This ain't no Love Boat

“Maybe if you talk real slow, we’ll be able to follow you.” – Juliet

Physicist Daniel Faraday (Jeremy Davies) could explain it as slowly as he wanted, and I’m still not sure I followed all of what transpired on last night’s episode of LOST. It’s not really going out on a limb to say that the episode, “The Constant,” is in the top 5 episodes of the series. Though once my brain stops melting, it might even move into the top episode position. Much like Desmond, I think I need “a constant” to help me figure this one out.

I’m not gonna lie. I’ve got mostly a list of questions. Drop us a comment with some of your thoughts. Might need some help with this one!

Lost 4x05: The Constant

Here's what we know:

• Charles Widmore, Penny’s father, is bidding at a 1996 auction on some items related to the Black Rock – the slave ship that’s somehow now in the middle of the island. The ship was lost in 1845, and one of the items he wins in his bid was the ship log of crew. Will some of the names in the log be remarkably similar to the names of some current-day inhabitants of the island? Perhaps we’ll learn that Richard Alpert, the eyeliner guy, ages even better than we’d realized.


• Geek alert: The auctioneer stated that the last-known owner of the Black Rock items was Tovar Hanso, an obvious relation to Alvar Hanso and the Hanso Foundation. Also, the captain of the Black Rock in 1845 was named Magnus Hanso.


• Widmore sends Desmond to see Penny at her new address – 423 Cheyne Walk. Four and 23 are two of the LOST numbers, but also significant is Cheyne Walk, a street in London with some famous past residents including Henry James, author of one of the books Desmond had in the hatch with him.


• Widmore used a towel to turn on the faucet and on the soap dispenser in the restroom at the auction house. But when Desmond touched the faucet, he flashed back to 2004 on the freighter.


• On the freighter, 4 dates in October weren’t X’d out - or were so in a different color - on the calendar in the sick bay. Could this have coincided with the dates that Desmond turned the failsafe key and “the sky went purple?”
  

Help a brotha out:

• Are the writers of LOST seriously trying to keep me awake all night?


• Were Gopher, Julie and Isaac on another deck waiting to welcome Sayid and Desmond on board?


• Is Daniel affected by the same time perception shift as Desmond? If Desmond is Daniel’s “constant”, did Daniel’s reminder note to his future self end his time shifting?


• Was the “sickness” that killed Rousseau’s scientist shipmates what killed George Minkowski (Fisher Stevens) and Eloise the rat?


• Was the crew on the freighter was a little more ragtag than expected? Hadn’t you expected a paramilitary operation led by the “evil” Minkowski?


• Was Juliet being protected from this effect when they drugged her before bringing her to the island?


• Since it’s Christmas Eve, will the Losties remember and do a Secret Santa?


• Is Jacob caught in this time loop? Remember his one and only line: “Help me.”


• Are people who enjoy the relationship angle of LOST now totally swooning over Desmond and Penny after their phone reunion? I’m man enough to admit I got a lump in my throat.


• Was the time shift on the freighter later or earlier than the island? Or was the crew so surprised to see the chopper back because it appeared to them as if they chopper had just left?


• Has Ben somehow mastered this time perception shifting? Is he using this ability to alter the future of the island?


• Will the real-world Asian tsunami that happened on Dec. 26, 2004 factor into the show’s plot?

There were certainly enough questions to keep my mind racing. Hit me up with your comments below with your answers to the questions from “The Constant.”

Sayid and Ben cuddle up for Valentine's Day

Last night’s flash forward heavy episode of LOST was a grower, not a shower. We learn little bits of Sayid’s post-island life building up to the knock-you-on-your-ass cliffhanger moment. For instance, Flash-forward Sayid is: 1) dapper; 2) an assassin; 3) suave with the ladies; 4) able to pull it together after being shot; and…oh yeah, 5) working for Ben!

Really, we could end it right here, because it’s tough to recall most of what happened after seeing Ben in the room with Sayid in Berlin. How did Ben get off the island? And more importantly, why would Sayid be working for him? What do you think? Comment below with your thoughts.

LOST 4x03: The Economist


Sayid stares at Naomi’s corpse for a bit and admires her jewelry. (Inscription said “N – I’ll always be with you – R.G.”) Sayid makes a deal with the pilot, Frank, to deliver Charlotte back to the chopper team in order to snag a coveted exit row seat on the first flight back to the freighter. Sayid, Kate and Miles set off to get Charlotte. Frank asks Jack about Sayid. If Frank knew the passenger manifest so well that he knew Juliet was not on the flight, wouldn’t he have likely known where Sayid was from?

Team Locke can’t find Jacob’s cabin where he and Ben had visited it. Ben digs at John, saying he needs someone to ask what to do next. Clearly Ben’s mindgames are putting doubts out there. Hurley asks Locke to let Charlotte go as an act of “good faith.” Locke, always the man of faith, calls that an act of foolishness.

Sayid’s crew find Hurley bound and gagged in a closet in Juliet’s house in Otherville. But Hurley was swayed to pretend to have been left behind by Locke and crew. Sayid’s crew split up, and Sayid finds Ben’s secret room. Is this the “Magic Box?” There there are several international passports, including a Swiss one has a name of Dean Moriarty on it, and a drawer filled with various currency. An out-of-circulation ₤20 note with the image of Michael Faraday – physicist Daniel Faraday seems to be named after – topped one stack of cash. (Photo from losteastereggs.blogspot.com)

Much like Ben did earlier, Locke separates Sayid’s crew. Sayid is held with Ben in the Recreation Center, Kate with Sawyer in Ben’s house. The scene mirrors the one from last season’s “Man From Tallahassee” episode where Kate is held after trying to rescue Jack.

With all these scenes, it’s almost as if The Losties’ are transforming into The Others: Now they know the island, they ambush newcomers, they withhold information, they keep the rest of their teams in the dark, and they use people as bargaining chips.

Sayid returns to the chopper with Charlotte and says he traded Miles for her. But we didn’t see the transaction. What was it that we didn’t see?

Geek alerts:

• George Minkowski – The guy back on the freighter. Predictably, his name’s not just a name. Hermann Minkowski was a German mathematician who in 1907 theorized that in Einstein’s special theory of relativity, space and time aren’t separate dimensions, but are intertwined in what is known as the space-time continuum. Confused? Don’t worry. All you need to know is that Minkowski is a clue that perhaps space and time don’t follow the typical patterns here on the island. This theory seems to be a clue to solve Daniel’s experiment where the clock from the rocket “payload” was 31 minutes ahead of the clock he had on the island. But I’m betting that the island isn’t just 31 minutes off from the rest of the world.


• Here’s a brainbreaker for you: Jack asks Frank if the Red Sox really won the World Series, and Frank says yes. However, if time moves differently on the island, could it be that Frank was replying yes about 2007’s Series, not 2004’s, when the Losties crashed?


• Elsa was wearing the same type of bracelet as Naomi. Was Elsa actually Naomi’s “RG”? Or did Elsa and Naomi both work for the same people?
  

LOST news: The producers announced that we’ll get five more episodes this season, for a total of thirteen. The remaining three we would have gotten will roll up into a future season, meaning we will still get the planned episodes of LOST. Of course this means that we’ll get an accelerated story leading up to the season finale. I’ll take it. - Sean Salo