Season 6, Episode 11:
Happily Ever After
Desmond: You wanna set off a nuclear bomb.
Daniel: Just listen, what if this, all this, what if this wasn't supposed to be our life? What if we had some other life and for some reason, we changed things? I don't want to set off a nuclear bomb, Mr. Hume. I think I already did.
Desmond wakes up in a DHARMA infirmary on Hydra Island, and learns from Charles Widmore that he's been brought back to the Island. He snaps and starts beating Widmore with an IV stand, demanding to be taken back to the mainland, but a pair of Nerd Herders wrestle him down and Widmore says that that Island isn't done with Desmond yet. Outside the infirmary, Widmore orders Tina Fey's stunt double Zoe to begin "the tests" immediately, even though they weren't scheduled until tomorrow. She heads out to the testing area along with Jin, who sees Nerd Herders connecting huge power cables to the Microwave Oven of Doom a giant box with two huge electromagnetic field generators inside. Inside the testing area's control room, Zoe orders the other Nerd Herders to do a test run on the generators before Desmond arrives, but when they switch on the power, nothing happens. The Nerd Herders looks for system faults while one of them, Simmons, checks the generators themselves. Unfortunately, someone locates the fault and fixes it—turning on the generators—while Simmons is still inside. Once it's safe, the group finds Simmons' dead body inside, burned to a crisp, just as Widmore arrives with Desmond and asks if everything's ready. They strap Desmond to a chair inside the box, directly between the generators, and Widmore tries to explain that he's doing this for a very important reason, and that he's going to ask Desmond to make a sacrifice. In the control room, Widmore orders Zoe to turn on the generators, and brushes off Jin's demand for an explanation.
The Nerd Herders switch on the generators and Widmore throws the switch himself. The generators begin to heat up and glow with an intense electromagnetic energy...
In LAX, Desmond is staring at the Oceanic Airlines arrival board when Hurley walks past and tells him their bags are at carousel 4. While retrieving his bag, Desmond helps Claire to get hers and walks her to the terminal, guessing that her baby will be a boy. He meets his limo driver, George Minkowski, outside and they head to "the office". George offers to find him some company but Desmond is here to work—after all, he's the boss' right-hand man. At the office, Desmond meets with his boss, Charles Widmore, and they greet one another like old friends. Later, Widmore asks Desmond to clear up a situation for him: a band called Drive Shaft is supposed to play alongside Widmore's son at a charity event being hosted by Widmore's wife, but the bass player, Charlie Pace, was arrested for possession, and he wants Desmond to bail Charlie out and get him to the gig. To celebrate Desmond's "indispensability", Widmore offers him a glass of sixty-year-old MacCutcheon whiskey.
Desmond meets Charlie and his lawyer outside the police station, but Charlie doesn't stay, instead marching right across the road (through heavy traffic) to a bar. They talk, and Charlie theorises that Desmond is unhappy because he's never been in real, "spectacular, consciousness-altering love" before.
As a result of his epiphany, Charlie doesn't care about going to the gig, but Desmond offers him a choice: stay in the bar and very likely destroy his music career, or go to the gig and get in Charles Widmore's good graces. Charlie comments that it "doesn't really seem like a choice." Driving to the gig, they're passing the LA marina when Charlie starts up again about how Desmond is really miserable because he's got nothing meaningful in his life. To demonstrate what he's talking about, Charlie grabs the wheel and steers the car into the marina. Desmond tries to pull Charlie out of the car, but when Charlie presses his palm against the glass window, Desmond has a flash of "NOT PENNY'S BOAT" written of Charlie's hand as he drowns. It only lasts for a moment, and once the flash has passed, Desmond pulls Charlie out of the water.
At the hospital, Desmond is examined by a doctor and taken for an MRI. As soon as the machine is turned on, he has another flash of Charlie drowning, and then a series of very rapid flashes of himself with a beautiful blonde woman he's never met before. He leaves the MRI machine and starts looking around the hospital for Charlie. The nurses won't help him, but Desmond recognises Jack and asks for his help note . Just then, Charlie sprints down the hall and Desmond gives chase: he corners Charlie in a room, demands to see his hands and asks who "Penny" is. Charlie realises that Desmond has seen something.
