A Case of the.... Lost - Episode 5-14 Revisited

Before I revisit (hey, that’s the name of the column!) last week’s episode, let me discuss something that has been irking me for the past week. Since it has been hinted that Daniel is likely Mrs. Hawking’s son, and that she’s likely the woman on the island during the 50’s, at the same time that Widmore was on the island, everybody has been predicting that Widmore is Daniel’s father. We finally got that confirmation in a neat little scene, and how does everybody respond? By theorizing that Widmore ISN’T actually his father, but that his real father is Richard Alpert. And what has been one of the most prevalent arguments made to “prove” this idea? That Eloise and Widmore both have blue eyes, and two blue eyed parents cannot have a brown eyed child. This argument is immensely stupid. I was going to let this slide, but can we please keep in mind that all three of these people are actors playing a role? Secondly – and this is important – that whole “two blue eyes can’t equal brown eyes” formula isn’t even true. Do educated adults actually believe this? Because they seem to. But don’t take my word for it, here’s an excerpt from USA Today:

Most of us learned the model for determining eye color that G.C. Davenport and C.B. Davenport devised in 1907. The Davenport model wrongly says brown eye color is always dominant over blue eye color, which means that two blue-eyed parents always have blue-eyed kids. We know better now.

Eye color is a complex trait that depends on the state of several interacting genes. The gene that usually decides the issue (blue eyes or brown eyes) is the OCA2 gene on chromosome 15. But it comes in different strengths. A person with a weak form of the OCA2 gene will have blue eyes. Likewise a person with a strong form will have brown eyes.

So yeah, let’s not continue going by that formula that was created over 100 years ago, mmkay? No need to continue to perpetuate this myth.

Click the "Read More" link for the full column.

So if I'm not mistaken, this week's episode is the second to last of the season, meaning we're REALLY getting into the nitty-gritty of this series. That means there's, like, less than 20 episodes left of this series in TOTAL. Incredible! What I find particularly curious is that we still don't know why Hurley ended up on the flight (the season has since filled in the gaps for Kate, Ben, and Sayid). He's so far been detached from this Faraday-centric story, so I find it difficult to fathom how either this week's episode or the finale could center around him. Could this season -- and presumably the whole "back in time" story -- conclude without us finding out how Hurley got out of jail and on THAT flight?

Anyway, moving on to last week's episode, titled "The Variable." I completely forgot to mention this, but when Daniel was talking to Chang and Miles, right after the beans were spilled about Miles actually being the good doctor's son, did anybody else hear the Monster's "printing taxi receipt" sound in the background? I would have sworn I did. Some people have theorized that the Monster is actually the essence of time course correcting itself. If that's the case, perhaps Daniel letting the cat out of the bag did change the future, and Smokey D's unseen appearance was actually ensuring that everybody's destiny played out appropriately.

Of course, I don't actually believe that anything has changed. A couple of weeks ago I hypothesized that the characters attempting to prevent the Incident will actually be what causes it. In the grander scheme of things, I think this is the perfect way to explain the Oceanic survivors living in the past. Sayid attempted to prevent Ben from becoming a manipulative, murderous adult by killing him. However he survives the gunshot, which ultimately leads to Kate and Sawyer bringing him to the Others where his innocence is lost. A case could be made that if Sayid never shot Ben, he wouldn't have turned into the monster we were introduced to a few seasons ago. Likewise, in (allegedly) attempting to prevent the Incident, Daniel has seemingly set events in motion to ensure that it still happens. I think it's safe to assume that Daniel's discussion with Chang is what leads him to "lose it" and force his wife and baby Miles to leave the island (again, creating their own destiny). This all leads me to wonder what role the Oceanic survivors play in the Purge.

A lot of people have brought up how these characters may not want to change the future, as landing safely to LA (strangely enough) is a worse fate than crashing on the island. Sure, that's true. Kate was on her way to prison, Sawyer had nothing to live for, Locke was paralyzed and working at a dead-end job, Hurley was cursed, Rose had cancer, Jin and Sun were in an emotionally abusive relationship. Things weren't that great. But, then again, think about all the people who have died: Boone, Shannon, Ana Lucia, Libby, Eko, Charlie, Michael, and all those nameless red shirts. Is it acceptable for our heroes to say, "You know what? I didn't really like the apartment I was living in before the crash. It was too small and in a bad neighborhood. I don't want to go back there. To hell with all those good, innocent people who had to die"? I suppose Locke's view of "I wouldn't change the past because those events made me who I am today" is a bit more acceptable, but still.

