Lost Season 6: Happily Ever After (Episode 11)

I do not watch commercials during Lost. We watch another show until about 9:20 so we can fast forward through the commercials courtesy of our Tivo. Last night we were watching American Idol and after the 4th or 5th off key song, I said, “It’s time. Let’s watch LOST.”  We turned it on and I’m loving it from the first second. I am getting nervous at the absolute ISLAND-NESS of the whole episode. Every single thing that happened in the flashsideways was a complete and utter shout out to its Island mama! Then, in the exact moment when I knew I was correct—that LA was not their REAL life, my DirecTV RESTARTS.

That’s right. It just dies and then gives me a grey screen that said, “Powering up…please wait…” WAIT? WAIT WHEN DANIEL WIDMORE IS SHOWING DESMOND HIS JOURNAL FULL OF PHYSICS THEORIES? WAIT WHILE MS. HAWKINS IS SHOUTING AT DESMOND ABOUT VIOLATIONS AND NOT BEING READY? I think I may have been shaking. We finally get our Tivo screen back up and I click play. The only thing I see is Desmond happily leaning back in his limo. WHAT IN THE WORLD? How could I miss the most important scene of the entire season?!

I finally had to go to bed and dream about what could have been. This morning I got up early and clicked over to abc.com and waited for “Happily Ever After” to load. And oh-my-stinking-lostie-goodness. I just don’t think I could be happier unless Juliet and Sawyer had been meeting for coffee while planning their wedding!

So, let’s start talking about this. It’s all fresh in my head so I may need a second to formulate a couple of theories…

Desmond wakes up in the Hydra station. He’s being doctored by our favorite new weird Widmore follower, Zoe. Desmond thinks he’s in the hospital (remember, he got shot by Linus a few years…er, days ago?) until Widmore walks in. Widmore tells Desmond he has brought him back to The Island because he needs Desmond to sacrifice something for him. And Desmond’s lip begins to twitch. (LOVE HENRY IAN CUSICK.) He picks up the IV pole and begins to beat Widmore with it. Oh, isn’t this exactly what Desmond has wanted (needed) to do for the past few years?!

Widmore is his usual all-knowing self with a side of disdain. He tells Zoe “the test” is going to happen NOW. Zoe is shocked, “We’re not ready!” Blah, blah and other contrived drama. As they ready the test—some sort of electromagnetic surge, Jin (recently able to walk) demands Widmore tell him what is going on. Widmore explains that Desmond is the only person in the world that has survived a cataclysmic electromagnetic event. And if he is right, he can do it again. Somehow this pacifies Jin and he doesn’t beat down Widmore.

They flip the switch and Desmond tries to escape (while even busting a chair into smithereens) but the electromagnetic force is too strong. Desmond falls to the ground and we see…clouds. Darn that…

FLASH SIDEWAYS (or is it?!)

Desmond is leaving the airport and picks up his luggage (after a tip from Hurley) and runs into Claire. They have a nice conversation where Desmond predicts a little boy in her future. Then Desmond finds his driver…none other than George Minkowski (man, how I wanted to say Mike Wazowski!) his Island partner in time travel (remember the nosebleed?).

Immediately we get the sense that Des is a corporate type, disconnected and driven. This is verified when Desmond greets his boss with a friendly hug. His boss? WIDMORE. They obviously adore each other and Widmore even shares his 60 year old McCutcheon’s scotch with Desmond. Soon, Widmore has Desmond do a personal favor for him—his wife is putting on a charity event that includes her son, a classical musician (hmmm….who could that be?) and a little band called Drive Shaft. Widmore needs Desmond to escort DS’s bass player, Charlie Pace from jail to the event. No problem for a big Fix It guy like Des.

However, when he meets Charlie everything changes. AND EVERYTHING BEGINS TO HAPPEN! Charlie has had an experience with love. He tells Des that he just experienced true love—love at first sight! And he experienced it on the flight—when he saw Claire. Desmond is unperturbed at Charlie’s probings about true love. On the drive to the charity event, Charlie grabs the wheel and brings the car careening into the ocean by the marina!

