Well, for yet another week in a row, LOST continues to bring the awesomeness. In a lot of people’s minds, this will rightfully stand as one of the best episodes of the entire show, and even for this extremely unconventional final season, “Happily Ever After” is notably a very different episode for LOST.
Desmond episodes have essentially always been game-changers, and last night’s was no exception. “Live Together, Die Alone” introduced Charles and Penelope Widmore, revealed the identity of Kelvin, and not only confirmed that pushing the button wasn’t just some fool’s errand, it revealed that Desmond himself crashed 815; “Flashes Before Your Eyes,” possibly the most significant episode of the series in terms of changing the rules, brought in the element of time travel, not to mention the very creepy introduction of Ms. Hawking; “Catch-22,” the closest Desmond has gotten to a typical episode, revealed more about his flashes, hinted that he’d been doing a lot more time traveling than what we saw in “Flashes,” and brought Widmore’s freighter to the island in the form of Naomi; “The Constant,” arguably the high point of the series, made good on all of the time travel intimations and gave us the emotional payoff of Desmond finally being able to contact Penny, plus it established Desmond’s connection with Daniel; and finally “Jughead” uploaded a tremendous amount of indispensible island mythology, all the while giving both Desmond and Daniel key roles in what was to come.
And now we have “Happily Ever After,” which gave Des the chance to see into the sideways reality. I’m a little surprised that so many people were surprised that there is a connection between the two timelines; the show had been hinting at this since the sideways timeline was introduced, when we saw Jack have a moment of déjà vu and then find a mysterious cut on his neck. It seemed pretty clear that the two timelines would be interacting at some point. But many viewers had apparently dismissed the sideways story as a mere “what if” scenario, a viewpoint which was dashed upon the rocks last night like Rousseau’s expedition. (Haha? Anyone?).
Anyway, some observations:
- Looks like Desmond was abducted not long after being shot in the shoulder by Ben last season. That’s sort of a crappy deal for him, but Des should be used to those by now. The look on his face after realizing he’d been brought back to the island, followed by his little “if I smash Charles Widmore over the head with this I.V. stand, I’m going to feel a lot better” tirade, was priceless.
- Poor Zoe is obviously in over her head a little bit, but it seems anyone following Widmore winds up in over their heads. And normally they’ll eventually wind up with dirt over their heads. Permanently. Because they’re dead. Do ya not kennit?
- I loved the Dr. Manhattan-esque scene with Desmond and the electromagnetic coils. It’s looking quite possible that Jacob and the Man in Black may have been through a similar ordeal at some point, which might explain their apparent powers. Seriously, I’m running out of ideas for what the hell those dudes really are.
- Notice that Desmond entered the second timeline whilst looking at his reflection. We’ve seen numerous characters encounter a feeling of déjà vu whenever they see themselves in a mirror.
- Sideways Charlie is, quite simply, totally freaking awesome. It’s great that Dominic Monaghan agreed to come back, especially since he’s been given so much to do in episodes like this. At first you assume that Charlie is clearly stoned out of his mind more than ever before, but soon it becomes very apparent that he's undergone some kind of transformation, that something profound has affected him. The revelation about his near-death experience was extremely moving (does anyone doubt he had a vision of Claire?), and adds to the theme of the afterlife which is a major foundation for season six. Charlie’s encounter with Truth seems to be at the heart of this final season . . . are all of the sideways characters going to be experiencing similar revelations as the season winds to a close? I also enjoyed the call-back to Charlie’s death from the third season finale. There was something touching but also frightening about the way Charlie raised his hand to the passenger window. Interesting too that Charlie died in the Looking Glass, and this season we’ve almost literally moved through the mirror into another world.
- In addition to Charlie, we saw the return of Penny, Daniel, Minkowski, and Ms. Hawking. All of these are characters who have played a significant role in Desmond’s life in some way, shape or form, and it was great seeing them assembled again for Desmond’s return. I was so happy to see Minkowski again, I am standing here beside myself.
- Speaking of Ms. Hawking, she’s returned to her scary “Flashes Before Your Eyes” role of being the mysterious woman who seems to have an almost omniscient knowledge of what’s really going on. It seemed clear that she was not just offering advice to Desmond when he wanted to see Penny’s name. She went so far as to deem it a “violation.” If this is true, what rule is Desmond breaking, and what does Eloise (and most likely, Charles by extension) really know about this parallel reality?
