As we close in on the next episode of Lost, the burning question on the minds of most fans is, “Daniel Faraday, dead or alive?”.
If Daniel’s predictions about detonating the bomb to rid the energy were correct, then is dead really dead? If the Oceanic flight was to never have crashed on the island and instead reached it’s destination what would this in turn mean for our Losties, especially the ones who died on the island, and even further down the chain, the people who died as a result of the events following the crash? Some of the most memorable ones to note are Mr.Friendly, Mikhail, Alex, Naomi, Charlotte and now of course, our beloved Daniel. Does this mean at some point, if Kate and Jack can figure out Daniel’s plan and carry it off in the four hours Daniel predicts they have left before the ‘accident’, we may just possibly one day see a return to normality for every character?
Anyway, enough of tangents for me, the purpose of this post is to look back over Daniel’s time on the show so far, whilst we wait for this week to see if dead is REALLY dead or not!
Daniel Faraday arrived on Kahana, and then parachuted onto the island from the helicopter. We now know he is most likely the child of Eloise and Charles, and an avid space-time physicist and lecturer (professor).
EARLY LIFE
Daniel grew up not knowing who is father was, and living with his mother Eloise Hawking, whom we know was an other and hell bent on making sure Daniel lived out his destiny, and at no cost too high. As a kid he was a keen piano player, but his mother wanted this to stop, and for him to focus on his ‘skills’. The next stage of life we saw Daniel at was his graduation day from Oxford, it was during this scene we also saw that Theresa was Daniel’s old girlfriend and also to be noted, was Eloise’s hostility towards her and someone she saw as stopping Daniel fulfilling his destiny.
CAREER
We recently learned that the person who invested in Daniel and his experiments and career was none other than his father, Charles Widmore. Daniel claimed he gave 1.5 million to his work. This came as quite a shock to his mother Eloise, who for reasons yet unknown, holds some resentment towards Widmore.
Daniel was once visited by Desmond Hume and it was during this that the notion of constants was first introduced into the storyline. We now know that Daniel believes the variables (people) are the important key to his ideas. Daniel said Desmond was his constant and under his watch, completed an experiment with his lab rat (ironically called Eloise). The experiment revolved around the rats conciousness travelling through time. Daniel would then go on to test this theory on Theresa, his assistant and we now know, girlfriend, resulting in the state we saw her in when she was lying in bed. 
Oxford were quick to discredit and disown Daniel after everything, and his next step was a move to America. Experiments now had clearly taken their toll on Daniel and he was suffering from bad memory, and a clearly nervous dispositon. During ‘The Variable’ we saw Charles visit Daniel and offer to send him the island. Widmore told Daniel of the island’s healing powers and the oppurtunity he had to carry on with his research. Clearly uneased by the footage of the apparent Oceanic wreck found, Widmore owned up that he had planted the wreck and after some persuasion from his mother, Daniel at some stage made the decision to go to the island.
ON ISLAND
Daniel arrived during season 4 and instead of talked endlessly about everything he has done, I have picked a few videos highlighting some of his best moments on the island (hopefully so far, but most likely all together).
ARRIVING
DESMOND HUME WILL BE MY CONSTANT
FINDING THE TEMPEST
DANIEL’S EXPERIMENT
DANIEL AND CHARLOTTE
DANIEL MEETS LITTLE CHARLOTTE
DANIEL SHOT
Tags: Daniel Faraday, lost season 5, The Variable
30 Responses to “R.I.P. Daniel Faraday?”
Leave a Reply
This site utilizes the Global Avatar standard developed by Gravatar. To set your avatar, click on the logo to the left.Return To Top
sattellite tv special offers
Doesn’t Faraday help Dr. Candle make the video just prior to the incident? Has that happened? So is he really dead? Just a thought.
I think I read in an interview somewhere that the comic-con video was intended to be promotional and is not canon.
^^^ What he said.
GREAT article, Tri!!
