Lost 6.11 – "Happily Ever After"

Lost 6.11 – "Happily Ever After"

Apr 08

Last time on LOST:

In every universe, Jin and Sun are in love.
In every universe, Patchy loses an eye.
Everybody loves Keamy.
Jungle Strike Tina Fey is bad at planning, raiding, following orders.
Sawyer likes cocoa.
Widmore wants Jin to see his package.
The Island? Totes not done with Desmond.

So, what about this week, brother?

Corporate bagman Desmond Hume needs to get rocker Charlie Pace to skinny-tie-wearing Daniel Widmore’s bash in time. But can a straight-laced businessman and a strung out bass player do anything by the book? Unless that book is titled “How To Crash Your Car Into The Fucking Ocean,” the answer is a resounding NO. And who is Penny?

Meanwhile, on the island, C. Wids is experimenting with electromagnetism to see if it will kill Desmond (it doesn’t) and Sayid rescues Desmond just before he could learn useful information about what Widmore is up to. Typical! Oh, LOST, can’t you ever avoid a comedic timing mishap? Wah wah wah.

“Happily Ever After” may be the best episode of the season to date. Desmond episodes are always some of each season’s stronger episodes and are usually the episodes that help to construct the spine of LOST‘s mythology.  Instead of just flashing through time, as he’s wont to do, this episode focuses on Desmond flashing between the 2007 Island timeline and the 2004 mirror universe.  And of course, we find that Mirror Desmond’s life is great on the surface…but it’s not as rosy as you’d expect. Desmond is working for Charles Widmore in an ill-defined ‘right-hand man’ role that gives him a giant pile of money, lots of travel and absolutely no friends or family.  Contrast this with our Desmond, who lived a pretty mendicant life (ex-monk, ex-military, ex-sailboat racer, ex-button pusher)  in order to earn the loving family that he eventually gets and always wanted.

Or did he?

As the cryptic and canny Eloise Widmore (formerly Hawking) points out to Desmond, the universe has given him what he wants – the approval of Charles Widmore.  With that revelation – clack! – the pieces fall into place.  That’s what explains the major divergences in the mirror lives of our losties.  Hurley is lucky. Sawyer is a white hat. Jack is a parent. Locke has a relationship with his father that apparently doesn’t include attempted windowcide. It makes sense, but how does Eloise know this?

Out of all of the outstanding mysteries that I don’t expect we’ll ever get answered, ‘what is her deal, anyway?’ is the most frustrating. I mean, she shows up, gives cryptic info about the metaplot like it’s Halloween candy and then bam, nothing. This is a woman who orchestrated her own son’s murder at her own past self’s hands and who knows unknowable secrets about ‘the universe’.

Another interesting element of this week’s ep is Desmond’s flashback (flash-forward) to Charlie’s death in the season 3 finale. In most of our other flash sideways scenes, we’ve had characters experiencing odd deja vu moments where they almost recognize that something’s off before their reality reasserts itself.  Usually, these happen in front of mirrors. They’ve been ambiguous – how much do the characters know?  But this week’s deja vu moments makes it clear beyond a shadow of a doubt that Mirror Desmond remembers at least a flash of the other timeline, as evidenced when he wigs out when drowning Charlie presses his hand against the glass and Des recalls “NOT PENNY’S BOAT.”  We get further confirmation of this when Daniel confesses to having a similar dissociative experience after seeing Charlotte for the first time.  The universe, Eloise told us way back in season 3, course corrects, and if the sidewaysverse isn’t the way it’s supposed to be (as strongly suggested by this episode) the continued cute intersections of our losties back in LA is not just coincidence. And now that the lid is off that particular revelation, it looks like Desmond’s going to start kicking the back end of the season into high gear, brother.