It was 2008 and you never know what kind of showLostwould be.
The scope felt bigger.
Typical episode logline, Ben wakes up in the Sahara, flies to Iraq, then flies to London.
Credit: ABC
An embarrassment of riches, is what Im saying, and then theres The Constant.
Ten years ago, on Feb. 28, 2008,Lostaired the fifth episode of the fourth season.
Its about a man unstuck in time, trapped in confusing calculus, searching for true romance.
Revisiting The Constant on its own can be strange.
But context collapse helps with The Constant.
After all, the story of the episodeiscontext collapse.
The helicopter flies through a lightning storm, and now suddenly Desmonds in the past.
AndthenDesmonds back in the present, the helicopter landing on a ship in the ocean.
Is this why The Constant lives more in memory than so many otherLostepisodes?
(Penny is, of course, named after the patient wife fromThe Odyssey.)
Desmonds stories always ran up against the borderlands of mythology, nefarious lingering Big Bads and mad science.
But those borderlands were distant from anyone youd call a Main Character OnLost.
Rewatching The Constant this week, it struck me how quiet the episode is.
Amnesiac Desmond and Sayid (Naveen Andrews) are on a ship full of people they cant trust.
Daniel is revealing the secrets of the time continuum in his trademark low-gravel voice.
In other episodes, flashbacks are announced with awhooshsound.
Whats still sets The Constant apart?
Past-Desmond flees to Oxford, where Past-Daniel explains how time-travel sickness works.
The problem, see, is that Present-Desmond is in a strange place with nothing around him he recognizes.
He needs to findsomethingon that Freighter to connect his past to his present orsomeone.
Theres this big idea of Desmond that sets him apart from so many otherLostcharacters.
For Desmond, the pastisthe goal.
Odysseus is the clear comparison here, but theres something Full Gatsby in Desmonds outline.
He knows his dream is already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity, etc.
Desmonds story isnt as tragic as Gatsbys.
That continuity is Penny.
So she is a person but also a token, a remembrance of lost time.
Theres a trickier version of whatLostbecame where we see Pennys journey as clearly as Desmonds.
So is Desmonds journey romantic, or narcissistic?
Is he seeking Penny or the man he waswithPenny?
No right answer, and the secret ambiguity lingers because the execution is so damned perfect.
Past-Desmond walks away from her door, looks up at the window, sees Penny shut the curtain.
And theres a Christmas tree!
Space and time collapse, and theyre together in Londonandthe Pacific, 1996 is 2004 is 2008 is 2018.
Love is the answer, and thats just science, brotha.
