“The Constant” (Lost’s Season 4 episode 5) review

I don’t think I’ve been moved to tears by any other television show the way Lost season 4’s fifth episode, “The Constant”, just did.

Desmond and Sayid, along with freighter guy and pilot Frank Lapidus hit some turbulence while on their way to the ship. This causes Desmond to (spoiler alert) jump back in time—to the year 1996 to be exact. The eight-year jump causes Desmond to find himself back at the Royal Scots Regiment in Scotland. At first you’d think that Desmond is simply reliving the past but when he remembers the events in the Island (which happens in 2004), you’d realize that he may just be being at the two places at the same time.

Desmond remembers holding a picture of him and Penny while in the helicopter and decides to call her. She picks up but she says that Desmond shouldn’t be calling her after leaving her (this happens during another Desmond-centric episode “Flashes Before Your Eyes”) and that she has already moved on.

The scene switches back to the ship where Desmond and a doctor are in the clinic along with a patient who’s strapped to a gurney. Sayid convinces Frank to bring him down to the clinic and says to Desmond that Daniel Faraday (another freighter guy who was left on the island and a physicist) needs to speak to him via the satellite phone. Daniel asks Desmond what year he thinks it is and he says, “1996.” Then Daniel asks again where Desmond thinks he should be at this moment in 1996, to which Desmond answers that he should be at the army base.

Daniel gives Desmond instructions that if it happens again, the jump, he should go to Oxford University and find the 1996 version of Daniel. The physicist gives Desmond some numbers and a phrase that would help convince his past self that Daniel from the future did indeed have Desmond seek him out.

During their meeting at Oxford, Desmond watches 1996 Daniel do an experiment with a rat and a maze. Using the numbers Desmond gave, Daniel was able to calibrate his experiment, expose the rat to a bright purple ray and the rat was able to finish the maze quickly. Desmond asks what’s so amazing about the experiment and Daniel reveals that he had just finished building the maze the morning before and he hasn’t taught the rat to run it yet. Daniel had just sent the rat’s consciousness into the future. After jumping back to the future (present time in the freighter), Desmond and Sayid are surprised to find the man on the gurney awake. He introduces himself as the communications officer George Minkowski (whom the Losties have spoken to as early as the end of Season 3). George explains that he also experiences what Desmond is experiencing. He was strapped to the gurney as a result of this. He also reveals that prior to this, the freighter always receives an incoming call but they were on strict orders not to answer it. The call, he says, is from Desmond’s girlfriend Penny.

Desmond then finds himself back at Daniel’s Oxford experiment room where he finds the rat dead, bleeding from the nose. Daniel explains that the rat’s brain probably short-circuited from the jumping to and from the future. He explains that it probably got confused because it didn’t have a “constant”, something familiar from both times. An anchor, he explains, that the rat can hold on to. And the same thing could possibly happen to Desmond to if he didn’t have that “constant”. Desmond asks if his “constant” can be a person and he tries to call Penny but the number no longer works.

Jumping back to the ship again, George offers to bring Desmond and Sayid to the communications room so Desmond can call Penny. However, he doesn’t know/remember the number and finds himself starting to bleed from the nose. Back to 1996, Desmond finds Penny’s father, Charles Widmore and asks for her address. Desmond finds the place and Penny still doesn’t want to have anything to do with him. Desmond finally convinces Penny to give him her number and promises never to call her until eight years later—on the exact time that he wakes up once again inside the communications room.

Desmond is finally able to call Penny using the phone Sayid put together using items found in the room to fulfill his promise, saying among other things, “you believed in me… you still care about me.” Penny promises to find Desmond and they exchange “I love yous” before the battery runs out. Sayid apologizes because that was all the battery left but Desmond says that it’s enough before answering “I’m perfect” to Sayid’s question if he’s all right.

The scene where Desmond and Penny finally get to talk really got to me and I’m sure anybody who sees it would really be moved as well. Especially if you know all the things Desmond and Penny have been through just to find each other again. The way the story unfolded was really amazing. In a matter of minutes, from the time Desmond convinces Penny to give him her number and the time he calls her from the boat’s communications room, and to think that it is actually eight years apart, really says about believing, destiny, and more importantly love. Just goes to show that as long as a person is anchored to something, as long as a person has something to hold on to, no matter how long it takes, that person will be anything but lost.

~ by thegame121 on March 13, 2008.