Desmond wakes up and finds out that he’s on the island. We quickly learn that Widmore has a “test” in mind for our brotha. I think the biggest thing this episode did was give some context to the sideways timeline, while filling the shows gas tank with enough purpose to drive to the finish line. Let’s step on the gas.
Widmore to Desmond: “I hate to resort to forcing this upon you Desmond, but once it’s over, I’m going to ask you to make a sacrifice, and I hope for all our sakes you’ll help me…if you won’t help me, all of it will be for nothing. Penny, your son and everyone else will be gone…forever.” So it seems that consciousness traveling Des has an important task that he needs to complete, but what sacrifice does he need to make? Is it too obvious to think Penny and little Charlie? I don’t think so. I also don’t think it’s too obvious to say that whatever he needs to do will subvert MIB, who will then either die or be unable to leave the island. This has me wondering again: how did the island sink? Was this caused by MIB leaving, or does Widmore sink it to keep MIB from leaving, or is it caused by something completely different?
Widmore to Jin, after strapping Desmond in for the test: “That man is the only person I’m aware of in the world who has survived a catastrophic electromagnetic event. I need to know that he can do it again or we all die.” He then pulls the levers, and Desmond is Dr. Manhattan’d. Knowing the producers are Watchmen fans, I think there was some of that influence here, as Dr. Manhattan lived in a quantum universe and didn’t perceive time in a linear perspective, and Desmond’s consciousness hops around. Two very different things, yet similar in ways.
We first see Desmond looking at his reflection in the Oceanic arrivals and departures board. Old friend George Minkowski picks Desmond up at the airport. As you remember, Minkowski and Des first met in the sick bay on the Kahana; both were experiencing the same consciousness traveling, though it ended up killing Minkowski. Desmond heads the “the office” to meet Widmore. The look on Widmore’s face upon seeing Des seemed to me to be more than just ‘I’m happy to see you.’ I believe Widmore knows about both timelines. Widmore’s son is a talented musician, and the boy had the “crazy idea” to combine classical with DriveShaft. His son is obviously Daniel Faraday, though we learn later his last name in this timeline is Widmore. Could the combination of two different types of music be a hint that he’ll attempt to combine the two timelines, or is that stretching it too far? We learn that Des is completely free of attachments; he has no family and no commitments. Widmore then offers him a drink of his MacCutcheon, and says “nothing’s too good for you.” This is a stark difference from “Flashes Before Your Eyes,” in which Widmore told him that one swallow was worth more than he could make in a month.
Desmond goes to pick up Charlie, who promptly walks away and right through traffic to a bar. The two begin a conversation that starts out very clandestine, and quickly takes a turn for the interesting and ultra important. Charlie asks Desmond if he’s happy, and when he says yes, Charlie says “no you’re not” and asks him if he’s ever been in “spectacular, conscious altering love.” The irony here is heavy; his consciousness traveled through time in “The Constant” until his conscious altering love Penny was able to save him. Charlie goes on to explain that in the moment between blacking out while choking on his bag of heroin and Jack saving him, he felt that kind of love with a beautiful blonde. Desmond offers him a choice: keep drinking, or leave with him. “There’s always a choice, brotha.”
They leave, and Desmond is taking Charlie to the gig. On the way, they drive past the dock where Ben shot Des. Charlie: “You think you’re happy. You think you got it all. This. Your life. You don’t.” Desmond asks if this is real, and Charlie says he can show him, and the car ends up crashing into the water. Des is able to get out, but he can’t get Charlie out. He swims up to the surface to catch his breath and goes back down to try again. Charlie puts his hand against the car window, and Des has sees a flash of ‘NOT PENNY’S BOAT’ on his hand. I know I’m not the only one who got chills at this moment. Wow.
Continued belowThe nurse tells him he needs an MRI, and he’s sent to have that taken care of even though all he wants to do is find Charlie. The doctor there asks if he has any change in his pockets just as Widmore’s henchmen asked him when he was about to be zapped on the island. He’s given a (panic) button and into the machine he goes for his MRI. The machine makes a sound that somewhat resembles that of the smoke monster, I wonder if this was intentional. The machine goes on, everything goes silent, the vision returns, and this time there are others. He sees the moment he met Penny, when he was leaving the monastery. He sees the two of them kiss. He sees Charlie’s birth. He pushes the button and he gets up and leaves to find Charlie. He goes to the desk, but the secretary is no help. He sees Dr. Jack who he knows from the plane, and he asks if he can help find Charlie, who then comes running down the hall away from a nurse. Desmond chases him down. “I didn’t try to kill you, I was trying to show you something,” he tells Des, who checks his hand, which of course has nothing written on it. “Who’s Penny?” Des asks. “This doesn’t matter. None of this matters. All that matters is that we felt it…If I were you, I’d stop worrying about me. Start looking for Penny.” And with that, Charlie leaves. These last few scenes changed the entire series. Two people in the sideways world have knowledge of another time. (Four if you are like me and believe Widmore and Eloise do too, five including Faraday as we’ll see in a bit.)
