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Twitter'Lost': Black Math, Part 2
Hopefully you found yesterday's entry a good foundation for looking at the life and enigmatic times of Eloise Hawking. It was a bit lengthy as far as set up goes, but this is "Lost" that we're talking about. No one said this would be a walk in the park. To me, all that set-up was necessary not only to provoke discussion (always a good thing), but also to lay the proper foundation to help explain one of Season 5's signature images: Eloise feverishly writing equations on the chalkboard in the Lamp Post. Druid math? Nah, that's some black math, baby. But is this dark math in fact serving the light?
In most ways, "316" is the pivot point of Season 5. Not only does it fall narratively in the middle part of the season, but also provides us the most crucial question of the season: why was Ajira Airways 316 selected as the method by which to return to the Island? Given the secrets revealed in the time since that episode aired, it's worth it to revisit that episode, no matter how much many of you loathed it first time around. If it helps, time hasn't made my heart grow fonder for this episode. But it may hold the key to understanding Eloise Hawking. But first, the final White Stripes lyric I promised you yesterday.
Mathematically turning the page
Unequivocally showing my age
I'm practically center stage
Undeniably earning your wage
Maybe I'll put my love on ice
And teach myself, maybe that'll be nice
One way to look at Daniel's journal is to see it as just another way in which Eloise Hawking pushed her son towards his tragic, inevitable end. In this construction, it's what Roger Waters would call another brick in the wall, another stepping stone towards a predestined fate. But let's posit another scenario, just for fun: suppose that journal is in fact not another brick in the wall, but instead a chisel by which to tear down the seemingly indestructible wall of fate?
We know Daniel carries that journal, 24/7. Inside are equations, notations, and scribblings even he can't always decipher. In other words, it's as cryptic as the hieroglyphics which exist throughout the Island's edifices. If you want in-show proof of that connection, look no further than the modifications made to Daniel's map after landing on the Island. To the untrained eye, they are meaningless. To the knowing eye, they convey the answer to mystery.
So, what better way to undo "whatever happened" than to learn the mysteries inside Daniel's journal? Not only could that journal key her into key figures such as Desmond Hume, but introduce her to mathematical theories that are literally futuristic to her. Could she instantly understand them? Of course not. The Others may be very intelligent but wouldn't have knowledge of Eddington--Finkelstein coordinates.
Which brings us back again to the infamous druid math scene from the otherwise forgettable episode, "The Lie." In the climatic scene, we see a hooded figure scratching out equations that are just slightly more complex than 2+2=4. These equations, along with a giant pendulum and an old computer, help her determine an event window by which Jack and company can return to the Island. Today's study question: how the hell did she gain knowledge of both the location and the mathematical acumen necessary to utilize it?
Again, we have to look at the journal as the Encyclopedia Faradica by which she gleaned knowledge not even the world's finest mathematicians could obtain. Why did she seek such knowledge? Think of parents who suffer loss; they often find comfort or purpose in a profession or vocation that touches upon the nature of that loss in some way, shape, or form. What if Eloise's study of complex mathematics was both a tribute to her son and a way to potentially SAVE him from his supposedly preordained fate?
We're talking purpose here, not result. The fact that her efforts apparently failed doesn't factor into this discussion. It's the intent behind it that matters to me in determining that central mystery mentioned earlier: the selection of Ajira Airways. If 1977 Eloise Hawking finds Daniel's journal, then her journey reminds me somewhat of another famous science fiction mathematician, Hari Seldon of Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" series.
In "Foundation," Seldon creates a mathematics he calls "psychohistory" in order to shorten the dark ages after the inevitable, unstoppable collapse of the Galactic Empire. His technique works best on a macro level: the bigger the number of people analyzed, the better and more accurate his results would be. Problem was, his theory didn't work so well on the micro level, and an aberrational figure known as The Mule nearly single-handedly undermines the entire endeavor. But whereas Seldon couldn't factor in such a figure, Eloise Hawking is absolutely counting on one.
We have in Eloise a woman who inadvertently shot a time-traveling version of her son. Maybe she picks up his journal. Maybe she reads it. Inside she sees equations she doesn't understand, the concept of a "constant," and maybe the name of a location in Los Angeles by which one could find the Island off its shores. Maybe she sits on that knowledge, knowing that running away from fate would only hasten it. Maybe she peers over the numbers while Daniel plays the piano. Maybe she sketches out a few of her own while he's at Oxford. Maybe those equations help predict when a man with red shoes might get killed under some scaffolding. And after Daniel leaves on the Kahana, she makes her way to Los Angeles to try and fight fate from there.
