Lower Decks

Let’s not kid ourselves – LOST has entered its final stretch.  And with just a handful of episodes left, there’s still an awful lot to get done.  From this season’s storylines to character questions to the BIG questions of the entire show, there’s a whole lot left to do.  But this episode moves us toward one of the bigger questions that we have left – what, exactly, is the purpose of the flash-sideways universe?

Desmond has always been a game changer, and he’s definitely one here.  His first appearance answered the super-question of “what’s in the Hatch?”  He introduced the show to the Dharma Initiative.  His flashes led to the death of beloved Charlie.  He introduced the show to Charles Widmore and Eloise Hawking.  His girlfriend, Penny, is the one who eventually led the Oceanic Six off the Island.  His adventures in time laid the groundwork for the crazy time travel adventures in season five.

As far as characters go, Desmond is one of the most significant.  In fact, you could make a really solid argument that, without Desmond, LOST wouldn’t be the LOST we know today.

Which is funny because, since his first appearance, Desmond has gone long stretches without being around.  In season two, Desmond is in the first couple of episodes but quickly disappears before returning in the season finale.  After being a major part of seasons three and four, Desmond is missing for a lot of season five.  And, in this season, Desmond had a cameo in the premiere but was missing up until his cameo at the end of last episode.

But, like with Richard a couple episodes ago, Desmond makes his presence known with authority.  And, in just one episode, he’s able to put his signature on LOST‘s final season.

The episode, itself, is pretty standard.  The entire action, in the main timeline, takes place on Hydra Island.  Widmore decides that he wants to “test” Desmond, and we’re shown what the majority of his submarine crew are up to.  They’ve built some kind of electromagnetic chamber that unfortunately kills a man before Desmond is brought inside.

Widmore explains to his son-in-law that Desmond is unique, and after the test (which Widmore believes he’ll survive), Desmond will have to make a sacrifice.  The test is done, and Desmond appears in the flash-sideways universe.

Like with most Desmond episodes, this isn’t your usual flash-sideways.  There’s no “whoosh” sound accompanying the transition, but Desmond doesn’t seem to have any memory of the “other” universe.

A major difference is the idea that Desmond is Charles Widmore’s right hand man.  Instead of hating Desmond, Widmore trusts him, and the two are good friends.  They’re even able to share a glass of Widmore’s beloved scotch, the same brand that was denied to him in the main timeline.

Widmore assigns Desmond to a simple task – bring a musician to his wife’s charity benefit.  That musician ends up being Charlie Pace, who continues to exhibit a nonchalant view on his own life.  He explains that he’d swallowed his heroin to avoid detection, and that he’d begun to die as a result.

And, at the moment of his own death, he began to experience a strong love.  He sees a blond woman who he feels a great love for, and he’s ripped away from it at the last minute by Jack’s attempt to save his life.  It makes Charlie believe that there’s something beyond his own world that is more important than anything.

And when he drives Desmond’s car into the ocean, Desmond experiences something too.  He sees an image from the main timeline as Charlie puts his hand up on the glass of the car (“Not Penny’s Boat”).  He saves Charlie, but when his CAT scan comes up strange, an MRI is ordered.

Inside the machine, Desmond experiences memories of Penny – a woman he doesn’t know.  It causes him to rush after Charlie, who explains that his eyes are open too now.  And that he needs to find Penny to understand.

Things end up leading Desmond to Eloise Widmore (we know her as Eloise Hawking).  She’s not upset that Charlie isn’t with him, and she allows him to leave without punishment.  But when Desmond hears Penny’s name, he pries for answers.

And just like she did before, Hawking seems to know more than she’s led on.  She realizes that Desmond is looking for something that he doesn’t understand, and she warns him to stop looking.

Desmond almost does it until he’s stopped by Daniel Widmore (Faraday).  Daniel explains that he had a similar encounter when he ran  into a cute redhead at a museum.  It led him to scribble a couple pages of advanced physics on a notepad, leading him to the odd conclusion that someone detonated a nuclear device to alter the universe.

Even as a musician, Daniel is still a genius.

It all leads Desmond to the same stadium where he met Jack, where he meets Penny.  And even after he’s awoken from the experiment by touching Penny, Desmond decides that he’s going to show the rest of Oceanic 815 something important.

And things start to make sense.  We still don’t know the point of the flash sideways universe, but we’re starting to see connections.  We saw Jack and Kate recognize each other, we saw Claire correctly name her unborn son, and we saw a few other clues that some people remember things that they shouldn’t.

But now we know that others have experienced much stronger visions of the other universe, and it seems like Desmond will try and show the rest of them what’s happened.  And, it seems, the alternate universe might actually be the key to destroying the evil presence on the Island (Jacob or the Man in Black, whichever you believe is the darker presence).  It would certainly explain why Desmond was the “key” to everything, according to Widmore.

I really liked the characterizations in the flash-sideways, and I felt, like Ben as a European history teacher, they did a lot of things correctly.  Because there were times when Desmond seemed willing to give just about anything to get Widmore’s respect.

In the alternate universe, Desmond apparently has traded everything.  He has no life to speak of, outside of Widmore, and he feels like he’s happy.  But when he’s shown Penny, all of that changes, and we get more of the Desmond we’ve come to love.

We know that Faraday loved music when he was a child, but Eloise steered him towards physics in order to make sure the timeline was preserved.  Without that as an issue, Daniel is free to explore his musical side, and he becomes a classical musician.

Charlie’s role makes a lot of sense, and it’s nice that they paired him with Desmond again because I think they have pretty good chemistry.  And, of course, they’re tied together pretty significantly in the original timeline.

And I thought the cameos by George Minkowski and Eloise Hawking really worked.

All in all, it makes the flash sideways a lot more important, and it makes Desmond about as significant to the final few episodes as possible.

When Desmond finally awakens from his vision, a sense of calm overcomes him.  It’s unclear what he remembers from it, but he happily agrees to go along with Widmore’s plan.  And when he talks with Widmore’s men about what happened, Desmond exhibits some form of greater understanding to what’s happened to him.

At the same time, however, Desmond agrees to go with Sayid when the Iraqi comes to his “rescue.”

A couple of different things could have happened here.  First of all, there’s a chance that Desmond wanted to go with Sayid from the start, and he potentially knew that Sayid would break him free.  So he goes along with Widmore’s plan, knowing that he’ll be saved a few minutes later.

On the other hand, Desmond might know how this all ends, and he might simply be going with Sayid because that’s what he’s supposed to do.  Either way might mean that Desmond’s finally at peace with whatever strange connection he has with time.

And there you have it.  A very significant episode, but we’re not exactly sure why yet.  Desmond is obviously important on the Island, and now he’s being brought to the Monster.  And instead of the flash-sideways simply being a cool “what if?” scenario, we now have confirmation that the universes have a strong connection that many people are able to sense.

Desmond, as he has time and time before, has changed the game.