Category Archives: Eloise Hawking (Fionnula Flanagan)

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?

Why did Eloise Hawking send her son back to the Island?

"Don't you talk to me about sacrifice, Charles."

"Don't you talk to me about sacrifice, Charles."

Near the end of The Variable, Eloise Hawking leaves the hospital, and Charles Widmore creeps out of the shadows and approaches her. He says his relationship with Penelope was one of the things he had to sacrfice.

Eloise replies,

Sacrifice? Don’t you talk to me about sacrifice, Charles. I had to send my son back to the Island, knowing full well —

Charles interupts her before she can finish her sentence.

What, exactly, does Eloise Hawking know “full well”? Clearly she knows that she has sent Faraday to his doom, but does she know that it would be her younger self who would kill him?

That’s what Daniel himself, at the very end of the episode, believes. After he is shot, and sees that it was Ellie who had shot him, he says to her:

You knew. You always knew. You knew this was gonna happen. And you sent me here anyway.

If Daniel is right, then why would Eloise have sent him to the Island — why would she have manipulated him his whole life to become the scientist he became so he could go to the Island — just so she could shoot him 30 years ago?

Looking back at my predictions about Daniel Faraday’s family

Ellie with gun in 5x03 Jughead

Ellie with gun in 5x03 Jughead

Ellie with gun in 5x14 The Variable

Ellie with gun in 5x14 The Variable

Among the many pleasures of being a LOST fan, one of the best is coming up with theories and predictions, and then looking back later, after the show has revealed the answers, to see how well you did.

Three months ago, a few days after Jughead, the third episode of the season, aired, I posted some predictions on my original LOST blog (I won’t link to that blog, not after the scoundrels at Today.com locked me out, but you could always find it yourself if you wanted to), about what I called Daniel Faraday’s tangled family tree. Now, many of the questions that were raised in Jughead have finally been answered in The Variable.

How did I do? Pretty good, I think!

Here are the original predictions, made on January 31:

1. Ellie, the woman with the gun, is Faraday’s mother.

She is also a younger version of Ms. Hawking. Right before Jughead aired, during the rerun of The Lie, one of the little pop-up hints said that Ms. Hawking’s first name was Eloise. (I guess you could call that a spoiler from the LOST team itself.)

Ellie could easily be a diminutive form of Eloise.

Faraday’s rat was named Eloise.

Last week, Faraday told Desmond to find his mother. Then, voila, there was Ms. Hawking, who we haven’t seen in two years, back in the story. Coincidence? Unlikely.

This week, Widmore told Desmond that his mother is in Los Angeles. That would seem to nail it, as Eloise Hawking is in Los Angeles (with Ben).

Ding ding ding! All correct!

2. Charlotte could be Faraday’s sister.

Charlotte has said she was born on the Island. Ellie could be her mother.

Faraday clearly loves Charlotte, and was very upset about her having gotten time-travel sickness. Although I assumed, while watching the episode, that the love was romantic, on thinking back, there was nothing specifically romantic or sexual between them. It could easily have been sibling love.

I’ve seen a theory that Charlotte is Faraday’s daughter, but I think that the idea of Faraday fathering children in the past is too convoluted even for LOST (which is saying a lot!). So I’m going with the theory that they are brother and sister.

Bzzzt. Charlotte is (apparently!) not Faraday’s sister.

3. Charlotte (or maybe Daniel) could be the baby in the first scene of “Because You Left,” the first show of the season. Because that scene started off the season, I think it had to be significant. And it was never explained. So I’m going with the explanation that would be the most interesting, dramatically.

Bzzzt. The baby, of course, was Little Miles.

4. Widmore could be Daniel and Charlotte’s father. There’s actually no particular reason for this, except that (1) it is possible, and (2) it would be interesting. (Though Widmore did fund Faraday’s research, there are plenty of other reasons, besides paternity, that he may have done that.)

Ding ding ding ding ding! Ring those dings at half volume, though, because while Widmore is, indeed, Daniel’s father (ding ding ding ding!), he is probably not Charlotte’s.

5. So, in conclusion, this is our theoretical nuclear (no pun with H-bombs intended) family: Ellie, later to be Eloise Hawking, is dear old Mum. Widmore is Daddy dearest. Charlotte was born on the Island, but was adopted by Dr. Candle, because Mum and Dad took off. She never knew Daniel, who was born (I’m guessing) in England, until they reunited on the freighter. Daniel knew who she was, though, because he’s a time-travelin’ man.

Ding and a half ding! Correct about Daniel. Wrong about Charlotte.

Speaking of predictions, I wonder if we will ever see Charlotte again. Will something happen to change the future and undo her time-travel induced death?

Screen cap of Ellie in 5×03 Jughead is from the ABC site. Screencap from 5×14 The Variable is from Lost-Media

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

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