"Happily Ever After" (and a mini-take on "The Package")

"That man is the only person, that I'm aware of, in the world that has survived a catatrophic electromagnetic event. I need to know that he can do it again, or we all die."

Greetings Losties!

Long time, no blog! I'm sorry for going MIA last week, but between Passover and another setup story - which was pretty good, but I just didn't have bloodlust over - I just didn't have the juice to write it all up.

Thankfully, this week's episode, "Happily Ever After" was AMAZING! Some are calling in their favorite episode this season. I think it's tied for me with "Ab Aeterno" - that shit rocked! Anyway, it's a Desmond episode - ALL Desmond, the WHOLE time - whoo! If you're a Henry Ian Cusiak fan, as I am, you've been mildly jonesing for him all season -- feeling the tease of the opening credits bearing his name, and yet episode after episode sans Desmond - NO! So, Tuesday night (again sorry for the late posting this week, it's my Spring Break - hee!) we Desmond groupies finally got our fix - yay!

Let's start with a BREIF overview of what happened in last week's episode, "The Package" -- just to highlight the main points and bring us all up to speed. Let's do it Jacob-style!

Note: Just a reminder, Timeline A (TA) will be the on-island timeline and Timeline B (TB) will be the off-island timeline.

"The Package"

TIMELINE A

1. Jin talks to Flocke - Flocke tells him that his name is on the big wall-list of candidates. Flocke tells Jin he's working on getting Sun to join the party.
2. Sayid tells Flocke he feels nothing - Flocke tells him that's probably not a bad thing. Weird, considering that Claire (who's apparently stricken with the same disease -- although, wasn't she innoculated by Ethan?) feels strongly...
3. When Flocke leaves, Jin starts to leave as well, to go find Sun. He is stopped by a storm of sleepy darts - it's Widmore's crew. They ID Jin and take him with thim.
4. Back at the beach, Ilana tells the group that they need to wait for Richard to tell them what to do. Sun is PISSED - seeing as how Richard's gone all batshit crazy (as far as they know).
5. Sun goes to farm her little garden. Jack gives her a pep talk - Sun doesn't seem to care as much about being a candidate as Jack does. The tomatoes are apparently dead.
6. Flocke shows up, offers to take Sun to Jin, Sun doesn't take his bait and RUNS. She pulls a Sonny Bono and runs into a tree - losing her consciousness and her English.
7. Flocke returns to camp to find everyone unconsious and Jin gone. He is PISSED.
8. Jin is Rom 23 - remember that from Season 2? Where Ben was brainwashing Alex's boyfriend Karl?
9. Zoe comes to talk to Jin about areas of high electromagnitism that he apparently mapped out when he was in the Dharma initiative.
10. Claire is pissed that her names on the wall. Flocke tells her that Kate's pretty expendable, but that he needs everyone on the plane. Flocke says that Kate's fair game once they leave.
11. Flocke and Sayid go to get Jin back.
12. Sun can't speak English.
13. Richard shows up and says they need to blow up Aijra 316. Sun is PISSED.
14. Widmore has anti-smokey pylons set up - he and Flocke have a little chat. Flocke wants Jin back. Widmore says he doesn't have him. Now, it's war.
15. Widmore shows Jin Sun's camera, with pictures of his (unseen until now) daughter, Ji-Yeon. Now Jin is on Widmore's side.
16. Widmore has a weapon.
17. It's Desmond.
18. And Sayid is playing Ocean commando - so he knows it's Desmond, also. This will play a key role in this week's episode.

TIMELINE B

1. Jin loses $25,000 at customs, he's pissed.
2. Jin and sun go to check into a hotel, where we learn they're NOT married.
3. Jin and Sun get it on - they are in lurve. Sun looks poingnantly at herself in the mirror. She wants to run away - she says she's got a secret account and she and Jin should leave her father. She has something else to tell him, but they get interuppted by Keamy and goons. Keamy wants his $25,000. They don't speak English, so Keamy gets his buddy, Mikahail.
4. Sun offers the pay the money, but it turns out that Mr. Paik has closed her accounts because he doesn't want her to be with Jin. Mikahail takes Sun to the bank and Keamy takes Jin to the restaurant (where he has an encounter with Sayid).
5. Keamy tells Jin (who can't understand English) that the money was his fee, to kill Jin. That Mr. Paik already knows about the two of them.
6. Then Sayid kills Keamy. After finding Jin, he offers him a box cutter to free himself, but no direct help.
7. Mikahail shows up with Sun, sees the ambush, then gets killed (through the eye).
8. Sun is shot. And she's pregnant.

NOW, back to "Happily Ever After" --

A LOT happened this week - let's recap and then discuss.

