I’ve been a bit too busy to work, but wanted to sketch down a few points of ‘veil raising’ for Happily Ever After. Tom is also going to do a post today or tomorrow with more details from his point of view. I did enjoy the episode, but definitely got a red-pill/blue-pill vibe off the episode, but my mind keeps drifting to Charlie’s tat… so that’s the inspiration of this LOSTalypse.
Living is easy with eyes closed
That is the tattoo on Charlie’s left arm, it’s been there since season one. The question posed to ourselves is if we’re trapped trying to live with eyes closed will life be easy? If we stand still perhaps, and not move, or see anything. But is that REALLY living. Which world is ‘eyes-closed’ world? Maybe where everything is easy? It seems to me that the imaginary worlds that Desmond is apt to flash from, the ones where Eloise scolds him for not doing something correctly, or committing a violation are the worlds that are ‘easy’. Eloise, like Agent Smith, seems to be the guardian, keeping the eyes closed and the living easy.
You think you can’t tune in but it’s alright, that is I think it’s not too bad.
Is Desmond’s flash here also in “Sideways” world (x-time?) It seems, we’ve started this tale in the airport, we have Hurley, and Claire to ground us in the flight. We see through the reflected glass that Flight 815 from Sydney is dumping it’s baggage on carousel 4. However in LA_X Desmond has on a wedding ring, in this flash he’s conspicuously a bachelor, not even the Tiger Woods type, or even the Bachelor type, he’s committed to getting to work LA, not dilly dallying with George’s offer of lady companions. But then, we meet Charlie, and he recounts the events on the plane, much like we remember them. Later we see good old Doctor Shephard in the hospital and remembers Desmond from the plane. So things seem alright, but at least, not too bad.
Misunderstanding all you see
Back to Charlie in the bar, remembering his near-death experience and seeing this beautiful blonde lady, and feeling consumed by love. He’s hooked, no longer on the heroin that about killed him in X-time, but by reconnecting with this all encompassing true love vibe he’s gotten from his vision. Are his eyes opening, done with the “easy life”? Opening his eyes, but misunderstanding what his eyes are telling him? He needs a second look, and he needs someone to see it with him. That’s the plan that ends up with Desmond’s car sinking to the bottom of the LA marina.
Nothing is real
Desmond is cycling though, still chasing Charlie keeping him alive. Even after being driven into the murky depths, Desmond has a bit of life saving left in him, and he dives back down to the sunken car. The Desmond veil-lifting happens when he bleeds back to Charlie’s fateful Looking Glass station death, his palm Sharpie scrawled with Not Penny’s Boat. Strange things. Certainly not real. What is real, after he closes his eyes, is that he needs to save Charlie, dry him off and deliver him to Mrs. Widmore’s concert, so he can please Charles Widmore.
It’s all a dream
Magnets. Do magnet’s induce dream, or do they create reality. An MRI maps reality of soft tissue so a doctor can get an idea of what’s going on physically inside one’s head. But do magnets also help us to figure out spiritually what’s inside our head? I dunno. However, for Desmond’s this MRI induced a wonderful dream, or was it reality, of Penny, their love, their child, his Constant.
It’s getting hard to be someone
This vision of his Constant suddenly makes it hard to be the same ‘someone’. He tells Mr. Widmore that he can’t do his task. He tells Mrs. Widmore his sorry that he failed. Everything’s fine, until he hears the name ‘Penny’, and somehow does a backflip and connects the name on Charlie’s palm with the vision of love in his magnetic dream, and can’t help by try to connect the name. Now he’s no longer just following orders, he balks at Mrs. Widmore’s bristling refutation/accusation that he’s committing a violation.
I think I know I mean a ‘Yes’ but it’s all wrong, that is I think I disagree
He’s willing to blow it off, have a drink, forget the weirdness as just a blow to the head. Get past it, get on with it, have a better day tomorrow. Not to be, because he doesn’t only have a constant, but he’s also someone else’s Constant, and that someone is knocking on the window of the limousine. Daniel Widmore (we know/knew him as Faraday) connects with his Constant and not only is able to confess that his eyes are opening, after he’s come face to face with his love in the museum across the way, but that he’s pretty sure that he’s done something completely unreal. Desmond’s ready to go back to drinking, until Danny tells him he knows Des’ Constant. Her name is Penny Milton and she’s his half sister and she running at the stadium.
it all works out
Coffee. A Constant meetup over coffee? (we have the t-shirt! pardon the commercial) That’s still yet to come, but it’s the result of the stadium meetup that’s all gone wrong, that is I think it’s got it backwards. Desmond touches Penny. Boom – back on the island. EyesClosed or EyesOpen? Who knows, but Desmond has been the first to connect one living with another living, and he’s ready to work it out. The completly rebellious Desmond has been instantly transformed into the Charles Widmore lackey of sideways world, ready to do exactly what he’s told. It’s like he’s closed his eyes to the island world, and is now living eyes open in the sideways X-time world, ready to become an apostle to all his plane mates.
it must be high or low, it doesn’t matter much to me
We still don’t know what’s up or down, or sideways for that matter. Truly, it' doesn’t matter much to me, I’m captured and intrigued by the convergence we’ve gotten through Desmond’s flashing eyes, and ready for the final few episodes to get here. If this was a book, I’d not put it down, fully ready to accept the story about to be revealed. It doesn’t matter what the ending is, but it does matter that I get to the ending.
Namaste.
it doesn’t matter much to me
