Initial Thoughts: Happily Ever After
All my favorites all rolled up in one episode. Desmond centric (I knew right there it was going to be good). Charlie, Charlie and more Charlie! And Daniel! So far all the Des centric episodes have ranked up as my favorite TV of all time and this week did not disappoint.
1. We didn’t need a “previously on Lost” this week because Des hasn’t been around yet this season. But we did get the eye opening.
2. Isn’t Liz Lemmon Zoe a geophysicist? Why is she in charge of the meds for Desmond?
3. If Ben shot Desmond then could he be working with Flocke? Was he trying to stop Desmond because he knew that Des would come back to help stop Flocke and be used by Widmore? It would also explain why Ben killed Locke, because he knew MIB needed his body.
4. We get to see behind the scenes on Hydra. But they didn’t just build this generator/time machine overnight so they must have been preparing for a long time much like when they were building the airstrip.
5. I loved the lip twitch when Widmore tells Desmond that he’s back on the island. Now THAT is acting!
6. What sacrifice did Desmond make? Did he leave his consciousness back in the new timeline and that is why he’s so docile once he gets back?
7. Desmond is touching or interacting with each of the Losties much like Jacob did with them. But, if the candidates are different this time it could explain why the numbers are different in the new time line (as they correspond with the candidates for this time line). You will see that Hurley’s lottery numbers are different and thus I think that we have different candidates here.
8. Looks like Minkowski is playing the same role the Creepy Eyed Man played in the old time line. He’s driving people where they need to go.
9. Nice scales in Widmore’s painting. White and Black rocks, just like in MIB’s cave.
10. Is Des going to have to take another sail boat trip? He was admiring the sail boat in his office – red herring or things to come?
11. I was confused. Charlie is NOT Widmore’s son. I watched the scene back and Widmore wants Charlie bailed out because, he says, he needs him to come and play with Daniel at the event. I love that Dan is now a musician, instead of a physicist. I LOVE that Widmore is sending him right to Charlie so that Charlie can help him “feel it” or see what he needs to do.
12. MacCutcheon whiskey. Now Des can finally drink it. AND toasting his “indespensibility.”
13. Interesting that Charlie can just walk across the street without getting hit. Much like how Michael couldn’t kill himself either and Jack couldn’t get the dynamite to explode.
14. Reflection, full body, in the courthouse door of Desmond.
15. Charlie says “Spectacular, conscious-altering love.” How apropos for this episode.
16. Charlie sees Claire when he’s dead?
17. I guess if you are going to get Des to do what you want then love would be the card to play. However Widmore set this up he was right to use love and Penny to get Des to see or “feel” whatever he needs him to do.
18. Choices – Des tells Charlie that there is always a choice. Then Charlie has to nearly drown (again) for Desmond to see what he’s talking about. I really didn’t need to see drowning Charlie again as that scene will haunt me forever. But we got the point brother!
19. So there were guys walking around the pier and none of them jumped in or ran over to help?
20. I thought for sure Des was going to go back to the island during the MRI since they were asking him the same questions and it’s magnetic energy. But he did take quite the crazy brain ride! Let me just say that it’s crazy and insane how the writers come up with these scenes. To think this stuff up is genius!
21. Whatever Charlie knows Desmond figures out by the end. None of “this” matters. No one in the hospital can help him.
22. Eloise is surprised to see Des. Probably because they are running at least a day ahead (according to what Zoe said to Widmore about not having the generator ready). Widmore probably sends Desmond to Eloise to let her know whatever plan is taking shape here is going forward. She tries to give him a similar warning as she did in the past. What violation is he committing? It’s almost as if she’s working on MIB’s side by trying to stop him.
23. Nice Dan reflection – his was the first one where we couldn’t actually see him but only a black shadow.
24. What is up with all these guys in love? Dan talks about Charlotte (and I love that she’s eating a chocolate bar). Then Dan wakes up and draws his advanced equations. What if Des has to set off a nuclear bomb in the new time line to stop MIB and put things back they way they should be in the original time line? That’s why Dan is back as he is COURSE CORRECTING! In the new time line the MIB is free and roaming the earth and Des has to set off the bomb to stop him and put things back the way they should be.
