You Don't Know MY Mother

(Response to Lost's 100th episode, the Variable,
which first aired on April 29th, 2009)

Oh Daniel, I think I do. She told you over and
over that you were special. Since you didn't know
whether to believe her or not, you focused on
the things you did believe, could control, the
Constants. Your constant was Desmond. He was also
shot. But he lived. You didn't focus on yourself,
the Variable, the difference maker, the free will,
and when you realized this, it was too late. You
were shot by your own mother who's every action
led you there.(Silly Jack Rabbit asked if you needed
a gun to talk to your mother.)

Of course, now by talking to little Charlotte,
and filling Jack's ear with all that talk of free will,
you have set into motion the very events that you
were rushing to try and change. Because Jack
will try and fail - causing the incident that will
later cause flight 815 to crash. Unless your Constant
buddy Desmond can do something about it.

You've also set up a potentially big fight between
Jack and Locke. Because Jack will want to stop
815 from crashing while Locke will want the crash
to happen.

I was happily amused at the fact that the press
conference to discuss Obama's first 100 days led
into the 100th episode of Lost. I was waiting for
Olivia Newton-John to roller-skate into my living
room, singing: you have to believe we are magic...

141717
Notice how Kate let Faraday go through the security
fence first. She kinda just hung back with Jack
because one never knows with Juliet. She could've
given Kate the wrong code - she didn't though.
Jules wants Kate out of the love nest, not dead.

Also the incredibly fit Kate seemed very low energy
when they were hiking through Other-land. She practically
fell down on that rock right before Jack threw her the
water bottle. Let the pregnancy rumors swell...

When Sawyer asked Juliet if she had his back, she answered
his question with a question. (So she never really answered
which is why I'm absolutely in love with her.) Oh Jules,
what are you not telling us? What are you telling us? Since
the rest of the season builds up to the incident which is
happening in 4 hours or so, does that mean you're spending
the rest of this season in that red shirt? Please, please,
pretty please? Also, do you know who Penelope's mom is?

Penelope has a brother from another mother who is an other.
I would pay to hear Eminem rap that line. This makes Penny
and Daniel half siblings just like Jack and Claire: Same daddy,
different mommies.

Daniel, Jack and Ben can all play piano. Little Dan was playing
Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu in C-sharp minor. The piece has an
ambiguous fantasy like ending. It is written in cut time. This is
the scene were Daniel tells his mother he can make time. I know this
piece because my mother made me take piano lessons for years. Now
I know why- so I could recognize that piece and write about it in
this post years later. This is my brain on Lost.

There's a book on Ben's shelf, the one leading to his magic wardrobe,
called Flowers for Algernon. In that book, the protagonist,
named Charlie, ends up becoming a sacrifice in the name of science.
He is part of a scientific experiment - making a mentally deficient
boy a genius by artificial means.

There's a lot of child sacrificing going on:
Eloise sacrifices Daniel by shooting him herself.
Charles sacrifices his relationship with Penny for the island.
Claire sacrifices Aaron by leaving him in the woods.
Kate then leaves Aaron to return to the island.
Sun leaves her kid to return to the island.
Ben sacrifices Alex.

Now Eloise is no mother of the year and it's looking like
Daniel is her (and Widmore's) lab rat. But it also feels
like Abraham's test in the Book of Genesis. The Lord
asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, as a
test of obedience. Of course, as Abraham is about
to make the sacrifice, an angel prevents him from doing
so. This didn't happen with Eloise and Daniel. If Jack
is able to change the future, then Daniel is spared. But...

Here's what happens if flight 815 doesn't crash on
the island:
Kate goes to prison
Charlie remains a junkie and probably dies
Locke remains in a wheelchair
Rose dies of cancer
Jack gets depressed and kills himself
Desmond keeps pushing the button and Penny never finds him
Sun and Jin do not reconcile and do not have a baby
Claire goes to LA, gives up Aaron which is bad because
she's supposed to raise him
Sawyer remains a con artist and probably ends up dead or in jail
Ana Lucia stays alive and annoys everyone she comes in contact with
Ditto for Boone and Shannon
Michael raises Walt or more like Walt will raise Michael
Hurley keeps his money and his bad luck
Ben dies of a tumor (and a broken I'm-out-of-the-book-club heart)
The therapist on the island kills Juliet for stealing her husband

NO ONE WANTS THAT. This is Lost not As the World Turns...
not going to happen. Jack will fail miserably at trying to
change the events - his attempt sets off the incident itself.
Our Losties will cause the incident that in return causes
flight 815 to crash.

