LOST 6x16: “Get your friends. We’re very close to the end.”

Richard Alpert gets a sore throat from UnLocke. Widmore whispers sweet nothings to UnLocke. Young Jacob asks to see Hurley’s ass…I mean ash. And Jack drinks the Kool-Aid.

LOST 6x16: What They Died For

I think I intentionally delayed the writing of this recap in the hopes that the season would somehow be extended if I did so. Alas, LOST is coming to an end tomorrow evening. I’m not even sure what to say about it. They media and fan community anticipation is almost overwhelming. I’ve never watched the show with anyone really but my wife, so in a way I’m glad we’re having people over to watch tomorrow as a distraction from the impossible hype.

They’re literally rushing through to the end. (More than I’m comfortable with, actually…) So as we come to the end of this incredible series, what did you think about this episode, and how do you think it’s going to end? I just want to thank my regular readers – even the ones who pester me about where the recaps are within hours of the episode airing. And commenters to the blog, I think I’ll miss you most of all. Comment below with your thoughts.

Los Angeles, 2004:

We see another close-up on Jack’s eye open the episode and are called back to the pilot episode post-crash. Sideways Jack wakes up and walks into his bathroom to see blood on his neck, just as he had on the sideways flight 815. This time, it appears that the wound is fresh. At breakfast, David reminds Jack about the concert, and Jack asks him if his mom will be there.

Out walks Claire, and they eat breakfast together as a family. The phone rings, and it’s Oceanic Airlines saying they’ve found the coffin. However, we see that on the other end of the line is Desmond, grinning.


Nerd alert: More mirror staring time…

Question: The mom has got to be Juliet, right?


Desmond starts his car, and we realize he’s back in the same parking lot where he hit Locke and sent him and his wheelchair flying. Dr. Ben Linus happens to be walking by and jumps in front of the car and calls for help, screaming for someone to call 911. Desmond hops out of the car and starts wailing on Ben. But Desmond says, “I’m not here to hurt him, I’m here to help him let go.” Ben asks who he is, and Desmond starts wailing on his face.


Ben gets flashes of Desmond wailing on him at the pier, when Ben was there to shoot Penny, and it’s clear that Ben has some recognition of what Desmond was trying to awaken him to see.

Ben goes to the school nurse’s office and is staring into the mirror as Locke wheels up. He tells Locke of the attack, and Locke tries to call the police. But Ben tells him that Desmond said he was trying to get Locke to let go, and he says that he believed him. Ben asks if that means anything to him, and it’s clear Locke’s gears start turning.

Walking into the police precinct, Desmond asks to see a detective. Miles reminds Det. James (“Sawyer”) Ford about the benefit concert for his father’s museum and invites James again. Desmond comes into the room and confesses that he hit Ben with his car. They walk Desmond back to lockup and he’s placed in a cell with Sayid and one next to Kate.


Question: Do they actually keep men and women in adjacent cells? I’m thinking not.


Bending down, Alex runs over to Dr. Linus and is upset to see him hurt. She’s dumbfounded that anyone could do this to “the nicest man on earth”. She insists on giving him a ride home, and his mother, Danielle Rousseau (she cleans up pretty nice) invites him for dinner as well. At the house, Danielle tells him that Alex is the closest thing to a father she’s ever had, and Ben looks out to see her and realizes his impact, but also, I’m guessing, is remembering the sideways pain of losing her on the island.

Locke arrives at Jack’s office and starts talking to him about the coincidences between them. He tells Jack that Desmond wanted Locke to “let go”, which is the same thing that Jack told him earlier in the hospital. He realizes it’s time to let go and try the surgery to re-gain use of his legs again.


Kate, Desmond and Sayid are in a van, and Sayid agrees to work with them to get free. The door in the van opens and it’s Ana Lucia. Hurley arrives with a bag of cash to bribe Ana Lucia to let them go. (So Ana Lucia is the only one of the sideways folks that havent been redeemed?) Desmond tells Kate they’re going to a concert.


On the island, 2007:
On the beach, Jack’s making some thread out of an old shirt and sewing up Katie’s bullet wound. Kate’s taking it like a trooper, but acknowledges what we all knew and hoped wouldn’t go unnoticed – that Sun and Jin left behind a little girl, and that Jin never even met her. Kate tells Jack that they have to kill Locke, and he answers, “I know.”



