“I can make time.” So said the pint-sized piano prodigy version of LOST‘s quirky quantum physicist Daniel Faraday in The Variable,
his only truly centric episode. Four short words with multiple
meanings. They remind me both of his desire to balance scientific
achievement with artistic pursuits and, later, romance, and they also
bring to mind his experiments with temporal displacement and his efforts
to change the course of time in order to alter the fate of someone he
loves.
Daniel Faraday was the first really major new character
introduced in the fourth season. He made a bumpy, parachute-assisted
landing on the Island and yanked off his helmet, asking, through a
rain-drenched haze, “Are you Jack?” He bore a slight resemblance to
Charlie - and like Charlie, he possessed considerable musical talent,
though we wouldn’t discover that until much later.
My almost
immediate thought was that I wanted to trust him; in the next episode,
we glimpsed him in the recent past, bewilderedly bawling his eyes out
over footage of the found Oceanic 815 wreckage. I thought, “Surely a guy
with that depth of empathy can’t be evil.” And everything about him
seemed so endearing. And yet we were meant to believe the freighter was
bad news, and by extension, everyone on it. At this stage of the game,
I’m prepared to say that about four people on that boat were murderous
maniacs but everyone else was pretty much okay, and Daniel was so much
more. Losing Charlie was worth it to gain Daniel.
At this late date, I’ve come to suspect that Daniel - seriously troubled family history aside - is the character in LOST
with whom I most identify. Not that I’m some kind of super-genius or
anything. But there’s something in his sweet, twitchy, perpetually
out-to-lunch manner that I feel I can understand all too well. In a cast
full of exceptional actors, only Terry O’Quinn and Michael Emerson have
impressed me more than Jeremy Davies. His intense, nuanced performance
could have earned him an Emmy if only he’d been given a little more
screen time.
Bif Bang Pow!’s Daniel Faraday bobblehead
captures Daniel in the episode that virtually removed all doubt as to
his benevolence. In The Constant, we got to see him as a
long-haired mad scientist conducting covert experiments “that Oxford
frowns upon”. Experiments involving migrating consciousness and a rat
named Eloise, a moniker we would later learn was loaded with
significance. Daniel is uniquely equipped to serve as Desmond’s guide in
his disorienting time-leaping adventure. It’s ultimately up to Penny,
the love of Desmond’s life, to keep his brain from melting into a puddle
of goo, but without Daniel’s guidance, he never would have made it as
far as his one true love. Daniel saved Desmond’s life, and that wins him
about a thousand cool points in my book.
Like fellow
bobbleheads Edgar Halliwax, Richard Alpert and Benjamin Linus, Daniel
stands just under seven inches tall, including his base, which is
arguably the coolest of the lot - the journal in which he is always
scribbling down the ideas that go “way over” the heads of folks like
Frank Lapidus, and most of us. Also in the journal: a note from his
mother indicating that she will always love him and a note to himself
that if anything goes wrong, Desmond will be his constant. That is one
iconic prop. It’s brown and embossed with a fancy, swirly design on the
top. “Daniel Faraday” is featured in raised white letters on the front,
which is the journal’s binding, while the back has “LOST” against the
white of the book’s pages.
Daniel himself is dressed in a
rather confusing manner befitting the episode. He seems to reside in two
different timelines, for Eloise rests calmly on his shoulder, but his
sturdy light brown shoes, black pants, pale blue shirt, practical
many-pocketed vest and amusingly ever-present black tie are all Island
attire. The wristwatch on his left hand serves as a reminder of the
importance of time to this character. The journal makes a repeat
performance, held aloft in a dramatic pose rather reminiscent of Hamlet
and Yorick’s skull. Sadly, this mini-version lacks the cover detail of
the stand, and though it’s open, no discernible words are inside. I
would have loved to see the “Desmond Hume will be my constant” line in
there.
Daniel’s face is something of a puzzle too, since his
hair seems about halfway between his fairly short Island hair and his
long, hipster-ish Oxford hair. The seamless beard-and-mustache combo is
neat and trimmed, the expression inscrutable. Both eyes are squinty, as
though he is in the midst of thinking very hard about something. No
doubt an epiphany is imminent.
If I had to choose a favorite among the four LOST
bobbleheads produced thus far, Daniel would probably be it. I might
also venture a guess that he’s a bit sturdier, as Daniel, Richard and
Edgar arrived in the mail together, and while the latter two were
broken, the fantastic Faraday was flawless. I must take a moment to
commend the ABC store here because as soon as I contacted them about my
broken bobbleheads, they sent new, more properly packaged ones out. In
less than a week, I had them in my hands, this time free of blemishes.
The full ramifications of Daniel’s decisions late in season five remain
to be seen. Whatever happens, however, Daniel stands near the very top
of my hierarchy of LOST characters, and it feels more than
fitting to have him bobbing his head agreeably at me as I sit down to
the instrument he so adored.
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