Hello fellow trekkers through the isle of Lost. As you may have noticed there are a few things missing this week on our favorite show about people on an island who are not visited by the Harlem Globetrotters (not yet at least). Locke, who I envision has conversations with himself at night so he can “keep the terrible silence at bay,” and sharp tongued Ben are absent from the entire hour except in the preview at the very end. The other missing item is your normal intrepid recapper, Katey Rich, who was so distraught with Kate having possession of Aaron that she has had to seek medical attention to calm her nerves. They don’t tell me anything, so I’m going to make it up as I go until we get some truth from the evil oppressors at Blend Television.
In yet another example of giving us what we want comes a Desmond episode of Lost. Which means we get to find out what happened to Sayid, Desmond and The Lawnmower Man in the helicopter. My brain ended up oozing out of my skull before it was all over, but I’m happy to report we got some sort of answer on how time works on the island. Not a clear-cut definitive one, but damn if it wasn’t something.
When Daniel told Frank to keep a certain heading with the helicopter, we just knew he wouldn’t. The result of that decision led to a fight for one man’s life that spanned 8 years and a heaping helping of emotional turmoil. We’re following along as Sayid, Desmond and Frank try to make it to the boat when we enter a flash back. Or flash forward. Or…what the? I’d gotten used to the flash-forwards fast, and seeing Desmond looking younger threw me off.
We’re looking at a Desmond who is back in the army, and it makes no sense for that to happen if he’s one of the “Oceanic Six.” After watching as Desmond is berated by the drill instructor, who would piss his pants if R. Lee Ermy even walked on the next block, we come back to the now. Except Desmond is discombobulated and clearly having some problems. He doesn’t recognize Sayid, or know where he is. OK, so the writers have decided to do a little cognitive displacement time travel story. Sure, I can hang with that.
I’m not going to waste your time, or mine, describing what it’s like each time Desmond jumps through time. I’ll just label them Now Now Desmond and Then Now Desmond. Or maybe I should just call him Sam Beckett and get Ziggy to calculate the odds of me figuring out what’s really going on. According to Daniel, Desmond’s “leaps” in time are only his consciousness. The electromagnetic pulse in the hatch that he was exposed to is what caused this anomaly to happen. Somehow. Yes, my answer to how it happened is “somehow.”
So where does that leave our hero of the week? In a pretty sorry state. The flying trio does find the boat, but as Sayid points out they left at dusk and arrived at midday. It was only a 40 minute or so flight. That makes little sense. And Desmond is going crazier by the moment.
Sayid trades his gun for Frank’s phone and makes a call to Jack. As Sayid explains what happened Daniel recognizes the situation, and proclaims that it is not amnesia. Thanks. I couldn’t figure that part out. Meanwhile Now Now Desmond is in the sick bay on the boat with another man who appears to have a similar affliction. When the “doctor,” yeah like I believe that creepy ass dude is legit, comes in to drug up the other “patient” Desmond blacks out and travels through time again. When he returns to the present there’s a phone call waiting, and we find out how far down the rabbit hole goes.
Daniel asks Desmond what year he thinks it is. ”What year do I think it is? It’s nineteen ninety six.” Oooh, sorry that answer is…false. Daniel finds out where in 1996 Desmond is supposed to be, and then figures out where he is and instructs Now Now Desmond to go to Oxford and meet him. Some sort of calibration numbers are given and we’re off. Then Now Desmond does indeed find a longhaired Daniel Faraday at Oxford. After some minor persuasion using the numbers, and knowledge of Eloise, Then Now Desmond convinces Daniel that Daniel’s future self sent Desmond to him. Brain exploding. What would you need to hear to convince yourself that something like that was true? I can’t think of a single thing, but then again I’d just roll with the situation and see where it went.
It turns out that each time the “leap” happens it gets exponentially worse. When Then Now Desmond jumps back to now he is there for five minutes, but upon his return he was gone for 75. Now I’m sure some of our favorite Lost researchers will start crunching the numbers, but this gives us a small clue into the difference in time between what the Losties experience and what has passed for us. What is the shift at the barrier point? Is it 5 minutes or more? Daniel says that it varies, but is there a constant somewhere in the equation we’re not seeing yet? The other niggling problem is that Desmond’s little issue is likely to lead to death.
Daniel explains to Then Now Desmond that he needs a constant in both times because the mind eventually can’t figure out what’s going on and just goes kaput. If you’re trying to keep all of this straight as the show unfolds you might be feeling a similar tingle in the noggin. We all know that Desmond’s anchor will be Penny, and so it is. The rest of the episode is him trying to make contact with her on each end of the 8 year time frame.
Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that it’s December 24th, 2004 for the Losties? Yeah, no ambiguous references anymore. We got an honest to goodness date in this episode. In the now Sayid and Now Now Desmond help the other patient, who turns out to be displaced radio operator George, to the radio room so Desmond can call Penny. Back in 1996 Then Now Desmond finds Penny’s father and gets her new address. When he finds her somehow he convinces her to listen to him. And he tells her that he needs her number so he can call her on Christmas Eve in 8 years. She does, which proves she still cares for him. Or she’s keeping the booty call option alive.
I’m not going to go all girlie gush on you for this next part. But what happens next might be the most romantic and lovely moment this show has ever seen. When Now Now Desmond makes contact with Penny there’s such relief and joy in their voices. These two people are connecting over miles and years, and the writers and director orchestrate it brilliantly. Watching their reunion and confession of love was almost like being purely content myself. It was done so well I couldn’t help but be brought in to their lives for that moment. And then it was over. The 1996 and 2004 Desmonds went their separate ways and all was right. As usual Sayid’s assistance with the phone system saved the day. The other Losties need to start listening to that man.
Back on the island Daniel is flipping through his notes when he comes across a page that reads: If anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume will be my constant.
LOST
Only one of our new questions from last week was answered; and this episode didn’t bring up a whole lot in the over arching plot. What is so great about an episode like “The Constant” is that it exists outside of the driving force of a plot we expect, and yet we don’t care. There is some new information about how the island works revealed, and we get a wonderful tale. That’s what made “The Walkabout” such a phenomenal hour of television. On this night the Lost band hit all the right notes.
