So much gravy from this episode. First of all:
Does this mean that Faraday has invented Chronolube™?
“Stuck in time? Apply Chronolube™ directly to the cerebral cortex!”
Does the journal entry at the end imply that Faraday used the Chronolube™ on himself after Desmond’s visit, and now he’s unstuck in time? And why would Faraday use Desmond as a constant, when Desmond only flashes in Faraday’s life for a moment in the past?
Doesn’t that mean that Desmond’s visit to the past changed the future?
Gah, awesome show.
Xemu
3382
Yeah, I think it’s clear that somehow Faraday is going to be, or already is, unstuck in time. I mean, lets face it, if you invented a time machine, how long could you really go without trying it out yourself?
Great episode. I didn’t quite like the “constant” angle on things but I’m a huge sucker for time travel stories and I did quite like the way they played it out.
Totally agreed that Lost has turned itself around from the so-so season 3.
So now we know why Desmond deserted and was later put in prison for it, right?
I loved the episode a lot, too, and though I know it’s useless to think too much about time travel stories, this morning I did it anyway, and now here’s where I get stuck:
Island Desmond goes back in time, so this way Soldier Desmond can get the phone number from Penelope, hook up with Faraday, and save the day. Cool.
So…
How come Island Desmond from season 2-3 and every episode up until this one doesn’t remember that he did that? “Hey remember back in 1996 when I met that weird dude and then hooked up with Penelope and got that phone number? That seems important now!”
Or is it that by doing so he became un-unstuck in time (“I feel better now”), so he wouldn’t remember? But then wouldn’t that mean it never happened in the first place?
–Jeff “I flunked science!” Green
Well, time travel stories don’t exactly follow logic but…
I kind of took the “find your constant” thing as a solution to this. Find something in your past that you can latch onto right now. That might mean digging up a memory, perhaps by creating it. I bet he remembers it now.
Yeah, that’s my take to. Sort of now he’s “synch’d” up with his past and present. Sort of a good take on time-travel, getting around lots of the blatent paradoxes normally associated with this type of story telling. Clever stuff. Probably my favorite episode.
I figured that too. It certainly helps explain why he starts crying while watching the news of the crash and doesn’t know why.
Just remember that his body wasn’t going back in time… just his consciousness. Therefore, I think it makes better sense to have a “constant”, because it’s really a memory thing and linked to consciousness as it were, rather than just having your whole body going through time.
But yeah, great episode.
— Alan
TylerG
3389
I like the idea of the time travel being all in his head. But it doesn’t fit with the note in Fairaday’s journal. Actually Fairday’s journal note doesn’t fit with anything why leave yourself a cryptic note instead of “I met a guy who actually seems to be from the future he said…”
This episode was made from an alternate timeline of pure awesome. LOST has redeemed itself for the time being (no pun intended).
I think the answer to Jeff’s question lies in the manner of the “time travel”. Farraday states that it’s just your perception of time that’s altered, and the “pop-backs” seem to indicate that Des isn’t “travelling” so much as his conciousness is slipping back and forth. He’s “unstuck” in time. Think of it like he’s two different people, with “past Des” jumping forward to inhabit “present Des’” mind. When he connects with his constant, each of the fragmented conciousnesses anchors to the proper timeline again, and the present Des is restored while the past Des conciousness may not have any memory of it’s time in the present or events that transpired while it was “unanchored”.
I loved that they tied in the Black Rock, Alovar Hanso and papa Widmore all in togehter. They’re setting the stage for the overall consipracy, letting events form the past set up the reasoning behind why people ended up where they were. Remember, it was Widmore’s race that Des was trying to win to prove himself when he got stuck on the island.
Munin
3391
Woah, that drill sergeant guy in the flashbacks is that mercenary from Rambo IV, isn’t he!? I somehow like the actor, even though he apparently seems to prefer playing asshole characters.
I went back and watched “Flashes Before Your Eyes” again.
Lost just wasn’t as good back then. There’s way too much BS at the beginning. But it’s pretty awesome watching it in light of last night’s episode.
If they kill Desmond without getting him and Penny back together I’ll never forgive them.
Machfive
3393
Just a thought on how they could go about tying the time travel and the ghosts together:
I think, after seeing this episode, that perhaps Lost is traveling towards some sort of construct where the brain is merely an antenna for the soul.
This allows for this “time travel” via your soul being received by different instances of your brain as the electromagnetic shit changes its receptive properties, it allows the ghosts to be sort of like electromagnetic echoes of the souls that Miles can pick up thanks to a wider-range receiver in his own brain, and it explains how ghosts could be experienced by the Losties.
The island is some sort of nexus of electrical activity that amplifies the receiving strength of those on it.
Dharma does seem to be involved somehow with physical time travel however, note the “ancient” Dharma logo that what’s-her-name finds elsewhere back in the 2nd (or 3rd) episode I guess it is.
— Alan
Also, mental/consciousness time travel doesn’t explain people like Richard, who don’t appear to age at all in 20-odd years.
To the people wondering why Faraday uses Desmond as his constant, Desmond did mention that they met on an island, so Faraday knows that he’ll see Desmond again in the future.
graller
3396
How can you love an episode that features Fisher Stevens???
AAAAGGGGGGHHHH
I first thought that if he is already unstuck in time it would somewhat explain that bit from the last episode about him trying to “remember” the cards. But if that’s true, when is he jumping around to/from?
Perhaps the cards thing is just really a simple memory issue due to his prolonged radiation exposure and they were testing the island’s healing powers out, thus the comment about some progress. Maybe he’s really worried about going off the island until/unless the island fixes his radiation issues as he did say that radiation (in addition to EMP) exposure could cause the complications.
Or perhaps he really was unstuck in time and he purposefully put the chopper off course a little bit on his cheat-sheet hoping to get Desmond unstuck to set up the possibility of meeting him in the past and thus gaining a constant, but if so he’d have been relying on a lot of coincidences that happened to work out for him but might not have.
I groaned when I saw him in the opening credits but he did a passable job here. And I do love this episode.
He wasn’t in brownface, and he died after about 10 minutes… good enough for me.
I seem to remember the camera focusing on the compass changing heading slightly while they were in the storm, shortly before Desmond became unstuck.
