Lost: Tomorrow...not just another day

April 30, 6:38 AMLost ExaminerMolly Lemick

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Can Jack step up and become a leader again?

Rest in Peace, Daniel Faraday. We hardly knew ye. Though in your final (and spectacular) episode, we learned enough about you to last a lifetime of questions and theories. Your father is Charles Widmore (finally! I've said this for weeks, and it can finally be said with certainty!). Your mother murdered you and sent you to your death another time. You tried to save the woman you loved; the people you left behind on the island and now...well now it's in the hands of Jack and Kate.

What did you think of "The Variable"? It was strange, shocking, answered some questions but also set up the final episodes in the penultimate season. It opened up viewers to that age old question of "can and will they change the future"? Yes. We're back to that again.

First things first: not only was Faraday the son of Charles Widmore, but he was also sent to the slaughter by his own mother...who was actually the one who slaughtered him. Maybe. The last shot of the night was Faraday's eyes still open and this served as ammunition for some desperate fans to cling to Faraday still being alive. But next week it looks like Jack and Kate are on their own with only Faraday's journal to guide them. So as much as I hate it, Faraday's gone. When we saw young Eloise holding the gun, suddenly so much fell into place: why she had been so cold yet clingy to her son. What she meant when she spoke to Widmore about sacrifice. Why she nourished Daniel so much, so that he could ultimately have an important existence while he still could. Also, assuming Widmore knew Daniel would one day go back in time and be killed by Eloise, is that why he kept his distance and only supported him from afar?

So why (and how) could she let her son go off to die? In fact, she actually encouraged him. Was it because she truly believes in fate like she said to Desmond back in season 3? She said it didn't matter what she did, people meant to die would die no matter what. Or was that just her justifying her actions? Deep down she felt guilt and as though she could change what she had done, so she had to give speeches about fate and whatnot. Maybe she sent him back in part because of fate, but mainly because he was messed up due to his experiments. She cherished his mind and encouraged him to put aside distractions in order to achieve greatness, so when his mind was rendered useless, she had to send him back to be healed because...well, that's just what a good mommy does. Either way, Mrs. Hawking is having her moment of doubt in which she doesn't know what comes next. The woman who knows everything; knows what people are meant to do with their lives hasn't got a clue as to what will happen tomorrow...

...and maybe that's because the fate of tomorrow's world has yet to be determined. As Eloise left Desmond's hospital, in another time, Faraday was dying and leaving his work for Jack and Kate to complete. Perhaps the future really IS based on their next move. In one scenario they follow Faraday's plan and change the future. In another, they fail or give up and everything assumes the same path it was already on. Tomorrow could go either way, and it's up to them now.

So what will Jack and Kate do? By coming back, the Oceanic 6 ruined the perfect life Sawyer, Miles and Juliet had going. Then again, that life was never theirs to lead anyway. Jack better hurry , read that journal and hope he can remember math class, because otherwise he will allow the plane crash to happen, along with all the horrible things that came with it.

So what would happen if Jack did actually prevent the hatch from being built and therefore changing the future? What would become of the castaways stuck in the 1970s? Would they continue to live out their lives back in the day, would they travel back into their original time frame and live out the life that was meant to be, or would their reality disappear since it no longer exists? And if they would disappear, then Sun, John and Ben most definitely would too, since their 2008 would never come to pass. If 1977 would continue day to day life, what would happen if Sawyer, Juliet, Hurley and Miles were already in the sub? Would they be able to stick with the island, or would they suffer another fate?

In an article in the beginning of the season, I said that maybe the entire show might come to a close on September 22, 2004 with the crash of flight 815 in a full circle moment in which the process starts over again. But maybe the next and final season would begin with the fate of 815. In the first moments of season 6 we see what will happen to 815 based on what Jack does. It could either flash ahead to 2004 and show the plane crashing thus proving that you can't change the future. Or maybe Jack can, and we see an alternate reality in which the plane lands safely in L.A.

In his interview on The Late Show, Matthew Fox revealed that it would (of course) be a big cliffhanger and he knew what it would be which means that Jack is involved in the final scene. In order to prevent leaks, only actors featured in the scene get the script including the twist ending. Since the finale is called "The Incident", my guess is that it will end in the moment before Jack does or doesn't change the future. Either way, there are going to be casualties. Either electromagnetic energy will do it, or the Jughead could be bound to kill people.

How will the season end then? The show uses many recurring themes and repeats scenes (like Jack waking up in the jungle repeating this season just as it had happened in the Pilot episode), and I believe that the last scene this season will be a recurring moment as well. Season two is similar to this year due to the Dharma connections and use of the hatches. Season two ended with Desmond in the hatch turning the failsafe key and suddenly a blinding light turned everything white. I'm guessing that this year will end in a similar way; only this time we won't know if it is the island's energy, or Jack and his Jughead bomb. A white light and then it's over until January. I don't know how I'll survive this summer.

Do you think Jack can change the future? Faraday made a pretty good argument about Variables being able to have an affect, and why would the writers put in that thought if they didn't intend to use it? Then again, we've witnessed human variables as being able to change the way things come about, but not the actual events that occurred. But then again, maybe this was their fate all along. They aren't going to change things, they will simply set things on the right course. The 815er's lives were connected through a whole six degrees thing, and the island really seemed to beckon them for some purpose. I have faith in Jack, even if he did screw up Sawyer and Juliet's happy home.

Next time, we'll talk about what would happen in an alternate future changed by Jack, and what that means for our characters. So go forth and mourn Daniel Faraday, who helped make the strange seem feasible at least. Cheers.