"The Constant"

I don't know if there is much else that I can say about tonight's episode of LOST other than that it is my, hands down, favorite of the season thus far. It was simply amazing. It followed one of my favorite story arcs of the entire series and finally gave us a long anticipated event.

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As I said, I don't know what to say other than, "Wow!" This episode was something special. I don't know what it is exactly that I like about Desmond so much, but I have always found his character to be very interesting. It is actually quite interesting to think that he was not introduced on the show until the second season and then we didn't really learn much about him until the Season 2 finale. Some of my favorite podcasts about LOST have pointed out that the story of Desmond, specifically with respect to his relationship with Penny, is unique in drama. It is a very romantic story that even men can get emotionally invested in. I have to agree and very little in all of LOST had the emotional resonance of Desmond finally getting to speak to Penny over the phone in this episode. It still has me thinking about how great the episode was.

So what else did we learn tonight? There is in fact a time distortion between the island and the rest of the world resulting a difference in the perception of the passage of time. It took only a short time for the helicopter to return to the freighter while a day had passed on the island. Dan tried to explain to some degree, but as usual Jack cut him off before he could really get into the details.

The time distortion is not only limited to the island. We learned that proximity to the island can actually cause one's consciousness to move through time and experience that past as well as the future. Desmond has essentially been experiencing this since last season, but we learned that George Minkowski from the freighter experienced the same effect due only to his proximity to the island. Unfortunately, he died (and I was just getting ready to enjoy seeing Fisher Stevens on a weekly basis) because he did not have a Constant.

Dan informed Desmond that in order to keep from suffering death as a result of his time tripping, he needed a Constant in both the past and the present. In short, he needed something to keep him in the present. Of course Desmond turned to the one true constant in his life, Penny. He made contact with her in 1996 and made her promise to answer the phone on December 24, 2004. When Desmond's consciousness returned to the freighter, he made the call, thanks to Sayid's handiwork, and we were treated to a truly heartwarming and powerful conversation with between Desmond and Penny. It was so satisfying to see them finally make contact after all that we have learned since the end of Season 2.

I have to say again, that this is by far, the best episode of what is so far a spectacular season and probably one of the best episodes of the past two seasons. I think that the announcement of the end of LOST in three more seasons has given the producers a focus that they have been lacking and has spurned spurred [thanks for the catch Word Cop] them to reinvigorate the series in a way that I could never have imagined. This is what LOST is all about and I love it!