"Happily Ever After"

TIMELINE A

1. Desmond wakes up on the island - the last thing he remembers was being in the hospital, after having been shot by Ben at the marina.
2. Widmore tells him what's up and Desmond is PISSED. He attacks Widmore with his IV.
3. Widmore decides it's time to run their test NOW, so he can show an inquisitive Jin WHY Desmond is his secret weapon.
4. Zoe and some random new kid lead Jin past a large generator into a control room with a white bunny in a cage (just in time for Easter!). Instead of Ingstram the Bunny going into the generator, Rob the Intern (totally not his name, but my take on it) accidentally fries off his face. And we make the connection, they're gonna put Desmond in there??? NO!
5. They lock him in (which he does NOT like), then turn on the full juice.
6. Widmore says he's the only man in the world that he knows of who's survived a catastrophic electromagnetic event and lived. He needs to know if he can do it again, or everyone will die.
   
7. Desmond wakes up PERFECTLY fine.
8. In fact, he seems enlightened, and somewhat possessed, like Sayid.
9. Widmore helps him up and apologizes.
10. Desmond says he understands - "You told me you brought me here to the island to do something very important, when do we start?" All psycho-eyes.
11. Zoe asks Desmond what brought about the change.
12. A serene, calm, omscienct Desmond gives her sly smile.
13. Sayid bursts out of the bushes, killing two to Desmond's handlers and telling Zoe to RUN.
14. Sayid tells Desmond that the people he's with are extremely dangerous and that Desmond has to go with him, right now. Desmond puts up NO argument - he's pretty amiable.

TIMELINE B

1. Desmond has a mirror moment with his reflectionin the Ocean Arrivals/Departures sign.
2. Hurly tells Desmond where to find their bags from the flight.
3. Desmond helps Claire with her bag, tells her she's having a boy.
4. Desmond meets up with his driver - George Minkowski (remember him from "The Constant"?). Cool! Minkowski wants to get Des a hooker. NOT Cool!
5. Desmond goes to see his employer/buddy - big reveal - WIDMORE! They hug, WTF?!? And more importantly, they hug in front of a large painting of a giant scale holding a black and white rock. Hmm...
6. Widmore asks Desmond to help him out - his son, the musician, is playing at his wife's charity event - coupling classical with pop, bringing in a band called "Driveshaft".
7. Widmore tasks Desmond with babysitting the band's heroin-addict bass player, Charlie Pace. Widmore apparently pulled some strings and got him released from jail. They drink McHutcheon, 60-year-old Scotch and trade happy fluffy thoughts.
8. Desmond goes to pick up Charlie, who promptly walks straight into traffic to a bar (Jax's).
9. At the bar, they drink and Charlie's a jerk. But he talks about the moment he almost died - choking on the heroin bag in the plane bathroom. He talks about how he felt love - he saw a blonde woman (Claire?) and felt real love. That's kind of why he wants to die.
10. Back in the car, Charlie's song comes on the radio. Charlie offers Desmond an out, and then steers the car into the ocean.
11. Desmond manages to escape underwater, but Charlie doesn't even look like he's trying to get out.
12. Desmond surfaces and then goes back under, getting a deja vu feeling of when the two of them blew up part of the Looking Glass station at the end of season 3. P.S. How utterly creepy did Charlie look underwater? He looked possessed! Damn!
13. After the accident, Desmond's in the hospital. A doctor shines a small flashlight into his eyes -- just the way they did in "The Constant" to bring him back to the correct time period.
14. He has to get an MRI. He's asked if he's wearing any metal (which is funny, because before they electrocuted him on the island, the technician asked him the same thing - heh!).
15. He's told that the proces will take a half an hour of complete stillness - he's offered a panic button, in case he panics. When the button is mentioned, Desmond reacts with panic, "Button?" he asks in a scared voice -- remember, this is the man, who in the other timeline, spent YEARS pushing a damn button!
16. In the machine, Desmond flashes over to the timline. "Not Penny's Boat," kissing Penny, the birth of their child, and when he hears her voice say "Desmond" he pushes the panic button and gets the hell out of there.
17. Up at the help desk, Desmond's trying to find Charlie and runs into Dr. Shepard. Desmond asks him for his help, but Jack doesn't get to help as Charlie goes running through the hospital hallway in nothing but a backless gown. Desmond chases him.
18. Desmond asks Charlie why he tried to kill him. Charlie said he wasn't trying to kill him, only to SHOW him.
19. Desmond wants to see Charlie's hand - presumably to see if "Not Penny's Boat" is till written on it. It's not. But it shows Charlie that Desmond DID see something.
20. And he's not going to Mrs. Widmore's charity event. So there. Oh, and Charlie says that Desmond should stop worrying about Mrs. Widmore and start looking for Penny.
21. Desmond reports to Widmore that the Charlie situation is all bad. Widmore says, fine, but Desmond has to tell Mrs. Widmore, cuz Wimore ain't dealin' with that shit!
22. Mrs. Widmore is Mrs. Hawking (with BIG hair!) and she is wearing a very interesting pin -- two parallel lines, each with a star burst -- like two timelines, divided by an explosion...?
23. Mrs. W doesn't even blink when Desmond says that Drive Shaft is a no-show. She even goes as far as to say, "What happened, happened."
24. Desmond overhears a "Penny Milton" is on the guest list, he asks to take a look at the list and Mrs. W LOSES it.
25. She pulls Des away for a private chat - she tells him that he can't go looking for Penny, it's a violation of the rules, and that he's not ready yet.
26. Desmond goes for a drink in his car, when he's interuppted by Mrs. W's son, the musician, Daniel Widmore (or as his friends know him, Faraday).
27. Faraday (I'm sorry, he'll always be Faraday to me) asks Desmond if he believes in love at first sight. He tells Desmond that he saw this beautiful redhead (Charlotte) and felt that he already knew and loved her. That night he went to sleep and when he woke up he wrote a bunch of SUPER-advanced physics equations that he doesn't even understand (because, hey, he's just a musician).
28. He theorizes that this timeline isn't supposed to be their lives, that they had some other life, but that they changed things.This leads him to the conclusion that he's blown up a hydrogen bomb, in the past in order to release a huge pocket of energy.
29. Faraday tells Desmond where he can find Penny, his half-sister.
30. Desmond finds her, as we found Desmond, doing a stadium set.
31. They chat and the connection they have is undeniable. When they shake hands he passes out. The whole thing would be kind of psycho-stalker if Cusiak weren't so darn cute!
32. When he wakes up they feel like they already know each other. So they arrange to meet for coffee. He's glowing with love and satisfaction.
33. Desmond asks Minkowski to get him the manifest to the Oceanic 815 flight - he has something he needs to share with all the passengers!

