Smile Politely

The game has changed

WHAT HAPPENED

The game has changed. It appears time can be altered. Hold on to your hats friends. Young Daniel was sitting at the piano and said to his mother “I can make time.” We’ll see…

“The Variable” is Free Will versus Mathematics/Physics. Faraday returns to attempt to use the buried H-Bomb to ”negate” the wellspring of electromagnetic energy underneath the Swan construction site, which Faraday claims was only hours away from exploding due to Dharma’s drilling. And why believe this? Faradays’ description of the Hatch, and especially the bit about cement and Chernobyl swayed them. Indeed, Jack had heard Sayid make the same exact Chernobyl comparison about the Swan when they went exploring its basement in season 2.

THEORIES TO DISCUSS

1. The answer to “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” is: The H-Bomb. Discuss.

2. The reason Faraday was experiencing déjà vu (and crying) while watching news coverage of the fake Oceanic 815’s discovery was because he had mentally visited this moment during one of his self-administered time experiments.

3. Widmore isn’t Daniel’s biological father – which may make sense if Widmore’s claim to Dan that he had never met him is true – his biological father is… Richard Alpert

FACTS CONFIRMED

1. Best line of the night was when Miles told Faraday he assumed he had been of getting rich inventing the DVD…Closely followed by Ms. Hawking replying to Penny’s ”Your son is Benjamin Linus?” question with ”Oh, good Lord, No.” Classic.

2. Desmond is not dead.

3. Charles Widmore is Daniel Faraday’s father.

4. Daniel is half-brother to Penny Widmore.

5. The Wired Magazine seen in Daniel’s apartment (the one where he was crying and Widmore paid him a visit) was an August 2003 issue of Wired — “The Super-Powers Issue” — devoted to the plausible science behind far-fetched stuff like invisibility, X-ray vision, and yes, time travel. The issue also features ”The End of Cancer As We Know It,” which can be found on…Page 108.

6. Not only did Faraday use research assistant/gal pal Theresa in his consciousness transfer time travel experiments, but Faraday also used himself, rendering his his memory bank incapable of retaining much memory.

7. Check out founding father of electromagnetic science, Michael Faraday, for a little more insight into Daniel.

BURNING QUESTIONS

Please no questions about Faraday having Brits for parents and speaking with an American English accent. It’s not that uncommon. He was clearly raised in the US. I can prove it’s common by introducing you to the guitarist in my former band… cool? On we go…

1. The Season 3 episode ”Flashes Before Your Eyes” established that Eloise Hawking has long possessed knowledge of future events, although last night, we learned that she is no longer the seer that she used to be. ”For the first time in a long time I don’t know what’s going to happen next,” she told Penelope. Why? Does this mean Faraday has already successfully changed the past?

2. Is Daniel Faraday dead? And why did mother Eloise Hawking put her son on a road to pre-destined ruin? Did anyone else (exposed gun waving, firing shots, walking into the middle of Other/Hostile camp) get the feeling that Daniel knew he had to be shot?

3. What if the H-Bomb plan doesn’t work? Is there a back-up plan? Is it possible Daniel’s true intention was to finally create the chaos that splits our Losties away from Dharma-land?

4. Did you get the sense there was more to Daniel’s conversation with young Charlotte than we were allowed to hear?

Post away!

[Note: In this column, many weeks I borrow from other LOST sites, primarily Doc Jensen and EW.com. I’ll try to put as much of myself in these as I can, but EW gets to screen the episodes in advance and I certainly don’t … so … much love to the Doc, we couldn’t dig in quite the same without you.]

 

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