I consider myself relatively wise regarding the inner workings of how television shows are filmed, but there’s something about Lost that I always had trouble with, and it’s especially true with Desmond-centric episodes: How on earth is he filmed with long hair and a heavy beard in the present timeline, and clean shaven with close cut hair in the past? The easy answer is a wig and fake beard (like everybody’s favorite deceased Other), but a quick WireImage search on Henry Ian Cusick (who portrays everybody’s favorite world racer) reveals that, in reality, he does indeed have long hair and a beard. I suppose the next logical answer is that they film all of Desmond’s long hair/beard scenes, and then later have him shave and cut his hair to film his flashback scenes. But that seems really inefficient. Can anybody fill me in on the actual answer? Not even theories….I want THE answer. And cite your source.
Now, onto the episode…
One of the best parts of “The Constant,” for me was that it featured two of my favorite lesser-used characters: Desmond and Daniel. What I find interesting about Desmond, and what makes him particularly likeable, is the fact that he has the least connection with these characters (he’s not one of the crash survivors, he isn’t an Other, and he’s not one of the freight rescuers) yet he seems to have a really friendly chemistry with everybody. For that matter, Daniel seems like the only completely harmless rescuer, and is seemingly the only one that wants to be open and honest with the flight 815 survivors. Unlike the rest of the rescuers, he seems like he wants to help them, even if that isn’t their primary objective. Of course, this could easily end up being a ruse, but for the time being I’m enjoying him.
Speaking of Daniel, did he not look very Jordan Collier-esque in the past? The actor does resemble a less imposing version of Billy Campbell, but with the long hair and beard, the similarity was stunning. Perhaps in part due to this, Daniel was a real highlight this episode. While his nervous “fish out of water” character is a hoot, I liked seeing Daniel more confident and in his own element. Come to think of it, Desmond’s sudden relationship with Daniel reminds me a lot of his friendship with Charlie. It essentially began as something of a necessity, but with the roles reversed. The bond between Desmond and Charlie was built upon Charlie’s dependence on Desmond to save his life. On the other hand, Desmond’s connection with Daniel grew out of Desmond needing help sorting out the whole time travel confusion.
I also appreciated the deeper explanation on Desmond’s time traveling abilities: His consciousness travels through time, but his physical body remains in a catatonic state. I suppose this is pretty common knowledge, but it was still nice to get an explanation.
Regarding the flashbacks, while they didn’t necessarily reveal anything mind shattering (unlike last year’s Desmond time travel), a bit more light was shed on Desmond’s military discharge and the general tumultuous relationship between him and Penny. Oh, and when Penny and Desmond had their sweet phone reunion, I couldn’t help but worry that we’d hear a gunshot, followed by Desmond dropping to the floor and dying (which would explain the whole haircut/shave thing). Thank goodness that didn’t happen!
While this episode naturally utilized the “yeah, we’ll answer some stuff….but here are ten new questions!” formula, I’m really impressed with the amount of “answers” they did provide. We have received a somewhat roundabout confirmation that Daniel is indeed experimenting with time travel and that the island does, to some degree exhibit time warping capacities. Incidentally, I think there’s a direct correlation between how the viewers initially got a glimpse into each character’s past, but are now seeing their future, and the fact that time moves differently on the island. I’m not sure if I can explain it any further and more eloquently than that, though. Then again, Christmas Eve on the island ended up being Christmas Eve off the island as well, so maybe I’m seeing something that isn’t there.
There were a lot of interesting clues in the auction scene. Mr. Widmore won auction 2342 (which, if I’m not mistaken, is the setting Desmond told Daniel to use for his time warp machine, or at least a variation on those numbers), which was a Tovard Hanso (Hanso Foundation?) owned journal by the first mate of The Black Rock, the slave ship that ended up on the island. All of this leads me to believe that Widmore is very, very involved with everything that is going on. Is he Jacob? In all likelihood, no, because that “Help me…” from last season didn’t sound especially British.
Another possible hint from the episode was when George (the communication officer) noted that they must have a friend on the boat. Of course, he was simply making a casual remark about how the door was opened just as they needed to escape. There is A LOT of speculation that the person on the boat – and Ben’s spy, for that matter – is Michael. We all know he’s returning at some point this season, so this prediction does hold some weight. However, there is a lot about this possibility that doesn’t sit right. First off, while Ben did let him leave the island, by no means are these two friends. In fact, I’m sure Michael remembers that Ben and The Others kidnapped his son and extorted (or blackmailed) him into killing two innocent people and giving up three of his friends WAY before he thinks about how he let him and Walt leave the island. Therefore, I find it incredibly hard to believe that if he found out people were trying to capture Ben that he would want to stop them in any way. In fact, based on what we know about Michael (and how he can hold a bit of a grudge), I’d expect quite the opposite.
Along with that, there’s no reason to believe that he has the means to communicate with Ben on the island.
Anyway, that’s all for this week. Be sure to tune in this week for a very special Christmas Lost!
A Case of the Blog: Discuss this column and more at my blog!
