LOST Revisited: 6-11 “Happily Ever After”
We learn that Widmore has had to move an experiment ahead, even though testing hadn’t been completed yet. There’s a weird box off of the Hydra station, and Widmore’s people are checking gauges and video feeds. We see a rabbit, intended as the test subject, because that’s what rabbits are for on the Island. The rabbit’s name, by the way, is Angstrom. An angstrom is a microscopic unit of length, generally used to describe the wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation. Widmore’s people are not very creative when it comes to naming things. When the test doesn’t work, one of them, Simmons, goes into the box and we see what appear to be two massive copper coils. And now we learn why Island Tina Fey gets so much responsibility in this organization – one of the dopes flips the switch while Simmons is still in there and he gets burnt to a crisp.
Apparently, that’s enough of a test for Widmore, as he directs his guys to load Desmond into the box. Widmore explains to an angry Desmond that “Once this is over, I’m going to ask you to make a sacrifice”. So, first he tosses Des in the death box, and then asks for a sacrifice. There isn’t much in this for Desmond, really. But if he doesn’t make this sacrifice, then Penny and Baby Charlie and everybody he loves “will be gone”. Last week, he told Jin that Sun and Ji Yeon would “cease to be” – his choice of words consistently indicates something different than dying – it points to a removal from existence. He explains to Jin that Desmond survived a cataclysmic electromagnetic event, and they need to make sure he can do it again. You know, one would be enough for most people. They fire up the box, and Desmond gets blasted.
I assume the box was there already, and that it’s not something Widmore built – it’s wired into the Hydra Station itself, so it seems like a pre-existing structure. Remember, the Hydra Station is where Walt was held captive. And remember way back in Season Three, when Benry told Locke about a magic box that could give him anything he wanted? It was made clear that there wasn’t a literal magic box, but it’s such a strange concept, and now we find out that they really did have an electromagnetic box that was meant to do… something. And we really have to wonder what Widmore needs Desmond for. Is he going to try to destroy the Island with the electromagnetic energy? Does he want to destroy Smokey? But that all takes a back seat this week, because it’s all about Timeline X this time out.
And now we see Desmond X in the airport. Hurley directs him to the baggage carousel (Carousel 4 – good thing it wasn’t Carousel 23 or 42. That would be a long way to walk.) Des then helps Claire with her bag, and they make polite chatter. And then it gets awesome, because he meets the driver who’s picking him up. That driver is Fisher Stevens, but around here we know him as George Minkowski.
Minkowski appeared in Season Four – he worked on the freighter. At one time, he tried to take a raft out to the Island. He didn’t make it, but when he returned to the freighter, he was unstuck in time (like Desmond). Since he didn’t have a Constant, he died horribly. And now he’s a chauffeur. I’m really enjoying seeing all the dead characters come back for a last appearance, but Minkowski is just about the last guy I expected to see again. Minkowski (they don’t use his last name in the episode, but that’s how I think of him) offers to hook Desmond up with some ladies, because he’s that kind of driver. But Des is all business – he has to get to work.
In Timeline X, not only does Desmond work for Widmore, but they’re buddies. It is weird to see those two in a man-hug. Widmore’s got a job for Desmond – there’s a charity event, and his son the classical musician (we all know who that is) is performing with Drive Shaft. But as we know, Drive Shaft’s bass player is a junkie who got arrested on the flight. Desmond’s going to have to keep an eye on one Charlie Pace and get him to the performance in one piece. So Desmond’s going to have to take care of Charlie and keep him out of trouble? That seems vaguely familiar.
They talk a little more, and Widmore mentions how lucky Desmond is not to have any attachments. He offers Des a shot of McCutcheon’s whiskey. That is, of course, the good stuff on Lost. I seem to remember a flashback where Widmore refused to let Desmond have a glass of McCutcheon’s because he didn’t deserve it. I’ll have to get the specifics later, but this is a nice inversion. And “no attachments”? Yep, things are different for Desmond X.
As soon as Desmond picks Charlie up from the police station, Charlie promptly walks across the street to a bar. The way he walks without paying attention to the traffic as Desmond rushes behind is a nice callback to all those times that Des was busy saving his life for another day.
