'Lost': My recap for 'Happily Ever After' is live

Wowee! Penny Milton (as in Paradise Lost ref)? Not Penny's boat?

BTW, where is the link to the full recap?

Fixed. Brain sorta 'splodey. My bad.

Hi Ryan... for a while tonite I thought that you were just toooo shocked to comment about tonite's episode.

Best of the Season. Yes, absolutely. It reclarifies to me what I've thought since last week. Desmond's new job is to get ALL of the passengers of Oceanic 315 back together once again to 'show them something'.

YES! THEY MUST GO BACK TO THE ISLAND once again!

"Brain sorta splodey" No chit!

I'm presuming that as I type this you are typing up your review of tonite's show.

Desmond has now been able to realize (through the experiment that Widmore forced him through) that the only way to get both timelines back into sync of ONE timeline is to get everybody that was onboard Flight 315 that "safely" landed in SF to "GO BACK TO THE ISLAND!"

He's been able to realize that there is no way that two different timelines can exist at the same time and also have a plausible end.

Desmond will succeed somehow in getting everyone that was on Oceanic 315 to get on the plane once again, and he will take them all back to the island and the plane will crash once again exactly as it did at the start of the series.

Desmond will then explain to all of the survivors of the crash exactly why they are there.

Just got caught up on the pre-show comments and chat, and am about to read Ryan's recap and the reader comments, but I'm surprised to see above that this episode is apparently so beloved because I thought it was pretty pedestrian, and even worse didn't make sense in a couple of spots.

First, when musician Faraday downloads to Desmond all of these insights he has regarding how he thinks he set off a hydrogen bomb and the life they are currently living is one they shouldn't be. Didn't anyone else find it incredible that musician Faraday could have figured all that out just from some scribbled notes and consulting some physics expert friend?

Further, doesn't this mean that the whole plan in "The Incident" to set off the bomb in the first place was as stupid as so many of us (except Faraday) thought?

The other thing that really bothred me about the episode was the stupid ending: After Desmond agreeing to help, they let this incredibly valuable person walk through dangerous territory with extremely minimal protection? And why was Widmore that with them... Zoe said it had only been 20 minutes since Desmond had beaten Widmore, so why weren't Widmore and Desmond discussing the plan, instead of Desmond simply wandering off to be a convenient sitting duck for the writers?

RYAN (pre-show chat): "We're talking about made up science, so hard to make a good prediction."

Well put.

RYAN (pre-show chat): "...should be a brain bender of an ep. Darlton! Des! Might not reach the level of "The Constant," but should be a hell of an ep."

I'm glad I didn't know anything about the episode going into it... I think I would have been even more disappointed if my expectations had been built up.

"R.I.P. Epilogue Theory, April 6, 2010."

-- Schmoker

"R.I.P. Darlton Attempt to Stick Landing" April 6, 2010"

-- Concerned

JANINE: "When I think of 'Deus Ex Machina' on 'Lost' the Desmond 'rules don't apply to you' time travel loophole has to take a back seat to the show's prime offender in this category. I think the Season 5 revelation of Jacob-MIB being able to take any human shape or form thereby conveniently explaining away four plus years of apparitions, weird character behavior and mysteries is the winner in this category. A mythology lover's delight is a mystery lover's convenient plot devise..:)"

Well put, Janine!

JANINE: "Somewhere down the home stretch here as all the god like maneuvers and misdirections have been revealed and all the cards are on the table, that is when i suspect we will see what real human "free will" can do when it is not manipulated and tricked by an unseen hand."

I hope you're right, Janine. I for one am a bit tired of all of the "Deus ex Machine" and "Des ex Machine" and dual timeline stuff, and would like some stuff to be worked out in real human terms.
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Okay, I'm going to go read Ryan's recap and the comments now... hopefully I'll appreciate the episode more then. Right now it just seems so unsurprising and undramatic and pedestrian to me. I was hoping for more than just "yeah, that's about what we expected."

KRIS: "Didn't really blow my mind at all actually. I mean, I liked the episode, but I definitely didn't get the same reaction as everyone else seemed to have."

Thank goodness! After reading Ryan's recap I thought something must be seriously wrong with me.

Reading the recap, I realize that people who really enjoy seeing characters and locations (even Penny doing a tour de stade? come on!) and montages from genuinely powerful episodes will like this episode, whereas to me it wasn't much on its own.

But I'll reserve final judgement until I see how the rest of the season plays out. As of this moment, however, the only episode of this season that I can imagine watching repeatedly over the years (the way I watch classic S1-S3 episodes and a few others such as "LeFleur") is "Dr. Linus." But now that is called into question if the sideways reality doesn't really exist.

RYAN: "So that's my insta-take on things: the sideways world is one dreamed up by The Man in Black with Eloise's help, unwittingly executed by Widmore, with Sideways Des now the wild card about to show some of his mile high buddies a thing or two about what it feels like to be truly alive."

Your analysis does help me appreciate the possibilities layed out by the episode more, and I think in particular your analysis of Eloise is probably spot-on.

But I guess I have to see how things fill in the rest of the season to see if it makes sense to me or fills too contrived.

BRIGUYX: "Daniel, Charlie and Desmond have a much better chance in the Sideways World to talk to their loved ones, considering on the island Charlie's dead and so is Charlotte (and obviously Des met up with Penny in the Sideways). Doesn't mean something's not wrong, although I think it's more likely that the sacrifice Widmore is making is destroying their happiness in the Sideways in order to stop Flocke..."

EBRIGUYX: "Daniel, Charlie and Desmond have a much better chance in the Sideways World to talk to their loved ones, considering on the island Charlie's dead and so is Charlotte (and obviously Des met up with Penny in the Sideways). Doesn't mean something's not wrong, although I think it's more likely that the sacrifice Widmore is making is destroying their happiness in the Sideways in order to stop Flocke..."

Very interesting perspective. And it does bring up the very important point that until we know what Widmore expects Daniel to do ("sacrifice"), we are really jumping the gun with all of the assumptions people seem to be making about the nature of the sideways timeline -- and of Widmore himself.

Certainly Ben and Alex are much better off in the sideways timeline! Perhaps this is what so bothers me about this episode -- or at least the way people are interpreting it -- is how easily dismissed are the lives of those who have things far better than in the "island" timeline.

For example, do you all everybody really think that Alex considers the sideways timeline to be "wrong", and prefers to be shot to death as her father (even if adopted) says he doesn't care about her?

As you all cheer this episode, at least pause a moment to ponder the fate of those who once professed to care about.

By the way, on the subject of science/literature duality, when hearing the rabbit's name am I the only one who first thought of the (extremely small) unit of measurement, NOT the Updike character?

Amazing episode. I loved it and plan to watch it again ASAP. In the meantime, MINKOWSKI!!! Any chance that the reason Des seemed so out of it back on the Island at the end of the ep, wandering along with whomever, is because he's conscious in both places at once? Like trying to watch TV and talk on the phone at the same time? I just got that impression ...

MINKOWSKI!

It seems that Desmond is just repeating the kind of experiences he had in "Flashes" and "The Constant". Therefore, am I assuming correctly that there are 2 Desmonds? And it seems that alternate Desmond isn't completely aware of the other timeline, but regular Desmond is fully aware of what he does and thinks on the alternate timelime. Is this correct?

MINKOWSKIIIII

Isn't Charlie going to be let down (just a little) when he finds out he's mostly dead in the other time-line (hot blond or not)?