2007, Off-Island, Los Angeles: Desmond is being wheeled into the emergency room after being shot by Ben. Wife, Penny, and son, Charlie, are accompanying him, but must stay in the waiting room while the doctors work on Des. Eloise Hawking shows up and tells Penny that it’s her son’s fault that Des has been shot. Penny assumes she’s referring to Ben, but Hawking reveals that her son is actually Daniel Faraday.
1977, On the Island: After arriving on the island via sub from Ann Arbor, Faraday tells Miles that he came back after seeing the new Dharma recruit photo featuring Hurley, Kate and Jack. Faraday immediately goes to Jack’s house to ask him how they returned to the island from the future, and tells Jack that he was doing some research at Dharma headquarters in Ann Arbor. After Jack says that they returned on a plane, Faraday asks whose idea that was, and Jack tells him that his mother, Eloise Hawking, was behind it. Faraday gives his signature squinty ‘doh!’ look, and asks Jack if she told him it was their destiny to return to the island. When Jack confirms that she did, Faraday informs him that “you don’t belong here at all. She was wrong.”
Flashback, Year Unknown, Off-Island: Young Faraday plays the piano to a metronome that serves as a visual reminder of the future pendulum swinging in Mommy’s Lamp Post lair. Eloise asks her son if he knows what destiny means, and proceeds to tell him, “If one has a special gift, then it must be nurtured. Your gift is your mind; a mind that is meant for science and mathematics. It is my….job to keep you on your path.” Faraday claims that he can make time for other hobbies, but Mommy Dearest won’t allow for it.
1977, On the Island: Miles drives Faraday to the Orchid to run his “errand”, and Jack is left in their dust, so he goes to inform Sheriff Sawyer that Faraday is back. Sawyer tells Jack that he’d “love to trade theories” about that, but he’s busy. Juliet insists that they let Jack in on their little secret, that security guard Phil is tied up in their closet.
Meanwhile, Miles and Faraday are awaiting Dr. Chang’s arrival at the Orchid. We return to the first scene of Season 5, with Faraday under the Orchid watching the Dharma worker being carried out on a stretcher after being exposed to the energy released by drilling near the Frozen Donkey Wheel. Faraday then approaches Dr. Chang, and attempts, emphatically, to convince him to order the evacuation of every man, woman, and child on the island due to a pending catastrophic release of the energy. Dr. Chang dismisses him because he thinks the energy is contained. Faraday informs him that the man is on the stretcher “as a consequence of electromagnetic activity that your drilling unleashed”, and tells Chang that he is from the future.
Dr. Chang is convinced that Faraday is mocking his earlier mention of time travel to the Dharma workers, so Faraday tries to show him his physics notebook. Miles interjects, and Faraday tells Chang that Miles is his son. Miles denies this truth, and although Chang does not look entirely shocked by this possibility, he tells Faraday to stay away from him.
Flashback, Year Unknown, Oxford University: Faraday has just completed his doctorate, and is with Theresa Spencer, who we know winds up in a catatonic state (“Jughead”) after a future Faraday experiment goes awry. Eloise Hawking is there to take her son to lunch, alone; she openly disdains and disapproves of any distractions outside of her son’s destiny.
At lunch, Faraday tells his mom that she was rude to his girlfriend, but she snaps back that she’s merely his research assistant, and warns that “the women in your life will be terribly hurt.” He then reveals that he received a large research grant from Charles Widmore, and there is a mysterious glint of recognition in Hawking’s eyes. She leaves her son with a gift, the leather journal that becomes his constant; the physics notebook that accompanies him through time.
1977, On the Island: In an unusual and welcome change, most of the main characters are actually together, meeting to discuss their options at Sawyer and Juliet’s house in Dharmaville. Kate, Hurley, Jin, and Jack are listening as Sawyer tells everyone that they have two options; either go back into the jungle to start from square one, or get on the sub and leave the island. Jin wants to stay to find Sun, and Hurley thinks it would be weird to leave after the trouble they went to in order to return. Miles and Faraday arrive, and Sawyer delivers what may be the most appropriate nickname in recent Lost history with “welcome to the meeting, Twitchy.” Faraday demands to know where the Hostiles are “because one of them is my mother”, and tells the group that she’s the only person on the island who can get them back to where they belong.
Flashback, 2004, Off-Island: We return to the scene in “Confirmed Dead” where Faraday is crying because of the fake 815 footage on the news. Then Charles Widmore arrives. Due to Faraday’s short term memory loss, he does not know who Widmore is. Widmore introduces himself, and Faraday realizes this is the man behind the funding of his research grant. Regarding his dismissal from Oxford, Faraday tells Widmore that he experimented on himself before Theresa, but Widmore isn’t here to talk about that. Noticing how sad Faraday is about flight 815, he reveals that “they’re not dead, that the plane is an elaborate, expensive fake” that he put there himself, and that he’s telling him about it because Faraday won’t remember it the next day. Widmore then offers Faraday a job to further his research, to go to an island with unique scientific properties that will heal his mind and memory. Echoing Hawking’s earlier statements to her son, Widmore tells Faraday that “you’re a man of tremendous gifts, and it would be a shame to see them go to waste.” Faraday tells him that he sounds like his mother, and Widmore says “that’s because we’re old friends.”
