The Constant

"The Constant" redirects here. For the fixed value, see Constant.

"The Constant"
Season	4
Episode	5
Airdate	February 28, 2008
Flashback	Desmond
Days	94 (off Island) / 96 (on Island)
Writer	Carlton Cuse Damon Lindelof
Director	Jack Bender
Guests	Jeff Fahey - Frank Lapidus Alan Dale - Charles Widmore Sonya Walger - Penelope Graham McTavish - sergeant Darren Keefe - Billy Edward Conery - auctioneer Marc Vann - doctor Fisher Stevens - George Minkowski Kevin Durand - Keamy Anthony Azizi - Omar
Transcript	The Constant transcript

"The Constant" is the fifth episode of Season 4 of Lost, originally broadcast on February 28, 2008. Sayid and Desmond hit some turbulence on the way to the freighter, which causes Desmond to experience some unexpected side effects.

Synopsis

Desmond is on the helicopter with Sayid and Frank, looking at a picture of Penny. Frank is flying on the same coordinates that Daniel informed him of, and Sayid becomes worried when they lead them straight into a thunderstorm. They experience some turbulence and Frank reassures Sayid that they will be OK. The turbulence becomes progressively worse and Frank struggles to remain on the correct bearing. Meanwhile, Desmond is experiencing flashes.

Desmond wakes up in a military barrack as a drill begins. His Sergeant starts to shout at him because he did not respond promptly to the wake up call. He demands an explanation and Desmond explains he was having a dream about being on a helicopter, flying over the ocean, before reaching a thunderstorm. The Sergeant comments that it was at least a military dream but still mocks Desmond. As punishment for Desmond's lack of concentration the Sergeant orders the entire regiment to get ready for the morning routine in 4 minutes, half the normal amount of time.

Desmond wakes up in present time after his flash and is noticeably disorientated. He struggles with his seatbelt and is panicking, appearing like he wants to jump out of the helicopter. When Sayid questions him and asks if he is ok it becomes apparent that Desmond does not recognise anyone on the helicopter.

The thunderstorm clears and the helicopter lands on the freighter. Keamy and Omar come running towards Frank, asking who Desmond and Sayid are and why he brought them with him. Frank tells them they are survivors from Flight 815. Desmond is distressed and starts yelling that he doesn't know Sayid and Frank. Sayid tries to calm him down, but to no avail. Keamy says he will take Desmond down to the sick bay to let their doctor take a look at him and then Sayid can see him again. Sayid grudgingly agrees. As they go to get Desmond, who is standing on the far side of the boat, he has another flash.

He is in the rain, standing while all the others in his regiment do push-ups. His sergeant ridicules him and makes the entire regiment run as a punishment for Desmond's erratic behaviour. Afterwards, Desmond speaks to one of his friends in the regiment, and tells him about his "dreams" he has been experiencing. His friend calls him crazy, but asks if there was anyone he knew in the "dream." Desmond then remembers that in the helicopter he was holding onto a photo of Penny. He then ventures to a nearby phone booth to call her. However, just as he is about to go in, another person from his regiment comes out, bumping into him, sarcastically thanking him for the extra work the sergeant made them do on the account of Desmond's disobedience. As Desmond reaches down to pick up the dropped coins, his consciousness returns to the freighter.

Keamy and Omar escort Desmond down to the sick bay, which they lock him in. Desmond panics and starts pounding on the door and screams to be let out. He hears a voice behind him saying "You have it, too." Turning, he sees a man lying on a bed, strapped to it. The man asks him if "it is happening" to Desmond as well.

Back on the beach, Jack and Juliet are worrying about the helicopter, as they haven't heard from Desmond or Sayid for a day now. Juliet notices that Charlotte and Daniel are not so worried, even though the freighter is only 40 miles away - 20 minutes of flying, and questions them about it. Against Charlotte's advice, Daniel admits that the perception of time on the Island might be different than the time experienced off the Island. He says that as long Frank uses the bearings that were given to him, the people on the helicopter should be fine. If not, there could be "side-effects".

Meanwhile, on the upper deck, Sayid is surveying the freighter. He notices a closed-circuit camera on the railing beside him. Looking up on a higher deck, he sees Keamy and Frank arguing. As Frank comes down the stairs to meet with Sayid, Sayid asks him why they left at dusk but arrived midday. Frank doesn't know. Sayid then asks for the phone, which Frank will only give him if Sayid gives him the gun. Sayid gives Frank the gun, and calls Jack.

[there is alot missing here]

Daniel begins flipping through his diary until he comes to a page that reads: "If anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume will be my constant." Presumably Daniel makes a note of this in the past at Oxford because he knows he will meet Desmond on the island in the future and anticipates problems like those experienced by Desmond and Minkowski in this episode.

