...if i only had a nerve
"Are we saved?"
The castaways gathered at the funeral rush toward the ocean, toward the sailboat in the distance. Jack, Sayid and Sawyer swim out to meet it while Kate follows the action with a pair of binoculars. They board the boat and cock their wet pistols. They hear some opera music coming from below decks and approach the door to the cabin. They almost get killed as whoever is down there unloads his gun up through the door. After the eruption of gunfire, they hear the clicking of the now empty gun, and a familiar voice. "Awww...damnnit." (the 'brother' is implied) Kicking down the door, they find a very drunk Desmond with a shotgun in his lap.
He looks up and laughs, then mockingly parrots Jack’s line to him from the season premiere.
"You?"
Later on, and it's nighttime now in the mess tent. The castaways are restless and looking to Kate for answers. She leaves them for a minute to ask Jack what they should be told. "Just tell them Desmond’s back, until I find out the rest."
I guess this points out that they DO talk amongst each other between episodes. Jack goes to find out what that 'rest' is from the still drinking Desmond, who explains, "I was sailing due west and making nine knots. I should have been in Fiji in less than a week, but the first piece of land I saw wasn’t Fiji...it was here, this island."
He tells Jack it’s because that’s all that’s left, the ocean and the island. "We’re stuck in a bloody snowglobe! There’s no outside world, no escape."
As Jack is getting up to leave, Des asks, "You still pushing it?"
"Yeah, we’re still pushing it."
Flashback – A short haired Des is being released from some kind of military prison. The guard is returning his belongings. (It should have been Frank Oz in this scene – ‘one used prophylactic’) He’s got a set of keys, a gold plated pocket watch, and the photo we’ve seen in the hatch, with Des and the blonde woman. He’s also got one book; Dickens’ "Our Mutual Friend". The guard asks why he didn’t bring the book inside with him. "To avoid temptation, brother."
He’s read every wonderful word Charles Dickens has written, "...every book, except this one. I’m saving it, so it’ll be the last thing I ever read before I die."
"Nice idea. Long as you know when you’re gonna die."
Lance Corporal Desmond David Hume is then dishonorably discharged from the Royal Scotch Regiment of Her Majesties Armed Forces. He exits the Southway Garrison from MPS B company gate, 5B. There’s an older man and his driver/bodyguard waiting in a fancy car. Somewhat against his will, Des joins the guy in the backseat. There are two boxes on the seat between them. The man tells him one contains his future, the other, his past. He has him open the past. It’s full of dozens of unopened letters, addressed to:
Penny Widmore
23 Densmore Gardens
Knightsbridge, London SW4 8PS
The return address is:
Desmond Hume
Southway Garrison
42 Berechurch Road
Halstead, Essex CO8 5WE
The old man is Penny’s dad, and he wants his little girl to think that Des has forsaken her. He shocks Des by telling him Penny is to be married soon, and opens the future box. It’s full of money. Lots of it. Under the condition that there is to be no contact between Des and Penelope, Des can just take the money and run away.
"And what makes you think I would just run away?"
"Because you’re a coward."
Back on the island, Sayid has formulated a plan. He wants to take Des’ boat and sail to the Others’ camp, arriving before Jack and his party, to scout it out. He’ll then light a signal fire of black smoke on a nearby beach, Jack's group can meet up with him, and then they'll enter the camp together. They need to keep the everyone in Jack's party in the dark until Sayid signals them, the element of surprise is all they have going for them. Jack agrees. "Black smoke, huh?"
"This time they will know WE are coming."
(well, that kind of takes the element of surprise out of the situation, doesn’t it?)
In the Swan, Eko is leafing through the printouts from the Pearl while sitting at the computer. Locke arrives – he’s been thinking. He wants them to not push the button this time around. Eko doesn’t agree at all. "Why wouldn’t I?"
"Because you don’t want to be a slave..."
Eko gives him an oh no, you didn’t just go there look, but Locke continues.
"...just like I was...so I’m going to tell you again; don’t push it."
"Do not tell me what I can do."
And the role reversal completes it’s full circle. The timer begins to beep its countdown, and Eko moves to enter the numbers. In desperation, Locke grabs the huge-ass Jesus stick and tries to smash the computer, but Eko restrains him without breaking a sweat. He punches in the numbers and then throws Locke out of the hatch, HIS hatch, while Locke babbles about them all being "...puppets on strings."
It’s morning on the beach and the five - Michael, Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Hurley - are preparing to leave. Jack hands out some pistols, but Hurley doesn’t take one. Their outfits are very colorful, like the teletubbies or power rangers – or like pieces on a board game - i'm thinking Sorry.
Kate is still unsure – what if the Others are just pretending. Mike sells his story again, with gusto. Sawyer’s ready to go. "Enough jibber-jabber. Let’s roll."
A little further down the beach, Des is coming ashore on a rubber raft with supplies (meaning more booze – looks like Dharma wine) from his boat, the Elizabeth of Newport Beach. Sayid meets him as he’s getting off the raft, and asks if he can use the ship to sail to the north side of the island.
"Off to see the hostiles, are ya? ...boat’s all yours, brother. For all the good it’ll do ya."
Sayid tells him he doesn’t know how to sail, so Des tells him he should find someone who does.
Flashback – Des is in America now, trying to buy a cup of coffee at Dina’s coffee shop, but he hasn’t changed his money over yet. A darker haired Libby is in line behind him, and she picks up the tab against his protests.
"It’s just four bucks," she tells him.
"I don’t suppose you have forty-two thousand more of those, do ya?"
This line works on Libby, proving that she really IS crazy. They sit down together and Des tells her his plan.
He has eight months to get ready, then he'll enter and subsequently win the International Open Ocean Racing Association’s race around the world, winning it from one Charles Widmore. "He tried to buy me off, and when I wouldn’t take his money, he took away the only thing in the world that I ever truly cared about...his daughter."
(I love this show, but winning a sailing regatta to win back his true love? Wasn’t that the plot of at least two cheesy 80s comedies? I think John Candy was in both of them, too. Or maybe it was John Cusack.)
He tells Libby the forty two grand is for a boat, an integral part of his plan that is missing so far. Libby looks a bit taken aback that he mentions a boat, and then speaks up. "I have a boat. It was my husbands, but he...passed away about a month ago. I want you to have it."
Des can’t accept this, but Libby insists, saying it’s what her husband would have wanted. He asks the name of her deceased, and she tells him, "David."
Dave? Des thanks her and tells her he "Shall win this race – for love."
Peter Cetera should have written the soundtrack to this episode. So I wonder if that’s why Libby ended up in the nuthatch? Her husband's family probably committed her when they found out she gave away the boat to a total stranger.
Back on the island, Sun is telling Jin that both of them are going to help Sayid sail. In the jungle, the five are on the move. Sawyer sees a baby doll and reaches for it, but Kate stops him before he sets off the trap. She tells him about Rousseau’s nets. "When the Doc told me y’all got caught in a net, I thought he meant... something else."
They're interrupted by the giant green bird from last season’s finale. (Lots of parallels in these episodes) It’s like a giant mutant parrot or something.
"Hurleeeeee!"
Hugo has to ask. "That bird just say my name?"
Sawyer answers with a straight face, "Yeah, it did... right before it crapped gold."
