Desmond's on a Mission for Daniel

Desmond goes on his quest to find Daniel’s mother, despite Penny’s immense disapproval, while Locke is determined to find Richard in whatever time he’s in.  Sawyer and Juliet have to deal with some hostages, and Faraday, Miles, and Charlotte are captured by members of the same mysterious army Sawyer’s hostages are part of.  Check it out after the jump.

Episode 3: Jughead
Full Episode Online: TV Dome

Desmond the Family Man
The episode opens up with a scene in the Philippines, Desmond frantically rushing around the marketplace searching for a doctor;he finds one, then brings him down to his boat where Penny lies back on the bed, in full labor.  Within a minute of loud screaming, she gives birth to a beautiful baby boy.  Then we flash forward to three years later, Desmond with his young son, telling him about a very special island he left a long time ago, that he’d never thought he’d go back to – Great Britain.  Penny warns Desmond that he shouldn’t underestimate Charles Widmore, but he assures her that it’ll be all right.

Island Living
Faraday & Co hike through the jungle to the creek, a rendez-vous point arranged with Sawyer earlier.  Daniel’s talking to Charlotte, who’s telling him about her headaches.  Daniel looks very worried, but tells her it’s gonna be okay.  They reach the creek and nobody’s in sight, so when they decide to wait and investigate the area, they accidentally activate some mines that kill some of the expendable crewmen.  (Come on, they practically had signs on them) Soon after that more of the same army that we saw in the last episode pop up, guns cocked and with Ellie, a woman Daniel recognizes but can’t quite place, at the head, who approaches him and looks at him knowingly. “You just couldn’t stay away, could you?”  She threatens Daniel, asking him where the rest of his people are, to which he honestly replies, “I don’t know.  Miles wanders around meanwhile, under the vigil of the guards, and has a psychic vision that a grave was made right where he was walking less than a month ago, deaths caused by radiation poisoning and shooting.  They continue walking with the soldiers until they reach an encampment in the middle of a plain.  Out walks their leader – and it’s Richard.  Could have seen that coming, but it’s still kinda nifty how we’re seeing Richard in all these different roles.

Where in the world is Daniel's mom?
Penny has an argument with Desmond over his need to go find Daniel’s mother, but of course Desmond wins and decides to go anyway – he knows that Daniel Faraday knocked on the hatch’s backdoor and told him to go to Oxford.  Penny asks him to promise her that he’ll never return to the island. Desmond asks her why would he ever want to do that?  Talk about foreshadowing.  Even though Desmond’s not part of the Oceanic 6, I wonder if Ben needs him to go back too.  In any case, Desmond makes his way to Oxford to find that there’s no record of any Faraday in the system.  He walks away, frustrated,  until he goes into the physics department, the last place he saw Faraday.  He breaks through the locked door of Faraday’s old office and sees a chalkboard, a desk, papers, photos, all covered by big dusty white sheets.  He finds a photo of Faraday, confirming that he actually did teach there, and he’s with some random white girl.  As he’s investigating the office, someone calls out from behind, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”  Desmond removes his hand from a large maze and the man tells him that it was rumored Faraday was trying to send rats’ brains back in time.  He warns Desmond to not ask too many questions about Faraday, especially after what he did to that girl.  Desmond finds out the girl’s name, Theresa Spencer, and tracks her down.

“He’s one of my people.”
Sawyer, Locke, and Juliet hold the two soldiers hostage.  As they’re debating what to do with them and Locke is investigating the weaponry to discover what time they’re in, the two soldiers start speaking Latin, and Juliet understands them instantly.  When Locke asks her why, she says that it’s simple. “For the same reason I do.  Because they’re Others.” So. Now we know that the facility was there all the way back in the 50’s.  The threesome continue walking through camp, guns vigilantly pointed at the soldiers, until one of them tells them that the rest of their friends are dead.  Juliet talks to them in Latin, telling them they’re not enemies, and that they need to take them to their camp.  One of them agrees, and starts to give them directions before the other one snaps his neck mid-sentence and jets off, Locke pointing a gun but refusing to shoot.  When Sawyer demands to know why, Locke says, “Because he’s one of my people.”  Sawyer says nothing, silenced because Locke is right, and this is one of the best moments of the episode – Locke has this connection to the island that nobody else has, and he understands that even though he’s never met those soldiers before in his life, they’re still on the same boat.

Desmond’s Discovery
Desmond makes his way to the house thanks to his informant in Daniel’s old office. When he mentions to the woman who opens the door (Theresa’s sister Abigail) that Faraday sent him here, she lets him in instantly and Desmond ambles in to find Theresa right there, in some kind of coma on a bed, hooked up to machines kept there, as he learns from the woman who let him in, ofnly by the grace of Charles Widmore, because he had funded Faraday’s research on time for ten years.   Faraday, after nearly fatally wounding her with his experiments on time, had ran away to the US and never returned. Desmond then heads straight to Widmore’s office, storming past the secretary and barging through the doors, to stare coldly at Widmore in the face.  He tells him he’s not going to answer any questions, just ask them, and that when he’s done, he’s going to leave and never see Widmore again.  He asks where Faraday’s mother is, and Widmore is belligerently uncooperative until Desmond just yells louder.  Widmore tells him she’s in Los Angeles, hands him an address, and Desmond’s about to head out the door before Widmore stops him and warns him that once he’s done he should stay far far away from this whole issue.  “This goes back many, many years.  It has nothing to do with you or Penny.”  Desmond nods.  “Thanks for the advice.”

