Sizing up "The Variable"

HOLY FRIJOLE.

Yeah, I'm still trying to wrap my mind around a mother shooting her adult son before he's been born - and that her older self sent him back to fulfill this wonderful "destiny." Wow. Just wow. Bravo LOST writers, because even though Faraday was by far the most interesting "Freightie," that was one of the greatest deaths LOST has ever seen. Nothing could probably top Chahlie's death in season 3, but this comes very close for sure.

Things are definitely coming to a head, aren't they? Love it. With only one episode left until the finale (which is amazingly entitled, "The Incident"), where will this season end up? Will Jack, Kate, and the others (well, not "The Others"...you know what I mean) effectively change time and erase the so-called "misery" of the past three years? Will Ben, Locke, and Sun ever get out of 2007 and/or reunite with everyone else? What exactly IS this "incident" that Dr. Chang has preached about in all those Dharma videos? Why does he use so many alias names in those videos? And how did he lose his left arm? Here's a refresher:



I'm hoping that most or all of these questions will be resolved very shortly!

Another huge part of the episode: Widmore is Faraday's dad! I knew it. Loved that scene between Ms. Hawking (<3) and Charles. They obviously have a lengthy history between them going back to the island. I hope we get to see more of that in the next (...final...*tear*) season. A couple episodes ago when Widmore was exiled from this island, we learned from Ben that Charles had fathered a child with a non-Other. At the time we weren't sure if this was Daniel or Penny. But since he and Other "Ellie" obviously hooked up at some point, that would naturally imply that Penny is this "unclean" child. So...who's Penny's mom then? Is it even important to the story? Who knows. Have we even met any other Dharma women aside from Amy? I don't think so...

All in all, this was definitely a huge improvement from last time's slower-paced Miles-centric episode. A great 100th episode! Hard to believe we only have 20ish left before that final fade to a black screen with those four white letters...

LOST.