Daniel Faraday

Template:Infobox Lost character Dr. Daniel Faraday, D.Sc., often referred to as Dan or simply by his surname, Faraday, is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost played by Jeremy Davies. Faraday was introduced in the season 4 premiere, and is part of the team aboard the Kahana. Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse called Daniel Faraday "an obvious shout-out to Michael Faraday, scientist and physicist". Faraday was originally planned to be a recurring role.

Arc

Daniel is the son of Eloise Hawking (Fionnula Flanagan) and Charles Widmore (Alan Dale). From an early age, Eloise pushed Daniel to develop his scientific mind, to the detriment of any other pursuits such as piano. After graduating from an unknown Oxford University college, he was offered a £1.5 million grant by industrialist Charles Widmore. In the 1990s, Daniel is working as a physicist at The Queen's College, Oxford. Daniel's experiments involved sending a subject's consciousness through time. He tested on lab rats, all of which eventually died. During his tenure, Desmond Hume suffered from temporal displacement that trapped him between 2004 on the Island and 1996 in Britain. Desmond was directed by Daniel in 2004 to make contact with him in 1996. During this encounter, Daniel helps Desmond by telling him that he would die if he did not find a constant - a familiar entity which is a part of Desmond's life in both time periods.

From here, Daniel began peripherally researching everything he could in order to be ready for this event, knowing now that consciousness time travel was indeed possible; by the end of the episode, Daniel was even shown to have prepared that Desmond would be his "constant" in case anything went wrong, and also had somehow the entire Secondary Protocol and knew that it had been activated. In the season 5 premiere, Daniel reveals his notebook has information about many of the known Dharma stations on the island.

Daniel eventually performs similar experiments on a human subject. The woman, suffering from temporal displacement as Desmond was, eventually fell into a coma. Daniel is expelled from Oxford as a result. Charles Widmore keeps the incident from becoming too public, and personally finances the treatment of the comatose woman. Oxford quietly removed all references to Daniel ever being at the university.

At some point, Daniel also experimented upon himself, resulting in long-term memory damage. This requires him to have a caretaker to tend to his needs. While in Essex, Massachusetts, Daniel watches a news report covering the discovery of the apparent derelict Oceanic Flight 815 in the depths of the Sunda Trench close to Indonesia. When asked why he was crying by his caretaker/housekeeper, he replies that he doesn't know. Charles Widmore approaches Daniel and convinces him to go to the island, which will heal him of his plight.

Daniel is then recruited into a covert team alongside Charlotte Lewis, Miles Straume and Frank Lapidus, which is organized by the enigmatic Matthew Abaddon and led by Naomi Dorrit, who describes Daniel as a "head case". Their mission is to travel to the island and disable the Dharma Initiative station called the Tempest, which contains poisonous gases that could kill everyone on the Island if released. They were also to find Benjamin Linus. Daniel initially doesn't want to travel to the island, but his mother Eloise encourages him to do so. He asks her whether she will be proud of him if he goes, and when she replies affirmatively, he responds, "Then I'll do it."

Daniel first arrives on the island on December 23, 2004, which is also his first chronological appearance in the show. After the crash survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 contact the freighter, a helicopter is sent to the Island carrying Daniel and his team. It is struck by lightning en route, forcing an emergency evacuation. Daniel is the first to jump out, landing near Jack Shephard and Kate Austen in the jungle beside the nose of the plane.

Daniel initially informs Jack and Kate that they have been sent to the Island to rescue them, but is forced to amend his story when Jack discovers a crate with gas masks and points out that Daniel is carrying a gun. He admits that rescuing the crash survivors is not the freighter's primary objective. Following the locater beacons of his team, the three find Miles, who holds Jack at gunpoint while accusing Kate of murdering Naomi, Naomi's last words having been code to that effect. When they try to explain that John Locke was responsible, Miles demands to see Naomi's body so he can confirm it.

Once there, Daniel makes an interesting observation about the light scattering on the island strangely. Miles confirms their story, then Jack disarms them both with help from Sayid Jarrah and Juliet Burke. They continue the search for the rest of the helicopter team, but lose Charlotte to Locke. A flare shot into the sky brings the group to Frank's position and the landing site of the helicopter. Daniel's request to take the late Naomi on-board the chopper is denied, her body being unnecessary weight for the already fuel-deprived chopper. Moments later, Miles is surprised to hear from Frank that Juliet's name was absent from the Flight 815 manifest. He reveals that their primary objective is to find Benjamin Linus.

Daniel stays back at the landing site while Miles, Kate and Sayid venture towards the Others' barracks. He uses the sat-phone to contact Regina and conduct an experiment in which a missile payload is to be fired to his position. It arrives 31 minutes after it is expected, causing Daniel to describe the situation as "not good." Daniel is offered a ride on the helicopter back to the freighter but he decides to stay on the island. He advises Frank to stay on the exact same bearing they were on when they approached the island.

Jack and Juliet escort Daniel and Charlotte back to the campsite along the beach. While there, they are contacted by Sayid (who has finally arrived safely on the freighter) and are informed about Desmond who believes he is bouncing from 1996 to 2004 constantly. Over the sat-phone, Daniel assists Desmond by telling him to travel to Oxford University the next time he bounces into the past so that he can seek help from Daniel in 1996. The advice Daniel gives Desmond in 1996 subsequently saves Desmond's life in 2004.

Daniel and Charlotte secretly leave the beach to carry out an unknown mission. Jin-Soo Kwon tells Jack he saw them leave earlier, causing Jack to become frustrated. Charlotte is forced to knock Kate unconscious along the way, much to Daniel's dismay. At the Tempest, Daniel is confronted by Juliet while working at a computer console. Daniel claims he's trying to render the gas inert. Charlotte then attacks Juliet, giving Daniel the time he needs to finish his work.

