Previously on Lost: 99 episodes of excitement, mystery, drama and brilliance. Also, Daniel Faraday returned to the Island in 1977. It’s also important to remember that Faraday’s mother is Mrs. Hawking, his research benefactor was Charles Widmore, his lab assistant Theresa was mysteriously injured and Desmond is his Constant.
Picking up where we left off with Desmond, Penny rushes him to the hospital where the doctors promise to take good care of him. In the waiting room, a familiar face shows up: Mrs. Hawking. She apologizes for the fact that her son was the one who led Desmond to this fate. More importantly, how did Mrs. Hawking get to the hospital so quickly?
30 Years Ago: Daniel Faraday gets off the submarine on the Island. He’s back because he saw a photo of Jack, Kate and Hurley and is desperate to figure out how they got back. He rushes over to Jack’s and wakes him up in the middle of the night, rambling like a mad man. It’a a miracle that he ever makes any friends with his insanitry.
Jack tells him about Faraday’s mother, and Daniel clearly has some mommy issues because his response is that she was wrong and Jack wasn’t supposed to come back.
Flashback: As a young boy, Faraday practices the piano while his overbearing mother pressures him to work harder and study more. She doesn’t want him to waste time with leisure activities, telling him that he has a special destiny. He thinks he can have both a work life and a social life, claiming he can “make time.” Mrs. Hawking knows better, or does she. I suspect if she really wanted, she could literally create time.
1977: Moving from one place to another like a mosquito, Faraday drives off to the Orchid to create the scene from the opening of this season with the tiny accident in the cave. This time, we see him confront Dr. Chang, insisting that everyone be evacuated from the Island because a similar accident will occur at the construction for the Swan Station in just six hours, only it will be much, much bigger.
Obviously Chang doesn’t believe a word this mad man says, a fact that is furthered when Faraday claims he’;s a time traveler and Miles is Chang’s infant son. For an allegedly smart man, Dr. Chang is stupid enough to believe Miles, who denies all of Faraday’s ranting.
Flashback: Daniel graduates from college as the youngest doctor in Oxford’s history, and he;’s excited to introduce his girlfriend (and lab assistant) Theresa to his mother. Mrs. Hawking isn’t interested in such trivial things, only wanting to go to lunch with her son. As always, she drives him to focus entirely on his work, giving him a graduation present – a blank journal that will become his time travel guide. In addition, Daniel mentions a 1.5 million pound research grant from Mr. Widmore, which gives Mrs. Hawking pause.
1977: Back at the Barracks, Sawyer has a meeting with the other time refugees to bring the issue of leaving to a vote ever since Sawyer and Juliet tied up Phil in their closet. Jin refuses to leave because Sun might still be there, and Hurley is just lazy enough not to want to go anywhere.
The decision making is cut short when Faraday crashes meeting and asks where he can find the Hostiles. He wants them because one of them is his mother and is the only person who can help them get back to their proper time. Score one for everyone who correctly predicted that Ellie from “Jughead” was Faraday’s mother Eloise.
Flashback: We’re back to Faraday crying upon the discovery of the fake Oceanic 815 wreckage. After crying, there’s a knock at the door from Charles Widmore. Faraday is excited to meet his benefactor, but also apologetic for whatever happened to Theresa, assuring him that Faraday tried the tests on himself first, which could explain the fact that he’s unstuck in time. Widmore assures him that returning to the Island will help heal Faraday.
1977: Because this is the 100th episode, revelations like Daniel’s mother being the Other they met in 1954 aren’t nearly as shocking as they should be. Sawyer is against helping Faraday because he’s happy with his life in the DHARMA Initiative and doesn’t want anything to change that. He’s outvoted and Juliet gives Faraday the code to get through the fence.
While Jack and Kate get a car, Faraday takes a detour to talk to a little red-headed girl named Charlotte. The first thing she tells him is that she’s not allowed to have chocolate before dinner (mirroring what she said before dying) and Faraday tells her to leave the Island and never come back. It’s kind of sad that Faraday actually believes he can change the future when he scientifically knows that it’s not the case.
Adding even more complications, Radzinsky shows up with his friends and thinks something is fishy. The man has an itchy trigger finger so he pulls a gun and soon a firefight ensues. Faraday gets clipped in the neck, but Jack shoots some fuel and gives them enough time to escape on a DHARMA jeep.
Radzinsky sounds the alarm back at the Barracks and barges in on LaFleur to get some answers. Things go from bad to worse when Radzinsky hears screams and finds Phil tied up in the closet, so he points his gun at Sawyer and Juliet.
Flashback: Faraday is back to playing the piano when he gets a visit from his mother. Charles Widmore’s old pal Eloise strongly urges her son to go on Widmore’s mission because it could make him better and then he could get back to doing his important scientific research. He agrees in order to make his mommy proud. That woman is delightfully manipulative, moreso than any of the many other terrible parents on this show.
1977: Jack, Kate and Faraday head off into the woods to find the Hostiles. Kate questions whether following this incredibly unstable scientist is a good idea, and it’s hard to disagree with her. Jack wants to know why they’re doing all of this, and Faraday tells a fascinating chain of events:
-In four hours, the construction crew at the Swan will hit a pocket of energy that will be released
-To stop the effects, DHARMA will fill it in with cement and create the Hatch
-In the Hatch will be a button that must be pushed every 108 minutes to stop the energy from building up
-Desmond will come to the Island and forget to push the button, causing Oceanic 815 to crash on the Island
-Widmore will send a team, including Faraday and Charlotte, to the Island after finding it thanks to the crash
-Charlotte will die on the Island
The end result of Faraday’s study of relativistic physics is that the most important parts aren’t the constants, they’re the variables, which are the people. All these time travelers have independent thought and can actually change these events, so Faraday plans on destroying the energy so it doesn’t explode and the Hatch isn’t built and the button isn’t pushed and Desmond doesn’t not push it and Oceanic 815 doesn’t crash and Faraday and Charlotte don’t come on the freighter and Charlotte doesn’t die.
That’s a long way to go to save a girl, and it’s even bigger when you consider that to do this, Faraday plans on using the hydrogen bomb on the Island.
Back to the Future: In the hospital, Mrs. Hawking is scared that for the first time in a long time, she doesn’t actually know what’s going to happen. The doctors tell Penny that Desmond is in recovery where he assures her that he’ll never leave her again.
Outside, Charles Widmore stops by for a conversation with Mrs. Hawking. He’s had to sacrifice his relationship with his daughter for their cause, but she complains that she made her son go back to the Island. Then Charles tells her that he’s his son too. He gets a slap in the face.
So Faraday really is Widmore’s son! That crazy theory isn’t so crazy any more, and it’s only the second most shocking event of the episode.
The most shocking occurs back in 1977 when Faraday storms into the Hostiles’ camp demanding to speak with Eloise. Richard Alpert tries to calm him down by saying she’s not there, so Faraday orders him to take him to her. And then…
Daniel Faraday is shot. And this isn’t one of those casual shootings, this looks pretty serious. As he falls, it’s revealed that the shooter is none other than Eloise, his mother! She was trying to protect Richard, and as he’s dying, Faraday can only say that she knew all along and still told him to go back to the Island. He tells her that he’s her son and with that, Faraday goes still.
And as far as I’m concerned, it looks like Daniel Faraday is dead. Killed by his own mother, and she knew all his life that she would kill him. That is just about the most amazing thing this show has ever done, and Lost sure delivered on its 100th episode.
(Image courtesy of ABC)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
