A lot to chew on this week. Let’s get Lost.

I mentioned last week that I had a sneaking suspicion Desmond was the “package” Widmore ordered, when he described it as a “who” and not a “what.” After all, Henry Ian Cusick has been listed prominently in the credits since the Season 6 opener, meaning the producers weren’t going to waste our intrepid time traveler on a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo conversation with Jack. So, it was just a matter of time before Dezzie popped up, and as soon as he arrived at the tail end of last week’s episode, I knew we were in for a satisfying hour. Desmond’s episodes are always in lock-step with Locke’s; they’re always heady with the mythological beats, and they always plumb the emotional depths that are so core to this tale.

Therefore, “Happily Ever After” serves as a fitting ending to the themes posed in Desmond’s last great story, one of the series’ best hours – Season 4′s “The Constant.” In that one, we followed Desmond on his journey through time, a pilgrimage kick-started when he turned the fail-safe key in the hatch and sucked in countless volts of electromagnetic energy, a concentrated blast of power that should have killed him but only served to illustrate Eloise Hawking’s assertion that Desmond is both special and key to the island’s mysteries. The event sent his consciousness on a warped trip through his life, a journey in which he was fully cognizant of the fate that would befall him later on. It was a brave episode that did a great job of defining “Lost”’s version of time travel; it’s not so much a physical journey, but one rooted in the mind. And it made it crystal clear that Desmond is special, as was memorably demonstrated in the emotionally cathartic moment when Desmond reached across space and time to cold call his lucky Penny on Christmas Eve and pledged his undying love, thereby planting the seeds that would grow into his rescue and his reunion with his beloved.

It’s worth noting that in Homer’s “Odyssey,” the hero follows a world-spanning journey across the sea in pursuit of his beloved Penelope. I’ve always said that at its core, “Lost” is about these characters and is ultimately a story about love. Penny and Desmond’s bond is the key to it all, and based on what was revealed in this episode, this could be the uniting force needed to stave off whatever dire fate the Man in Black has planned for the world. More on that in a moment.

So, “Happily Ever After” begins with Desmond waking in Charles Widmore’s makeshift science lab, safely ensconced on Hydra Island. As we have six episodes left until the finale, Charles doesn’t dance around facts; he comes right out and says that Desmond was kidnapped from his hospital bed (where we last saw him after taking a bullet from Ben when the bug-eyed bastard went gunning for Penny to even the score with Charles). Desmond is told that he is special, having been the only person to survive a massive blast of electromagnetic energy, and that it would be easier for Charles to show Desmond where he fits in the grand plan, rather than simply telling him about it.

So Charles Xavier…errr Widmore…marches his makeshift X-Man over to the science lab to show him a little experiment he and the evil Tina Fey have whipped up. But before Desmond can chase the caged white rabbit down whatever wormhole its headed, we get a quick demonstration of the defunct DHARMA tech. With one red-shirt technician fried, Widmore decides the hell with the bunny and simply throws Desmond in the box to see what happens. After all, it was only a few hours ago that Smokey was sniffing around the sonic fence threatening imminent war, so there isn’t much time to waste.

And that’s when Desmond gets a second blast from the past. Only, where the first time Desmond was sent spiraling backwards to the key moments in his life (with his contemporary consciousness aiming to change the past to avoid the island and keep Penny in his sights), this time Desmond is sent to the alternate timeline. During the course of his trip, we get some fairly conclusive evidence that these sideways trips have not been a waste of time, they do have meaning, and they might in fact be the key to the happy ending that the Lostralians deserve. I’ll explain more as I continue.

We open on Desmond at LAX. He has a very quick run-in with Hurley, who points Desmond in the direction of the luggage carousel and a chance meeting with the very-preggo Claire. In that meeting, we get yet another deviation from the original timeline. Way back when we first learned of Claire’s backstory, we found that in a consultation with a sham psychic, Claire was informed that she was having a boy and that she could be the only one to raise her child. The psychic seemed convinced that if she didn’t, dire things would occur. In the alternate timeline, Claire claims that she doesn’t know the sex of the baby, although in one of his first cases of deja vu, Desmond seems fairly convinced that she should expect a boy. These little flashes would continue.

Desmond is met at the gate by a helpful limousine driver, George Minkowski (Fisher Stevens), and once again a face from the past has been recast. George was the dude on the freighter who Desmond and Michael confronted and soon learned was “unstuck in time” in Season 4. He had been the radio operator, and when they encountered him, his brain was fried, apparently a result of getting too close to the island without following the precise coordinates required to get there. He shared a similar fate with Faraday’s research assistant and, ultimately, the same time travel that Desmond survived ended up frying Minkowski’s brain. But in this alternate timeline, George is “Driving Mr. Dezzie” on a meeting with his boss, the surprisingly chummy Charles Widmore.