Nerd alert: Call back to the pilot episode when Kate sewed up the wound on Jack’s shoulder.


Staring out at the ocean, Sawyer sees a pair of life vests washing ashore and we’re reminded again of Sun and Jin. Kate cuddles up to Sawyer. Jack says that they have to set out to find Desmond to protect him from Locke.

We re-visit Ben, Miles and Richard (finally!) as they’re looking for Ben’s old house. Miles asks if Ben knows where he’s going, and Ben reminds them he lived there for years, but Miles retorts that he was there 30 years before him, “otherwise known as last week”. Ben wants to find the C-4 explosives in his house so they can blow up the plane.


Nerd alert: Didn’t Ben’s face looked bruised in almost the same exact way as in the flash sideways post-Des beating?


Miles is stopped in his tracks, and Richard tells Ben that Miles is sensing Alex, because Richard buried her there. Ben looks more determined than ever to complete his task. They head into Ben’s secret room and as they’re packing it up, they hear someone out in the house. They find Zoe in the kitchen, and Ben asks, as if for the rest of us, “who the hell are you?” Charles Widmore answers, “She’s with me,” as he walks into the house.

Ben asks what he’s doing there, and Widmore sends off Zoe to sink the outrigger so UnLocke can’t use it. He tells Ben that the plane is already rigged with explosives. Asking how Widmore got back to the island, Ben is in disbelief to hear that Jacob asked him to come. Just as he’s about to reveal his plan, Zoe interrupts the answer by radioing in that UnLocke has arrived at the dock.


In the jungle, Sawyer asks Jack if he’s responsible for the deaths on the sub, and Jack assures him it was Locke who killed them. Trailing behind, Hurley sees young Jacob, who demands the bag of ashes from Hurley. He snatches them from his hand, and Jacob runs off. Hurley chases after him and finds adult Jacob sitting by a campfire.


Jacob tells him that his ashes are in the fire, and when they’re gone, Hurley will never see him again. “You should get your friends, we’re very close to the end, Hugo.”


Charles and Zoe go to hide, and Ben asks for their walkies. Miles runs off, and Alpert goes out to confront UnLocke and talk to him. Ben goes out to witness the exchange. What he sees instead, was the black smoke monster come barreling into the village and throws Richard – BY…HIS…THROAT – across New Otherton. (I guess UnLocke wasn’t all that interested in talking after all.) Ben slowly walks to the porch and he appears to be waiting to die. UnLocke walks up and uses his hunting knife to clean his finger nails. He tells Ben that he needs him to kill a few more people (UnLocke still can’t directly kill the Candidates), and asks whose outrigger was at the dock. Ben not only tells him it was Widmore’s, but that he’s hiding in the closet in Ben’s house.


Gripe: So Richard Alpert is tossed away like trash? Like an unimportant bit player? I'm hoping he's still alive and will factor into the finale episode...


Question: Ben is totally playing UnLocke, yes?


Ben tells UnLocke where to find them and even that Zoe is armed. He opens the safe room, and UnLocke is almost pleasant again, “how nice it is to talk without those fences between us.” He asks who Zoe is, and Widmore tells her not to say anything. Locke pulls out his knife and slits her throat. “You told her not to talk to me and that made her pointless.” He tells Charles that if he doesn’t help him get off the island, he will get off eventually, and he will kill Penny.


Widmore starts to answer questions saying that he brought Desmond there as “a measure of last resort.” He says he won’t say any more in front of Ben, and just as he starts, Ben shoots him three times, and declares: “He doesn’t get to save his daughter.” UnLocke says that Widmore had already told him what he needed.

At the campfire, Hurley introduces – or re-introduces – Jack, Kate and Sawyer to Jacob. Hurley is dumbfounded that the others can see him. Kate asks about the names on the wall and wants to know that Sun, Jin and Sayid didn’t die for nothing. They sit down as Jacob tells them why they’re there.


Nerd alert: The four Candidates are the same four as those kidnapped by the Others in season two's "Live Together, Die Alone".

