Hey there Lost fans! I ran out of time to make some audio or a video for this week but I'll make up for it with video updates for the next two episodes. :-)
So "The Variable" turned out to be a very well-scoring episode, despite the passing of one of Lost's more interesting characters. Daniel's death didn't really hold him back much at all in the points department. Overall, "The Variable" scored 390 total points, making it the 3rd highest scoring episode this season.
I made some point adjustments for episodes 5x01 and 5x03. We saw a replay of that scene from the beginning of the season where Chang and Daniel meet in the Orchid and we now know that Ellie of the Hostiles is in fact Ms. Hawking so I went back and re-jiggered the points accordingly. Be sure to check the Important Point Rulings section for the details. These changes may make your weekly score look different from what the chart says.
If you've got any questions, consult the League rule book at the bottom of this post. If you can't find an answer to your questions there, shoot me an email at LFLquestions@gmail.com. I will do my best to get back to you as promptly as possible.
"The Variable" in 700 words or less:
Daniel gets back to the Island and immediately wants to talk to Jack instead of heading off to the Swan with the other scientists on the sub. Miles takes him over to Jack's and Dan tells him that it was a mistake for him and his friends to come back. Jack, still half-asleep, doesn't understand a lick of what he's hearing but it's okay, because Dan wasn't exactly going into any kind of detail about it.
Before Dan can get into the specifics, he decides that he really has to go to the Orchid now. Miles obliges and the take off. Jack tells Sawyer that Dan is back and Jack is let in on a little secret- you know, that whole Phil locked in a closet thing. At the Orchid, Dan tries to convince Dr. Chang to evacuate the Island by warning him about the upcoming Incident and by telling Change that he and his friends are from the future. Chang doesn't believe him and Miles does his best to play Dan's ramblings off as crazy talk. But the seed has been planted and I think Chang believes Dan after all.
Sawyer has everybody over for tea and they chat about how the frak they're going to get out of Dharmaville. Dan and Miles drop by and Mr. Wizard throws a wrench into Sawyer's plan. Dan wants to head out to the Hostiles' camp and talk to his mother, Ms. Hawking before she got all old and left the Island. Jack and Kate agree to help Dan out while Sawyer thinks they're all nuts and makes plans to get the rest of them back to the location of their former (or is it future?) beach camp.
On the way to the Motor Pool, Dan gives in and tells a young Charlotte to make sure she leave the Island and never comes back. He siad he tried to avoid doing so in an attempt to change things but now he just hopes he can. He heads over to the Motor Pool and gears up with Jack and Kate. Radzinsky comes by with some goons and starts barking orders around. Dan absent-mindedly exposes his pistol and there's a shoot-out at the OK Corral. Dan gets grazed, Radzinsky gets shot and burned and the A-Team gets away.
Radzinsky barges into Sawyer & Juliets pad demanding to know where he's been all this time. Phil takes the opportunity to raise attention to himself and even more s**t hits the fan. Sawyer and Jules are now at the mercy of Radzinsky, which can't be a good thing.
The A-Team makes their way into the jungle and Dan starts talking about variables and ways they can change the past. It's pretty heavy stuff. Jack eats it up like candy while Kate is awfully skeptical of the whole shebang. Especially the whole "detonate a hydrogen bomb to pull it all off" part. Dan walks into the Hostiles' camp and demands to talk to Eloise, who promptly shoots him in the back and kills him. There's an exit wound and Richard's reaction to the whole thing makes me wonder if the bullet didn't pass through him as well (even though nothing happened to him). Watch it again. The angles are interesting to take note of.
Flashbacks show us that Ms. hawking was a pretty nasty mother, forcing Dan to focus on math and science instead of music, which he seemed to really enjoy. She disapproved of all the girls he ever liked and was just a cold-hearted bitch. But, it turns out she was being that way towards her son in order to make sure that he ended up going to the Island and getting killed by her past self in order to protect the integrity of the space-time continuum. Wow. How many parents do you know that would do that?