Here's a dialog parallel:
In the Season three episode, the Man Behind the Curtain,
Ben takes Locke to see Jacob in the Cabin and says to
invisible Jacob: Okay, you've had your fun.
Dr. Chang says to Faraday about his time travel babble:
Okay, you've had your fun.

Now both Eloise and Charles went to great lengths to
keep Desmond away from Penny. I think it's because they
both knew that Desmond needs to be on the island or
return to the island and he won't leave Penny. Remember,
Desmond is the "key" to the whole thing. I think Desmond
will be the one who gets the island and everyone back
on track.

Last season we got an episode called the Constant.
This season we got one called the Variable. It's
called the Variable, not the Variables. This episode
proved that Daniel was wrong, that things can be changed.
While Desmond is Daniel's constant, Daniel was the
variable in the equation that could have changed things
but he didn't realize that until it was too late.

Sawyer called Faraday, H.G. Wells. H.G. Wells wrote a
novella called the Time Machine which is about a man who
time travels. In the future, he finds a small group of people
called the Eloi. (Note how close Eloi is to Eloise. I'm just saying...)

The Eloi's Utopian existence turns out to be deceptive.
The Traveler soon discovers that the class structure of his
own time has in fact persisted, and the human race has diverged
into two branches. The wealthy, leisured classes appear to have
devolved into the ineffectual Eloi he has already seen, and the
working classes have evolved into the bestial Morlocks, cannibal
hominids resembling human spiders, who toil underground maintaining
the machinery that keep the Eloi — their flocks — docile and
plentiful. Both species, having adapted to their routines,
are of distinctly sub-human intelligence.

In the Season Four episode, The Shape of Things to Come,
Ben confronts Widmore and says, you've changed the rules.
I think like Eloise, Ben knew what was going to happen,
what was supposed to happen. But for Ben, that knowing ended
when Alex was killed. Charles changed the rules by sending
Faraday and his special team to the island. This changed and
manipulated the events as Ben knew them to be.

Now we know why Daniel was so slow to answer Jack and the
Losties when he showed up on the island. Daniel paused
when Jack asked him what his name was. The island's healing
powers were slowly healing him.

Thinking further on the Flowers for Algernon reference,
perhaps Daniel was conceived for the sole purpose of finding
a way to return to the island. Eloise and Charles would
have to find a way to ensure that he becomes a genius but with
Widmore's money and Eloise's "supernatural" abilities,
they could come up with a way. (But is Eloise a physic?
Or does she get her hands on Daniel's journal when
she kills him in 1977 and uses it to tell the future,
to find Desmond, his constant? Because all that info is
in the journal.)

If Daniel was conceived or altered for the island,
is that also the case with Miles and Charlotte? These
three were all recruited by Charles to get his Island
back. Were they also conceived and altered to get his
island back? This is a man who staged a fake plane crash.

This would also explain the coldness from Eloise and Charles
toward Daniel. They were serving the island by being Daniel's
parents and sacrificed him for the same reasons. By the time
Daniel returned to the island in 1977, he'd served his purpose
so Eloise didn't even hesitate in shooting him.

A sacrifice is needed for atonement. In the Bible, free will
enters the equation when Adam and Eve partake of the knowledge
of good vs evil in the garden. Jack and Kate, moments before
the sacrifice of Faraday, are introduced to the concept of
their own free-will-in-time by Faraday. His gift of knowledge
of free will could be the intervening factor that causes Eloise
to no longer know what will happen because now the Losties are
aware of their ability to alter the future.

But it is the exercising of their free will that causes the
need for atonement to begin with ala the Adam and Eve Biblical
metaphor. Humans exercising their free will led to sin which
led to separation from God which led to the need for atonement.
The very act of Faraday explaining to Jack and Kate that they
have the ability to alter the future is what sets in motion the
events that lead to Faraday's death / sacrifice. I like to think
if Lost was one big Bible metaphor or a novel written by Stephen
King, the two skeletons in the cave would be Jack and Kate and
that's our last shot of the whole series...but I think our
Damon Lindelof ending will be even better than that.
No pressure, DL, no pressure.

To end on a fun note, Faraday was reading this copy
of Wired with an article about time travel. Thanks
to Rowena for the screen shot:
http://getlostpodcast.iimmgg.com/image/089c0e261b91f5d10f609cc4f1ca954d

And who edited the current issue of Wired? JJ Abrams.
Oh Lost...you are my Wonderwall.
Wait-a-minute...
Wonderwall was the song Charlie was singing on
the street when he sees Desmond in the episode
Flashes Before Your Eyes! I just gave myself
chills because I wasn't even trying to make that reference,
to re-reference Lost. Later, on the island, Desmond
literally saves Charlie...and now, I do believe
it is Desmond who will put the island back on track:
Said Maybe,
You're gonna be the one that saves me...