I have a new theory; not so much a theory but an articulation of the events of Season 5 in a way that suggests that Daniel Faraday mislead the Enter-77 crew intentionally, not out of maliciousness, but as an effort to make sure they do what they're supposed to.

0) (To start at the start) In 1954 Daniel Faraday tells Eloise Hawking to bury the bomb. Eloise remembers this in 1977 and recounts the story to Jack.

1) In 1977 Daniel Faraday tells Pierre Chang that Miles is his son and that the Island must be evacuated. When Miles asks him what the hell he's doing he replies "I'm just making sure your father does what he's supposed to".

2) He also tells Charlotte she will have to leave the Island and if she doesn't she will die. "I tried to avoid telling you this, I didn't think I could change things... but maybe I can". Charlotte recalled their conversation just before her death and quite-some-time before Daniel's 'attempt to change things'.

3) He then walks in to The Others camp to ASK FOR THE BOMB and is shot by his mother... who lived her whole life knowing she would shoot him because it already happened to her.

Now the fact that he ASKED FOR THE BOMB just before he died - and the fact that we know through Eloise Hawking that he ALWAYS died in 1977 - means that you CAN'T change the future/past. Theres no such thing as THE VARIABLE. Whatever happened, did - in fact - happen.

Which raises an interesting point; since Faraday's mantra through Season 5 was "Whatever Happened, Happened", why did he suddenly change his tune towards free-will and future-altering? There really is only a couple of choices... maybe he discovered some bizzare electro-atomic energy in Ann Arbour, maybe he discovered the truth about the losties causing the incident, but whatever the reason, he LIED to us. You can't change the past and he never thought for a second that you could. He's way too clever for that.

So why did he tell Jack you could?
He was just making sure he did what he was supposed to do.

I thank you.

i also think he was lying about the variables, he's just making sure everyone is in place and jack goes for the bomb!

0) Faraday doesn't seem to know on forehand he's gonna deal with an atomic bomb. It seems he makes the plan to portray himself as a scientist coming for the bomb on the spot.

1) I think the only thing at that time he knew from the future was what charlotte told him about the "scary man telling us to get off the island". When Charlotte just died he mumbled "I'm not gonna tell her". That might suggest that he originally planned to (in general do things he is "supposed to"). The fact that he did and asked Pierre Chang doesn't necessarily mean it was his purpose. I think he had no idea about the future, I don't think leaving Charlotte on the island at time of the incident was a risk he was going to take, even if it would be an alteration of Charlotte's course.

2) Like 1), I think Faraday hopes to alter the future AND have charlotte evacuated while trying so.

3) I'm not sure if Faraday knew he was going to die he would make sure he was going to die. But,.....he could have figured out that since charlotte DID return to the island, the future faraday version of himself that told the "old" charlotte years ago apparently didnt succeed in making sure she didnt before she got on widmore's ship in her late thirties. In fact he knew that he would never see her again, as she only remembers him from her childhood. This could have been a clue to faraday himself about his own future fate.


Maybe I added some interpretation to your post that isn't there. Are you saying Faraday has knowledge of the future and therefor some reason (not) to change the future? Or are you saying Faraday has pretty close to zero knowledge of the future but to some point he knows not to even try altering future (experience with experiments?), so the "making sure things happen the way they supposed to happen" is more a choice based on wisdom than knowledge of facts? In that case you are right, but then there is no deeper plan or meaning, so you must suppose Faraday has knowledge of the future on these three points. You also claim his statements to be misleading, so you suggest he has secret plans and agenda's. I doubt that, but I think you are right that he probably knows a few little things, I'm sure his mother has slipped her tongue a few times al those years.

You raise an interesting point though, we need episodes that flashback to faradays original experiments and his relation with his mother and father (widmore).

So why do you think Faraday makes sure everyone does what (s)he is supposed to do, while trying to alter future himself? Maybe the answer is simply in that question.....making sure noone can interfere with the way he wants to change future. That would explain why in general he's making sure everyone does as supposed to, untill indeed at ann arbor it took him three years to come up with the idea of 1+1; use the hydrogen bomb to destroy the EM "leak" so that no EM-buildup-flushing buttonversion of the swan has to be built, or even better, kill radzinsky rightaway. That's how I interpreted his plan he told Jack of how to get them to land safely in LA. Question is, do you think he has a deeper plan than just making sure the losties land safely in LA while not having a clue where he himself would wind up after the h-bomb accelerated incident, were he still alive? It's strange it appears he worried from 74-77 about the fate of the losties without wondering how/when/where he would end up himself. Of all character's purposes-in-life daniel's is probably the most loopy and questionable, in that you raise an interesting point. Maybe Faraday is the perfect example of someone without free will (puppet of his mother and father like john). Maybe he did know he was going to die all his life after all and we will get that at some point in a flashback.

well, thanks balack, the faraday ep of season 5 was the ep that really needed review now.

"Why did you come back?" Miles asks at the docks; Dan shows the dharma introductee welcome photo of that year. I assume Faraday was working off-island to create the Lamppost station (created by a "very clever fellow") working officially for dharma untill the Weekly Dharma paper showed Jack and his friends among the newest recruits.