Which leads us back again to "316," an episode that will make a ton of sense at some point in the future but now leaves us still grasping at straws while seeking significance. Did she pick that flight because she was always supposed to, or in direct defiance of Fate's orders? Why did four people get teleported back in time: the Island's doing, or Eloise's? Did she understand that while Daniel himself couldn't fulfill his desire to set off Jughead, someone else displaced in time could? Daniel's journal holds the answer to the mystery, and currently only Eloise has the answers.
A complete view of her life? Hardly. But it's a damn interesting view in my opinion, one that doesn't necessarily make her a saint but potentially less of a sinner. She's a woman that put her love for her son on ice in order to teach herself the things necessary to save him from her own hands. Take us home with a reprise, Jack White.
Mathematically turning the page
Unequivocally showing my age
I'm practically center stage
Undeniably earning your wage
Maybe I'll put my love on ice
And teach myself, maybe that'll be nice
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
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WAAAAAAAAAALT!
Ryan, I have a question for you. What if, and this is a big WHAT IF, and may not even make any sense based on what we know.
What if the first time Daniel was shot by his mother, he DIDN'T have the journal with all the answers with him? What if giving him that journal and keeping him on his geeky path in life, and making sure he did go back, this time with the journal with all the answers, was all part of a larger plan? Think about it, if there is ANY character on the show with more to gain, the life of their own child, by fighting destiny and in leaving no stone unturned to try to change the past, it is Eloise.
We also see her speaking to Widmore about her sacrifice. Well, sacrifice for what ends? What did she hope to accomplish with this sacrifice? I just don't believe it was a sacrifice, decades in the making, just because she "had" to. Sending him back, this time with the journal, with all the answers, with all the information needed to change time, to change SOMETHING, does sound like a plan, and to her, maybe something to be gained by knowingly sacrificing her son.
Something just didn't seem right the first time I watched this, why would Eloise just send her son off to his death like that? She did express love and a protective side in her exchange with Widmore. She is not an emotionless, cold hearted killer. She did it because Daniel was bringing the magic bullet with him this time, something he didn't have the first time back to 1977. And if enough of the O6 didn't go back, he may not have walked into the camp in the first place. No Kate going with Swayer to give Ben to Richard, no Jack to come up with the plan, and Daniel may not walk into that camp at that moment. She needed the O6 to get Daniel in that place and time with that journal.
Its just me thinking out loud!
BTW, I knew Jughead was coming back, and the very few people who know/knew about it and where it is are falling into place!
Thanks for a great column Ryan! You always get me thinking!
Damn, awesome analysis, Ryan. It really summed up all the things I've been trying to figure about Eloise Hawking.
Before now, I believed that she was sinister, perhaps working for the "dark" side that wants to control the Island. Then I thought she was working for good, but was so zealous she had to sacrifice Dan. But now I'm starting to wonder if her entire plan with Ajira 316 (and probably Desmond) has been to rewrite history for the SOLE purpose of saving her son. She's not good or bad, she's just heartbroken.
Basically, her reason for sending Dan to his death is the same reason he got into a gunfight with Dharma and stormed into the Others camp with a weapon; live or die, it won't matter if history gets changed. If history changes, Dan won't even GO to the Island, ever.
Since Back to the Future is being so tossed around as a reference in the show this season, I'll put it this way; if Dan's plan doesn't succeed, then like the McFly family, his mom & dad still get together. Little things might be different, like them becoming rich, but overall nothing changes.
However, if Dan DOES change history, everything will be different. And I think what we're going to find out is that, like the corrupted alternate 1985 of BttF 2, the Island will become an even worse place than it was before, with Smokey and the dark forces firmly in control.
Ryan,
JOOOOOOOOOURNAL!!!!!!!!!!!
Something has been bugging me about Faraday's journal. When did he write in the journal? It seems in "The Variable" that he knew exactly when Chang was going to arrive at The Orchid. He also knew exactly what the Incident was and how it was going to occur. He even knew exactly what TIME it was going to happen. I don't understand. WHEN did he collect this information and write it in the journal? As far as we know, he never experienced the 70s before, nor did he know anyone who had, so when did he see Chang show up at the Orchid or do***ent the Incident so exactly? I thought that his mom was going to give him a full notebook, which would have created a sort of loop with the notebook where he got the info from his future self by way of the past... but that doesn't seem to be the case.
Am I alone in my confusion regarding the info in the notebook? Am I wrong to feel the need for further info? Do you think this will be addressed in the next few weeks? Or is this just a loose end I will be forced to fill in myself?
