Lost - The British Invasion

Ok so they aren't all from England, but close enough they all talk with accents and they're from one of those cold little islands off of Europe. In what had to be one of the best episodes of the show, easily top 5 we got to see Desmond, Charlie, Penny, Daniel, and Widmore. So without much further ado because our tea and crumpets will get cold, let's dive into "Happily Ever After."



I'll be honest it's hard to write my blog for the show these days, it's not that I don't enjoy it, it's because there is just so much to wrap my head around that it's almost impossible to understand it at this point. Jen asked me what happened in the episode and mind you she hasn't watched since season 3 so trying to tell her in English and not sound like a lunatic is pretty tough. Last night absolutely turned the season on it's ear, because now we see the connection between the island world and the sideways world and if you can figure out how to actually explain that, good luck, but since I love doing this and only have 5 more chances after this I'll give it a shot.



Lost has referenced "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" over the years, never more so then earlier this season when Jack saw that his son David was reading it. In each episode this season the main character in the sideways story gets a good luck at themselves in the mirror (not sure if Desmond did last night or not, I'd have to rewatch) and each of them look in the "looking glass" oddly like something isn't right in the picture but they just can't put their finger on it. Charlie in his moment on the plane where he was about to die saw past whatever the sideways world is and had a vision of Claire, this shook him so much that he knew that he had to find her. It also set up one of the trippiest scenes in Lost history as he forced Desmond to drive his car into Santa Monica Bay. At this point I was thinking that Charlie was going to drown just like in the island story, I was blown away when his hand was on the glass, because at that instant I knew what they were going with and then BOOM! the flash of "Not Penny's Boat". Now I know that they had 3 years to write the story to make it work super awesome like that, but damn was that not the coolest way to tie those two stories together where Des saw Charlie die in the island story in such a way that it played into how it did last night. Again it's a show and they can work the story however they like, but man that was cool.



So instantly Desmond sees Penny in his mind and has to figure out what to make of it. Through that process he ends up at Mrs. Widmore's charity event where we get yet another super creepy moment. Desmond hears the name Penny and frantically tries to get a look at the guest list when Mrs. Widmore tells Desmond to stop looking, because in the end she said that it was a violation and that he was not ready. A violation of what? She made the comment that he had what he wanted most, "Mr. Widmore's approval" which sounds like the thing he wanted most in the island timeline. A couple theories here. First, Eloise seemed to be really really pissed that Des was asking questions, and it really seemed like she knew what was going on, like she knew that both worlds existed. I also guess that she didn't want to see those worlds fall apart because in this sideways world she had her son still. Back on the island she shot him, tell me that isn't some grief to have to live with. It also makes a lot of sense why she would have told him that he needed to be a physicist, because as he tells Desmond, "I don't want to set off a nuclear device Mr. Hume, I think I already did." By Daniel using the nuke to destroy the hatch the sideways world was created, and as a result Daniel isn't shot by his mom, instead he is her pride and joy at a charity event. So that means that if Desmond starts asking questions that could unravel the sideways world and end in the death of her son. BAM!

Oh I got more BAM watch this... So Eloise tells Desmond that he has what he desires most, with the tone of, "What and you still aren't happy?" It's like the old stories of making a deal with the devil, oh he'll give you what you ask for, but what does he take in return? In this case he takes Penny and little Charlie because they don't exist in his life in that world, but they could... He meets Penny in the stadium and from there, who knows. Would Desmond and Penny getting together mean the slow destruction of the sideways world as Desmond searched for happiness? Does that mean that all of the sideways stories are the result of getting the thing they most desired? It's kind of like the mirror in the first Harry Potter book, where you can see what your heart desires most, but it's just an illusion. However in that case you could have it if you checked your pocket (more to it than just that, but if you read it that should make sense.). Is this whole sideways world the result of getting what you asked for from Smokey? Or how about this! We have learned that Jacob can do many things, but usually the result is that you don't get to enjoy what it is your asking for. Mr. Temple guy lost his son and Jacob saved his life at the cost that Mr. Temple guy stay on the island. Way back in season 3 Jacob cured Juliet's sister of cancer, but she wasn't allowed to leave this island, why, might it unravel the results? Now take Smokey, he offers up anything that your heart could desire as well, and you actually get it, but at what price? In both cases they take either your life by putting you on that damn island, or your soul, but taking away the things you really want in life. Just a theory there.

And while there have been haters of this season and it's sideways story, I just fell in love with it last night, because when you look back at some of what happened in the past episodes they tie in beautifully. Example: Claire doesn't know the the sex of the baby, but when she is going through the trauma of maybe having Aaron she calls out his name. Now where did that name come from? The same place that Charlie's dream girl came from, and Desmond's, "Not Penny's Boat", it came from the island world reality as she said it herself, "I just knew his name." Or how about the end of Sawyer's story where he runs into Kate and says, "Aw hell." At that moment after having is car crashed into did he have a heightened sense of what was going on? We don't know because the episode ended, my guess, oh hell yes!

So the next thing I'm thinking about is this, it seems to me that each of the sideways stories has a happy ending, each of the characters seem pretty happy with where they are in life (well maybe not Sun and Jin), well most of them anyway, but they also have increasingly been missing something in their life as well. I'm not going to rehash them all, but if you think about each episode I think it becomes clear that they are. It's almost like, you can have one thing or the other that's important to you in life but you can't have both. So the question is, how does it all end? I think that each of them will have a choice to make and get to pick which life they want to live out. The end of Lost should be interesting to see how it makes us think about our own lives and allow us to take stock in what it is that we have in our lives. Makes me think of a lesson in life that my wife taught me...

We were in Florida at the time, not dating yet, and I was a pretty depressed guy, well not Mr. Happy like I am today anyway. Anyway she tells me that I'm not allowed to have bad days anymore. I negotiate for 10 of them for the year because I can't see how I'm not going to be able to have a bad day for the rest of the year (she offered me 3). Now this is where it gets cool and life changing, every time that I have a bad day she would ask me if I wanted to use one of my days. I'd think for a second, take stock of how bad the day really was and then ultimately say that no it wasn't really that bad. Point being like in the sideways world that maybe the things that the characters think they want in life aren't really the things that they want in life. Best example of this is Desmond. In the episode last night Eloise tells him that he wanted Widmore's approval, but why did Desmond want Widmore's approval, so that he could have a better relationship with Penny. But in getting that approval he ended up losing what really mattered to him the most, Penny. In other words maybe life isn't so bad if you stop and take a look first, or put more simply, "Be careful what you wish for because you might just get it."

With that, I'll let go of the reins for another week (right I'll be posting again tomorrow I'm pretty sure). Only 5 more episodes left, remember the finale is on SUNDAY May 23rd. Not Tuesday.