Season 5, Episode 14: "THE VARIABLE"

The title of this episode refers to Daniel's time-traveling theories. In the past, we have learned about "the constant" and how it was important in time travel to have a constant (someone from both the past and the future) in order to prevent the side effects from occuring. However, Daniel now realizes that all along he was so focused on the constants that he never thought about the variables. And that THEY are the variables (people). He said they can make their own destiny. They have the free will to change the events of the past by preventing the things in history that will directly affect the future from happening. He said he has tracked down everything to the events of this one day - when the Dharma folks will drill into a wall, releasing electromagnetic energy which will kill everyone on the island (we assume this is "the incident" that Dr. Cheng speaks of in the Dharma orientation video). By preventing this from ever happening, it will prevent them from building the hatch, it will prevent Desmond coming to the island and pushing the button, it will prevent the plane from ever crashing on the island on the one day that Desmond decides NOT to push the button, preventing the freighter from ever coming to the island, etc. - if they can just keep the electromagnetic energy from being released on this one day, it will change this whole chain of events from every happening. The Oceanic Flight 815 will take off from Sydney and land in L.A., without any of these events ever happening.

In a way, Faraday "proves" this very theory to himself when he gets shot. All along, he had said you can't change the past, that whatever happened, happened. Then he tells Jack that any one of them could get shot...and then sure enough he gets shot himself - by his own mother! My biggest question, though, is if Eloise knew all along that SHE would be the one to shoot him. It seems clear that she knows he will get shot by going back to the island - this is her "sacrifice" that she talks about, she sends him back there knowing exactly what is going to happen - but does she know that SHE is the one who shoots him? When Faraday falls to the ground, he tells her "you knew what was going to happen to me, and you sent me here anyway" and she asks him "who are you?" When he responds that he is her son, she does not appear to know what he is talking about. However, I am wondering if she does in fact know that is him (even though that is a younger version of herself) but that maybe the very reason she shoots him is to try and prevent him from carrying out the detonation of the hydrogen bomb which would change the events of the future and therefore prevent all of these events from ever happening. Did she know that deep down and was trying to prevent his "future" actions, or was it just "coincidence" that she shot her own son? Another thing to remember is that when Eloise gave him the journal, she wrote in it "No matter what happens, I will always love you." This implies that she KNEW what was going to happen. This is the sacrifice that she later talks about - she knows what's going to happen but still sends him back to the island anyway.

I am a little weary if Faraday is actually dead. We know that he did not die in the past, so if he in fact dies right now...wouldn't that change the events of the future? Because if he dies now, he would never be able to come back in the future (on the freighter). However, he tells his mother "you knew this was going to happen." How could she have known it was going to happen unless it had already happened before? It's all very confusing! As I mentioned above, perhaps she tried to kill him now as a way to try and prevent him from detonating the bomb and thus changing the future. Maybe she "knew" that he was going to come back to the island and try to change things, and that was her "sacrifice" to try and stop him - if it meant saving the island. I don't know...I'm assuming he is not dead, though. Never assume anyone is dead if they are killed as the cliffhanger of the episode (just like young Ben a few weeks ago). I'm also wondering if Jack - who is watching all of this from the jungle - will rush out and "save" him from dying...This may be the reason that Eloise tells him it is his DESTINY to go back to the island. His purpose in going back may be to save Daniel? (And this would go along with the idea that whatever happens, happens...because that would mean Daniel would NOT die.)

It seems that both Eloise and Widmore will do anything to make sure that things do happen they way they are supposed to. They do want the plane to crash, for the freighter to go to the island...they do want everything to happen exactly as it did. There are clearly sacrifices they have made in their lives (their relationships with their children) that they are willing to do anything to make sure the string of events on the island happen as they are meant to. Let's keep in mind that BOTH of them directly influenced the events that took place leading up to the plane crash. Eloise directly played a part in making sure that Desmond went to the island. She was the one who told him NOT to buy Penny the engagement ring and that he should leave her...therefore sending him on this trip around the world which led him to the island. And it was Widmore was "sponsored" Desmond to go on this race - leading him to crash on the island. We also know that Matthew Abaddon (who worked for Widmore) played a direct role in getting several of the 815 passengers on the plane (for example, Locke) and making sure they ended up on the island. So how is it that these two have played such a large role in who has come to the island, and what exactly are their motives for that? Is it truly these people's destiny to be on the island? (Because if it was their DESTINY, they wouldn't need intervention from Eloise or Widmore in order to get them there. If whatever is supposed to happen will happen, why do they need to "intervene" to make them go? Just a thought.)

Speaking of their "sacrifices" in making sure that all of these events happen as they are supposed to, we learn that Charles Widmore is in fact Daniel's father (which I suspected several weeks ago, after we first saw that Charles and Ellie were both on the island in the 1950s). Anyway, after Widmore tells Eloise that he doesn't have a relationship with Penny, that was "the sacrifice he had to make" and she replies, "don't tell me about sacrifices. I had to send my son back there, knowing what was going to happen." To which he replies, "he's my son, too" and she slaps him.

