Lost: Season 6, Episode 11 Review: Happily Ever After

Happily Ever After

Original Airdate: April 6, 2010

Writer: Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse
Director: Jack Bender

The season’s most controversial element has been the flash sideways storyline.  As the series heads to its climax, many fans (including myself) who stuck with the show during the slower moments in seasons two and three were scratching our heads wondering what was the point.  Despite the producers’ advising us to take it as seriously as the main timeline, it was hard to as this storyline was completely divorced of the main story and for all intents and purposes, it was another show.  While some of the episodes played out their flash sideways well (The Substitute, Dr. Linus), it didn’t change the idea that it didn’t affect what was happening in the storyline we’ve been following since the beginning.  Then comes this episode, which gives this storyline much needed direction and perspective.

Picking up shortly after the end of “The Package”, Desmond comes out of his drugged out fog to find out he is back on the island, a place he made abundantly clear he never wanted to go to ever again despite Hawking’s warnings.  Needless to say, he does not take it well, and is combative until the moment the energy envelops him.  Henry Ian Cusick, as he does in every centric episode he’s had, shines here.  When he finds out he’s back, his face twitches just so that is really impressive.

Widmore reveals a little about why he brought Desmond back to the Island.  He’s the only person known to survive a cataclysmic electromagnetic event (less can be said about that unfortunate tech caught in the wrong place when the power switch was flipped) and this test is apparently of the utmost importance in bringing down Johnny.  With Widmore’s experiments, I wonder how much of Desmond’s condition Widmore knows about.  Did he expect Desmond to be propelled into the flash sideways world?

After the test is done, Widmore says Desmond will have to make a “sacrifice” for the sake of everyone else.  I think we all hope this sacrifice doesn’t mean he will be forever separated from Penny.  With the dark nature this season, fans have assumed the worst despite not knowing what Widmore wants Desmond to do.  With Locke dead, Desmond has assumed the role of the Job figure of Lost.  He’s had so much bad fortune, that another sacrifice is pretty insulting.

The blast sends him to the flash sideways timeline, effectively disproving the theory that the flash sideways are the epilogues for the characters.  This theory never sounded good for a satisfying conclusion; perhaps the episode title is a possible dig at that theory.  Even if the writers still insist on not calling it one, it is an alternate reality.

LA X Desmond, who was on the plane after all, turns to be a successful businessman and right hand man to Charles Widmore, here a good friend despite never meeting Widmore’s wife, son and daughter.  However, as soon pointed out, something is clearly missing: he has never been in love.  Despite 815 Desmond stumbling through his life, his stint in jail (guess we’ll never know how he got there), spending three years in isolation in The Swan and being continually thumbed at by Charles Widmore for being poor, he always had his love for Penny to make everything OK.  So when the timelines begin to bleed over, getting that blast of “spectacular, consciousness-altering love” gives him a mission he probably never felt in this timeline.

Perhaps this is retcon for the sake of correcting a prop error, but LA X Minkowski points out that Desmond doesn’t have a wedding ring on.  Many fans noted he had one on in “LA X” and speculated on who the wife was, whether it was Penny, Ruth or someone else.  It turns out it was just an error and in all likelihood Cusick’s wedding ring.  This is just another humbling moment that some stuff fans speculate on for hours is some mistake.

It’s appropriate that LA X Minkowski, who can get Desmond anything he needs, whether it’s seats at a fancy restaurant, flight manifests or compensated female company, be the one to help Desmond on his journey, as their 815 interactions in “The Constant” were important to Desmond’s quest to find his constant.  It’s also nice to see Academy Award winner Fisher Stevens back on the show.

LA X Widmore puts Desmond on the task of babysitting the strung out Charlie, who wound up in jail for the heroin in “LA X”, a task that seems beneath Desmond’s status if not for the importance of Charlie to Daniel.  Here Charlie’s insights into what happened to him not only set the foundation for Desmond’s story, but illuminate something about the flash sideways and their nature.

As he choked on the bag of heroin, LA X Charlie had a vision, presumably Claire, and realized that he was in love with her, despite having no recollection of her.  To convince Desmond that it is real, he takes the wheel of the car Desmond is driving and plunges it into a nearby harbor.  As Desmond saves Charlie, he sees 815 Charlie’s hand with “Not Penny’s Boat” written on it.  So trauma and heavy magnetism can cause flashes of the 815 world.  This could explain why 815 Sun can’t speak English after hitting her head.  Seeing “Not Penny’s Boat” was the first crack, but when LA X Desmond gets the MRI, with the flashes of his life with Penny and how that love shaped 815 Desmond’s life, the dam is destroyed.  Now he has a quest: find Penny and who she is.

Fortunately for Desmond, his boss’ wife and son shed some light on the situation.  When Desmond overhears Penny’ name on the guest list at the concert Drive Shaft was planning with Daniel, LA X Eloise (Widmore) intervenes.  She claims what Desmond is doing is a “violation”.  LA X Eloise is a special case among the LA X universe since, because Jughead’s detonation split the timelines, she still has the memories leading up to it.  She may be a similar “temporal policeman” that she was in the other reality (I wonder if either Eloise knows which timeline is supposed to be correct), assuming Daniel’s notebook remained after Jack’s plan worked.  Calling it a “violation” is telling.

Although turned away by Eloise, he is stopped by Daniel (thankfully not showing him earlier wasn’t because they couldn’t get Jeremy Davies so they got an extra to wear a wig).  LA X Daniel has lived a life pursuing music as 815 Daniel wanted to had his mother not interfered, but he too is experiencing timeline bleed over, scribbling advanced physics equations only 815 Daniel would understand.  He believes that their timeline may be wrong and that his counterpart did something to change it.

LA X Daniel also points him in the direction of Penny, his half sister.  Making that connection, he returns to the 815 timeline.  Unlike other Desmond episodes where his consciousness jumps around the timeline like “Flashes Before Your Eyes” and “The Constant”, it’s not clear how aware 815 Desmond was of what happened to LA X Desmond since LA X Desmond didn’t react unusually as 815 Desmond did in those episodes, but it’s clear LA X Desmond knows something and wants to show the passengers of 815 something.  What that means is up for debate, but he clearly knows something about the shared fate 815 Desmond had with the rest of the plane.  Of course, that doesn’t mean he’s going to be rounding up Nikki & Paolo, but it is taking the flash sideways to an interesting place.

As 815 Desmond prepares for the next step in Widmore’s mission, Sayid ambushes them, leaves Zoe to tell the tale and takes Desmond to Johnny’s group.  Obviously Johnny has some seriously good senses to realize Desmond is there, and that he is a clear and present danger to him, more important than grabbing back Jin.

This episode was a great, vital turning point in the season.  It took an element that was questionable in its usefulness in a series’ final hours and made it relevant to the story.  While it’s unknown what plans LA X Desmond has and I’m worried about how well this storyline will be pulled off, it’s a step in the right direction.  Despite it rewarding our patience, I still wish this happened earlier.

Overall Score: 9/10