After watching The Variable three times, and paying special attention to the significant ‘destiny’ references, I experienced an epiphany that I believe to be plausible given the time travel we’ve witnessed this season.
We now know that Daniel Faraday is a talented musician, a piano prodigy. My theory is that Faraday programmed The Looking Glass station security code.
We don’t know exactly when The Looking Glass station was constructed, but we know it existed in 1977 (Namaste). Faraday was stuck in time in 1974 after one of the island’s time shifts, but we do not know when he left for Ann Arbor before returning on the sub in 1977. So it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that Faraday programmed that station’s security mechanism with a song at some point during that era, especially if he KNEW that it would alter (but not change) the destiny of the 815 survivors.
DESTINY IS A FICKLE BITCH
In The Variable, Faraday’s mother Eloise Hawking told him that destiny “means that if one has a special gift, it must be nurtured.” She was also quite adamant that her son disregard his musical skills and personal relationships to focus on science and mathematics, but he argued that he “can make time” for all of his interests. Perhaps he did just that on the island, combining his many talents to program the security code using a song.
Faraday told Jack in The Variable that “We make choices. We have free will. We can change our destiny.” In the Season 3 finale Through The Looking Glass, Charlie reminded Desmond that “you said it’s my destiny to turn off that jammer.” Charlie made a choice to sacrifice himself so that his friends would be rescued, and he was only able to fulfill his destiny because Faraday designed the musical code.
It is striking to me how both Charlie and Desmond eventually affect the destiny of everyone on that island by simply flipping a switch and pressing a button, and perhaps gives credence to my theory about the early level of involvement by both Faraday (The Looking Glass) and his mother Hawking (The Swan). Let’s revisit the following:
Desmond (Greatest Hits): “You’re inside a hatch. It’s a room full of equipment. There’s a blinking yellow light and switch. You flick the switch, the light goes off and then you drown.” Charlie: “So, before I drown, I just have to flip a switch.”
Charlie (Through the Looking Glass): “I just turn off your little jammer and the helicopters come and rescue all my friends.” Bonnie: “But if this station floods, what happens to you?” Charlie: “I die.”
Eloise Hawking (Flashes Before Your Eyes): “Breaking her heart is what drives you in a few short years from now to enter that sailing race, to prove her father wrong, which brings you to the island where you spend the next three years of your life entering numbers into the computer until you are forced to turn that failsafe key. And if you don’t do those things, Desmond David Hume, every single one of us is dead.”
Faraday (The Variable): “The Dharma folks at the Swan site, they’re gonna drill into the ground and accidentally tap into a massive pocket of energy. The result of the release of this energy would be catastrophic. So in order to contain it, they’re going to have to cement the area in, like Chernobyl. And this containment, the place they built over it…I believe you called it the hatch, the Swan hatch? Because of this one accident, these people are going to spend the next 20 years keeping that energy at bay, by pressing a button; a button that your friend Desmond will one day fail to push, and that will cause your plane, Oceanic 815, to crash on this island.”
THE ‘CONSTANT’ FACTOR
Keeping in mind that Desmond is Faraday’s constant and that Desmond’s constant is Penny, Faraday’s half-sister….
Right before meeting Faraday’s mother Eloise for the first time in 1996 during Flashes Before Your Eyes in Season 3, Desmond ran into Charlie in London outside of Widmore Industries (owned and run by Faraday’s father Charles Widmore). Charlie is singing Wonderwall by Oasis, “maybe you’re going to be the one who saves me…”
During their brief time together on the island, Desmond does save Charlie’s life on several occasions (the golf club as lightning rod, rescuing Clarie from drowning, saving Claire’s migrating bird, Rousseau’s arrow trap in the jungle). Desmond intended to take Charlie’s place by swimming down to The Looking Glass, but Charlie knocked him out and said “you and I both know you’re not supposed to take my place.”
FARADAY & DESMOND’S SWAN CHAT
So what does all of this have to do with Faraday programming the song in The Looking Glass?
Consider the following conversation between Faraday and Desmond in Because You Left (which took place before 815 crashed & long before Desmond met Charlie for the first time on the island); Desmond’s original vision of Claire and Aaron being rescued via helicopter, the very reason that Charlie chose to dive down to The Looking Glass station, is suddenly quite relevant:
Faraday: “You’re the only person who can help us, because Desmond, the rules don’t apply to you. You’re special. You’re uniquely and miraculously special.”
Desmond: “What are you talking about?”
Faraday: “If the helicopter somehow made it off the island, if you got home…”
Originally, I assumed that Faraday was referring to the freighter helicopter that the Oceanic 6 were on, but it is open for interpretation that Faraday knew about Desmond’s future vision that set off the series of events leading to Charlie’s actions in The Looking Glass.
In addition, I believe that the Easter egg featured in The Variable (the rabbit, which is literally THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS of Faraday’s mother) is a visual clue to this particular puzzle piece of Lost…
Everything happens for a reason. Don’t mistake coincidence for fate. These are not merely Lost cliches; they are applicable mantras in the tangled web of possibilities that has been woven before our eager eyes over the last five seasons.
I realize that it requires a leap of faith to link these characters and events. Earlier this year I explored another path which would require fans of the shows to suspend our disbelief even further; I dubbed it my Crazy Charlie Theory, and if you’re interested, it somewhat relates to this road less traveled.
Now that I have outlined the reasons why Faraday and fate have intertwined on the island, resulting at least in part with Charlie’s destiny decision to save his remaining 815 friends, I would love to hear what you think. I would only ask that if you strongly disagree with the general theory or any of the points outlined above, you express it constructively. Namaste!
Technorati Tags: Charles Widmore, Charlie Pace, Daniel Faraday, Desmond Hume, Eloise Hawking, Penny Widmore
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