SUMMARY
Island
Desmond wakes up to find he's been brought back to the island by Whidmore. After giving Whidmore a beat down he is subdued and Whidmore decides he is ready. Whidmore asks Zoe to prepare the machine. During the preparation process, a man is killed when he enters the wood box and the copper coils are turned on. Whidmore insists that they need to know is Desmond can withstand another electromagnetic event and they bring him to the box. Whidmore tells Desmond he needs his help. Desmond breaks free from the chair but the machine starts and he is wisked away to the alternate universe. Once he returns, Whidmore finds him alive and willing to help him. Along the way back, the group is approached by Sayid who kills everyone but Zoe and asks her to run away. She willingly obeys. Sayid asks Desmond to come with him and a very docile Desmond agrees.
Flash-Sideways
Once Desmond enters the machine on the island, he is transformed to the flash-sideways universe and is standing in front of the arrivals board at the airport. Hurley informs him what carousel the luggage is arriving at and while getting his luggage he meets Claire. He offers to give her a ride but she declines and as a parting farewell he tells her the baby will be a boy. His driver, George Minkowski, meets him at the airport and brings him back to the office. Whidmore, Desmond's boss, welcomes him with open arms and celebrates with a 60 year old glass of McCutcheons whisky for the deal Desmond recently closed in Sydney. He is interrupted when he asks Desmond to pick up a musician from jail and babysit him until he can perform at Whidmore's wife's charity bash with his son. Desmond agrees and goes to pick Charlie up. Charlie tells Desmond that right before he was rescued on the plane, he saw a blond girl and knew he loved her in another time. He tries to show Desmond what he means so he grabs the wheel and drives the car off the marina. Desmond is able to get himself and Charlie out of the submerged car but while underwater the scene from the island universe appears before him where Charlie was underwater and warning him about Penny's boat. While at the hospital he is given an MRI since his cat scan was inconclusive and halfway through he freaks out when he has a vision of him and Penny from their island life. He tells the nurse he needs to find Charlie and with Jack's help he does. Charlie convinces him that he saw the other life and should put all his energy into finding Penny. Desmond leaves the hospital to tell Whidmore's wife that Charlie won't be playing at the benefit and when he arrives at their house he finally meets Mrs. Whidmore aka Eloise Hawkings. She thanks him for delivering the news personally. While Desmond is leaving he hears the guest list being read off and the name Penny Milton. He stops to ask to see the list but Eloise intercepts and won't allow him. She tells him to stop looking for whatever he's looking for so he leaves. On his way out he is intercepted by Daniel Whidmore (Farraday) who tells him how he saw a red haired woman and knew he loved her. He then explains that the following day he woke up and wrote down highly complicated quantum physics in his notebook and believes that they are equations that lead to an alternate universe. He then offers to help him find Penny since she is his half sister. Desmond goes to the stadium where he finds her running. He goes up to her to ask her out and passes out right after they meet. When he wakes she agrees to meet him for coffee and Desmond happily returns to his car.
Wow that was a lot of info!! Now on to the theories although they're going to be more like observations and explanations since we only have 5 episodes left!
1. So I think what is happening here is the two universes are colliding and Desmond is the only one who can travel through both and make the connection that the two actually exist and are directly related to circumstances that happened in one. I think it's all leading up to an inevitable "crash" between the two universes. As in most time travel stories, you can't have more than one reality exist without destroying both. So I think that the little hints of recognitions in the flash-sideways and now the full on hallucinations are in fact the two universes colliding. How Desmond remains to be the only one who can travel through to both is still a mystery, but I think it will allude back to how he was painted as a Jesus figure in season 3 after the hatch blew, and he literally looked like Jesus. I also think the "sacrifice" Whidmore was asking for was Desmond, and I think he will die since he's already been reunited with Penny in both worlds.
2. So in the flash-sideways Desmond seems to have his life together. A good job, lots of money, travels the world ... but most of all he has what he lacked in his previous life - Charles Whidmore's approval. The only thing he's missing though is Penny. So Charlie asks the question is his life really better in this life? I think we can all agree a universal no, since he doesn't have Penny which is the best love story on this show! (counting Jack and Kate, yeah I said it!)
3. So Farraday makes an appearance in this side-flash and you guessed it, he crossed paths with Charlotte and experiences love at first sight! Pretty tender, but I think the important thing we take away from this is how much of his past island life is coming back to him. He wakes up one day and can write and understand the equivalent to a life spent studying quantum physics. He also is the second stranger to suggest to Desmond that an alternate universe exists, one they were supposed to live. So if Desmond is going to be the so-called spiritual guide from one universe to the other, it looks like Farraday will be the scientific link. But I'm not holding my breath for an explanation of how they bounce between the two.
