See You In Another Life

Oh boy, just what I've been hoping for - a whole episode spent in the sideways. And to top it off it was an episode all about how the sideways isn't real! They've all got to wake up from this, and only Desmond can save them (geez, I totally didn't see that coming.) Sarcasm aside, I really did like this episode - but I'm a major sucker for Desmond and Penny. Also, we got a big dose of Charlie, and the return of Fisher Stevens! But, Desmond took a good look at the sideways and he did not like what he saw in his reflection.


This is the sort of TV that gave me chills as a kid. I always loved stories about an alternate universe, where things are just "off" and sort of creepy. I especially like the bit with this week with Charlie underwater, looking crazy and lifting his hand to the glass. Freaky!

The next morning I happened to watch one of my favorite stories of this type - Yesterday's Enterprise from season three of Star Trek: The Next Generation. An unexpected meeting with a celestial anomaly results in the Enterprise "jumping" into an alternate universe. The Enterprise is now a ship of war, not peace. And only one character can remember that things are not as they are supposed to be!


Guinan tries to convince Picard that this is not the "real" universe. She admits, "It's the same bridge, nothing has changed, yet it's...wrong. I can't explain it to myself, how am I supposed to explain it to you? I just know I'm right!" Picard counters that even if she is right, "How is this universe any less valid than the other? How can we ask all these people to just die?" If they follow Guinan's suggestions, thousands may be sent to their deaths, and an entire universe may wink out of existence. I expect we'll see something similar coming up on Lost.

And this reminds me of Widmore's comments to Desmond, "Penny, your son, and everyone else, will be gone. Forever." Will one of these universes win out, while the other one vanishes as though none of those people ever existed? Big stakes.


I've said before I'm not sold on the season six theme of, "Oh remember, this is like in that one episode, only this time it's a little different!" Case in point is the scene with Widmore offering Desmond a drink of his MacCutcheons saying, "You deserve it." That whole scene had me groaning. They went way overboard - The painting! The sailboat! The whiskey!

But like I said, I'm a sucker for Des and Penny. I loved the scene with the two on the stairs at the stadium. The first time this played out (in 2001 in the original timeline) Desmond was the one running, and he met Jack for the first time. Then, Penny came to tell Des that she was getting married, and she gave him the copy of Our Mutual Friend. That was "last book he'd ever read" and also where Desmond hid the key for the Swan Hatch self-destruct. Turning that key and getting blasted by electromagnetism originally unlocked Desmond's unique "talent".


Meanwhile in the sideways, Desmond seemed to be so overwhelmed by meeting Penny that he fainted. What a great cut, the moment their hands touched! But what actually happened to Desmond may be a little different - and a lot more dangerous. Last time Fisher Stevens appeared as George Minkowski, he was the communications officer on board the Kahana freighter that carried Keamy and his men, as well as Daniel, Charlotte and Miles. Minkowski was bored, and took a small boat around in the waters near the Island. Soon, he began having episodes - falling unconscious and seeming to wake up in his own past. The "sickness" got worse, and Minkowski had longer and more frequent spells.

When Desmond first met him, George was tied to a bed having trouble telling which reality he was in. Shortly after, Minkowski died of the same nose-bleed-brain-hemorrhage that killed Charlotte. Desmond was having the same kind of "flashes" as Minkowski. The only thing that saved Desmond was finding his constant, Penny. If Desmond X is having "flashes" it may only be a matter of time before he starts having nose bleeds. And then it will be a race against time to find the other passengers of Oceanic 815 and "show them something."


Eloise Hawking showed up in the sideways, but she was not much help to Desmond. In the original timeline, she foretold Desmond's fate and explained that he could never escape it. Even if he tried, the universe has a way of "course correcting".

This time, she was actively discouraging. She said whatever Desmond is looking for, "he's not ready" and that his actions constitute a "violation". Again, we're getting language from big players that seems to portray Lost as all some kind of twisted game. In the original timeline, Ms. Hawking knew a lot about the Losties, and seemed to actually know the future. I have always believed that is because Daniel traveled to 1977 and left his journal, so Eloise had knowledge of events up to 2004. It's at that point that she admits, "for the first time in a very long time" she has no idea how things are going to turn out.

So, what are Ellie's stakes in the sideways? Here, she claims to know things, just because she bloody does! There wouldn't be any journal, and the Widmores are now has a big happy family. Still, I believe that somehow Eloise has an idea (maybe full knowledge) that this is not her "real" universe. But she prefers this one to the universe where she murders her own son with a rifle. Daniel got to grow up and be a musician like he wanted, with no pressure to develop his mathematics skills, and never has to worry about the Island. Eloise doesn't like the idea that Desmond may come along and wreck it all. When she ordered the employees away and spoke with Desmond in private, I was hoping she was ready to drop some major bombs like she did for Des in "Flashes Before Your Eyes" but in true Lost fashion, she left us all hanging. I guess we're just not ready yet. Anyone else think that Ellie's guest list has the names of the candidates on it?


As Desmond is about to leave empty handed, fate intervenes in the form of Daniel Widmore. Sideways Daniel doesn't have the math skills, but somehow he was able to tap into "real" Daniel's memories and come up with a graph of space-time. I expected Daniel's note from season four to finally come into play here, "If anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume will be my constant." But Daniel tells Desmond that the catalyst was love. As it was for Charlie and later for Desmond, the sight of his true love from the original timeline gave Daniel a "flash" of how things were meant to be. It's interesting, because fans have theorized that the sideways universe is "how things were meant to be" without meddling - whether meddling from Jacob, the Man In Black, the Island, or whomever. But now we have Daniel and Charlie telling us that it's the sideways that's wrong, and only love can set us free. Ought to right a song about it.

Anyone else feel like it was a wild leap of logic for Daniel to come up with the idea that he had detonated a hydrogen bomb in another universe, and that this life is not how it's "supposed" to be? It was the same sort of thing that bothered me in season five, when he suddenly introduced the concept of humans as variables in the "what happens, happens" equation. Where does Daniel get these insights? Has he been hanging around with the writing team?

I'm particularly bothered by these wild leaps here at the end of the series, when the writers were supposed to have planned out the last three seasons to an end. Why did we spend ten episodes establishing a whole new sideways continuity (minus the Richard episode, which I still feel was short on development, long on drama) only to have Daniel suddenly blurt out "Oh, the other day I realized that none of this is real." Now Desmond will get his hands on the manifest and go about tearing up this universe.


I'm hoping for some twist, or something more from this final season. I really don't feel that season six has presented me very much that we couldn't foresee after the premiere, LA X. In my blog for Recon, I wrote that Desmond's ability to shift between timelines would come in handy. What if he wants to have his cake and eat it too? He could try to affect the sideways in such a way that he can make a "perfect" universe. A perfect job working for his former hated rival, and he gets coffee with Penny! But, I doubt it.

At the very end of the episode, Desmond returned to the Island timeline. He showed a calm and understanding that was practically supernatural. I think it's quite likely that Desmond is getting flashes of the future. He may have better control than ever.


Next week, "Everybody Loves Hugo"! Yes they do, they do indeed. Will we finally see the outrigger? Every time someone gets in one of those boats, I'm convinced we're finally going to see the other side of that scene from season five. I think the producers are toying with us. Remember when the Losties were skipping through time, they took a boat and Juliet turned and fired at some pursuers. It seemed like she hit someone. I have this sick feeling it might be Sawyer...