Anyway, let’s start with the blog comments. First up is regular contributor Kyle:

I too saw Daniel's death coming. That said, I thought he handled it very strangely. Why the gun? It seemed not only out of character for Daniel but blatantly stupid. I accept that he may have felt time was a factor (no pun intended) and that he needed to talk to his mother immediately, which simply "surrendering" may not have allowed him to do, but he was asking to get shot by someone, walking in with a gun and firing it before threatening Richard. Especially considering he supposedly wanted to talk to Eloise to figure out how to get back to the present day, not to stop the incident (although he did want to do that as well).

Daniel’s behavior was very unusual and erratic. As far as I’m concerned, there are two likely explanations. The first is that he’s typically awkward and uncomfortable when forced to communicate with strangers, and he’s very uneasy with a gun (remember when he first met the Oceanic survivors, and he’s loosely flailing his gun around like he’s holding a sandwich?) So despite the severity of the situation and the perceived growth of the character, it wasn’t completely inconceivable.

The other explanation is that Daniel stormed the Others’ camp knowing that he was going to be killed. I have no doubt that he was legitimately shocked that his mother was the one who pulled the trigger, but perhaps he knew that his death was what set certain things in motion. That also ties into the idea that Daniel was actually playing EVERYBODY since he returned to the island. Maybe he wasn’t attempting to prevent the Incident. Instead, perhaps all of his actions were to ensure that everything goes according to plan. Blog of Steel(e) adds the following relevant comments:

I think that Daniel definitely planted the bug in the ear of the survivors that they should set off the H-bomb to prevent the incident. However, I think Faraday's assumption that this would stop the incident is completely wrong. I think that the releasing of the H-bomb is going to be what causes the incident, and that will end up sending the 1977 survivors back to their right place in 2007 (or is it 2008? I forget). This goes in line with everything about not changing the past, and there will be no way to prevent the O518 crash and everything else that happened.

I think Steel(e) is essentially saying the same thing, the only thing we don’t quite agree with is whether or not Daniel is aware that his actions will actually lead to the Incident instead of preventing it. Nevertheless, I agree with what he said, which is that Daniel is planting ideas in people’s head. From his discussion with Chang to the gun fight with Dharma to his talk with Jack and Kate to his death at the Others’ camp, I think it’s all been to ensure that certain events take place.

Remaining on the topic of Daniel and his master plan (whatever it may be), lets jump over to the episode review over on the EW website. Here’s a particularly interesting passage:

Which makes me wonder if Faraday came to the Island with a back-up plan. And in fact, I think most of his Island adventure was about putting that back-up plan in motion. Call it Operation: Create Total Chaos. From the second he stepped off that sub, Faraday was kinetic energy incarnate, hellbent on colliding with his old friends and setting them in motion like a wild photon-firing electron or hyperactive cue ball. He threw cold water on Jack Shephard's ''man of faith'' conversion by crapping on his mother's destiny talk. (''''And how did she convince you? Did she tell you it was your destiny? Well, I got some bad news for you, Jack. You don't belong here at all!'' For me, the line seemed less like it was about Faraday debunking his mother but more about blowing Jack out of his watch-and-wait inertia.) He staked out the Orchid, waited for Dr. Chang to arrive (''Right on time,'' he said), then filled his ears with hysteria about evacuating the Island because of impending disaster and spilled the beans about Miles Straume actually being his son. (This sequence, an expanded version of the season's opening scene, turned ''The Variable'' into an elaborate variant edition of the season premiere itself.) He got the whole castaway crew moving: Sawyer, Juliet, Hurley and Miles to the beach; Jack and Kate with him to the Others' Tent City. And he all but baited Radzinsky and the Black Swan team into a firefight by flashing a gun and talking provocative. If Faraday is correct, and the time travelers are loose canon variables capable of changing history, then I think that we saw Faraday trying to light the fuse on each of them in hopes that one of them will somehow, someway fire that one shot, whatever it is, that will change everything. Faraday's approach to heroism is a bit like my approach to Lost theorizing: throw a lot of stuff at the wall, hope something sticks.

