And I think we’re reading too much into all this seeming new to Desmond and Faraday. Sure, Faraday doesn’t remember writing that Desmond can be his constant, and Desmond appears not to have recognized Faraday on the island. But to quote another series, their minds both appear to have been pretty much swiss cheesed by the process.
This is my favorite episode in a long time. And the first one in a long time that I think I could show to someone who hasn’t been following the series with any hope that they’d be able to follow the plot.
Well, unless we saw him flip through the diary before talking to Desmond, we don’t actually know if the whole “Desmond Hume is my anchor” bit was in the journal or not - and as a matter of fact, if time can’t be changed (as Daniel thinks), it seems to me that that part of the journal HAD TO BE in there already.
Anyway, why would Daniel have ended up on the island anyway? It seemed to me he was some guy who’d crumbled mentally and was so far gone he needed someone to be his keeper. I think he only got pulled out of there because the Freighter Folks’ Boss saw his work, looked at Island Stuff, and said, “This guy’s theory seems to match what’s going on. Let’s put him as part of our A-Team”.
I’ve seen about half the episode. So, apparently Desmond’s come down with mild Billy Pilgrim Syndrome. (Maybe the island contains a chronosynclastic infindibulum.)
I remember back in the first season, the writers saying that everything would have a real-world explanation. Seems a little unlikely now, what with the time travel ‘n’ such.
Yes. There are plenty of details we saw in the pilot episodes that are now starting to come to fruition. The whole Black Rock ship thing is one example:
See, here’s where I think I differ with just about everyone. If Faraday didn’t remember writing that in the journal, why was he flipping through the journal looking for that page?
I think…and hell, this is Lost, so who knows, that the page was there, but Faraday didn’t undertsand what it meant until the events played themselves out, and then he “remembered” it happening, and knew what the journal meant. His memory was gone, but some things he had written down were still there, and some of it resonated in his head (which was why he cried when he heard about the plane crash). It wasn’t until the events happened to connect them to his present that he suddenly remembered everything and realized what that nonsense he had written in his journal meant.
I think.
Maybe.
It reminds me of the John Byrne retcon of Wonder Woman some years ago, where he sent Hipollyta back in time and made her the Golden Age Wonder Woman, and all of the sudden, everyone in the present “remembered” there **being[/] a Golden Age Wonder Woman. Considering how many people working on *Lost * right now are comic book writers, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s where this is going.
I think that most of the paradoxes in the episode fall away if you work on the assumption that Desmond’s (and Faraday’s) consciousness is linear even when bouncing around in time. So, back in 1996 Desmond would have gaps in his memory for the times when his future consciousness had been in his body because those times hadn’t happened to his 1996 consciousness yet.
Faraday would have remembered, but they established last episode that Faraday has memory problems (remember the card experiment he was working on with C.S. Lewis?) He was obviously having enough problems that he needed a live-in caretaker. He may have just blanked out those memories until events triggered enough of them to make him look in his notebook. The “Desmond Hume is my constant” would be the same way; he wrote it at some point in the past then forgot it.
It seems obvious that he exposed himself to his time-warp field at some point between 1996 and 2004, even though.
Faraday at one point tells Jack and Juliet that “perception of time is different on the Island”. But it can’t be too different because the actual date is more-or-less the same as that on the Island. (People like Sledgeweb who had been keeping up with the timeline had placed the “current” time on the Island as around December 24, which was confirmed as the correct date on the freighter.)
Sayid did say something to the pilot along the lines of “We took off at dusk and now it is mid-day; what is going on?” I’m guessing that has something to do with the 3 1/2 hour time difference that Faraday found out a few episodes back. Apparently the Island is “offset” from the rest of the world by about that much.
Also, if it is December 24, 2004, it’s about time for the Indian Ocean tsunami to occur. I wonder if they will reference that in the show.
Sorry, I came across somewhat confusingly; I was making two statements that got mashed into one sentence.
