On Lost "The Variable"
Wow. That was a rather intense episode. A mother sends her only son to be killed by herself in the past to save the world? And we thought Locke was the "Messiah" figure. Last night's 100th episode of the series, titled "The Variable," played out like a classic Greek tragedy. Eloise Hawking raised her son (Daniel Faraday) his whole life to be killed by her eventually. But is Faraday dead?
As it happens with just about any character that is killed on the show, there is debate on whether or not that person is really dead. A good 98% of the time, the character ends up being dead. The one bit of evidence in the "Faraday's alive" camp that is making the Internet rounds is that Faraday seemed to be behind the camera during last year's Comic-Con video with Pierre Chang. In last night's episode, Chang would have none of Faraday's theories on time travel. So this would mean that Faraday is alive right?
There is a lot of debate amongst Lost fans right now as to whether or not that was Faraday speaking in the video or if the video should even be considered canon. If you don't know about the video here it is now. It's from San Diego Comic Con 2008 and was shown during the Lost panel with Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse, and Matthew Fox. Give it a few moments for the character to get in the Dharma booth. Listen for the person behind the camera. Is that Faraday? Does that prove he is still alive?
So is Faraday dead or alive? "The Variable" was really rich in foreshadowing. I have watched it twice and there was so much more information that I saw during the second viewing. If you watch it again, listen closely to Faraday's conversations with the other Losties, especially Miles. While some of the answers (such as Widmore planting the fake 815 plane and Widmore being Faraday's father) weren't too shocking, I believe the writers gave us an awful lot of clues about what is to come in this episode. You can only really see them with multiple viewings, so if you have the time watch it again and see what new things you discover.
"The Variable" was a great example of tragic irony. The weight that must have been on Hawking's shoulders to know that she would train/raise her son to be shot by her must have been huge. As an episode it was a great one. I understand some of the complaints that the answers weren't that shocking, but that wasn't the point of the storyline. The point was to set up the events to come. The writers let Faraday slyly hint at what was to come so well that some of his hints are only caught on repeat viewings. So if you're on the fence about this episode, watch it again. You won't be disappointed.
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Maybe Ellie & a baby Faraday (or if she's pregnant now) leave the Island as a direct result of what Ellie learns from either the notebook or what Jack & Kate tell the Others. Perhaps older Eloise sends him back in order save his younger self, therefore allowing Faraday to live even the 30-something years he does...Does that make sense?
I was thinking that the notebook gave Ellie some information that prevented a tragedy ("the wrong side winning the war"), so she couldn't prevent faraday from coming back without changing the history of the island. Him getting shot was just incidental, but unavoidable in her mind. It's seems like there should have been some way to get him back to island, but allow him to avoid being shot, but perhaps his getting shot/death was "necessary" for other events to take place.
I don't know why, but I think the reason Ellie left the island has something to do with Widmore. Perhaps she was caught going off island to visit him and got banned as well. (this would add an extra layer of meaning to the "don't talk to me about sacrifice" line she said to him at the hospital.)
I think Faraday is dead, but I hope I'm wrong because he is one of my favorite characters.
After listening to the voices behind the camera I am positive that first it is Miles who say to forget it and the second time it might be Faraday because there is the very slightest hint of British accent in at least one word. Curioser and curioser...love this show. i am gusess that all of the actual Marvin Candle tapes had to be edited to remove signs of the Losties so that when / if this all happens again it will happen again or again um what? help me LOL
It's great to see "LOST" on its "A" game again. This season has been so brilliantly written and directed, that it continues to surprise.
And it's paid off that the show has been focusing more on the "minor" characters of late. Shows that even they and their actions have caused major ripples and reprecussions for the Oceanic Flight 813 Crew.
Brilliant episode! Can't wait to watch it again!
It looks like Chang's left hand is bothering him in this attempt to call Dharma 2004 clip. I think he had a hand missing in one of the Dharma orientation films. If so the Dharma orientation film clip happened after this attempt to contact 2004 Dharma.
Who's to say that video wasn't set up by the LOST producers?
Great episode. I definitely need to go back and rewatch it to catch all the details I missed.
As usual one thing really bugged. "I didn't consider the variables". Really? Faraday spent his entire adult life studying these equations and failed to notice the variables? Even for a show with magic islands, time travel and teleportation, this seems a little absurd. It's like a particle physicist studying the atom for years and suddenly realized he forgot about neutrons.
I love lutton's idea about miles talking to a dead faraday, but I think hugo would have a much funnier conversation with him (and they could play chess!)
I think it is farady in the comic-con video, so my guess is that he survives the gun shot. After all, Jack is surgeon and is standing 20 feet away. This would sort of explain what happens during the time between the swan accident and the Dharma purge.
I'm guessing that Eliie gets Dan's notebook in the 70's and therefore would know what is going to happen right up until the time Dan goes back to island, hence the "For the first time in a long time I don't know what will happen next".
brilliant. good point about the notebook and hawkins.
its hard to pick something out of lost and call it "absurd"... i mean, a smoke filled "monster" kills people, an entire island disappears, ppl are sent back and forth in time, and hurley hasn't lost a pound in 5 years after being stuck on an island... thats freakin absurd!
