Brief Review of LOST Episode 6.11 “Happily Ever After”
If you want a full summary of last night’s episode, be sure to check out either TV Overmind or DocArzt & Friends’ LOST blog!
One of my fave time travelers, Desmond Hume is back!? (Though during a post-LOST episode visit to Jimmy Kimmel, Producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof stated there wouldn’t be any [literal?] time traveling this season.? We’ll see.)? In the first few minutes of the episode I was sure they were going to be forced to give away just how the sideways reality is connected to the island reality, seeing as how they showed one pair of Charles Widmore and Desmond within the bounds of the island reality AND another Charles Widmore and Desmond in the reality where Oceanic Flight 815 lands safely in LA X, (LOST Pop-Ups call them “flash sideways”).? By episode’s end, it certainly seems we have two different Desmonds, and that fact that Charles Widmore set up the magnetic experiment to show Desmond his other self should be proof that there are two Widmores.
So one Desmond, now eerily content about his destiny, heads off with Sayid to likely join up with Locke, whose goal is to get OFF the island; while sideways Desmond has taken up the life-altering mission? to show his fellow sideways passengers on Oceanic Flight 815 (yet in the original reality he was not a passenger!)? that their reality is “wrong,” which will likely rally them to somehow get ON the island!
I was both afraid they would do this and satisfied that they would do this. I?ve seen so many stories (Terminator, Back to the Future II, X-Men comics) where the goal was to re-write the future, which sums up the fifth season of LOST, and almost as many stories where the goal was to repair the past (Back to the Future, Quantum Leap, Star Trek: The Next Generation?s ?Yesterday?s Enterprise?) which now it seems sums up this final season.
Most of the gang on the island don?t know they succeeded in re-writing history, and now sideways Charlie, Daniel and Desmond know and feel that their reality is somehow ?wrong.? The idea of parallel worlds always comes down to three or four hardcore philosophical questions:? If Quantum Mechanics says a universe is created whenever I make a choice, then do my decisions matter? What does that mean for my immortal soul? Heaven and Hell? And at the heart of LOST lately, what does that say about DESTINY? PURPOSE?
Is there a RIGHT universe?
If/when Jack faces sideways Jack, for example, will our original Jack be satisfied with the outcome of the hydrogen bomb being detonated? Or will he want another do-over? Or will he see what our Locke was trying to tell him all along? That the Island and Jacob wanted the survivors of Oceanic flight 815 there because doing so would bring them purpose, fellowship, love, redemption, renewed faith and hope.? The whole “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.”
Either way, they’re still going to have to face the power of the Man In Black/The Smoke Monster– which is a terrible name for a baddie.? It sounds like a Scooby-Doo villain.? I hereby refer to him as Blacksmoke!? The island is a pocket universe (I believe that’s been stated before), a prison for the man in black and Jacob was his jailer. ? He knew that every person he brought to the island brought with them the risk that Blacksmoke would turn them to his side, but it was necessary to find his successor(s?)? I think, in the end, the final test of the candidates will be to face their sideways selves (on FRINGE, also a Bad Robot production, Dr. Walter Bishop calls his parallel self “Walternate.”).? Those who prefer the lives they lead in the sideways universe may meld into one being and return to those new lives.? Those who realize they’ve become better people on the island will be the true heirs to the island and hopefully, Jacob’s power:? Sun & Jin Kwon with baby Kwon?? Kate, despite Blacksmoke proclaiming her no longer a candidate?? Sawyer, our Sydney Carton of our Tale of Two Realities, is my bet…I can hear him now, muttering under his breath as the rest escape on the plane, “It’s a far better deal than I’ve ever made, and a far better place than I’ve ever been.? Seeya, Freckles.”
But he’s already spent three years on the island, he made that sacrifice once.? Desmond?? Come to think of it, he spent three years pushing a damned button on the island…? I can’t see Jack leaving his son behind, but if there are two of him…?
What are your thoughts?
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