Category Archives: Dr. Chang (Francois Chau)

Reminder: LOST tribute on Spike TV Scream Awards tonight, Oct. 19, 2010

Tonight, you can watch a reunion of some of the old LOST gang, including the long-unseen Waaaaaaaaalt.

When: Tuesday, October 19, 2010, 9 PM (8 PM Central)
Where: Spike TV, during the Scream Awards

The show was taped on Saturday, and Spike TV released a clip of part of the LOST tribute. The cast and producers in attendance are, in order of appearance, Carlton Cuse, Jorge Garcia (who acts as the spokesperson for the group), Damon Lindelof, Francois Chau, Ian Somerhalder, Henry Ian Cusick, a very tall Malcolm David Kelley, Harold Perrineau, and a burning piece of Flight 815 wreckage.

Why no women? Hmmm.

LOST-Themed Bud Light commericials

These were shown during the Super Bowl.

This one has Dr. Chang:

This one is a take-off on Season 1:

How did Dr. Chang know about time travel?

"It's going to allow us to manipulate time." -- Dr. Pierre Chang (aka Dr. Marvin Candle) in 5x01

"It's going to allow us to manipulate time." -- Dr. Pierre Chang (aka Dr. Marvin Candle) in 5x01

I’ve been focusing a lot recently on the last episode of Season 5, but now I want to switch gears for a bit and look back at the beginning of the season, which has its own intriguing mysteries, especially when seen now, in light of what we learned later on.

In a scene near the beginning of the season premiere, 5×01 Because You Left, Dr. Chang is underground in the Orchid Station, talking to a construction foreman. The year is 1977:

Foreman: There’s an open chamber about 20 meters in, behind the rock. (Pointing to a sonar image that shows part of the donkey wheel) There’s something in there. The only way to get to it is to lay charges here (pointing) and here. Blast through —

Dr. Chang: Under no circumstances. This station is being built here because of its proximity to what we believe to be an almost limitless energy. And that energy, once we can harness it correctly — it’s going to allow us to manipulate time.

Foreman: Hah. (Sarcastically) Okay, so, what, we’re going to go back and kill Hitler?

Dr. Chang: Don’t be absurd. There are rules. Rules that can’t be broken.

Foreman: So what do you want me to do?

Dr. Chang: You’re gonna do nothing. If you drill even one centimeter further and risk releasing that energy — if that were to happen (looks at injured worker and shakes his head) — God help us all.

This raises a lot of questions. How did Dr. Chang know about the special “energy”? Did he come to the Island because he knew that energy was there? And if so, was the whole Dharma Initiative a ruse, a cover for his real purpose of finding and harnessing the energy? Or did Chang discover the energy and its properties only after he arrived at the Island? If so, how?

When Dr. Chang talks about “rules” that can’t be broken, he sounds a lot like Faraday, when Faraday explained the “rules” of time travel to the Losties, before he changed his mind. Where did Dr. Chang get his ideas about the rules?

Dr. Chang’s line, “God help us all,” is so dramatic. Then in the next episode, 5×02 The Lie, that line echoes with an eerie resonance when it is repeated by Eloise Hawking:

Eloise: What you need is irrelevant. Seventy hours is what you’ve got.

Ben: Look, I lost Reyes tonight. (Pause) So what happens if I can’t get them all to come back?

Eloise: Then God help us all. (Crescendo. End of episode.)

What exactly is Eloise Hawking afraid of, and is it the same thing that Dr. Chang was afraid of when he uttered the same phrase?

Mini recap of 5×15 ‘Follow the Leader’

Miles and Jin watching the people get on the submarine

Miles and Jin watching the people get on the submarine

Although the episode title refers to a “leader” in the singular, there are actually two leaders in this episode who set out on parallel treks in different times — Jack in 1977 and Locke in 2007. Each is convinced that he is finally acting out his destiny. And each has Richard Alpert tagging along, as fresh and dewy-looking as ever.

Jack wants to carry out Faraday’s plan to explode the bomb, in order to put things back the way they were. Kate’s not interested. If everything is undone, she will just become a fugitive again, and will never have met Jack. Besides, she thinks, not unreasonably, that it’s irresponsible to go around detonating hydrogen bombs.