Jacob says that he doesn’t know where to start. Hurley wisely points him to “why you brought us to the island.” Jacob admits that he made a mistake creating the black smoke monster and because of that every one of them and everyone they know is going to die. Sawyer complains that he was doing fine until he was dragged there, but he calls bullshit – they were all like him, all alone and looking for something they couldn’t find. Kate asks why her name was crossed off in the cave, and he dismisses it, saying he crossed her out because she became a mother, “it was just a line of chalk in a cave, the job is yours if you want it.” Jacob asks them to kill UnLocke. He gives them a choice on whether they want to take over for him, and Jack steps up, saying this is his purpose.

Question: So all the over analyzing of the names on the cave and on the wheel were for nothing? And the cave was actually Jacob’s and not MIB’s? Man, that was a lot of thinking that went into that storyline down the drain, when essentially anyone on the island could have been a candidate.

Sawyer jokes, “I thought that guy had a God-complex before…” Hurley’s relieved, saying he’s just glad it’s not him. Jacob tells Jack to find the heart of the island out past the bamboo he was laying in when 815 crashed. Jack says there’s nothing out there, but Jacob smiles coyly. He tells Jack that he can now get there. Jacob asks for a cup and starts to say some Latin prayers as he cleanses his hands. Jack asks how long he’ll need to do the job, and Jacob says, “as long as you can.” Jack finishes the cup of water and Jacob says, “now you’re like me.” Long pause from Jack on this news…


Nerd alert: Again, this scene was reminiscent of Jesus turning the water into wine.


Ben asks why UnLocke would even bother walking when he can just float above it. UnLocke answers that he likes to have his feet on the ground – it reminds him that he used to be human. They arrive at the well and see that Desmond is no longer down there. He tells Ben that he’s happy that Desmond is still alive because he’s going to use Desmond to destroy the island.


So in the home stretch, how do you think it’s going to end? Drop a comment below with your thoughts or theories (no spoilers if you know of them).

-Sean Salo

LOST: The Last Recruit - Take a leap of faith

Sun and Jin are finally reunited, and it feels so good. Zoe makes an explosive entrance. Jack doesn’t know how to dive. UnLocke has a dressing up as dead people fetish. Claire starts hanging with the popular kids. Sawyer tells Jack to walk the plank. The 815ers fill up a few more hospital beds. And who the hell’s Anakin?

Lost 6x13: The Last Recruit

This episode moved very quickly and I think they crammed a lot into it: new answers, explosions, reunions, allegiances, and captivity. Rather than the methodical pace of LOST, this felt more like a bit of a sprint to the end. Definitely seems the theory that the sidewayers are all assembling – by choice or otherwise – at the hospital is coming to be. So where to they go from here?

Thoughts? Comments? Leave them below.


2007, On the island:
“Hello Jack. I was hoping you’d come. I think we have some catching up to do.” UnLocke is so…rational and almost polite. It’s hard to fathom that he’s this pure evil everyone’s been warned about. Jack asks why Smokey chose Locke, and he answers, “because he was stupid enough to believe that he’d been brought here for a reason, because he pursued that belief until it got him killed, and because you were kind enough to bring his body back here in a nice wooden box.” UnLocke owns up to taking the appearance of Christian, but claims everything he’d done was to help him get off the island.

Question: So Smokey was every apparition? Harper the therapist? Dave? Kate's horse? Yemi, Eko's brother? Tall Walt?

Explaining that they all need to leave together, UnLocke becomes frustrated when Jack questions this, stating that Locke believed in the island. But UnLocke dismisses the former ‘renter’ in the body he now occupies as a sucker.

UnLocke hears someone in the jungle and calls out for the hiding Claire. She says Jack’s her brother, and UnLocke leaves them to talk. She asks if he fessed up about posing as Christian, and says she gave up hope he’d ever come back, but says she’s happy to see him again. Claire tells him that the moment he talked to UnLocke, he was with him, like it or not.

Nerd alert: Claire touched Jack when they were talking. Is this another moment of touching having some significance, as with UnLocke’s hand grabbing?

Sawyer is explaining the plan to take Widmore’s sub off the island to Hurley, including why he’s not including Sayid in the plan. Hurley reminds him that people can be brought back from the dark side…like Anakin. UnLocke returns to camp, announcing, “It’s so nice to have everybody together again.”


Nerd alert: When Jack and UnLocke walk into the jungle to catch up, it’s pitch black out. When they return, it’s bright and sunny.

