1. parallel desmond
desmond meets penny while she is running a tour de stade. this is of course the location where we first met desmond on the show, as he was preparing for his race around the world to win widmore's favor, and eventually penny. i loved this reversal, and the photography was beautifully matched to the original scene. we've been to this stadium twice before - once in the season 2 premiere, where we see jack meet desmond, then again in the season 2 finale - when we see the scene that took place just before desmond began his run, where penny tearfully promised him 'with enough money and determination, you can find anyone.' the original penny/desmond scene at the stadium was their heartbreaking final goodbye. in the parallel, it's the beginning of their new lives.
henry ian cusick and sonya walger are so amazing together - their chemistry is undeniable. it just floors me every time they have a scene, how well they play first meetings and reunifications. it makes it shocking to see walger on 'flashforward,' where the writing isn't as strong and she and her husband played by joseph feinnes both have american accents and no chemistry whatsoever.
some analysts have taken this episode to mean that yes, the parallel is indeed a false existence for our heroes - it eschews 5 years of storytelling and audience investment in favor of sometimes too-easy resolutions. but i don't see that at all - we've been getting hints along the way that there is more going on here than just an alternate timeline - it's building up to something, and it's taking the time to give emotional resolutions to most of the featured characters. by the same token, those resolutions won't mean anything if the parallel is undone. the show has an incredibly difficult task ahead of it in putting these two timelines together without betraying the investment we've placed in either of them.
4. widmore's plan
5. preboomer
desmond: can you get me the manifest for my flight from sydney, oceanic 815, just the names of the passengers?
written by carlton cuse and damon lindelof. they write all the game-changers
directed by: jack bender. he directs the big ones
cinematography by: stephen st. john. the trick of the shooting in this episode was that it managed to evoke every iconic desmond scene we've had on the show. we got a car diving off a pier, an underwater rescue, a crazy electromagnetic event, widmore's office, and the stadium scene, which was beautifully lit.
so: here's the second big game-changer of the season, beginning to explain the parallel timeline, and launching the show into the season's 3rd act. this does not top 'the constant,' but as an homage to desmond's character and function in the long great story of 'lost,' i can't imagine it being any better. it was like desmond's entire history in fast forward bizarro-world . this episode was a gradual unravelling of one surprise inversion after another.
but let's start at the beginning - without the island, desmond's life is completely altered. now he's successful, single, (despite the continuity error of putting a wedding ring on him in 'la x') and has everything except the 'spectacular, consciousness-altering love' of penny, who is a stranger to him in this world. he works for widmore, and in a fantastic, crazy reversal, widmore pours desmond a glass of macutcheon telling him 'nothing's too good for you.'
an interesting aspect of this new timeline is that it appears desmond has been manipulated by widmore in a way similar to how widmore originally 'used' him - only this time the manipulation is more underhanded, and doesn't appear malicious on the surface. originally, both widmore and eloise needed desmond to go to the island, push the button for three years, and then turn the failsafe key. apparently this action makes him a key player in the final battle between good and evil. in the original timeline, events must occur that propel desmond on course toward the island, and both widmore and eloise did their part in making sure it happened by keeping desmond away from penny. much is made of the futility of desmond's time spent pushing that button, and one of the themes of his larger story is that perhaps it was all worth it so that he could truly be with penny and have a child at the end.
in the new timeline desmond 'has it all,' but his life is still empty in a way he can't even realize. whatever his situation, desmond's theme is that life is meaningless without true love. yes, in the parallel he hasn't endured any of the suffering and pain of the original timeline, but he also hasn't experienced any of the joy of it either. when season 6 is at its smartest, it truly asks the question: what are the consequences of the choices we make?
analyzing this parallel timeline requires making a couple assumptions - so i'm going to assume a couple things:
so much was covered in this episode - and desmond met so many characters, it was almost like an inversion travelogue. hurley, claire, charlie, jack, widmore, daniel, eloise, penny, and minkowski!
in both timelines, minkowski served as a kind of 'guide' for desmond. in the original - he showed desmond his inevitable path towards death if he did not find his constant in time. and in the parallel, minkowski is literally cast as desmond's driver, taking desmond on the opposite path toward redemption.
desmond and charlie bond over a drink, as they did in 'flashes before your eyes.' the inversion here is that in 'flashes before your eyes,' it is desmond who has the unpleasant task of informing charlie that his death is inevitable. in the parallel, it's charlie who informs desmond that his life is meaningless.
