LOST: Episode 4.05 (Recap)

The Constant

Desmond, Sayid and Frank are flying over the ocean in the helicopter, on the way to the freighter. Desmond pulls the Penny photo out of his pocket and he and Sayid look at it together. Desmond notes that they are flying directly into some seriously frightening storm clouds. Frank tells him to stop being a front-seat flyer as he tries to keep the helicopter on course.

As the helicopter flies through the storm and begins to veer off course, Desmond starts to seriously wig out. Suddenly, *POP*, he flashes to his past. He's in the army again and his commander is rousing the entire barracks in the morning. Except this isn't a normal flashback. Desmond is really there. He tells his commander that he was having a really vivid dream about flying in a helicopter. And speaking of wigging out, this time he has a good short hair wig.

Then *POP*, he's back in the helicopter, but it's the consciousness from his past that has returned and he pretty much flips out. He doesn't know Sayid or Frank and he wants to know what the BLOODY HELL IS GOING ON? He finds the crumpled photo of him and Penny in his pocket and he calms down when he recognizes Penny. Frank lands the chopper on the deck of the freighter.

When they disembark from the helicopter, they're approached by two men (I don't know their names, so let's call them Mutt and Jeff - Mutt's the big one and Jeff's the small one) who ask Frank who Desmond and Sayid are; Frank tells them they're survivors of Flight 815 and Mutt tells him he shouldn't have brought them to the boat. Right on cue, Desmond starts freaking out again, and despite Sayid's objections, Mutt and Jeff take Des down to Sick Bay. On the way, *POP* Desmond jumps back to the army base again, in the middle of yard excerises or calisthenics or whatever they call them in the army. He's very disoriented and when he remembers that he had a photo of Penny in the "dream", he decides to call her and see if she knows what's happening to him.

*POP* Desmond's back on the freighter, in Sick Bay. Mutt and Jeff leave, locking the door behind them. Desmond freaks out. Poor Desmond. Then he hears a voice coming from the other side of the room. It's a man, Fisher Stevens, strapped to a hospital bed and not looking all that healthy, and he asks Desmond if "It's" happening to him, too.

On the beach, Jack and Juliet are with Daniel and Charlotte. Jack is worried about what happened to Sayid and Desmond on the helicopter, while Juliet notices that Daniel and Charlotte don't seem to be worried at all that it's taken the helicopter more than a day to make a 20 minute trip. Daniel says that there's no need to worry because their perception of time on the island is different than the way it moves off-island, and it actually hasn't taken as long as they think for the helicopter to get to the freighter. As long as Frank sticks to the heading he was given, he says, they will be fine. Otherwise, there may be side-effects. Charlotte gives Daniel the evil eye and tells him to shut his yap.

On the boat, Sayid gives his gun to Frank in exchange for use of the sat phone. He calls Jack and tells him that they have made it to the freighter, but Desmond has lost his marbles on the way and doesn't remember anything. They put the phone on speaker and Daniel asks if Desmond was ever exposed to radiation or electromagnetism (hello!). Jack and Juliet both have a "I'm sorry, were you talking to me?" look on their faces. Daniel says that sometimes people coming and going from the island can get "confused", but it's not amnesia.

Sick Bay. Dr. Ecklie comes in and gives Fisher Stevens a sedative and then examines Desmond by shining a pen light in his eyes. *POP* Desmond flashes back to the army base. He calls Penny from a phone booth. Penny is still angry at him for leaving her and joining the army and tells him that she's moving to another house and to not call her anymore.

