Official "The Variable" Instant Reactions Comments!

[brian]

 

[Jason]

In regards to Daniel's idea that he was overlooking the variables.  He is completely wrong.  He is working under the assumption that him being who he is and everyone else being who they are would introduce a different set of variables than already happened.  HOWEVER, what he failed to see is that those variables ALREADY happened.

He was thinking that they would make different decisions this time around than they did before. The problem is that Jack is still Jack, always has been Jack and always will be Jack and thus will always make the exact same decisions.   As an example he always made the split second decision to not save Ben.  He made it in Ben's past (1977).  He made it in in his present (1977/2008)  and he will always make it in the future (2008) every time the circle goes around. 

To him it seemed a split second decision but based upon his character the variable will never change.  He will never suddenly decide to save young Ben.  Just like every other split second decision like Locke lying about how Boone got hurt,  Sayid running away from the beach after torturing Sawyer, Hurley going after Rousseau for the battery, Alex standing up and yelling she is Ben's Daughter and everything else will always happen because the variables are based upon the people who are CONSTANTLY the same people. 

What happened, Happened.

[Leafar]

What lies in the shadow of the statue ?

A big ass Hydrogen Bomb!!!!!   

"May God help us all" 

[renee]

Excellent episode!  Just watched it for the second time tonight.
So much to unravel.... I called Widmore being his father 
I don't want this season to end!!!!!

Welcome back Brian!

[flinchn]

Whew.  Too much to think about; I'll have to watch it again...

I will say I was totally scared Alpert was going to get shot at the end - so even though it was shocking that eloise killed her son, I was somewhat relieved at the same time.  Richard has much to answer for yet, and Daniel is now pretty wrapped up.  I don't really buy his ramblings about time - they need to get back to their present, yes...but I'm sure many of them at this point don't want to begin again with Oceanic landing safely.

[Ben]

Flinch - I bet Boone, Shannon, Echo, Micheal, Libby, Ana-Lucia, (and even Nikki and Paulo) (I'm sure I'm missing a couple) wouldn't mind having flight 815 land safely.

[Katie Kat]

Did anyone else get a bad feeling when the nurse at the hospital told Penny that "that nurse" would take care of Charlie while she went in to see Des?  I thought - "Oh crap... they're going to kidnap him and that's how they'll get Des back to the island!"  

Also, it was interesting when Mrs. Hawking and Widmore were talking and she said "I sacrificed my son even knowing that..." and Widmore said "He WAS my son too."  I think that's an obvious indicator Daniel is indeed dead.  

I wonder if Mrs. Hawking and Widmore's "falling out" was about how she decided she would go ahead and send Daniel back to the Isalnd KNOWING he'd die, and Widmore wanted to use him to FIND the Island and maybe change things so he wouldn't die?  Or something - haven't fleshed that out yet.

I don't think they could possibly just end up having everything not have happened and the Losties just end up plopped back into their lives in 2008 having never crashed on the Island.  However, I had a weird thought about how maybe if they DO change everything and end up landing in L.A. we end up with the last scene of the series showing other people getting back on the same plane to head back to Sydney, and THEY end up crashing instead of the Losties we know!  But that's silly (and it would piss me off).  

I know we got a lot of answers in this epi, but it still seems so hard to follow - and I will say that I laughed when Daniel told Chang "I'm from the future."  That was just a little corny!  

The most important thing that keeps ringing in my ears is that even if everything that happened, happened, it can also be changed.  Maybe the time it takes for course correction varies, but things will eventually reach the same end point.  Also, why does Ben care so much?  Now it's kind of hard to understand what his motivation is for fighting so hard for the Island and fighting to get the O6 back, etc.  

[Keebah]

Regarding Eloise and Charles' discussion outside the hospital in 2008 (near the end of the episode), Charles said his relationship with his daughter was a sacrifice he had to make.  Eloise responded with something like "Don't talk to me about sacrifices. Blah, blah, blah."  Charles responds with "He was my son, too."

So we know that Charles and Eloise are Daniel's parents.  But I'm curious about the sacrifice Eloise speaks of in reference to Daniel.  Was Eloise talking about the fact that ever since 1977 she has known that she is destined to send her son to the island so that her 1977 self can kill him?  Is Charles' use of the past tense ("He was my son, too.") an indication that he also knew of Daniel's inevitable murder by his own mother in 1977 and that by sending him off on the freighter Charles was sending Daniel to his death?  If so, I guess this makes both Eloise and Charles complicit in the murder of their own child.  Crazy.

But now my mind really swoons: what happens over the remaining Season 5 episodes to convince Eloise that the man she murdered in 1977 was her son?  Based on the answer to that question, what happens between now and the season finale that convinces her to set baby Daniel on the path to being a brilliant scientist?  I mean, what good is it if all those years spent raising him to be brilliant leads to him being a corpse in 1977 before he can prevent The Incident?  And don't say it's because "Whatever happens, happens."  

