"The Constant" (Season 4, Episode 5)

Two things before we get into last night's time trippy episode. First, this blog has received over 5,000 hits since its inception. Nowhere near the most visited web page in the history of the Internet, but I appreciate everyone's interest in my ramblings and crazy theories. Second, if you are not watching the enhanced version of the previous week's episode (every Thursday at 8:00 p.m. EST) which precedes the new one, I would highly recommend it. I watched "Eggtown" last night, thoroughly enjoying the informational captions. It's like watching the show and reading my blog at the same time. I personally appreciated the confirmation of some of my observations. New things I learned:

• The basement where Ben is being kept by Locke is the same room where Ben had held Locke's father captive. (Sorry for doubting you, Joel!)
• The location where the L.A. courtroom scenes were filmed was a YWCA in Hawaii.
• Shawn Doyle, the actor who played Kate's lawyer, also appeared with the actress who plays Juliet in the 2000 film "Frequency". This was the movie where Jim Caviezel played a man who connects with his dead father (Dennis Quaid) across time via a radio. The name of the character Shawn played in that movie? Jack Shepard! Bizarre.
  

On to last night's new episode. Perception. Displacement. Side effects. Progression is exponential. Time travel makes my head hurt. This is not your father's "Back to the Future". Closer to "Quantum Leap". A number of co-workers I talked to today felt "The Constant" was one of the show's best episodes. After viewing it a second time, it's definitely up there. Getting confirmation that time is definitely a factor in the overall storyline is satisfying. From a production standpoint, the editing of scenes as Desmond jumped between 1996 and 2004 was seamless. And that final moment between Desmond and Penny makes you forget about any other love triangles or quadrangles on the show.

Best Line

• "Do I get one?" A concerned Desmond to Faraday as the physicist dons a lead apron for protection from radiation.
  

Did You Notice?

• The helicopter's cheat sheet show the freighter at 40 miles N@305" and 7 K east.
• The cockpit's dial showed a heading of 31 - the same number of minutes off the island is. Minutes are also used in navigation along with degrees and seconds. Could Faraday's payload test from the earlier episode be about the island's navigational location more than time?
• The freighter's name is Kahana, a Hawaiian boy's name meaning priest.
• Those freighter folks (Keamy from Las Vegas, Omar from Florida, and Dr. Ray) are not the friendliest bunch. Maybe Ben was right way back when he said he and the Others were the good guys.
• George Minkowski was the voice on the satellite phone first heard in last season's finale. He was played by Fisher Stevens, who was a regular on TV's "Early Edition", the 1996 series about a man who receives a newspaper from 24 hours in the future.
• Interesting that Dr. Ray examines Desmond's eyes since the close-up of an eye is a common theme on the show.
• Dr. Ray hits the button labeled "Emergency System Activation" which sounds an alarm not unlike the one in the hatch when the countdown clock ticked down too low.
• Why was the freighter crew not allowed to receive Penny's calls? Was her father, Charles Widmore, behind this order?
• Was the person who sabotaged the communication equipment the same one who unlocked the sickbay door? Was this Ben's man on the ship? Was it Michael?
• The Black Rock is of course the same ship that ran aground on the island and contained the dynamite. Did Charles Widmore want the ledger to try and locate the ship or to suppress its discovery? The journal belonged to Tovard Hanso - a relative to Alvar Hanso who created the Dharma Initiative? The back story of the freighter that discovered the "wreck" of Oceanic 815 was that it was searching for the Black Rock. Coincidence? Not on this show.
• Why did Charles Widmore leave the water running with the drain shut in the restroom?
• Penny's neighborhood of Cheyne Walk in Chelsea has been home to the Rolling Stones Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.
  
• Is it significant to know that this episode took place on December 24, 2004? In the real world, two days later, the deadly tsunami will occur caused by an undersea earthquake in the Indian Ocean. Will the show experience the effects of this disaster?
• Did you get the impression that the message in Faraday's journal "If anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume will be my constant" was something he had not seen before?
  

The Numbers - 2 3 4 5 6 8 10 15 16 23 42 108

• Lapidus says the helicopter is 2 miles from the freighter.
• Desmond has 2 days leave from the army.
• Desmond believes it is 1996 when it is actually 2004, a 8 year difference.
• 2.342 is what Faraday tells Desmond the device should be set at, a combination of two of the numbers, 23 and 42.
• Desmond tells Faraday he believed he was in the future for 5 minutes.
• George says the communication was sabotaged 2 days ago.
• The Black Rock's journal at auction is lot number 2342.
  
• Penny's address is 423 Cheyne Walk.
  
• Penny tells Desmond she's being searching for him for 3 years.
  

Previews - Next week's "The Other Woman" included scenes of Faraday and Charlotte in white bio hazard suits being threatened by Juliet. This episode is expected to feature flashbacks of her, all on the island yet Penny's dad, Charles Widmore, makes a reappearance. That should be interesting.