When I wasn’t looking, Daniel Faraday (pictured, right) became one of my favorite characters on this show.Like when he chastised Miles for being overly sarcastic and pessimistic, see, that right there – that’s one of the reasons the quirky scientist has become one of my favorites. I also realized that Faraday’s been doing his best “Jack” impression after the young, snarly British soldier Ellie referred to him as “their leader” (and after Miles quickly gave him up as the group’s leader after two more nameless castaways went the way of Neil Frogurt). Think about it: Faraday’s now the overworked doctor leading a group of disoriented survivors across the Island and harboring a not-so-secret crush on a female companion. Faraday certainly appears to have taken center stage in this season’s action, and Jeremy Davies has certainly proven he’s up to the task.
Still, what I love most about this show is that it has so many rich and compelling characters that it can go a week without showing us a hint of its more signature characters (Ben, Jack, Kate and the rest of the Oceanic 6) and still deliver a fantastic and involving episode. “Jughead” was a welcome, more-focused relief of an episode after last week’s time-travelling, disorienting antics.
That’s not to say there wasn’t stuff in last night’s episode to make you go “hmm.” However, in a show that gets knocked for posing more questions than it answers, I was very satisfied with the sheer number of mini-answers we got last night.
Mini-answer #1: We found out what the right answer was during the “Which of these items belonged to you” test in season 4’s “Cabin Fever.”
Last night we got to see the first (chronological) meeting between Locke and Richard Alpert and we saw Locke give Alpert the compass that Alpert had given him during the last episode (I’ll give your head a chance to stop spinning). We also saw that it was Locke who encouraged Richard to seek young John Locke out in his youth.
At the start of the episode, Locke was still with Juliet and Sawyer and the two British soldiers they’d captured. Locke recognized their old-fashioned weapon was still new (which meant they were definitely in the past), but the two British soldiers quickly became none after the jerkier of the two snapped the neck of the one who had finally stopped speaking Latin and was about to tell Locke the location of their camp and ran off.
Oh yeah, apparently the Brits on the Island are the Others Version 1.0 because they can speak Latin, just like Juliet. Juliet’s nonchalant line about Latin being an “Others 101” course was good, but not as good as her line last year about the Others having psychologists (“It’s very stressful being an Other.”) I’m also liking the smartass chemistry being Juliet’s more subtle brand of sarcasm and Sawyer’s more aggressive smart aleckiness. I don’t know why, but I cracked up when Sawyer chastised Faraday (“You told her?!”) for telling Ellie about their time travelling. Is Sawyer worried other people will think they’re crackpots? I don’t know why, but I thought it was funny.
Either way, I thought it was interesting how the show reinforced that Locke has completely transitioned to the Others’ side and has become further alienated for his former friends. He was eager to talk to Richard and showed no interest in helping Sawyer rescue Faraday and he refused to shoot Charles Widmore as he was running through the jungle.
By the way, did I mention Mini Answer #2: We found out that how Charles Widmore knows about the Island. He was on it as a young man and was one of the Others. It wasn’t exactly a huge shocker, but still. Given that we know Alpert is ageless, who knows how long Widmore was on the Island (hundreds of years) before he was forced to leave (did he have to turn the wheel Ben turned at the end of last season)? Apparently, it was a long time, since he thought he knew the Island pretty well and that no one could track him. If he’s been there a long time, it could help explain his obsession with finding it again.
We got a glimpse of the man in the present in the middle of Desmond’s journey to find Faraday’s mom. The search brought him and Penny and their son Charlie(!) (Aww. They named him after the guy who sacrificed his life to save him – and after Penny’s evil dad) to Oxford where there was no record of a Faraday. Fortunately, Desmond found Faraday’s lab any way and ran into a creepy, but helpful hooligan who pointed him in the direction of Theresa Spencer, the young woman in the photo with Faraday.
After visiting Theresa, Desmond found out that Faraday had apparently tested his time consciousness ray on her (cold!) and found out from her sister Abigail that Charles Widmore was the one paying for all bills. Desmond confronted him and Widmore was surprisingly willing to give him the address of Faraday’s mom as long as he promised to keep Penny safe. Turns out Faraday’s mom is in Los Angeles, which is also where Ms. Hawking is wandering around in monk’s robes in large rooms with large pendulums. Just sayin’
I still can’t help but feel that something horrible is going to happen to Penny, given how she was so disapproving of Desmond’s journey at first, but ended up doing the right thing and standing by her man. (Oh oh.) Unfortunately, they’re going to be heading right to the city where the man who has vowed to kill her is currently hiding.
That trip to L.A. may not be the only version of Faraday’s mother that we see. What if Ellie on the Island is Faraday’s mother and that’s the reason she reminds him “so much like someone he used to know”? We’ll probably have to hold off a while until we find out whether that’s true or not since the group time hopped away from 1954 at the end of the episode, but he certainly left an impression on her.
The original Others were pretty peeved with our group of castaways because they believed that they were with the American troops who were planning on testing an H-bomb on the Island. They also didn’t take too kindle to the group of American soldiers, shooting three of them (thanks for the info Miles, and thanks Faraday for unironically asking “did they mention what year it was?”)
Daniel eventually convinced Richard to let him dismantle the bomb by claiming that he wouldn’t detonate it because he’s in love with Charlotte. Awww, but do we believe him? Sure we’ve seen that the two characters are fond of each other, and we’ve seen that he’s shown concern about her condition, but is it love? I find it curious that only Charlotte has been adversely affected by all the time travel. We also learned last night that Daniel doesn’t have the greatest history with women and time travel. Is he somehow responsible (and guilty) for what’s happening to Charlotte? Also, are his actions in the past specifically wiping out Charlotte’s existence (which is why she couldn’t remember her mother’s maiden name) the same way Marty McFly’s actions in “Back to the Future” wiped away the people in that photograph?
Either way, Daniel eventually analyzed “Jughead” and realized that he couldn’t dismantle the bomb so he implored Ellie and the original Other to bury the bomb. It seems like they followed his advice since it appears “Jughead” is the source of electromagnetism in the Swan station Desmond lived in all those years bringing Mini-answer #3. If you remember early on in season 2, Sayid was examining Desmond’s hatch and noticed a section of lead and concrete, which is exactly what Faraday recommended they use.
The episode ended with another time leap and with Charlotte finally collapsing in a heap of blood. Things aren’t looking so great for her.
So what’d you think of this episode? Did you miss seeing Jack, Kate and company (like my girlfriend Erica did)? Who do you think Ellie the angry Brit is? Finally, WHEN do you think the castaways are now?
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