Official Discussion: 6x11 Happily Ever After

[Hollywood Heidi]

6x11 Happily Ever After

Original Air Date: April 6, 2010
Centric: Desmond centric
Directed by: Jack Bender
Written by: Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof
Summary: Desmond wakes up and discovers he has returned to the island. (tv.com)
Trailer:

 

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Discuss the episode! Below are some discussion points to get you started.  Feel free to simply copy and paste and insert your thoughts or write out your thoughts however you like.  Constructive comments make for better and more interesting conversations so feel free to elaborate and explain your thoughts, conclusions, and opinions.  Repeat Viewers, answer these as if watching for the first time or what your original answers would have been when you first watched:

What did you think of the episode?

What expectations or theories did you have that either ended up right or wrong?

Who was your favorite character in this episode and why?  Least favorite?

What scenes or situations did you like best?  Least?

What were some of your favorite quotes?

How do you rate this episode compared to the rest?


Repeat viewers
Be mindful of the first-time viewers and give fair warning of spoiler comments by putting spoiler tags (directions below) or at the very least keep them at the bottom of your post with a big texted SPOILER before it.

[spoiler]spoiler text[/spoiler]
What do you think of the episode now that you've seen the whole series?

Did you find anything new you didn't catch the previous time(s) watching?

[Hollywood Heidi]

I was really going back and forth on a 4 or 5 rating. Just always wanna hit the 5 because practically every damn episode is so friggin good, but then I have to remember to compare it to spectacular eps like Ab Aeterno and The Constant.

Holy crap, so much packed into this episode! The cameos alone! I can tell you now that this is going to be long. XD The driver was George Minkowski, the communications officer from the freighter, the first guy we saw die from not being tethered to a time because he didn't have a constant. Charlie played a big part! Then there was Penny, Daniel, Eloise, Claire, Jack... We know Daniel was talking about Charlotte, but we didn't get to see her. I think she was busy working on OUaT at this time.

Eloise seems to play the same kind of role to Desmond in the Flash Sideways as she did in Desmond's visions several seasons back, after he'd turned the key and seemed to be back in time. She seems to know things but is warning him against pursuing, telling him he can't change the past and here, she's trying to talk him down from ruining this sideways realm.

Desmond's reaction when Charles tells him he's back on the island is amazing acting. Those subtle facial ticks, holy crap. He was pissed and did an amazing job showing that seething anger slowly bubbling up.

Charles tells Desmond he's an important part of this because he survived a previous electromagnetic event. In case you don't remember, the previous event Charles was talking about was turning the key in the hatch.
Also, in a previous ep, Daniel had said that nobody could go back in time and change things, but he told Des that was the only exception, saying, "The rules don't apply to you. You're special. You're uniquely and miraculously special."

In the Flash Sideways, Des achieved his goal of having Charles' respect. Where in the regular timeline, Charles cruelly told Des that he wasn't worth wasting a shot of whiskey on, here, he's Charles' right hand man and even pours Des a shot of that same MacCutcheon whiskey.

I paid attention to Charles' office. That ship model Des was admiring probably has some sort of connection, but whatever I looked up about it, people don't seem to be sure if maybe it's supposed to be the Black Rock or the ship Des sailed, The Elizabeth, which was given to him by Libby for his race around the world. I also noticed the artwork of a scale, with a black stone on one scale and a white stone on the other. Looks just like the one in the caves with everyone's names on the ceiling were we saw MIB take the white stone off the scale and toss it out into the ocean after Jacob had been killed.

In this other realm, Daniel got to be the musician he always wanted to be, whereas in the original timeline, Eloise made him give it up because she knew from her past, that is was important Daniel become that quantum physics genius... because she'd shot the time traveling Daniel decades ago on the island and had learned that it was her son from the future who'd figured out how to get there and how to fix things. But in the sideways world, things went differently. Not only did Oceanic 815 not crash, but we saw in this world, that the island was at the bottom of the ocean. That probably means that Charles and Eloise never went to the island, never formed a fixation with it, and Eloise never accidentally shot a man who turned out to be her son from the future.

Charles and Eloise ended up getting married in sideways world when in the original timeline, they'd had Daniel together but didn't stay together. But there's still the half sister Penny, which we don't know how that came to be. Either Charles cheated and had her or maybe Charles and Eloise had parted for awhile after Daniel was born and Charles had Penny with a woman he was seeing, then eventually, Charles and Eloise got back together and got married. If the Penny name that was read off that list was actually Des's Penny, she has a different last name we've never heard before. Could be her mom's last name and she never took the Widmore name in the flash sideways, or could be it was some other Penny being mentioned but it was important to set off the trigger of Penny's name in Des's mind.