Widmore then is tasked with telling “Mrs. Widmore” that it’s “just a bloody concert.” He arrives and meets Eloise, who he’s never met before. Something tells me that Eloise/Charles have some sort of rivalry going on, and as we learn here, she seems to know about both timelines as well. He tells her that Driveshaft will not be able to perform and she tells him not to worry about it because “what happened, happened.” As Des is leaving, he hears “Milton, Penny, solo” as one of the guests. He asks to see the list but Eloise interferes and clears everyone out so she can speak to Des. “I want you to stop. Someone has clearly affected the way you see things, this is a serious problem. It is, in fact, a violation. So whatever you’re doing, whatever it is that you think you’re looking for…you need to stop looking for it.” She tells him that he has the perfect life and the thing he wanted more than anything: her husband’s approval. She then tells him he can’t see the list because he’s not ready yet. Uh, what? Eloise definitely knows a lot more than she’s letting on, just as she did in the original timeline. Des is about to leave when Daniel Widmore (not Faraday!) knocks on his window and says that they need to talk.
So in this timeline, not only is his last name now Widmore, he went on to become a musician as he wanted to, which means that Eloise decided to support that instead of pushing him to become a physicist. Dan asks if Des believes in love at first sight. He then explains that he first saw “her” (Charlotte, presumably) he just felt that he already loved her, “and that’s when things got weird.” The same night he saw her, he woke up and wrote down some quantum mechanics in his notebook. Imaginary time. “What if this, all this, wasn’t supposed to be our life? We had some other life and for some reason we changed things. I don’t want to set off a nuclear bomb, Mr. Hume. I think I already did.” He then asks Des why he asked Eloise about a woman named Penny, and asks him if he felt it (it being love) too. Des says he doesn’t know what he felt, and Dan reveals that Penny is his half sister and tells him he can tell him when and where to find her. Des goes to the stadium where he met Jack and sees Penny running up and down the stairs. He introduces himself and shakes her hand…and wakes up inside Widmore’s electromagnetic field house. He was only unconscious for a few seconds. “Your talent is vital to our mission.” Desmond says he doesn’t need an explanation, and he’s ready to do whatever important things he’s needed for. Zoe states that she thinks the machine fried Des’ brain, and then says “whatever, it doesn’t change that we’re gonna…” as Sayid comes out of nowhere and delivers some karate chops to take down the henchmen before pointing the gun at Zoe and telling her to run. Sayid says that these people are dangerous and Des needs to come with him. Des complies, and off they go. Just then, back at the stadium, Des wakes up from fainting. Penny helps him up and asks if they’ve ever met before. “I think we’d remember it if we had,” he says. He asks her out for coffee, and she says she’ll meet him in an hour. Des heads back to the limo, and he gives Minkowski the location of the coffee shop. Minkowski then asks if there’s anything else he can do. “Can you get me the manifest for my flight from Sydney? Oceanic 815. Just the names of the passengers.” He’s asked what he needs it for. “I just need to show them something.”
Continued belowWow, what an episode. Let’s get down to business.
Is love the key to this whole thing? Desmond touching Penny in the sideways world woke him up on the island with a renewed purpose, and he seems to now exist in both timelines. Dan realized there might be another life for everyone as a direct result of seeing Charlotte. Charlie became aware of it when, in his near death experience, he saw a blonde girl that we can presume is Claire. Now, how would this work for everyone else? Also, that’s kinda cheesy, and if that turns out to be true, I have to say I’ll be a bit let down.
Another thing about the sideways timeline, it seems that everyone got something they wanted, but also had to give something else up. Jack, riddled with daddy issues his whole life, has a son now, but no wife. Kate no longer has Aaron, but Claire is now alive and will soon give birth to him. Locke is with Helen and has a relationship with his father, but isn’t content with himself in the state he’s in, as he wishes he was a hunter who could go on walkabouts. Sayid is happy that Nadia is alive, but she’s with his brother and not him. Ben takes care of his father and is happy with his job, but isn’t in power and feels somewhat helpless as a doctor working in a high school. As for Jin and Sun, if they have their baby, that could be the thing they wanted, and now that Mr. Paik drained Sun’s secret account, her and Jin are truly on their own, so they are now without the wealth they formerly had. Desmond now has Charles Widmore’s approval, but he doesn’t have Penny. The title of the episode is “Happily Ever After,” but who does it refer to? Which timeline is the happily ever after for our characters?
Eloise’s jewelry is also very interesting. When Desmond met her while buying a ring, she was wearing an ouroboros, which is a serpent eating itself. Perhaps this was a reference to time being circular or looped. At the reception, her brooch consisted of two parallel lines with star-like objects on them. Is this a subtle way of hinting that both timelines that we’ve seen exist and run parallel to each other and don’t plan to intersect?
This recap took two days to write, and I’ve now watched the episode three times straight through, and twice to stop it to make notes. I’m excited that Desmond is back, and I can’t wait to find out what he does to tell the sideways world about the island.
