Season 4, Episode 5: "The Constant"

OH. MY. GOD.

I think that was quite possibly the best episode of Lost so far. I know it was a total twist and brings a completely new aspect of the show and takes it into a new direction entirely, but I think it is going to get very interesting. I will admit, I already went back and watched it for a second time tonight in its entirety, and the second time around I watched it (my husband went to bed, he is not a true fan like me!) I noticed much more.

I am warning you, this is going to be long.

Where to begin...Okay, let's start with the title of this episode - "The Constant" - obviously we know that refers to the one constant thing, the anchor, that is something familiar in both the present and the future. This is what Desmond needs in order to survive these "side effects."

Basically we learn that when the helicopter took off from the island, Daniel Faraday told the pilot Frank to go through these specific coordinates - they were trying to avoid the side effects. Obviously they had some problems and Desmond became disoriented and didn't know where he was or who Sayid was. He thought it was the year 1996 (eight years earlier...note that "8" is one of the numbers.)

When Desmond "passes out" and in his mind goes back to 1996, Faraday explains the whole idea to him. Basically those that have been exposed to heavy radiation or electromagnetic fields suffer from these side effects. He explains that the rat in his experiment ("Eloise") knew how to get through the maze even though he is not teaching it to her for another hour. Desmond asks if he sent her to the future and he says no. He clarifies that it was her MIND that goes to the future. Her consciousness. Desmond asks him if this experiment is going to change the future, and he replies, "no, you can't change the future." I thought this was interesting as we have seen so much of the show revolves around FATE. So for each of these characters, if you can't change the future, then what is meant to be is truly meant to be. Their futures (fates) cannot be changed. There were several times during Desmond's visions where he said "I'm not supposed to be here." Interesting because Locke always says that he IS supposed to be here (on the island). So obviously fate has alot to do with it.

Those people that we have seen so far be affected by these side effects...of course, Desmond (He was exposed to an enormous amount of radiation/electromagnetism when he went to turn the key when the hatch imploded.) Remember it was right after that happened that he started having these visions. The first we saw him was when he woke up, naked, in the woods, with no idea of what happened or how he got there. It was also then that he started "seeing" the future and making the predictions about Charlie and his "fate."

Also, Faraday was exposed to radiation (he tells Desmond when he puts on the radiation vest that he does this 20 times a day) and clearly we have seen in his mannerisms that he is a little strange and paranoid and sort of twitchy. The memory game with the three cards makes sense now. Obviously he is starting to suffer these side effects as well, but as he told Desmond, it effects people differently. He says that it's "random and unpredictable," and that for some people it is a couple of hours while some people it is years. Obviously it had the worst effect on Desmond (going back 8 years) which would make sense because he was on the island the longest, whereas the rest of them have only been on the island for 92 days. That would make sense now when Charlotte tells Jack that what they perceive as the amount of time it took their friends to get to the freighter is not actually the amount of time that has passed. Maybe for them, their perception of time only effects them in a smaller way, like Faraday said, just several hours.

We also learn that George Minkosky (the director of communications on the freighter) as well as one of the other crew members took a boat out because they wanted to "see the island." Both of them also suffered from these side effects, and both died. I think that when going to/from the island, there is some sort of "cloud" of electromagnetic waves that surrounds the island, and anyone who crosses into that path is effected. That is why Daniel gave the helicopter pilot specific coordinates to stick within when leaving the island. The big question is who else has been "exposed" and is this same fate going to come of them? I do have one theory about that...

As we have seen in their "futures" - Jack and Hurley both start to lose it. I talked a few weeks ago about the idea of them all going "crazy" once they leave the island, and that them being "LOST" is more like being lost in their minds. If Jack and/or Hurley were also exposed at some point, maybe these side effects are what is causing them to be disoriented and crazy. Remember tonight when we first saw Minkoswky tied up in the ship's sick room, he yells to his doctor, "See it happened to him too! And it's going to happen to ALL of us." I think that was foreshadowing. Maybe it occurs differently in everyone, but eventually ALL of them are going to have this disorientation and be "lost" - within their own minds/consciousness. Clearly, when we saw Jack on the bridge in his "future", he was not himself. This could have been one of the episodes causing him to be disoriented and crazy. Same thing with Hurley, when he thinks he is seeing Charlie and running from him, this could be one of the "episodes" similar to what Desmond was having when his mind was traveling through this time portal. I don't know, it's just a thought, and I am not going to try to write up a whole reasoning for how it works because I don't know...it is just an idea. (My husband kept telling me, this can't work because instead of going to the past they were going to the future...I'm not trying to come up with a full on explanation or anything, I'm just saying, I think the two are related somehow.) Obviously I don't have it all figured out (or I would be the one writing the shows!) but I do think something is related there. Even with the idea of having a "constant" - maybe for Jack his constant was Kate...and that was why he kept calling her. As we saw at his lowest point in the "future" he was the most "lost" that he has ever been. I wouldn't say that he was disoriented the way Desmond was, but Faraday did say that it effects everyone differently - maybe if Jack was having these time travel/mind consciousness effects, that was why he kept calling Kate and needed to see her - she could have been his constant and what was needed to "save" him. I don't know. I'm just throwing it out there.

