“I must have quite an effect on you.”

So after sitting with it overnight, I have reversed my stance from 2 weeks ago – last night’s Lost was the best of the season (so far). The only thing that was missing was Desmond saying “Cha-lee;” he only called him Mr. Pace, and that was slightly disappointing.

But, holy crap, everything else was fantastic. It’s like Darlton jumped into my head and wrote an episode that featured almost all of my favorite Lost characters: Desmond, Penny, Widmore, Faraday, Sayid (though briefly), Jin, Eloise Hawking, and Charlie. The only ones missing were Juliet, Ben and Sawyer. (And maybe Richard and Sun, but they don’t rank nearly as high as the others.) By the by, I think Charlie is the only character in any medium that I have ever encountered that my love for has grown exponentially after his death. I hated that little hobbit until the last two episodes of season 3, but I find that I remember Charlie fondly and love seeing him when he returns.

Yet another eye-shot to open the ep, this time it’s Desmond’s. Interesting that it wasn’t a sudden eye-open, as I think all of the other ones have been; it was slow and gradual. Don’t know if that means anything, it just struck me as odd.

Widmore actually seems contrite when talking to Desmond on the Island. This morning, I find my feet firmly in the “Widmore is a misunderstood good guy” camp.

The rabbit in the cage in the Hydra station: just a callback to rabbits of Lost yesteryear?

“Once this is over, I'm going to ask you to make a sacrifice.” – Widmore. I do hope that this sacrifice has nothing to do with Penny or little Charlie. I’m thinking however Lost ends, there will be tears, but Desmond has to have his real ‘happily ever after’ right?

The chair in the room reminded me of “Jacob’s” chair from the cabin. (And I put Jacob in quotes because I don’t think that that was ever Jacob’s cabin because I’m convinced that Ben has been played by MIB for a long time and Jacob’s cabin was a major part of this con.) And the room itself, when activated, reminded me A LOT of Dr. Manhattan from ‘Watchmen.’

Desmond has 2 his mirror shots: the first is at the airport when he’s looking at the arrivals chart and the second is in the door of the courthouse.

Minkowski! As always, I love seeing these old characters. It is too bad that (I think) Mr. Eko won’t be popping up. I never really loved the character like many others seemed to, but it would be nice to see him again.

In Widmore’s office, there was a painting of a scale on the wall. Another little joke planted by MIB? (There was also a boat that looked like the ‘Elizabeth’ on the wall.) And of course he’s drinking MacCutcheon. And that was a nice mirror for the last scene of Des and Widmore in Widmore’s office when he refused to give Des the whiskey.

“I saw the truth” - Charlie to Desmond during his speech about Claire and love. And it comes back to love again (for Faraday too). You can have everything you’ve ever wanted in the world, but if you don’t have that love, you aren’t complete. There will always be something missing for Sideways Charlie and Faraday, and this is the difference that Jacob has been arguing for. Wouldn’t you rather be dead having known love than alive with all the material possessions you could ever want, but with no possibility of ever being truly whole? As Desmond said last night (echoing many others throughout the season), “There’s always a choice, brutha.”

I have not been able to get “You All, Everybody” out of my head since last night.

The scene in the car gave me chills. From Charlie’s crazed look when he grabbed the wheel to my realization that it was the same marina where Des was shot by Ben to the “reenactment” of NOT PENNY’S BOAT, I was mesmerized by that scene.

“This doesn't matter. None of this matters. All that matters is that we felt it.” - Charlie

So do they all have to die (or choose to die) in the Sideways world to set things right? Faraday (seemingly) did not have a near death moment when he had his crossover to the real world, but Juliet did see herself with Sawyer having coffee right before she died.

Hawking’s reaction to meeting Desmond was the opposite of a poker face.

Penny’s name on the guest list was Penny Milton. Is this a ‘Paradise Lost’ reference? (John Milton wrote PL.)

Three quotes from the enigmatic Eloise:
“What happened, happened.”
“You've managed to attain the thing you wanted more than anything”
“You’re not ready yet Desmond.”

Why does Hawking always know what’s what? Is she on the side of the dark or is she just selfish because her son dies in the real timeline? Could she be part of MIB’s plan and thus has full memories of both timelines? Maybe she is a guardian of this timeline, placed there by MIB to make sure that no one tries to change anything and as her reward, her son lives.

As much as I liked seeing Minkowski, seeing Faraday again (after being teased with the back of his head) was even better. His discussion of love at first sight and seeing Charlotte eating a chocolate bar made me smile.

Two choice quotes from Daniel Faraday (or Widmore, I suppose):
“And that’s when things got weird.”
“I don’t want to set off a nuclear bomb, Mr. Hume. I think I already did”

And, of course, the high-point of the episode for me was the “reunion” of Desmond and Penny. Most anytime those two share a screen, my tear ducts share tears with my eyeballs and this encounter did not disappoint. Reuniting at the stadium where they said goodbye before Desmond left on a boat trip (and where Des first met Jack), Sonya Walger showed in a few minutes how utterly wasted she is on FlashForward (and those commercials for FF annoyed me and made me glad that I stopped watching). Penny probably said it best herself: “I must have quite an effect on you.” Um, yes.

When Des went back into the limo after meeting with Penny, I was convinced that Hawking was going to be there. When she wasn’t, I was convinced that Minkowski was going to kill him. When he didn’t, I heaved a sigh of relief.

So is SidewaysWidmore pushing Des towards the true timeline by sending him to take care of Charlie (more synergy from the Island world!) or is he pushing him toward MIB’s ultimate goal because he sent him to Hawking, who clearly wears the pants in that (every) relationship?

I love Jacob (and I love the Man in Black too), but what this episode helped reinforce is that I love these characters most of all. When something as simple as a handshake between “strangers” can give me goosebumps, I think that the show is doing something very, very right. While the show may one day be able to be described (in the most simple terms possible) as the end of a long war between good and evil for the fate of humanity, the reason it will be remembered and rewatched will be because of all of these characters (even Kate!).

Theory of the week: Maybe Jughead was never meant to kill the castaways and reset time as they thought – maybe it was the release of energy that was important, and that energy was what MIB needed to “rewrite” the world. MIB knows the deepest desires of the castaways (because as the smoke monster, he can scan them) and gave them what they wanted so that they could go on living unaware of the truth. I’m guessing that there is a point of no return, after which the Sideways world cannot be undone. After they pass that point, MIB will win. Desmond, as ever, is special. He is there to end the Sideways before they reach that point.

Oh, and huzzah! the Sideways world is not an epilogue in advance. I never thought it was, and I’m glad that it definitely isn’t.