Inside the bar, there’s a big neon sign that says “Exceptional Island Colors”, at least as far as I can make out. That makes me think of the way the sky turned purple during the “cataclysmic electromagnetic event”. And now, we really get into the big stuff as Charlie asks Desmond about love. See, on the plane, he figured that the Marshall could tell he was carrying, so he went into the bathroom to swallow his heroin, and we remember how well that worked. Interestingly, despite what he implied when he berated Jack for saving him, it wasn’t a suicide attempt. But as he was drifting toward the light, he saw a beautiful blonde woman and he felt true love. Presumably, this was Claire that he saw. And he says that what he saw was “real – I’ve seen the truth”. This is a recurring idea this week – the idea that what they’re experiencing isn’t what’s real.
Charlie continues on with this point while they’re in the car, and then grabs the wheel and drives them right into the ocean. Desmond gets out of the car, but he can’t initially free Charlie. And then Charlie puts his hand up to the window, in a near perfect imitation of his death scene in the regular timeline. And then Desmond flashes to that scene and sees the phrase ‘Not Penny’s Boat’ written on Charlie’s hand, and jolts back to Charlie X, whose hand is unadorned.
Oh, yeah. Desmond X can perceive our timeline. Obviously, if anybody could do it, it would be him. But how does it happen? Does he briefly switch places with the Desmond in the regular timeline, much as he used to switch with his past self? Are Desmond and Desmond X one and the same, and this was a brief moment of Desmond seeing behind the curtain? This is bigger than the mystery wounds and addled memories of Jack X – this is Desmond X actually experiencing something that another version of himself experienced. The cracks in Timeline X are starting to show.
Next, Desmond’s in the hospital. He can’t honestly answer the doctor’s question as to whether he’s been hallucinating, which is pretty funny. The doctor schedules him for an MRI, and given that the M stands for “Magnetic”, you can already see where this is going to go. I think Desmond skips through time if he walks past a display of refrigerator magnets at this point. His MRI is one of the more realistic I’ve seen on TV – they don’t usually show the headgear, even on medical shows. And once the machine starts up, Desmond X starts to see flashes of regular Desmond’s relationship with Penny – it’s much like what Charlie described, but he’s seeing specifics. Charlie just spoke of vague feelings, while Des is seeing actual events that his other self witnessed.
Desmond hits the panic button and decides that finding Charlie is more important than an MRI. While looking for him, he runs across Jack X, who remembers Des from the flight. At this point, Charlie comes running through in a hospital gown, and the way he runs is absolutely hilarious. Desmond finally catches him and asks “Who’s Penny?” Charlie doesn’t know, but recommends Desmond start trying to find her. Charlie leaves, though it’s hard to say where he’s going to go in that hospital gown.
Charlie says something interesting – “None of this matters. What matters is that we felt it.” If we go back to the idea that Smokey somehow created Timeline X as a distraction, a world where he’s giving everybody what they want, then truly, none of the specifics matter. Their feelings are what matters, if this is a world created to pacify them. My friend Sean pointed out that this world is their Xanadu – it’s a pleasure dome to distract them from what’s real. This is a recurring theme in mythology, pleasures that take the hero from his quest. Like Castle Anthrax in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Widmore doesn’t take the news about the failed Drive Shaft reunion well, so he passes it off on Desmond to explain it to his wife. You know, his wife Eloise. That’s right, White Oracle is Mrs. Widmore in Timeline X. When we first see her, she’s chewing out the caterers over a minor infraction, and she’s totally Emily Gilmore. Still, she’s very nice to Desmond and accepts his news about Charlie. In fact, she says “What happened, happened”. We’ve previously heard that from Faraday, and in the present tense from Look-a-Locke. And in fact, it’s a very White Oracle thing to say, given her usual role as the protector of destiny. But when Desmond hears the name “Penny” and asks to see the guest list, she changes her tune.
She freaks out on Desmond. And it’s supposedly about the guest list, but it’s not really about the guest list. As seen in the quote at the top, she’s talking about something bigger, and it’s a little bit chilling how angry she is. She wants him to stop looking for whatever it is that he’s looking for. He can’t see the list because he isn’t ready yet. Ready to see the list?
This is big. Because she’s not talking about what she seems to be talking about. She, as she so often does, is talking about something bigger. Now, in our timeline, Eloise would go to any lengths to make sure that the things that were supposed to happen actually happened. She drove her son away from music and toward science so that he’d end up on the Island in the past where she would kill him. She preserves the sanctity of the timeline at any cost. And Timeline X seems to be a big whopper of a problem in that regard.
