Well, we all know now after watching last week’s episode of
Lost that he and his fellow Losties are not in fact the variables Daniel Faraday once thought they were. As it turns out, he is just another cog in the machine that is the mysterious island’s history. As I was watching “The Variable” unfold, never in my wildest dreams did I imagine things would play out the way they did. So now the question is did Daniel Faraday’s death set into motion a series of events that will eventually save the island from the magnetic meltdown (i.e. are Jack and Kate still variables in the equation) or does Faraday’s death signify that the past cannot be changed and events on the island will play out the way they were always supposed to.
As we’ve learned more and more about
Lost’s central characters over the past five years one common theme seems to pop up over and over in their back stories, they all have daddy issues. Jack, Kate, Ben, Sawyer, Locke, Hurley, Sun, Jin, Walt, Alex, Miles and even Penelope/Desmond all have significant issues with their fathers. Faraday, on the other hand, is the first character (besides arguably Kate and Claire) to have significant issues with his mother and boy does he have some issues with her now.
Ms. Hawking has always seemed to know what is going to and supposed to happen, so there’s no chance she wasn’t aware that one day in the past she would kill her adult son. That must have been some intense guilt to be carrying around all these years. It is interesting to learn that she still pushed Faraday hard to be the best knowing all his hard work would one day lead to his death. What I really want to know is why, why not try to change things. Is she so resigned to the fact that the past and/or the future cannot be changed that she would still lead her son to his eventual death to save herself, the island and its inhabitants? Why is Hawking so intent to save the island when she obviously chose to leave it (unless of course she exiled by force similar to Charles Widmore).
For the longest time I thought Widmore might be Faraday’s father, but when it was revealed that Hawking and Widmore were both former Others and Widmore was funding Faraday’s experiments, I dropped that theory figuring Widmore was just using Faraday’s research to eventually reclaim the island. But all became clear when Widmore and Hawking had that final discussion outside the hospital. It wasn’t shocking to learn Widmore was Faraday’s father, but it does make the relationship between Hawking and Widmore that much more interesting. I’m still trying to fit all the pieces together and figure out the chain events.
Obviously Penny is older so Hawking and Widmore’s affair must have started after she left the island, but why would she leave a place she loves so much and obviously wants to find again? Also, why didn't Widmore just go to Hawking in the first place to find the location of the island. There must be some bad blood between these two characters, chiefly being that he was so willing to sacrifice their son for the good of the island and to fulfill his personal agenda.
What will be really interesting to me is finding out what role the Losties will ultimately play in all of this. There is obviously a reason the island needed the Oceanic 6 to return and why they (and Sawyer, Juliette, Miles and Jin) had to go into the past. I assume we’ll find it all out by season’s end, which sadly is just in a couple of weeks.
One parting shot that has gotten a lot of discussion online recently is the significance of Faraday’s leather bound journal. We learned in one of last week's flashbacks that it was a graduation gift from his mother, but we’ve also seen it pop other places. Earlier this season it was found in “current time” in one of The Other’s abandoned offices, and after getting a good look at it last week it looks just like the journal of the first mate of the Black Rock which Widmore purchased at auction back in “The Constant.” If this were true things would really be coming full circle considering “The Constant” was a pivotal episode for Faraday, Desmond and Widmore. The Blot’s still trying to find some pictures to confirm this, but when I do I will be sure to post them online.
Tonight’s episode is “Follow The Leader” and it looks to be another great one. I expect at some point tonight for Miles to have a long talk with his father, which will eventually lead to the exodus of many members of the Dharma Initiative from the island including baby Miles and a young Charlotte Lewis. The official teaser for tonight’s episode reads: “Jack and Kate are at odds over the direction to take to save their fellow island survivors, and Locke further solidifies his stance as leader of the Others.
