"The Variable"

This week's episode of LOST was good but certainly not as great I was was expecting based on comments made by Carlton Cuse about it being his favorite episode ever. It definitely wasn't better than it's "companion piece" from Season 4, "The Constant." I can't help feeling that as we approach the home stretch of Season 5, I'm really starting to be underwhelmed by certain aspects of the story. Perhaps it's because I am expecting too much or that the week lag between each new episode kills the momentum for me. I'm sure that when I view them all back to back after the end of the season I'll appreciate it more as a whole, but at this point, I can honestly say that I do not like this season as much as the last or even the season before (and that season started out with the crappy first six episodes and also included the episode about Jack's tattoos!). Don't get me wrong, there have been some great moments this year and some really big surprises but it feels like there is just something missing for me. It probably goes back to the fact that this season is a bridge between the past (time and seasons) and the future. I will try to reserve judgment of the season as whole until it's all said and done. After all, Season 3 ended with such a great episode it made me forget all about those crappy first six episodes and that one about Jack's tattoos (see above!). But enough ranting from me.

STOP READING NOW TO AVOID SPOILERS!!!!!

For the antipenultimate episode of Season 5, we finally got to learn Faraday's backstory. There were a whole lot of moments which seemed to be played as if we were supposed to be shocked by them, but really I think most people already expected most of the revelations (i.e. Charles Widmore is Daniel's father, Desmond surviving being shot by Ben). So it appears that Eloise Hawking did indeed have a plan for Daniel all along: to send him to the Island so that a younger version of herself could kill him to maintain the course of the future as it should play out. What a bitch! At least by killing him, it will make it harder for Jack and Kate to try to change the past, stop the Incident and keep Oceanic 815 from crashing in 2004.

I was pretty peeved when Daniel explained his plan of changing the future to prevent the chain of events that would lead them all to the Island. For the entire season, they have been beating us over the head with the rules of time travel and how nothing can be changed. Whatever happened, happened, right? Now all of a sudden they are going to change the future which will create a paradox (which we were promised wouldn't happen under the LOST rules of time travel)!?! Roxi explained a scenario to me in which a paradox does not occur though I'm still not completely on board. Since it is the present time for Jack, Kate, etc. they can prevent the Incident, thus preventing the need for the button in the Swan Station and crash of Oceanic 815 without distrupting the space-time continuum. By doing so, they would create alternate versions of themselves that would land in Los Angeles as planned in 2004. Of course the Island versions would have to live out their days on the Island (if live is the right word considering Daniel's plan called for detonating Jughead) so what good would it do them anyway? They would erase the crash but not their experience of the crash so they would not improve their own lives, only the lives of their doubles. Confused? You should be because to me it's still doesn't solve their problem and sure seems paradoxical to me. I hope that is not the final result of the season but I am along for the long haul until the end.

Things sure aren't looking good for Sawyer, Juliet and the other Losties back in Dharma town. I think it's going to get worse for them before it gets better. I have a feeling we are going to lose some characters before it's all said and done which is fine with me as long as we don't lose Sawyer or Hurley. And what was the deal with Juliet giving Kate and Jack the sonic fence code?

I liked the scene between Pierre Chang, Daniel and Miles. Chang definitely wasn't conviced that Faraday was from the future at first but I think by the time he left, he was planning to pack up the wife and kid to send them off the Island. It was also nice to get closure on Daniel's previous flashback scenes. So Charles Widmore faked the Oceanic 815 wreckage. Why? To keep other people from finding the Island I suppose but it seems like an awful lot of trouble to go through to keep an Island hidden that almost no one can find anyway.

Where the hell is Sayid and what has he been up to since he shot young Ben? Speaking of Ben, what are he, Locke and Sun doing now that he has been judged by the Smoke Monster? Rose and Bernard anyone? I'm getting really tired of our characters being too spread out to see all of them each week. I think that may be my biggest complaint of the season. I never expected them to be separated for this long. I know it's a big Island and time travel is involved, but they better all be together next season or else I'm afraid I'll continue to feel like there is too much going on in too many places.