POINT RULINGS FOR EPISODE 5x14: “The Variable”
1) Charlie Hume counts as a new person for Ms. Hawking. Hawking may have known of Penny but seeing as she hadn't had any contact with Desmond or Charles Widmore in some time, I felt that Charlie should be a new person for her.
2) Ms. Hawking counts as new for Penny. While Penny knew Desmond was going looking for Daniel Faraday's mother, she didn't know who exactly she was. So, Hawking is new for Penny because she didn't recognize her or know her by name.
3) Daniel's girlfriend does not count as a new person for Hawking. She knew that Theresa was Daniel's lab assistant, which tells me that she and her son had been in contact over his years at Oxford.
POINT ADJUSTMENTS FOR 5x01:
1) New Person points were taken away from Daniel and Marvin Candle. We saw this scene in 5x14 and Daniel stated that they had met before this scene.
2) Marvin Candle gets Kiss points. Somehow I missed the fact that he was kissed by his wife at the beginning of this scene.
3) Miles gets credit for appearing in Marvin Candle's flashback. Now that we know that Chang's baby is Miles, he gets credit for showing up here.
POINT ADJUSTMENTS FOR 5x03:
1) Ms. Hawking is given credit for appearing. She was called Ellie back then, remember? She was the mouthy little blond girl holding Dan at gunpoint for most of the episode.
2) Ms. Hawking gets points for encountering new people. Sawyer and Juliet count as new because they popped out of the jungle at her. Dan, Charlotte and Miles do not count as new because the Hostiles knew the Losties were at the beach camp and were following those three through the jungle until ambushing them at the stream.
3) Ms. Hawking gets points for encountering Charles Widmore. Young Ellie and young Charles had a little exchange back in the 1950s and that's more than enough to get her points.
Season 5 Episode Scores
Episode 5x14 Scores
DETAILED SCORES FOR EPISODE 5x14- "The Variable":
APPEARS IN SOMEONE ELSE’S MISCELLANEOUS FB/FF (+5): Charles, Ms. Hawking
APPEARS IN THE EPISODE (+5): Charles Widmore, Charlotte, Daniel, Desmond, Hurley, Jack, Jin, Juliet, Kate, Marvin Candle, Miles, Ms. Hawking, Penny, Richard, Sawyer
ABSENT FROM EPISODE (-5): Aaron, Abaddon, Alex, Annie, Arzt, Bea, Ben, Bernard, Boone, Carmen, Cassidy, Charlie, Christian, Cindy, Claire, Clementine, David, Diane, Eko, Emma, Ethan, Frank, Goodwin, Harper, Horace, Jacob, Ji-Yeon, Keamy, Kelvin, Libby, Locke, Margo, Michael, Michael's Mother, Mikhail, Mr. Paik, Nadia, Rachel, Roger, Rose, Rousseau, Sarah, Sayid, Shannon, Smokey, Sun, Tom, Vincent, Walt, Zack
ENCOUNTERS A DHARMA LOGO (+5): Charlotte (Generic); Daniel (Star, Swan, Generic, Orchid, Wrench, Chef); Hurley (Chef, Wrench, Star, Generic); Jack (Swan, Star, Generic, Wrench, Chef); Jin (Star, Chef, Wrench); Juliet (Star, Wrench, Generic, Swan, Chef); Kate (Wrench, Star, Generic, Chef); Marvin Candle (Orchid, Generic, Star, Swan); Miles (Star, Swan, Generic); Richard (Generic); Sawyer (Star, Generic, Chef, Wrench, Swan)
ENCOUNTERS A NEW PERSON, PLACE OR THING (+10): Charlotte (Daniel); Daniel (Journal, the Hostiles, the Hostiles Camp); Jack (the Hostiles, the Hostiles Camp); Kate (the Hostiles, the Hostiles Camp); Ms. Hawking (Charlie Hume); Penny (Ms. Hawking)
ENCOUNTERS CHARLES WIDMORE (+15): Daniel, Ms. Hawking
EPISODE CENTRICITY (+25): Daniel
FIRST LINE IN EPISODE (+10): Penny
