Happily Ever After

“Please don't give up, Des. Because all we really need to survive is one person who truly loves us. And you have her.” – Penny, “Live Together, Die Alone”

After a few weeks of shoddy recaps, I am determined to make this one good. And long. Bullet points are a thing of the past from here on out. Nothing but hard-hitting analysis and cockamamie theories the rest of the way. To kick off the stretch run of recaps for the final season, here comes more than 3000 words on “Happily Ever After”, a truly great episode and a real game-changer to boot. For the first time I can see the endgame coming into focus and can sense the finish line just out of view. Oh, did I mention Des? And Des? And, oh yeah, Des? Buckle your seatbelts. Here we go.

Desmond David Hume has come a long way since Locke, Jack and Kate stumbled upon him in the hatch three Island years ago. His story was defined by the separation between him and his true love, the beautiful Penelope Widmore. Desmond’s cowardice drove him away from Penny. Charles Widmore kept them apart. The story that followed showed how Desmond focused his insecurities about his botched relationship with Penny toward winning Charles’s approval and how he came to realize being with Penny was the only thing that could make him truly happy.

In “Flashes Before Your Eyes” we learn that Desmond once planned on proposing to Penny only to have Charles Widmore reject his request while rubbing a little salt in the wound in the process. He refused to share his expensive MacCutcheon Scotch, instead saying “To share it with you would be a waste, and a disgrace to the great man who made it – because you, Hume, will never be a great man.” Des may or may not have taken Charles’ criticisms to heart, but either way he used them as an excuse to dump Penny and run away.

Des spent the next five years trying to get his honor back. He’d lost the woman he’d loved and he needed to make up for what he’d done. But because he couldn’t have her back, he set out to prove each of her father’s criticisms wrong. He joined the military, where he was slapped with a dishonorable discharge. Next he set out to win Charles’ favorite race, a solo sailing race around the world, but all that did was take him to the Island. There he spent three long, lonely years thinking about how badly he’d messed up, how much he loved Penny, and how she was the only thing that could make him happy. He would do anything to see her again, and if he couldn’t, he would do anything to keep her safe. She inspired him to perform a truly heroic act: he turned the failsafe key and saved the world. Eventually, after many more trials and tribulations, he and Penny found their way back to each other, settled down and started a family. Desmond found the happiness he’d always wanted.

In the Sideways world, we watch Desmond grappling with what it means to be happy once again. In that world, he has already lived up to Charles Widmore’s loftily expectations. McCutchons is no longer too good for him, but rather the type of luxury the he deserves. Slowly, we start to get the sense that even with the job, the world-travels, and all the money, Desmond still feels something’s missing in his life. With a little help from some dead friends and his Island self, Des figures out what that something is.

Let’s get to the story. Last week, Charles Widmore suggested that Desmond was the key to preventing the MIB from accomplishing his goal of leaving the Island. This week starts off with Des waking up in a bed on Hydra Island. He demands to see Penny. Charles tells him that she’s not here, that he’s actually back on the Island. He tells Desmond that the Island isn’t done with him yet, then instructs Zoe and the rest of his dopey crew to get ready to run “the test”. The sight of white bunnies cued me in right away to what was happening – they were going to try to send Des to the Sideways world. Gaah!

Even after the first dope gets fried in the generator room, they throw Des right in and strap him to a chair. Charles tells Desmond that after all this is over, he’s going to have to make a sacrifice. Incensed, Des asks Charles, “Sacrifice? What the bloody hell do you know about sacrifice?” Charles responds with this –

“My son died here for the sake of this island. Your wife - my own daughter - hates me. And I've never even met my grandson. But if you won't help me, Desmond, all of it will be for nothing. Penny, your son, and everyone else, will be gone forever.”