4. So did anyone else get the feeling like this big machine that Whidmore had was straight up out of Jurassic Park? I half expected a velociraptor to jump out and eat everyone! But alas, it was a large crate with huge copper coils inside. I also doubt we will get an explanation on how this thing works but Maureen asked the question, is this the magic box that Ben was talking about that brought Locke's father to the island? I think not since that means they would have had to take him from the alternate universe and Locke is now friends with him in that universe but who knows! Good observation!
5. As we've been speculating, the island looks like its breaking down to good vs. evil and honestly I don't think we could expect anything more because isn't that the biggest battle there is? So since this island is the key to saving the world as we know it, wouldn't a battle of good and evil be just the thing to settle it? I also feel like there aren't too many more large mysteries to be solved except the whole who is on what team and who will win? They've answered all the biggies, now we're sort of just along for the ride!
6. So Sayid came out at the end to get Desmond, and the reason being that he is such a key player for Whidmore and team Smokey wants him. But why did Desmond go so easily? Maybe he thinks he can achieve what needs to be done from either side? What does this version of Desmond know now that he can travel between the two universes? And also, Sayid continues to be so badass!!
7. The real touching moment in the episode was when the car went off the marina and Desmond had his first real glimpse into the alternate universe via Charlie and his underwater antics. I thought the situation was a bit of a stretch but it did provide us the window to see into the island life they shared. Again I'm going to reference The Matrix in that this was a very deja vu moment, a glitch that lets us know something is there that shouldn't be. I guess the other big mystery aside from good vs. evil is which universe actually belongs.
8. If I have to look at Claire in that ridiculous wig for one more episode I might just start ignoring her story line altogether. It was tender though how Charlie saw her in his alternate universe flash. I almost feel like he should have referenced an empty jar of peanut butter or something.
9. Another thought for the Smokey/MiB vs. Jacob debate is that Jacob could be controlling the island universe and Smokey could be controlling the flash-sideways universe. Maybe whoever wins will have their universe be the winner! Maybe Jacob's universe is the one where people are with the people they love but for fleeting moments and Smokey's universe is one where people have settled and their life hasn't exactly been fulfilled. So maybe neither is good or bad, maybe one is just a different alternative to the other. Boy oh boy do I contradict myself from point to point!
10. The appearance of Daniel's mother Eloise was also really interesting and puzzling. While she appears to just be Whidmore's wife in this universe, she clearly knows something about the life she left behind. She's demanding that Desmond stops looking for whatever he's looking for. Does she know that if him and Penny connect, something will happen to this universe? Does she like it more since she's with Whidmore and has her son Daniel with her? Does she know that once Desmond connects with Penny, he will try to connect everyone else on the flight?
So I can't believe we're nearing the end of the series! Crazy stuff! Now is the time to post your theories so you can gloat at the end to see if you were right all along!
xo
B
6 comments:
Good episode and great review! I thought that Charlie was Whidmore's son too? No? Thanks, Bridget! Nan
Nope! Charlie's connection to the Whidmores was that he was hired to play at their party that night ... Daniel Farraday who has always been Eloise and Whidmore's son is a Whidmore since in this reality they're married. Charlie's still just a crazy rockstar addicted to drugs!
OK -- this might make my head hurt, but here it goes...
I'm confused about one timing issue. Which is, in the alternate reality - how did Whidmore & Eloise (who are still married) leave the island safely when the bomb went off? And how is Daniel still alive?
As we know, when Jack and crew explode the bomb in 1977, Daniel Faraday had just been shot by Eloise at the campsite. So if we're meant to believe that things went differently AS OF THAT MOMENT, I understand that Daniel never time traveled back there, and didn't get murdered. BUT -- Eloise and Charles Whidmore were still there -- how did they get off the island safely?
We know Ben & his dad, Miles & his mom, and other Dharma folks went there in the early 70's but were evacuated before the bomb goes off and the island ends up at the bottom of the ocean.
Eloise and Charles didn't evacuate -- so how did they get off the island?
Maureen - I like your thoughts but I don't think the alternate universe works quite like everything changed from that moment on ... as we've seen fromt he sideways flashes their entire lives are different ... so perhaps in a life where the island is underwater, Daniel's mother never came to the island just like Whidmore never did. Its seems to me that at this point only Dharma ever went there, maybe Jacob and Smokey don't exist in that universe and its a life without Others ... the post bomb island he's dead but alternate universe something could have altered their path and never brought the family to the island. But who knows!
Good points, Bridget. I don't like the time travel or the alternate universe -- it confuses me too much! I long for the days when the Losties were finding hatches and Ben was still Henry Gale.
Ladies! This is just like the days of the original emails! The three of us exchanging theories and insights. I agree with Bridget that this are just "alternate" in the sideways world.
I was a little disappointed to realize the whole show is about finding true love and soul mates rather than about mystery and danger. Do you think we will see Boone and Shannon as soul mates? Michael and Walt? Ana Lucia and Mr Eko?
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