Trivia

General

• This episode does not conform to the usual Flashback or Flashforward method seen on the series. Instead, Desmond is aware that he is traveling between 1996 and 2004. Desmond-centric episode Flashes Before Your Eyes diverges from the usual format in a similar way.
• Penny's phone number is 7946 0893 in London.
  • 020 7946 0893 was a Season 4 bonus clue in the Find 815 ARG (Find 815 clues/January 9)
  • Although this looks to be a UK telephone number in London, it is an unassigned number (Ofcom specifies that numbers beginning with 020 7946 0 are for drama purposes [1]).
• Penny's address is 423 Cheyne Walk in London.
  • 423 Cheyne Walk was a Season 4 bonus clue in the Find 815 ARG (Find 815 clues/January 9)
  • It is near where Desmond's photograph with Penny was taken. In addition, Widmore Industries has its offices in the same neighbourhood. ("Flashes Before Your Eyes").
  • Cheyne Walk is a famous street in London known for its famous inhabitants. Residents have included Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, George Eliot, Dante Rossetti, and Henry James (who wrote The Turn of the Screw).
• Queen's College, Department of Physics and Southfield were Season 4 bonus clues in the Find 815 ARG (Find 815 clues/January 30)
• The journal that Charles Widmore buys in the auction is the same journal referenced by Oscar Talbot in Chapter 5 of the Find 815 ARG. Talbot was working for a branch of the Widmore Corporation, and says that his employers had the journal.
• The journal's seller is named Tovar Hanso
• After the auctioning of the Black Rock Diary, some of Charles Dickens' belongings are place up for bidding.
• According to the calendar on the wall, as well as Desmond, the real-time events of this episode take place on Day 94 (Christmas Eve) when Sayid, Desmond and Frank left the island. This means that while it is Day 94 on the Freighter, it is actually Day 96 on the Island.
• Camp Millar was a season 4 bonus clue in the Find 815 ARG (Find 815 clues/January 23)
• Kevin Durand, who plays Keamy, was in the movie Smokin' Aces with Matthew Fox and Nestor Carbonell. He was also in the movie Wild Hogs with M.C. Gainey.
• In the Bible, Daniel, like Daniel Faraday, is known to have skills in interpreting dreams (Desmond tells his Sgt. that he had a dream).
• The phone that Sayid connects to the battery is a standard Lineman's Handset (looks like a Harris TS22). It is little more than a rugged corded telephone and is incapable of placing calls without a land line or sophisticated external communications equipment that can provide such a line. Connecting such a handset to a battery would have merely lit up an indicator and produced a single click sound.
• Jeremy Davies, who portrays Daniel Faraday, also portrays Tom-Tom, the main character in the movie "The Million Dollar Hotel." Tom-Tom is in love with a woman named Eloise. Likewise, Davies' character Faraday is closely linked to another Eloise: The white lab rat.
• Minkowski mentions that in the Radio Room on the ship there is a blinking light and incoming calls from Penny, very similar to what was seen in The Looking Glass communication room.

Production notes

• Ben, Claire, Hurley, Jin, Kate, Locke, Michael, Miles, Sawyer, and Sun do not appear in this episode.
• The scenes in the military camp were filmed on the slopes of Diamond Head. [2]

Recurring themes

• Desmond moves back and forth between 1996 and 2004 — 8 years apart. (The Numbers)
• Penny lives at 423 Cheyne Walk (4-23 or 42-3) (The Numbers)
• The frequency that Faraday gives Desmond is 2.342 (23, 42) (The Numbers)
• The auction lot number of the Black Rock diary is 2342. (The Numbers)
• Faraday says that while Desmond was in a catatonic state in his room at Oxford, 75 minutes had passed. Desmond perceived the same amount of time as 5 minutes. The ratio of 75:5 is equivalent to 15:1. (The Numbers)
  • At the auction, Widmore is bidder number 755, the same numbers as the time ratio. (Coincidences)
• Charlotte earned her doctorate at Oxford. Daniel taught there. (Coincidences)
• Minkowski is unable to find a constant and dies as a result. On the other hand, Desmond is able to find a constant (Penelope) and manages to avoid death. (Life and Death). Minkowski's constant, also called Minkowski's theorem, is the foundation of geometry of numbers.