Mike, also startled by the bird, had a taken a couple shots at it, only to find out that his gun was empty. Jack takes it from him and loads it, telling him he’s sorry, he must have forgotten to load this pistol. Yeah, ok. I don’t know if Mike buys that.
Elsewhere in the jungle, Charlie comes across Locke, bawling his eyes out. Eko won’t let him play in HIS hatch! Charlie is amused to see the ever stoic Locke reduced to tears. He tells him about Desmond showing up during the funeral. "I’m sure you two have a lot to talk about."
On the beach Sayid is not convinced that Sun needs to travel with he and Jin, she tells him she will translate, plus he really needs two people who know what they are doing to sail the boat – Desmond managed to sail by himself, counters Sayid. "And look where he ended up."
Touché, Sun. Jin just looks at Sayid and shrugs. He knows there’s no use in arguing once her mind is made up. At the camp, Des watches as Claire debates giving Aaron a shot with the auto-syringe. He tells her she’s wasting her time ("…sister."), that he shot himself up with it every nine days for the past three years. He asks about Aaron’s dad, and Claire tells him he took off long ago because he couldn’t handle it, so he did what he felt was best for him. It makes Desmond...
Flashback – The night of the ‘tour de strade’... We get a patented Tarantino trunk shot, as Des opens his up; he’s getting ready for his run. Jack pulls up nearby and heads into the stadium to run. Another car pulls up – it’s Penny. Des wants to know how she found him.
"I have a lot of money, Desmond. With enough money and determination, you can find anyone."
(I guess we’ll find out if that’s true this season?)
She asks if he read his book while in prison, and he tells her he didn’t. She then asks why he never wrote. I don’t know why he doesn’t tell her the truth, instead he just asks when she’s getting married – they haven’t set a date. Presumably because somewhere inside, she’s still waiting on Des. He tells her he’s going to win her Dad’s race – and in a year he’ll be back. She’s asks him what it is he’s running from.
"I have to get my honor back; and that’s what I’m running TO."
On the island, Locke has found Des. "So what did one snowman say to the other snowman?"
"Smells like carrots."
They share a drink, and Locke starts talking. "What if I told you that...all those years that you...were down there pushing that button...what if I told you it was all for nothing?"
Locke tells Des about the Pearl station and the orientation videotape. He has a plan to find out what will happen when the button isn’t pushed, and enlists Desmond's help. (Getting ahead of myself here, how does he know that Des knows how to cause the lockdown? Or is his plan at this point just to distract Eko then smash the computer?)
The five are camping for the night. Mike is off a ways in the jungle, kind of freaking out. Is he having second thoughts? Afraid that he’s been found out? Jack comes by and guilty-ass Mike thanks him for helping to save Walt.
"Live together, die alone, man," Jack tells him.
I think Mike just threw up a little in his mouth.
I know Sun just threw up a lot over the side of the boat. It’s the next morning, and the sailors are cruising by a curiosity on the not-too-distant shore. The left foot and ankle are all that remains of what looks to have been an enormous statue. (Maybe related to the possible overgrown green pyramids, if they’re even there? I could be making them up, I'm talking about the part in "?" when Eko climbs to the top of the cliff and looks out over the island.) It’s wearing an ancient looking sandal wrap.
Sayid isn’t sure what is more disquieting, "...the fact that the rest of the statue is missing, or that it has four toes."
Under the hatch, Eko is carving '922' into his Jesus stick. Is he copying some of the numbers from the printout - did he already figure out the '922' that preceded the lines of 'system failure' are related to the plane crash? so is he operating on faith, or on what he thinks is his proof, and why doesn't he show it to Locke? or does it relate to scripture somehow? The lights flicker and go out, then emergency power kicks in. 101 minutes to go. Eko goes to the fuse box in the corridor – and in the next room Des makes the lockdown happen by hotwiring a couple of wires. Eko thrusts his stick under the rapidly falling door, but Locke snatches it away from the other side as the door comes crashing down. Des asks Locke if he’s sure about this – Locke is. They wait inside as Eko pounds futilely on the blast doors.
Flashback – Des sailing the really, really, really, stormy seas. He goes below deck to check on his book and he makes sure it’s waterproof before stuffing it in his coat and heading up. Seconds after he’s back topside, he gets knocked the fuck out by the mast (or whatever you call the part of the sail that hit him). He wakes up on a strange beach, seemingly trapped in a Rob Zombie video – flashes of grainy footage of him seeing double-triple-quadruple as a man in a yellow haz-mat suit approaches him – now he is dragged quickly through the jungle – now he’s in the bottom bunk bed – the guy in the suit is looking frantically through Des’ belongings, and seems upset that he didn’t find what he was looking for. He takes off the mask, and it’s Inman, the spook from Sayid’s past, the torture teacher. He leans over a very confused Desmond. "Are you him? What did one snowman say to the other?"
Des most certainly isn’t Him. ‘Kelvin’ Inman introduces himself. Des asks about his boat, but Inman tells him he just found Des washed up on the beach, no boat. The timer is counting down, and Desmond hears the warning beeping for the very first time. Kelvin punches in the numbers and hits execute. "What was all that about, then?" asks Des.
"Just saving the world."
(they should have left it at Des’ question...)
Some time has passed, and Des is watching the orientation film – apparently not for the first time, as Kelvin asks him how many times he’s going to watch it. Desmond asks him about the obvious splices. "Rezinski made some edits."
Kelvin is suiting up to go outside, so he doesn’t get infected. He gives Des the auto-syringe and tells him to inject himself once every nine days. Hopefully it’s not too late; Desmond was out there and exposed for a long time.
In the swan now, Des is asking about Eko. "We locked out a priest?"
Said priest climbs the rope hanging from the blasted hatch door, and, when he gets up top, sees the quarantine warning on the twisted door for the first time. Charlie is on the beach strumming his guitar when Eko runs up. "Charlie! Do you know how they got the hatch door open?"
"No, but if you hum it, I can probably play it."
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!
Eko tells him what Locke has done, and warns that in ninety minutes, everyone on the island will die if they don’t try and stop Locke from not pushing the button. Charlie agrees to help.
The five are still marching across the island. Sawyer’s sharing his theory of the others. He thinks they’re aliens, with fake beards and pathetic heads. "Prosthetic, dude."
Kate lags behind a bit with Sawyer and whispers to him that they’re being followed. She points out two Others across the river – she wants to turn the tables, and Sawyer is down with that. She starts shooting immediately, scaring the hell out of everyone. Sawyer takes out one of them, and the Other runs away. Kate wants to give chase before he can warn anyone, but Jack says no. He turns to Michael and tells him to come clean. Michael tells them about the list, and that bringing them to the others is the only way he can save Walt. Kate asks if he let Henry out, and something clicks in Hugo’s head. "Did you kill them?"
Mike apologizes; he didn’t know what to do... Hurley wants to head back. He doesn’t understand why Jack would knowingly lead them into a trap. Jack tells the others that he has a plan. Speaking of which, Sayid, Sun and Jin have found the Other's camp.
In the jungle, Charlie shows Eko the dynamite. Eko reaches for it, and Charlie warns him to be careful, "...don’t end up like Dr. Artz."
