S6Ep11 - "Happily Ever After" Recap and Analysis, by Erika

Here is the Episode 6.11 recap from Erika Olson (aka "e") from LongLiveLocke.com.

Was this the worst episode ever, or what?

HA, I kid. Here are my overall thoughts on and random remarks about "Happily Ever After."

- When Des woke up and Widmore was explaining where he was, did you catch that little twitch on Des's face near his mouth? I was like, "Oh, lord, he is going to UNLEASH!" And that's of course what happened.

- For once I was semi-right about something... last week I guessed that Des was needed because he'd turned the failsafe key and had absorbed some sort of electromagnetic property within himself. And that does look to be the reason Widmore needs him. This week we only saw them testing Desmond to see if he could still withstand an EM surge... so it's still not clear exactly what else Zoe and her team are trying to accomplish with Desmond's help. Since Widmore mentioned "sacrifice," the obvious guess is that whatever they intend to use Desmond for will kill him. I'm envisioning dropping him down into one of the Island's other electromagnetic pockets or something like that. But I still don't really understand why... I don't understand what doing something like that would achieve... unless Widmore needs everyone to go back in time AGAIN and either 1) not detonate Jughead, 2) not ever let Charlie turn off the blocking signal and/or not ever let Jack make contact with the freighter, or 3) something else. But since Widmore controlled the freighter, #2 doesn't really make sense. Hell, NONE of it makes sense. Anyone have any ideas as to what exactly Widmore is trying to use Desmond for and more importantly, why? If it doesn't have to do with "undoing" something, what could he be up to? Is there something related to the electromagnetic energy that Widmore suspects will rid the Island of the MIB once and for all?

- Once Des went into the EM surge I knew we'd see Alt Flight 815 again. But the weird thing was that when Des paused at the arrival board, Flight 815 was the only flight showing no status. In light of everything else that happened in this episode, I found that odd -- like maybe it's a clue that this timeline is still in "flux" status -- more on that later. (And remember in my premiere write-up I mentioned that Des had a wedding ring? Well, clearly he's not married in the Alt. So either that was just a production error or something SO bizarre is going on that it is totally beyond my abilities to decipher.)



- I also was not surprised to see Des working for Widmore. Did you notice that in Widmore's office there was no longer a painting of a polar bear but rather one of what looked to be Jacob and the MIB's stone scale?



- So Des and Widmore are all lovey-dovey and Widmore is sharing drinks of MacCutcheon's with his favorite employee... even though in the original timeline he said Des wasn't worthy. Then he gives him the assignment of looking after Charlie. I immediately thought something bizarre was going on when, after his release from jail, Charlie just walked right into traffic. Knowing what we know now, I'm figuring that he was either trying to have another near-death experience in order to have a vision of (presumably) Claire again, OR he didn't think he could be killed.

- Des ended up having his two flashes of Penny (within the sideways-flashes of the overall episode) when 1) he, like Charlie choking on the plane, was also in a life-or-death situation -- nearly drowning in order to save Charlie, and 2) he was experiencing another form of radiation in the MRI machine.

- After his talks with Charlie, Des figured out that something odd was going on. He became determined to find Penny, and when he got thisclose, Eloise (who's married to Widmore in this version of events) told him to "stop looking." Very similar to how she tried to prevent him from buying the engagement ring in the original timeline. Did you notice how she had a mini panic attack when Des first showed up, too? So obviously Eloise knows what's going on and might be the only character who always knows what's up, no matter what timeline it is. (It's not clear that Widmore has any clue that something strange is afoot.) And since in "Flashes Before Your Eyes" she wore the telling Ouroboros broach, I figured her pins this time meant something... so thanks to LLL reader David E J for suggesting that they might represent parallel timelines.

- Drumroll, please... and a big round of applause for The Return of the Skinny Tie (and its owner, Faraday, of course)! While I was thrilled to see him again, I did think his conversation with Des was a little far-fetched (which I realize is kind of silly for me to say in the context of this show). I mean, connecting his out-of-nowhere journal scribblings with quantum mechanics is one thing... but then connecting that to the fact that he probably set off a nuclear bomb in another timeline?!? That is a bit of a stretch, no? Whatever, I don't mind, but it kind of bugged me at the time. I'll chalk his ability to piece together the puzzle up to his overall brilliance... or the possibility that maybe he knows more than he let on to Des.

- Faraday gave Des the deets on where to find Penny, and I gotta say that I started welling up just seeing Penny running up and down the stadium, before she and Des even interacted. I also gotta say that if I were her and all of a sudden some dude appears alone with me in a gigantic, empty stadium and asks me out, I would be worried. Even if he was a gorgeous Scotsman. But I guess love at first sight has a strange effect on people, huh? The important part, however, is that once Des and Penny shook hands, he fainted. And from that point on, it seemed pretty clear to me that he started REMEMBERING what was going on between the two timelines. This might be because Penny is his Constant. Regardless, when he awoke in the Electromagnetic Chamber of Doom, he was all dazed... but smiley. And continued to be that way, even when Dead-Eye Sayid took out Widmore's team and asked Des to come with him.

- When Des flashed back to the Alt timeline, he was still all dazed and smiley, and it wasn't just because he had finally found Penny. It was because he knew what he had to do... and his knowledge of the Island timeline carried over. That's why he knew he needed the 815 manifest (shout-out to driver Minkowski, by the way! Who knew he was such a skeezeball with all that talk about prostitutes and whatnot?).

- The only thing I can't figure out is exactly what Des is going to do once he finds the 815ers. Is he going to try to nearly kill them so that they, too, can experience visions of the other world? And for the record, I don't think this is all coming down to a "love conquering all" thing. That's certainly a possibility, but it really doesn't apply for all of the characters. I especially can't figure out how Des would convince Jack, who has a SON in the Alt timeline but not in the original, that they were meant to live other lives. Speaking of that...

- What I think is going on is that both timelines we've seen this season are like two outcomes of a Schrodinger's Cat experiment. I can't remember if the Cat paradox was ever directly referenced on the show, but I know it was by Dom Monaghan's character on FlashForward, ironically enough. Basically I think that until the characters make some sort of final choice... or until the MIB either succeeds or fails in what he's trying to do, BOTH timelines exist. Then, depending on the outcome of people's choices, one timeline will eventually go POOF.

- I still have absolutely no idea how everything will all come together, though. Seriously. NO IDEA.

- What I DO know, and perhaps what is way more important anyway, is that I counted THREE instances of "brotha" in this episode. YESSSSSS. I also threw up a fist-pump when "You All Everybody" played. So many great moments in this episode, huh?

That's all I can do this time, guys. Hope it was better than nothing. And a HUGE shout-out to Hawaii-based LLL reader Jenna M, who sent me these pictures she snapped of Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond) running the Tag the World Triathalon in Waikiki last fall. I told her I absolutely had to "share the lusciousness" with you all.




Finally, if there are any longtime readers of my posts wondering why I changed my usual recap format, I explain it here. The short story is that I have a book manuscript due in mid-May, and at this point it needs 99% of my energy.

Until next time,
- e