Cultural references

• 755 is Hank Aarons career home run total.
• Philip K. Dick's VALIS-In the novel the main character Horselover Fat (himself a version of author Philip Dick), gets exposed to a pink laser which provides him with knowledge percieved to be from God. This 'living information' reveals details from the future. It also shows him that his currently perceived reality is a facade, that infact he is a citizen of ancient Rome. This is analogous to the pink laser that was used on Faraday's test mouse, Eloise.
• Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five-Desmond, during one of his flashbacks/time travels, speaks to someone else in the military with him. His friend's name is Billy. Billy Pilgrim is the main character in Slaughterhouse Five. The narration of the story of Billy Pilgrim begins: "Listen. Billy Pilgrim has become unstuck in time." When Desmond is with Daniel in 1996 and Daniel is about to experiment on Eloise, he says that he is going to unstick her in time. Also, the narrator of Slaughterhouse Five, Vonnegut, says that he likes to call old girlfriends late at night. Desmond calls Penelope at night. When Desmond spoke with Mrs. Hawking, she said that events are structured and that the universe will course correct. In Slaughterhouse Five, Billy Pilgrim explains that , according to the Tralfamadorians, aliens who can see the fourth dimension, time is structured and events cannot be changed (we are like bugs in amber). When asked about the end of the universe, the Tralfamadorians explain that one of their test pilots presses a button that destroys the universe. Billy asks why they cannot stop the pilot from pressing the button, and they reply that the pilot always has and always will press the button. The moment is structured that way. Desmond's purpose, according to Mrs. Hawking, is to turn the key and he cannot avoid it. The moment is structured that way. Billy Pilgrim sees the future, and even predicts his own death. Desmond predicted Charlie's death and other events on the island.
• Many elements of this episode are similar to the film Je t'aime, je t'aime (1968) by French director Alain Resnais. In the film, a man is used as part of an experiment wherein he is sent back in time repeatedly by scientists to re-experience specific moments in his life. Once he arrives in the past, he seems to have only a vague understanding of where he is or where he came from. When he returns to the future, he is comatose. In the film, they first experiment on mice, like Farraday. There are a number of instance in the film where, in the man's past, the mice from the future appear where they should not be. One of these places is on a beach. Resnais' films often deal with the relationship between time and memory.
• How to Disappear Completely: When Desmond lands on the freighter, he says "I'm not here; this isn't happening". These are the lyrics of the chorus of the fourth song from Radiohead's fourth album, Kid A.
• All Good Things: The series finale of Star Trek The Next Generation features Captain Picard in three different timelines. He becomes unstuck in time, like Desmond and Billy Pilgrim. As he bounces back and forth, he becomes aware of a temporal anomaly in all three timelines. In essence, this anomaly is The Constant. Only when he identifies the constant and directly contacts it is he able to stay in one timeline, ignorant of his future. Damon Lindelof confirmed that "All Good Things" was a big influence in writing "The Constant" [here.]
• La Jetée by Chris Marker (1962). After a nuclear holocaust, scientists send an unnamed protagonist into the past (and later, the future) through experiments designed to expose human consciousness to "time waves." Only those of a stable mental disposition can successfully receive these waves and travel through time without going mad. The main character, referred to as the Man, falls in love with a Woman in the past, but his decision to remain with her rather than stay in the present results in his own death (an event he had witnessed as a child.) The essayist film dealing with time and memory served as the basis for Terry Gilliam's Twelve Monkeys and was referred to in Blade Runner when the photo of Rachel's mother briefly animates.

Literary techniques

• Minkowski says he can't get back. (Regularly spoken phrases)

Episode references

• Frank is told by Daniel to follow a bearing of 305, which is a Northwest direction. Eko's stick bore the inscription "Lift up your eyes and look north - John 3:05". ("I Do")
• Daniel asks if Desmond had recently been exposed to high levels of radiation or electromagnetism. ("Live Together, Die Alone, Part 1")("Flashes Before Your Eyes")

Unanswered questions

Unanswered questions
Do not answer the questions here. Keep the questions open-ended and neutral: do not suggest an answer. More details...

For fan theories about these unanswered questions, see: The Constant/Theories

• What is contained within the journal of the Black Rock's captain?
• Had Daniel remembered Desmond when he first met him on the island?
• Why were the Freighter people under strict orders to not answer Penelope's call?
• Why are they so angry that Frank brought people back to the boat?
• How does Penny know about the island?
• Who sabotaged the radio room?
• Who opened the sick bay door?
• Why could Minkowski remember events that happened before he became "unstuck" in time, though Desmond could not?
• What do the different color Xs on the calendar represent?
• What does Penny say she has been researching when the phone breaks up?
• Who is the capitan of the Freighter?
• Locke and Desmond both experienced the explosion of the Hatch, exposing them to the electromagnetic anomoly. Why doesn't Locke experience flash-forwards like Desmond?
• If Locke gets off the island, will he experience the same "unstuck in time" phenomenon as Desmond?
• If the calendar indicates Day 94 on the boat while it's Day 96 on the Island, why do neither Sayid nor Desmond seem to be alarmed by it?

External links

• ABC Primetime Grid
• ABC Medianet Press Release Bundle (02/11/08): PDF