25. I was expecting Des to meet Jack again in the stands.
26. I can believe a lot of things on this island but if you are a woman in a huge stadium running and some guy comes up to you would you shake his hand? Would you go to coffee with him right after meeting him?
27. And he touches Penny.
28. Widmore had to know that Des was going to be taken. Why else would he send Des out where he could get nabbed? And Des must know it’s OK to go with Sayid. Maybe because Des left behind his consciousness in the new time line. He’s now started on his mission. His sacrifice is to leave Penny and Charlie behind in the old time line but he can begin again in the new time line. If that is true and new time line is a good place then Desmond can show the Losties that Dan’s plan and Juliet’s sacrifice were both worth it. why else would he need the manifest? Or maybe he needs the manifest to find the new “candidates.”
29. Sayid must have some decency in him as he tells Zoe to run instead of just killing her.
30. Just had another thought. Regarding the title – des finds his happily ever after in the new time line? charlie found his in the old time line?
April 6th, 2010 at 11:49 pm
I loved this episode. I can’t wait to see Desmond approach everyone from flight 815. Mrs. Hawking/Widmore seems to have what she wanted back – her son. Where did their sacrifices go?
April 7th, 2010 at 12:21 am
Check out that pin/broach that Eloise (aka Barbara Bush and Martha Stewart had a child) Widmore was wearing. It looks amazingly like the brand that Juliet was given way back when.
http://lostpedia.wikia.com/wiki/Juliet%27s_mark
No idea what it means, but Eloise’s jewelry has had symbolic significance in the past.
. . . and Des had another reflection in the Oceanic Flight Info Board at the airport. Any significance of him having TWO reflection moments??
. . . and of course: at 8:48 the show was redeemed. The TIE has returned.
April 7th, 2010 at 2:51 am
pretty good ep. loved the mrs hawking and faraday scenes. bout time!
April 7th, 2010 at 4:27 am
Hm. I wonder, perhaps, if Widmore thinks Desmond’s sacrifice is to become Jacob’s replacement. He definitely does not know all about the “candidate” names and “lighthouse” and “cave with names on the ceiling” because he told MIB that he knew of him from legends and myths, etc. But perhaps he knows enough that someone “special” needs to stay and be the balance for MIB. Desmond, as Widmore surmised and now knows for sure, is definitely special.
I don’t think it will be Des though. I think the “Happily Ever After” title might be a little foreshadowing (playing) from the creators and that Des will in one or both time lines actually get the proverbial “Happily Ever After”. Man’s been through a lot, brother.
Tangent topic (not of this epi directly) I think it will be Jack and Locke on the island together in the end. Last scene of last epi, the two of them sitting on the beach talking “philosophy” and verbally sparring like Jacob and MIB before, while they stare out at the sea. Perhaps an allusion to another boat or plane coming… Fade to black.
My prediction.
(‘course I’m a bit behind on the site, so unsure if GG or an avid follower has already beaten me to the punch)
April 7th, 2010 at 11:16 am
#3: I think Ben is a pawn and Flocke is an opportunist. I really think Ben was trying to get Penny to get revenge on Widmore. The still unanswered question, though, was why Widmore tried to kill Ben in the first place? Did Widmore know what would happen if Ben lived?
#22: I noticed this too. This episode seems to imply that Eloise (at least) can move between the time line seemlessly. Des and Dan can move between timelines, and many have long suspected that Jack’s mysterious injuries imply that he can move between timelines as well (even if he isn’t aware of it). Maybe we’ll find out next week that Hurley can too?
#28 I sure hope so
Overall, excellent episode! This season was slow to get going but is really moving along now.
April 7th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
Don’t we already know the reason Ben shot Desmond in the old timeline? After he got back to the main land, he went looking for Widmore, and told him that since his people killed Alex, he was going to show Widmore the pain of having your daughter killed. He went to the harbor and found them. In the process of protecting Penny and Charlie, Desmond got shot.
April 7th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
no ma’am Rachael, Desmond getting shot was unplanned. Ben did go there to kill Penny and Des came back at the wrong time. Penny never was harmed thanks to lil’ Charlie.
I am SO in love with this episode.
Though, not a fan at all the “Glamourshots-do” Eloise is kicking in this episode
Shes still got the same attitude though with I love.