Things to note -- I've read articles t hat talk about loss of consciousness being a form of enlightenment. Thus, if you pay close attention to where the breaks in the timelines shift, they always seem to happen as character loses consciousness (or at the commercial break - which isn't as telling, but a logical shifting point). This was beginning to be highlighted in "The Package" and then became readily obvious in "Happily Ever After." When we first meet Desmond, he's on the island and doesn't shift to the off-island timeline until he's put through the generator, then doesn't shift back until he's in the MRI machine, then again when he passes out meeting Penny. Coincidence? I don't think so!

Now, what was truly exciting about this episode was that it finally offered up some concrete theory as to the connection of the two timelines. They DO connect! The only thing I'm not sure of is how. And also, what the heck does it all mean? I mean, Charlie wants to get back to the old timeline (running into traffic, driving into the ocean, etc.), but why? In the old timeline, he's dead. He' s been dead for awhile. Yes, he experienced the love of a hottie blonde woman, but not anymore. In the old timeline, she's gone crazy. He's dead and she's crazy, so why is that, "love"? And why the heck are they trying to get back to that? I'm so confused!

Also, how did Daniel deduce that from the equations he wrote post-sleep, that he'd blown up a nuclear bomb in an alternate universe?!? I mean, we were given the notion that he was trying to get his head around it, but because in the new reality he's a musician, he didn't have the knowledge to figure it out 100%, just had a vague glimmer of what he might have done. I don't know... I need more on this.

Can I just say, I love, love, love the combo of Henry Ian Cusiak and Sonya Walger - I mean, the pair sizzles when they are on the screen. I don't know why I love them together so much, but I'm always rooting for them. I feel like the majority of Lost fans feel the same way.

At this point, with only five episodes left, bodies better start dropping and answers better start coming. I'm ready for the big battle, the war. Let's do this thing already!

Which brings us to...

TARA'S BIG LIST OF LOST QUESTIONS

1. How did Charles kidnap Desmond from the Los Angeles hospital?
2. Where are Penny and little Charlie?
3. Why did Desmond follow Sayid?
4. Is Desmond possessed by something?
5. Who's Desmond really working for?
6. What does Desmond know that the rest of us don't?
7. What is the mission that Charles needs Desmond for?
8. Who is Charles working for? Jacob? Himself?
9. How did Charles find out about Desmond's "talent"? I mean, did he hear about the fail-safe key incident? And if so, how?
10. What is the sacrifice that Charles said Desmond has to make?
11. How can Desmond survive such extreme exposure to electromagnetism?
12. What makes Desmond so special?
13. What did Eloise Widmore refer to when she was talking about a violation?
14. How much does Eloise know about the nature of the timeline? Where did she get her knowledge?
15. How does Eloise know so much in general? She's the lady to know!
16. How and when did Charles and Eloise leave the Island?
17. If Charles is with Eloise, how did he father Penny? Who's Penny's Mom?
18. Why is Penny's last name Milton? Or was that even the same Penny?
19. Ooh! And from last week, what are the consequences of Sun getting shot in one timeline? Will that effect Ji-Yeon?
20. What the heck does Desmond need the flight manifest for? What is he going to show them? Is he planning to go all Charlie and put them in near-death experiences? And that's a lot of people to visit in five episodes!

Start planning finale parties - May 23rd people! I'm thinking of hosting something at my place, so let me know if there's any interest! Any creative ideas for Lost-themed party food?

Namaste, Losties!

See you next week!