Back on the notion of people being "crazy" - once again there were TONS of references in this episode about being "crazy" (I also talked about this last week). I just think it's too evident to not mean something. For example...

- when Desmond is having the vision of being in the army, he is telling a friend about the dream he had, and saying he feels like he is crazy. His friend says "You are crazy!"
- When Minkowsky sees Desmond is also having these same "side effects," he yells to the doctor..."See? I'm not crazy! It's happening to him too!"
- Also when Minkowsky is telling Desmond the story of how this happened to him, he says he and another crew member took a boat out to see the island, but had to turn around when the other guy "started to go crazy."
- When Desmond goes to see Penny to get her phone number, he keeps saying "you must think I'm crazy" and then again when she finally gives him the number, he says "I'm not crazy, you have to believe me!" At the end when they finally talk on the phone, she tells him that she knew about the island, and that when she spoke to Charlie and knew for sure that Desmond was alive, she was relieved to know that she was not crazy.

Okay, enough about that. (And I'm not crazy either!) But I really think that there are just way too many references of people going "crazy" for it not to mean something. I don't necessarily think that they are actually crazy, but just more that these side effects do end up affecting some of the others, which cause them to become disoriented or "different" from how they normally are, during these "episodes." This space-time continuum or whatever it is, obviously effects certain people in different ways, but I think that from some of the "futures" that we have seen so far of the other survivors, that these side effects may be the cause of what causes them to go downhill (jack, hurley, etc.) and in a sense, become more and more "lost."

Another note about the time thing. Charlotte and Faraday mentioned how the amount of time that has actually passed is not the amount of time that they have perceived. We have seen a lot about this in past episodes, suggesting that "time" is different on the island. For example, the continuous loop of Danielle's radio message which has been circling for 16 years. Richard Alpert, who we saw with Ben as a boy and also with Ben as a man, has not aged at all. And the rocket experiment that Daniel Faraday did which came back with a 30 minute time difference. (I also mentioned this a few weeks ago, in Sayid's episode, when the girl he was with got the phone call from her "boss" - which was 30 minutes late, that could be an indicator that her "boss" was on the island which would explain the 30 minute time difference, if his "perception" of time was skewed.) Also, when Desmond "passes out" while Faraday is working in his lab at the university... when he comes around, Faraday says to him that "you were out for 75 minutes" - and then asks Desmond how long he was in the future, to which he responds, "5 minutes." Why only 5 minutes if he was passed out for 75?

We also saw a lot of the numbers tonight. I remember back in the first and second season, it was almost like a scavenger hunt trying to see all the places the numbers would pop up, but they have kind of disappeared for awhile. However I noticed them a lot more in this episode (for those who need a refresher, the "numbers" are 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42). For example:

- Desmond thinks it is the year 1996 (which is 8 years earlier than the actual time)
- Desmond gives Faraday the numbers to help in his experiment (2.342) which is comprised of the numbers 23 and 42
- The address of Penny's house is 423 Cheyne Walk (comprised of the numbers 4 and 23)
- The army drill sergeant makes them do situps, and tells them they have to do them in 4 minutes, which as punishment is half the normal time (which would be 8 minutes).
- In the scene with Mr. Widmore at the auction, they are auctioning off Lot Number 2342

