Variables

After conducting research for Dharma in Ann Arbor, Faraday believes that in fact it is possible to change time through human variables. Breaking away from the notion that whatever happened happened, there is now the possibility that time is mutable. I like this for a couple of reasons:
1. I prefer to think that humans have the ability to control history. Even from the perspective of a tv viewer, I'll enjoy just about whatever happens on LOST but it's kind of boring to think that everyone's destinies are already inscribed in stone. The outcome of the show will be the same whether the the writers allow the characters to choose their paths or they set a fixed path for them, but if the characters have free will then it makes me believe the development of the show is a dynamic process instead of a series of prescribed events waiting to unfold.
2. It fits better with Charlie and Desmond's storyline. Let's assume that the flashes of Charlie's death were real, that Charlie would have died in each of those cases had Desmond not intervened. Desmond was thus able to change history by temporarily preventing Charlie from dying. Despite this, Charlie's life was still in peril. Just as quickly as Desmond could save him, another threat emerged. This would be the "course correcting" that Eloise Hawking told Desmond about. This also fits in with something that Faraday demonstrated even though the scene was deleted (Damon and Carlton announced this during the podcast. The scene will be on the season 5 DVD.) Essentially, to help explain to Jack and Kate his point about changing the course of history, Faraday first dropped a pebble in the water. It barely splashed, made a little ripple, but it didn't change much (like what Desmond did for Charlie). Then he dropped a bigger rock which made a bigger splash with larger ripples. The point of his demonstration was to show that in order to make significant changes a major event needs to take place, i.e. detonating a hydrogen bomb. Let's hope Faraday is right...