Confiding in Jack, Kate says about Sayid, “he’s different now.” Jack’s thoughtful reply, “I guess we’re all different now.” (Did that feel a little earnest, like from some high school performance of “Our Town”?) Zoe comes charging into the UnLocke Flock camp asking to see the man in charge. She demands what he’s stolen from them – Desmond – back. She radios to her people and suddenly a missle flies in and explodes just a few yards from them. She hands UnLocke a walkie talkie and tells him to call when he’s ready for them to pick Desmond up. UnLocke uses his wooden staff to smash the walkie.


Nerd alert: We’ve learned that Smokey is afraid of technology in the past, going back to our first encounter with him in what we thought was Jacob’s cabin. (Can we assume Jacob has a similar distrust of technology?)

Jacob’s prepping the team for the journey, and asks Sawyer to use the sailboat to get to the Hydra Island. Sawyer asks Kate to come along. UnLocke pulls Sayid aside to talk, and Sawyer does the same with Jack, filling him in on the plot to steal the sub. He says that they are not taking Sayid or Claire, because he’s a zombie and she’s gone crazy. UnLocke tells Sayid that he has to kill Desmond if he wants to see Nadia again.

At the well, Desmond knows Sayid is there to kill him and asks him what he offered him to kill him. Desmond asks where Nadia is now, and asks how he knows UnLocke can bring her back. He answers that UnLocke brought him back. But Desmond questions what Sayid will tell her when she asks what Sayid did to be with her again. And under that zombie exterior, beat human heart as (we assume) he didn’t kill Desmond.


On the beach, Sawyer reveals his plan to Kate and the deal he cut with Widmore, and Kate is furious that Claire isn’t part of the plan. But Sawyer explains Claire’s too far gone. The two of them swim out to the sailboat.

Jack asks Claire why she’s with UnLocke, and her reply is that he was the only one who didn’t abandon her. UnLocke falls back, and Jack, Hurley, Sun and Lapidus make for the dock in a map Sawyer gave him.

Running into Sayid in the jungle, UnLocke asks if Desmond is dead. Sayid tells him to go and check. (Really, if it’s that important that he’s dead, shouldn’t UnLocke have gone all Smokey to go see for himself?) They walk off to get to the plane.

Jack’s team arrive at the dock where Sawyer and Kate are now docked. Claire shows up almost immediately behind them and Kate tires to talk her down off the ledge by offering her a slot on the plane so she can rescue and raise Aaron. Kate apologizes and convinces Claire to come along with them.

On the sailboat, Sawyer goes to Jack to talk with him in private, but Jack explains that it doesn’t feel right to leave the island. He believes that they were brought there to do something special, and Sawyer demands he either come around or get off the boat. Jack does a dainty little jump into the waves below to swim back to the main island and UnLocke. Kate tells Sawyer that they have to go back to get him. He replies, “We’re done going back, Kate.”


Jack swims up onto the beach by the still-patient UnLocke. And Sawyer’s crew swim up onto the beach at the Hydra Island and are met with a welcome party of guns. Zoe recognizes Sawyer and radios to Widmore. And just then – finally – Jin walks onto the beach, and he and Sun are reunited. Sun can suddenly speak English again, and for some strange reason, they have a full conversation in English instead of Korean.


Widmore gives Zoe the order to capture all of them, and Zoe orders the first missile, which explodes on the beach, sending Jack flying and causing him to lose his hearing. UnLocke picks him up on his shoulders and carries Jack to safety, saying, “It’s going to be alright. You’re with me now.”

Question: Is it possible Jack died and was touched by UnLocke, therefore infecting him?





2004, Los Angeles:
In an ambulance on the way to the hospital, Ben is riding along with Locke. Ben reassures him. As the gurney is being wheeled into the hospital, Sun’s gurney is being wheeled alongside his, and she wigs out at seeing John.

Question: The island has bled further into the sideways reality here, with Sun acknowledging that Locke (or rather UnLocke) is someone she should fear.


Det. James Ford offers Kate an apple and reads the list of charges, but Kate denies she did wrong. He asks if she thinks it’s weird that they were on the same flight and she ran into his car. She speculates though that he didn’t arrest her because he didn’t want anyone to know he was in Australia.
Question: Is the apple a reference to Eve’s apple?


Miles comes in with a new case – the Keamy crew murdered at the restaurant and Sun shot. Miles has the ATM surveillance tape which shows Sayid as the shooter.