In Widmore’s office, we learn that Desmond and Charles are on great terms, as Penny has never entered Desmond’s life. Desmond Hume is Charles’ right-hand man, getting him whatever he needs, which at the moment includes bailing out the drug-addled Driveshaft founder, Charlie Pace, who is currently locked up with the LAPD after his unfortunate balloon mishap aboard Flight 815. While in Widmore’s office, Desmond stares longingly at a very familiar sailboat, and we spy a curious painting of scales balancing white and black rocks. This might be an alternate version of events, but elements continue to bleed through both times.

After Desmond picks up Charlie, the two have an interesting conversation over drinks, during which Charlie reveals the first hint that these two timelines we have been following are indeed completely connected. There have been some haters on the Internet who feel all this sideways stuff has been a colossal waste of time, simply employed by the writers to mark time as they tick off the minutes towards the finale, but I’ve always felt there was a purpose. Sure, it’s been a slow burn, but as we learned in this episode, it’s also been necessary, and finally we’re beginning to see the connective tissue. And Charlie’s tale of his final, fleeting moments on Earth, when he saw the other side and with it, true love, only helps illustrate my theory. This whole series has been about the random interconnectivity between people; the strange ties that bind us. No matter which way the die is cast, there are certain unavoidable connections that will come into play one way or another. Charlie has never met Claire in this life, but for one blissful moment he knew her completely; he felt her deeply and he loved her always. And it’s that haunting passage that transports Desmond further down the rabbit hole.

And the wheel of time rotates once again, placing Desmond in the similar circumstance of helplessly watching Charlie drown. The moment when Charlie turns his head, ready to accept his fate while pressing his palm against the glass, finally shatters the tenuous bond between both worlds. In that instant, Desmond sees through to the other side. “Not Penny’s Boat.” And with that flash, he is now on a mission to find the true love he’s never known.

At the staging grounds for Widmore’s party, Desmond seeks out Widmore’s wife, looking to give her the bad news that Driveshaft won’t be delivered in time for her big event. We learned early on that Driveshaft was booked to play alongside Widmore’s musician son. Knowing that Faraday is the son of Charles and Eloise Hawking, it appears in this life he has followed his pursuits as a young pianist (shades of Jack’s son) and has never chased his temporal dreams.

This meeting with Eloise was key because it neatly mimicked a scene in “The Constant.” In that episode, Desmond met Eloise, who at the time appeared to be the kindly proprietor of a jewelry shop. When she correctly intuited that Desmond was about to take actions that would change his time stream, she stepped out of her role and acted the part of cosmic crossing guard, telling him exactly what he could and could not do. That moment is repeated here when Desmond attempts to track down Penny Milton’s identity, thereby forging a connection between the two disparate timelines. And in that moment, Eloise drops her guard and gives Desmond the slightest peek behind the curtain. She makes it clear that he is not ready to make that connection, nor meet that woman. Not in this life, anyway.

But lurking out there is Desmond’s Constant, the musician Daniel Faraday, who drops another bomb. He tells Desmond a tale of a dream about a woman with whom he is absolutely obsessed: a very familiar red-headed museum employee (Charlotte). Though he barely knows her, he feels a burning desire to be with her. And that love creates another connection to another world, waking Daniel in the middle of the night with complex theories that he scribbles down, without any inkling as to how his brain could arrive at something it takes a physicist a lifetime to formulate. For the third straight time, we see that love finds its way.

And though he is not supposed to muck with these disparate timelines, Desmond is influenced by Daniel and does indeed find his fair maiden, running up the same steps that once upon a time, in another life, Desmond climbed to share a chance meeting with Jack Shepherd. A meeting that Desmond concluded with the prophetic salutation, “See you in another life, brother.”

It is Penny’s touch that sends Desmond back to Hydra Island, seemingly cognizant of what has happened to him. Though he was only out for a few seconds, he has lived another lifetime. And in that other lifetime, he directs George to get the Flight 815 manifest, as he has something to show the other passengers. So, while Widmore might believe Desmond is the key to bottling the dark genie and saving the world, Desmond also now holds the key in both timelines to unite the two. To bridge the gap.

My feeling is that ultimately one of these timelines will end (or will be “bottled”) while the other will continue as the sole remaining constant timeline. Desmond will help Widmore end one of them, because in this alternate sideways universe, we have now been given a glimpse of the happy endings to come.

See you next week for Episode 6.12, “Everybody Loves Hugo.”