The Sayid to Frank discussion in the chopper felt kinda Luke and Han Solo in the Falcon in Episode 4. =)
Desmond! Time jumping again! This time to his time in the army, after dumping Penny (leaving her at the altar?), and a couple years after his earlier time jump, and before getting out of... prison? and running into Libby and getting his boat and racing and getting washed up on the Island.
In the past he sees the present as a dream he had. And when he snaps back to the present, on board the chopper and then the freighter, it seems like his PAST self persists. That's kind of annoying. Or is it that his two consciousnesses have *swapped?* His past self is walking around in his current body, lost, and his current self is walking around in his past body, in the army.
Daniel: Maybe we should just, just tell them...
Charlotte (that ginger nut bitch): Dan, let's not confuse anyone...
Daniel: Your perception of how long your friends have been gone, it's not necessarily how long they've actually been gone...
Daniel: As long as Frank flew on the bearings I gave him, if he stayed on it, they'll be fine...
Jack: And if they don't?
Daniel: Then, there might be side effects...
Yay! Some fecked up time distortion! Rather Narnia-esque, no? Although, the effect/differences are even more subjective than Lewis's portrayal. Instead of time passing at a different rate in the two different worlds, there is the bonus possibility, aka side effects, of having your consciousness ping-ponged back and forth across time.
Hrmm... doesn't look like it's a SWAPPING of consciousness, rather, when he's not actively experiencing time in a body, past or present, that body seems to pass out or zone out.
Two of the freighter boys are Kayme (Camie?) and Omar. Is one of them Ben's man on the boat?
Finally! Fisher Stevens! Now, where the F is Zoe Bell?!
McKowsky: It's happening to you, too, isn't it?
Daniel: We don't know why, but for some reason, some people can get a little... confused...
Jack: Is this amnesia...?
Daniel: No, this is not amnesia...
Speaking from firsthand experience?
McKowsky: It's happening to him, too, Ray! ... Nothing can stop it, Ray!
Dr. Ray. Don't like him much.
Daniel: I need you to tell me what year you think it is...
Desmond: What do you mean, what year? It's 1996!
Daniel tells Desmond to set his device to 2.342, oscillating at 11hz. Kinda Doc Brown and McFly, no? =)
Daniel: If the numbers don't convince me then i need you to tell me that you know about Eloise.
Desmond: I think I've just been to the future...
Daniel: This is where I do the things that Oxford frowns upon...
Daniel: What this will do, is unstick Eloise in time, just like you.
Not the coolest looking time unsticking machine I've ever seen. Pretty awesome that Daniel doesn't protect his brain from the radiation, tho. Also, could be pretty convenient. This, coupled with travelling to the Island, is likely the cause of his screwy memory problems/abilities (demonstrated when he was playing the memory game w Charlotte using playing cards). Having a spotty and unreliable memory allows for him to NOT remember meeting Desmond in the past.
His encounter with Desmond might also result in his emotional response to the news of Oceanic 815's wreckage being discovered. We don't see Desmond tell Daniel about everything, but he could have, during commercial break.
McKowsky: Desmond? You're Desmond?
Desmond: Do you know me?
McKowsky: I'm George McKowsky. I'm the communications officer.
The freighter was picking up Penny's messages/broadcasts, but not responding.
Meanwhile, at Oxford, 1996...
Daniel: You went catatonic right in the middle of a sentence...
Okay, so when time jumping, the body you leave goes catatonic. I don't know that I love that, but whatev.
Whoa, Eloise is dead. From some kind of brain trauma. Daniel explains it as some kind of overload or short circuit, her consciousness not being able to tell when she is, distinguishing between the two or more times she's being bumped into.
Okay, Desmond was out 75 minutes according to Daniel. Daniel zapped Eloise and had her run the maze, successfully, a full 60 minutes before he was going to teach her the maze. Was there enough time in there for Daniel to teach Eloise how to run the maze before Eloise died?
Feckin time travel.
Daniel: Who are you calling?
Desmond: I'm calling my bloody constant.
How bloody romantic is that? =) Not that I give a crap about such things, but this should've been the episode that aired on Black Thursday!
