Lost: The Constant[ly Confusing Best Show Ever]

Wow. I don’t understand what happened on tonight’s episode of Lost (The Constant), but whatever it was was freakin’ incredible.

Take your normal island mysteries, a hint of good vs. evil, a flashback that answers a question or two about a main character and a romance that’s enough to turn the King into a regular softie and you have one awesome episode of Lost.

I took physics in college. I did okay in it. That said, I didn’t understand a bit of anything going on with the space-time continuum tonight. My understanding of time travel comes from the Back to the Future series and the few times on Star Trek when they’d take a slingshot around the sun to go back in time.

But like the last episode of Lost that dealt with time travel, last season’s Flashes Before Your Eyes, time travel is anything but typical in the Lost universe. And that’s fine. The island has some special radioactive, magnetic properties. It may even exist in another dimenson. Whatever the answer, we didn’t get one tonight (or if we did, it was when Faraday was talking and I didn’t understand him). But we saw it in action. We saw it tie together the past with the present to have an effect on the future.

Desmond has been chosen by someone or something. Call it fate, call it Jacob, whatever. He’s played this role which has turned his life upside down and given it meaning. Forces in his life (Mr. Widmore, Ms. Hawking) have manipulated his life, and possibly other events in the world. But now, he’s on his way back home. To Penny. I think it’s safe to say that Desmond and Penny have a happy ending. And I wouldn’t be surprised if after they reunite, their part in the Lost story is over. Why would they need to go back to the island?

Of course, I could be wrong. It could be that I’m a sucker for the Desmond and Penny story. But I do think that Mr. Widmore is more important to the story than he seems. Especially, you know, with him buying the journal of the first mate of the Black Rock, which was owned by the Hanso family. Maybe that’s why he goes looking for the island. I think a lot of signs in the episode pointed to him being the one that hired the boat (And Abbadon, who by proxy, hired Naomi).

My other question about him- why did he leave the water running? Is he just the kind of arrogant prick who thinks he’s too good to turn the water off? Or did he know Desmond was going to flash out and the water would wake him up?

Some other thoughts:

-Whoever did the casting for this show did a great job. All of the people on the boat give off a shady vibe. None of them seem trustworthy at all.

-Is it safe to assume that tonight was why Desmond got kicked out of the army?

-Faraday at Oxford was a trip. At first, he gave off a vibe similar to a skinny, weak version of mid-80s “Macho Man” Randy Savage. Maybe it was just his hair.

-Present-day Faraday should have told Desmond “And while you’re visiting me at Oxford, try and remember some lottery numbers.”

-Are they able to replicate the effects of the island off-island? (In Faraday’s little experiment?)

-Does Faraday go crazy in the future, has it already happened, or is it why he’s acting so freaky now?

-We saw some signs of Ben’s dude on the boat. I have a feeling he’s someone we’ve seen before, but not yet this season.

-This show has had some fan-freaking-tastic episode endings. The Locke reveal. The light coming on in the hatch. The Lostie-Tailie reunion. “A man named Henry Gale.” “We have to go back.” “But they know I’m after them now.” And I know there are a few others I’m leaving out.

Most of these endings are great not only because of the reveals, but because of the way they’re used in relation to the rest of the episode and the series as a whole. I think, especially due to the emotional weight of the Desmond/Penny relationship, that tonight’s episode ranks right up there with the rest of them.

What do you think?

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