Claire arrives in the lobby of an office building to meet with the Western Pacific Adoption Agency. Desmond arrives at the same moment to see a lawyer and recognizes her from baggage claim. (What a coincidence! They’re both on the 15th floor.) He coerces her to see his lawyer to discuss the adoption. Ilana walks out of her office and is shocked to see Claire in her lobby. Ilana tells Claire that they’ve been looking for her.

Nerd alert: Law firm is Sweetzer & Verdansky. And we now know Ilana’s last name is Verdansky. The coffee shop Penny told Desmond they'd meet on was on Sweetzer & Melrose, but I'm not seeing a connection. And while there's not a Verdansky connection I've found, there is a Vladimir Vernadsky who was "a Russian and Soviet mineralogist and geochemist who is considered one of the founders of geochemistry, biogeochemistry, and of radiogeology. His ideas of noosphere were an important contribution to Russian cosmism." Or that could just be another coincidence.


Question: Desmond was there exclusively to drive her into Ilana’s hands, right? He's like Mrs. Hawking now, trying to steer people toward their destiny, it seems, even if by force.

At Nadia’s house, Sayid bursts in to pack and flee. Miles rings the bell and Sayid runs out the back, but he’s apparently no match for a garden hose and Ford, who trips and then cuffs him.

Question: They i.d.’d Sayid from an ATM photo and found him that quickly? Really?


At the same office building, Jack and his son David arrive, and suddenly, David is overly concerned for his father’s happiness. (Did it seem to anyone else like too quick a transformation in their relationship?) Ilana escorts them into a conference room where Claire is sitting and waiting. She explains to Jack that Christian was her father too, and Jack gets an emergency call from the hospital to come operate on Locke’s spine.

Sun wakes up, and Jin tells her that despite the gunshot wound to her abdomen, that the baby is fine. Jack and David are passing Sun’s room on their way to the procedure that he has to perform – surgery on John Locke. Jack looks at the x-rays of John Locke and realizes it’s his Dural sac that’s been “obliterated”. He realizes that it’s John Locke on the operationg table.

Nerd alert: The injury Jack inflicted on his future wife, Sarah, when she was in for surgery was to her dural sac.

Nerd alert: Jack has another mirror moment in this episode, staring at the mirror under John Locke's face.


Drop some comments below. Next week's ep is a repeat, by the way. (Kind of looking forward to a break, actually...)

-Sean Salo

LOST 6x11: There's always a choice, brother

Desmond gets all magnetic and does a little flashing before our eyes. Charlie (!) uses the skills learned in years of playing Frogger and darts across several lanes of LA traffic unharmed. Minkowski doesn’t have the sickness, but offers to help show Des a sick time in LA. Widmore convinces Desmond to play along…then Sayid breaks some necks and convinces Des to follow him instead. On the downside, some guy named Simmons gets electromagnetized to death. On the upside, he points due north no matter which way his coffin is positioned.

Lost 6x11: Happily Ever After

Desmond episodes never disappoint, and Happily Ever After was certainly no exception to the rule. There was a bit of gratuitous exposition and over-explanation in this episode, but as we wind down, I’m sure the pressure is on for them to clearly vs. ambiguously answer questions. (Here’s a question I’d like answered: Why is Zoe getting so much screen time?) The merging of the timelines is spelled out more clearly now. And it’s great.

Did Happily Ever After leave you smiling or scratching your head?

2007, On the island:
Desmond wakes up in the infirmary on the Hydra Island and it takes a minute for him to realize that Widmore is telling him he’s on the island. (Maybe the dingy room, annoying nurse, Charles Widmore by your bedside and jungle sounds outside your room were a clue?) He smacks Chas with an IV stand.


Demanding to know why Desmond is there, Widmore tells Jin it’ll be easier to show him. He barks at Zoe that they’re doing the test now and Zoe freaks out saying they’re not scheduled until tomorrow. And then Chas corrects her American pronunciation: “it’s SHED-you-uled, you poor man’s Tina Fey! And we’re doing it now.”

They pass a giant box with coils leading to it and Zoe tells Seamus, the gunman guy who used to be the kid on Kate and Ally, that they must start the test. Seamus protests, saying they haven’t used the generator in 20 years, but they have no choice. They try to power up, but cannot. Seamus tells random dude, Simmons, to check the contacts on the solenoids. In a cage on the desk is a bunny rabbit named Angstrom who he says is going next.

Nerd alert: Angstrom is a measurement equal to 0.1 nanometers used in electromagnetic radiation, named after Swedish physicist, Anders Jonas Angstrom.


As Simmons is poking around the giant box with the solenoid coils, Worker-bee Dude said that he figured out that it was a bad breaker on the generator and flips the switch. Poor Simmons gets electromagnetized to death as they try to flip the switch back up.


Nerd alert: Probably just a continuity error, but Worker-bee Dude flips the switch down in both cases. Should have been UP to turn the coils off.

Down in the giant box, they pull out a crispy Simmons. Unmoved, Widmore asks if they’re ready to start the test. Two goons strap Desmond to a chair in the box. Widmore says once this is over, he’s going to ask him to make a sacrifice. Desmond balks, and asks what he knows about sacrifice, and Widmore replies, “my son died here for the sake of this island. Your wife, my own daughter, hates me. And I’ve never even met my grandson. But if you won’t help me Desmond, all of it will be for nothing. Penny, your son, and everyone else will be gone forever.” Desmond tries in futility to free himself.

Jin tries to stop them from the test, but Chas says that Desmond is the only person in the world who can survive this, and they flip on the machine. Charles turns it up to 11 and we see Desmond looking like when you accidentally put a fork in the microwave. (Or is it just me that?)


2004, Los Angeles:
Flash to LAX, and Hurley tells Desmond to go to carousel 4 for the baggage from Oceanic 815. There, he meets Claire and tells her she’s having a boy. Desmond’s picked up by a limo driver, and it’s George Minkowski, the communications officer from the freighter. Minkowski offers to arrange a little female companionship for Desmond, but Des is all biz and just wants to go to the office. There, he goes to his boss’ office, and in this timeline, he is Charles Widmore’s right-hand man. He tells Des that his son wants to mix modern rock with classical music at his wife’s event, but the rock band’s bassist was just arrested at LAX.


Nerd alert: At Widmore’s office, Desmond is staring at a sailboat on the wall (like the one he bought from Libby and used in the solo race around the world?), and there’s a painting on the wall of a scale with a black rock on one side and a white rock on the other. The scales are even in the painting.


Breaking out the MacCutcheon Whiskey for Desmond, Widmore tells him that he’s indispensable and nothing’s too good for him. (Nothing’s too good for him in this reality, but he wasn’t good enough for anything, certainly not Penny, in the original timeline.) Charles sayd that Des is lucky he doesn’t have any family commitments.

Desmond arrives at the Superior Court, out walks Charlie, who just keeps walking right past him and into traffic. Not hurt, he walks straight past him and across the street into a bar called Jax, with a picture of a kangaroo on it.


Nerd alert: Building on the mirror theme from last week’s blog recap, Desmond stares at his reflection in the courtroom glass doors.


Nerd alert: Charlie walking into traffic reminded me of either Juliet’s husband walking into the street and being hit by the bus, or Sayid and Nadia walking into the street and Nadia being struck and killed. Charlie obviously makes it across the street safely, though.


Desmond joins him in the bar. Charlie asks if he’s ever been in love – “spectacular, consciousness-altering love”? Charlie tells him how he was choking on the bag of heroin on the flight, when he “saw” her (Claire) and that he knew he loved her. Desmond tells him he has a choice on whether or not to cooperate with him and Widmore – “there’s always a choice, brother” – and Charlie agrees to go to the hotel with him.

Nerd alert: There's an unlit neon sign behind Desmond that says "Surdut Exceptional Island Colors". Looked this up, and it seems someone named Beth Surdut did a story for Hawaii magazine in 1992 with this title. Guessing just something that was in the bar they decided not to cover up.


“You All Everybody” comes on the radio in the car, and telling him that he’s going to show him what he experienced, Charlie grabs the wheel and steers them into the marina. In the car, as Charlie is drowning, he holds up his hand to the window, complete with the “Not Penny’s Boat” message, and Desmond gets another flash of his other reality. He manages to swims with Charlie to the surface, saving him, unlike in the timeline we all know and love, where we mourned Charlie Pace.