FIRST PERSON ON SCREEN (+15): Desmond, Penny
GETS A MAJOR INJURY (-15): Daniel (neck grazed by a bullet)
GETS A MINOR INJURY (-5): Charles (slapped by Hawking)
GETS KILLED/DIES (-30): Daniel
INFLICTS A MAJOR INJURY (-10): Daniel (shoots Radzinsky); Jack (blows up fuel barrels and burns Radzinsky)
INFLICTS A MINOR INJURY (-5): Hawking (slaps Charles)
IS GIVEN A NICKNAME BY SAWYER (+5): Daniel (“Twitchy”, “H.G. Wells”); Jack (“Doc”); Kate (“Freckles”)
KILLS SOMEONE (-20): Ms. Hawking
KISSES SOMEONE/GETS KISSED (+15): Desmond (kisses Penny); Penny (kisses Desmond)
LAST LINE IN EPISODE (+10): Daniel
LAST PERSON ON SCREEN (+15): Daniel, Ms. Hawking
MISCELLANEOUS FB/FF (+10): Daniel
TRAVELS BY CAR (+5): Daniel (four times); Jack (once); Kate (once); Marvin Candle (twice); Miles (three times); Ms. Hawking (once)
USES OR ENCOUNTERS THE NUMBERS (+20): Charles (815); Daniel (864 beats of the metronome; 815)
VISITS A DHARMA LOCATION (+5): Daniel (Barracks, Orchid, Barracks); Marvin Candle (Orchid); Miles (Orchid, Barracks)
We had four Fantasy Geniuses of the Week this week! All four of them earned a stellar 300 points from the episode.
LostLiney: Miles, Cindy, Jack, Penny, Sarah, Libby, Horace, Daniel
RFiciur: Miles, Rose, Jack, Penny, Ji-Yeon, Rousseau, Tom, Daniel
SMOKIES LOST TEAM: Miles, Rose, Jack, Penny, Ji-Yeon, Charlie, Eko, Daniel
Zookeepers: Miles, Bernard, Jack, Penny, Micheal's Mother, Libby, Tom, Daniel
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Episode Details
Full Table by Name: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=r6JGUlFIKHTGCNAsXrTituA
Full Table by MiniLeague: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=rFoegNAVcUa46Vr-o_BCpMQ
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WARNING: This section contains the title of the next episode and some conjecture on what it might mean. If you consider this sort of information to be spoilerish, then do not continue. If not...
The next and penultimate episode of Lost's 5th season is called "Follow The Leader." An interesting title to be sure, because over the last 5 seasons there have been many different leaders on this show. Jack started out as the Losty leader, Locke had his own faction of followers at one point, the leadership of the Others has been anything but stable, and now Sawyer is the leader of the Left Behinders. And don't forget the group of heat-packing survivors of Ajira 316!So, who is this titular leader that the episode speaks of? It could be just about anyone, really. I think an even more important question is who are the followers of this (these) leader(s)? Maybe we'll finally get a sense of direction for this show and catch a glimpse of what to expect next year.
Will the leader(s) be doing the right things or putting their followers in harm's way? As you can see, I've got nothing but questions for this episode so hopefully I get at least a few answers out of it. Whatever answers befall us, it's looking like this episode is going to be a roller coaster ride of action and excitement. I think we can also expect "Follow The Leader" to set a number of things up for the Season 5 finale, which is just a week away!
Come back next week and see if you have followed the points leader (sorry- couldn't help myself!) to great gains in the LFL and positioned yourself to take the grand prize!
Once again, here is the official LFL rule book. Happy reading!
