Wednesday night’s 100th episode of “Lost” was exactly the kind of dramatic, action-packed roller coaster ride the show will be remembered for after its final season has ended. For what has been referred to by some fans as an uneven fifth season, “The Variable” was the creative effort they’d been waiting for. I was a bit surprised that Daniel Faraday and his back-story were given the 100th episode. I thought perhaps the original cast, or the island itself should have had it, not a character that was introduced last season and missing from most of this one, but I digress. It certainly didn’t diminish my enjoyment.
Jumping right in, we learned that from a young age, Daniel’s mother Eloise Hawking did all that she could to squash any and all of her son’s interests (the piano, college-age girls) in order to have him focus solely on his “gifts.” When Daniel grows older, he “breaks his brain” and is recruited by Charles Widmore to travel to The Island because it will heal him. Daniel’s mother with, shall we say, a trick up her sleeve, encourages her son to go.
When Daniel returns to The Island in 1977 (which is now), he riles everyone up by telling them that they were never supposed be there, and that the information Eloise had given them was wrong. He wants to find her because she’s the only person who can get them back to where, and when, they belong. Juliet and Sawyer, still keeping Phil tied up in the closet, tell the Losties and Freighter Folk that they’ve got to either get back to the jungle or gear up the submarine and go. Jack and Kate decide to tag along with Faraday.
(Any spoiler-phobic readers should avert their eyes now: I want to talk about the insistent rumors all around the internet that Juliet will be killed off during the season finale. I can’t help but think this is a terrible idea and I hope they don’t go through with it, but considering Elizabeth Mitchell has been cast in a pilot for the next TV season, I guess it’s a foregone conclusion. Bad show! The end.)
On their way, Daniel stops to talk to 8-year-old Charlotte and they both begin to cry (her mostly from being scared that a strange man is crying to her) after he says all the things to her he told himself he wouldn’t. It’s weird how this show can introduce characters you think you’ll never care about (Hi, Miles!) and then by the end of one episode, you realize how invested you really are. It’s kind of crappy and simultaneously well done on the show’s part. Also, Jeremy Davies really sells the hell out of the material. Great work.
On their journey through the jungle, Daniel explains to Jack and Kate that ‘now’ is their present, so anything can happen. He was always concentrating on “the constant” and not “the variable,” or people, such as themselves, with free will. He plans on detonating the Jughead, blowing up the Swan and destroying the magnetism, thus preventing Ocean 815 from crashing in the first place.
Meanwhile, off The Island in 2007, it turns out Ben actually did shoot Desmond. While Penny waits outside his surgery at the hospital, Eloise Hawking visits her and apologizes for Desmond becoming injured in a conflict bigger than any of them.
Outside the hospital, Eloise meets up with Charles Widmore and we learn (or it is confirmed) that he is Daniel’s father. She encourages him to go see Penny, but Widmore explains that he had to sacrifice the relationship. “I had to send my son back to the island, knowing full well that…” Charles interrupts her. “He’s my son too, Eloise.” And then she hits him.
Back in 1977, Daniel barges into Camp Richard, and demands to see Ellie, before his own mother shoots him from behind. As he dies (?), he chastises her for knowing what was going to happen to him, but encouraging him to come to The Island anyway. She asks, “Who are you?” Before taking his last few gulps of air, Daniel says. “I’m your son.”
The perfect episode to guide us through to the end of the season (there’s only about 19 episodes left of the entire show!), “The Variable” seemed like a definite turning point for the show. You can really feel the end near, and the writers seem excited to delve into the bulk of the mythology of the show, no longer having to postpone big reveals or answering season-long questions.
