What I’m Watching: Lost

Lost: Season 6, Episode 11 “Happily Ever After” (B)

I’m not entirely thrilled about episodes spending the entire time either in the past or in the newly created universe. What’s always been most compelling about this show is what’s happening on the island and the fun reveals that occur in either the past, the future, or the sideways universe. Two weeks ago the whole of the episode was devoted to Richard’s back story in the 1800s, and while it does shed some light on his character, it’s frustrating not to have much actually happen in terms of story progression. What does make it worthwhile, however, is the now firmly established sense that this alternate universe is connected to the world we’ve known all along, and the time-defying constant Desmond is the key to uniting everything. I’m not sure what exactly he’s planning to tell the passengers of Oceanic Flight 815, but I’m excited. It was cool to see him glimpse flashes of Charlie with “not Penny’s boat” written on his hand, and good to see him being proactive about it. The flash-sideways versions of Eloise and Daniel were also quite interesting. Desmond seems to have fallen into some sort of daze back on the island, and now he’s running around the jungle with the most questionably stable castaway of all, Sayid. It is telling that Sayid let Zoe live, and a hopeful sign that maybe he’s not all evil. This is all good and interesting, but let’s get back to everyone, shall we? Locke didn’t even appear once in this episode.