OMG what am I gonna go when this show is done!!! Please tell me GG, can there be a “methadone” for Lost somewhere?
April 7th, 2010 at 4:51 pm
Right. I never said it was planned. I just said that we already knew how he got shot by Ben in response to # 3. “In the process of protecting Penny and Charlie, Desmond got shot.”
April 7th, 2010 at 6:34 pm
Am I the only person who thinks Desmond is horribly, horribly overrated? Sure, he’s a nice guy, but I’ll lay out his entire character in three bullet points:
1. Scottish
2. In love
3. Time traveling
That’s it. There are no other defining aspects to his character. I think you people hear his sweet accent and see his general shirtlessness and forget that he is and will always be more of a plot device than an actual character. Not that he’s unlikable. I enjoy watching him. But he sure as hell shouldn’t be making any shortlists for best character.
And another thing: I kind of thought the writers were done with all this stupid sci-fi bullshit last year with the end of the time travelling stuff. But now, apparently, we get to put up with another half season of chalking everything that happens on the show up to electromagnetism. I don’t see why the writers are fooling around with this cheap sci-fi whore when they have a perfectly good story of a centuries-old contest to decide the fate of mankind waiting at home. You know, the kind of thing the ENTIRE SERIES is based on? What should I care about this whole Jacob/mib story when it seems to be rendered meaningless by the alt. timeline? Just get the fanservice Scotsman’s story over with, and get back to stuff that is actually interesting.
April 7th, 2010 at 6:59 pm
re: Name
Ouch.
I’m a guy so Des doesn’t “do it” for me, but I think there is more more to his character than your three points. Honestly, you could apply that treatment to quite a few characters. Jin anyone?
As for the sci-fi, I wish they’d go more sci-fi – not to be confused with fantasy – and less what I consider the tired “centuries-old contest to decide the fate of mankind”. Sci-fi has a basis in reality and keeps some ties to how we might get from here to wherever the sci-fi elements come into play. Fantasy – well, everything is out the window. Unicorns and giant frozen wooden wheels.
One of my biggest problems with where the show has gone is it went from very interactive where fans could theorize and come up with plausible explanations – based even loosely on reality – as to what was happening in the show to anything goes. Now you just sit back and watch – it’s a non interactive theme park ride. A high-end one, don’t get me wrong, but there is just no way to predict “and then a miracle occurs” storyline twists.
April 7th, 2010 at 10:31 pm
Re SKID’s comment I noticed the broach too. Do you think it is a reference two the parallel time lines?
Did anyone else fell this was getting a little Matrix like?
April 7th, 2010 at 11:40 pm
Scott:
I see where you’re coming from. For me, Lost was never really this “interactive experience.” I’ve always enjoyed being wowed more than overanalyzing something and coming to a conclusion that doesn’t satisfy me. Cooper being the original Sawyer, the Claire/Jack connection, Alt-Jin and Alt-Sun being unwed were all kind of ruined for me when I figured them out. I really enjoy the amazement when something unexpected happens. That’s why Locke not being Locke last season was one of my favorite scenes of all time It was so out of left field, yet made so much sense when I looked back at it.
I don’t know, I’m not into the science as much. If all this can be boiled down to the interaction of certain subatomic particles with other subatomic particles, then why should I care? I don’t want the show to be realistic. I want to be taken someplace that’s completely different from our world. I want to find out why the hell there are Egyptian hieroglyphs all over the place. I mean, if it’s all about the way electromagnetism works and Faraday doing equations, why would concepts like destiny and fate and whatnot even be important? I like the mythology so much more than the science because it seems like then there’s some point to what goes on on the island. So it’s all pockets of electromagnetism. Whoop-de-doo. How does that explain the terrifying bearded man who croaked “Help me” in the cabin?
But I guess that’s the difference between you and me. At the risk of sounding corny and showing off how unhealthily obsessed I am with this show, I have to say that I’m a man of faith while you’re a man of science. And it’s great that we have a show that lets us enjoy both.
April 8th, 2010 at 11:27 am
My wife noticed this. Every love story was someones half sibling. clair (jacks half)+ charlie, Penny (dan’s half) + desmond, Dan (penny’s half) + Charlotte. kind of weird how most charcters are either total individuals, or inter connected. not sure how this relates to the rest of the story, but thought i would bring it up.