2. a violation
if the parallel timeline is an expression of the success of eloise and widmore's plan, then both of them are trying to ensure that nothing ever undoes what they worked so unbelievably hard to make happen, even if both of them are unaware of the full scope of the sacrifices they originally made.
creepy eloise with the giant poofy hair is the same woman who shot and killed an adult version of the child she was still carrying - a guy the same age as the one now prepping for his concert with drive shaft. everything about her life, and the existence of daniel as a person who looks exactly like the guy she once shot (right down to his fashion choices - minus the hat) confirms that detonating jughead was absolutely the correct course of action.
what's puzzling to me is why she would attempt to keep desmond away from penny in this timeline, and why she would call desmond's curiosity 'a violation.' what can this eloise possibly know about how desmond and penny originally interacted, and what kind of danger can their reunification pose to the timeline? clearly widmore is also in on the secret, or else desmond would have known instantly who 'not penny's boat' might be referring to.
it's unclear if daniel's journal jumped forward in time with jack, kate, sawyer, hurley, juliet, sayid and miles - but if it didn't, then it's possible eloise and widmore recovered it and used it to learn details of the entire original timeline, specifically desmond's connection to daniel, and also desmond's connection to penny as his constant.
it seems like eloise is now trying to do the exact thing she first told desmond was totally futile: undo course correction. eloise doesn't wan't the universe to course correct itself back, so she's doing what she can to make sure that certain connections never get made.
what's also strange is that if preventing course correction is so important, why did widmore put desmond on flight 815, where he would surely make some connection with the original timeline?
3. desmond's plan
the biggest question i have at the end of this episode is: what exactly is desmond fighting for in each universe? charlie tells desmond that 'none of this matters,' but will charlie's opinion of the futility of the parallel change if he's reunited with claire?
what exactly does desmond want to show to the people on oceanic 815, and what will happen when does? in each timeline, is desmond trying to prevent or protect the parallel? after having met penny, he seemed euphoric - it doesn't seem likely that he wants to show everyone that they're living futile, pointless lives. it seems more like he knows that they have all lived other lives, and that the lost connections from that existence can be regained. perhaps what desmond wants to show them is that for each person on the flight, there's some kind of similar connection to be made - and we've already been watching those connections unfold on their own for 10 episodes. now, with desmond actively seeking our heroes out, it finally feels like this whole parallel story device is building towards something important. will the series end with the parallel world fully replacing the original timeline, or will it end with those in the parallel somehow making eloise's worst nightmare manifest, and course-correct the whole thing?
will the 'sides' in the jacob vs. smokey war ultimately break down between who wants to trade for the parallel world and who wants to keep the original timeline? it's a tough argument to make - overall things are much better for almost everyone on the parallel, though not perfect. if sun dies in the parallel or perhaps loses her baby, i can't see that she'd be very interested in backing a plan to trade timelines. locke doesn't get to walk, but he does get to be alive.. so do boone, shannon, artz, all the tailies, and nikki and paolo. i would love to see some passing reference, maybe on a tv screen in the parallel showing nikki and paolo arrested for murder and theft, and sentenced to death.
the other strange thing about desmond's new perspective is that he doesn't even care who's 'side' he's on in all this - he calmly joins sayid. sure des doesn't know about smokey, jacob, the epic battle between good and evil, or that sayid is an animated zombie, but he does know sayid, and he does know that widmore is pretty much an ass. so for sayid to jump in, snap some necks and say 'come with me,' yeah, i'd probably just go with him too.
widmore's office once featured the painting of the black rock from the auction - it now features a model of a boat much like the one desmond used to sail in widmore's race, and a painting of a balanced scale with a white rock and black rock on it
it's very interesting to see the writers go to such lengths to make widmore's new operation look like a mismanaged joke. zoe captures jin too early, zoe gives desmond too much sedative, widmore orders the electromagnetic test a day ahead of schedule, resulting in the microwaving of one of his men. i think it's part of an attempt to now set widmore up as an underdog in the big battle - he knows how to use guns, but he's tremendously unprepared for the task ahead of him.
and was that big elaborate setup just to 'test' desmond? wouldn't it make more sense to test him on the mainland before going to all that trouble of bringing him to the island just to put him through a test that might kill him? it doesn't seem like widmore has any knowledge of desmond's ability to jump around in time - all he needs in order to get his job done is someone who can withstand a 'catastrophic electromagnetic event.' i was hoping this episode would finally explain what happened when desmond turned the failsafe.. is it still coming?? is desmond's job going to be to dismantle the frozen donkey wheel? or will the series end, once again with an incident at the hatch site?
george: sure i can. do you mind if i ask what you need it for?
desmond: i just need to show them something.
(boom)
wow, best preboomer of the season, and if you don't count the end of 'la x part one,' then this is also the only preboomer to take place in the parallel timeline. filled with mystery, suspense, and promise. the best.
6. next episode
hurley! in the jacob/smokey battle, hurley is a key player given that he's the only person who has direct contact with jacob. doesn't seem likely that he'll switch sides. hurley can also talk to a plethora of other ghosts, and it seems that any ghost, regardless of whether he knew the person, or if they died 100 years ago is fair game. i expect we'll see some faces from the past, alive and in the parallel, and dead as hurley ghosts.
quick hurley recap:
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I can NOT wait to see what you have to say about the Hurley episode....
The pictures won't load
Well.... I guess I can wait.
I hope you are allright. This delay is not normal so I hope all is well with you.
where are you guys? Hope everything is all right... looking forward to the next installment!