I think this relates to the idea presented above, that Daniel’s seemingly irrational behavior was actually a well thought out execution of his plan to ensure that certain events take place. His cryptic and mind blowing confession to Chang will ensure that Miles and his mother gets off the island. His assurance to Jack that the future CAN be changed all but guarantees that he will intervene. And so on and so forth.

I guess the only question is Daniel’s motivation. Does he want these events to occur because he thinks it’ll change the future, or – like his mother – is the integrity of the pre-determined timeline more important than anything else?

Here's another excerpt:

I don't think he had any fear of being killed. On the contrary, even though he told Jack that they could die in the past, it stands to reason that depending on the scope and reach of the negating paradox, a rebooted timeline would effectively bring select dead folks back to life. Perhaps Faraday's plan to save the castaways and change history actually required that he follow through on getting shot — even killed. Because in Faraday's plan, it's what happens next that's most crucial.

Actually, I disagree with this point. While I love the EW reviews, the writer there seems to go a bit overboard with the "this person isn't really dead/the island will bring this person back to life" scenario. Case in point: A few weeks ago he proposed that Caesar will be brought back to life, despite a close range rifle shot to the chest. I think this would be a terrible idea that would really damage the show. I mean, they just spent the entire season illustrating how special Locke is for being resurrected by the island. This specialness will be significantly downsized if another character -- who has been in, like, four or five episodes -- were to be resurrected moments later. If Caesar comes back from the dead, what makes Locke so special? And for what? In what significant way could Caesar contribute to the series? And how's this for a supporting argument: The EW columnist sees this season ending with Charlie being brought back to life.

For that matter, while I love Faraday, I simply don't see how a rebooted future would bring him back to life. He's already dead. As he's explained numerous times, this is their present. So even though he died in 1977 and he was alive in 2004, the 1977 persona simply does not have a future to rewrite. Yes, one could make the argument that his actions in 1977 averted the future, so that in 2004 he never ends up going to the island, and thus never dies, but that opens up a can of a whole load of worms. I just don't see the writers painting themselves in a corner like that.

Anyway, let's take a look at the comments from the EW review:

Theory: Eloise knows the future because she has had Daniel's journal since 1977! The same journal that is filled with information of the future (probably the past too, circa 1954). This would explain why she told Penny that she no longer knows what will happen next, because Faraday is dead and no longer writing in the journal.

I absolutely love this theory. This is spot-on correct, in my mind. By grabbing the journal, Eloise KNOWS who ends up on the island. Hence her interaction with Desmond in "Flashes Before Your Eyes." Since Daniel has documented that in 2004 he comes to the island and meets Desmond Hume, Eloise knows that he's destined to arrive there. No matter what he does, he ends up on that island. And, as the comment indicates, she presumably only knows what happens up to 2007 (assuming that, at some point, Jack, Kate, or Hurley were able to fill him in on some of what has happened). But beyond that, she's clueless just like the rest of us. To use Desmond as an example again: If he DOES return to the island, it'll be after Daniel's death, and likely after Eloise has acquired the journal. So she has now way of knowing if he survives or not.

Next up:

the guy that told daniel to wear a hardhat in the orchid station was an other who was shot on the beach during the sawyer/hurley/van ambush. maybe just double casting?

I haven't had the opportunity to verify this for myself yet, but a number of people on the comment board said that this is indeed the case. Considering how closely people watch this program, and how significant family character appearances in the past have been, I find it incredibly hard to believe that this was merely a case of double casting.

As this season continues to play out, it’s becoming more and more clear that the Purge didn’t take out all of the Dharma Initiative. We already know that Ethan has been spared (yet his father – and presumably his mother – was not), and it appears that Mr. Hard Hat was as well. What makes these characters so special? Why were they spared and not others? Who made this decision? Ben? Widmore? Alpert? Jacob

That's all I've got this week. Enjoy the new episode!?

And enjoy the next installment of Lost! Untangled: