Lost Rewatch: Happily Ever After

 

 

At the start of Season 5 Dan Faraday had just finished telling everybody that no matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t change the future. Then immediately afterwards, realizing the danger the time flashes represented he started banging on the door of the Swan, hoping ‘this would work’. When the door opened he told the man inside: “The rules don’t apply to you.”

Looking back on Lost as an entirety it’s now clear that this applies to Desmond Hume on more than just the idea of his being able to transcend time and space. In fact this applies to him on every level – on how the rules of episodes worked, how his character was always different from everyone we met prior and almost everyone since, and much how Peak TV would ‘change the rules.’

This was clear in our introduction to him in Season 2 when the season premiere made it very clear how Lost was going to approach the opening of the seasons from that point forward. We didn’t know where we were when we first met him and it wasn’t until the teaser ended that we knew for sure where we were. We didn’t know who he was until the confrontation in the Swan, when we learned that somehow the man who Jack had met in his flashback in a stadium had somehow ended up on the same island as him. Through him we began to understand just what it was Locke had been trying to unearth through all of Season 1 and our first glimpses at the Dharma Initiative. And we quickly learned Desmond was a man of faith but unlike Locke he didn’t think the island was a miraculous place. When he ran for his life after the hatch computer broke and somehow disappeared without a trace, we should have wondered more about this but we forgot him.

Then at the end of Season 2 a boat appeared on the horizon, and who should be in it none other than Desmond, just as stir crazy as when we went met him at the start of the season, and thoroughly wasted on alcohol. This was where we learned the most important difference between Desmond and the other survivors: in a season where everyone was considering the island their new home, Desmond considered it a prison. Locke might have considered it paradise, for Desmond it was hell.

In the season finale, the show broke another rule when it gave us a flashback of a character who hadn’t been on Oceanic 815. There we saw many of the themes that are iconic of Desmond: honor, disgrace and most of all, his love for Penny Widmore. Because we learned of their love story in reverse, we didn’t immediately understand the implications but it was clear that Desmond and Penny’s love seemed able to withstand anything and that Des didn’t think he would be worthy of it without her father’s approval. That in fact he was trying to win the approval of a man who had no honor was something he would only learn well after he ended up on the island.

In an effort to prove himself he determined to win Widmore’s race around the world. The show never made it clear if the race was just something Widmore planned to get Desmond permanently away from Penny or to help him find the island. What we became clear of was the result: Desmond spent the next three years pushing a button to ‘save the world’ and his failure to do so ended up crashing Oceanic 815. He returned to the island just as Locke’s faith had reached its lowest and he decided to do the one thing Locke would not have been able to do: “blow the dam!” When he turned the fail-safe key, he (and the viewer) thought he would die. His last words were emblematic of who he was: “I love you, Penny.”

What he had no way of knowing was what the viewer did: Penny had neither forgotten nor forsaken her great love. She has spent the last three years looking for him: “with enough money and determination you can find anyone” she told Desmond, and she clearly had both. It’s clear that she’d found out about the island because of her father’s history with it and had spent the next three years looking for a sign – and Desmond had just given it.

But despite being at ground zero for the detonation of the hatch, Desmond was still alive and unharmed. At the time, the viewer basically let it go after all Locke and Eko had been there too and they were alive as well. But it quickly became clear that more had happened to Desmond then the hatch “blowing off his underwear”. Suddenly he could see the future.

In what was the most groundbreaking episode to date “Flashes Before Your Eyes” we learned what happened to Desmond after he turned the failsafe key. Seventeen years later we’re still debating what actually happened but didn’t matter so much as how Desmond experienced it. Violating the standards of the structure of the flashback, we spent an entire episode watching Desmond back in London with Penny in a period when they were still together and he had everything. We saw Desmond try to ask for Widmore’s hand in marriage. And in only his second appearance Widmore confirmed for us what a horrible human being he was even before we learned the height of his villainy.

It was clear even from the start that Widmore’s ‘love’ for his daughter was a form of cruelty and disdain. Desmond’s own code of honor seemed to dictate that he can not be with Penny unless his father approved. That Widmore approved of no one at all is something the show made clear but it mattered to Desmond, and we saw him make the worst mistake of his life. (Again.)

During the rest of the season Desmond’s fate became intermeshed with Charlie’s. The hatch had apparently given him to see the future in a limited sense, and that was how Charlie was going to die. He spent much of Season 3 trying to stop it from happening, but he seemed to know it was destined. During this period he got a series of flashes that indicated that Penny had found the island and that he had to bring about a series of events that would bring her there – which included Charlie dying. He prevented it though – but nevertheless rescue in the form of the freighter seemed apparent.

At the end of Season 3 Charlie embarked on what he thought would be a suicide mission to the Looking Glass. Desmond still tried to save him and did because it was the only way to bring about rescue. The moment Charlie stopped jamming the signal, Penny somehow managed to break through and Desmond saw her – except Penny wasn’t on the freighter. With what would be his last effort of strength Charlie sacrificed himself but told Des that it wasn’t Penny’s boat.

Despite that fact when the fracture in the survivors took place, Desmond chose to go with the people who believed the freighter meant rescue. It’s now clear that the sight of Penny made him realize that she was out there and he was going to find her come hell or high water – or as we found out when he when the helicopter veered off his bearing, “side effects’

‘The Constant’ violated the rules of both the flashforward and the flashback – and in doing so produced one of the greatest episodes in TV history. Henry Ian Cusick gave one of the master classes in acting of all of 2008 as he had to run the gamut of emotions as he – along with everyone else – tried to figure out how he could be in 2004 but think it was 1996. It quickly became clear that this was not an abstract issue: if he didn’t find a way to right himself, he was going to die and even then we knew how ruthless Lost could be when it came to killing characters we were invested in.

Through the help of Dan in Oxford and the present, Desmond knew he had to find a constant to keep himself balanced – and as we already knew that constant was Penny. We spent the episode wondering if Desmond could get Penny’s number, convince her to keep it for eight years and most importantly answer the phone in her flat on that day. When the episode ended in one of the most moving moments of all time, it confirmed what we Desmond would tell us near the end of Season 4: he had no intention of going back to the island.

In the chaos of so much of Season 4 – constant death,  an explosion that destroyed the freighter, and a helicopter crashing to the ocean – Desmond managed to stay alive. When rescue came for the Oceanic 6, it was in the form of Penny.

So much of Lost has been about every major character losing what they cared for the most: it had been clear up to Season 4 and would accelerate in the last two seasons. Desmond was among them – he lost Penny before he came to the island – but he stands apart because he got her back. As a result, he was whole and had no reason to come back to the island. At the time, I truly hoped that this was the end of his arc on the show for that very reason.

The sole Desmond-centric episode of Season 5 again broke the rules of that season’s structures. We got to see Desmond’s life in the aftermath of his rescue and unlike that of everyone of the Oceanic 6, it was happy. He and Penny were married and they had a two year old son named Charlie. Unlike everyone else who left Desmond had nothing to gain and everything to lose when he started tracking down Dan Faraday. But his honor – the thing that had made him risk his life to save Charlie even though his death was fated – was still important to him, even though he tried to convinced Penny it wasn’t, who knew better.

When Desmond ended up in Los Angeles, right as everyone was trying to find a way back to the island, again he had the clearest assessment of what was happening. He knew of Widmore’s involvement with the island and he knew that Eloise Hawking had her own agenda, even if he didn’t know her connection. He knew Ben couldn’t be trusted. When he told them that this was just one big game “and we are just the pieces” he was the sane man shouting in the asylum. The only thing he got wrong was the nature of the major players.

Ignoring Eloise’s warning “The island isn’t done with you yet,” he stormed out of the church. He didn’t know that Ben had sworn to Widmore that he planned to kill Penny’s daughter as an act of retribution and that by showing up he had made sure an attempt was going to happen. Ben shot Desmond and planned to kill Penny, but he was so focused on his goal that he did what he had done the entire series: regard Desmond as unimportant. Desmond then beat the snot out of Ben, forcing him to retreat before being rushed to a hospital.

Desmond survived the shooting and he and Penny again swore their devotion. When both Eloise and Widmore, the two people who had been manipulating Desmond’s destiny for years, stood outside and talked only about their son, the viewer could have been forgiven for thinking – and hoping – that Desmond’s story was well truly and over.

But now it seems that neither the island nor Lost was done with Desmond. We will never know how Widmore managed to get Desmond away from Penny any more than we shall know how he found the island again in the first place. All that matters is that history has repeated itself. For the second time in his life, due to the actions of Charles Widmore, Desmond is back on the island. But this time, he’s face to face with the man and he makes no secret of showing it.

There are multiple ironies in Desmond’s episode being titled Happily Ever After. The first is that this is the exact phrase Keamy used before he locked Jin in the freezer, when he told him: “Some people just aren’t meant to live happily ever after.” The second is that, for the majority of the flash-sideways, all of the survivors seem to be experience the happily ever after’s they couldn’t live in real life. And the last and biggest is that, of all of the characters we’ve met, Desmond actually got his happily ever after and the biggest obstacle to him achieving it has not only done so again but follows this by telling him that he will have to make a sacrifice.

When Desmond reacts to this with understandable rage, what follows is one of the most brilliant scenes in the entire series. For much of the series Charles Widmore has been considered a ruthless monster, someone who cares for no one’s happiness, only for his own ambitions. But for the first time the mask slips and the man we once considered the greatest evil on the island looks – like a human being.

We realized in Dr. Linus that Ben realized that all of the sacrifices he has made for the island were meaningless because he’d lost the one thing he really cared about – Alex. We believed it not just because of Emerson’s delivery but because by that point we knew so much of Ben’s backstory and along with what had happened since his return to the island, it was clear how much he’d been manipulated.

Giving Charles Widmore that same benefit of the doubt is infinitely harder because there’s never been a moment in his backstory where he’s truly been sympathetic. He’s always been cold-blooded since he was a young man, he grew more monstrous as he got older and if anything he was as much a devil when he left the island. We got a sense of it at times during Season 5, almost always in regard to his daughter’s well-being but considering how much he’d done to harm her happiness it never balanced. Now that he’s returned to the island there’s been no sign of real change and as we see in the opening sequence, he’s gotten worse when it comes to getting qualified people. But in the moment Desmond demands of him “what do you know about sacrifice?”, for a minute, all of that falls away and we hear Widmore take a tone we’ve never heard. He doesn’t seem like the individual who we thought might be the final boss; he seems like an old man whose son is dead, whose daughter hates him and who has never even met his grandson.

Of course, he immediately negates it by locking Desmond into this shed and telling Jin that they need to fry him with electricity because they need to know if he can survive an electromagnetic event.

Just as with every other season, Desmond’s Season 6 episode shows that when it comes to the structure of an episode’s back story, the rules don’t apply. We spend the entire episode in the flash-sideways universe and follow Desmond from the moment he leaves the airport. His flash-sideways, more than other character’s so far, shows him interacting with every character that was important to him in the real world. And when it’s over we get the clearest perspective possible as to what the flash-sideways might be.

If we’ve ever needed an indication that this might be an alternate universe, it comes when we learn that Desmond is working for Widmore. This episode runs contrast to the famous scene in Flashes Before Your Eyes. Desmond is welcomed into Widmore’s office. Widmore looks up him, walks out behind his desk and hugs Desmond. And at the end of their meeting he pours Desmond a glass of scotch. When Desmond demurs, Widmore waives it off: “Nothing’s too good for you, Desmond.” Your head would explode at this, but I’m pretty sure mine had after the hug.

There’s an argument that this is as much as much a happier world for Widmore too. He and his wife are married and he’s grousing, slightly, about planning a charity event. He’s raised his son and acknowledged him in a way he never got to in the real world. And he clearly seems to be talking with Penny, considering she’s been invited to this charity event. (And apparently her mother’s name was Milton. I guess we never learn who she is anymore than why in the real world Dan’s last name was Faraday.) He seems to admire that Desmond has no wife and family but based on what we’ve just seen in the real world, it’s clear Charles doesn’t think that.

Desmond seems to have everything he didn’t have in the real world: Widmore’s approval, wealth, prestige, travels the world. What he doesn’t have is the one thing that made him unique in the real world: that great love. In this world, it seems if he just looked at Penny years ago, Widmore would have made the two of them get married. But in a sign of the alternate Desmond’s relationship is entirely with Widmore himself and he doesn’t even seem to know he has a daughter.

Desmond’s job takes him into the paths of the two people who were the most important in the real world. Desmond is here to take care of Charlie, but unlike the previous world where Charlie was terrified of dying, this Charlie seems to be courting it. When we get to the bar, we get the first real indication.

We saw Jack save Charlie on the plane and he told Jack: “He was supposed to be dead.” Now we see why. When he was choking, he got a glimpse of a beautiful blonde girl who he seems ‘like he always knew’. It sounds a lot like Claire. Now he thinks that the flash-sideways world isn’t real. The irony is that in the real world Desmond was the kind of person who believed in such things as destiny and soulmates but in this world, he’s a hard-headed realist. Until Charlie drives him into the ocean – and he gets a ‘flash’ of something else.

In the hospital, after being told ‘not to press the button,” he gets a real look at Penny for the first time. He starts to seek out Charlie, who’s decided to leave the hospital because ‘none of this matters’. He tells her that he has to find Penny.

Desmond is then sent to meet “Mrs. Widmore.” In her review of the episode Nikki Stafford said that Eloise Hawking’s role doesn’t seem to be explained. However while I do have problems with some of the elements of this episode in the context of the series finale, ‘Eloise Widmore’s’ behavior actually fits it perfectly. When Desmond walks up to her, for the first time since we met her Eloise momentarily seems nervous, almost afraid. She seems relieved when Desmond seems here just to tell her that Charlie’s not going to be here and seems almost anxious for him to leave. It’s only when he learns about Penny’s existence that she becomes the woman we know, telling Desmond that he can’t interfere and should leave this alone. Even this seems more defensive than the Eloise we’ve come to know since we met her and we see that for a woman who has everything, she seems terrified of losing it.

Dan’s arrival plays a variation on the one he was in Desmond’s life. He tells Desmond the exact same thing Charlie did, even using many of the same words. And just as in their meeting in The Constant, Dan does exactly the same thing: he tells Desmond where he can find what he needs to feel whole and sends him on a mission that gives him a purpose.

Of course the episode leads to Desmond meeting Penny for the first time. Just as when they first met at the end of the flashback in Catch 22, we see the instant connection. In this case Desmond is knocked off his feet literally instead of figuratively – and its fitting that when he wakes up back on the island, he’s flat on his back because that’s the power Penny will have over him in any universe. We don’t know why Desmond is so calm at the end of this episode that’s he instantly willing to listen to Widmore but at this point we perceive that maybe it’s just the fact that seeing Penny, no matter where, is enough to put him at peace.

One of the hardest lessons to learn in the era of Peak TV was love was powerless over life. We’d already seen it when Christopher chose to sell out Adriana for his own good, we’d seen it in 24 when Michelle Dessler was killed in front of Tony and by the time of the final season of Lost we’d seen that Rita Bennett could not survive being part of the world of Dexter Morgan. Far darker lessons were to come in the next decade: practically every single relationship in Grey’s Anatomy (indeed, all of Shonda Rhimes’s work) would come to ruin; most of the love stories in Westeros would eventually be doomed and not even the love story of Kim Wexler and Jimmy McGill could stand against the legacy of Saul Goodman. There have been exceptions to this during this period, of course –  Friday Night Lights, Parenthood and the many love stories of This is Us – but love is such a simple and good emotion that even the best writers in television only see it as something that be corrupted and broken over time.

Perhaps the great accomplishment of Lost was even though it was about so many great idea, mind-bending concepts and stories that could often leave us baffled, the reason we all watched the show and still follow it is because the writers always remembered that we watched the show not so much about the mysteries of the island but because we cared about the people on it. Many people were overjoyed when Henry Ian Cusick returned during the final season; my heart was broken because it meant his chance for happiness seemed, well, lost forever.

But there’s something very different about Desmond now. For the first time since we met him way back in Season 2, he seems relaxed and at peace in a way we’ve only seen him when he was Penny. As the series enters its final phase and all of the battles come to a climax, everyone’s emotions will be rendered raw. But while all of this chaos goes on, whether in this world or the flash-sideways, Desmond seems free in a way we’ve never seen him – or really any other character during this run. We’re not going to truly understand why until the series finale but it gets back to the fundamental truth of what has always made Desmond different. It has nothing to do with being impervious to electromagnetism or his role in the island, it’s because from the moment we met him, he always believed in love. He was always different from the survivors because he had a purpose that none of them had, something to live for that never made him as ‘irrevocably broken’ as UnLocke has said about everyone else who came to the island. And because Desmond knows that his destiny is not this island but rather Penny, he’s the only person who isn’t lost.

 

IF YOU BELIEVE THE ENDING: Much as I loved seeing Jeremy Davies again during this episode everything he tells Desmond doesn’t make sense if we have to believe the ending. After Dan sees Charlotte in the museum, he draws the equations we saw him draw in his journal in the real world. The way he phrases it, it’s as if he realizes that the events in The Incident took place. When he thinks “he already set off a nuclear bomb”, he seems to be acknowledging that the flash-sideways is an alternate universe. But that explanation goes completely out the window if you believe what the flash-sideways is supposed to be. It makes you think that the whole scene between Dan and Desmond was either a red herring or just an excuse to see Dan again.

This brings me to the bigger problem. Based on what Dan tells us when he met Charlotte, he went through the exact same thing that happened to Charlie, what happened to Desmond, and what will follow through much of the final episodes. But if that’s the case why isn’t he or anyone else who wasn’t on the plane not involved in the series finale except indirectly? Throughout the final season, we meet many characters in the flash-sideways who were vital to all the other characters in real life, but none of them appear in the final minutes. This is an equation that in my mind, can’t be balanced.