Speaking of the auction, this is something VERY VERY interesting that I only even noticed the second time I went back to watch it. Of course I noticed the first time around that they were auctioning off a painting of The Black Rock (that was too obvious) - For those who may have forgotten or not caught it, The Black Rock is the ship that is on the island, where they went for the dynamite, and also where they took Locke's father to kill him. Anyway, what really floored me, in this scene, the auctioneer is explaining more about the background of the Black Rock, which I have to admit I either wasn't paying enough attention the first time, or they just said it too fast I didn't catch it. But thanks to Tivo and my super devotion to writing this blog and wanting to watch everything back in slow motion, here is what he said:
"The Black Rock set sail from Portsmouth, England on March 22, 1845...and was lost at sea. The only known artifact of this journey is the journal of the ship's first mate which was discovered among the artifacts of pirates seven years later... Contents of this journal have never been made public, only known by the family of the seller, Tobar Hanso." - And as we know, Mr. Widmore is the one to buy this painting and it's journal. So, there are obviously some secrets of the island written in that journal - seeing as it was written by the first mate of a ship that eventually landed ON the island (and who knows how long they were there for). And now Penny's father has it. Which would explain how Penny will probably be able to find the island some day. I love how the writers just throw in these little tidbits of information that you really have to catch - I mean, that took up maybe 5 seconds of the show, and as I said, I didn't even catch it at first, but it gives off some huge information! For those who don't remember or didn't put it together, Alvar HANSO is the man who funded the money to start up the Dharma Initiative. (This was referenced in the film that we saw in the first hatch.) And obviously it is Hanso's family who had this "journal" in their possession. Seeing that the boat ultimately shipwrecked on the island, I'll bet there is some pretty good information written in that journal. Another thing I thought was interesting is they said the ship took off from Portsmouth, England. And when Juliet is recruited to go to the island, she has to go to Portland. Portsmouth, Portland - both have the word PORT which suggests that it will take them somewhere. And both led them to the island. As we recently saw the reference to the name CS Lewis, and his book The Chronicles of Narnia, this refers to a time portal which allows the characters to jump back and forth in time. See...all of this is starting to make more sense now!


A couple other things to note...I promise I won't go on and on, I know this is already way too long, but just wanted to mention these few more things as well:

- Penny tells Desmond while on the phone that she won't give up looking for him. She promises him she will find him. And as she told him once in the past, with money and determination, you can find anyone. I would guess that money, determination, and having a powerful father, will help her find him. Did anyone else get all sappy when they were on the phone telling eachother they loved eachother? I think the writers had to put in a chick-flick moment to make all of their female fans happy!

- So of course the big thing at the end is when Daniel finds that he had previously written in his journal that "If anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume is MY constant." He knows that despite already having shown some of these side effects, his fate can be sealed by having this constant. Assuming that he can find Desmond again (who is now, inconveniently, on the freighter, and Faraday is 80 miles away on the island). Let's hope Faraday can get to Desmond before it is too late.

The LAST thing I want to mention, is that if you notice each time that Desmond "awakes" from these visions, he is passed out somewhere and then slowly he opens his eyes as if to "wake up" from being out of it. We have seen SO many times in previous episodes where the episode starts out focused in on someone's eye opening up. As I mentioned above, I am wondering if some of the other survivors also have these time-space episodes, and if maybe when we see their eye opening up like that, and then we are seeing their "flashbacks," if that is really them having one of these episodes as well? That their flashbacks are not necessarily always flashbacks, but could be these time-mind-episodes. The past three seasons we have seen flashBACKS, and then we were all so shocked to realize that now we are seeing flash-FORWARDS, but what if some of what we have seen is neither, but another one of these time-space things? I know it's far fetched, but I'm just thinking that with all the writers have thrown out to us, there definitely has to be some other connections to this time-space-future-mind thing and in tying it all together with the rest of the show. One huge thing that the writers have said over and over again, is that once the series is over, apparently in the very first episode, there is some big clue in the first few seconds of the show that is the key to the whole thing that everyone will have an "aha" moment when watching again after the whole series is over. If you remember, the very first episode started with Jack laying in the woods, starting out with a closeup of his eye opening up. He looks up, he is disoriented and doesn't know what is happening or where he is. Maybe this "eye opening" is similar to Desmond's visions and that it all has to do with people's consciousness being able to take them into the future, as we saw with Desmond tonight. But that with jack - maybe what we saw of his "future" - trying to kill himself on the bridge, calling Kate, etc - was all a part of his vision or "side effects" of starting to go crazy. I don't even really know myself what I am trying to say or get at - but I am just trying to think outside of the box, and I do think there is something that has to tie all this together with the mind/consciousness/time theory.

And speaking of this time/future stuff - I just realized what today is...February 29th! It's a leap year. Anyone think that this episode was planned to be on the one "extra" day that only happens every FOUR years! Knowing the writers of this show and their masterminds, I'm willing to bet that was planned.

Anyway, I think that's enough. If you have made it this far I applaud you. It is after 2AM and I am going to bed now!!! Please leave a comment so that I do not feel like I stayed up this late for nothing!! I think this was definitely the most thought-provoking episode so I want to hear what everyone thinks! I'm sure there are a lot of great theories out there!