The Variable

Dear God,

Honestly, THANK YOU for LOST. That was such an amazing episode. Amazing. But, Faraday DEAD? Seriously, I am really sad at that. He was one of the best characters. Absolutely nobody saw that coming. ::deep breadth::

• This episode totally encompassed the whole Destiny vs. Free will theme of the series. Destiny was represented by Hawking, and to a lesser degree Widmore and free will represented by Faraday. The episode basically revealed the whole philosophy of Hawking which is basically, there is a certain path, and it MUST be followed, even if that means sending her own child to die. All the pieces start to fit now as to why she insisted on Desmond going to the Island and not buying the ring for Penny. If he doesn't go to the Island, that means eventually neither does her son...who according to her, must die. All this time, we were lead to believe that Faraday was on the Kahana because they needed him for scientific reasons. The truth is, he simply needed to be there so he can be killed.
  The other side of this is represented by Faraday who said things CAN change because even though there are certain constants, Human beings ultimately have free will and can alter things. This is ofcourse can cause great headaches since clearly Faraday was in the past since Charlotte told it to Faraday before she died. If he is able to change the past, then clearly Faraday and Charlotte would never have gone to the Island on the Kahana, which caused her death, which prompted Faraday to WANT to change the past in the first place. (i.e. to save Charlotte). Understand? If not for Charlotte dying, he would not be so hurt and want to save her by using the bomb. But if you prevent her death, then how can you go to the past to prevent that death???? See, I told you. You get a headache.
  
• So now we basically know why Hawking needed the Oceanic 6 to go back to the Island (thouth why some of them wanted to go back is still a mystery) , its because its through them that Faraday returns to the Island. Remember, her whole shtick is that there is a specific path, and that that path MUST be taken, or else. I wonder what can possibly happen if they didn't.
• I was wrong in my last post regarding the timing of Faraday coming back to the Island in relation to the season 5 opener when he bumps in to Dr. Chang. I thought the season opener came before and Faraday left the Island to learn more about the Island. Apparently, its the opposite.
• How does Faraday know EXACTLY when the accident in the Swan will happen? Is this just something that he knew when Widmore first hired him to go to the Island?
• What is up with Faraday's memory? Ok, so he used his experiment on himself, and I guess it did something to his brain that causes him to forget. But why does the Oceanic 815 wreckage make him cry...as if his mind remembers it. And how does this relate to Desmond Hume being his constant which he wrote in his journal? I mean, he clearly wrote that earlier, so why is his brain still a mess? Maybe it has nothing to do with a Constant. Perhaps he only wrote the Constant message incase in the future, he would go to the Island. But still, why does the wreckage make him cry?
  
• Faraday wants somehow to use Jughead (which we now know is NOT under the swan) to destroy that energy. Yet if he does, what happens to all the Losties? Do they just, cease to exist since it prevents the plane from crashing? If so, really, it doesn't make a difference if the Oceanic 6 are back in 1977 or back in 2007, since even THERE it would imply something happening to them. Afterall, they are only the Oceanic 6 BECAUSE of the swan accident which set everything in motion.
• Hawking tells Penny that for the first time, she has no idea what is going to happen next. I think we can understand this because up until now, her main goal was making sure a particular path is set in motion (i.e. Desmond going to the Island, Oceanic 6 returning and ultimatly Faraday dying). Now, she is basically free. As is written here, if this is the case, then how would she know the Island is still not done with Desmond?
• If Charlotte remembers Faraday, then that means he was in the past. Sooooooo, while we were still watching episodes of them in 2007, what happened to those Losties (and Faraday that were in the past. In reality, there should be two versions somewhere on earth....if the Losties were alive. Maybe at some point, everyone dies.
  
• Seeing previews from next week, I have a feeling that Jughead is inside the Temple.
• The previews also made it look like the Losties are going to use Faraday's journal. If this is true, there is probably only person that can understand anything in there. My hunch is that it will be Dr. Chang.
• Don't forget, somehow, Faraday's notes and map ends up in Ben's room in the Hydra. I am sure we will get back to this eventually. Perhaps this means that Hawking and Widmore end up with it and later Ben takes it from Widmore.