Ellie with gun in 5x03 Jughead
Ellie with gun in 5x14 The Variable
Among the many pleasures of being a LOST fan, one of the best is coming up with theories and predictions, and then looking back later, after the show has revealed the answers, to see how well you did.
Three months ago, a few days after Jughead, the third episode of the season, aired, I posted some predictions on my original LOST blog (I won’t link to that blog, not after the scoundrels at Today.com locked me out, but you could always find it yourself if you wanted to), about what I called Daniel Faraday’s tangled family tree. Now, many of the questions that were raised in Jughead have finally been answered in The Variable.
How did I do? Pretty good, I think!
Here are the original predictions, made on January 31:
1. Ellie, the woman with the gun, is Faraday’s mother.
She is also a younger version of Ms. Hawking. Right before Jughead aired, during the rerun of The Lie, one of the little pop-up hints said that Ms. Hawking’s first name was Eloise. (I guess you could call that a spoiler from the LOST team itself.)
Ellie could easily be a diminutive form of Eloise.
Faraday’s rat was named Eloise.
Last week, Faraday told Desmond to find his mother. Then, voila, there was Ms. Hawking, who we haven’t seen in two years, back in the story. Coincidence? Unlikely.
This week, Widmore told Desmond that his mother is in Los Angeles. That would seem to nail it, as Eloise Hawking is in Los Angeles (with Ben).
Ding ding ding! All correct!
2. Charlotte could be Faraday’s sister.
Charlotte has said she was born on the Island. Ellie could be her mother.
Faraday clearly loves Charlotte, and was very upset about her having gotten time-travel sickness. Although I assumed, while watching the episode, that the love was romantic, on thinking back, there was nothing specifically romantic or sexual between them. It could easily have been sibling love.
I’ve seen a theory that Charlotte is Faraday’s daughter, but I think that the idea of Faraday fathering children in the past is too convoluted even for LOST (which is saying a lot!). So I’m going with the theory that they are brother and sister.
Bzzzt. Charlotte is (apparently!) not Faraday’s sister.
3. Charlotte (or maybe Daniel) could be the baby in the first scene of “Because You Left,” the first show of the season. Because that scene started off the season, I think it had to be significant. And it was never explained. So I’m going with the explanation that would be the most interesting, dramatically.
Bzzzt. The baby, of course, was Little Miles.
4. Widmore could be Daniel and Charlotte’s father. There’s actually no particular reason for this, except that (1) it is possible, and (2) it would be interesting. (Though Widmore did fund Faraday’s research, there are plenty of other reasons, besides paternity, that he may have done that.)
Ding ding ding ding ding! Ring those dings at half volume, though, because while Widmore is, indeed, Daniel’s father (ding ding ding ding!), he is probably not Charlotte’s.
5. So, in conclusion, this is our theoretical nuclear (no pun with H-bombs intended) family: Ellie, later to be Eloise Hawking, is dear old Mum. Widmore is Daddy dearest. Charlotte was born on the Island, but was adopted by Dr. Candle, because Mum and Dad took off. She never knew Daniel, who was born (I’m guessing) in England, until they reunited on the freighter. Daniel knew who she was, though, because he’s a time-travelin’ man.
Ding and a half ding! Correct about Daniel. Wrong about Charlotte.
Speaking of predictions, I wonder if we will ever see Charlotte again. Will something happen to change the future and undo her time-travel induced death?
Screen cap of Ellie in 5×03 Jughead is from the ABC site. Screencap from 5×14 The Variable is from Lost-Media
