THE VARIABLE
EPISODE 5.14
Most of us who watched last week’s “clip-show” liked it more than we thought we would. Although, most of us believed in Santa at one time in our lives, as well. Watching the same previews for the 100th episode over and over again for two weeks has made me a bit cranky. Shhh, it’s on…
Desmond is being rushed down the halls of an hospital with a terrified Penny at the bumper of the stretcher. Baby Charlie is with her in the waiting room when creepy Ms. Hawking shows up to babble.
Thirty years earlier…Daniel Faraday is back on the island with his time travelling island buddies. Faraday and Miles pounds Jack awake and wants info from Jack about his trip back to the island. Daniel reveals some disturbing news about his lovely mother.
Something tells me Ms. Hawking is gonna have a big night.
The LOST logo hits the screen and I find myself feeling that tonight could be one of those extra-special episodes…maybe.
A much younger Daniel has dreams of being a pianist. Mommy squashed ‘em.
Back in the 70s Dharma complex Sawyer is in trouble with his hostage and all hell is breaking loose at the Swan, including a reliving of the season opening scene with Dr. Chang and Faraday bumping into each other. Amidst everything else, Daniel is suggesting total evacuation. Chang isn’t easy to convince and Faraday has to drop the bomb—“I am from the future.”
Are there more commercial breaks that usual? I’m not sure, but I am sure that Faraday is talking truth to the Candle-Chang. So far, so good, LOST fans!
Chang still isn’t buying Faraday’s line. Miles breaks in to try to disrupt Daniel’s efforts and Faraday counters with “Miles is your son.” Chang still isn’t punching a ticket on the time-travel express.
We go to the past to see Daniel and his mom at a graduation ceremony. Ms. Hawking is an accomplished witch. Mom and son go to lunch, anyway. The old lady is not happy with Faraday’s lack of focus. We get to see some type-A disfunction before we learn that Daniel has received a huge research grant from our favorite island exhile, Charles Widmore.
Mom gives Daniel a neat-looking book with a Hallmark inscription.
Back on the island, 1977 is full of hard choices. Sawyer is planning on leaving the Dharma Initiative. Steal a sub or return to the jungle? A knock at the door relieves the group tension as Faraday and Miles are welcomed inside for cupcakes. Faraday holds court and spills out his plan. Supposedly, Ms. Hawking is among the Others and is the gang’s only hope of rescue from this wacky time-travel stuff.
Ms. Hawking’s face on the screen isn’t helping me like this week’s offering. Still, the first twenty minutes have been pretty damn satisfying.
Widmore shows up to visit a shaken and disturbed Faraday. Emotions and decisions are getting tougher back at the That 70s Show version of the Dharma Initiative. Hyde and Kelso are stealing ammo and Jackie is standing around looking stupid. Things get crappy when Red shows up with Dharma friends.
Shots are exchanged—feelings are hurt.
There it is—the coolest scene we’ve watched in a few weeks. The air smells like gunpowder, people are bleeding and screaming, a renegade jeep is blasting off into the jungle…the island is right, again.
Ms. Hawking shows up once again to bestow Daniel with motherly love midway through the doctors recietal. Back in 1977, the post-shoot-out problems unravel until Sawyer and Juliet find themselves on the floor at the mercy of Dharma guns. In the jungle, Faraday is trying to explain time travel and variables and stuff to Jack and Kate. Faraday’s plan is LOST-tastic.
Jughead, oh how we loved thee.
More of the LOST version of time-travel and destiny has been (mostly) revealed. I’m not sure but I think that because Faraday has declared that anybody can change his or her destiny, at least fifty-percent of all the theories on all the LOST websites around the world have been stamped *epic fail.*
Ms. Hawking and Penny are having a chat in the waiting room. Desmond’s future is in doubt. As it turns out, Desmond is gonna be okay. Penny finds him in bed, awake with a cool, new sling. Outside the hospital, Widmore and Hawking hookup. Apparently it’s not the first—Faraday is Widmore’s daddy!
Jack, Kate and Daniel find the Others’ camp. Daniel bolts out ahead of the group and walks directly into camp—gun in hand. Richard Alpert pops in to talk some sense into the man who is asking for a hydrogen bomb. Before negotiations get serious, Ms. Hawking drills her own kid in the back with a single rifle shot.
She forgets that Mothers Day is just around the corner.
Tonight’s episode was wonderful in establishing more of the “science” behind the island’s healing and time-travelling mysteries. The Faraday back-story, although predicted for the most part, was powerful—my dislike of Ms. Hawking has increased in size by a multiplier of 30,000. It’ll be nice to have our favorite characters back where they belong: half-naked, in the jungle, communing with Smokie.
I rate this episode 7.5 out of 10 Namastes!