Eko brings the explosives to the swan, where he starts to place them around the doors in the corridor. Charlie is worried that the blast might hurt Locke and Des, or blow up the computer. He tries to reason with Locke through the door, telling him what Eko is planning. Locke is a little worried, but Des assures him that it won’t work.
Flashback – Kelvin’s filled a measuring cup with some detergent and is swirling a paintbrush in it. Des is pushing a rolling file cabinet, slightly crushed. Des hotwires the lockdown – like Kelvin taught him – using the cabinet to keep the door between the computerdome and the living area open. Kelvin gets busy painting the map of the hatches that was revealed to Locke, but he’s doing it blindly, with no black light. Continuing the work of the mysterious Rezinski, who, we find out, put a shotgun in his mouth one night, and all that is left of him now is a stain on the ceiling.
Des tells Kelvin that if he doesn’t want his new partner to end up the same way, he’ll let him go outside to pick up the next drop – it’s been two years – but Kelvin still isn’t planning on letting him out.
In the Swan now, Charlie is still trying to talk to Locke through the doors. "Seriously, you’re about to be detonated!" He tries to talk Eko out of blowing the doors, telling him that maybe the button is just a joke. Eko gets up, throws Charlie against the wall and rips the belt from his pants – uh-oh, I’ve seen this episode of OZ – He throws the belt at the concrete/magnet, where it sticks to the wall. "Is that a joke?"
He gives Locke one last chance to come out, and Eko will forgive him. "Forgive me for what," asks Locke?
Eko prepares to light the fuse... Charlie tells him, stammering, that it’s a bad idea (shades of Hurley and Locke in last seasons finale) it’s a very confined area... Eko lights it – it explodes almost immediately, and a fireball shoots through the corridor as Charlie tries in vain to outrun it.
Flashback – Des wakes to the sound of the alarm beeping, and no Kelvin. He puts in the numbers, and then hears some drunken singing coming from somewhere. He follows a trail of empty Dharma merlot bottles to the basement, where a drunk and somewhat insane Inman is dangling a Dharma key next to the box that reads: CAUTION SYSTEM TERMINATION. He tells Des he couldn’t do it. It’s the only other way out (this or a stain on the ceiling?) Turn this key and it all goes away, poof! (but that’s really the same way out, isn’t it?) Des asks him what is behind the wall, what the incident was. "Electromagnetism...geologically unique...there was a leak, so now the charge builds up and every time we push the button it discharges it before it gets too big."
Des asks if they can just stop it here, why bother pushing the button at all? "Here’s the real question, Desmundo; do you have the courage to take your finger out of the dam and blow the whole thing up instead?"
In the Swan now, Des is afraid that Charlie and Eko have blown themselves up and he wants to check on them. Locke thinks it could be a trick. Des asks Locke if he’s letting the clock run down because he needs to look down the barrel of a gun to find out what he really believes. "I looked into the barrel of the gun, and...I believed, I thought it was my destiny to get into this place. And somebody died, a kid, because he was stupid enough to believe that I knew what I was talking about, and on the night that he died, FOR NOTHING (there’s the rub), I was sitting right up there, all alone, beating my hand bloody against that stupid door, screaming to the heavens asking what I should do. And then a light went on, I thought it was a sign. But it wasn’t a sign, probably just you going to the bathroom."
Sayid goes ashore to scout out the Others’ camp, and finds it deserted. He sees the metal Dharma doors, and thinks they may be hiding behind there. Suspenseful music builds to a crescendo as he opens the doors to find...
...a rock wall. It’s all a sham. This doesn’t bode well for the five, who are still on the march elsewhere on the island. Kate spots something and stops everyone. It’s a huge pile of those cylinders for the pneumatic tube machine, piled under a pipe sticking up from the ground. This is where they all go, Desmond and Eko are right. She opens one to find a notebook inside. They’re all filled, she reads an excerpt. "0400 S.R. moves ping pong table again, 0415 takes a shower."
Sawyer finds Locke’s discarded map of the hatches and hands it to Jack. Then he sees the black smoke signal rising in the distance. Way in the distance, miles away. Jack turns to Mike. "Where were you taking us?"
Mike stammers, tells him that he had to, then some whispers start. I hear 'Elizabeth' clearly, but that’s about it. Sawyer gets a dart to the neck and goes down hard. There are more whispers, this time I think it said "Baggins...Shire...", although I could be mistaken. Jack yells for them to run, but it’s too late. Hurley covers his head and sinks to his knees. Kate goes down and Jack fires blindly into the surrounding jungle, before throwing Kate over his shoulders and starting to run off. He is shot in the leg and tries to fight it, but he goes down as well. More Rob Zombie footage, as the others tie them up and put hoods over their heads.
We didn’t see Hurley get shot.
Twenty one minutes left under the hatch, and Des wants to know more about the Pearl. He’s afraid Locke has it backwards, that place was the experiment and the button is the real work. He needs some proof from Locke, but there’s no VCR in the Swan, so he has to settle for the batch of computer printouts handed to him by Locke. "Reading material for the next nineteen minutes. Knock yourself out."
Flashback – Desmond notices a rip in Kelvin’s pants as he suits up to go out, but doesn’t say anything. He follows him outside, wearing just a scarf over his nose and mouth. He watches as Kel takes off the suit and breathes in the ‘contaminated’ air. He follows him to a rocky harbor with the Elizabeth anchored in a nearby cove. The landscape is otherworldly – it reminds me of Planet of the Apes.
So does the music in this scene. Kelvin pops up behind Des. "I was a spook for ten years Des; I know when I’m being followed."
He tells Des it will be ready to leave in a week, and invites him to come. Des asks about the button and Kel tells him to just forget about it. Desmond flips out and slams Kelvin against the rocks, inadvertently bashing his brains out. Oops. He seems to be in a state of shock, but he pulls it together enough to grab the failsafe key from around Kelvin’s neck before racing back to the Swan. But it’s too late... the hieroglyphics are showing, the place is shaking, and the PA woman is repeating "system failure" over and over. Des punches the numbers into the computer, and ‘system failure’ starts scrolling and filling up the screen. He pounds the execute button – and the clock resets – the madness grinds to a halt. (as flight 815 starts to fall from the sky...)
In the Swan today, Des is pouring over the sheets of printouts, trying to make sense of it – I think he’s figured them out, 'date/timestamp, accepted' repeated over and over – until he gets to one entry and stops – he asks Locke the date of the plane crash. "September 22nd."
He looks down at his finger resting on the entry reading 922044:16 (which is 4:16 on Sept 22nd) followed by not the accepted tag, but 'system failure', repeated over and over.
"I think I crashed your plane."
Mr. Friendly, Beardo, is leading four of our five, bound, hooded, and gagged out onto a dock. Michael is walking freely with them. They kneel them down in a row and remove the hoods. Kate looks up at Beardo and says something through her gag. He can't understand her, so Mrs. Klugh translates. "She said she knows your beard’s fake, Tom."
He takes it off and sarcastically thanks 'Bea' for telling them his name. A boat motors up to the dock and a barefoot Fake Henry Gale disembarks. Interesting reaction shot of Alex, who looks surprised to see him. He walks right past Mike to Jack and he bows. "Hello again."
He turns to ask Tom where his beard is. "I think they know."
He walks over to Michael. "Alright, let’s take care of business, shall we?"
