Happily Ever After

Dear producers of FlashForward... we need to borrow half your cast this week. Thanks, Producers of Lost.

It was an episode about Desmond this week, but interestingly was just as much an episode about Sideways Charlie. Ever since the first episode of this sixth season, the audience was put on the trail of knowing that something about Desmond was going to be different in these two realities the show was presenting. But this week, we learned that it was actually Charlie -- and Daniel (Farraday/Widmore)! -- that really bridged the gap first.

The Sideways stories have been an interesting look at the characters even though we know them so well by this point. But now, as of the final moments of this episode, they have a narrative thrust all of their own. It seems under the right circumstances, a Sideways character can have a glimpse of their Island existence. And Desmond aims to show it to them. He's going to have to get busy; there aren't that many episodes left.

I love the little connections tonight that weren't overly spelled out for the audience, but left there for us to intuit on our own. There was the return of "the constant" idea (from the brilliant episode of the same name), that if Desmond and Penny reconnect, it will snap Desmond back to reality. There was Eloise's obvious knowledge of this fact, since she was trying to keep the two apart. There was Daniel's description of the woman he ran into at the museum, clearly the archaeologist Charlotte we saw a few weeks back.

But even with "episodes to go" now well down into the single digits, Lost is posing new questions even as it answers existing ones. We have a much clearer picture of what the Sideways story is really about, and the role Desmond will play in it. But what exactly does Widmore want Desmond to do on the Island? And what sort of Zen- or Zombie-like state has come over poor Desmond that he'll go along with Widmore, Sayid, whoever happens to be there at the moment?

I'm eagerly waiting to find out.