Live-Blogging of "The Variable"

Tonight I'm attempting to live-blog LOST for a few reasons:

1) It'll be a challenge.
2) So this week's post won't be so gi-normous.
3) Because I have other writing projects to work on, and I can't afford to spend 5 hours putting this blog together after the episode ends tonight.

So I'll jot thoughts as we go, post during the commercials, and then I'll add a list of questions after the episode ends.

Now I'm just crossing my fingers and hoping Obama's live press conference doesn't cut into LOST time. Because after last week's stinker of a recap ("new
perspective," my butt), I think we can expect big things this week. I guess you could say I have the audacity to hope for that.

More to come...as soon as Obama's done...


So Desmond did get shot! And he's where? In a hospital?

Uh-oh, Penny...be wary of that mysterious Hawking woman!

"I'm Eloise Hawking, and I believe it's my son's fault that your son has been shot."
"Your son is Benjamin Linus?"
"Heavens, no! My son is Daniel Faraday..." (Was that supposed to be surprising to us? To Penny?)

Scene change back to Daniel climbing out of the sub.

Miles: "What are you doing back here? Once you left for Ann Arbor, I figured you'd invent the DVD and get rich or something." Ha!

Daniel goes to Jack and demands that Jack tell him how they got there.

Jack: We were on a plane.
Dan: Who told you to get on a plane?
Jack: As a matter of fact, it was your mother.
Dan: How'd she get you to come back? Did she tell you it was your destiny?
Jack: Yeah, that's exactly what she said.
Dan: I've got some bad news for you Jack. You don't belong here at all. She was wrong.

Oh, Dan...it's good to have you back. You and your mysterious knowledge.

[Commercial break]

And now we have a kid playing the piano...Jack? Daniel? Desmond?

Ah, it is Daniel! And his mom is talking to him about destiny.

"Your gift, Daniel, is your mind. A mind that is meant for science, mathematics. And it's my job to keep you on your path. So unfortunately, there's no more time for distractions."

Boy: I can do both; I can make time.
Mom: If only you could.

(Oh, the double meaning!)

Back to 1977, where Jack tells Sawyer that Faraday is back.

Juliet tells Sawyer to tell Jack about Phil...who is tied up in the closet.

Sawyer: "Phil, Jack. Jack, Phil."

Meanwhile, Daniel and Miles are at the Orchid station. And Daniel seems to know exactly what he's doing. Although he's busy flipping through his journal...and suddenly, Pierre Chang is saying the same lines, from the same scene we saw earlier this season (the first episode?). Only this time, we see Daniel approach Pierre and tell him to evacuate "every man, woman, and child" on the island.

Pierre says the electromagnetic energy is contained, but Daniel says it's going to be unleashed elsewhere on the island, including the site for the Swan station where it's 30,000 times as strong (or something like that).

Daniel: "The accident is going to be catastrophic!"
Pierre: "That's absurd. What could possibly qualify you to make that kind of prediction?"
Daniel: "I'm from the future."

(I wonder how many times one of our LOST-ies will say that before someone believes them...)

[Commercial]

We come back to

Pierre: Yes, you're from the future. You heard me talking about time travel, and now you've had your fun.
Daniel tries to get Pierre Chang to look at his equations in his notebook.
Miles comes over and tries to break them up. And then...

Daniel: "Miles is your son."

Pierre to Miles: "Is that true?"
Miles: "No."

Miles: "Are you out of your mind? What are you trying to do?"
Daniel: "I'm just trying to make sure your father does what he's supposed to do."
Miles: "And what's that?"
Daniel: "You'll see."

Scene change...

Daniel with his girl, Theresa, and Mrs. Hawking.

Mrs. Hawking: The women in your life will only be terribly hurt.

Daniel got a 1.5 million dollar research grant from "some industrialist." Mrs. Hawking was very surprised when Daniel said Charles Widmore's name.

Mommy Hawking gives Dan a congratulations gift (I'm guessing a journal?) and she says, "Good luck, Daniel. And I hope you know I mean that."

Aha! It is a journal, with a nice little message from mommy.

Scene Change back to an impromptu house meeting: Sawyer, Juliet, Hurley, Jack, Jin, Kate.

They're talking about what to do. Sawyer says they have 2 options:

1) Commandeer the sub...
2) Go into the jungle and "start from square 1"

They seem to be leaning toward option 2 when there's a knock at the door...and it's Daniel and Miles.

Sawyer to Dan: "Welcome to the meeting, Twitchy."

Sawyer to Miles: "Is he still crazy?"
Miles: "It's on a whole new level."

