LOST Season 5, Episode 14: The Variable

--------------------------------------

Faraday returns to the island and tells Jack that his mother, Eloise Hawking, lied to them--they don't belong on the island. He then initiates a dangerous plan to get them back home.






"The Variable" is the fourteenth television episode of the fifth season of Lost, and the hundredth episode overall. It originally aired on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in the United States on April 29, 2009. The hundredth episode milestone was celebrated by cast and crew on location in Hawaii. In the episode, Daniel Faraday (Jeremy Davies) returns to the island in order to warn its inhabitants of a catastrophe involving the Dharma Initiative research station, The Swan. Jack (Matthew Fox), Kate (Evangeline Lilly) and Daniel start a gun fight with Dharma, leading Dharma to go after Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell). In flashbacks, Daniel's relationship with his parents, Eloise Hawking (Fionnula Flanagan) and Charles Widmore (Alan Dale), is shown.

The episode was written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and directed by Paul Edwards. It serves as a companion piece to the season four episode "The Constant", another episode that heavily features the character Daniel, and the second Lost episode to deal directly with the concept of time travel. "The Variable" also features the death of Daniel, portrayed by American actor Jeremy Davies who, according to show runners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, took the news about the death well. Since airing, the episode has received generally positive reviews from television critics, mostly complimenting Davies's performance.

In 1977, following the events of the previous episode, "Some Like It Hoth", Daniel has returned to the island, having spent three years in Ann Arbor, Michigan, conducting research for the Dharma Initiative. He has returned because Jack, Kate and Hurley (Jorge Garcia) have managed to travel back in time and join Dharma. After learning from Jack that they were sent to the island by Daniel's mother, Eloise (younger: Alice Evans; older: Fionnula Flanagan), Daniel visits Dr. Pierre Chang (François Chau) at the Orchid station and warns him of a catastrophic event that is to occur at the Swan station in six hours. Dr. Chang does not believe Daniel when he says that he is from the future, and Miles (Ken Leung) does not affirm Dan's story, even after Daniel informs Dr. Chang that Miles is his son from the future.

At the Barracks, Sawyer, Juliet, Jin (Daniel Dae Kim), Hurley and Miles decide that they will flee to the survivors' original beach, abandoning Dharma. But Kate, Jack and Daniel decide to visit the island's native population, the "Others" and warn them of the impending disaster. They arouse suspicion from Dharma's head of research, Radzinksy (Eric Lange), while trying to steal weapons and a gun fight ensues. The survivors are able to escape; however, Radzinksy brings his team to Sawyer and Juliet's house, where they find Dharma member Phil (Patrick Fischler) tied up. Meanwhile, Daniel explains to Jack and Kate that he intends to detonate the hydrogen bomb buried on the island in 1954 in order to prevent the construction of the Swan, which in turn will ensure that Oceanic Flight 815 never crashes on the island. Daniel enters the Others' camp with his gun drawn and demands that Richard Alpert (Nestor Carbonell) take him to see Eloise; Eloise shoots Daniel in the back as they argue. Before Daniel dies, he tells her that he is her son.[2]

In flashbacks, Daniel's relationship with his parents, Eloise and Charles Widmore, is shown. At a young age, Eloise asks Daniel if he knows what destiny is and then tells him that he has a special gift — his brilliant mind — and that his destiny relies on this. After Daniel graduates from Oxford University, Eloise gives him a new blank journal as a gift and again reminds him of his destiny. Meanwhile, Daniel has received an enormous research grant from Charles, who Daniel does not know is his father. Years later, following the crash of Flight 815, Daniel has suffered severe psychological effects from performing experiments on himself, has lost his mental acuity, and now lives with a caretaker. While watching the news coverage of the discovery of the Flight 815 wreckage in the Sunda Trench, Daniel is visited by Charles, who tells him that he faked the found wreckage and that the real plane actually landed on the island. Charles invites Daniel to go to the island, which Charles claims will cure his psychological problems. Eloise later visits Daniel and further encourages him to go to the island, despite knowing that it means her younger self will kill him there in 1977.

In 2007, following the events of "Dead is Dead", Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) is brought to a hospital, having been shot by Ben (Michael Emerson). While waiting, his wife Penny (Sonya Walger), is visited by Eloise, who apologizes for involving Desmond in everything that has happened. Penny later visits Desmond, who is expected to make a full recovery. Charles, who is also Penny's father, speaks with Eloise outside the hospital, but does not visit his daughter.

..................................................................
Season 5 Episode : [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16,17].