Ellie, though, is glad to show Jack where the bomb is. She knows she has just shot her future son and of course would want to see that undone. Not to mention that the bomb is right under the village of her enemies, the Dharma Initiative.

Sayid pops up (I had forgotten about him!) and rescues Kate from being shot by a Hostile. Kate takes the opportunity to head back to Dharmaville, where she is captured and put on the submarine in the impromptu prisoner’s quarters already occupied by Sawyer and Juliet. They were gazing into each other’s eyes and reveling in their sweet Suliet-ness until being rudely interrupted by Kate’s arrival.

Jack, Sayid, and Ellie, accompanied, for some reason, by Alpert, enter some very cool-looking underground tunnels and find the bomb, which apparently was not encased in concrete after all.

Meanwhile, Hurley, Miles, and Jin are in the hills above Dharmaville. Poor guys! Sawyer, who was supposed to lead them to the beach, is on the sub, apparently not caring that he was leaving them behind.

Miles, though, learns something important about his past. He watches his father, Dr. Chang, yelling at his mother, who has baby Miles in her arms, telling her she has to leave. Grown-up Miles understands that his father is yelling not because he is cruel, nor because he wants to get rid of his wife and infant son, but because he knows that yelling is the only way he will get his wife to leave — and save herself and baby Miles. And so the Island, once again, seems to have healed one of its character’s painful lifelong Daddy issues!

Thirty years later, in the Hostile’s camp, John Locke is glowing with alpha male energy. Alpert (who John aptly describes as a kind of adviser who has had that job “for a very, very long time”) and Ben appear submissive, but seem to harbor mutiny in their hearts, as they follow John on a trek to find Jacob, who no one has ever seen before.

Alpert had told Sun that he had seen all the 1977 Losties die. Locke told her that Jacob can bring them back. But Locke told Ben that he really wanted to find Jacob in order to kill him.

There’s a mind-bending scene where Locke tells Alpert that his time-tripping self is going to appear in the jungle with a bullet in his leg (just as we saw him earlier this season). Locke tells Alpert to tell the other Locke that he has to bring everyone back to the Island, and that in order to do that he will have to die.

So Locke’s instructions came from …. future Locke. So it’s all a big circle? Excuse me while my head explodes.

Screencap from Lost-Media, (c) ABC

Recap of 5×14 The Variable

Faraday, saying, "She was wrong."

Faraday, saying, "She was wrong."

An amazing episode.

After we’ve heard Jack wail so many times, “We have to go back! We have to go back!” it turns out that no, they didn’t have to go back after all.

Faraday’s theory about how you can’t change the past is turned on its head.

We see Mommy issues that are just as twisted as the show’s ubiquitous Daddy issues.

The episode starts with a fabulous beginning, quickly flipping through scenes we’ve seen before — Faraday telling space-suited Desmond to meet him in Oxford, Eloise saying “God help us all,” Ben shooting Desmond.

Then new footage of Desmond in the hospital, Penny and baby Charlie. Eloise Hawking shows up! Says this was her son’s fault.

30 years earlier…. Faraday is coming out of submarine hatch, which we saw at the end of the last episode. Faraday asks Jack why he came back. Jack says Faraday’s mother told him it was his destiny. Faraday tells Jack, “She was wrong.”

Flashback to young Daniel playing the piano. His mother asks him if he knows what destiny means, and says it’s a special gift that must be nurtured. His gift is his mind, his talents in math and science. So he will have no more time for the piano! “I can make time,” Daniel says, but Mom Eloise is unyielding.

Meanwhile in Dharmaville, Jack finds out that Phil is in Sawyer’s closet.

Faraday goes to the Orchid. Dr Chang says “God help us all” — we saw this earlier this season in Episode 1. Faraday says that there will be an explosion in the Swan station 30,000 times more powerful than the one in the Orchid. Dr C asks, how do you know? Faraday says, I’m from the future. Faraday tells Dr. C that Miles is his son. Miles is not pleased.

Flashback of Daniel graduating, getting his doctorate. Mom Eloise is horribly rude to Daniel’s girlfriend Theresa, then whisks him off to lunch alone. He tells her he has a grant from Charles Widmore! Her expression is unreadable. She gives him a gift, and then leaves. It’s the book that we always see him writing in, his constant.