In our timeline, she was gentle but insistent with Desmond. She even explained herself, as well as she could under the circumstances. Here, she’s angry. She’s upset that Desmond doesn’t see things the way he’s supposed to. And remember, in Timeline X, they’ve never met before. Those are some weird things to say about somebody you’ve known for forty seconds. What she’s telling Desmond is not to question anything about his life and the world around him. And why would she say that? Why is she so desperate to make sure that he stop looking? Because if he looks too deeply into it, the illusion will fall apart. Timeline X only holds up as long as everybody involved accepts its reality. Remember the anagram from “Dr. Linus”? “A cloned world nearly dies”. If Desmond doesn’t believe it, then it can’t continue to exist.
And if we accept that this is the reason for her outburst, there’s one more logical step. In Timeline X, Eloise is actually Smokey. This is a world without the Island – remember that, per Jacob, the Island itself is the cork that holds the evil in. No Island, no cork. It seems to me that Smokey is not a prisoner in Timeline X, yet we haven’t really seen any sign of him. And now we have somebody uncharacteristically demanding that Desmond not question the illusion. I really think Eloise X is the Monster.
Desmond returns to the limo, but he’s followed by a familiar face. It’s Faraday! Only in this timeline, Daniel Faraday is actually Daniel Widmore. Daniel wants to talk to Desmond about love at first sight. See, Daniel went to the museum where he saw Charlotte, and he had an experience similar to Charlie’s. Slightly different, since this was actually spurred by the sight of the person, rather than a near death experience. And then, the musician Daniel Widmore drew up some equations that he couldn’t possibly have known, though Daniel Faraday would have. Essentially, the equations describe altering time with a huge release of energy. That seems like exactly what Faraday came up with to justify detonating Jughead, actually.
“What if this wasn’t supposed to be our life? What if we had some other life, and for some reason, we changed things?” Faraday thinks that he somehow did change history with a nuclear bomb. It’s interesting, first, that he assumes the life that he’s living isn’t the right one. Rather than assuming that this was something theoretical that could happen, he assumes that it’s something that did happen. Of course, we know that Timeline X couldn’t have been created by the detonation of a hydrogen bomb, since Widmore, Eloise, and the fetal version of Daniel were all on the Island when the bomb would have gone off.
The point is, Daniel seems to realize that things aren’t right. And he might even know more than that, because he gets the bright idea to introduce Desmond to his half-sister, Penny. And why didn’t Desmond know about his boss’ daughter? In this timeline, Widmore ended up married to Eloise, so Penny is either his daughter with his first wife, or a dirty little secret from an affair.
Desmond goes to meet her at the very same stadium where he met Jack in our timeline. Penny is jogging up the stairs, and I’m totally waiting for a “See you in another life, brother”. He introduces himself, and when he touches hands with Penny, his Constant, we return to our timeline.
In the box, Desmond survived the test, to Widmore’s delight. He tells Desmond that his talent is vital, and now Desmond is OK with it. In fact, he’s happy. As Island Tina Fey and some guys lead him back, Sayid attacks. I did not see that coming. He kills one of the guards, and ITF runs away. Sayid leads him away, and Desmond is OK with this too. Desmond seems to be just fine with whatever happens at this point.
This takes us back to Timeline X, where he fainted after shaking Penny’s hand. After some awkwardness, she agrees to meet him for coffee. Desmond goes back to his limo and gives Minkowski a task – he wants the manifest from Flight 815. He wants the names of all the passengers because “I just need to show them something”.
Now, why is Desmond suddenly on board with Widmore? Does he think that if anything happens in this world, there’s another world and another Penny? And then he’s happy to leave with Sayid as well. Desmond seems to believe that everything’s going to be all right. If he gives his life to save everybody here, there’s a back-up Desmond who is on his way to living happily ever after. This would indicate that Desmond has full knowledge of Desmond X, actually.
And what is he going to show the passengers of Flight 815? Is he going to implode Timeline X by exposing them to the illusion? If so, how does he know that Flight 815 is key to the existence of this Timeline? Is that knowledge coming over from our Desmond? At this point, I’m mystified as to his plans in either Timeline.
That’s a lot to think about for now – let me know what you think, and I’ll assemble it for the Pre-Game. Feel free to post your thoughts in the comments, e-mail me at ejfeddes@spunkybean.com or hit me up on Facebook. And if you haven’t had enough of me yet, remember to check out Spectacularry, where spunkybuddy Larry Young interviewed me and I talk about Lost a lot. As I tend to do.
