It sort of feels like we shared this episode of Lost with other projects that needed some promotin', though I actually thought it was cool when the black behind the opening Lost logo turns into stars, which turns into a Star Trek promo. And . . . it kind of worked on me. I'm more excited now to see that movie on the big screen, what with the scary roaring creatures and all.

Also, during the commercial breaks, did you notice the super-quick flashes of images followed by the text "What did you see?"? You can see all the spots here, and this is apparently the official site for the ABC show that these spots are for, Flash Forward. The effect is a little different watching them online, but as I watched those things on TV I thought they were incredibly creepy.

Anyway! On to the actual show. What did you think of "The Variable"? To talk about it, read more.

  • When Eloise Hawking goes to see Penny in the hospital where Desmond's been taken after his fight with Ben, she says her son is responsible for all this, prompting an exchange that made me chuckle:
    Penny: "Your son is Benjamin Linus?"
    Eloise: "Good Lord, no! My son is Daniel Faraday."
  • Faraday tells Jack that his mother was wrong about destiny, that he doesn't belong there at all. Here's yet another situation in which one character believes in destiny (Eloise) and the other believes in free will (Faraday).
  • Dr. Chang echoes the words uttered by Eloise when she and Ben are trying to gather the Oceanic Six: "Then God help us all."
  • "Dr. Chang, Miles is your son." No time for easing into great revelations!
  • Check out the hair on Faraday at his graduation! He reminds me of a Lego man, with his little eyes and all that hair. Anyway, though we see glimpses of Eloise being kind to her son (the inscription in his journal: "No matter what, remember, I will always love you"), she is mostly cold and withholding — perhaps because she knows what happens in Faraday's future?

  • "Welcome to the meeting, Twitchy." Ha! It's like chuckle time at Juliet and Sawyer's — Sawyer calls Faraday "H.G. Wells" and delivers my favorite line of the night: "Your mother . . . is an Other?" It's not so funny, however, when Sawyer gently calls Kate his old pet name for her, "Freckles," and Juliet gives Kate the code for the fence so they can get to the hostiles. "It's over here for us anyway," Juliet says pointedly. This appears to have a double meaning, no? It's over here for . . . us.
  • When Widmore goes to meet with Faraday (and especially when he says he's "old friends" with Eloise), I had this suspicion that Widmore would reveal he's Faraday's father. The reveal comes later, but it turns out that's true. Huh. During their meeting, Widmore moves a Wired magazine on the couch, with a headline "The Impossible Gets Real!" Widmore tells Faraday he's "a man of tremendous gifts and it would be a shame to see them go to waste."
  • Daniel talking to Little Charlotte reminds me so much of The Time Traveler's Wife — right down to the girl's red hair. Aaaaand this scene makes me feel like crying.
  • So, Paul Giamatti (OK, Radzinsky) and his buddies start shooting and Faraday is grazed in the neck. He realizes, "This is our present. . . . Any one of us can die, Jack."
  • Faraday explains: "I'd been spending so much time focused on the constants, I forgot about the variables. And do you know what the variables in these equations are, Jack? Us. We're the variables. People! We think, we reason, we make choices, we have free will. We can change our destiny." So, he wants to detonate a hydrogen bomb.
  • Back (er, forward) at the Marina Medical Center, Eloise is apologizing to Penny. "For the first time in a long time, I don't know what's going to happen next." But Desmond is OK! Yay. "I promised you, Penny. I promised you. I'd never leave you again."
  • So Eloise sent her (and Widmore's) son back to the island, knowing that her past self would shoot him. Wow. She kind of does win the sacrifice argument, Widmore.

Photos copyright 2008 ABC, Inc.

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