I think the pilot (Frank Lapidus? Is that his name?) was who let them out of the sickbay. It was obvious that it was someone else who trashed the radio room (if for no other reason than the fact that the radio room was trashed while the pilot was on the Island. I was speculating on who was responsible for trashing it. That it was Ben’s contact on the freighter was a good guess (whoever said that). Ben doesn’t want any contact between the Island and the outside world so it would make sense for him to do that.
I kept waiting for Oxford Faraday to whip out a drawing for a flux capacitor.
So, if we accept that time is moving faster on the island, is it really Christmas Eve, 2004? (Jack thought Sayid and Des had left a day and a half ago for the freighter, but it wasn’t that long.) But Des told Penny he would call her on Christmas Eve, 2004, and he did. Or maybe the calendar on the ship is correct, and Sayid just assumed it matched the time they’d been on the island…except for Jack, I don’t think anyone is really keeping track.
And if we accept that time is moving faster on the island, that they’ve only been shipwrecked a week (?) then I think we can assume Aaron is NOT one of the Oceanic 6. If Kate is claiming him as her son, he couldn’t have been born on the island, or she’d have to explain Claire, and for whatever reason, Claire is no longer in the picture.
While I generally liked the episode, I felt that the Constant as a concept was a little too phlebotenumy for my taste. So, you need a constant, someone (or thing?) really important to you - someone you love, even - in the past *and *the future so that you’re not snapping in and out of time, losing your memory and bleeding in your brain…why?
And how on earth does someone Farraday met twice (Desmond) have more of the requisite holding power on him than someone Desmond’s been hanging out with through life threatening adventures for weeks (Sayid)? Why can Desmond be Farraday’s constant and yet Sayid can’t be Desmond’s constant?
These aren’t Lost-worthy questions, I know. They’re nitpicky silly questions that won’t ever be addressed, because the real answer is: because it makes a more romantic story if Penny, the star-crossed love, is Desmond’s constant. And that’s what makes Constant a phlebotenum, not a Lost-worthy plot device. One of the things I’ve loved about Lost is that there are a ton of mysteries and a slew of coincidences, but until now we’ve had a dearth of phlebotenum.
Possibly a good point. When the robotic submarine found Oceanic 815, didn’t the pilot pretty much come up with “It’s Oceanic 815!” right away?
That would kind of make sense if they had found it shortly after the crash, because it was in the news. However, finding it months later, and still remembering the specific flight number seems pretty unlikely.
Actually, it makes perfect sense. Yes, the thing is schmaltzy. No doubt about it.
However, Faraday knew that Desmond would be on the island. Faraday, if his brain starts time-kicking, won’t start time-kicking till he’s on the island.
So, Faraday knows that there’s one thing guaranteed to be on the island - Desmond. So, Desmond can be his constant on the island. In the past, Desmond is his constant because he’s a big part of Faraday’s life who confirmed his Theory of Time Travel.
Faraday’s constant being his favorite teddy bear doesn’t do him any good, since he has no way of knowing that he’ll have his teddy bear with him on the island.
I liked this ep for a number of reasons. One is that I was at Oxford in September, but I don’t think they actually filmed anything in Oxford. The grass in the lawn looked all wrong
Second is that I like time travel stories when it’s done well, and Desmond’s time bounce was done very well. I especially like that we had the whole problem/solution in one hour, which is pretty close to being a first for Lost. I’m sad that George Mintowski died (and my money’s on him trashing the radio room) because I like that actor, but it was totally necessary for the plot.
I would have thought that Faraday’s constant would have the mathematics and physics of the phenomenon itself. After all, he was passionate about them in 1996 and in 2004. And we all know that nothing is more near and dear to a physicist’s heart than his work.
The pilot was supposed to be the pilot of Flight 815 the day it crashed (Why he wasn’t isn’t known yet). The pilot that took his place was a friend. I would think that he would, in fact, have that particular flight number imprinted in his brain pretty firmly.
[QUOTE=BarbarianSecond is that I like time travel stories when it’s done well, and Desmond’s time bounce was done very well. I especially like that we had the whole problem/solution in one hour, which is pretty close to being a first for Lost. I’m sad that George Mintowski died (and my money’s on him trashing the radio room) because I like that actor, but it was totally necessary for the plot.[/QUOTE]