Under the hatch Charlie comes to and we hear how he hears... everything is muffled, barely there. Cool. He finds an unconscious (or dead?) Eko pinned beneath some rubble, and digs him out. Inside the blast doors Des is trying to convince Locke to push the button. He tells Locke what happened down there the day the plane crashed. The numbers turned to hieroglyphics, and when the last one came down this whole place started to shake (but it was shaking and all the numbers were flipped by the time he had gotten back... a fuck up?) He shows Locke the system failure printout, but Locke still thinks it’s all a lie. Des moves to enter the numbers and Locke smashes the monitor. 3:11 left. Des can't believe it, "...you’ve killed us all."
"No, I’ve just saved us all."
Flashback – Desmond is sitting at the breakfast nook with a gun and some booze... top shelf stuff this time, no Dharma brand. This looks Australian, judging by the kangaroo on the label. J Darby. He finally cracks his book open... and a letter falls out. From Penny.
"Dearest Des,
I am writing this letter to you as you leave for prison. And I’ve hidden it in the one place you would turn to in a moment of great desperation. I know that you go away with the weight of what happened on your shoulders. And I know that the only person who can ever take it off is you. Sorry to be so dramatic, but these are dramatic times, are they not? Please don’t give up, Des, because all we really need to survive is one person who truly loves us. And you have her. I will wait for you. Always.
I love you,
Pen"
Des loses it and starts tearing the place apart, throwing books and records everywhere. He slumps to the floor, exhausted, and then hears a repetitive thumping noise. He follows the sound to the hatch door, and can hear a muffled Locke pounding his fists and screaming to the heavens, asking what he should do. Des turns on the light... at least he wasn’t just going to the bathroom. They’ve inadvertently given each other a reason to live.
Now they’re together under that hatch door and time is running out. Des grabs his book from the shelf and opens it up – to reveal the failsafe key. Appropriate place to keep it. Thirty seconds left. Before going into the basement he tells Locke about the pounding, and the light. (is this the first time someone on the island has shared their flashback with someone else? Does it even count, considering the flashback took place on the island?) "You say there isn’t any purpose, there’s no such thing as fate? But you saved my life, brother, so that I could save yours."
Time is up, and the counter starts to flip to hieroglyphics. "I’m sorry for whatever happened, that made you stop believing. But it’s all real. And now I’ve got to go and make it go away."
The cowardly lion has found his courage after all. He drops down into the basement. "I’ll see you in another life, brother."
The siren starts squawking 'system failure' and the entire place starts to shake. Out in the corridor, Charlie has woken Eko and is trying to help him to his feet. Suddenly everything metal in the area is flying past them at the concrete/magnet wall... Eko pushes Charlie out of harms way, toward the exit, and then goes back for Locke. Des is crawling toward the failsafe box below. The much-speculated about washer and dryer set are smashed into the wall by the electromagnetic force.
Eko and Locke are looking at each other in the computerdome as the metal clock/counter crumples like tin foil. They both think they are about to die. Locke looks at Eko and tells him, "I was wrong."
No shit, buddy. Under it all, Des crosses himself and puts the key in the hole. He hears Penny in his head, "All we really need to survive is one person who truly loves us. And you have her. I will wait for you. Always. I love you."
"I love you, Penny."
He turns the key and everything fades to white. Now we’re back at the dock, right where we left off, as an ear-splitting vibrating hum and blinding white light envelops the entire island. We see Sayid, Sun and Jin/the prisoners/Michael/Bernard/Aaron/Random castaways/Mrs. Klugh-Bea/Henry/Claire
The sky turns violet, almost like a negative image, and it’s over. A shot of Henry barely registering surprise. At the camp Bernard sees something screaming down from the heavens, and pushes Claire and Aaron out of harms way just in time. It’s the hatch door (parallelely blown up again – I was hoping for Donnie Darko’s jet engine, myself.)
It’s a short time later, and the losties are picking up the mess left by the magnet. Charlie emerges from the jungle, still a little deaf. He seems surprised to find that Locke and Eko haven’t made it back yet. Is that weird? I think so... how did he get out of the Swan? Anyway, He’s certainly happy that Claire looks happy to see him.
At the Pala Ferry dock, Henry is walking Michael to the boat. Is Walt going to be dead in there? That’s what I was expecting... "I’m not happy about the arrangement we’ve made with you... but we got more than we bargained for when Walt joined us (?), so I suppose this is what’s best. When you let me go... you lived up to your word. We live up to our word too. You’re going to take this boat and follow a compass bearing of three-twenty-five. And if you do that exactly, you and your son will find rescue."
Michael doesn’t understand why the others aren’t worried about him telling the authorities all about the island. Henry tells him that he’ll never find his way back here, and, if he does decide to tell, "...people will find out what you did to get your son back."
It looks like he’s almost made Mike cry. "My friends...I was promised you wouldn’t hurt them."
"A deal’s a deal," Henry assures him.
"Who are you people?"
"We’re the good guys, Michael."
And then when Walt and his dad, during what most would have assumed was going to be a celebratory scene this season (provided they were both alive), finally are reunited, well, no one is celebrating.
Walt is happy though – Hurley seems conflicted by it, happy for his friend Walt, but... well, you know. The 'good guys' untie Hugo, ordering him to return to their camp and warn everyone there NOT to come here.
Henry them tells him, "Your friends are coming home with us."
There are great shots of Jack, Kate, Sawyer, then Henry himself, reacting to this line. Hurley looks down at Jack, who nods for him to go. Michael fires up the boat and he and Walt start to leave. Mike gives Jack a look as he moves by, (I'll be back? I'm sorry? You would have done the same thing?) and Walt sees the three of them tied up and gagged on the dock. How’s dear old dad gonna explain this one?
The others help the prisoners to their feet...and Alex totally cops a feel from Kate... full on hands around her breasts before she repositions them under her pits. It looks like the actress might even be cracking up a bit - check the DVD, I swear I saw this! Kate and Jack then share a mysterious look... is it I bet you wish you had copped that feel? An Empire Han/Leia I love you, I know moment? Hey, our plan is working out perfectly? Everything will be okay? I’m thinking it’s along the lines of everything will be okay... Sawyer is looking at the two of them as they share this look, and I think it will come up later that in this dire situation, Kate looked to Jack rather than Sawyer for strength/comfort.
The bags go back over their heads.
Charlie and Claire are sitting by Aaron’s crib, near a campfire... after some small talk, we finally get it. The Kiss.
Awww... all’s forgiven, Charlie. Prelude to the more ‘romantic’ season 3 on the way? ugh.
Now we’re suddenly in a landscape of blowing snow and ice-capped peaks (raise your hands, how many people thought this was a commercial? ...don't lie!). There are two guys in a small research station playing chess and speaking Portuguese. One of them notices a red light flashing, and they both jump up frantically. The computer reads >/ 7418880 ELECTROMAGNETIC ANOMALY DETECTED
"That’s it isn’t it? We missed it again."
Did they miss it sixty-five days or so ago? Once they’re certain it’s not a false alarm, one of them picks up the phone and makes a call. A phone rings in a darkened bedroom, and a woman’s arm reaches to pick it up. "Miss Widmore?"
The woman reaches over to turn on the light, and it illuminates the photo of Penny and Des we know from the hatch.
"I think we’ve found it."
