We learn that Daniel is returning to the island from Dharma HQ in Ann Arbor where he's been doing some sort of research. He's back because he's learned that Jack and the gang are there and shouldn't be. He has a plan on how to fix things, but it's a wild one.
It's clear that the jig is up in terms of the future folk continuing to blend in with the 1970s Dharma crowd, what with security guy Phil bound and gagged in Sawyer's closet, but nobody is sure what to do. That makes everyone a lot more willing for everyone to listen to Daniel's crazy scheme. Basically, he wants wipe the whole Oceanic crash and the survivors' history on the island out of the time line.
Daniel plans to do this by making sure the electromagnetic "incident" that resulted in the construction of the Swan Station hatch never happens--as it's about to in the curent timeline. He hopes to do so by convincing Dr. Chang to get everone off the island so he can explode Jughead, the H-bomb that the Others' buried on the island back in the 1950s. Here's his reasoning:
* In the 1970s, Dr. Chang's exploration crew accidentally taps the huge source of pent-up electromagnetic energy under the island. People are killed, there is an "incident," but the site, under the Swan Station is covered up with the Hatch and the energy is safely dispersed by a person pressing a button every 108 minutes. That person eventually becomes Desmond.
* Daniel knows this incident is about to occur.
* If he convinces Dr. Chang that he is indeed from the future and knows what's about to occur, Daniel hopes to get everyone off the island, whereupon he'll detonate the bomb.
* If the bomb goes off, there's no Hatch and, hence, no button for Desmond to fail to push. That means there's no Oceanic crash and no bad nastiness that follows: Battles between the survivors and the Others, Widmore's commandoes being sent to the island and killing folks, etc.
* It's clear that Daniel wants to do this in order to prevent Charlotte, who he again sees as a young girl living among the Dharmaites, from dying as she did in the future.
Kate and Jack decide to help Daniel, which means visiting the Others and finding the location of the bomb. Sawyer, Juliette, Miles and Hurley, however, decide that they are supposed to be on the island and want to stay there. They think Daniel's plan is crazy. They also realize that their cover is blown with the Dharma Initiative and decide they need to head out into the jungle.
Things get tricky, however, when Kate, Jack and Daniel are spotted by Radzinski and some other Dharmaites stealing weapons and a jeep before they go see the Others. There's a brief gun battle and Kate, Jack and Daniel get away. Radzinski is wounded in the hand and rushes to get Sawyer--who, afterall, is supposed to be the Dharma security chief. But Radzinski then finds Phil locked in the closet of Sawyer's place and realizes that Sawyer can't be trusted either. He and his men capture Sawyer and the rest of the gang.
Meanwhile, Kate, Jack and Daniel find the Others' camp. Daniel tells the other two to hang back as he goes to confront those in the camp. He walks in with a gun, demanding to see Eloise--who we see in flashbacks is his mother. We also learn that Widmore is Daniel's father. Richard attempts to get Daniel to calm down and give up the gun, but before he can do so, Daniel is shot--by Eloise, who comes up behind him. Eloise demands to know who Daniel is and he says, "I'm your son. You knew this was going to happen, but you let it happen anyway."
Also in flashbacks, we see that though Desmond was wounded in his L.A. scuffle with Ben, he recovers. Eloise goes to the hospital to check on Desmond and has a brief conversation with Penny. Outside, she encounters Widmore and we learn that Daniel is their child.
We also see past glimpses of Daniel's upbringing with Eloise. He's gifted scientifically as a boy and Eloise demands he put all his energy into pursuing scientific discoveries, he has no time for anything else. We also learn how Daniel came to join Charlotte, Miles and Frank in going to the island. Widmore recruited him, saying that the island would make him well--Daniel's memory has been shattered due to his time experiments--and Daniel agrees to do so.
Questions/observations/speculation:
* Will Daniel recover from the gunshot wound?
* Why did Eloise encourage Daniel to go to the island, knowing that, in the past, she shot him there? Does she understand the full chain of events? Does she remember shooting a stranger in the past who identified himself as her son? Does she realize all this has to happen so the island will be preserved? Or is she somehow hoping to change the past?
* Earlier in the season, what did Daniel hope to accomplish by convincing Desmond to find Eloise?
* Would Daniel also wipe himself out of his existence by exploding the bomb? What about the Others? Would they leave the island or be killed? Will his scheme work? (I'm thinking not, since we still have another season to go).
* How/when/why did Eloise leave the island? Was it before Widmore was banished? Was Daniel born on the island? Why did Eloise and Widmore not remain a couple? Who is Penny's mother?
* What will happen to Sawyer and the rest? Can they convince Chang that they aren't Others, but that they come from the future?
* Charlotte, as a young girl, tells Daniel "I'm not allowed to have chocolate before dinner". These are her last words to him before she dies in the future--when her mind is skipping through time.
Also see:
See a preview for next week's episode: "Follow the Leader."
Read spoilers for "Follow the Leader."
What we STILL don't know.
Previous episodes:
* 5.1/5.2: "Because You Left" and "The Lie"
* 5.3: "Jughead"
*5.4: "The Little Prince"
* 5.5: "This Place is Death"
* 5.6: "316"
* 5.7: "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham"
* 5.8: "LaFleur"
* 5.9: "Namaste"
* 5.10: "He's Our You"
* 5.11: "Whatever Happened Happened"
* 5. 12: "Dead is Dead"
* 5.13: "Some Like it Hoth"
No comments:
Post a Comment