Lost, Episode 14 "The Variable"

Why is this show doing this to me? Why does it insist on breaking my heart? Daniel? They kill off Daniel? Why?!??! The only saving grace is that it wasn't Desmond. My god, if it was Desmond.....

There was a lot going on this episode. A lot of different time periods being represented, starting with a young Daniel playing piano. He is not on the island. Nor is Eloise, his mother. She tells him he is too smart for playing piano and that he will have to spend his time and his brilliant mind learning science. He's totally bummed and it's all very sad. Eventually, he gets a girlfriend (Theresa - the one whose brain he fried during his time travel experiments) and graduates from Oxford. On graduation day, his mom totally disses the new girlfriend and takes Daniel out for a celebration dinner where she tells him he doesn't have time for girls. He tells her a man named Charles Widmore just gave him a huge grant (I didn't catch the dollar amount, but I heard millions). Eloise is intrigued, but doesn't push it any further. But she does continue to push him about needing to use his brain and to stay away from girls. Poor Daniel.

Remember when we first got Daniel's backstory and he was looking all crazy and sad while watching the footage of the supposed Oceanic 815 found at the bottom of the ocean? Well, here we are again. Daniel is in his chair watching the footage when someone comes over. It's Charles Widmore. It turns out that Daniel started doing his time travel experiments to himself Thinking all was fine, he started doing them on Theresa. We all saw how that turned out. And now, it seems Daniel is having some side effects. He is becoming forgetful and dumb. Like really forgetful. Like you couldn't tell him to grab the remote because he would instantly forget. But he does remember that Charles had given him the grant money and he apologizes for it all going wrong. Charles doesn't care, though. He wants to send Daniel on a trip. To an Island. An Island where magical things can happen. An Island where Daniel can get better. He also tells Daniel to stop crying about the plane crash because it was fake. Because he faked it. (Confirmation) He also mentions that he and Daniel's mom are old friends. Daniel looks as confused as ever.

Later, we see him back at the piano trying to remember how to play. Eloise approaches him and tells him he should listen to Widmore and go on the trip and that he is meant for better things. So he agrees. And that's the story of Daniel.

Meanwhile, back on the magical Island....

Daniel has just arrived back from Dharma headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan where he was part of a research team. He tells Miles some serious shit is about to go down and that he came back because he saw the picture of Kate, Jack, and Hurley as new Dharma recruits and he needs to save everyone. He tells Miles he needs to go to the Orchid station to talk to Dr. Chang.

Daniel heads down to the Orchid station, which is under construction. We are treated to the scene from earlier in the season when we saw Daniel down there and Dr. Chang was talking to someone about time travel and they were dragging out a body. Daniel purposely bumps into Dr. Chang and it almost seems like he's doing it to see if his arm is real. Remember how at one point in the orientation videos, Dr. Chang doesn't move his left arm. Hmm...I'm probably just reading too much into things.

Outside of the Orchid, Daniel approaches Dr. Chang and tells him that he is from the future and that Dr. Chang needs to order an evacuation of the island because they are about to drill into a huge pile of magnetic energy. Dr. Chang tells him he's crazy, but not before Miles comes up to try to diffuse the situation. Daniel tells Chang that Miles is his son and Dr. Chang almost believes him, but then Miles denies it.

Daniel and Miles head to Sawyer's.

Meanwhile, at Sawyer's.....

Sawyer, Juliette, Kate, Jack, Jin, and Hurley are having a pow wow about the situation they've got themselves into. Sawyer has the security guy he knocked out tied up in a closet. Sawyer's says they have two options: 1. They can try to catch the next sub out and flee or 2. They can retreat to the jungle and start all over again. Sawyer is very sad about this because he and Juliette have created a home there and they don't want to leave. Everyone else agrees that the only way they are going to get back to where they need to be is if they stay on the island and fight. So they all agree to head out into the jungle.

But then Daniel and Miles show up and Miles is acting all crazy. He says he needs to find The Hostiles (The Others) because his mom is there and she is the only one who can help them. He tells Jack that she was wrong when she said it was Jack's destiny to be back on The Island and you just know this pisses Jack off to no end. Here he finally put his life in the hands of faith and it was all a lie. Just think of all the stupid things he did to get back here. He teamed up with Ben Linus. He lied to his friends. He slept with Kate. He put his dad's shoes on John Locke's feet. He shaved off his amazing beard. Poor, poor Jack.

Daniel goes on and tells them that something bad is going to happen in about 6 hours. Dr. Chang and his crew are about to drill into the earth where the Swan hatch will soon be. They are going to hit a pool of energy that will have catastrophic events. Because of the event that will happen, the Dharma folks will build the hatch and bury this magnetic energy in cement. Then they will set up the system of pressing a button to contain the energy that one day Desmond will forget to push which will then cause the Oceanic 815 plane to crash and thus changing all of their lives forever.

