Season VI, Episode 11 – Happily Ever After

Line of the night – “Can you get me the manifest of our flight from Sydney, of Oceanic Flight 815, just the names of the passengers…*(Sure, but what for?)*…I just need to show them something!” – Desmond




I take back everything I said last week about how disappointed I was that “Desmond” was the package…because tonight’s episode was the best so far this season…Welcome Back LOST…you are on POINT. Just when I almost gave up hope on the series, they come back and totally redeem themselves with one of the best episodes ever. This is the third time we’ve seen Desmond’s mind/consciousness travel back and forth through time. In season 3, Flashes Before Your Eyes, Desmond’s mind travels as a result of the hatch implosion and the massive release of electromagnetism discharged from the hatch. Then again in Season 4, The Constant, when the helicopter Desmond is traveling in (with Badass Sayid) goes slightly off its heading of 305 and drifts towards a heading of 310, causing another episode of his consciousness to travel back and forth through time.

We start off tonight with Tina Fey (Zoe) waking up Desmond who looks like he just got the piss beat out of him. Widmore admits that he took Desmond from the hospital where he was recovering from a gunshot courtesy of Benjamin Linus. So Widmore and his group must have mobilized the submarine shortly after Ajira Airways Flight 316 took off from Los Angeles. Charles explains that he has brought Des back to the island because, “the island isn’t done with you yet.” A theme we’ve heard before from Season 5. In the Lamp Post Station, Eloise Hawking tells Desmond the exact same thing.

Widmore instructs Zoe to prepare for the test, and the theme music to Jurassic Park can be heard in the background as we see a large generator containing 2 Solenoids which closely resembles the raptor crate. Widmore wants to run a functioning EM (Electromagnetic) Field Power Test. There’s a white rabbit in a cage that is going to be the test subject, so I wonder if they are trying to manipulate time travel again? I guess they don’t have a health and safety plan in place, because Extra #2 hits the breaker and fries Extra #3 while they are still troubleshooting the EM generator unit. Now we hear music from Close Encounters of a Third Kind as they prepare for DESMOND to enter the generator. Charles Widmore asks Desmond to make a sacrifice, because if he doesn’t help them, then all of it will be for nothing. “Penny, your son, and everyone else will be gone forever.” Again, we are seeing a recurring theme, because back in Season 3, from Flashes Before Your Eyes, Ms. Hawking tells Desmond while he is mind/consciousness is in 1996, that “he isn't supposed to take the ring, because his not buying it led to his original fate of ending up on the island and turning the fail-safe key. She also states that "if you don't do those things, Desmond David Hume, every single one of us is dead.” Could it be that the writers actually did know what they were going to do with the story line all along?

Back to the EM Generator, and Charles says, “That man is the only person that I’m aware of who has survived a catastrophic magnetic event, and I need to know that he can do it again.” They strap Desmond poorly into a chair, and switch on the machine. Desmond breaks out of the chair and begins to glow like the aliens from 1985's sci-fi movie, Cocoon.

The screen goes white as we observe puffy white clouds in the sky, and Desmond staring at his “Michelle Gallaway” reflection in the Arrival screen at LAX. Desmond politely assists Claire with her baggage and offers her a ride…you sick freak. He also guesses that she is having a boy. Desmond is picked up at the airport by his Mind/Consciousness traveling companion from “The Constant” episode, Mr. George Minkowski. It’s revealed that Desmond was in Sydney because he was closing a deal for the boss. I am guessing his boss is a very nice Mr. Charles Widmore in this sideways 2004 reality.

Desmond arrives at his boss’s office, and yes, it is Charles Widmore. There is a photo of Jacob's Scale holding a black and white stone on the wall. Desmond enjoys a glass of MacCutcheon whisky with Widmore. In this sideways 2004, Charles’s son is in a band, and wants to perform with the hard rock group Drive Shaft. Unfortunately Charlie Pace is currently in jail because he tried to swallow a bag of heroine on the plane. Widmore bails out Charlie, and Desmond is asked to chaperone Charlie to the concert. Joe Britz and Alyssa Boucher are smiling from ear to ear right now, because their favorite character is back! Leaving the jail, Charlie doesn’t seem to care about his life as he almost gets nailed by several cars crossing the street. Des follows Charlie into a local pub. In the pub, Charlie asks Desmond if he has ever been in love, because Charlie reveals that when he was dying from choking on the bag of heroine, he looked into the abyss and saw a very beautiful and rapturous blonde who he was 'apparently' in love with. “Always been and always will be.” I am guessing Charlie saw Claire in his near-death experience, and this episode is getting a little creepy, yet extremely exciting.

Segue to the car and “You are Everybody” is playing on the radio. Desmond and Charlie get to talking about choices. Charlie says, “I’ll offer you a choice, I can either show you what I am talking about, or you can get out of the car.” Desmond does not get out of the car, so Charlie grabs the wheel and they plummet into the Marina waters. It looks like Charlie is trying to kill himself again, Desmond escapes and comes to the passenger side door when exactly at 26 minutes and 58 seconds into the episode we experience a profound “OOOOHHHH YEAHHHHH!!” moment.