The castaways gathered at the funeral rush toward the ocean, toward the sailboat in the distance. Jack, Sayid and Sawyer swim out to meet it while Kate follows the action with a pair of binoculars. They board the boat and cock their wet pistols. They hear some opera music coming from below decks and approach the door to the cabin. They almost get killed as whoever is down there unloads his gun up through the door. After the eruption of gunfire, they hear the clicking of the now empty gun, and a familiar voice. "Awww...damnnit." (the 'brother' is implied) Kicking down the door, they find a very drunk Desmond with a shotgun in his lap.
He looks up and laughs, then mockingly parrots Jack’s line to him from the season premiere.
"You?"
Later on, and it's nighttime now in the mess tent. The castaways are restless and looking to Kate for answers. She leaves them for a minute to ask Jack what they should be told. "Just tell them Desmond’s back, until I find out the rest."
I guess this points out that they DO talk amongst each other between episodes. Jack goes to find out what that 'rest' is from the still drinking Desmond, who explains, "I was sailing due west and making nine knots. I should have been in Fiji in less than a week, but the first piece of land I saw wasn’t Fiji...it was here, this island."
He tells Jack it’s because that’s all that’s left, the ocean and the island. "We’re stuck in a bloody snowglobe! There’s no outside world, no escape."
As Jack is getting up to leave, Des asks, "You still pushing it?"
"Yeah, we’re still pushing it."
Flashback – A short haired Des is being released from some kind of military prison. The guard is returning his belongings. (It should have been Frank Oz in this scene – ‘one used prophylactic’) He’s got a set of keys, a gold plated pocket watch, and the photo we’ve seen in the hatch, with Des and the blonde woman. He’s also got one book; Dickens’ "Our Mutual Friend". The guard asks why he didn’t bring the book inside with him. "To avoid temptation, brother."
He’s read every wonderful word Charles Dickens has written, "...every book, except this one. I’m saving it, so it’ll be the last thing I ever read before I die."
"Nice idea. Long as you know when you’re gonna die."
Lance Corporal Desmond David Hume is then dishonorably discharged from the Royal Scotch Regiment of Her Majesties Armed Forces. He exits the Southway Garrison from MPS B company gate, 5B. There’s an older man and his driver/bodyguard waiting in a fancy car. Somewhat against his will, Des joins the guy in the backseat. There are two boxes on the seat between them. The man tells him one contains his future, the other, his past. He has him open the past. It’s full of dozens of unopened letters, addressed to:
Penny Widmore
23 Densmore Gardens
Knightsbridge, London SW4 8PS
The return address is:
Desmond Hume
Southway Garrison
42 Berechurch Road
Halstead, Essex CO8 5WE
The old man is Penny’s dad, and he wants his little girl to think that Des has forsaken her. He shocks Des by telling him Penny is to be married soon, and opens the future box. It’s full of money. Lots of it. Under the condition that there is to be no contact between Des and Penelope, Des can just take the money and run away.
"And what makes you think I would just run away?"
"Because you’re a coward."
Back on the island, Sayid has formulated a plan. He wants to take Des’ boat and sail to the Others’ camp, arriving before Jack and his party, to scout it out. He’ll then light a signal fire of black smoke on a nearby beach, Jack's group can meet up with him, and then they'll enter the camp together. They need to keep the everyone in Jack's party in the dark until Sayid signals them, the element of surprise is all they have going for them. Jack agrees. "Black smoke, huh?"
"This time they will know WE are coming."
(well, that kind of takes the element of surprise out of the situation, doesn’t it?)
In the Swan, Eko is leafing through the printouts from the Pearl while sitting at the computer. Locke arrives – he’s been thinking. He wants them to not push the button this time around. Eko doesn’t agree at all. "Why wouldn’t I?"
"Because you don’t want to be a slave..."
Eko gives him an oh no, you didn’t just go there look, but Locke continues.
"...just like I was...so I’m going to tell you again; don’t push it."
"Do not tell me what I can do."
And the role reversal completes it’s full circle. The timer begins to beep its countdown, and Eko moves to enter the numbers. In desperation, Locke grabs the huge-ass Jesus stick and tries to smash the computer, but Eko restrains him without breaking a sweat. He punches in the numbers and then throws Locke out of the hatch, HIS hatch, while Locke babbles about them all being "...puppets on strings."
It’s morning on the beach and the five - Michael, Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Hurley - are preparing to leave. Jack hands out some pistols, but Hurley doesn’t take one. Their outfits are very colorful, like the teletubbies or power rangers – or like pieces on a board game - i'm thinking Sorry.
Kate is still unsure – what if the Others are just pretending. Mike sells his story again, with gusto. Sawyer’s ready to go. "Enough jibber-jabber. Let’s roll."
A little further down the beach, Des is coming ashore on a rubber raft with supplies (meaning more booze – looks like Dharma wine) from his boat, the Elizabeth of Newport Beach. Sayid meets him as he’s getting off the raft, and asks if he can use the ship to sail to the north side of the island.
"Off to see the hostiles, are ya? ...boat’s all yours, brother. For all the good it’ll do ya."
Sayid tells him he doesn’t know how to sail, so Des tells him he should find someone who does.
Flashback – Des is in America now, trying to buy a cup of coffee at Dina’s coffee shop, but he hasn’t changed his money over yet. A darker haired Libby is in line behind him, and she picks up the tab against his protests.
"It’s just four bucks," she tells him.
"I don’t suppose you have forty-two thousand more of those, do ya?"
This line works on Libby, proving that she really IS crazy. They sit down together and Des tells her his plan.
He has eight months to get ready, then he'll enter and subsequently win the International Open Ocean Racing Association’s race around the world, winning it from one Charles Widmore. "He tried to buy me off, and when I wouldn’t take his money, he took away the only thing in the world that I ever truly cared about...his daughter."
(I love this show, but winning a sailing regatta to win back his true love? Wasn’t that the plot of at least two cheesy 80s comedies? I think John Candy was in both of them, too. Or maybe it was John Cusack.)
He tells Libby the forty two grand is for a boat, an integral part of his plan that is missing so far. Libby looks a bit taken aback that he mentions a boat, and then speaks up. "I have a boat. It was my husbands, but he...passed away about a month ago. I want you to have it."
Des can’t accept this, but Libby insists, saying it’s what her husband would have wanted. He asks the name of her deceased, and she tells him, "David."
Dave? Des thanks her and tells her he "Shall win this race – for love."
Peter Cetera should have written the soundtrack to this episode. So I wonder if that’s why Libby ended up in the nuthatch? Her husband's family probably committed her when they found out she gave away the boat to a total stranger.
Back on the island, Sun is telling Jin that both of them are going to help Sayid sail. In the jungle, the five are on the move. Sawyer sees a baby doll and reaches for it, but Kate stops him before he sets off the trap. She tells him about Rousseau’s nets. "When the Doc told me y’all got caught in a net, I thought he meant... something else."
They're interrupted by the giant green bird from last season’s finale. (Lots of parallels in these episodes) It’s like a giant mutant parrot or something.
"Hurleeeeee!"
Hugo has to ask. "That bird just say my name?"
Sawyer answers with a straight face, "Yeah, it did... right before it crapped gold."