Now, I’m not sure how much of this Charles can chalk up to a voluntary sacrifice. Yes, he sent Daniel to the Island on the freighter, so the first part of his claim certainly has merit. But the part about Penny hating him? Was that really a choice Charles made for the sake of the Island, or is that just a product his general jackass-ery? I’m not sure I know the answer to that question. I will give him this - I did always get the sense that Charles and Eloise were manipulating more of Desmond and Penny’s lives then we were really let onto. Charles might have thought Des was a perfectly suitable husband for Penny but he knew that he had to push just the right buttons to get him to go to the Island and “do the only truly great thing he will ever do”. So Charles had to keep them apart for the sake of everyone, knowing that if Desmond and Penny ever found their way back to each other, he would lose his daughter forever.

So have I had Charles Widmore all wrong? Is he one of the good guys? Before this season, I firmly believed that Charles had been working with the MIB all along, allying with him against Jacob in order to resume his position of power on the Island. Exhibit A: “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham” when he told Locke that if the Box Man didn’t get back to the Island “the wrong side is going to win”. Today that all sounds like a bunch of poppycock. Locke getting back to the Island allowed the MIB to assume his identity and kill Jacob. Now Charles is fully committed to taking down the MIB and preventing the end of the world. Something’s missing. Either Charles is just a two-timer, or his usually keen prognosticating abilities failed him big-time. I’m going to side with the latter for right now, but I’m very open to arguments for the former. After all, I’ve always thought Charles was just a selfish ass, so if he’s just playing opportunist now to take back the Island, I really wouldn’t be surprised.

Back to the story. The Dope Brigade turns on the generator, sending Desmond to the Sideways world. Much like with his previous travels through space-time, Sideways Desmond recalls nothing of his other life. He “wakes up” at LAX, exchanges pleasantries with Hurley and Claire, and then gets into his limo. The driver of that limo? None other than 2010 Oscar-winner George Minkowski! Des declines an offer of female “companionship” for the evening, but not before Minkowski points out Desmond isn’t wearing a wedding band. Which was strange, because as the fanatics on the boards can tell you after hours of dissecting “LA X” footage, Des certainly was wearing a ring when we saw him on Flight 815. Seems strange that they would draw attention to this if something bigger isn't going on there. However, I don’t have the slightest idea what that could be. Let’s just make a note of it and move on.

Desmond arrives at his boss’s office and we find out his boss is none other than Charles Widmore. Not a huge surprise there. Charles tells Des that his son the musician has put together a concert combining jazz and rock music for one of his wife’s charity events. It’s Desmond’s job to escort one of the rock stars from jail to the concert. Charles acknowledges that such babysitting is probably beneath the esteemed position that Desmond holds, but he needs a man he can trust to get the job done right. They toast over some MacCutcheon, with Charles telling Desmond that even 60-year Scotch isn’t too good for him.

Cool parallels and stark contrasts abound in that scene! Let’s start with the Scotch. Go back to “Flashes Before Your Eyes”, when Desmond visits Widmore’s office to ask for his daughter’s hand in marriage. After Des asked the big question, Widmore sauntered over to his liquor bar, grabs two glasses and the bottle of MacCutcheon, asks Des if he knows anything about whiskey. “No, I’m afraid not, sir”, he replies. Widmore proceeds to tell the story of Andrew MacCutcheon, an esteemed Admiral in the Royal Navy, a great man in every respect. His Scotch was his crowing achievement. To share it with Desmond would be a waste because Desmond, you see, will never be a great man. Stefan’s favorite line in the series “It’s worth more than your life, Hume” fits nicely right here (even though Widmore never actually says that).

Flash back to the “today”. Charles shares his whiskey with Des. He’s entrusted with important work for Charles’ wife and his son. The Jack question would be, “How are these things so different?” But I answer that as Locke: it’s not how, but why? I’m sticking with the theory that Island Charles knew what he was doing when he rejected Desmond’s request for Penny’s hand in marriage in order to get him to the Island. Couldn’t Sideways Charles be acting in a similar fashion? Maybe Charles knows that he needs to keep Des close so one day he would meet is son Daniel, and so Daniel will tell him about his adventures with nuclear bombs, and so Sideways Desmond will know how to save everyone in the Island world. I think I’m on to something here. More on that later.

