bobbysketch

“The Constant,” by itself, was a superb episode that answered quite a bit of our questions from seasons past. When taken in context with the rest of Season 4, though, there is one very large void that is created. The basis of this question is: how is it that the Oceanic 6 are off the Island, but not able to time travel the way Desmond, Faraday and Minkowski can?

There are several questions that need to be answered as we dive into these shallow waters of deep thought. The first has to do with exposure to radiation. Faraday made it fairly clear that an exposure to radiation has something to do with this time traveling mental state. Were the Oceanic 6 exposed? Kate has been pretty exposed lately, but not to radiation, ehem (OK, shallow thought there). The same applies for Jack, Hugo and Sayid. Unless, when the hatch imploded, everyone on the Island was exposed to the elecromagnetic field? But if that were the case, we would have seen Sayid go nutso while flying with Desmond. At this point you could say that the Oceanic 6 aren’t able to time travel because they weren’t exposed, but to that, I have another answer (in the form of a question): Minkowsi wasn’t exposed to any sort of radiation that we know of, but he was still able to “fly.” What gives?

The only other force that we’ve seen that can trigger this mental state is approaching the “border” of the Island – either on the way in or out. We know this because Minkowski, somehow within a span of days, was infected by this and ultimately died of it. But we didn’t see him being subjected to any high amounts of radiation, did we? All he said was that he veered a little too close and all of a sudden he was “sick.” But then again, Sayid comes back into play. He (and Frank) flew out with Desmond and neither of them were made “sick.” Hmm.

In either case, some of the Oceanic 6 (at least the ones we know of so far: Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid) should be displaying signs of time travel, right? Then why aren’t they?

The Submarine Saves Six Theory!
Yes folks, you guessed it: the Oceanic 6 get “rescued” via submarine. And they aren’t even rescued! Ben lets them off of the Island. I’m sticking to my theory that the freedom of the Oceanic 6 is a result of another Benjamin Linus scheme. Similar to what I believe we’ll find out happened to Michael (with him being Ben’s spy on the freighter). The temptation of returning to their lives leads them off the Island with Ben as the facilitator; but like a guilt-laying parent, he manipulates them into hiding, lying and, ultimately, killing for him. What does this have to do with flashbacks and time travel? It seems to me that the only way to avoid getting stuck with the time travelers syndrome is to travel by submarine. That’s how the Dharma people got onto the Island. That’s how Juliette got onto the Island and that’s how the Oceanic 6 will get off – and preserve their mental sanity.

Juliette. We’re going to learn a whole lot more about her in the coming episode of Lost. Will she be one of the Oceanic 6? Not possible, right? Because she wasn’t on the plane. Will she get off the Island, or even want to get off? I think so. And I am going to stick to my gut feeling that she’s the one in the coffin. Maybe that question will be answered this Thursday as well. We’ll just have to see about that.

Lost just blew my mind. And the minds of one of my favorite characters: Desmond. Why Henry Ian Cusick hasn’t won an Emmy for his work on this show, I don’t know. I was moved and thrilled, elated and, at one point, completely distraught at the thought of Desmond dying. But he lives on in the world of Lost – at least for another week.

I won’t be able to recap this episode in detail just because of how complex it was, but here’s the gist of what my meager brain thinks is going on, and one of my theories on Desmond’s flashes.

You’ve Been Nuked, Brotha
The mass exposure to radiation, aka the hatch imploding, had an effect on Desmond which made itself prominent upon Desmond’s flight off the Island. When he got past the “border” territory, he immediately forgot where he was, what time it was or who he was with. It wasn’t until he and Sayid made it onto the freighter that we found out what was going on.

Faraday’s Future Relative Friend (oh wait, it’s the past.)
Through Sayid’s help, Desmond got on the phone with Daniel Faraday on the Island and Faraday told Desmond to meet him in the past. Yes, Mr. Hume’s mind had been traveling between time – precisely 1996 and 2004 (8 years). Through Faraday’s help in the past as well as the future, Desmond was able to find out what the heck was going on. 1996 Faraday explained to him that the key to not losing your mind and dying from an aneurism of the brain was to have “a constant.” I think this has something to do with the theory of relativity, but I’m not smart enough to actually talk about it. Just something along the lines of you have to have a single point of reference.

Penny Wise
Desmond had to find this point of reference in both the past and the present/future in order for him to survive his mental lapses (or flashes, or time travels – whatever you want to call them). I’ll let you guess who or what that point of reference was. You got it: Penny. This episode just about explained everything surrounding the Penny search for Desmond.

It turns out that Desmond left Penny in 1996 and joined the military. What happened between then and 2004 is a blur, but it involved him being on the Island for three years (or 8 years?). In 1996, Desmond got a number from Penny to call and he told her that he would call that number on December 24, 2004. To us and Desmond, all of those events took place in the matter of minutes, but to Penny, it was 8 years. He made the call and they were once again reunited, if only briefly on the phone. That was a fantastic, real moment of the episode and probably the best yet of the fourth season.