Jason
I knew Jack White had all the answers. He is god after all.
Jason, you bring up a very good point. In "Because You Left", Daniel says to the rest of the Losties that his journal contains everything he's ever learned about the DHARMA Initiative.
Now, I can only ***ume he began research on the DHARMA Initiative after he was recruited to be a part of the Kahana expedition and not before, since it's likely he had never heard of DHARMA up until that point. If that's the case, when, where and how did he learn so much about the DI? Did he learn it from Charles Widmore? Were the Hostiles keeping their own records of the goings-on of the DI? Or did he learn the DI's history by studying their archives? That doesn't seem likely, since the defunct DHARMA Initiative probably closed up shop on the mainland after the Purge. Or did they?
Gah! See? There's just not enough information to know the answer that question. And I wonder if we ever will get that answer. Was the DI research in Dan's journal just a device by which the writers could give Dan foresight, or is there a missing piece to the puzzle that we'll learn in season 6; one where we learn the DI's infrastructure is still running - hence the pallette drops - but no one is manning the wheel? If THAT's the case, maybe they still have offices that Widmore or Hawking know of where Dan could learn things like the existence/location of the Orchid and the record of the Incident. Maybe.
The ONLY thing that makes sense to me is this: given what we've seen of Widmore's interests (the Namaste painting in his office; bidding on the journal of the Black Rock's first mate; the Secondary Protocol; the map to the Tempest; etc.) maybe Widmore did all of this reasearch and information gathering in the 20 years since he was exiled from the Island and PROVIDED Faraday will all of it when he accepted the Kahana expedition, and Faraday then copied key bits of this information into his journal.
Or I'm wrong again.
Daniel's quote: " I know about this because... I've spent my entire adult life studying space-time. I know all this because this journal contains everything I've ever learned about the DHARMA Initiative. This is why I'm here. I know what's happening."
So it's a bit confusing, because he didn't spend his entire adult life studying the DI, just space-time. But you're right about the compressed timeline in which Faraday obtained DI info. ***uming he didn't know anything about them before Widmore's visit to Essex, he had less than a week to gather up intel before boarding the Kahana.
So I can see the "Widmore gave him Cliff Notes" theory making sense, especially in light of Faraday mentioning to Eloise about the equations Widmore wants him to solve.
The only hole I immediately see: it doesn't explain how Faraday knew about the super secret double dog dare Secondary Protocol. That seems like "For Keamy's Eyes Only" info to me. But I'd chalk that up to minor continuity error vs. debunking your take.
In the immortal words of Jimmy Buffett: "Math Sucks!"
I think Dan had something to do with the Lamp Post being designed. Eloise said something to the effect that a very brilliant person had built that place. Perhaps it was her own brilliant son.
My guess is that this time loop with Dan has happened before; maybe many times in an attempt to prefect it, to change the outcome at some point.
How is it, though, that Eloise can so easily find a way back to the island when Charles has been searching for decades? Why, if he and Eloise are old friends, didn't he just ask for her help years ago? Charles must have known that she would be driven to find a way to change the outcome of Daniel walking into to "others" camp that day.
What was Charles' real reason for sending the Kahana back to the island? Was it to ensure Daniel's presence there, to send Keamy to kill Ben, to send Miles to communicate with the dead to find Ben? What of Charlotte? Are all of these people just pieces in an eloborate puzzle that have to be put in place to ensure an ultimate outcome? What does this have to do with the "war" that is coming? I still wonder who/what/which is the dark side and which is the light.
This is probably over-simplifying things, but could Faraday have possibly gathered info on Dharma and written it in his notebook on one of his time-travel experiments that fried his brain? He may not have necessarily remembered the details, but could have written down what he learned for later use. I seem to recall from past episodes like The Constant that he'd refer to his notebook and that he didn't fully understand at the time how all his entries ended up there...so perhaps he had travelled to the future and gathered intell and didn't even fully realize it. This might explain how he already had details like the exact time when Mr. Chang would arrive, or that he needed to find his mother at the Others jungle camp. In other words: he DID experience the 70's before, but he wasn't aware of it. And we as an audience haven't been shown this part (yet).
PS - just found your blog and am absolutely in love with it. Thanks for your views and insights!
"The only hole I immediately see: it doesn't explain how Faraday knew about the super secret double dog dare Secondary Protocol. That seems like "For Keamy's Eyes Only" info to me."
Y'know, that screams "on-freighter plot reveal that got dropped due to the strike" to me. Imagine Dan doing his research and equations while onboard the Kahana and accidentally coming across the secondary protocol somehow.