- Wonderful seeing Daniel again. It’s cool that, despite his life having taken a very different turn and him now being a classical pianist as opposed to theoretical physicist, he is still pretty much the same guy at heart. And it seems as if he’s in love with Charlotte yet again, which was in keeping with the themes of the episode. (I also dug that he saw her eating a candy bar, a cool shout out to last season’s “I’m not allowed to eat chocolate before dinner” line). Daniel seemed to connect with his alternate self through dreams, specifically after seeing Charlotte, when he had a Philip K. Dick-style epiphany and proceeded to jot down advanced quantum physical equations. Daniel speculated that the sideways reality was created by detonating an atomic bomb, but is that really the case?
- All of this talk and I’m forgetting one key thing about the episode, namely Henry Ian Cusick’s outstanding performance. He has been sorely missed since early last season; he’s appeared since then but not had much to do. “Happily Ever After” changed all of that. This episode allowed him a chance to do a very different take on Desmond, perhaps the most drastic of any sideways character we’ve seen. It’s difficult to imagine Desmond as a slick, wealthy, even cynical right hand man to Charles Widmore, but here he was, and Cusick really pulled it off. By show’s end, he’d become much more the Desmond we know and love, but without losing what new facets were added to the character earlier in the episode.
- Now that I’ve mentioned Widmore’s right hand man, it’s worth noting the absence of Widmore’s post-island semi-Alpert, Mr. Matthew Abaddon. As most people have figured, Abaddon was killed off last season as the awesome Lance Reddick is extremely busy with “Fringe” and could no longer maintain a recurring role on LOST (why they couldn't just pluck another Lance Reddick from an alternate reality is beyond me, as there seem to be several between the two shows). But there was a bit of an Abaddon feeling to Desmond’s position for Widmore, as he had to steward Charlie upon Widmore’s request, just as Abaddon had to assist Locke last season. (It also reminded me a bit of the first season finale of “St. Elsewhere,” where Ed Begley’s beloved Victor Ehrlich had to babysit the drug-addled son of his protégé). Minkowksi himself also recalled Matthew, as like Abaddon, his job is more or less “getting people where they need to be.” There was something almost metaphysical to Minkowski’s presence, as if he were a guardian angel or at least playing cupid, just as Abaddon himself was a bit of a manipulator. Anyway, I enjoyed the subtle parallels to the missing Abaddon.
- This episode very much paralleled “Flashes Before Your Eyes,” as it was a play on the same basic concept, except instead of jumping through time Desmond was jumping through universes. That being said, it also paralleled season two’s “. . . And Found,” the episode which revealed how Sun and Jin first met. The theme of that segment was the intertwining of love and fate, and the exact same idea was presented in an even bigger way with “Happily Ever After”. This episode really carried that theme a few steps further, hinting that love can have a cosmic dimension that has the potential to change worlds.
- Awesome seeing Penny again (in the same stadium where Des and Jack met, no less). I love that when Desmond found his constant, he woke up. It’s cool that her new last name is Milton, as this season has some interesting parallels to “Paradise Lost”.
- So just what is going on with Desmond? We know he’s been special ever since he survived the detonation of the hatch . . . the explosion of electromagnetism changed him in some fundamental way. Not surprisingly, he is very possibly the key to what needs to be done. But that begs the question, what exactly needs to be done? It’s extremely unclear just what Widmore is planning to do, and now it’s equally unclear what Desmond is planning to do, in either the island or sideways timeline. Did Des switch consciousnesses with his alternate timeline self? Does he understand what Widmore wants to do and is now fully in line with it? Does he understand what Locke is really trying to do and is fully in line with that instead? Does he know something no one else knows and is just out for himself? The ending of the episode was so vague and so full of possibilities that it’s pretty difficult to even speculate at this point.
- Now that the two timelines have started interacting in an overt way, we’re still left to wonder just in what fashion they’re connected. There seem to be two major potential explanations. The first is that this timeline is either a divergent or parallel reality, and is operating concurrent with the main timeline. This could mean that one timeline may be in imminent danger of collapse, or conversely that each could theoretically coexist without the other. The second theory is that the sideways story is a timeline created after whatever events will end the series, and that we are essentially seeing the next life for these characters. This would fit with the notion of there being a happily ever after, and that a better future awaits these people in another life. But the sideways reality could just as easily be a reality that is not meant to exist, almost the Gnostic notion of being imprisoned in the false contentment of materialism (and subsequently, the discovery of love in last night’s episode would be a manifestation of Ultimate Reality), which would mean whatever is happening on the island is what was truly meant to be. I’m excited to see which direction the story takes.
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