He also found out more about how his mother tells everyone how things they should do is "destiny".
The way he asks Jack about his mother getting them on the plane is proof enough to me Faraday found out definitively that his mother has had knowledge of the future. Whether he really thinks she's just "wrong" I don't know.

Then, when Miles brings Faraday to the Orchid construction site "waiting for something", Chang arrives and Faraday says "right on time".....like besides the accident, he knew he would meet Chang at the Orchid "about six hours before the accident at the Swan station where the energy is 30.000 times more powerfull than at the Orchid".

So, he didn't know of the incident or the island at all before he left,........did Faraday found out everything he ever learned from his own notebook? Or did he find out about the incident (which is future from 74) with the lamppost? You are right that something there made him change his mind about changing the future.

Maybe, here it comes, he saw a future without jack, hurley and kate coming back and detonate a nuclear core. When he saw the dharma introduction photo, THAT was proof to him future can be altered. That would be why Faraday knew the "bomb" would work. Jack then does alter the future.

Yupyup haleluja that must be it Thanks Balock. seriously, how did Faraday find out about the upcoming incident....or have I forgotten yet another scene?

Hehe, no of course it was all about the photo and the retrogadely injected task Faraday gave to Desmond. The photo is the reason he started believing history can be altered.

I just watched Eloise apologizing to Penelope after Ben shot him. She said "For the very first time since long time I don't know what is going to happen". Faraday altered the future when he spoke to "his constant" and the dharma photo was possible proof that he succeeded. Desmond originally would not have been in LA and wouldn't have been shot. Faraday proved history can be altered and thus there was no H-bomb core originally.

Which, to conclude, brings me back to Faraday seriously meaning what he tells Jack, to stop the chain of events starting with the incident leading to the crash of 815, Widmore's boat.

Leaves the question where Faraday found out about the "chain of events" if he knew nothing about the island before he went brainfried and didn't get better before he got "healed" by arriving on the island. How did he do it?

i think you guys have over thought this. I think faraday was trying to change things, i think he really believed what he told jack, didn't know he was going to die, and thaats why he told charlotte what he did, if he didn't honestly think that his actions would have effect then why would he act at all?

The reason that eloise said that she didn't know what was going to happen next, is because she realized after the oceanic 6 got back to the island that the events she remembered had been set in motion. Thats how i see it.

Now because of this discussion, you've actually got me thinking that both eloise and Widmore are on the side of blackshirt and not jacob. the others who were on jacobs side told miles he was on the wrong side working for widmore. Widmore wanted locke back on the island so the right side would win. I think he meant blackshirt. Maybe they can get back at the others, or get back to the island once jacob is gone. sorry this is off topic. Just occurred to me.

Things were going fine until Faraday got killed. Either Faraday knew he was to die there or he didnt.

If he did know he was to die there, then him dying had to play a critical role in his plan to save Charlotte. Up to that point, Jack and Kate knew they were going to retrieve the bomb to change the future. Faraday knew that even if he wasnt there to tell them how to do it, they can find out by reading his journal. So even if he died, his plan could still move foward. But that still doesnt account for why he let himself die. It had to do with Eloise changing her path as the result of her killing her son. Changing it so she now would move Faradays plan foward.

If Faraday walked into that camp and calmly explained who he was, showing his mother her handwriting in his journal as proof, it might not of convinced her to detonate the bomb to change the future. Because at that point why would she need to change the future. Only after realizing that she killed her son, would she help Jack and Kate change the future by detonating the bomb.

Faraday needed his mother, who was Leader of the others at that time, to help Jack detonate the bomb. He knew the only way to do that was for him to get killed at the camp.
He needed to save chalotte and knew if his plan worked that he would still be alive because the future would change.

He definitely figured out all of this when he was away at Ann Arbour. THis will be revealed in the last season no doubt.

Maybe the reason Faraday is messed up before he goes to the Island is a result of the bomb going off and him being flashed back to before he went to Island. But that would be the alternate future and be really weird and confusing

not impossible. look at what happened with locke. LOST does do crazy stories. BUt i don't believe that's the way its going down. I think it seemed pretty obvious in the episode that faraday didn't know he would die, and both eloise hawking and widmore did know, but let it happen. I say this because of what eloise told desmond in the jewelery shop. she said that he could not change the future and trying to was futile, it would happen anyway. i think eloise tried to save her son from dying at her hands but knew it was impossible.

I do not think farady changed anything in the past, and i do not believe he knew he would die.

At the camp where faraday died, eloise and widmore didnt know he was going to die. They didnt even know that he was their son until Daniel told them. They also didnt know that you cant change the future. The old eloise knew this but not her in the past.

I really do think he knew he had to die. This explains his aggressive nature when entering the camp...with a gun demanding the bomb or ELSE.

Sorry, I don't agree. faraday seems surprised when he dies. the way the episode plays out, there's no indication he knew he was going to die. I never said young versions of hawking and widmore knew it was their son, how could they? the old versions knew because they lived it. they knew faraday would go to the island go back in time, and eloise would shoot him. But she never told him that, she told him, that no matter what happens she loves him. indicating that she knows something bad will happen to him but wants him to know its not because she doesn't care.

no one has ever expainled why they are so aggressive on the island they just are. From miles to jack to ben to locke. people on the island are mostly aggressive. to me, it doesn't follow that he knew he would die, the way the episode is structured, the way the season is doesn't support that.