Meanwhile, on the freighter, 2004...
McKowsky: Two days ago somebody sabotaged all the equipment.
Ben's man on the boat's been busy! Is Ben able to communicate w him? One of his Other lieutenants? Or is he just following some well thought out orders?
McKowsky: Looks like you guys have a friends on this boat.
Maybe Dr. Ray?
Meanwhile, at some hoity toity auction, 1996...
A painting of the Black Rock! On the block is the only known surviving artifact of the ship and its final journey, the journal of the first mate! Part of the estate of Torvald Hanso, and gee, I wonder who might be bidding on it... Pops Widmore, of course. Bidder 755.
Desmond gets his "word" with Widmore, and Pops actually gives him Penny's new address, but not before explaining...
Widmore: It's not me who hates you.
Who is it, really, who hates Desmond?
Desmond confronts Penny at her new place, begging for a phone number to his anchor in the future, Christmas Eve, 2004...
Desmond: If there's any part of you that still believes in us... Please, just give me your number.
Penny: 79460893...
Meanwhile, on the freighter, 2004...
Desmond calls Penny. Penny answers! There are quick bursts of information from both sides, but nothing that really gets Desmond any more found. As the battery dies, they talk over each other, declaring their love and their commitment to finding one another no matter what. Wow. That gave me some goose bumps/shivers/a stupid grin. =)
I really wouldn't be unhappy if this whole thing could ultimately be boiled down to being about Desmond.
Back on the Island, in Daniel's journal...
If anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume will be my constant.
This was a very fun episode.
I'm annoyed by how the writers' approach to time travel is still pretty ambiguous. When Desmond calls Penny, there's no direct acknowledgement of Desmond's visit in 1996 to get Penny's phone number. Daniel doesn't recognize Desmond when he meets him on the Island, and when he directs Desmond to take the train to Oxford, he doesn't say that it's because it's already happened that way. I want to believe that Daniel's idea that "you can't change the future," is the rule. That makes things rigid, but it also makes things interesting. Basically, if anyone travels thru time and messes with something, he was always MEANT to travel thru time and mess with something. The 12 MONKEYS version of time travel. As opposed to the BACK TO THE FUTURE, history changing model of time travel.
One of Desmond's Hatch jump allowed him to encounter Charlie years before he meets him on the Island. True, it was a possibly forgettable run-in on a street corner. Although... Was that the same day that was one of Charlie's best five memories? When he chased away that mugger and the woman called him a "hero?"
Another Hatch jump allowed him to catch up with a physicist friend of his in the past and explain his experience as well as describe his being shipwrecked on the Island with the Oceanic survivors. This physicist then must've spent some chunk of the 1990s up to 2004 walking around with memories of this discussion in his head. I want to believe that he would have found his way to Penny to help with her search for Desmond. Perhaps he was eliminated before that could happen?
Hey, let's not forget the Watcher-lady that Desmond encounters during a Hatch jump as well. She's apparently gifted with an ESP that allows her to see the threads of fate, how things are meant to happen. Perhaps Daniel and his physics is only partly right. The big broad strokes of the future can't be changed, but the details of how they happen might be. Desmond's repeated saving of Charlie sort of demonstrates that. Although, really, wasn't everything he did to save him all a means to the final end that Charlie meets?
In his "side effect" jumps this episode, Desmond interacts with Penny in 1996 in a somewhat manic way. When Desmond reaches her on the phone eight years later, she doesn't make any explicit mention of it. Penny's faulty memory? Strategic/ambiguous dialogue writing?
Also, Desmond offers 1996 Daniel some very important info to convince him of his "I've been to the future" story, the settings that make his machine work. But on the Island, and even when he directs Desmond to find him at Oxford, Daniel doesn't seem to remember Desmond from that encounter. In Daniel's case, however, he may have damaged his memory with a combination of exposure to his consciousness time travelling device and the passage from the outside world to the Island. At the same time it may be The Universe working to keep itself as consistent as possible, enabling for time loops to be closed, and causing memory lapses or blocks in an effort to avoid f'd up paradoxes.
Feckin time travel.
Keep on keepin on~
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