Charlie runs away and Desmond calls Widmore to update him on the situation. Very displeased, Widmore gives him the punishment of informing Mrs. Widmore. George drives Desmond to the Widmores' mansion, where Eloise Widmore is making last-minute preparations for the charity event. Despite her reputation as a dragon lady, Eloise isn't angry in the slightest when Desmond informs her that Drive Shaft can't perform. However, when Desmond hears the name "Penny Milton" being read off the guest list and inquires about it, Eloise gets angry and steps in.
Desmond goes back to the car, where he is met by the Widmores' son, Daniel. Daniel describes a similar phenomenon to what Desmond and Charlie both experienced, brought on by seeing a beautiful, red-haired, blue-eyed woman in a museum and feeling like he'd been in love with her for years. What's more, after this experience he went home and wrote something in his notebook that seemed to be gibberish, but was actually complex quantum mechanics equations, equations that Daniel, being a musician, couldn't possibly have known.
Daniel is explaining all this because he knows what's happened to Desmond, and what's more, he knows who Penny is: she is Daniel's half-sister. Desmond follows Daniel's directions to the LA stadium and finds Penny doing a stadium run. He goes up to her, nervously introduces himself, and they shake hands.
Seconds after the generator was turned on, an extremely zen-like Desmond wakes up in the giant box on Hydra Island and looks down at his hand. Zoe and Widmore enter and find that Desmond is perfectly fine.
Zoe and a pair of Nerd Herders are taking Desmond back to the Hydra Island infirmary when Sayid shows up, kills the Nerd Herders and tells Zoe to run. He starts trying to convince Desmond to come along, but Desmond (still very zen-like) tells Sayid to lead the way.
Desmond comes to in the stadium. Despite the embarrassing circumstances, he and Penny hit it off and agree to meet for coffee later before Desmond returns to his limo.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Bail Equals Freedom: Desmond bails Charlie out after his arrest for carrying heroin on the plane in "LA X". Although the officer who releases him tells him he can't leave the state, Charlie's arrest is never mentioned again.
- Call-Back:
- Widmore tells Desmond that his son, Daniel Faraday, died on the Island.
- Widmore uses the electromagnetic generator to test whether or not Desmond is immune to electromagnetism, referencing how he previously survived the destruction of the Swan.
- Widmore gives Desmond a glass of his sixty-year-old MacCutcheon whiskey, telling him that nothing's too good for him, in contrast to how he told him he was unworthy of drinking it in "Flashes Before Your Eyes".
- Continuity Nod: Daniel mentions that Charlotte was eating a chocolate bar when he saw her at the museum, referencing her Last Words in "This Place Is Death".Charlotte: I'm not allowed to have chocolate before dinner.
- Death Seeker: Charlie, after feeling true love during his near-death experience, thinks he can get back to that state by dying. Thus he walks into traffic without a glance and steers Desmond's car off a pier.
- For Want Of A Nail: Desmond meets Claire at baggage claim and offers her a lift when she can't find the people she's supposed to meet. If she had accepted it, she wouldn't have gotten in the same cab that Kate hijacks moments later.
- Genre Savvy: Eloise Widmore is apparently fully aware that they're all in the afterlife, that the purpose of it is preparing people to "move on", and furthermore she is determined that her son be kept unaware so that he will stay with her as long as she can manage.
- Love at First Sight:
- Charlie saw a vision of Claire while choking on the plane, and describes the experience as seeing "spectacular, consciousness-altering love".
- Daniel says that upon looking at Charlotte for the first time, he felt as though he had already loved her.
- Upon Desmond and Penny's first meeting in the Flash-sideways, it appears both of them have felt this sensation, as Desmond faints when Penny shakes his hand, and Penny agrees to get coffee with him despite the strangeness of their interaction.
- Love Transcends Spacetime: Charlie, Daniel and Desmond all start to regain memories of the original timeline by seeing visions of their Love Interest.
- Whole Episode Flashback: Apart from a brief Framing Story on the Island at the beginning and end of the episode, this is a Whole Episode Flash Sideways.