Charlie puts his hand to the glass, and with a quick wisp, Desmond sees Not Penny’s Boat on Charlie’s left hand. Holy crap, did that just happen? All the sudden Desmond sees Charlie’s hand again with no writing on it, and he rescues him. At this point in the episode I sit back and tell myself, “now this is what made LOST great, moments like this…”

Back from commercial and Desmond is at the hospital recovering from his marina accident. He is looking for Charlie, but his Cat Scan was inconclusive so he has to undergo a MRI. The technician tells him, “you need the button.” Kind of ironic that he mentioned a ‘button’ to a man that pushed a button every 108 minutes for years. In the MRI machine Desmond settles in, and suddenly sees images of Penny, Penny giving birth to their baby, and a 3 year old Charlie Hume. Just as he sees the image of his son he hears Penny’s voice say, “Desmond.”

Des is determined to find Charlie Pace because he has some explaining to do. As he searches the hospital he runs into Jack “see you in another life brotha” Shephard. Desmond chases after Charlie whom appears to be escaping from the hospital because no one there can help him. Desmond gets him cornered and Charlie says, “You felt it didn’t you, all this...all this doesn’t matter, what matters is that you felt it.”

Charlie is not going to be playing in Widmore’s son’s concert. George drops Desmond off at the charity ball to inform Mrs. Widmore of the circumstances. Of course, we can all assume that his wife is Eloise Hawking, and our assumption is correct. Eloise catches a glimpse of Desmond and looks at him with a nervous and disturbed gaze. Eloise tells Desmond not to worry about Drive Shaft playing the concert, “Unpredictability comes with the territory.” Is Eloise referring to the entire alternate time line as “unpredictable?” She also says, “what happened, happened.” Desmond begins to leave when he hears Penny’s name on the guest list. When he inquires to see the guest list, Eloise denies him that privilege. Desmond can’t see the guest list, because “you are not ready yet, Desmond”. As Des is leaving, a straggly man knocks on the car window, and it’s Daniel Faraday (Daniel Widmore in this time line)!

Daniel and Des sit down on a nearby bench. In this alternate sideways timeline it would appear that Eloise allowed Daniel to pursue his life's ambition of becoming a musician instead of a Quantum Physicist. “Do you believe in love at first site?” Daniel begins to recount the first time he saw Charlotte (beautiful red head with bright blue eyes and works at the museum), and explains how he felt, "It was like I already loved her, that’s when things got weird.” The next morning Daniel woke up and entered some very advanced Quantum Physics equations into his journal. Daniel adds, “what if something terrible, something catastrophic were to happen, and the only way to stop it is to release a huge amount of energy by setting something off, like a nuclear bomb. For some reason we changed things. I don’t want to set off a nuclear bomb Mr. Hume, because I think I already did” OOOOHHHH YEAHHHHH!!” moment number two of the episode.

Daniel finds out that Desmond experienced the same sort of 'revelation' and feelings towards Penny. He felt love. Desmond is still in disbelief, “she’s just an idea.” Daniel replies, “no Mr. Hume, she’s my half-sister, and I can tell you exactly when and where you can find her.”

In the next scene we find Penny running steps at the same stadium where Jack and Desmond met so many years ago. “Are you Penny…hello I’m Desmond!” As he makes contact with his ‘constant’, Desmond wakes up back in the EM Generator with Widmore’s Hydra island group. Widmore says, “Your talent is vital to our mission.” To which Desmond responds, “You brought me to the island to do something very important right, when do we start?”

Desmond is following Zoe and some armed Extras through the woods when all of the sudden “Evil / No Feelings” Sayid appears out of no where and kills a couple of Desmond’s escorts. Desmond leaves with Sayid.

WHOOSH to Sideways 2004 and Desmond wakes up from his faint spell with Penny. He is going to be meeting Penny for coffee in an hour, so he rejoins George in his limo, and says, “can you get me the manifest of our flight from Sydney...of Oceanic Flight 815, just the names of the passengers?” George responds with, “Sure, but what for?”

”I just need to show them something!”

BAMM- LOST

Happily Ever After is easily one of the best episodes of the series, and best so far this season. Here is my epiphany...perhaps the writers are setting us up for an ending where we are in the alternate time line of 2004, and all of the Oceanic Flight 815 passengers can recount the events that took place on the island. I imagine they would all get together at the end and share in this revelation?!?

So what and how does Eloise Hawking know about this alternate time line compared to what happened in the original time line?

We’ve also found out that there is something behind Michelle’s observation about everyone looking at their reflection, like they are not looking at their true self.

This season just got a WHOLE lot more interesting now they are back on the mind/consciousness time traveling topic.

Did this episode deliver for you?

Until next week, Namaste and Good Luck!

-Slice