Mike, also startled by the bird, had a taken a couple shots at it, only to find out that his gun was empty. Jack takes it from him and loads it, telling him he’s sorry, he must have forgotten to load this pistol. Yeah, ok. I don’t know if Mike buys that.
Elsewhere in the jungle, Charlie comes across Locke, bawling his eyes out. Eko won’t let him play in HIS hatch! Charlie is amused to see the ever stoic Locke reduced to tears. He tells him about Desmond showing up during the funeral. "I’m sure you two have a lot to talk about."
On the beach Sayid is not convinced that Sun needs to travel with he and Jin, she tells him she will translate, plus he really needs two people who know what they are doing to sail the boat – Desmond managed to sail by himself, counters Sayid. "And look where he ended up."
Touché, Sun. Jin just looks at Sayid and shrugs. He knows there’s no use in arguing once her mind is made up. At the camp, Des watches as Claire debates giving Aaron a shot with the auto-syringe. He tells her she’s wasting her time ("…sister."), that he shot himself up with it every nine days for the past three years. He asks about Aaron’s dad, and Claire tells him he took off long ago because he couldn’t handle it, so he did what he felt was best for him. It makes Desmond...
Flashback – The night of the ‘tour de strade’... We get a patented Tarantino trunk shot, as Des opens his up; he’s getting ready for his run. Jack pulls up nearby and heads into the stadium to run. Another car pulls up – it’s Penny. Des wants to know how she found him.
"I have a lot of money, Desmond. With enough money and determination, you can find anyone."
(I guess we’ll find out if that’s true this season?)
She asks if he read his book while in prison, and he tells her he didn’t. She then asks why he never wrote. I don’t know why he doesn’t tell her the truth, instead he just asks when she’s getting married – they haven’t set a date. Presumably because somewhere inside, she’s still waiting on Des. He tells her he’s going to win her Dad’s race – and in a year he’ll be back. She’s asks him what it is he’s running from.
"I have to get my honor back; and that’s what I’m running TO."
On the island, Locke has found Des. "So what did one snowman say to the other snowman?"
"Smells like carrots."
They share a drink, and Locke starts talking. "What if I told you that...all those years that you...were down there pushing that button...what if I told you it was all for nothing?"
Locke tells Des about the Pearl station and the orientation videotape. He has a plan to find out what will happen when the button isn’t pushed, and enlists Desmond's help. (Getting ahead of myself here, how does he know that Des knows how to cause the lockdown? Or is his plan at this point just to distract Eko then smash the computer?)
The five are camping for the night. Mike is off a ways in the jungle, kind of freaking out. Is he having second thoughts? Afraid that he’s been found out? Jack comes by and guilty-ass Mike thanks him for helping to save Walt.
"Live together, die alone, man," Jack tells him.
I think Mike just threw up a little in his mouth.
I know Sun just threw up a lot over the side of the boat. It’s the next morning, and the sailors are cruising by a curiosity on the not-too-distant shore. The left foot and ankle are all that remains of what looks to have been an enormous statue. (Maybe related to the possible overgrown green pyramids, if they’re even there? I could be making them up, I'm talking about the part in "?" when Eko climbs to the top of the cliff and looks out over the island.) It’s wearing an ancient looking sandal wrap.
Sayid isn’t sure what is more disquieting, "...the fact that the rest of the statue is missing, or that it has four toes."
Under the hatch, Eko is carving '922' into his Jesus stick. Is he copying some of the numbers from the printout - did he already figure out the '922' that preceded the lines of 'system failure' are related to the plane crash? so is he operating on faith, or on what he thinks is his proof, and why doesn't he show it to Locke? or does it relate to scripture somehow? The lights flicker and go out, then emergency power kicks in. 101 minutes to go. Eko goes to the fuse box in the corridor – and in the next room Des makes the lockdown happen by hotwiring a couple of wires. Eko thrusts his stick under the rapidly falling door, but Locke snatches it away from the other side as the door comes crashing down. Des asks Locke if he’s sure about this – Locke is. They wait inside as Eko pounds futilely on the blast doors.
Flashback – Des sailing the really, really, really, stormy seas. He goes below deck to check on his book and he makes sure it’s waterproof before stuffing it in his coat and heading up. Seconds after he’s back topside, he gets knocked the fuck out by the mast (or whatever you call the part of the sail that hit him). He wakes up on a strange beach, seemingly trapped in a Rob Zombie video – flashes of grainy footage of him seeing double-triple-quadruple as a man in a yellow haz-mat suit approaches him – now he is dragged quickly through the jungle – now he’s in the bottom bunk bed – the guy in the suit is looking frantically through Des’ belongings, and seems upset that he didn’t find what he was looking for. He takes off the mask, and it’s Inman, the spook from Sayid’s past, the torture teacher. He leans over a very confused Desmond. "Are you him? What did one snowman say to the other?"
Des most certainly isn’t Him. ‘Kelvin’ Inman introduces himself. Des asks about his boat, but Inman tells him he just found Des washed up on the beach, no boat. The timer is counting down, and Desmond hears the warning beeping for the very first time. Kelvin punches in the numbers and hits execute. "What was all that about, then?" asks Des.
"Just saving the world."
(they should have left it at Des’ question...)
Some time has passed, and Des is watching the orientation film – apparently not for the first time, as Kelvin asks him how many times he’s going to watch it. Desmond asks him about the obvious splices. "Rezinski made some edits."
Kelvin is suiting up to go outside, so he doesn’t get infected. He gives Des the auto-syringe and tells him to inject himself once every nine days. Hopefully it’s not too late; Desmond was out there and exposed for a long time.
In the swan now, Des is asking about Eko. "We locked out a priest?"
Said priest climbs the rope hanging from the blasted hatch door, and, when he gets up top, sees the quarantine warning on the twisted door for the first time. Charlie is on the beach strumming his guitar when Eko runs up. "Charlie! Do you know how they got the hatch door open?"
"No, but if you hum it, I can probably play it."
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!
Eko tells him what Locke has done, and warns that in ninety minutes, everyone on the island will die if they don’t try and stop Locke from not pushing the button. Charlie agrees to help.
The five are still marching across the island. Sawyer’s sharing his theory of the others. He thinks they’re aliens, with fake beards and pathetic heads. "Prosthetic, dude."
Kate lags behind a bit with Sawyer and whispers to him that they’re being followed. She points out two Others across the river – she wants to turn the tables, and Sawyer is down with that. She starts shooting immediately, scaring the hell out of everyone. Sawyer takes out one of them, and the Other runs away. Kate wants to give chase before he can warn anyone, but Jack says no. He turns to Michael and tells him to come clean. Michael tells them about the list, and that bringing them to the others is the only way he can save Walt. Kate asks if he let Henry out, and something clicks in Hugo’s head. "Did you kill them?"
Mike apologizes; he didn’t know what to do... Hurley wants to head back. He doesn’t understand why Jack would knowingly lead them into a trap. Jack tells the others that he has a plan. Speaking of which, Sayid, Sun and Jin have found the Other's camp.
In the jungle, Charlie shows Eko the dynamite. Eko reaches for it, and Charlie warns him to be careful, "...don’t end up like Dr. Artz."
Eko brings the explosives to the swan, where he starts to place them around the doors in the corridor. Charlie is worried that the blast might hurt Locke and Des, or blow up the computer. He tries to reason with Locke through the door, telling him what Eko is planning. Locke is a little worried, but Des assures him that it won’t work.