You asked if those who have died, would still be dead. I hope so. If the numbers were never entered, never spoken, never heard. Hurly would never have used them to win the lottery and Tricia Tanaka would still be alive today! I hope Jack and Kate fail.
I don’t think it matters if they fail or succeed. In either case, island history is going to occur just as it always did. No matte what is done or not done, the incident will happen, just as it always did. Ironically, Daniel’s defection from the “what ever happened, happened” camp and his attempt to change the events, will actually be the cause of the incident and start the chain of events that leads the the crash of Oceanic 815. At least that’s what I think ( and hope ).
Hey, just listened to the new Podcast, Carlton pretty much pounds the nail in Faraday’s coffin. I know you should take thier comments with a grain of salt, but he seemed serious about this.
where else can you go to listen to the damen and carlton podcast if it’s not on this site?
I predict everyone will die this season. EVERYONE!!!! and Season 6 will be a repeat of these events with some changes. We will learn what variables can change our constants in season 6!!! aggghh LOST!!!
Everybody dying.. dude, awesome scenario! The only other one able to match it is the final scene of S6 being the 815 landing in LA on Sept 22nd 2004..
“The only other one able to match it is the final scene of S6 being the 815 landing in LA on Sept 22nd 2004.”
Personally, I think that would be the worst possible ending the show could have. It would un-do everything this series and its characters have undergone.
Ouch! I made a mistake: i was meaning Season FIVE not six!.. so there would still be time to explain it, wouldn’t there?
I guess it would and could be kind of interesting season finale but it would piss so many fans off. Besides, most of the characters didn’t have great things to go home or to L.A. for. Jack would have to go to a funeral, Kate goes to prison for life, Charlie will over-dose on heroine because he was always meant to die, Locke will be a cripple and lack any sort of specialness, Sawyer will never get to kill Locke’s daddy the real Swayer, Claire’s baby will still be raised by another, Hurley will continue to be cursed and Niki and Paulo will get to trade in all those dang diamonds. That would be a sucky season 6 if you ask me.
“Daniel grew up not knowing who is father was…”
I’m not convinced of that yet. Heaven only knows what Eloise Hawking told Daniel to keep him on his chosen path. Especially considering Daniel’s last name is Faraday.
oo yea i agree, when i wrote this article i was writing from a what we know so far perspective, but yea, he may have knew!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Faraday
Michael Faraday – Old time scientist whose heavily eduacated in the elcromagnetic field.
Should key into how Daniel “may” have been given his last name. Makes a little sense if the writers went this way seeing they are the same science gurus
I still cannot believe it. Far cannot be dead.. The most interesting and useful character in the show.. one of the best and most famous actors! Really gone?!
How come the guy playing Sayid – who acts just like Vincent (the dog) – is still running this show? Un-be-lie-va-ble.
Well, dear myself Jangras, it seems like you have to accept it, dude:
http://www.sl-lost.com/2009/04/30/damon-carlton-comment-losts-latest-casualty/
Faradeath is true.
Sorry, man.
It’s ok. Very nice of you.
“the guy playing Sayid – who acts just like Vincent (the dog)”
O_O ????
Has your house ben taken by the Hostiles? Are they making you type that nonsense? If so, enter 7-7.
No man, My house is fine! ;>
I’m not mother language so I tend to export my own language’s “way-of-saying” and this is sometimes a problem.
Btw, don’t you agree that the actor playing Sayid is one of the worst actors ever? Vincent is definitely a better actor, dude.
Reposting this comment I made on Fishbiscuit’s recap because I would really like to see what other people think and it seems appropriate to this discussion as well:
I had almost forgotten that “Desmond is my constant” could now not be addressed – unless that’s the point, and it will be.
Just wild speculation and no clear idea on how it could possibly make any difference, but who knows where in his notebook it said that? Maybe the notebook isn’t even in any kind of chronological order? Maybe it’s something like all that business with the compass?