*POP* We're back in Sick Bay. Sayid and Frank come in and Dr. Ecklie hits the alarm. Sayid gives the sat phone to Desmond so he can talk to Daniel. Daniel asks him what year it is. Desmond says it's 1996. Daniel says yeah, right, Okaaayyy. Where are you now? Desmond says he's at his army base and Daniel tells him that the next time he pops back to 1996 he needs to get on a train and go to Queens College Physics Department at Oxford, where he'll find Daniel teaching. He tells Desmond to tell him to set the machine at 2.342 and use 11 megahertz. He also gives him a secret phrase, just in case 1996 Daniel doesn't believe him. Just then Mutt and Jeff enter Sick Bay and *POP*

1996. Desmond finds Daniel at Oxford. When Daniel doesn't believe his story about time-jumping, he gives him the secret phrase: "I know about Eloise." Daniel takes Desmond to his college office where he introduces him to Eloise, a rat that he's been doing time travel experiments on. He explains to Desmond that he (Daniel) has been exposed to excessive amounts of radiation while running these experiments and he says that the future cannot be changed.. And when asked if Future Daniel remembers this meeting, Desmond replies no. Daniel sets the machine according to his future self's instructions and it's all very mad-scientist-ish and I love it. He activates it and some light glows on Eloise and she starts running through a maze and finishes it without a problem. Daniel is ecstatic because he hasn't taught her how to run the maze. YET. He was planning on showing her in an hour. Daniel sent her consciousness to the future, where she learned the run the maze, and then she came back.

*POP* Sick Bay. Mutt and Jeff take Frank to see the Captain, leaving Desmond and Sayid there. Desmond shines the pen light in his eyes, desperate to return to 1996 when Fisher Stevens wakes up. He tells them he is George Minkowski the former communications guy on the boat. Before "it" started happening to him, he says, there was a call that came in to the boat on a regular basis that his employers told him never to answer. The call was from Penny Widmore.

*POP 1996. Daniel tells Desmond that he was in the future for 75 minutes. Eloise has died of a brain aneurysm, as a result of the time travel. Daniel says that every time Desmond jumps it will become more difficult for him, until he is unable to tell the difference between the present and the past, and he could die like Eloise, unless he finds his "constant": something from his present and his past that he deeply cares about. Time to call Penny! Unfortunately, her number's been disconnected.

*POP* Sick Bay, 2004. Desmond tells Sayid that he has to call Penny. Minkowski says that someone sabotaged the comm room a couple of days ago, but he will show them where it is. Fortunately, someone left the Sick Bay door open. Minkowski, whose nose has started to bleed, remarks that they must have a friend on the boat.

*POP* 1996. Desmond arrives at an auction house. Charles Widmore bids on and wins the First Mate's log from the Black Rock slave ship (cost: 380,000 pounds). Desmond approaches him and like Fonzie, Widmore shows him to his office, the men's room. Desmond asks for Penny's new address and after hurling a few insults at Desmond he finally gives it to him. Widmore leaves and

*POP* we're back in the radio room on the boat. Sayid begins making repairs to the sabotaged equipment while Minkowski gets worse. He explains that he began to have problems when he tried to take a boat to the island. As he talks to Desmond he starts to bleed from his eyes and nose and eventually dies. Desmond sees a wall calendar that says it's December 24, 2004. And then he notices his nose is bleeding.

*POP* 1996. Desmond goes to Penny's flat. She is clearly not happy to see him but he pleads with her to please give him her phone number. He says he knows it sounds crazy, but she has to trust him: He will not call her again until December 24, 2004. He pleads with her. Oh, give him the number, Penny!! She relents and he writes it on his hand and

*POP* Radio room, 2004. The number's not on his hand anymore but he remembers it and Sayid has fixed the phone. It will only work for a short while on the battery. Desmond dials the number and it takes FOREVER, but Penny finally answers the phone, and the hearts of LOST viewers all over the world want to burst right out of their chests. I am too verklempt to describe it and do it justice, so here, just watch and you'll see what I mean:



Desmond has found his constant and he's now "Perfect."

On the beach, Daniel sits and opens his old journal. He finds a hand-written not on one of the pages: "If anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume will be my constant." Daniel smiles.

I still want that on a t-shirt.