Back at the beach, Daniel is visited by Sun, who asks him if he and his team have come to the island to rescue everybody. Daniel anxiously replies that it's not his decision. Later on, a body washes ashore and Daniel identifies it as being the doctor from his freighter. A call to the freighter in Morse code curiously reveals that the doctor is alive and well. Daniel lies about the response and tells Jack that the freighter is sending the helicopters for them in the morning. Bernard, who can also understand Morse code, reveals that Daniel is lying about the message, causing Jack to become frustrated with Daniel and ask him if he's really here to rescue them, to which Daniel regretfully responds, "No."

The following morning, Jack's sickness grows worse and it becomes vital for his appendix to be removed. To do so, Juliet entrusts Daniel to gather necessary instruments from the medical station alongside Charlotte and Sun; this "trust" is reinforced by Juliet sending Jin along, telling him to shoot Daniel or Charlotte in the leg if they try to escape. When they arrive at the Staff, Sun remarks that Daniel likes Charlotte. Daniel successfully obtains all required instruments and gets them back to Juliet who performs the operation thus saving Jack's life. Around this time, Daniel realizes that the Secondary Protocol has been activated by Widmore, necessitating their immediate departure from the island.

When Sayid arrives to take survivors back to the Kahana, Daniel informs him that Jack has gone to follow the helicopter. Daniel agrees to start ferrying people to the boat via the Zodiac raft while Sayid finds Jack. He takes the first load (including Sun and Aaron) to the boat. He returns to warn Charlotte and Miles that they have to get off the island with the next group, but both of them opt to stay, though Charlotte gives him a kiss on the cheek before he departs. Daniel and the second load of survivors are caught midway between the Kahana and the island when the former explodes and the latter is "moved" by Benjamin Linus.

Once back on the Island, Daniel meets up with the remaining survivors and explains to them that the Island has begun skipping through time at random intervals. He has Sawyer lead himself, Miles, Juliet, Charlotte and Locke to the Hatch in order to establish a rough date. Once there, he steals away from the main group and lures Desmond out of the hatch, telling him that the survivors are in danger and that Desmond must remember to find Daniel's mother once he is off the Island.

Daniel and the others are captured by a group of Others in the 1950s. Daniel, Charlotte, and Miles are taken to the camp led by Richard Alpert. Once there, Daniel tells Richard that he is the only person who can help them disarm the hydrogen bomb they have stolen, having recognized the radiation burns suffered by several of their captors. He assures Richard that he is trustworthy because he loves Charlotte and would not risk her safety. Daniel is led to the bomb, where he discovers it must be buried because of a crack in the shell. He advises the Other guarding him of such, and a short time later a time flash occurs.

Following these events, Daniel remains with Charlotte when she collapses, suffering from temporal displacement. Charlotte reveals that when she was a girl, a "big scary man" came and told her to leave the island, and she realizes the man might have been Daniel himself. Charlotte then dies in Daniel's arms. Once Locke stops the time flashes, the group meets up with Daniel, who informs them of Charlotte's death and that they are now stuck in the current time period. They make their way to the Dharma Initiative barracks, where Daniel sees a young girl with bright red hair who he believes to be the young Charlotte.

After the arrival of Jack, Kate, and Hurley in 1977, Sawyer is queried by the survivors as to whether Daniel is with the Dharma Initiative as well. "Not anymore," says At the end of the episode "Some Like It Hoth", Daniel is shown to arrive back on the island as a scientist working for the Dharma Initiative. In the next episode, "The Variable", Daniel sets out to stop the electromagnetic burst which will necessitate the construction of the Swan Station, which ultimately results in the crash of Flight 815 and their eventual trip through time to 1977. Before putting his plan into action, Daniel stops to visit the young Charlotte, ostensibly the same encounter Charlotte recalls in her dying moments.

Daniel previously believed from his studies of physics and time that historical events are unalterable, guided by constants that could not be changed. He came to believe that the constants were in fact complemented by variables. These variables are defined by people and the actions they take, regardless of how the future may seem fixed. In applying this revelation to their situation, Daniel believes that they can change the future they remember because, for them, it is currently the present.

Daniel's plan is to detonate the unstable hydrogen bomb that was buried on the island in the 1950s, thus neutralizing the unstable energy that is about to be released in the Dharma Initiative accident. In order to carry out his plan, Daniel travels to the Others' camp with Jack and Kate to speak with the young Eloise Hawking. He breaks into their camp and threatens to shoot Richard Alpert unless he takes him to Eloise. At that moment, he is shot by Eloise herself. Before Daniel dies, he tells Eloise that he is her son and that she must have known this would happen yet sent him anyway.

Casting

Jeremy Davies was cast as Daniel because he is one of the writer-producers' favorite character actors, and they think that his "transformative quality [and] the tremendous intelligence that seems to emanate from him … seemed perfect for [the part]." When Davies met costume designer Roland Sanchez, he was wearing a thin black tie. Sanchez merged this "cool, edgy look" with his idea for the character's clothes: a "nerdy" loosely woven dress shirt from J.Crew.

Reception

Tom Iacuzio of The Daytona Beach News-Journal deemed Jeremy Davies's performance deserving of a Primetime Emmy Award. Nikki Stafford of Wizard highlighted "watching Dan's landing from his point of view. You can feel his panic as he's free-falling through the air, looks up at his parachute, looks down to see himself about to hit the trees... it was amazing." IGN's Chris Carabott wrote that Davies presents Faraday's awkward mannerisms well.

Jeremy Davies submitted the episode "The Constant" on his behalf for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor - Drama Series.