Season 6, Episode 11: "Happily Ever After"

THE NEW POST IS ADDED BELOW!!! Yes, I am okay! Thanks to everyone who was "impatiently" waiting for the recap. Sorry, it has been just about the busiest week of my life! Life with a 1-year-old, and running my own business, makes it difficult to keep up with the Lost blog. Only until my own MOM called me yesterday saying she had been receiving phone calls from several people asking if I was okay because OMG THE LOST BLOG IS STILL NOT UP!!! :)

Anyway, if you have not done so already, I highly suggest going back and reading my recap of the Season 4 episode, "The Constant," which was the cornerstone for last week's episode. Hard to believe that was two whole seasons ago, but our first look into Desmond's "visions" and his ability for his mind to travel into different time/dimensions. Click here to go back and read my blog post from The Constant, which still to this day I think was the greatest Lost episode of all time. As you will see, that was from February 2008, which is over two years ago, and yet look at the similarities in what we learned in that episode to where we are now.

Okay...I won't keep you waiting any longer. Here is the recap from this episode, "HAPPILY EVER AFTER."

I think the main thing that we learned here is that "Whatever happens, happens." We heard this quote used multiple times, and I think it speaks volumes about what we have learned about the show. All along we have assumed (atleast, I have assumed) that the "alternate reality" scenes were visions of what their lives would be like if they had NEVER crashed on the island. Meaning the past has been erased, they were never there. However, now we learn that those things DID happen, it just has been erased from the existence of their MIND, not necessarily that it never happened. (As Eloise said, whatever happens, happens). So things that did happen in the past, still did happen, it's just that the rest of the survivors don't have any recollection of that life because it has been erased from their minds. Only Desmond and Faraday are starting to "remember" because both of them have these "side effects" (as referenced in The Constant) that enable their minds to be a part of BOTH worlds. Only those people who have been exposed to electromagnetic energy (Desmond and Faraday) are AWARE that these two worlds exist. Everyone else just has no memory of what happened before. But clearly it DID happen. We have always just assumed that these are two alternate timelines. Now we see that the two timelines actually coincide - when Desmond was underwater with Charlie and he saw the "not Penny's boat" on Charlie's hand, he had a memory. Even though he was not aware of that previous lifetime, he remembered it...because it DID happen, they just "erased" it from their minds. Because he has these "side effects" from the exposure to electromagnetic energy, certain things spark his memory. And as Faraday explained to him, the same thing is happening to him (he also had extreme exposure to electromagnetic energy during his lab experiments).

Back in the episode, "The Constant," we learned that those who have been exposed to large amounts of electromagnetism have these "visions" or memories of things that maybe have not happened yet (in real life) but that their consciousness is able to have that "memory." In that episode, when Faraday is showing Desmond his experiment with the lab rat (Eloise, named after his mother), Desmond asks if this is going to change the future, and Faraday replies that you can't change the future. I believe that what we are seeing now is similar in that you also can't change the PAST. However you can just erase it from your mind. But, certain people (such as Desmond) are able to bridge the gap between their past life and their consciousness which has these memories.

This reminded me a lot of the movie, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, where people can erase the negative memories from their mind, but there are also "side effects." If you haven't ever seen that movie, watch it. Basically it is the same concept. Just because they have erased these memories and have no recollection of those things ever happening, does not mean that it didn't actually happen. They just don't remember it.

Way back when, Faraday wrote in his journal that "Desmond Hume is my constant" - I was waiting for him to show Desmond that in this week's episode but it did not appear that was written there (or else he just did not show him). Both Desmond and Faraday had enormous exposure to electromagnetism in their "pasts" which explains why they are the only two people who have these visions - Faraday said it was when he saw Charlotte, it was like he was already in love (that is not really "love at first sight" but because he had already loved her in his previous life). Same thing with Desmond, when he saw Penny for the first time - he "remembered" all those memories of his life with her. It seems like LOVE it what is the common thread between the two worlds. Because love is an emotion - that is something that cannot be erased. After Desmond woke up in the generator room back on the island, Widmore tells him he was only unconscious for a few seconds. This was the same thing that was happening in "The Constant" - their MIND travels through time. So what seems like a lifetime of memories in their MIND, is only a matter of seconds in real life.

