My head is absolutely reeling after the episode. This has to be one of the best if not the best episode of LOST for me brutha’ {insert Scottish accent here}. Some of the viewers might be turned off after watching this episode since LOST has become much more confusing and has just become an entirely science fiction show after events of this episode. I like that they are trying to explain what’s happening on the island in a scientific sense, instead of taking the faith root where stuff happens and you have to believe it and if don’t you’d be lost way. So if you are entirely confused after what happened in this episode, hang in there. I’ll try to make it entirely plausible.
The episode opens with Desmond looking at the picture of him and Penny when he flashes back to the past. Is it just a flash back? No it’s not. It’s…waitforit…time frickin’ travel!!! Which is of course in a sensible way, well at least for me. His mind travels back and forth between 1996 and 2004, where in 1996 he had just joined the Royal Scots and in 2004 he is finally on the Freighties ship. He doesn’t remember the events that had lead to him come to the island and he doesn’t even remember Sayid. So then we meet Minkowski, strapped to a bed because he was also travelling in time through his head. He is thought to be sick by his peers after he tried getting a look at the island. Seems that when people travel back and forth through the island they need to travel on a set bearing so that they wouldn’t encounter any “side effects” aka Time Travel. The side effects, sickness, time travel, whatever u want to call it, seems to happen to people who are exposed to a certain level of radiation, which of course would include Desmond.
Sayid then calls good ol’ Dan to fix the problem. 2004 Dan sends 96’ Desmond to 96’ Dan to help him fix the problem. After some coaxing by Desmond(96’) and experimenting on Dan’s(96’) part, Dan(96’) realizes that the only way to stop the side effects is to find a constant (something that a person cherishes and would hold on to) in the present. The constant for Desmond(96’ and 2004) is Penny(2004). So Desmond(96’) gets Penny’s number and remembers it so that Desmond(2004) can call her, sooo that he can interact with his constant and return everything back to normal. *sigh* And he does. The moment that Desmond finally calls Penny and talks to each other is one of those tear-jerking and heartwarming moments and I can’t wait for these two to unite. I actually care more about Desmond and Penny than anyone else, since somehow over the course of the seasons Desmond and Penny have become the heart and soul of this show.
Onto other happenings. For people who don’t have a clue about the LOST Alternative Reality Game (ARG) which you can check out here, the Black Rock referred to in the painting and the Journal of the ships first mate, bought by Charles Widmore is none other than the Black Rock on the island. I think Richard Alpert (the guy with the eye mascara? (Is it called?)) and the “Others” that Ben encounters when he was a kid are the crew members of the ship. Jacob might even have been the captain of the ship. Anyways the ship set sail from Portsmouth, England in 1845 and crashed onto the island. It was then probably swept more onto the shore by waves somehow and an island being an island expanded, as it should. Thus the shrubs and all the greenery surrounding the ship. Charle’s Widmore most probably knows more than he’s letting on and he might even be the one whose funding the expedition to the island which is of course unknown to Penny Widmore.
And Dan, the oh-so-mighty Dan (best character on the show next to Dezz), has his own motives. He actually sent Desmond(96’) to Dan(96’) for his own gain. I think Dan was having the side effects exactly when he came to the island. This is because he had himself been in contact with radiation on his own accord to do his experiments with time travel. He looked disoriented and out of sorts for a while since he came to the island. He was probably going back and forth for awhile in his head. That might also explain him crying for reasons he couldn’t understand after hearing about Flight 815 crash, in the flashback in which he was introduced in. Or it might happen in future episodes. I so want to see more Dan. He intrigues me so. Let’s just call it a Geek Crush shall we? Anyways Dan(96’) tells Dan(2004) through his journal “that if anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume will be his constant.”Question is why does he cherish Desmond that much? Maybe since Desmond(96’) told Dan(96’) about his time travel, which eventually lead to the events of Dan(2004) coming to the island? Ahhh…So many questions and many answers. I love this show!!!
Oh and that shot where Dan is reading his journal, at the end of the episode is over the top beautiful. My jaw just dropped while watching that scene. The sun setting behind the tree trunk and the white clouds in the blue sky, and the back of the island on the horizon and Dan sitting there reading his journal. Amazing! Kudo’s to the cinematographers.
Next week, a Juliet episode???
P.S who’s your constant? 
) he might have taken the identity of a person on Flight 815. You can check out the interview 
