The Variable (29 Apr. 2009)

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.

Director:

Paul A. Edwards

Writers:

Jeffrey Lieber (creator), J.J. Abrams (creator),

Stars:

Naveen Andrews, Henry Ian Cusick, Jeremy Davies

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Naveen Andrews	...	Sayid Jarrah (credit only)
Henry Ian Cusick	...	Desmond Hume
Jeremy Davies	...	Daniel Faraday
Michael Emerson	...	Ben Linus (credit only)
Matthew Fox	...	Jack Shephard
Jorge Garcia	...	Hugo 'Hurley' Reyes
Josh Holloway	...	James 'Sawyer' Ford
Daniel Dae Kim	...	Jin Kwon
Yunjin Kim	...	Sun Kwon (credit only)
Ken Leung	...	Miles Straume
Evangeline Lilly	...	Kate Austen
Elizabeth Mitchell	...	Juliet Burke
Terry O'Quinn	...	John Locke (credit only)
Nestor Carbonell	...	Richard Alpert
Alan Dale	...	Charles Widmore

Storyline

In 1977, Faraday returns to the island where he tells Jack that his mother, Eloise Hawking, was wrong - that they don't belong on the island. At least not in this time. Faraday confides in Jack, Kate, Hurley and Miles about a radical plan to get them back home and arrange time as it should. Faraday also confides in Dr. Chang about his true origins. More of Faraday's background story shows his upbringing by Eloise, his tenure at Oxford University and his work. Back in Los Angeles in the present day, Desmond is recovering in the hospital from Ben's attack where Eloise pays him and Penny a visit.

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Korean

Release Date:

29 April 2009 (USA)

Filming Locations:

O'ahu, Hawaii, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bad Robot, ABC Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

43 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

When the young Daniel Faraday is playing the piano, the actor is only pretending to play.

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Quotes

Daniel Faraday: You knew all along - you knew this would happen. And you sent me here anyway...
Eloise Hawking: Who are you?
Daniel Faraday: I'm your son.

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Connections

References Happy Days (1974)
Hurley equates the 1950s with Fonzie

User Reviews

Bad Will Hunting

The Constant was fascinating, this one was disappointing. In fact I think I just had too high expectations. Desmond Hume's story really inspired me and when Daniel Faraday got out from the submarine last week I thought they would be both featured in this episode. Moreover now that the time shifting element doesn't surprise us anymore, it makes Daniel's crazy explanations less entertaining. We already saw him trying to convince Jack and Kate so it really felt like déjà-vu. An other problem was Daniel's story because it's nearly impossible for most people to identify with him, that's the issue with genius. His scenes with little Charlotte and the Hostiles were also quite disappointing. First the young actress is not a natural redhead and made the character less believable. Second and last even if Daniel is clumsy he should know that you using a gun is the worst argument against people. It just doesn't make sense, specially considering he's a rational scientist. However the whole Sawyer arc was interesting and I really felt sad for him and Juliet. Otherwise the shooting scene was rushed and I wished the writers planned something less hasty.

Let's hope Lost will get back to its roots and not become a parody of Far Cry, the video game. Overall it was quite disappointing and felt unbalanced, like if they tried to merge too many elements and edit too many scenes into a single episode.