5. The Constant
Nitcentral's Bulletin Brash Reflections:
Lost:
Season Four:
5. The Constant
Aired Feb. 28
Writers: Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof
Director: Jack Bender
Guest Cast
Jeff Fahey: Frank Lapidus
Alan Dale: Charles Widmore
Sonya Walger: Penelope Widmore
Graham McTavish: Sergeant
Darren Keefe: Billy
Edward Conery: Auctioneer
Marc Vann: Ray
Fisher Stevens: George Minkowski
Kevin Durand: Keamy
Anthony Azizi: Omar
As the helicopter with Sayid, Desmond, and Frank aboard approaches the boat, Desmond suddenly loses his memory, reverting back to himself in 1996. After talking with Daniel, Desmond discovers he's traveling back and forth through time and must find a way to connect his future and past self, but the situation may be complicated by the boat crew's agenda.
Desmond episode IV (backstory, sort of)
Notes:
-Desmond, as he did in Flashes Before Your Eyes travels through time in this episode.
-As Daniel hypothesizes, Desmond was exposed to high electromagnetism when he destroyed the Swan.
-Charles Widmore buys the ledger of the Black Rock, the ship that had crashed on the island the century before.
-Tovard Hanso is likely an ancestor or relative of Alvar Hanso of the Hanso Foundation.
-Numbers sightings: 1996 and 2004 are eight years apart. The frequency Faraday gives Desmond is 2.342. The auction lot numbers for the painting is 2342.
-The episode takes place on December 24, 2004, meaning the survivors have been on the island for over three months or 93 days.
Unanswered Questions: Why does time pass differently on the island than it does off of it? Who sabotaged the equipment? Who opened the door? Ben's plant? Why is the boat crew angry about bringing 815's survivors to the ship?
By ScottN on Thursday, February 28, 2008 - 11:32 pm:Desmond back(?)story.
We also see some background on Daniel, and we meet "George", who we had only spoken to on the phone.
By Triggins (Triggins) on Sunday, March 02, 2008 - 2:54 pm:My guess is that the friend on the boat who helps Desmond and Sayid is Walt.
By Kevin (Kevin) on Sunday, March 02, 2008 - 3:33 pm:I've been thinking Michael (more as Ben's plant). It makes more sense that Walt would help since Michael would probably want to avoid Sayid and presumably wouldn't know Desmond. Michael appears in the credits this season. Does Walt? I haven't been looking that carefully.
By triggins on Sunday, March 02, 2008 - 7:49 pm:I can't say I have seen the actor's name in the credits. Though if the series takes a jump in years between the fourth or fifth season that may be a way to bring the character and actor back without explaining why he has aged.
By ScottN on Sunday, March 02, 2008 - 9:14 pm:George is also a reference to a famous person (last name only, though).
Herman Minkowski was the man who realized that special relativity created "space-time", and that the Lorentz transform was merely a rotation of an entity's world-line in space-time.l
By Kevin (Kevin) on Sunday, March 02, 2008 - 9:44 pm:The writers said they took the Walt's ageing into consideration, so that it wouldn't be a problem that the actor aged faster than the character would. I had no idea how until they started doing flash-forwards.
By LUIGI NOVI (Lnovi) on Sunday, March 02, 2008 - 9:47 pm:Holy friggin COW. I saw this episode today. Incredible. The most powerful of the season. It had a cool sci-fi plot, a new revelation about the mystery surrounding (literally!) the island, and that wonderful moment between Des and Penny.
By Influx on Monday, March 03, 2008 - 9:53 am:Not to spoil the moment, but if she's been waiting for that call for 8 years, why did she take so friggin' long to answer?
Oh, she must have read a copy of The Rules. 
By LUIGI NOVI (Lnovi) on Monday, June 23, 2008 - 8:38 pm:How Cow! Kevin Durand played Joshua on Dark Angel?! No way! I just read it TV Guide, and immediately realized that yeah, the voice is the same! Cool!