Des heads over to the jailhouse to pick up the rock star. Nope, it’s not the lead singer of Geronimo Jackson. Ever heard of a band called Driveshaft? It’s Charlie Pace, and once again Des is tasked with taking care of him as he walks straight toward death’s door. This time Des has to save Charlie not from a universe bent on snuffing him out anyway possible, but from Charlie himself. The first thing he did after getting out of jail was wander straight into traffic. Des reels him back in and the two head to a local pub like two good British dudes would.

Charlie starts grilling Des on his job, his life and his happiness. Des tells Charlie, “I've got a great job, lots of money, get to travel the world. Why wouldn't I be happy?” But he said it in a way that sounded rehearsed, like he’d said the same thing to dozens of other people who’d asked him the same question. And really, nobody wants to hear about the misery of a good-looking rich dude, so that’s how Des probably thinks he’s supposed to answer. Charlie pressed him further. “Have you ever been in love?” “Thousands of times,” Des jokes. “That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about spectacular, consciousness-altering love. Do you know what that looks like?” After a few more jokes, it’s clear Sideways Desmond does not know what that looks like. So Charlie tells him.

Charlie tells him about how he died onboard Flight 815. Choked to death. But when he slipped into the darkness, he saw a woman. She was blonde and beautiful. They were together and always would be. Just when he’s about to…something…some idiot pulled him back from it. He’s alive again, but what he saw in that dark place stayed with him. It was real. It was the truth. And he desperately wants to get it back.

Des more or less brushes him off. He just wants to do his job and get Charlie to the benefit. They get in the car. The radio’s on. “You All, Everybody” blares. Charlie tells Des that it was his band’s first single, describes it as the start of everything great. He badgers him some more about his happiness. And then he jerks the wheel, taking the car and Des with him into the marina. Des manages to wiggle himself free, comes up for air, then dives back down to save Charlie. As he approaches the car, Charlie puts his hand against the window just like he did in the Looking Glass hatch. Des flashes to the Island – “Not Penny’s Boat” – then back to the Sideways world. It’s happening. He’s feeling it too.

The next we see Des he’s in a doctor’s office, ready for an MRI. The doctor tells him that if he needs to stop, just push the button. This stirs something in Des. “The panic button,” the doctor replies. The MRI machine fires up and Des flashes to Island – Charlie drowning, Penny, his son. Freaked out, Des pushes the button, yells how he has to find Charlie, and runs out of the room.

He finds Charlie running through the halls in his robe (which looked every bit as ridiculous as it sounds on paper), crying out “None of this matters!” like a crazy man. But this crazy man is right! And part of Desmond knows it. “Who’s Penny?” he asks Charlie, but Charlie doesn’t know. He does know that Des felt something, the same thing he felt. That something will be key as we head toward the finale. More on that after I talk about the geek in the skinny tie.

Desmond heads to the benefit to break the news to Mrs. Widmore (or Ms. Hawking or whatever) that Driveshaft will not be attending the event. She’s fine with it. Pleasure meeting you, she says, and ushers him away. As Desmond turns to go, he hears the man with the guest list say, “Milton, Penny”. This sure gets his attention. Before he can press the man any further, Eloise pulls Desmond aside and tells him that he has to let that go. She instructs him that he has the one thing he has always wanted – the approval of Charles Widmore. He’s not ready for where this road leads him.

Confused and angry, Desmond leaves. Just as he’s about to hop into the limo, Daniel Faraday (now Widmore) calls out to him, says the two need to have a talk. Daniel tells him a story about this woman he saw with the most incredible blue eyes, beautiful red hair. When he saw her, he said, he felt like he already loved her. That night he woke up in the middle of the night and wrote down some super-complicated physics formula. He had no idea what it meant. But Daniel’s a bright guy. He put all this together and figured out that – somewhere – he’d done something wrong, that he’d created something that wasn’t supposed to exist. That red-haired woman made him feel something that gave him hope. Now Desmond was feeling it too. He’d tell Desmond where Penny was. And he better go find her.

