Loved it, loved it, loved it! Finally an episode that gave me goose-bumps – I know we got excited firstly about ‘Dr Linus’ and then ‘Ab Aeterno’ but ‘Happily Ever After’ to me has been the most satisfying episode of the season to date and sets up an exciting home straight. Why? Because last night’s episode gave us reconnection, a link between worlds, the sense of righting wrongs and the reappearance of great characters - some living (Eloise with ever bigger hair) and some dead (Charlie and Daniel). And not just that - but our dead friends finally reappeared in a meaningful and not just a tokenistic way.
Where to start brutha?
Well Mr Hume seems as good a place as any. He is the bridge between worlds and by programme’s end last night he had a mission in both zones – the same one as it happens – to gather the troops and tell them what he knows.
Let’s talk LA Desmond first. Successful, rich and in full possession of what he craves most according to Eloise (Widmore’s approval), he flies the world doing Charles’ bidding but is he happy? Widmore tells him “You really do have the life” but his reply of “I am a blessed man” does not ring true. He tells George (where have we seen him before?… anyone?...anyone? On the freighter in season 3 dying in Desmond’s arms) that he doesn’t want companionship but his conversation in the airport with a pregnant Claire and the long, lingering look he gives the sailboat in Widmore’s office suggests otherwise. Did you catch that painting of the perfectly balanced scales in the office by the way?
Some idea of another life is clearly creeping around the edges of Desmond’s consciousness – he seems distracted staring at the arrivals board in the airport until brought back to reality (yeah right!) by Hurley. Des tells Claire he does not like surprises well brace yourself Mr Hume because you’re in for a big one! This is not the life you should be living. It takes Charlie Pace to begin to unlock the mystery. Charlie’s own epiphany happened on the plane when he was close to death after swallowing the drugs – he has a vision of a woman presumably Claire but not the Claire sitting only yards away on the plane but island Claire and their island experience together. How inconsiderate of Jack to save him and cut the fantasy short!
Interesting how Daniel, Charlie and Desmond’s moments of clarity are sparked by the women they love – for Daniel it’s when he sees Charlotte in the museum, for Charlie it’s his near-death vision of Claire and for Desmond’s it’s the moment drowning Charlie puts his hand on the window reminding him of Penny.
Interesting also how these epiphanies happen at almost at the same time. Sure Charlie’s sparks Desmond’s but Daniel’s happened just weeks before which leads me to ask how long has this other world existed? It is just since Jughead was detonated as it seems to be degrading very rapidly?
This brings us neatly to Eloise Hawk (oops sorry I mean) Widmore who seems to be the one person in this other world who knows exactly what’s going on. There was instant recognition on her face when she met Desmond seemingly for the first time. She was eager to disengage from him clearly not wanting to spark a memory but too late love somebody had already gotten there.
“Someone has affected how you see things – this is a violation.” Her mantra of “you have the perfect life and you have my husband’s admiration” only served to spur Desmond on. So who constructed this world and what is her role in it? It’s a perfect one from her perspective in that she has Widmore (a nice pleasant Widmore at that - kind to his employees and sharing his 50-year-old scotch with them) but more importantly she has Daniel. In the flashsideways she clearly has placed more emphasis on him developing his musical talent rather than his scientific one. However once a quantum mechanic expert always a quantum mechanic expert apparently! Can open, worms everywhere!
Desmond’s meeting with Penny in the stadium presumably opened the floodgates on his memories - if not her’s. How appropriate for them to meet in the stadium where Jack and Des connected back in the day. She seemed remarkably unfazed to see a strange man walk up unannounced in the darkened stadium and took his “are you Penny?” approach with ease. Then again it is Des!
She seemed to experience a little déjà vu but nothing like what Desmond was experiencing. Oh to have the power to knock a man to his feet with just a shake of his hand. So what exactly happened to him when he fainted and just how much does he know at this point? Certainly he realises that he had been living a lie and he had another life with Penny but is he now aware of his island-self and are they working as a team?
His fainting in LA coincided with him surviving the test on the island and here too he came back with a new sense of purpose and knowledge.
So LA Widmore strikes me as a fairly good egg but what of his island counterpart – are we being led to believe that he is really one of the good guys? He is asking his son-in-law to make a sacrifice as he made one with the loss of his son and daughter. But he claims it is for the greater good or “we’ll all die.” We haven’t seen him commit any heinous acts since he arrived on the island. His henchwoman, Zoe, seems fairly harmless to be honest and while Smokie claims they killed the other Ajira passengers this hasn’t been proven. That being said, Widmore seemed totally indifferent to the death of the expendable Simmons last night and was happy to test Des without really knowing if he would survive.
Des, on waking up, seemed content to go along with Widmore but was this because he felt he was doing the right thing or just as a means to achieving his own goals? Later he seemed just as happy to follow Sayid (who by the way has recovered very nicely from the trance of the last few weeks and is now once again a lethal killing machine).
Last night’s episode set up a great finish in the coming weeks but expectations levels are really high after 'Happily Ever After' so let’s hope they don’t disappoint.
Bree Treacy
Over to you