Now in a hospital, a doctor is asking Des if he’s had any hallucinations, and she tells him that he’s going to need an MRI. (MRI is a big magnet, of course.) The MRI tech asks for an emergency contact, but Desmond tells him to put Charles Widmore down, as he’s strapping him in. The tech hands Des a button for him to push – d’oh! – if he panics. The MRI kicks in and the noises are similar to the noise of the countdown clock in the hatch, though they are the actual sounds of an MRI.

Nerd alert: The tech tells him not to push the button, or they’ll have to start all over again – a nod to the fact that this timeline has started over, but also to the fact that the timelines appear to be merging.


He has a flash of Charlie’s hand again, and then begins to remember more of his life with Penny and baby Charlie. He wigs out and hits the panic button. Looking for Charlie, he runs into Jack, just as Charlie bolts past in just a hospital gown and down a flight of stairs. In pursuit, Desmond corners him and asks to see Charlie’s hand, and with that, Charlie knows he’s seen something too. Charlie tells him to stop worrying about him and to start looking for Penny.




On the phone, Widmore is telling Des that he needs to bring Charlie to the event or face telling Mrs. Widmore that he isn’t able to bring him there. Minkowski wishes him luck dealing with Mrs. W, who turns out to be Eloise Hawking. Eloise is relatively calm, at first. She says it’s not a big deal that Charlie isn’t there. “Whatever happened, happened.”

As Des is heading back to his car, he overhears the reading of guest names, including a Penny Milton and stops dead in his tracks. He asks to see the list, and Eloise pulls him aside and tells him to stop looking – that whatever he’s doing is “a violation.” He already has Widmore’s approval, which she says is what he was looking for. He heads back to the car and pours himself a drink when Daniel Faraday (aka Daniel Widmore) knocks on the window and invites him to talk.


Nerd alert: Milton is Penny’s sideways last name. John Milton was the English author of Paradise Lost, an epic poem about the Fall of Man and Satan’s temptation of Adam and Eve to sin.

Faraday asks him if he believes in love at first sight, because he fell in love with a redhead eating a chocolate bar (“Daddy says not to eat chocolate before dinner.”) and it was as if he already loved her. He shows Des a notebook with a scientific equation in it that he wrote, but doesn’t understand how he would have known this. (In this timeline, he’s a musician.) He asks Desmond: what if this wasn’t supposed to be their lives and there’s another reality where they were happy or in love? Des says it has nothing to do with him, but Daniel calls him out and asks why he wanted to see the guest list for Penny’s name otherwise. Desmond dismisses her as just an idea, but then Daniel fesses up that she’s his half-sister and can tell him where and when to meet her.

Question: Was the phrase “exactly where and when you can find her” a nod to Daniel’s sideways knowledge of different realities and time being fluid?

At the stadium where he first met Jack, Penny is running up and down the stairs. She’s strangely un-creeped out when Desmond approaches her – alone…in a dark, empty stadium. He introduces himself, and as he shakes her hand, he wakes up back in the magnetic box.


Question: Did Desmond touching her hand cause him to flash to the alt timeline?

2007, On the island:
Widmore tells him he wasn’t out for more than a few seconds and helps him up, apologizing. But Des doesn’t need to hear any of it – he understands he’s there for an important mission. To me, he looks vaguely zombie-like here – like a happy version of Sayid –vacant, though happy and obedient.


Speaking of Sayid, Sayid shows up out of nowhere and knocks out (kills?) one of the henchmen, kills another and tells Zoe to run while pointing a gun at her. He tries to explain that Des needs to go with him, but Des doesn’t put up a fight and heads away with Sayid, smiling.

2004, Los Angeles:
At the stadium, Desmond is being woken up by Penny – he’d fainted. He asks her to coffee, and she says yes. Back in the limo, Minkowski asks if he found what he was looking for and if there’s anything else he can do for him. Des asks him to get the passenger manifest from flight 815, because he just needs to show them something.

And cut to black.

Nerd alert: He asked Minkowski for a list of passengers, just as Ben asked for a list of passengers after the crash, and just as Jacob asked for and created lists of people.

Question: Was this a nod to Juliet’s dying words to Sawyer were that they were going Dutch on coffee? Or will they perhaps meet for coffee and see Sawyer and Juliet having coffee as well?


So what did you think? Comment below with your catches, thoughts, theories...

-Sean Salo