Daniel: What I have to do is of critical importance. Does anyone know where I can find the "hostiles"?
Juliet: Why do you want to know that, Daniel?
Daniel: Because one of them is my mother, and she's the only one who can get us back to where we're supposed to be (or something like that).

(I guess I get why they think Dan's crazy, but hasn't he been right about, well, almost everything? His people skills aren't great, and he comes across as a little crazy...but I'm surprised they're so inclined to distrust him.)

[Commercial]

Okay, they just showed a preview for Wipeout, and I just thought about how great it would be to see Hurley doing that obstacle course...

Okay, and we're back to Daniel crying (even though he doesn't know why) when the fake Oceanic 815 wreckage was discovered.

And then Widmore shows up to visit him.

Daniel: I'm sorry, sir. Did Caroline tell you that the condition affects my memory?
Charles: Don't be embarrassed. We've never met. My name is Charles Widmore. (How many times have we seen him introduce himself to various people?)

Widmore: "I came to offer you a new opportunity."
Daniel: "It's this plane crash; I don't know why it's bothering me so much. It's so sad. They're dead."
Widmore: Daniel, what if I told you, they're not dead. What if I told you the plane was an elaborate, and expensive, fake.
Daniel: How would you know that?
Widmore: Because I put it there! (Aha!)
Daniel: Why would you tell me that?
Widmore: Because come tomorrow, you won't remember I did.

Widmore tells Dan about the island with "unique properties," and he says the island will heal him, heal his mind and his memory.

Daniel: Why are you doing all this for me?
Widmore: Because you're a man of tremendous gifts and it would be a shame to see them go to waste.
Daniel: You sound like my mother.
Widmore: That's because we're old friends. (Daniel looked confused.)

Scene change back to 1977...

Sawyer: You're telling me your mother is an other?

Hurley: Whoa, you guys were in 1954? You mean, Fonzi times?

Jack wants Kate to help take Daniel to the Others. Sawyer is opposed. Sawyer says to Kate, "Come with us, Freckles."

Juliet's face...registered something. Jealousy? Anger? Shock? What?

Juliet: The code for the fence is 1411417...You should take Daniel; it's over for us here, anyway.

Wow, she totally emasculated Sawyer. And made the decision Sawyer couldn't.

Sawyer: When you realize you made a terrible mistake, meet us at the beach, where we started.

And then Daniel sees Charlotte on the swing set. (What's up with that swing set?)

Daniel to Charlotte: Hopefully, really soon, Dr. Chang is going to ask a lot of people to get on the submarine and get on the island. When he does, you and your mommy are going to have to get on that submarine. If what I came to do doesn't work, you can't be here...I tried to avoid telling you this, I didn't think I could change things. But maybe I can.

Jack and Kate are loading up their guns...and Dan says, "Do you have something for a beginner?"

Radzinsky and friends confront them, with guns.

Daniel: Listen to me, you really do not understand what's happening here. We're just going to leave, okay?

Gunfire erupts.

Dan gets hit. Jack covers Kate and Dan as they run to the Jeep. Jack's a bad dude. (Have we seen him firing a gun before?)

They drive away amid the gunfire...

Radzinsky: "Sound the alarm!"

[Commercial]

We see an older Daniel playing the piano, and Mrs. Hawking comes in. (Has Daniel forgotten how to play?...he stopped so abruptly.)

Mrs. Hawking: I hear you've been offered a job.
Daniel: How do you know that?
Mrs. Hawking: It's my business to know...I came here to tell you it's very important that you say yes to Mr. Widmore, that you accept this job.

Mrs. Hawking: This place he mentioned, this island. Did he tell you that it could make you better?

Daniel: You really want me to go?
Mrs. Hawking: Yes.
Daniel: Will it make you proud of me?
Mrs. Hawking: Yes, Daniel. It will. (this was kind of corny, I'm sorry...)
Daniel: Then I'll do it.

Scene change back to Jack, Kate, and Daniel riding out to the sonic fence... (the windshield either got blown completely out, or this is a continuity error)

Daniel: You've got to understand, Jack, this is our present. We can't be so naive as to think that nothing can happen to us. Any one of us can die, Jack.

Kate turns the fence off.

Kate: You think he knows what he's doing?
Jack: I sure hope so. There's no turning back now.

Scene change back to Sawyer and Juliet.

Sawyer: You can say I told you so.
Juliet: Maybe after we get to the beach?
Sawyer: Hey, you still got my back?
Juliet: You still got mine? (Think she's thinking of Kate?)

The siren sounds.
Hurley: That's not good, right?