Wow. That’s a lot to process. What I take from it is this – this Sideways world is bad. The Island world is good. It’s something real. It’s the truth. And now the Sideways characters are starting to experience that truth. Jack looking at his appendix scar, Claire knowing Aaron’s name, Kate and that stuffed whale – those were just the beginning. Those things are all there to jog their memories of their Island lives. It felt like a fantasy world because it was. The Sideways world shouldn’t exist, and the universe is bringing everyone back together to help take it down. It’s not coincidence – it’s fate. Now Des is taking the next step. With the help of Faraday (like always), he’s going to crack the code and eliminate the Sideways world once and for all.

Back on the Island, Des wakes up from his flash. He asks Zoe when they’re going to get started on that important thing they need him for. She and a couple of the other dopes walk Desmond out into the jungle where Sayid quickly confronts them. He tells Zoe to run, but not before killing the other two escorts. (They didn’t even have nametags. They had no chance!) He tells Desmond that Widmore and his people are dangerous and that he needs to come with him. “Aye” Des responds, a little too calm considering he just had a gun pointed at his face. Something is definitely up with Island Des.

Here’s my theory – I think Island Desmond experienced the entirety of his Sideways timeline and is now armed with the knowledge of exactly how it all turns out. He knows that Sideways Des is going to rally all the 815ers so that they feel the same thing that he felt, that Charlie felt, that Daniel felt. But that’s only half the equation.

I’m still of the belief that the MIB has a hand in the Sideways world or somehow caused it’s very existence. There have been too many instances where the MIB has promised our characters one of their deepest desires only to have that very thing show up the in Sideways world (see, Sayid and Nadia, Sun and Jin, possibly Claire with Aaron). His malevolent influences and the absence of the Island have convinced me that Charlie and Faraday are right – the Sideways world isn’t real, it’s bad, and it was never supposed to be. I refuse to accept that a world without the Island is somehow a better one. It’s a special place dammit!

So Sideways Des is going to rally all the Sideways characters so they can see their (yet to be determined) Island destinies. Island Des, enlightened with knowledge of the Sideways timeline, infiltrates the MIB’s camp. He bides his time until he has to make one specific move in order to bring the whole MIB operation down (maybe the sacrifice Widmore spoke of?). The combination of this move (I don’t know what that is yet, but stay with me) and all the Sideways character seeing their Island destinies will somehow disrupt the balance between the two worlds, thereby destroying the Sideways world and, with it, the MIB. Jack becomes the new Jacob and peace is restored on the Island. Happily ever after. The end.

“But wait! You forgot the only happy scene of the episode!” Ah yes, how could I forget? Desmond drives to Aloha Stadium (or whatever the LA equivalent is), and we get a nice mirror image of the scene in “Live Together, Die Alone”, this time with Penny running the stairs and Des is asking her out. It was sweet, and it gives me hope that even if the Sideways world ends up sticking around, Des and Penny still end up together.

The sacrifice hangs over all this like a dark cloud. I see it playing out much like it did in down in the hatch when Desmond turned the key and saved the world. He didn’t know what would happen, but he took a leap of faith with the chance that he could save the one person that he truly loved. It was heroic in every sense of the word. I’m afraid he will have to do the same thing again, taking the chance that he dies in hopes that he saves the world. But what if this one doesn’t just strip him naked and send him on a short little daytrip back in time? What if he dies?

Aside from maybe Hurley, I can’t think of another character that deserves a happy ending more than Des. He kind, genuine, and has a good heart. He’s one of the few characters whose ending I’ve made up my mind about and would be very upset if it ended up differently. Des needs to end up with Penny. Happily ever after, indeed.

Until next week…