The Constant
Minkowski explains that someone sabotaged the radio room two days earlier and that Desmond's ex-girlfriend Penny Widmore (Sonya Walger) has been trying to contact the freighter.
Sayid uses the satellite phone to contact Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) on the island and explains that Desmond appears to have amnesia.
Daniel Faraday (Jeremy Davies), a physicist from the freighter, asks Jack whether Desmond has recently been exposed to a high level of radiation or electromagnetism.
To find out where she lives, Desmond gets her address from her father Charles (Alan Dale), who is at an auction buying a journal owned by Tovard Hanso written by a crew member of the 19th century ship called the Black Rock.
Back on the island, Daniel flips through his journal and discovers a note that he had written, "If anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume will be my constant."
"The Constant" is the second Lost episode to deal directly with the concept of time travel after "Flashes Before Your Eyes" from the third season.
Lindelof reminisced that "just breaking that episode was such a massive headache" and Cuse added that "it was definitely like doing the hardest New York Times crossword puzzle for the week".
[15] Cuse and Lindelof admitted they took some inspiration from the final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, "All Good Things...", where Captain Picard jumps between three time frames.
Faraday, on the other hand, was the expert that always appears in time travel fiction—as Lindelof put it, "He's our Doc Brown here, who basically is gonna tell the protagonist to go and find him in the past".
[16] Whereas the average Lost episode took two weeks to plan and write, "The Constant" took five because the writers experienced difficulty when determining its effect on future stories.
The original ending would set up the following episode by having Charlotte (Rebecca Mader) drop a bag containing a gas mask at Faraday's feet.
But the producers thought it did not work after the emotional scenes between Desmond and Penny, and decided to finish with Faraday reading his diary.
"[21] In its original American broadcast, "The Constant" was watched by 12.893 million viewers, ranking Lost eighth in weekly ratings.
The creators managed to build momentum with smart narrative, by using the romance card to develop such a complicated topic as time traveling.
"[33] Bill Keveney of USA Today wrote that it is "arguably the most highly praised episode of [the] well-received fourth season",[9] while his colleague Robert Bianco deemed Henry Ian Cusick worthy of an Emmy Award nomination.
[34] Patrick Day of the Los Angeles Times called the episode a "mind-blowing tour de force".
[37] Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger said that "it was brilliantly executed, as both a brain-twister and as a love story" with an "outstanding" performance by Jeremy Davies.
"[41] Matt Roush of TV Guide said that "the time-tripping went into overdrive with this week's brilliant episode … [which] worked beautifully as a showcase for Henry Ian Cusick as the tormented Desmond.
[43] "The Constant" received high praise from IGN reviewer Chris Carabott calling it "a brilliantly executed hour of television " and "one of the finest episodes in the series".
[48] Karla Peterson of The San Diego Union-Tribune wrote that "[I was] almost as touched and relieved by the reunion as Desmond and Penny are"; however, she did not review "The Constant" as favorably as other critics, giving it an "A−".
"[50] Ben Rawson-Jones of Digital Spy graded it with four out of five stars, and wrote that "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".
Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, (July 17, 2008)[53] It was Lost's representative episode for Outstanding Drama Series and was indeed nominated, losing to Mad Men.
Henry Ian Cusick and Jeremy Davies each submitted this episode for consideration on their own behalf for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.