Flashback – Kelvin’s filled a measuring cup with some detergent and is swirling a paintbrush in it. Des is pushing a rolling file cabinet, slightly crushed. Des hotwires the lockdown – like Kelvin taught him – using the cabinet to keep the door between the computerdome and the living area open. Kelvin gets busy painting the map of the hatches that was revealed to Locke, but he’s doing it blindly, with no black light. Continuing the work of the mysterious Rezinski, who, we find out, put a shotgun in his mouth one night, and all that is left of him now is a stain on the ceiling.
Des tells Kelvin that if he doesn’t want his new partner to end up the same way, he’ll let him go outside to pick up the next drop – it’s been two years – but Kelvin still isn’t planning on letting him out.
In the Swan now, Charlie is still trying to talk to Locke through the doors. "Seriously, you’re about to be detonated!" He tries to talk Eko out of blowing the doors, telling him that maybe the button is just a joke. Eko gets up, throws Charlie against the wall and rips the belt from his pants – uh-oh, I’ve seen this episode of OZ – He throws the belt at the concrete/magnet, where it sticks to the wall. "Is that a joke?"
He gives Locke one last chance to come out, and Eko will forgive him. "Forgive me for what," asks Locke?
Eko prepares to light the fuse... Charlie tells him, stammering, that it’s a bad idea (shades of Hurley and Locke in last seasons finale) it’s a very confined area... Eko lights it – it explodes almost immediately, and a fireball shoots through the corridor as Charlie tries in vain to outrun it.
Flashback – Des wakes to the sound of the alarm beeping, and no Kelvin. He puts in the numbers, and then hears some drunken singing coming from somewhere. He follows a trail of empty Dharma merlot bottles to the basement, where a drunk and somewhat insane Inman is dangling a Dharma key next to the box that reads: CAUTION SYSTEM TERMINATION. He tells Des he couldn’t do it. It’s the only other way out (this or a stain on the ceiling?) Turn this key and it all goes away, poof! (but that’s really the same way out, isn’t it?) Des asks him what is behind the wall, what the incident was. "Electromagnetism...geologically unique...there was a leak, so now the charge builds up and every time we push the button it discharges it before it gets too big."
Des asks if they can just stop it here, why bother pushing the button at all? "Here’s the real question, Desmundo; do you have the courage to take your finger out of the dam and blow the whole thing up instead?"
In the Swan now, Des is afraid that Charlie and Eko have blown themselves up and he wants to check on them. Locke thinks it could be a trick. Des asks Locke if he’s letting the clock run down because he needs to look down the barrel of a gun to find out what he really believes. "I looked into the barrel of the gun, and...I believed, I thought it was my destiny to get into this place. And somebody died, a kid, because he was stupid enough to believe that I knew what I was talking about, and on the night that he died, FOR NOTHING (there’s the rub), I was sitting right up there, all alone, beating my hand bloody against that stupid door, screaming to the heavens asking what I should do. And then a light went on, I thought it was a sign. But it wasn’t a sign, probably just you going to the bathroom."
Sayid goes ashore to scout out the Others’ camp, and finds it deserted. He sees the metal Dharma doors, and thinks they may be hiding behind there. Suspenseful music builds to a crescendo as he opens the doors to find...
...a rock wall. It’s all a sham. This doesn’t bode well for the five, who are still on the march elsewhere on the island. Kate spots something and stops everyone. It’s a huge pile of those cylinders for the pneumatic tube machine, piled under a pipe sticking up from the ground. This is where they all go, Desmond and Eko are right. She opens one to find a notebook inside. They’re all filled, she reads an excerpt. "0400 S.R. moves ping pong table again, 0415 takes a shower."
Sawyer finds Locke’s discarded map of the hatches and hands it to Jack. Then he sees the black smoke signal rising in the distance. Way in the distance, miles away. Jack turns to Mike. "Where were you taking us?"
Mike stammers, tells him that he had to, then some whispers start. I hear 'Elizabeth' clearly, but that’s about it. Sawyer gets a dart to the neck and goes down hard. There are more whispers, this time I think it said "Baggins...Shire...", although I could be mistaken. Jack yells for them to run, but it’s too late. Hurley covers his head and sinks to his knees. Kate goes down and Jack fires blindly into the surrounding jungle, before throwing Kate over his shoulders and starting to run off. He is shot in the leg and tries to fight it, but he goes down as well. More Rob Zombie footage, as the others tie them up and put hoods over their heads.
We didn’t see Hurley get shot.
Twenty one minutes left under the hatch, and Des wants to know more about the Pearl. He’s afraid Locke has it backwards, that place was the experiment and the button is the real work. He needs some proof from Locke, but there’s no VCR in the Swan, so he has to settle for the batch of computer printouts handed to him by Locke. "Reading material for the next nineteen minutes. Knock yourself out."
Flashback – Desmond notices a rip in Kelvin’s pants as he suits up to go out, but doesn’t say anything. He follows him outside, wearing just a scarf over his nose and mouth. He watches as Kel takes off the suit and breathes in the ‘contaminated’ air. He follows him to a rocky harbor with the Elizabeth anchored in a nearby cove. The landscape is otherworldly – it reminds me of Planet of the Apes.
So does the music in this scene. Kelvin pops up behind Des. "I was a spook for ten years Des; I know when I’m being followed."
He tells Des it will be ready to leave in a week, and invites him to come. Des asks about the button and Kel tells him to just forget about it. Desmond flips out and slams Kelvin against the rocks, inadvertently bashing his brains out. Oops. He seems to be in a state of shock, but he pulls it together enough to grab the failsafe key from around Kelvin’s neck before racing back to the Swan. But it’s too late... the hieroglyphics are showing, the place is shaking, and the PA woman is repeating "system failure" over and over. Des punches the numbers into the computer, and ‘system failure’ starts scrolling and filling up the screen. He pounds the execute button – and the clock resets – the madness grinds to a halt. (as flight 815 starts to fall from the sky...)
In the Swan today, Des is pouring over the sheets of printouts, trying to make sense of it – I think he’s figured them out, 'date/timestamp, accepted' repeated over and over – until he gets to one entry and stops – he asks Locke the date of the plane crash. "September 22nd."
He looks down at his finger resting on the entry reading 922044:16 (which is 4:16 on Sept 22nd) followed by not the accepted tag, but 'system failure', repeated over and over.
"I think I crashed your plane."
Mr. Friendly, Beardo, is leading four of our five, bound, hooded, and gagged out onto a dock. Michael is walking freely with them. They kneel them down in a row and remove the hoods. Kate looks up at Beardo and says something through her gag. He can't understand her, so Mrs. Klugh translates. "She said she knows your beard’s fake, Tom."
He takes it off and sarcastically thanks 'Bea' for telling them his name. A boat motors up to the dock and a barefoot Fake Henry Gale disembarks. Interesting reaction shot of Alex, who looks surprised to see him. He walks right past Mike to Jack and he bows. "Hello again."
He turns to ask Tom where his beard is. "I think they know."
He walks over to Michael. "Alright, let’s take care of business, shall we?"
