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Back With a Vengeance | March 01, 2008

Given the title, you might think I'm referring to Deann's return to the blog. In fact, I'm referring to this week's episode of Lost. At its best, Lost is science fiction for people who don't like science fiction, and at its worst Lost is science fiction for people who really like science fiction. Last night's episode, "The Constant," was undoubtedly the former, wasn't it? I'll try to continue without giving too much away for those who haven't seen it or are waiting to watch it online.

This Thursday's episode gave us a little more insight into Desmond, allowing us to finally understand the clairvoyance Desmond has displayed over the previous two seasons. In fact, this episode replaced Desmond's supernatural gift with a basis grounded in "science." Flying with Sayid to make contact with a nearby ship, Desmond's flashes back and forth took on a manic manner after passing through a thunderstorm. He starts oscilating between the present--2004--and 1996. Once on the ship, Desmond is taken to the sick bay for examination where he and Sayid meet the medically restrained George Minkowski, played by TV perennial Fischer Stevens. Sayid makes contact with Daniel Faraday--new to the island, back on the island, via satellite phone. Faraday commands Desmond to seek him at Oxford the next time he flashes back to 1996. Desmond obliges, and it is there that we learn that Faraday is uncovering the secrets of time travel. We learn that Desmond's urgent pursuit of communication with Penny stems from this meeting, where Faraday informs him that he needs to keep a constant between his past and present selves. Desmond's contast is Penny.

The MVP of this season, and certainly a highlight of this episode, is Daniel Faraday played by Jeremy Davies. Part Dennis Miller-part Charlie Manson, he's been one of the biggest mysteries this season. With this episode we finally learn why he was so desperate to get to the island but content simply to run his experiments once there. He has always seemed to be near the edge of something, about to fall over, and we finally learned why in this episode.

With such a large cast, many of the characters run the risk of becoming part of the island's scenery. Desmond was one of those characters. He was always around but, lately, often seemed to exist for utility more than for anything else. It was wonderful to get a little more insight into his character. Hopefully, we'll learn a little more about Jin, soon.

This week was especially welcome after last week's episode, "Eggtown." "Eggtown" was one of the most soap operatic episodes of the series, and I hope it isn't a harbinger of things to come. Does Jack love Kate? Even with Sawyer's baby? Her mom has just six months to live? Da-da-duuummm. No, this episode put that stuff in its place. There was romance, but it was handled with the assured grace that is common in Lost. Lost has been so good for so long that you can find yourself taking its excellence for granted. I guess it takes an "Eggtown" to help praise a constant.

What did you think of this week's episode?

Posted by earnest in Earnest's | permalink