Makes me wonder if all the hard work spent raising Daniel was done only so that Jack Sheppard could get Daniel's journal and decide whether to detonate Jughead.  Oh, I just realized something: if Eloise sees Daniel's journal in 1977, she'll see the inscription that she wrote in it when she gave it to him at Oxford.  That way, 1977 Eloise will know to give it to Daniel when he graduates.  Heavy!

[Keebah]

Also, it was interesting when Mrs. Hawking and Widmore were talking and she said "I sacrificed my son even knowing that..." and Widmore said "He WAS my son too."  I think that's an obvious indicator Daniel is indeed dead.  

I wonder if Mrs. Hawking and Widmore's "falling out" was about how she decided she would go ahead and send Daniel back to the Isalnd KNOWING he'd die, and Widmore wanted to use him to FIND the Island and maybe change things so he wouldn't die?  Or something - haven't fleshed that out yet.

Looks like you were faster on the draw when it came to posting this notion, but I'm in complete agreement with you.

[UnfoX]

Since Faraday is dead, it's not Faraday who was behind the camera in the video with Dr. Chang which we saw in Comic Con. Then, who was that?

[Sodfather]

UnfoX

I actually was thinking about that today. Either it is something that they were planning that no longer fits into the big scheme of things, or Faraday is not actually dead. Even though I hate it when they "kill" a character in a cliff-hanger episode only to have them dying or not quite dead yet in the next episode, this really felt like when Locke was shot in Season 3. I hope I am wrong, since it would be kind of weak for Faraday to not be dead, but I still think he is only dying and will be taken to the Temple by Alpert and Jack will take his journal, Faraday is incapacitated and incapable of detonating Jughead, but not dead. But, this is all just gut-feeling speculation and I haven't put too much thought into it yet.

[Sawyers optician]

Ok, I'm totally confused but still mesmerized.  Poor Daniel!  What a screwed up life!!  And what a crazy mom!!!  I don't think I like what the island does for parent/child relationships.

One thing that jumped out at me, someone (Daniel maybe?) was talking to Jack about the Swan, and said that they wrapped it in concrete, just like Chernobyl.  Which is what Sayed said when they first started exploring the hatch.

 Another thought was that as Jack & Kate were driving off in the open jeep, under gunfire, (like Butch & Sundance  ) here's where they become Adam & Eve skeletons in the cave. 

I can't get enough Lost is insane, and I LOVE it.

[mac mactavish]

How do Hawking and Widmore KNOW so much?  Why does she say "For the first time I don't know what's going to happen next..."?

Is it because they now have Faradays journal... an explicit tell-all? 

That means that the last entry would be that Jack and crew made it to the island, and how (and when)...  That's why Hawking is so confident in her Ajira plan to get everybody back, because she read that it worked in Faradays Journal (and why her explanation to Jack seemed so wishy-washy).  That would make the Ajira scheme the last confirmed PRESENT event in the journal.

Her comment came the same day the Ajria flight took off... (She has the Jack and crew over to the Dharma station; The next morning Ben shoots Desmond; They all get on Ajira that afternoon; Desmond recovers that night and she says "...I don't know what's going happen next".)

Further, what is Widmore sacrificing? Why can't he talk to Penny?  Could it be that it's because he IS his own Grampa* and he risks ripping the space-time continuum?!?!

*Reference to the previous half-cocked theory that Penny's and Desmond's son Charlie would be thrown back in time only to grow up as Charles Widmore. 

[brian]

How do Hawking and Widmore KNOW so much?  Why does she say "For the first time I don't know what's going to happen next..."?

Is it because they now have Faradays journal... an explicit tell-all? 

That means that the last entry would be that Jack and crew made it to the island, and how (and when)...  That's why Hawking is so confident in her Ajira plan to get everybody back, because she read that it worked in Faradays Journal (and why her explanation to Jack seemed so wishy-washy).  That would make the Ajira scheme the last confirmed PRESENT event in the journal.

Her comment came the same day the Ajria flight took off... (She has the Jack and crew over to the Dharma station; The next morning Ben shoots Desmond; They all get on Ajira that afternoon; Desmond recovers that night and she says "...I don't know what's going happen next".)

Bingo. I came to the same conclusion while thinking about the episode this morning. I'll flesh this idea out in the analysis, but good work mac mactavish!

[Ben]

I came across a stumbling point yesterday thinking about this episode.  How does Daniel know so much about "the incident"?  If you think about it,  His life was starting out doing time travel research in Oxford, he became sick, then came on the island,  since that point the only part of his life that we haven't seen is when he's in Ann Arbor in 1977.  How would he be able to work out "in 4 hours there is going to be an explosion."  Its not like anyone in Michigan is able to read the future, and I don't think he learned about everything before he went back in time.  Desmond obviously wasn't an expert on everything dharma since he though the outside world was still contaminated.  So unless he worked with someone off island that had time traveled as well, it just seems weird to me that he knew so much about the future.