My main point is it said “If anything goes wrong”. This could refer to the crazy experiments he was about to undertake, the poison gas shutoff mission, or the fact that he was coming to the island at all, but maybe it means that Daniel has a plan, and if whatever happens includes him dying, he has a way to make it unhappen. Or not happen. Or something.
I also think it’s possible that the Desmond/Penny/Hawking hospital side story was included may be significant. I get that Hawking was important to the episode, but why do we need to even see Desmond if he’s not doing anything but recovering from a gunshot wound?
And finally, I think it would bring a nice circularity to the storytelling that has been lacking a bit from this season. Desmond, though unable to save Charlie in season 3, gets a chance to save Daniel this season.
This may all just be wishful thinking, but maybe there’s something to it. Thoughts?
I assumed the pay off for that was Daniel meeting Desmond at the hatch. Daniel never got a bloody nose because he met his constant.
maybe so, but that seems a rather weak payoff. and if you believe his theory (probably true) that a person’s time on the island affects how quickly their brain starts to melt from time travel, he was the last of their little group to show up. unlike miles and charlotte who were born there, juliet who had three years on the 815ers, etc.
i just realized that although we never saw kid daniel on the island he might have been born there as well. sorry!!
“We recently learned that the person who invested in Daniel and his experiments and career was none other than his father, Charles Widmore. Daniel claimed he gave 1.5 million to his work. This came as quite a shock to his mother Eloise, who for reasons yet unknown, holds some resentment towards Widmore.”
I would think that the reason Eloise holds some resentment towards Widmore is his fathering a child (Penelope) by a woman off the island while he was living with Eloise and fathering Daniel on the island. Eloise was probably very involved (along with Ben) in booting Widmore off the island.
yea i agree, but as it is yet unconfirmed it was just a guess. but im guessing there are prob other reasons too
She resents Widmore because Widmore is the one who insists that Eloise push their son to go back in time to the Island where a younger Eloise will unknowingly shoot and kill her own son. Present-day Eloise knows she has killed Daniel in her past. She knows what she is setting Daniel up for. Widmore has somehow convinced her that this must happen that is why she hates Widmore.
I forgot to add a big thank you to triangulated for pulling and posting those videos of Daniel. A very nice tribute to him, and very helpful for the rest of us.
no problem i love dan’s character so wanted to put together some stuff about him and his story, not much involved theory wise here but sometimes its nice too look over a characters history! thanks for the appreciation jacy!!!!
I agree that the “If anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume will be my constant” story thread is still as loose as an old french whore…. (pardon me, thats all I could think of cruising the internet this late at night… I digress…) Is it too much to ask for some clarity here?
Also, it is times like these that I curse myself for reading darkufo and docarzt and spoiling the bullkarp out of myself for these episodes because if this was the “Fairwell to one of Lost’s Darlings of a Charlie-calibre) then I am feeling thoroughly cheated. Charlie got a whole episode PRE-”Through the Looking Glass.” Granted, I would feel cheated whether I’d heard that rumor or not… for if this is truly the end of Daniel Faraday on Lost than I would deem that end almost as abrupt and criminal as Mr. Eko’s. I never really cared for Libby or Ana Lucia, but Eko just felt intrinsic to this story and poof, they ended him… By my mind I always felt like Eko’s story was still in progress, the island couldn’t let him die because he ‘still had work to do’ so to speak and let’s face it, he was by far the most intriguing and vital member of the Tailies.
Now I’m feeling the nausea of deja vu bubbling up as it seems season 4′s infusion of characters and storylines is diminishing similarly. Daniel is still to integral to this story to merely be kicked aside like this. And why is Desmond Hume his constant? When did he require a constant? The Variable was not a character death episode. I found it more shocking than Sayid offing lil Ben, because Daniel was just getting going. Stop me if I’m utterly wrong, but c’mon…
And furthermore, Can someone answer this for me… Did Desmond lose the ability to shift his consciousness in time the moment he found his constant? Are his days of shifting over? I always thought after the constant that Desmond would be this prescient wild card in the mix who could more or less travel in the 4th dimension… and that doesn’t seem to be the case?