Dharma time. All the Dharma losties are meeting, talking about skipping town, debating whether to get on the sub or go into the jungle. Knock on door. It’s Miles and Faraday. Sawyer, to Miles: “He still crazy?” Miles: “It’s on a whole new level, man.”

Flashback to Daniel freaking out while watching the news on TV about Flight 815 being under the sea. (We’ve seen this part of the scene before.) He’s in terrible shape from having sent himself through time, which destroyed his mind and his memory (and messed up his girlfriend and cost him his job). He doesn’t even know why he’s so upset by the broadcast.

Charles Widmore shows up! Tells Daniel that he had faked the Flight 815 crash. Offers him a new opportunity — to go to the Island. Tells him it will heal his mind. Says he shouldn’t be wasting his gifts. Faraday says, “You sound like my mother.” Widmore says that’s because they are friends.

Dharma Losties argue about whether to go to the Hostiles to find Ellie, Faraday’s mother. Jack wants to, Sawyer doesn’t. They both appeal to Kate, but it’s Juliet who tells them the fence combination. They split up — Kate, Jack, and Faraday take off. Faraday sees little Charlotte, tells her she has to leave. They have a shoot-out with Radzinsky.

Flashback to messed-up Faraday playing the piano. Mom Eloise comes in, tells him he should accept Widmore’s offer. She echos Widmore in saying that the Island will heal him. Faraday, pathetic, asks Eloise if taking the job will make her proud of him.

Dharma time. Faraday says, this is our present. Any one of us can die.” Well, there goes my theory.

Radzinsky finds Phil in Sawyer/Juliet’s closet. Uh oh!

Faraday explains to Kate and Jack that after the explosion goes off in the Swan, then the hatch will be built, the button will have to be pushed to keep the energy contained, Flight 815 will crash, and he himself will be on the freighter, and so on. All of that will be the result of the explosion that is about to happen.

He says he thought that you couldn’t change the past, but that’s because he was thinking of the constants. But what about variables? He says THEY are the variables. They CAN change their destiny.

And he intends to do that by detonating the H-bomb.

Back to Penny and Eloise, who says she has come to apologize. For once, she doesn’t know what is going to happen next. But Desmond is fine! He tells Penny, “I promised I’d never leave you again.”

Eloise walks out of the hospital. Widmore creeps out of the shadows. She tells him he should go inside and visit his daughter, Penny. He says that relationship was one of the things he had to sacrifice. She says, don’t talk to me about sacrifices. I sent my son back, she says, knowing full well what would happen.

Widmore says, “He’s my son too!”

Eloise slaps him.

In Dharma time, our trio creeps up on the Hostile’s camp. Faraday confronts Richard Alpert. Then young Eloise shoots Faraday! He says, “You knew. You always knew this would happen.” But young Eloise has a blank expression. Is she faking?

And is Faraday dead?

Screencap of Faraday (lightened/cropped) from the DarkUFO sneak peek video #2 in my previous post, (c) ABC

Amazing sneak peeks of 5×14 The Variable, which will air tonight April 29, 2009

Jeremy Davies as Daniel Faraday

Jeremy Davies as Daniel Faraday

The Variable, LOST’s 100th episode, is going to focus on Daniel Faraday, showing his flashbacks for the first time.

In the April 23, 2009 official audio podcast, Damon and Carlton confirm (as I had guessed in an earlier post) that the title “The Variable” is a reference to “The Constant” from last season, and there is indeed a connection between the two episodes — in an interview, Damon calls the new episode a “companion piece” to the previous one.

We will also see Desmond tonight, and find out if he survived being shot by Ben.

In the podcast, Damon and Carlton say they think The Variable came out as one of the best episodes of the season, and they’re excited to see what we think of it.

Here are three great clips from the episode, courtesy of DarkUFO. Don’t watch if you want to remain completely unspoiled! Otherwise … enjoy!

Sawyer and Juliet:

Faraday, Jack, and Miles. Wow. This clip literally gave me chills! –>

Faraday and Dr. Chang:

This episode looks like it’s going to be AMAZING.

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