As their car crashes into the water, I had distinct dejavu—a drowning Charlie? a Charlie willing to do anything for his true love? And just as my skin stopped prickling, it got even better: Des swims out of the car to see Charlie unconscious and still stuck in the car. But just as he’s pulling open the passenger’s door Charlie looks knowingly up and holds up his palm. NOT PENNY’S BOAT.

And this is when everything I had hoped for came true! Somehow someway somewhere it’s all connected! The Island life and the LA life is somehow together!

Desmond is considerably freaked but pulls Charlie out of the boat and to the shore. He wakes up in a hospital where they are demanding he have an MRI. During this MRI he is given a BUTTON TO PUSH in case of emergency. Does he push the button? Well, yes he does. Why? Because he SEES his REAL life. He sees Penny, baby Charlie being born and feels and knows his true love!

Des jumps off the table and runs through the hospital to find Charlie. And when they meet Charlie knows Desmond has seen something. He’s seen the LOVE that Charlie experienced with Claire. He tells Desmond, “You need to look for Penny.”

This is so obviously outside of anything Desmond has ever dreamed of or thought about. He gets back in the car with George and calls Widmore to tell him Drive Shaft will not be performing. Widmore turns into baddie-Widmore and tells him, “YOU TELL MRS. WIDMORE YOURSELF!” And so he does. He walks onto the Widmore estate and greets ELOISE HAWKING with a smile and an apology. She is understanding and sweet.

Desmond is surprised but happy so he turns to leave. Just then he overhears the guest list…which includes a girl named PENNY. He stops and asks to see the guest list. And that’s when Eloise steps back in. She turns evil-in-charge-Other Ellie and tells Desmond he cannot see the confidential list.

THEN.

THEN.

THEN! She clears her servants out of the area and tells Desmond something only Island-Desmond would understand. She says, “Stop. Someone has affected the way you see things. This is a problem–a violation. Whatever you think you’re looking for–you need to stop. Why are you looking anyway? You have attained what you wanted more than anything–my husband’s approval. I know what you want because I BLOODY DO! I cannot tell you why because YOU ARE NOT READY yet.”

Desmond is as shocked as he was the first time he time traveled during “The Constant”. What is going on?! He wanders blankly to the car, asks George for a drink and is then greeted by Daniel. But not Daniel “Faraday”. No, this Daniel goes by Daniel Widmore. And this Daniel wants to talk to Desmond.

Daniel begins to tell Des about a woman he saw–a blue eyed red haired woman who works at the museum (CHARLOTTE!). He sees her and instantly knows her and loves her. He is totally affected by her. The next day he wakes up and pens a complicated physics theory in his journal. (THIS IS WHERE MY DIRECTV DIED.) Daniel says, “What if this is not our real life? What if we had another life and we somehow changed it? What if there was a catastrophe coming? What if you could change it with a huge force of energy? Like an atomic bomb?” Desmond says, “You want to set off an atomic bomb?” Daniel replies, “No. I think I already did.”

Desmond is slightly interested but perplexed. He doesn’t understand why Daniel is telling him this.So Daniel asks, “Why did you want to know about Penny?” Desmond tries to explain. Then Daniel says the happiest sentence in the whole episode, “Penny is my half-sister.”

That night, following Daniel’s advice, Desmond walks up the stairs of the same arena where he and Jack first met. Only instead of meeting a brotha’ he meets Penny. He introduces himself, they shake hands and…

ISLAND TIME!

Desmond is on the floor of the electro-magnetic room. The Widmore Others are speeding into the room to check on Desmond. They are shocked that he is alive. He tells Widmore he’s ready to help. He knows what he has to do and will do it.