So much fun wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff!

It was heart wrenching to see that Charlie's death reenactment. That will never not be painful to watch. But this Charlie in the sideways world seems to know something is off about it. He seems to have some sort of connection to the original timeline. He doesn't seem phased by anything in this world. No fear of death, apparently, the way he crossed that street and didn't care about potentially being hit by a car. The way he drove the car off the marina as if he had no concern. It was more like he knew it wouldn't kill them rather than not caring if it killed them or not.

I really like how love seems to be this incredibly strong trigger that is opening their minds to this original timeline. Daniel talks about seeing Charlotte and how that wakes him up to some other reality. He even writes down equations only an advanced quantum physicist would know, like his mind from the original timeline is leaking through to this timeline. He goes on about the same kind of ideas he had in the original timeline, about setting off a bomb to fix things again. Even he is pushing Des to meet Penny. And when he does, it seems like even Penny is triggered by an instant connection. She's not at all weirded out by some random dude showing up at the stadium, approaching her and knowing her name. She seems to feel an instant connection as well.

Charlie talks about seeing a girl on the plane during his near death experience--we so know he's talking about Claire--and it "wakes" him up to the original timeline. Charlie forces that near death experience on Des where he gets flashes of Penny--a woman he's never seen before--and it's opened his mind and driven him to find this woman and when he does, it seems to open his mind. Both Charlie and now Des seem really driven to how important it is to "wake up" to whatever this other reality is. So much so that Des asks George to get the manifest of flight 815 because he has to show them something. Like Charlie, Des is driven to show them the glimpse of this other reality. Omg, I can't wait to see him going around "waking up" our other passengers!

Lots of fun, random details and connections; The marina where Charlie drives the car into the water is the same marina where Ben shot Desmond. Des is asked if he has metal on him both on the island when being dragged to that shack and in the flash sideways before going into the MRI. Penny is doing the running of the stadium stairs when it was Des and Jack in the original timeline and she'd previously been the one to show up there to talk Des out of his race around the world.

There are seriously so many more things that connect to other eps but I think I've tackled the biggest, most important ones and don't wanna go on for another several pages. XD



Favorite quotes/moments:

DANIEL: Why did you ask my mother about a woman named Penny? It happened to you, too, didn't it? You felt it.
DESMOND: I don't know...I don't know what I felt.
DANIEL: Yes, you do. You felt love.
DESMOND: That's impossible, because I don't know anything about this woman, I don't know...I don't know where she is. I don't even know if she exists. She's...she's an idea.
DANIEL: No, Mr. Hume. She's my half-sister. And I can tell you exactly where and when you can find her.


DESMOND: Actually, there is one thing, George. Can you get me the manifest for my flight from Sydney, Oceanic 815, just the names of the passengers?
GEORGE: Sure I can. Do you mind if I ask you what you need it for?
DESMOND: I just need to show them something...

[Ariel]

Four stars!
Any episode where Desmond is the main lead is just incredible. I love seeing Des and Penny together!
And Daniel talking about Charlotte was so sweet.
I loved seeing Desmond have Charles' respects and to see him working for him in this flash sideways.
I also thought it was crazy when Charlie's near death experience made him see a glimpse of Claire and a part of him was starting to wake up. And then when the similar happened to Desmond, Charlie's smile is so gleeful as his reckless plan to get Desmond to experience what he's going through works.

[DarkSideCookie]

I'm back for Lost! Don't know why I had been kicking this down the road for so long; probably because of these reviews we write, so I try to keep it short again. Anyways, the last couple of months, I kinda had lost interest in a lot of shows, temporarily I mean, but when I watched the next episode of Lost, I was right away back into the feels. I think I could binge-watch this show even after ten times rewatches.

I gave this episode 4 stars as well, for the same reasons of having enjoyed it but had to compare it with spectacular ones.

It was so great to see Charlie back. Friggin goosebump moment when he drove Desmond's car into the lake, and also that moment underwater! God, I love this show!

It was odd to see Desmond and Charles getting along well together in the flash-sideways, just as it was in the end, after Desmond woke up. I wonder what he is up to and if he has a plan. He seems to cooperate with everyone as part of a bigger plan. Loved Sayid's look in the end, as he seemed to be wondering about the same, lol.

Thanks for all the easter egg information btw, Heidi!

I loved the conversation between Desmond and Daniel, how he told him about Charlotte, and the notes he did in his notebook.

I thought it was really cute how Desmond met Penny in the flash-sideways for the first time. He was acting kinda creepy, lol, but she was all smiley right from the start. Aw, I love them!

[Hollywood Heidi]

I am right there with you! I LOVE this show! My favorite of all time and I could binge watch it over and over for all eternity and never tire of it!