LOST: The Island isn't done with you yet...

6.11: "Happily Ever After"

For a while there, I thought Widmore was doing what I'd hoped he'd been scheming to do for decades—use Desmond as a way to change the past. I mean, that crazy Big Mac electromagnet chamber is built to induce and trigger an astral jump in Desmondo. If only there was a way to tune and guide a jump. But it's just as well that the cosmos decides where he goes... or where he will have gone. Gotta love conjugating for time travel!

WIDMORE: I know how this looks, Desmond. But if everything I've been told about you is true, you'll be perfectly fine.

WIDMORE: That man is the only person I'm aware of, in the world, who has survived a catastrophic electromagnetic event, I need to know that he can do it again, or we all die.

Alas, Widmore "only" needs Desmond because of his apparent resistance to massive EM forces. He doesn't seem to be aware of Desmond's abilities beyond that, that he can bounce his psyche across time (and, we discover, across realities). Interesting, tho, that his consciousness leaves his LOST1 body, but doesn't "drive" his LOST2 one the way it does in time jumps. But, he returns with the experience of Desmond2, his encounters with George, Charles, Charlie, Eloise, Daniel, and finally, Penny, in LOST2. What's more, Desmond2 has no idea that Desmond1 was riding shotgun with him. What's more what's more, Desmond experienced a subjective day in LOST2 in objective seconds in LOST1. As Eloise humorlessly, but dutifully cheekily says, "It's about time."

Altho I wrote "Jin + Desmond" in an earlier post, I realize now that I was trying to do the math of Jin x Desmond. What they get us (and get Widmore and Tina and the nerd commandos) as Jin PLUS Desmond is, in Jin, someone who can pinpoint the location of an important resource, tool, or weapon, something vital to the defeat of the Monster, that happens to generate, or be located in the heart of, a deadly EM field, and in Desmond, the one man who can survive retrieving or activating it.

WIDMORE: I hate to resort to forcing this upon you, Desmond. But once it's over I'm going to ask you to make a sacrifice. And I hope for all our sakes you'll help me.

So, Widmore intends to send agent Desmond into some kind of EM minefield on the Island to do or retrieve something. What would his sacrifice be? The most straightforward one would be his life, and he would no doubt gladly give it for Penny and Charlie. As far as Widmore knows, at least. The act of sacrifice might provide a loophole of an escape hatch, unknown to Widmore, via an ultimate form of Desmond's time-jumping ability. Remember the Vault? The chamber in the Orchid station next to the well down to the Wheel? What happened to that rabbit? It was (supposed to be, we never got to see it on the video) PHYSICALLY removed from reality in an instant, and then returned a short time later, right? I think that will be how Desmond gets an extra guy in this game. =)

DESMOND'S SACRIFICE...?

Widmore briefs our man Desmond on his part of the master plan. While one team assaults the shield generator on the surface, and another engages the new Death Star in orbit, Desmond will confront his father in a remote Island location...

Well, y'know, figuratively. But y'know, this being the finale of finales, perhaps not that figuratively. =) Anyhow, in this Island location, Desmond will have to flip some switches, push some stones, turn a Wheel, or do the Hokey Pokey. A location that happens to be soaking in EM that would fry any other human being (any?*), but thanks to his green Vulcan blood he—whoops, wrong universe—but with his Implosion-tested resistance, he does what he has to do, all the while watching as his life really and truly flashes before his eyes—or maybe, for drama's sake, he completes almost every part of his mission, leaving one last bit for someone else to heroically volunteer for—and ends up being consumed by the radiation, vanishing in a flash without a trace. Then follows a bunch of denoument, mourning, taking stock, the last dance, and everyone leaves the Island, some on the plane, others on the sub, except of course, for the new protector and Vincent who see them off, and...

Epilogue. One month later... The site of Desmond's disappearance. Wild energies arc and crackle and build up to a massive discharge. When the flash of white fades, Desmond stands. Maybe the protector is there, waiting. Hopefully, Desmond's clothes aren't all black.

=)

How can there be only six episodes (with a 2-hour finale, so 7 hours) left?!

TIME ZONES, LOVE, EITHER/OR REALITY...

I'm now thinking that there is no issue of "sync" or simultaneity as far as time and moments in time between LOST1 and LOST2, demonstrated by Desmond's experience of a Narnian time differential between realities. There is just connection, and perhaps instances, events, or portals of... convenience, or weakness in integrity, y'know? Near-death experience and reflections are natural meta/physical weak points allowing deja vu-like glimpses into LOST2. And, as corny as it sounds, love, aka the fifth element, is strong enough to bust through and deliver actual memories.

It totally sounds corny, but thru Desmond's story the show has made it not. That's a pretty amazing feat.

Given what I've just written above, here's a confusingly phrased question... WHEN does LOST2 unfold...? Assuming Desmond2 and all the other mark-twos get together on their end to collapse LOST2 and revive LOST1, does LOST2 really only live for the 27 years between 1977 and 2004 (or 30 years from 1977 to 2007, if it takes Des 3 years to collect everyone on the manifest)? I had a flash to the idea that that 27 (or 30) years happens in the duration of the Incident, in the instant or three that it takes for Sawyer and company to jump from 1977 to 2007.

I discard that particular notion because I like my inside/outside the snowglobe (LOST1 / LOST2) model of the LOST universe, and it still works for me.

What's currently outside the snowglobe? Jack saw his childhood home reflected in the Lighthouse mirror. There is A reality out there, off the Island, but which one? Widmore is certain that Penny and Charlie are somewhere safe, but impresses upon Desmond that in order to keep them safe, or even existent, he must help him.

WIDMORE: 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.

Serious science nerds, please forgive my possibly playing fast and loose with terms and ideas, and bear with me while I try to spell this out... I think that reality outside the snowglobe is currently like Schroedinger's cat in the box. It exists in a probabilistic state, a question mark that will resolve to LOST1 or LOST2 once the Losties on the Island can observe and/or return to it, once everything that's gonna happen happens.

I have a suspicion that the LOST1 Good Guys will tragically fail within LOST1, but, thru Desmond's action/intervention in LOST2, the LOST2ers will save the day. So, Esau's victory actually plants the seeds of his retroactive defeat. Crazy? Perhaps, but hey, it's LOST. =)

*DESMOND UNDERSTUDIES...?

Who has survived close proximity to a catastrophic electromagnetic event? Maybe one of these Losties can help Desmond do what needs to be done within a deadly EM field.

Hatch Implosion:
Desmond
Locke
Charlie
Eko

Wheel turns:
Ben
Locke

Time skips:
Locke
Sawyer
Juliet
Faraday
Charlotte
Miles
Jin
Rose
Bernard

Ajira 316 Flash to 1977:
Jack
Kate
Hurley
Sayid

The Incident:
Juliet! She visits LOST2 for a short/long visit like Desmond!
Jack
Sawyer
Kate
Hurley
Sayid
Jin
Miles

GETTING THE BAND BACK TOGETHER...

If Helen and John's wedding is the big meetup, perhaps the ceremony takes place at the chapel above the Lamppost in L.A. Remember, the Lamppost was built above a pocket of exotic energy, too, and all such pockets are connected. The heart of the Lamppost could be a less potent version of the power sources of the Swan and the Orchid on the Island and I propose that its energies could be harnessed or discharged to collapse the new, alternate reality.

Keep on keepin on~