Bombs Away
Miles, Daniel, and Charlotte confer privately in a tent, deciding that they’ll act like they’re the regular military.  Richard comes in and demands to know where the rest of their squad is.  Daniel smooth talks his way through it, making him believe they’re scientists and that they can control the unstable hydrogen bomb that he knows they have on site.  Richard asks her how they can know he’s not on a suicide mission, and Daniel tells him that it’s because he loves Charlotte, and he would never do anything to hurt her.  Richard agrees, then says if he tries anything at all aside from containing the bomb, they’ll hurt her.  “Lucky us,” Miles says of the fact that they’re on a 50’s US government H-bomb testing site.  Charlotte tells Daniel that he didn’t have to say what he said to cover for them, but says that he said it because he meant it.  He’s then taken away to Richard, and soon the dude who escaped Locke comes running through, warning them.  Richard gets pissed off, telling them they could have tracked him, but the Other taunts right back, practically daring Richard to find someone who knows the island better than him. I wonder who that could be? Hm, I don’t know, maybe……

Save the Geek
From a hill above the camp, Sawyer, Juliet, and Locke observe Richard, the Others, and the hostages.  Locke tells them that he’s going to go down to approach Richard and hopefully “pick up where we left off.”  Sawyer decides he’s going to go save Faraday, “the geek,” who’s being escorted by Ellie across the plains to the H-bomb site.  She demands to know why he’s looking at her so strangely, and finally she just stops their walk and points a gun at his face, demanding a straight answer.  He only tells her that he’s their best chance at disarming the bomb.  They continue on, as Daniel tries to figure out how to disarm it.  He finds the leak and starts to run away before she stops him.  He tells her that she needs to bury it, and she keeps on asking him why, until he just explodes, “Because fifty years from now this island is still here!”  He starts to explain further, until Sawyer calls out from right behind her, “Put down your gun, Blondie!”  She drops it, and looks sarcastically at Daniel. “Are they from the future too?”  “You told her?” Sawyer shouts.

I Love L.A.
Back on his boat, Desmond tells Penny that Faraday’s mom died a few years ago, and she asks why he’s lying to her.  He confesses to her the truth and promises that once he’s done with finding Faraday’s mom he will be done with the island forever.  She shakes her head and smiles sadly.  “You’ll never forget it, Des.  So I guess we’re going with you.”

“I’m your leader.”
Back at the camp, Locke just wanders straight in, continuing to walk despite orders from all around to stop.  He looks Richard straight in the eyes and says, “I’m John Locke.”  “That supposed to mean something to me?” Richard responds.  John sighs.  “Jacob sent me.”  (Glad they didn’t drag out that mission three or four episodes)  Richard orders everyone to put their guns down, with one particularly vocal soldier refusing.  Locke hears his name and pauses.  “Widmore?  Charles Widmore?  Nice to meet you.”  Richard takes him to a private tent and Locke explains everything, but Richard is still resistant.  Locke tells him that he’s not even going to be born for two years, but that after he is, he should come visit him.  He tells him also that he’s their leader, to which Richard responds that he can’t be because they start training leaders at a very young age.  This makes perfect sense, though, with what we know before – how Richard has known Locke since he was born and even came to visit him once as a kid.  In any case, Richard’s still not saying anything, and Locke pleads with him to do so, but the flash of light and high pitched squeal interrupt him, and he’s back at the beginning in some random time, the camp entirely gone and the field virtually barren of any trees or large bushes.  Sawyer, Juliet, Charlotte, Miles, and Daniel all meet up, and then Charlotte’s nose starts to bleed.  She stumbles back and forth and passes out, and Daniel wraps his arms around her and rocks back and forth, crying out to the sky.

Review
One big relief for this episode is that the time-hopping isn’t being taken advantage of for cheap thrills – a couple times in this episode a convenient time-hop could have taken our heroes out of danger at just the right time and put them back into it at just the wrong.  So far we don’t see that, though – if indeed the time-hopping tends to lengthen rather than shorten each hop, the next episode on the island shouldn’t feature any jumping at all.  (Though in the episode Daniel does say that the could be stuck in one place for 5 seconds or 5000 years.  It’s just unpredictable enough to generate tension, and as long as the writers continue to not abuse it, it should work out.  There were also a lot of great character moments in this story – Locke meeting a young Widmore, Desmond finally confronting Widmore.  And what’s especially interesting is the introduction of this character Ellie that Faraday seems to know so well – all you “Lost” fanatics out there should know that in all likelihood, Ellie is short for Eloise, Ms. Hawking’s first name, the woman in the robe at the end of the last episode, meaning Faraday has much stronger connections to the Others than even last episode gave away.  The ending was intense, too, with Faraday screaming out to the sky when Charlotte died. (Though knowing “Lost,” until we basically see somebody’s bodies being buried we should probably wait to pronounce them dead.) Overall, this is a clear step down from the action-packed first episode, but that’s okay.  It was a season premiere, so some toned down pacing would make sense.  They still manage to make a lot happen, though, while dropping tantalizing tidbits along the way.  “Lost” is goin’ strong.

-Thomas Anderson
aka Movie Buzz Review Dude. Check out his movie/media/pop culture blog blog here.