So - the episode title, "Happily Ever After" - I think that is a reference to the fact that they have CHOSEN to live a different life, they have chosen their happily ever after. Desmond tells Charlie in the bar that there is always a choice, and we have also heard that before from Jacob. I think as Faraday was telling Desmond that he thinks he "already set off the bomb" because he wanted to change his life. He knows that something is not right, and by reading his journal he becomes aware of the bomb experiment. He is able to recognize that this is something from a past life. Kind of like when you have deja-vu. He knows that this is something that he already did, possibly because he was choosing to change his life, to erase the life he knew. He wanted to ERASE those things that had happened, but because of the electromagnetic exposure, he is now having "flashbacks" of his former life, as is Desmond. I have been saying all along as far as where they are now on the island, that I do think they are going to carry out the plans in Faraday's journal to "erase" their existance as they know it (remember Juliet said "it worked"), so that what we have seen of the "alternate" reality is actually their flashforwards as if the 815 flight lands in L.A. without ever crashing. These are the "happily ever afters" of each of the survivors - basically what happens to them if they were never on the island (or that they don't remember) - as we've seen most of them their lives are ultimately BETTER than what it was before - happily ever after. I am wondering if Sawyer is going to encounter Juliet in his own "happily ever after" and realize that their love still exists as well. Wouldn't that be awesome!!!!

So, my biggest question is what is Widmore wanting to do with Desmond in his effort to "save all of mankind" and its relation to fake-Locke ever leaving the island? Whatever it is, Desmond is willing to do it, after having come out of his "vision" and seeing how his two timelines coincide. He finally understands what he has to do. Here's my theory on this: I think because Widmore now knows that Desmond can handle the radiation, he is going to have HIM set off the bomb (using the plans from Faraday's research journal, which remember also happens to be his son, AND he was also the one who funded his research). If the bomb goes off, this would "erase" the past - but ultimately I think Desmond would have to sacrifice himself as he would die when the bomb goes off - but by doing this it would ultimately erase the events of the past. If their plane never crashes on the island, John Locke never comes to the island, Jacob is never killed, etc., this would erase this whole string of events where fake-Locke is able to find his "loophole" and can leave the island because Jacob is dead. If their plane had never crashed on the island, Locke would never have become the "leader" and Ben would have never killed him, ultimately setting up the stage for the Man in Black to "take" Locke's body and use that to get Ben to kill Jacob. (confused?!!) - Basically, without their plane crash, Jacob would still be alive, and the Man in Black would still be "trapped" on the island. Thus, the fact that he is about to leave the island, bringing evil into the world, would not be possible if Jacob were still alive. So it all goes back to the plane crashing on the island and that event needs to be erased in order to save the world. Perhaps this really means that Widmore truly is "one of the good ones" after all. He has sacrificed the relationship with his own daughter in order to protect the island, and now perhaps he is going to have to ask Desmond to sacrifice himself by blowing up the bomb (which I have always presumed he has brought with him on the submarine, but that is just my guess, we don't actually know that) in order to carry out Faraday's plans. I've been saying this all along, but tonight's episode kind of confirms my theory...atleast I think so! :)

A couple of hidden things. Did you notice in the alternate timeline, when Desmond is in Widmore's office, there is a painting on the wall of a scale. Just like the one that we saw in the cave on the island. One side has a black rock and one side has a white rock. Very interesting!!! There is also a model ship of the Black Rock in his office. Remember that Widmore was the one who purchased the journal from the Black Rock's captain during the auction. Another random note....did you all notice George Minkowski was the chauffeur that was driving Desmond around? Remember, he was the Director of Communications on the freighter. Just another one of the connections. He was one of the guys back from the episode "The Constant" who suffered the same side effects from the electromagnetism after taking a boat out from the freighter to see the island, and he was one of the first people we saw who died (starting with the nose bleeds) from the consequences of the excess energy surrounding the island.

Obviously Desmond has something "special" about him that has kept him alive (whereas others, such as George Minkowski and Charlotte, have died) - and like Widmore said - he is the only person in the world who has LIVED through the exposure to that amount of electromagnetism. We've always seen those references to "special" people (Walt, Locke, etc.) and now maybe it is Desmond who is the special one - he is the key to saving the world. Another little note about that...remember the very first time we ever saw Desmond, when he was down in the hatch. Jack and Locke found him and asked what he was doing there, he responded that he was "just saving the world." In his mind, by pushing the button every 108 seconds, he truly thought he was saving the world. Now, it turns out, he just may do so.


PS - For those people who have just started reading my blog this season, I just want to mention that I have been writing this since Season 2. (Sorry, I never did it for Season 1, who ever knew back when the show started that I would love the show so much or that it would spark its very own blog by me! I started sending emails back in the 2nd season to a few friends who had questions about the show and I would write my little "recaps" every week, then the emails got forwarded around to so many different people and hence, the blog began.) Anyway, if you click on the "Archives" on the right side of the page, you can access all the past posts from seasons 2, 3, 4 and 5. I think once the series ends, I just may have to go back and get the entire series on DVD and rewatch from the beginning. Then I can read my blog posts and see what I wrote in the recaps from the beginning! :)