So Many Questions, Just One Theory
Everything else is still quite complex and I’ll need some sleep and time to figure it out. Things like what is the time differential? Still 30 minutes or is it 5 years (because Penny has said something about Desmond being gone for 3 years, when he was in fact gone for 8)? And Faraday – apparently he is traveling between time too, and his Constant is Desmond! And oh those numbers! 2.342? 11Hz? 423 Cheyne Walk? What to make of the communications captain of the freighter? He was also able to time travel, but he ended up dying because he didn’t have a Constant. Who is the “friend on the boat?” Is that also Ben’s spy? And finally, a question we do have an answer to (or at least a theory): Now we know how Desmond was able to tell the future. Because he had already lived it, mentally. That’s how he knew Charlie was going to die. That’s how he knew about the helicopter. And that how he knew he would one day return to Penny. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

I believe The Office, the funniest show on TV, is returning to TV on April 10. I don’t know what I’m going to do! Between Lost, The Office, the baseball season and instant messaging, I’ll have some tough decisions to make on Thursday nights. By instant messaging I mean streaking through Shea Stadium with a shackburger in hand. Yeah.

The PTC (yeah, I know, who?) is calling for all advertisers to boycott advertising on Dexter, the fantastic show on CBS on Sunday nights. The PTC is the Parents Television Coucil. And I am bobbysketch. Both of us are stars in the world of television.

The question that we were all theorizing about since “Through the Looking Glass” was finally answered in tonight’s episode of Lost: Who did Kate have to get back to while she was talking to Jack? The answer was the last spoken word of the episode: Aaron. Her baby. That was the one overwhelming fact from the episode, but there were many more things that we learned. We find out what the secret of the Oceanic 6 is. We find out that Kate and Sawyer didn’t get pregnant on the Island. And we ultimately find out that Kate was tried for the crimes she committed before having crashed onto the Island. All of these facts and much more recapped here.

What happened to Claire Bear?
For those of you that saw the episode, you’re asking the same thing I am: If Kate is claiming Aaron to be her son, then what the heck happened to Claire? She’s apparently not one of the Oceanic 6. She either dies or she is still on the Island. That’s probably also got a lot to do with why Jack refuses to see Aaron. Is Jack responsible for Claire’s death? Or does he feel guilty for having left her on the Island? Or maybe it’s got something to do with the fact that Jack and Claire have the same father?

Future Jack’s testimony: “I don’t love Kate, not anymore.”
Jack is called upon as a surprise witness in the case of the People vs. Kate. More intriguing than his denial of love for Kate Austen was his faux recapping of the events that happened after the crash of Flight 815. He tells the story of the plane crashing in the water, there being 8 survivors and Kate being the hero that rescued everyone. He denies ever having spoken to the US Marshall that was on the plane (he died in the crash). And basically, he commits perjury – for Kate’s sake. Or is it? One by one, the layers of deceit are being pulled away from the story of the survivors.

The Forgiving Mother
The DA was planning on using Kate’s mother to testify against her, but she ultimately changed her mind, even after Kate refused to let her see Aaron. This is how Kate got out easy: 10 years probation and lockdown in California. To which she says “I have a son, I’m not going anywhere.”

The Island Son: Aaron
To give us some perspective on where in future time we are, we see Aaron and he’s between two and three years old, I’d say (do you agree?). He calls Kate mommy, so he’s convinced that she’s his mom. But I wonder who they are claiming his father is? How did they figure out this conspiracy? Either they were stranded on the Island long enough (9 months+) for her to have gotten “knocked up” by one of the 8 survivors, or she was pregnant before she got on the Island, right? Because she couldn’t have gotten pregnant with Aaron after she left the Island. Nor could she have given birth after getting rescued (because Claire gave birth to Aaron, not Kate). Sooo…it looks like that freighter isn’t going to be rescuing anyone soon.

“There’s not much to say for me, it’s ok, you know that girls like mystery.”
OK, so those lyrics have been in my head for a couple of days now. They’re from a Cribs song. And there’s really not much to say about the man of mystery: Ben. Miles is willing to strike a deal with Ben, tell “them” that Ben is dead in exchange for $3.2 million (or was it billion?). Umm, sure. BTW, it was Kate who arranged the meeting between the two of them by infiltrating camp Locke, sleeping with/using Sawyer (but not in that way, they just slept in the same bed. Really.) and “scooby doo-ing” Hurley into telling her where Miles was locked away. Nicely done, but not much of a story there. Locke is starting to grow frustrated and Jack finds out that Frank, Sayid and Desmond haven’t yet made it back to the freighter. We’ll find out what happened to them next week.

Island life is getting kinda boring. It was good to see Jin and Sun again. They are trying to figure out where they are going to live: Jin wants to be in the US, Sun wants to go back to Korea. I think there was some foreshadowing of a rift between the two.

More questions: What ends up happening between Jack and Kate? They seem to be at good terms after his testimony, but then Kate avoids bearded Jack in the distant future. Did you see that she had the same Volvo parked in her driveway that she did in “Through the Looking Glass”? Jack’s driving the beat up Jeep also. And why does Kate’s lawyer look so familiar? How cool was the grenede in the mouth of the loudmouth?! And someone please help me here: where does Kate find matching, sexy underwear? And why would she wear it if it’s not hers?!

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the title of the episode: Eggtown. Was it named that because of the fried eggs Locke made for Ben? Or because of the eggs getting impregnated on the Island? Another mystery. But girls like that, right?