Zoe is confused about this. As they walk through the jungle she asks Desmond why he changed his mind. They are interrupted by bad-to-the-bone Sayid! He snaps the neck of Widmore Other #1 and does some other ninja-terrorist stuff on Widmore Other #2. But he tells Zoe to run. (WHY?) Then he says, “Desmond, I cannot explain but these are very dangerous people. Please come with me.” Des looks dreamily at Sayid and says, “Aye.” As in “Aye, Aye, Cap’n! I’ll do whatever your unfeeling self says!”

And in that moment we are back to the arena. Back to Penny and Des. He has fainted at their handclasp. Funnily enough, he seems to be connecting all the dots instead of being confused or concerned. He asks her to coffee. She says yes. And in any other story that would be The End. But we all know THINGS ARE JUST GETTING STARTED!

As George drives Desmond to his date with Penny, Desmond asks if he can get the manifest for Oceanic Flight 815. He wants the names of the people on the flight because, “I have something to show them.”

BLACK SCREEN O’LOST

STUFF TO TALK ABOUT

1. Eloise Widmore/Hawking. When she turned on Desmond and delivered her “advice” I was shocked. I almost felt like she was channeling Other-Eloise. It was a complete parallel conversation (only much meaner) that they had in the pawn shop. Remember? Eloise told him what he should do. It was as if she had been waiting for him her whole life. She knew about The Island, about time travel and everything that had happened. And she knew it would come up again. She was just waiting for that day. It seemed the same here. Like she had been on The Island and knew Desmond was/would be/used to be and was just waiting for the day he was going to show up.

3. True Love. How incredibly strange that this whole series might boil down to love. The crazy connections are all because of love? Getting Penny & Des together? Charlie & Claire? Daniel & Charlotte? I don’t feel like there has been a lot of talk about love. So, to see their Island loves come into play was interesting. I’m wondering if it’s just the case for these folks? Did Kate have this connection when she saw Sawyer or Jack? Or neither?

4. Whatever Happened, Happened. Now I’m starting to believe this. Do you remember The Variable? Faraday began his campaigning for setting off the atomic bomb. He said, “Yeah, whatever happened, happened, BUT…” and that set into motion Jack’s insistence they find the bomb and Juliet’s insistence to set it off. BUT WHAT IF Daniel was right? WHAT IF Daniel, Desmond and Charlie (and whoever else they can corral from 815) decides that THIS IS NOT their real life? What if they somehow try to do something and get BACK to their real lives? So, even though the bomb went off, WHATEVER HAPPENED, HAPPENED. They don’t really change anything. The circumstances might be different but the end result is the same. Not sure what I feel or think about that. But when Eloise said, “What happened, happened.” I got chills!

5. Desmond. Desmond may be the only one besides unLocke that knows what’s going on. We should have known when Des showed up on Oceanic 815 that something was going on with him. He’s our original time-traveler. If anyone would find the wormhole between The Island reality and LA reality it would be him. When Des woke up I assumed he was ready to follow Widmore because he wanted to save Penny. And this was Widmore’s goal, too. Then when Sayid showed up, it made me wonder what Desmond was doing. Is Des following Sayid and unLocke because THEY are doing what needs to be done (I can’t say they are the good guys, of course, just “more right” for the Losties) OR was he following Sayid because he is going to sacrifice himself to help Widmore and save Penny?

QUESTIONS

1. Eloise said it was a “violation” for Desmond to know what he knew (or saw what he saw). A violation by whom? Of what?

2. When did The Island disappear? When Juliet activated the bomb, when did it knock The Island to? Why is LA so different that far in the past? Why are Eloise and Charles still married? Why does Penny exist?

Conclusion
I am beside myself I’m so excited. This is LOST, baby. And I finally feel like ten episodes later we’re back to the LOST I love. Not that I didn’t like the other episodes, it was just toooooo long of a set up to get to this point. I cannot wait to see what happens next week. I have no speculations. Please tell me what you’re thinking about in the comments. I’d love to talk about it! I know there’s other stuff to talk about that I missed, too. So, start talking!

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