Well I can address one of those...Hurley hasn't lost weight because when they first crashed, he was hoarding the food and now he is a Dharma chef. Or we can try to solve two mysteries with one question...
Did Hurley eat Rose and Bernard???
when i first heard that video I thought it sounded like miles, not faraday... But i guess now that you mention it, it does sound a lot like faraday... When would he have had a chance to do this? i wonder, if he actually is dead, will he come back in another way?
Also, this episode really proved a popular theory about the show. There are multiple time lines, and turning the wheel each time puts us on a new timeline. Faraday's mother proved this when she said to pennie that she doesn't know what will happen from now on, after she sent her son back to be shot by a younger her. i'll let these guys explain a little more www.timelooptheory.com.
PS: scenes from the next look pretty awesome. looks like there will be a group of people who believe what faraday said, and a group that doesn't and they will go to war to save or destroy the island. those who think that by destroying it they will prevent the plane from crashing and those who either a: don't think that or b: dont want to destroy the island because they dont want to go back to their lives. i look forward to seeing what side kate is on, being that she was a criminal before this happened.
Faraday aka Twitchy has been one of my favorite characters. Though his death wasn't as emotionally intense as the loss of Charlie, describing it as a Greek tragedy fit it perfectly. And you're right about this episode being heavy on the foreshadowing. My first impression was that some of it was actually directed at Kate. Though I think Jack is still central to the overall plot, he and Kate have been relegated to almost background characters lately.
And Faraday, in his disjointed, genius ramblings, has helped us wrap our heads around all the time-travel plot lines.
Kill Kate? We couldn't be so lucky. Don't get me wrong. E.V. is a fine actor, and does her job beautifully, but the writers must be trying to get us to want her to be, uh, voted off the island.
well the way its setting up, she could be one that doesn't want the island destroyed and doesn't want to go back to the way things were before the plane crashed (as she was a criminal)...
I've been wondering if the island was Atlantis after the time-warp episodes featuring the statue of a jackal-headed deity.
or the island from H.P.Lovecraft's short-story "Dagon".
A frustration I have with all characters, is that they are so evasive and say so little, never any explanations, they deny, or give a all-knowing "look". Like Myles, who refused to admit he was Chang's son. I spend minutes burning wood trying to figure his motives, resulting in my lack of concentration of the next scene. Too, it's fiction, and would be more believable if the survivors could be honest and open with each other. It has a M. Night Shyamalan (Signs) quality, where the dialogue is vague.
Will have to watch this episode again - it is tying up, but I am missing the comraderie that the crash survivors had in earlier seasons. This season gives answers, but I miss the (Claire/baby/Charlie-everyone goofing off times when things were simpler parts of the show), and the connectedness of each one with the other. Now there are 4 groups (Widmore cronies, Univ. of Michigan Dharma Initiative, Others, and survivors) that are weaving in together, plus the "time" travel, and I get dizzy.
What a great clip! I had not seen it before. Thank you so much.
Thank you too for giving me hope for Daniel. If his life ended now I would be so sad because he never really had one, did he? I enjoyed the passion and authenticity Jeremy brought to the role. For ever how long he is gone he will be missed very much. Can't believe I just found your Lost blog. I'm so glad.
Oh and I do believe that's Faraday. Definitely. Can't wait to find out how he finally convinces "Candle."
1. I'm pretty sure that Faraday was killed. His mom would not have been so upset about Widmore's casual use of the word "sacrifice" otherwise. If he got shot and survived in the Other's camp, then she would have known her son longer when he was an adult. Instead, as a younger woman, she shot and killed a man who claimed he was her son from the future. This probably didn't affect her until she was older and gave birth to a son.
2. This whole new twist sets up the conflict of the final season: those who want to change the past to save their future/present versus those who don't want to alter the past. Along with the revelation of who that team of people was that crashed on the second plane and the answer to the question "What lies in the shadow of the statue", this will be one of the major plots for the final season.
You would thing somewhere in Faraday's trusty notebook it would say when you go to see mom in the 70s be sure to wear a kalvar vest or at the count of three duck. And why is it that Elousie doesn't know what to do anymore she seemed to have all the answers before. Great episode to have 2 weeks before mother's day.
It seems to me that Eloise finally gave up the deterministic view that she and Widmore seemed to share (they both talked a lot about having to fulfill a destiny). Daniel says that people are the variables in time because they have free will and can choose their own destiny, basically that fate doesn't exist, which is obviously a break from how his mom has raised him. Eloise's confusion is sort of like the question of an all-knowing God versus free will; in Lost it seems like Eloise felt like an omniscient God and then realized she was wrong.
If Faraday is in his present then he wouldn't have known that his mother would shoot him. Likewise, Elouise is in her past, so maybe whatever led her to have all the answers hasn't happened yet.
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