"The Variable" Online Buzz

Most of you know that I watch each episode multiple times. That is part of the requirements of being a super-freak fan and I accept that. Most of you do not want to become a super-freak fan, you just like read my posts to get the highlights without doing all the work. And I accept that too. But I highly recommend that you watch "The Variable" a second time for the same reason you need to watch all M. Night Shyamalan movies twice, the twist at the end changes the way you view the entire episode. At least watch the flashbacks with Daniel and Eloise. You can see her turmoil written all over her face. No wonder she has always seemed so unhappy!

Details and Easter Eggs
When Eloise asked how many beats the metronome counted, was anyone disappointed that little Daniel's answer was not one of "the Numbers?" Well his answer was 864, which is 8 x 108! (108 is the sum of all the numbers and the button had to be pushed every 108 minutes.)

Daniel explained to Jack and Kate that "the incident" would happen "4 hours from now." I'm glad this is not a show that runs in real time since there are only 3 hours left in the season!

Doesn't it seem odd that James and Juliet didn't hear the shoot-out and explosion? As Head of Security, Le Fleur couldn't ignore something like that.

Online Theories
Many people don't want to believe that Daniel is actually dead. They are hoping Richard will scoop him up and run to the Temple. One of the reasons they feel support him being alive is that he has not yet made the comic con video with Dr Chang. (More on this below.)

I've read where some people are wondering if Daniel could become Jacob. This is still a feeble attempt to believe that he is not dead. We've seen Richard and company talk about Jacob for years before Daniel died. Unless dying Daniel gets thrown waaaaay in the island's past, I don't see how he could be Jacob.

Why did Daniel cry when he saw the crash report? A great theory I read was that Eloise told him about it and his future involvement with the survivors then he forgot the next day! So he still had an emotional response but didn't know why.

I want to point you to a line Eloise said to Penny: “For the first time in a long time, I don’t know what’s going to happen next.” This line has a lot of people speculating. Ever since Ms. Hawking guided Desmond in "The Constant," it's been obvious she's had some sort of foreknowledge of future events. I always assumed she had flashes similar to Desmond's. But why would those stop? Some people now think that all her knowledge came from Daniel's journal. She could pick it up right after she shot him. That could explain why she has now reached a point where she doesn't know what will happen. Others believe that Daniel was right about "the variables" being able to change things and he has already set those changes in motion. So we've come to a stage where the future is no longer a predetermined one, which Eloise knows all about. But to steal a line from Doc Brown in Back To The Future 3 "Your future hasn't been written, no one's has. For better or worse, your future is what you make it."

My Crack Pot Theory
Ok, I've been working on this one for several days. If you asked me last Wednesday if Daniel was really dead I would've said 'yes.' But on Thursday, I was reminded that Farraday's voice was on the comic con video from last summer. It stars Dr Chang warning people 30 years in the future that the work of the Dharma Initiative must continue. Click here to watch it again.
It's unconfirmed but well accepted that Daniel is the off-camera voice. Daniel didn't seem very close to convincing Dr Chang he was from the future before he was shot. So I think it's a safe assumption that the video hasn't been made yet. So here's my theory: During Daniel's time in Ann Arbor, he had a side hobby of jumping around in time to collect information for his journal. For example, he may have returned to 1954 to see if and where the Others buried "Jughead." He may have also visited the day of the incident before and hid in the bushes to witness the details of the incident. He may also have visited a year or more after that to convince Dr Chang he really was from the future and shot the video. This would occur after Eloise shot him. So Daniel really did die in 1977 when he was shot by his mother but we have yet to see all the pieces of his life play out in the island's timeline!

If you don't understand, don't worry, it's just my crazy theory.
Namaste!