Radzinsky: I just got shot by a physicist!
Sawyer: Calm down so we can talk about this...

Radzinsky finds Phil in the closet. Radzinsky makes Sawyer get down on the ground, at gunpoint.

And back in the woods... Jack says, "You need a gun to go talk to your mother?"
and Dan says, "You don't know my mother, Jack."

Dan tells them about the event at the Swan work site, in 4 hours, that's about to set in motion the chain of events leading up to now.

Dan says they can change it.

Dan: I'd been spending so much time focusing on the constant, that I forgot about the variables. You know what those variables are?
Jack: What?
Dan: Us. We think, we reason, we have free will. We can change our destiny.

Dan is going to try to destroy the Swan?

Kate: And how do you plan to destroy all this energy?
Dan: I'm going to detonate a hydrogen bomb.

(Ah, well, I guess that explains why they think he's crazy...and it explains why he's looking for Ellie, since she's the one he told to bury the bomb...but can they really be variables? Can they change things?)

[commercial]

Special shout-out to the anonymous person who just posted! I'm sorry you can't watch it right now, and I'm glad I was able to help out.

And we're back, in the hospital with Penny and Mrs. Hawking.

Eloise: Your son has become a casualty in a struggle that's bigger than us...
Penny: What do you mean? Is he going to be okay?
Eloise: For the first time, I don't know. I honestly don't know what's going to happen. (Or something like that.)

But it looks like Desmond is going to be okay...but what is Hawking up to?

WIdmore approaches her outside the hospital and asks, "Is he going to be alright?"
Eloise, "Yes, he's fine."
Charles: "Good." (Is he saying "good" because it's his son-in-law...or because Desmond is important?)

Eloise: "Your daughter is in there. You could go in and say hi."
Charles: "My daughter is one of the sacrifices I had to make..."
Eloise: "Don't talk to me about sacrifices. I had to send my son back to that island..."
Charles: "He's my son too, Eloise."
Eloise slaps him...and walks away.

So Faraday really is the "love child" (you were right, Todd) of Ellie and Charles.

Back in the jungle, Daniel approaches the Others' camp, gun drawn. A Hostile/Other went for his gun, and Daniel fired into the ground to deter him.

Daniel says, "I only want to speak to Eloise."
Richard Alpert comes out, mug in hand, "She's not here right now..."

Daniel: "Where's the bomb, Richard? I'm going to give you three seconds..."
Daniel gets shot.
Richard: "Why did you do that?"
Eloise: He had a gun on you.
Richard: He wasn't going to shoot, Eloise.

Daniel: You knew. You knew all along. And you sent me here anyway.
Eloise: Who are you?
Daniel: I'm your son.

Is Daniel dying? It doesn't look good...

(Whoa, whoa...so Eloise and Charles are Daniel's parents...AND they sent him back to the island knowing Eloise was going to shoot (and kill?) him! Crazy!)

[End of Episode]

I'll add the summary and the prevailing questions shortly...

Summary:

If this marks the end of Daniel Faraday, it was a great way to go out. Daniel, taking charge and carrying out his plan. And shot by his mother! What a great twist that was. I like Daniel, but if this is his end, I can live with that. This episode went a long way toward wrapping up his story (maybe all the way).

And this episode adds a whole new layer to Mrs. Hawking's story. So she and Widmore were once lovers—Daniel's parents—but then Widmore must have moved on (maybe the off-island child Ben referred to?) because he's Penny's father. But Mrs. Hawking is so committed to making sure things turn out correctly...but why? Why send Daniel back to the island? Why does she care so much?

And what about her telling Penny that, for the first time in a long time, she didn't know what would happen next? What's that all about?

But hey, it's good to see Jack doing something again. Good to see him being good ol' Jack.

Questions:

1) Why did Mrs. Hawking go to visit Desmond (and Penny) in the hospital? She doesn't strike me as the kind of woman who does anything unless it's part of a plan. So what's her goal here? To get Desmond back to the island? And why would she say that it's her son's fault Desmond got shot? Why is it Daniel's fault that Ben shot Desmond?

2) Is this the beginning of the end for Juliet and Sawyer? Or is that just what the writers want us to think? (Or am I the only one who thought we were supposed to think that?

3) How closely are Eloise and Charles working together? Now that we know that they were once lovers, what does that say about Eloise allowing Benjamin Linus to board Ajira 316 with the rest of the group heading back to the island? From Widmore's perspective, that's quite a betrayal, isn't it?

...and that's all the questions I can come up with right now. I'm a little disappointed in myself. But maybe I'll add more later.

Looking forward to next week...

—Thanks for Reading