Mindblowing ! That’s how I’d like to describe this episode.
Dan tells Jack and Julliet : “Your perception of how long your friends have been gone, is not nescesarily how long they actually have been gone.” He then tells Jack there might be side effects (which could have also been the title of this episode) if they either didn’t maintain the correct heading, or as it turns out later, one of the passengers has been exposed to a lot of radiation or electromagnetism lately.
So that’s what happened to Desmond when they got back to the freighter. The helicopter passed a ‘thunderhead’ as Sayid called it, and Desmond entered a weird Time Warp and lived in 1996 again. The part played by Henry Ian Cusick was acted so great ! You could feel the despair and confusion coming off the screen.
To correct this Time Warp 2004 Dan explains to Desmond that he has to find a Constant (hence the name of this episode), someone / something to hang on to in both timeperiods. And ofcourse that person for Desmond is Penny ! The visit Desmond makes to 1996 Dan is very entertaining. Definately some of the best stuff I have seen on Lost so far.
Later on on the boat Sayid, in a very McGyver like fashion, managed to connect a phone and a battery and Desmond was able to call Penny 8 years later, and that resulted in one of the most emotional scenes we have seen so far. And Desmond seemed to be alright after the call, his nose stopped bleeding and the despair faded from his face.
If anything goes wrong Desmond Hume will be my Constant
We learned a lot this episode :
- Daniel protects his body from radiation, but not his head. Is this why he’s a little ‘odd’ ?
- Penny has some ties with the boat as she apparently did call them a few times, but the crew has instructions to not answer the phone. She had been looking for him for the past two years !
- The diary from the 1st shipman of the blackrock boat that is sitting in the forest on the island was bought by Mr. Widmore ! It was auctioned by Hanso. A lot of people have suggested this might very well be the diary of Richard Alpert, the ‘pirate‘ who doesnt seem to age.
- The flash of light you could see that caused the rat Elloise to go into a time warp, was the same color as the flash that was seen when Desmond turned the key.
- The islanders have a friend on the boat who opened their door. Also Frank the pilot seems to be on their hand
- I have also read somewhere that Ben might be capable of this sort of time travel. Miles said “I know what you can do !” and didn’t seem impressed to find Ben chained up in a cellar and ask him for 3.2 million as if he could get out if he wanted to.
- We already knew that there was some weird stuff going on with time / time travelling, but this episode can put all argument to rest. Ofcourse it’s Lost, so we still don’t really know what’s going on.
Daniel Faraday has been a great addition to the cast this season. I just love his nerdyness, his manners, speaking with his hands etc. Also a job well done by Jeremy Davies.
All in all one of the best episodes of Lost. I was applauding and cheering at the tv screen when it ended. Most Desmond centric episodes are excellent, also thanks to the actor who plays him, he does one of the best jobs ever seen on TV. Give me one of these instead of the Kate episodes any time ;).
