S04E05: 'The Constant'

Published Sunday, Mar 2 2008, 22:00 GMT | By Ben Rawson-Jones | 2 comments
S04E05: 'The Constant'
All you need is love. A refreshing shift in Lost's tone enabled loyal viewers to have their hearts warmed by the long distance smoochfest between Desmond and his beloved Penny, after an ongoing battle to reunite. But aside from putting a tear in the eye, this episode gave us some juicy answers at long last.

Crucially, time travel is now a reality within the show for Desmond and Daniel, with the former's visions now categorically explained. Prior to the revelation at Oxford University, Desmond's jarring experiences were well captured and gave the viewer a sense of disorientation along with the protagonist. One was forced to momentarily ponder whether the whole events of Lost were actually happening in Desmond's mind back in 1996.

Fortunately this wasn't the case and some good, old-fashioned scientific explanation saved the day. Nonetheless, more tantalising questions were thrown up, with Charles Widmore's keen interest in the Black Rock ship (seen in the first season on the island) making one contemplate his level of involvement in the grand scheme of things.

Neatly counterbalancing the scientific aspect of the episode was the prevalence of emotion, with the heartache of Desmond and Penny giving way to jubilation because of that one phone call on Christmas Eve. It was like something from a Richard Curtis rom-com, but in a good way. With added time travel and dead rats.

R.I.P. Eloise - it was emotional.

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John, London, on March 5th, 2008
I'm surprised you didn't give it 5 stars. It was one of the best episodes of all time, and that's the general feeling on the DS Boards. It's been given a 9.8/10 rating on another website- the best rated episode ever from a major American television show. The 60 minutes of viewing was simply magnificent.
Paul, Manchester, on March 5th, 2008
I think you've missed the point about the Black Rock... is the main question not how a 19th century ship from which an artefact was found ended up on the island?

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