so much about Desmond in "Flashes Before Your Eyes", and taking Dan's journal off his body, keeping and studying it for 20 years, then positioning herself at that jewelry store at the exact time she knew his brain would time travel, bizarrely seems to fit.
I'm thinking the journal doesn't explain everything about what Hawking knows though. I might be remembering this wrong but I recall her predicting a man's death when she first meets Desmond when he's mind tripping. It seems like that was a little too time specific to be in the journal. And all her talk about "course correction." I've always ***umed she had some of those future predicting flashes that Desmond used to get, so maybe she was at the epicenter of the Incident and received the flashes the same way Desmond did.
Wonder Twin Powers, Activate!
I would love to know if the contents of the journal changed as Faraday went back and forth in time. Given his work with constants, it would be cool to have a glimpse at what (if anything) appeared or vanished as things changed. Maybe they'll provide an extra little section for the super-duper deluxe, all-the-bells-and-whistles, definitive version of the DVD set in about ten years where you can actually read the entire journal at various points in the show. Might be worth the $499.99. :P
After The Constant, I thought things were appearing and disappearing in Dan's journal also. But now, it seems like everything has been there the whole time. Daniel is just flipping through and looking through it because he can't remember writing anything. So, when Des flashed back to him, that's when Daniel wrote "if anything happens, Desmond is my constant." Now my only question is how is everything else in that journal, like knowing about the secondary protocol or that he should contact Desmond in the past.
Oh and any guesses on when we'll meet Penny's mom or Desmond's parents?
I don't know, I don't really see much need to introduce Des' parents at this point. Do we really need ANOTHER guy with serious daddy issues?
I also think the journal doesn't change; it's just that Faraday can't remember what he wrote in it. Nothing REALLY changes. What happened, happened. And I agree with Ryan on the Holy Grail thing (but I do have to admit that I was only thinking about Indiana Jones when I made that wisecrack in the first place... I only WISH I had made the connection Ryan did).
Actually,Widmore has an Australian accent.