Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: A | 985 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT You Spin Me Right Round Baby
By Cindy McLennan | Season 5 | Episode 1 | Aired on 2009.01.21
Daniel continues his lecture all the way to the backdoor, but Sawyer could not care less. "That would all be fascinating if I was listening to ya." When Daniel suggests that it might not even be Des who is in there, Sawyer's not deterred, and starts banging on the door, demanding entry. "Yo, open up. It's the Ghost of Christmas Future!" Okay now see, where the banging wouldn't have brought me to the door -- that might have. All the while Sawyer bangs on the door, Daniel lectures him about the rules: if it didn't happen it can't happen; you can't change the past, yada, yada, yada. I don't know about you, but Sawyer doesn't strike me as a Rules Girl, Daniel. Sawyer grabs Daniel by the shirt and growls that everyone he cares about (KATE) just blew up, "On your damned boat. I know what I can't change." Juliet, taking on an air of Galadriel, intones that they should get back to the beach, because it's been a long day. Poor Sawyer's eyes look like those of a wild animal. But maybe he's hoping for a strand of her shiny blonde hair, because he backs off. Miles tries to talk common sense to them -- asking why they'd go back to the beach if there's nothing to go back to, but Juliet simply tells him that he can stay there. Miles turns to Charlotte and Daniel and smiles. "That chick likes me." He follows after Sawyer and Juliet, leaving Daniel and Charlotte alone at Desmond's back door. Charlotte's nose starts bleeding. She shrugs it (and Daniel's concern) off -- saying she hasn't had one since she was a little girl. Daniel covers -- noting that he left his pack back at the hatch crater, and sends Charlotte off after the others. Once she's gone, he runs back to his pack, digs out his journal and looks up something we're not allowed to see...
Next, Daniel is at the backdoor to the hatch, banging on it like he'd just stopped Sawyer from doing. He's pleading, "Please let this work," over and over again. And hey, I like most of these characters (or enjoy watching them, at least) even Daniel, but after the way he lectured Sawyer, I'm sort of hoping it doesn't work because I'm mean like that. I am not a "the rules apply to everyone but me" sort of person. Finally, Des comes to the door, yellow Haz-Mat (ish) suit on -- rifle cocked and ready. When Daniel begs him not to shoot, Des says, "Then you'd best explain why you've been banging on my door for the last 20 minutes, brutha." Desmond wants to know if Daniel is "him" -- namely the person sent to relieve Desmond from typing in: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42, every 108 minutes -- in order to save the world. And of course Daniel's not, so when Des asks if they know one another, Daniel goes into a whole big, "I need you to listen" spiel, like every other character on this show does when they don't want to answer a straight question. "You're the only person who can help us because, Desmond, the rules... the rules don't apply to you. You're special. You're uniquely and miraculously special." So like a snowflake, then? When Des asks Daniel what he's talking about, the buzzing that comes right before the flash starts to buzz. Daniel says, "Okay, listen to me. Listen! If the helicopter somehow made it off the island, if you got home..." Des wants to know what helicopter and what Daniel's going on about, so Daniel continues. "Listen, I need you to listen, or people are gonna die. My name is Daniel Faraday, and right now, me and everyone else you left behind..." this is so urgent he can't even give a nod to grammar. "We're in serious danger. You're the only person who can help us. I need you to go back to Oxford University. Go back to where we met. I need you to go there and find my mother." The noise intensifies. The sky brightens. "Her name is..." FLASH!