Summary
This episode was full of some of the best twists, turns and surprises all seasons. Let’s first talk about the big game-changer: Faraday’s belief that actually, they can change the future. Every true sci-fi fan (or at least anyone who’s seen Back to the Future) knows that if something changes in the past that causes the person who changed it to never go back to the past, the universe explodes. However, Faraday seems convinced that the “variables” — or people — can change the equation.
There are two hypotheses to the outcome of this situation. The first hypothesis is that they cannot change the future. The second hypothesis is that they can; the sub-hypotheses of this hypothesis is that a) this will somehow work out or b) the universe will explode. Assuming that they cannot change the future, as we’ve assumed previously as “whatever happened, happened,” then the only thing that’s going to happen is that their attempts to change the future will actually result in the future turning out exactly as it already happened; that is, it’s very possible that Jack and Kate, in their very attempt to prevent the accident at the Swan, will in fact cause it. As for the second hypothesis, if it somehow works out and they prevent the plane crash from happening, then they would never go back to the Island in the first place, so they would never prevent the crash from happening, which is the very definition of a paradox that could destroy the universe. The other possibility is that the universe just rearranges itself around them and they wake up in bed and it was all a terrible nightmare. Of course, I would personally walk to Los Angeles and shoot the Lost producers in the face if this were the case.
Speaking of guns, there were a lot of them in this episode, including a pretty epic shoot-out that resulted ultimately in Sawyer’s deception being discovered by the rest of DHARMA. We’ll see where that plays out later on.
The flashbacks of Dan’s past were amazingly some of the most directly relevant flashbacks of the most recent episodes. We’re talking about the events that lead directly up to Dan deciding to go to the Island – his mother encouraging him right away to be a scientist, his mother encouraging him to focus on his work, his mother encouraging him to go to the Island even though she knows full well…
Also, the flashbacks immediately before he travels to the Island with Widmore’s team reveal that Faraday had been having terrible memory problems related to the plane crash (and, presumably, to the time-travel experiments that he’d performed on himself). Widmore assures him that traveling to the Island will fix his memory problem.
And, of course, everyone’s freaking out about the fact that this episode revealed that Widmore and Eloise together birthed Dan Faraday (still don’t understand where his last name comes from). Honestly, getting kind of sick of the anti-climactic “Who’s your daddy” reveals, because anyone can see them from a mile away.
Lastly, our big final moment is that Eloise kills Faraday, and as he dies, he tells her that he’s her son. Sooo sad, but such a good time traveling twist. She knew that he was going to die, and sent him back to the Island anyway.
Although the preview for the next episode said nothing about this, I’m very curious about how they’re going to tie together the Locke/Ben/Sun storyline with the current disaster-scenario. Next episode is going to be awesome.
Quotes
Most True of the Audience, Too: Jack: “I’m getting kind of used to insane.”
Most Ominous: Eloise: “For the first time in a long time, I don’t know what’s going to happen next.”
Sawyeriest: Sawyer: “Welcome to the meeting, Twitchy. Pound cake’s in the kitchen.”
Last Wordsiest: Baby Charlotte: “I’m not allowed to have chocolate before dinner.”
Best Tweets
pvera: I am now upgrading this episode of Lost from bad weed to good weed. I totally didn’t see *that* coming.
joymark: Thanks, Mr. President, for cutting your press thing off before LOST came on. Best decision you’ve made since taking office.
calbears96: Exploding barrels of fuel? I thought that was only for video games.
Lost_on_ABC: Lost’s 100th episode and Obama’s 100th day are on the same day… coincidence, or massive Dharma conspiracy?
NicMac: Of course! The H-bomb! Daniel you’re not crazy at all! No Sir!