Your Mother Is An Other?

This week's episode, "The Variable", did a few things.  Let's see....it answered questions, then it answered some more questions, and more importantly it answered even more questions.  Yep that's about it.  Really episode 5x14 probably gave us more information then any other single episode that I can think of.  Okay, let's do a quick review:  

1.  Daniel has been doing research for the Dharma Initiative in Ann Arbor.

2.  Charlotte was doing "card tricks" with Daniel on the beach in Season 4 in order to find out if The Island was healing Dan's memory loss which he lost because.....

3.  Daniel conducted time traveling experiments on himself around the same time he put his girlfriend, Theresa, in a vegetive state. 

4.  Charles Whidmore is Daniel Faraday's father (I think most of us saw that coming).  But what I still don't get about this is if Ellie's last name is Hawking and Charles' last name is Whidmore, then why is Dan's last name Faraday??  Thoughts anyone?

5.  Whidmore put the fake Oceanic Flight 815 at the bottom of the ocean.  Finally this is settled!  But at the same time it totally screwed with my head because for as much as Ben has lied, this just so happens to be one of the few times that he actually told the truth!  Who would have thunk it?

6.  Daniel came to The Island on the freighter in 2004 because his mother told him to do it.  

7.  We find out what was behind the mystery of the first scene of Season 5, when Daniel is in the Orchid Station, and we get to see the scene play out in it's entirety.

If Dan is really dead, which he seemed to be, then when and how does the infamous Chang/Faraday video happen?  I'm talking of course about the one shown at Comic Con 2008 which you can view here.  The only thing I can conclude is that in between the time that we see Faraday and Chang in the elevator coming up from the Orchid (you know, after Faraday told Chang that he was from the future and Chang had a look on his face like he just found his dad's hidden stack of Playboys) and a little bit later when Faraday comes knocking on Sawyer's door during the meeting-to-end-all-meetings, Faraday and Chang dashed over to Chang's house to make a quick flick.  Though this scenario seems quite far fetched to me, I can't think of another opportunity when that video could have been made.  Can you??

One very important occurrence we still do not have all of the pieces to is The Incident.  Since we are pretty certain that it took place some time before 1980, it is possible that "the accident" Dan tells Jack about is the same as The Incident that we have all grown to love.  Of course, I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

The Desmond story line seemed boring and unnecessary to me.  I learned absolutely nothing from it.  As for the scene outside of the hospital between Eloise and Charles, that little get-together could have taken place anywhere and it would have most likely had the same affect on us as an audience.  I hate to question the genius of the LOST writers but, what was the point of including Desmond and Penny in this episode at all?

I did note the urgency and importance behind Daniel's first priority upon arriving off of the sub.  He wanted to see Jack immediately and the promo of next week's episode **MINOR SPOILER** looked to me like Faraday has passed the "crazy torch" off to Jack.  What is the deal with Jack this season?  This was a guy who, up until now, had his own identity, followed no one, and lead the 815'ers for 4 straight seasons.  Now, every time I turn around he is taking on the objectives and identity of some body else.  This guy was following BEN at the beginning of Season 5 for crying out loud!!  After that he started doing what he felt Locke would want him to do.  You do remember how Jack used to feel about Locke, right?  He pointed a gun at the guys head and pulled the trigger.....TWICE!  He was a total push-over during his mono-e-mono with Sawyer.  And now next week's episode has him taking over as the new Daniel Faraday armed with the formula-filled notebook and all!  WHAT THE HELL?!?!  I want my strong, confident, fix-all, take-control Jack back.  You're never going to get Kate back like this, Jack.  Stop making sandwiches and mopping floors and morph back into Super Jack.  

Besides, if Jack successfully puts Faraday's time-changing plan into effect, what will happen to everyone?  Will they just disappear Marty McFly style?  And being that they have already lived that entire sequence of events, what difference will it make if Jack stops Oceanic 815 from crashing on The Island?  It's already happened to them so it's not like they are avoiding having to re-live it or something.  I'm getting a nosebleed from thinking about all of this so I'll just stop with that.

The Juliet-Sawyer-Kate-Jack love quadrangle took a interesting turn of events in this episode.  Juliet has definitely decided to throw in the towel and accept defeat against any chance of a future between she and Sawyer now that Kate is back.  The scene played out well during the Sawyer & Kate vs. Jack & Kate showdown.  And as much as I dislike Juliet, I did feel sorry for her.  Once again she was so close to finding the romantic happiness she almost had with Goodwin.  I'm predicting a Kate & Juliet alliance is right around the corner.  I caught some foreshadowing of that when Kate made her final decision about visiting the Hostiles.  Notice how she ended up doing what Juliet told her to do?  That was a first and I'm thinking there is more of that to come!

Ultimately, this was another great episode of LOST and I would love to hear what you thought of the episode.  It was bittersweet to see Faraday go.  And what a way to die!  Adios Dan.  Ahhh, the writers never cease to amaze me.  Until next week....