Sawyer refuses to bring Daniel to The Hostiles because he wants to stay on the island. But Jack says Kate knows where they are. Kate is torn on whether or not to tell Daniel because Sawyer calls her "Freckles". This pisses off Juliette who gives total bitchface and tells Kate the code for the sonic fence and that she really thinks Kate should take Daniel there. Sawyer is too clueless to figure all of this out. I mean, Kate and Juliette just had a twenty minute conversation with just their eyes. It went something like this:

Kate: Oh my god he called me Freckles, this is awkward.
Juliette: He did not just say that. That man is trouble.
Kate: This must mean he still loves me.
Juliette: Bitch, if you don't leave I'll cut you.
Kate: But what if there's a chance..
Juliette: Seriously, I have a knife in my pocket. Get off my island.

And so on and so forth.

Kate relents and agrees to show Daniel where The Hostiles are. She and Jack and Daniel head off to gather some supplies - like guns - before they leave. Kate looks so excited to get some guns. But, why does the janitor (Jack) have a key to the gun closet?

On their way there, Daniel spots a young Charlotte on a swing. He goes to her and tells her to make sure she leaves the island when she is asked to. And that's it. That's how that went down.

At the gun closet, they gather up their guns when Radzinsky shows up. He wants to know what they're up to. He sees that Daniel has a gun and then they all start shooting each other. Daniel, Kate, and Jack manage to get away in a jeep. But you know this is it for happy Dharma land.

Sawyer and the rest of the gang are packing up supplies to head back to the beach. Radzinksy shows up there and wants to know what the hell is going on. The Dharma alarm is going off now. Radzinsky hears a thumping noise coming from the closet. They find the security guy all tied up. Uh-oh. Sawyer is in big trouble now.

Daniel and Kate and Jack head into the jungle to find Hostileville. Daniel explains to them that it's a good thing they made it out of the shoot up because they can die at any time because this is their present. He then tells them that "whatever happened, happened" might just be bullshit. He was always too busy looking at the constants in his mathematical equations and not the variable. And the variables are? Them? People. With free will. They can change things! He can stop their plane from ever crashing on this island and make it so they land safely in LA as planned. All he has to do is stop Dharma from drilling. How is that going to happen? By setting off a bomb - Jughead. Because, that will make things better? Okay. They find the Hostile camp and Daniel makes his way down while Jack and Kate stay behind. He whips out his gone and demands to see Eloise Hawking. Richard appears and tells him Eloise stepped out for a minute (stepped out where?) and to put the gun down so they can talk. Daniel demands that Richard tell him where Jughead is buried and if he doesn't comply within 3 seconds, he will kill him. He starts the count....1.....2......BANG! A gun goes off. But it's not Daniel's....It's Eloise! She just killed him! What a bitch! Yeah, sure, she doesn't know that he's her son. But, DAMN! They killed Faraday! You bastards! Daniel's final words to his mother: "You knew this would happen and you sent me back here anyway." That must hurt. Poor, poor Daniel.

But wait! There's more!

Off island, Desmond is being rushed into surgery due to the gunshot wound caused by Ben. Penny is hanging out in the waiting room with little Charlie when Eloise approaches her. She tells him that this is all her son's fault. Penny's all, "you're son is Ben Linus?" She says, "No, Daniel Faraday." Penny pieces it all together that if Daniel never told Desmond to find his mother, Ben wouldn't have found them and yadda yadda yadda. The doctor shows up and tells them that Desmond will be fine and Penny can see him. So she does. Desmond promises never to leave her... ever.

Outside the hospital Charles is hanging out. Eloise tells him Penny is inside and he says that he hasn't spoken to her in years and that it kills him that "this" has caused him to lose his relationship with his daughter. Eloise says that she had to send her son back and that she's lost him. Charles says, "he's my son, too." D'oh! So Daniel and Penny are brother and sister! Craziness! Eloise slaps him.

That's it.

So many questions from tonight.

1. If Daniel can change the future, what happens to all of them? Will they just disappear from The Island and it will be three years earlier and they will be landing in LA and not have any recollection of what happened?

2. Does this mean that no one is fated to be there? Locke, Ben? Any of them? All of that fate crap was a joke?

3. Why would Kate want to return to LA pre-crash? She was a wanted woman for murder.

4. Is Daniel really changing the future, or is this how it always happened?

5. Is the show going to end with them all peacefully landing in LA?

6. What about all the mystical island mysteries? Is that just crap, too? How does they supernatural part of The Island work with Daniel's theories?

I'm going to miss Daniel.