Under the hatch Charlie comes to and we hear how he hears... everything is muffled, barely there. Cool. He finds an unconscious (or dead?) Eko pinned beneath some rubble, and digs him out. Inside the blast doors Des is trying to convince Locke to push the button. He tells Locke what happened down there the day the plane crashed. The numbers turned to hieroglyphics, and when the last one came down this whole place started to shake (but it was shaking and all the numbers were flipped by the time he had gotten back... a fuck up?) He shows Locke the system failure printout, but Locke still thinks it’s all a lie. Des moves to enter the numbers and Locke smashes the monitor. 3:11 left. Des can't believe it, "...you’ve killed us all."
"No, I’ve just saved us all."
Flashback – Desmond is sitting at the breakfast nook with a gun and some booze... top shelf stuff this time, no Dharma brand. This looks Australian, judging by the kangaroo on the label. J Darby. He finally cracks his book open... and a letter falls out. From Penny.
"Dearest Des,
I am writing this letter to you as you leave for prison. And I’ve hidden it in the one place you would turn to in a moment of great desperation. I know that you go away with the weight of what happened on your shoulders. And I know that the only person who can ever take it off is you. Sorry to be so dramatic, but these are dramatic times, are they not? Please don’t give up, Des, because all we really need to survive is one person who truly loves us. And you have her. I will wait for you. Always.
I love you,
Pen"
Des loses it and starts tearing the place apart, throwing books and records everywhere. He slumps to the floor, exhausted, and then hears a repetitive thumping noise. He follows the sound to the hatch door, and can hear a muffled Locke pounding his fists and screaming to the heavens, asking what he should do. Des turns on the light... at least he wasn’t just going to the bathroom. They’ve inadvertently given each other a reason to live.
Now they’re together under that hatch door and time is running out. Des grabs his book from the shelf and opens it up – to reveal the failsafe key. Appropriate place to keep it. Thirty seconds left. Before going into the basement he tells Locke about the pounding, and the light. (is this the first time someone on the island has shared their flashback with someone else? Does it even count, considering the flashback took place on the island?) "You say there isn’t any purpose, there’s no such thing as fate? But you saved my life, brother, so that I could save yours."
Time is up, and the counter starts to flip to hieroglyphics. "I’m sorry for whatever happened, that made you stop believing. But it’s all real. And now I’ve got to go and make it go away."
The cowardly lion has found his courage after all. He drops down into the basement. "I’ll see you in another life, brother."
The siren starts squawking 'system failure' and the entire place starts to shake. Out in the corridor, Charlie has woken Eko and is trying to help him to his feet. Suddenly everything metal in the area is flying past them at the concrete/magnet wall... Eko pushes Charlie out of harms way, toward the exit, and then goes back for Locke. Des is crawling toward the failsafe box below. The much-speculated about washer and dryer set are smashed into the wall by the electromagnetic force.
Eko and Locke are looking at each other in the computerdome as the metal clock/counter crumples like tin foil. They both think they are about to die. Locke looks at Eko and tells him, "I was wrong."
No shit, buddy. Under it all, Des crosses himself and puts the key in the hole. He hears Penny in his head, "All we really need to survive is one person who truly loves us. And you have her. I will wait for you. Always. I love you."
"I love you, Penny."
He turns the key and everything fades to white. Now we’re back at the dock, right where we left off, as an ear-splitting vibrating hum and blinding white light envelops the entire island. We see Sayid, Sun and Jin/the prisoners/Michael/Bernard/Aaron/Random castaways/Mrs. Klugh-Bea/Henry/Claire
The sky turns violet, almost like a negative image, and it’s over. A shot of Henry barely registering surprise. At the camp Bernard sees something screaming down from the heavens, and pushes Claire and Aaron out of harms way just in time. It’s the hatch door (parallelely blown up again – I was hoping for Donnie Darko’s jet engine, myself.)
It’s a short time later, and the losties are picking up the mess left by the magnet. Charlie emerges from the jungle, still a little deaf. He seems surprised to find that Locke and Eko haven’t made it back yet. Is that weird? I think so... how did he get out of the Swan? Anyway, He’s certainly happy that Claire looks happy to see him.
At the Pala Ferry dock, Henry is walking Michael to the boat. Is Walt going to be dead in there? That’s what I was expecting... "I’m not happy about the arrangement we’ve made with you... but we got more than we bargained for when Walt joined us (?), so I suppose this is what’s best. When you let me go... you lived up to your word. We live up to our word too. You’re going to take this boat and follow a compass bearing of three-twenty-five. And if you do that exactly, you and your son will find rescue."
Michael doesn’t understand why the others aren’t worried about him telling the authorities all about the island. Henry tells him that he’ll never find his way back here, and, if he does decide to tell, "...people will find out what you did to get your son back."
It looks like he’s almost made Mike cry. "My friends...I was promised you wouldn’t hurt them."
"A deal’s a deal," Henry assures him.
"Who are you people?"
"We’re the good guys, Michael."
And then when Walt and his dad, during what most would have assumed was going to be a celebratory scene this season (provided they were both alive), finally are reunited, well, no one is celebrating.
Walt is happy though – Hurley seems conflicted by it, happy for his friend Walt, but... well, you know. The 'good guys' untie Hugo, ordering him to return to their camp and warn everyone there NOT to come here.
Henry them tells him, "Your friends are coming home with us."
There are great shots of Jack, Kate, Sawyer, then Henry himself, reacting to this line. Hurley looks down at Jack, who nods for him to go. Michael fires up the boat and he and Walt start to leave. Mike gives Jack a look as he moves by, (I'll be back? I'm sorry? You would have done the same thing?) and Walt sees the three of them tied up and gagged on the dock. How’s dear old dad gonna explain this one?
The others help the prisoners to their feet...and Alex totally cops a feel from Kate... full on hands around her breasts before she repositions them under her pits. It looks like the actress might even be cracking up a bit - check the DVD, I swear I saw this! Kate and Jack then share a mysterious look... is it I bet you wish you had copped that feel? An Empire Han/Leia I love you, I know moment? Hey, our plan is working out perfectly? Everything will be okay? I’m thinking it’s along the lines of everything will be okay... Sawyer is looking at the two of them as they share this look, and I think it will come up later that in this dire situation, Kate looked to Jack rather than Sawyer for strength/comfort.
The bags go back over their heads.
Charlie and Claire are sitting by Aaron’s crib, near a campfire... after some small talk, we finally get it. The Kiss.
Awww... all’s forgiven, Charlie. Prelude to the more ‘romantic’ season 3 on the way? ugh.
Now we’re suddenly in a landscape of blowing snow and ice-capped peaks (raise your hands, how many people thought this was a commercial? ...don't lie!). There are two guys in a small research station playing chess and speaking Portuguese. One of them notices a red light flashing, and they both jump up frantically. The computer reads >/ 7418880 ELECTROMAGNETIC ANOMALY DETECTED
"That’s it isn’t it? We missed it again."
Did they miss it sixty-five days or so ago? Once they’re certain it’s not a false alarm, one of them picks up the phone and makes a call. A phone rings in a darkened bedroom, and a woman’s arm reaches to pick it up. "Miss Widmore?"
The woman reaches over to turn on the light, and it illuminates the photo of Penny and Des we know from the hatch.
"I think we’ve found it."
posted by karmacomedian at 5:47 PM