Another interesting part of this episode is that we get to see when Faraday goes to "warn" Charlotte as a little girl. She spoke of this memory just before she died. Also, remember that the last thing she had said before dying is "I'm not allowed to eat chocolate before dinner" - and this is what she first says to daniel as a little girl when he approaches her. He tells her that she needs to get on the submarine and leave the island. I thought it was interesting we didn't actually see him telling her that she would die (as she had described in her "memory" of that conversation). I think he decided to "change" his warning to her...knowing all well that even though she had that memory of him warning her, she came back anyway on the freighter - so truly in that case, he could not change the past. So he might tell her something else that would help him carry out his plan to change the future.


Speaking of Charlotte, if you remember back a few episodes ago, she tells Daniel that she is having memory problems - that she can't remember her mother's maiden name. And Daniel seems worried. This is because he knows it was what happened to him and to theresa, as a result of his research. Why is it also happening to Charlotte though. Maybe in their "past" lives, Charlotte had some other connection to Daniel and his research at Oxford (which might explain his love and affection for her....I can't imagine he would be so in love with her if he first met her on the freighter and only knew her for a few days before she died on the island). This is interesting because we learned a lot more about Daniel's research experiments at Oxford. We learn that he gets dismissed, after something went terribly wrong. We had already seen what happened to his girlfriend Theresa, and the condition it left her in (comatose). And now we saw that Daniel was pretty much going down that same road, because he tested it on himself first, and now he has pretty much gone crazy. He has lost his memory. Sure enough, Charles Widmore swoops in and tells him about this magical island that can heal him.
His mother urges him to go. Of course, we know that Eloise and Widmore have some ulterior motive in getting him back to the island. Why do they want him to go back? Is it so that he will "save" everyone from dying by preventing the incident from happening (which would have killed everyone on the island?) But that would be messing with destiny, wouldn't it?

Speaking of which, we have clearly seen that Widmore and Eloise will pretty much do anything they can to get the people to the island that they believe are "supposed" to be there. If you recall the four people that Widmore "recruited" to go on the freighter, all of them have some previous connection to the island (well, 3 of the 4, that we know of anyway). Obviously Daniel we now know is his son, born to him and Eloise (which I presume he was born ON the island). Also Miles we learned was born on the island to Dr. Cheng. And Charlotte was also born on the island as a child of the Dharma Initiative. The only one we don't know about is Naomi, who was killed by Locke. But I think it's interesting that Widmore recruits all these people that have these ties to the island (that they don't even know about apparently!) Also the fact that Widmore and Eloise were both a part of the Hostiles group, yet when he recruits Miles and Charlotte - they were both children of the Dharma Initiative (the "enemies" of the Hostiles).

Since we have seen that Widmore and Eloise can pretty much make anything happen - I am curious if they were involved in getting these new plane crash survivors to the island as well (Cesar, Lana, the group asking all the questions about "what lies in the shadow of the statue?") I think Widmore or Eloise may have sent them - possibly to try and prevent Daniel from trying to change the past (although they are now in two different time lines, so they wouldn't be able to change the past since they are currently in the "present"). They already seem to know a lot about the island, obviously they were sent there by someone with some sort of motive.

A little sidenote - when Widmore comes to visit Daniel, he picks up a comic book where Daniel was sitting, the title is "WIRED" and the headlines read: "The Super Power Issue, Time Travel: Forget Science Fiction, Here's the Science." And in big letters, the main headline: "The Impossible Gets Real!"


So...the biggest question on my mind is this: Let's just assume that Jack and Kate (with or without Daniel) are able to carry out his plan to change the future. And let's assume that Oceanic 815 never crashes on the island. So does that mean Kate would go to jail because she was captured by the marshall? Would Jack bury his father? Would Sun still try to leave Jin? Would Locke still be paralyzed and Rose still would have cancer? Would Claire give Aaron up for adoption? If the plane never crashed, each of them would have this whole other alternate life. It almost seems that it was better that they crashed on the island - because it "saved" each of them in different ways. It would also be interesting to see if, even if the plane does not crash, if FATE really is meant to be, for example, would Jack and Kate get together, or would Claire end up raising Aaron, or would Jack ever find out Claire was his sister, or would Locke gain the ability to walk again? Even though the initial electromagnetic force on the island set off this entire chain of events causing these bad things to happen - it also caused a lot of GOOD things to happen...so I guess the big question that I want to know is, are all of these events actually meant to be? I guess we will find out if FATE really determines their futures. My theory is that they are going to try and change the future by messing with this chain of events from happening - but that in the end, everything will happen the same way anyway, because fate controls them and that everything will happen anyway as it always did. I think the final episode of this series is going to be Oceanic 815 crashing on the island again - showing that despite what changes they were able to make, that it was meant to happen. They were all meant to be on the island. And nothing they could do in the past to change those events from taking place will ever stop them from ending up there where they are supposed to be.