1977, On the Island: Sawyer is not willing to help Faraday find the Hostiles, so old school Jack steps in and encourages Kate to help, because he knows that the reason she returned no longer exists. After old school Sawyer calls Kate by his pet name (“Freckles”), Juliet’s entire body language changes, and she verbally gives Kate the code to the sonic fence. Big mistake, Sawyer. Huge. Juliet says exactly what we all know with regard to her relationship with Sawyer, and the current predicament of the Losties, “it’s over here for us, anyway.” So Kate, Jack, and Faraday leave together, but not before Sawyer tells them that when they realize they’ve made a big mistake, the rest of them will be back at the beach where it all began.
En route to a Dharma van, Faraday briefly leaves Jack and Kate to talk with young Charlotte on the swings. Faraday tells her that when Dr. Chang asks people to leave the island, that she and her mother must go. This upsets Little Red and Faraday says that he didn’t want to tell her, that he hopes to perhaps be able to change the past.
At the motor pool, Faraday, Jack, and Kate arm themselves with guns. Radzinsky and some Dharma thugs catch them and a shooting match ensues. Faraday is grazed on the next by a bullet, and Radzinsky takes one in the arm. Jack arranges for their escape in a Dharma jeep by shooting a fuel tank, causing a huge explosion. Radzinsky tells the others to sound the alarm.
Flashback, 2004, Off-Island: Faraday is playing the piano once again, and is disrupted by a visit from Mommy Dearest. Hawking asks him about Widmore’s job offer, and tells him that it is her business to know about such opportunities. Although Faraday is skeptical about his current skills because of the memory loss, Hawking tells him that she’d be proud of him if he goes, and he relents.
1977, On the Island: Jack, Kate, and Faraday arrive at the sonic fence. As Kate disarms it, Jack attends to Faraday’s wound. Faraday reiterates to Jack that “this is our present”, and that any of them could die.
Meanwhile, playing house is over for Juliet and Sawyer, as they are packing up their things. Sawyer wants to know if she still has his back, but she wants to know if he has hers first. In true Lost fashion, they are both saved by the bell (the dharmalarm, in this case). Radzinsky and crew show up to visit the Sheriff, and discover Phil tied up in the closet, and demand that Sawyer and Juliet get on their knees at gunpoint.
In the jungle, Jack inquires why Faraday needs to find his mother. Faraday informs Jack and Kate that in a few hours, the Dharma workers at the Swan construction site are going to drill into the ground and accidentally tap into a massive pocket of energy, and that “the result of the release of this energy will be catastrophic”. In order to contain it, they have to cement the area in like Chernobyl. Jack and Kate are informed that their original Hatch was created to contain that energy, and that “because of this one accident, these people are going to spend the next twenty years keeping that energy at bay by pressing a button, a button that your friend Desmond will one day fail to push, and that will cause your plane, Oceanic 815, to crash on this island.” Faraday further enlightens them by admitting that he’d been focusing too much on the constants and forgetting about the variables; the people, their free will, and changing their destiny. He is convinced that he can negate and destroy the energy beneath the Swan by detonating “Jughead”, the hydrogen bomb. Faraday believes that if he can achieve this, the Swan will never be completed and flight 815 will land in Los Angeles as intended.
2007, Off-Island, Los Angeles: Eloise Hawking apologizes to Penny for Daniel Faraday’s actions, which led to Ben shooting Desmond, telling her, “your husband has become a casualty in a conflict that’s bigger than any of us”, and that “for the first time in a long time, I don’t know what’s going to happen next.” Penny wants to know if Desmond is going to live, and the nurse shows up to tell her that he’s in recovery. In a move that I believe will have serious future repercussions (see my slightly crazy/slightly plausible Charlie theory here), Penny leaves baby Charlie with another nurse, and goes to see her husband. Desmond once again assures her that he’ll never leave her.
After Hawking leaves Penny, she is confronted by Charles Widmore outside of the hospital. He inquires about Desmond, and she tells him that his daughter is there. Widmore says that his relationship with Penny “was one of the things I had to sacrifice”, but Hawking reminds him of her bigger sacrifice to send her son back to the island. When Widmore reveals that Faraday is HIS son too, Hawking responds with a quick slap to his face, and then walks away.
1977, On the Island: When they get to the Hostiles’ area, Faraday takes his gun and approaches the camp, while Jack and Kate stay hidden and watch. He demands to speak with Eloise Hawking, but Alpert informs him that she’s not there. Faraday then asks Richard where “Jughead” is, and threatens him at gunpoint. Suddenly, a shot is fired and we see that Faraday has been shot…by his younger Other Mother Ellie. After the mortally wounded Faraday says to her, “you knew this was going to happen and you sent me here anyway,” she asks who he is, and he tells her that he’s her son.
And those are the facts about future Faraday’s fate.
(This is purely an episode recap; for Jo’s detailed theories and analysis about “The Variable” please click here to visit her Lost site.)
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