Lost is a United States serial drama television series that follows the lives of plane crash survivors on a mysterious tropical island, after a passenger jet flying between Sydney, Australia and Los Angeles, United States crashes somewhere in the South Pacific. Each episode typically features a primary storyline on the island as well as a secondary storyline from another point in a character’s life. The show was created by Damon Lindelof, J. J. Abrams and Jeffrey Lieber, and is filmed primarily on location in Oahu, Hawaii. The pilot episode was first broadcast on September 22, 2004. Since then, three seasons have aired. The show is produced by ABC Studios, Bad Robot Productions and Grass Skirt Productions and airs on the ABC Network in the United States. Its incidental music is composed by Michael Giacchino. The current executive producers are Abrams, Lindelof, Bryan Burk, Jack Bender and Carlton Cuse. Because of its large ensemble cast and the cost of filming in Hawaii, the series is one of the most expensive on television.
From the Lost Wikipedia entry.
Warning: Spoilers ahead.
This episode reveals that there is a time gap between the rest of the world and the island. Faraday says that there is a specific way to get to the island. If the helicopter went off course, the people inside might have some side-effects. This is apparent to Sayid, because as soon as they hit the storm, Desmond doesn’t remember who he is.
Sayid is able to restrain him until they land. Curiously, they left at dawn and landed in the middle of the day. This explains the temporal experiments that Faraday has been making on the island. Charlotte is reticent to share this knowledge with the survivors, but Faraday wants to help Desmond when they are back in contact with them. Time passes faster on the island than on the outside world. That means that even though it might seem that the losties have been on the island for ages, they might have only been gone for a shorter while.
Desmond spends the rest of this episode unstuck in time. His consciousness travels between 1996 and 2004. Faraday explains to Desmond in the past that he needs to find a constant in his life to anchor him. Desmond knows that this constant is Penny. Even though it turns out to be hard, he manages to get her number and persuades her not to change it since he will be calling her eight years later. By doing so, thanks to Sayid’s jury rig of the destroyed radio equipment, he has a few minutes with Penny.
This episode explains what happened to Desmond during his time travels. Desmond also sees people’s death and has tried multiple times to save Charlie. In the end, Charlie died and Des wasn’t able to save him. The reasons behind the time travel aren’t explained. As the story evolves, I’m sure that Faraday will answer more than a few.
The reason why Desmond was stuck in this time warp was because he was exposed to the event at the end of season 2. In the beginning of season 3, Desmond was told by Ms. Hawking that his destiny lies on the island. He was experiencing events in 1996.
For some reason, this episode reminds me of an episode of Babylon 5, War Without End. Captain Sheridan spends part of the two episodes (16 and 17 ) unstuck in time, traveling to the distant future. He doesn’t travel physically, but his consciousness travels to his future self. He is brought back thanks to a time stabilizer. This is compounded by the fact that Delenn, Sinclair and Sheridan had traveled to the distant past to steal Babylon 4 for the first Shadow War.
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The scene starts with Desmond in the cockpit of the helicopter. He’s looking at Penny’s photo. Sayid looks over Frank’s shoulder and sees his cheat sheet. Getting to the boat isn’t as easy as they thought. Desmond expects to find answers. The helicopter is flying straight into a storm. Seconds before, the skies were clear and blue.
Desmond wakes up. He’s in the army. He dreamt about the helicopter ride. Desmond stirs back up in the helicopter. He doesn’t remember who Sayid is.
Back at camp, Jack wants to know why Charlotte and Dan aren’t worried about the time that the helicopter is taking. Dan says that the perception of time on the island is different from the outside world. Dan says that it will be fine. As long as they flew with the bearings that Dan gave Frank. If they didn’t, they would experience side-effects.
On the helicopter, they finally break through the clouds and Desmond was still freaking out. He finally calms down when they land. They meet some guys on the deck.
Desmond keeps switching times. He’s back at the army barracks in the rain. He tries to explain it to his mate. He remembers seeing Penny.
Kime and Omar take Desmond to see the doc. They have locked him in the sick bay. There is another guy there who has the same symptoms as he does. They took off at dusk and landed in the middle of the day. Frank says that he is trying to help Sayid. In exchange for the phone, Sayid gives up his gun. He calls Jack. He tells Jack about Desmond’s memory loss. Dan knows about this. Desmond was exposed to the event when the bunker blew up. Dan says that this is not amnesia. It’s something else.
George Minkowski is his name and the doc Ray arrives to give him a shot. The doc checks his eyes and asks him about the last thing he remembers. In the past Dezzie was in the British Army’s Royal Scots Regiment. He gives Penny a call. He wants to see her. She doesn’t want to see her.
In the present, Frank walks in with Sayid in the sickbay. Frank says that Dan wants to talk with Desmond. The doc doesn’t want this and pushes the alarm. Frank hands Dezzie the phone. Dan asks Dezzie what year it is. Dezzie thinks it’s 1996. He says that he’s at Camp Miller, south of Glasgow. He tells him to get on a train to go to Oxford and meet Dan in the past. He tells him to tell Dan to set the device at 2.342 and it has to be oscillating at 11Hz. He needs to tell Dan that he knows about Eloise.
In the past, Dezzie turns up at Oxford. Dan in the past has long hair and doesn’t believe him initially. When he mentions Elouise, he brings Des to his lab. Dan in the past uses radiation. Eloise is a mouse. He says that the numbers will unstick Eloise in time, just like Des.
The rat runs through the maze like it knows it. Dan says that he sent the rat’s consciousness through time.
In the present, Minkowski recognizes Desmond. He says that he received calls that he could never answer. The calls were from Penny.
In the past, Des wakes up 75 minutes later. He finds that Eloise is dead. Dan thinks that Eloise had no constant between the timelines, that is why she died. The same is true about Des. He’s got no fixed constant. He needs one. Des immediately thinks of Penny. He tries to call Penny, but the number is disconnected.
He wakes up in the present. He needs to call Penny. Minkowski says that two days ago, someone sabotaged the radio room. Minkowski could fix it, but he went mad. Strangely, the door of the sick bay is open. Almost like someone left it open for them.
Des is lying in some stairwell in Oxford. He goes to find Penny. Des finds Penny’s father. He just bought the ledger of a ship. Might this ledger contain a path or directions to the island?
Widmore gives him her address. Desmond shifts back to the ship. Minkowski says that it’s getting harder to shift back. Minkowski says that it he went with a boat to see the island with Brandon. Brandon started acting crazy. When they arrive in the radio room, Minkowski zonks out. He dies. Des’ nose starts to bleed, just like Minkowski’s.
In the past, Des goes to see Penny. He needs her number. He says that he needs her number to call her in 8 years, on December 24 2004. 79460893, she gives him the number. In the present, Des gives her a call. She answers after about 20 rings. Penny says that she knows about the island. Since she talked to Charlie, she knew that Des was still alive. He says that he loves her and that he is so sorry. The line goes dead after Sayid’s patch stopped working. Des has his memory back. He’s no longer unstuck in time.
On the island, Faraday is going through his notebook. He finds a note to himself.
It reads:
If anything goes wrong, Desmond will be my constant.
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