Character Overview: Daniel Faraday

This isn't a complete character overview, and in some ways, it's more of a prediction/theory. But first, I wanted to create a basic timeline for Daniel's life (as we've seen it), since his journey has been confusing, and doing so helped me assess what's going on with our mad physicist.

So here goes:

Birth&mdash Unknown. Eloise Hawking is his mother, but I stand by my claim that she adopted him...which means it could have happened later and we needn't assume he was born wherever she was living. If their connection is biological, however, then it could mean Daniel was born on the island (as an Other/Hostile, born to that Ellie woman he met in 1954—or Ellie could have given birth to him after she left the island.)

1954—(on the island during a time-flash)—tells the Others what to do with the Jughead bomb, has a strange conversation with Ellie (thinks he recognizes her…)

1974—on the island (after Charlotte’s body disappeared) with Sawyer, Juliet, Miles, and Jin…mumbling about how he can't change things, blah, blah, blah.

1970’s (presumably after 1974?)—working on the construction of The Orchid

1977—Sawyer says Daniel isn’t there anymore…

So where did he go? My guess…since they were constructing the Orchid station in the 1970’s and Pierre Chang expressed an interest in time travel…maybe Faraday was the guinea pig, and maybe that’s what shipped him off the island…?

1996 –teaching at Oxford

After Desmond tells Daniel what numbers to use to “unstick Eloise in time,” they have this exchange:

DESMOND: So, so how does that help me?
DAN: You, what? I don't understand, am I supposed to help you? Didn't I send you back here to help me?
DESMOND: I don't know why you sent me here. All I know about you is that you end up on some bloody island.
DAN: An island. What island, where...why would I go to an island?

2004—living in Essex, Massachusetts, and he has a caregiver who watches over him…? After Flight 815 crashes, he cries, but doesn’t know why. Shortly after that, he’s recruited by Matthew Abaddon to join the team with Naomi, Miles, Charlotte, and Frank.


Another thing to think about…Daniel was the one who went to the Tempest station to shut it down and prevent the spread of toxic gas. Before this, Charlotte was helping him regain his memory…so I think he helped design this station, and that’s why he was the one who knew how to disable it. Maybe...

But here's the idea that really intrigues me. Remember, if you read my Desmond Hume Character Overview, I put a lot of emphasis on Daniel telling Desmond that he is "uniquely and miraculously special." Daniel believes Desmond has the power to change things.

And in 1974, Daniel is really hung up on "what happened happened...we can't change things...the record is stuck, but we're not on the song we want..." So he has this great understanding of time travel, but for whatever reason, he doesn't think he can change things. But he thinks Desmond can!

And what's the fun in time travel if one doesn't have the ability to change things? So where did Daniel go? My answer: to find Desmond Hume. Maybe it'll be in present day, or maybe in the past, but I think Daniel is looking for Desmond. I think he'll find him. Soon. And I'm looking forward to it.

(And one last crackpot theory: What if Ellie the Other is in fact Daniel's mother...and what if his father was a member of the Dharma Initiative. That would give us a Romeo/Juliet type of love story, where Ellie the Other and a Dharma man become "two star-crossed lovers," but without the mutual suicide at the end, of course. Maybe that relationship in the 60's or early 70's even led to the formation of "The Truce.")

Any errors in this thinking? Other ideas?

—Thanks for reading