Farady as a musician and not an Astrophysicist?

Everyone is getting their one real desire but at a price. That's the part that seemed off for me until it clicked awhile ago. The flash sideways always seemed kind of bittersweet for me.

Desmond has Charles Widmore's approval but doesn't have Penny. (Although that is changing.)
Faraday originally wanted to play the piano but he doesn't have Charlotte. (Although he saw her in the museum.)
Charlie is still doing performances as Drive Shaft but he doesn't have Claire.
For Sayid, Nadia is alive but he can't have her.
Locke has a good relationship with his father and as a result is getting married but he can't walk.
Ben has Alex but has no power/ authority.

Other characters I can see what they've gained but I can't see what they've given up.

I miss the enhanced episodes.

Did anyone get the impression from this episode that Eloise somehow caused this? Or set all this in motion? She knew that Des got what he wanted most. She has somehow always known a lot about the future, and she was the one who got the six to essentially go back and put all this in motion. Could something have been in Faraday's notebook?

This episode was great, probably one of the best of the season. Looks like from here on out the episodes are really going to start ramping up.

Maybe Eloise caused the flash sideways so she could get her son back. Her reaction to Desmond made me think of someone caught in a situation that was unraveling....and she's trying to keep it together.

Maybe Eloise caused the flash sideways so she could get her son back. Her reaction to Desmond made me think of someone caught in a situation that was unraveling....and she's trying to keep it together.

That's exactly what I was thinking, like it was going to fall apart so she was panicking and not wanting them to meet.

I'm thinking more and more that Juliet will end up being Jack's ex wife and it will play out similar to the island that her and jack were sort of hitting it off then she goes for Sawyer in the sideways and thats where the bleed over with the coffee comment happens. At least that's my theory.

The time lapse with Des being knocked out and him somewhat seeing the sideways while being knocked out made me think that maybe the entire sideways is all happening during the losties blackout when the bomb first went off. Sort of just a dream that they were stuck in during them being knocked out and the events taking place with Des and Charlie relizing the other life results in them waking up and picking up where events are now on the island.

Here's what I've been thinking, though it is a bit fuzzy around the edges...

There was only one timeline until the detonation of Jughead caused it to split. Think of the letter "Y".

On one side of the split, the one we're calling the Sideways, the scale seems to be tilted toward the white/Jacob. It is indeed bittersweet as Alvin said, although that is only because we have awareness of the other timeline. If we didn't have that special knowledge, the lives of the Losties would seem mostly pretty good to us.

On the other side of the split, the scale tilts to the dark/MIB. This is the timeline we call the "real" one. The one in which flight 815 does crash. The island experiences of the Losties have been pretty awful overall, with bright spots few and far between. What we saw of their pre-crash lives in this timeline (through the flashbacks) was also rather dark and full of turmoil.

What we saw in this episode ("Happily Ever After") was a lot of the universe attempting to course correct. These two split timelines must be re-joined for balance to be restored. And that's where Desmond comes in.

I saw a comment on a Lost forum that summed it up beautifully - Desmond has to prevent it from ever happening and fix it after the fact at the same time. And he's the only one who can because the rules don't apply to him.

************

With only five episodes left, I've decided to stop watching each week and wait until Mr. Webby gets caught up. That way we can experience the end of the series together. You could say I'm joining our separate viewing timelines into one.

We are already halfway through season 3 in our watching together which means I'll probably see the series end about a month after the rest of you so I'll have to avoid this thread until then starting next Tuesday.

Here's hoping the end will be satisfying and we'll all be happy to have invested our time in watching and thinking about this show. We will know soon.

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Here's what I've been thinking, though it is a bit fuzzy around the edges...

There was only one timeline until the detonation of Jughead caused it to split. Think of the letter "Y".

On one side of the split, the one we're calling the Sideways, the scale seems to be tilted toward the white/Jacob. It is indeed bittersweet as Alvin said, although that is only because we have awareness of the other timeline. If we didn't have that special knowledge, the lives of the Losties would seem mostly pretty good to us.

On the other side of the split, the scale tilts to the dark/MIB. This is the timeline we call the "real" one. The one in which flight 815 does crash. The island experiences of the Losties have been pretty awful overall, with bright spots few and far between. What we saw of their pre-crash lives in this timeline (through the flashbacks) was also rather dark and full of turmoil.

What we saw in this episode ("Happily Ever After") was a lot of the universe attempting to course correct. These two split timelines must be re-joined for balance to be restored. And that's where Desmond comes in.

I saw a comment on a Lost forum that summed it up beautifully - Desmond has to prevent it from ever happening and fix it after the fact at the same time. And he's the only one who can because the rules don't apply to him.

************

With only five episodes left, I've decided to stop watching each week and wait until Mr. Webby gets caught up. That way we can experience the end of the series together. You could say I'm joining our separate viewing timelines into one.

We are already halfway through season 3 in our watching together which means I'll probably see the series end about a month after the rest of you so I'll have to avoid this thread until then starting next Tuesday.

Here's hoping the end will be satisfying and we'll all be happy to have invested our time in watching and thinking about this show. We will know soon.

************

I would somewhat go along these lines as well, but I think I have seen somewhere that Damon or Carlton had said that somehow the sideways and island is actually in the same world. Also everyone has always thought that the whole show was maybe a dream or thought in Hurleys head and Darlton always said it wasn't. What if the sideways is just thoughts or a flash of life that could have been, that took place during the blackout from the bomb?

I somewhat doubt my own theory but for some reason it just makes sence to me. Who knows? :confused:

I´m so freakin out...
what a series... there will be some day or week where i take all seasons on dvd and watch them without a stop...
the one about desmond was one of the greatest episodes ever, i got the creeps (or heebie-jeebies) from it f*cking AWESOME..
can´t wait for the final episode

The key sentence, I think: "What happened happened." But can it be unhappened?

The key sentence, I think: "What happened happened." But can it be unhappened?

I think the key statement was from Faraday, "I don't want to set off an atomic bomb". Desmond is going to have to go back and prevent that bomb from going off. Who will then be alive? Juliette for sure, maybe even Faraday himself if Desmond gets to him early enough.

Eloise has always been exceptional on the Island and off. She has powers and abilities and can see things none of us has seen thus far. She can work mathematical equations (think about The Lampost, the Dharma site in the US). She was a leader of the Others. She has flipped around time like Desmond has (think about the engagement ring scene in England). She appeared in a picture with the monk who "fired" Desmond when Desmond was a monk-in-training. That relationship was never explained, though she and the monk looked like sister and brother. She has popped up with Desmond in more places than anyone else.

Eloise is as key to the time business as Desmond. They have to work together or work against one another, but either way, they have a conjoined role in the outcome of the Island. Her manner with Desmond in the flash sideways was very reminiscent of her manner with Desmond in the engagement ring flash back where he first met her and she told him he was never going to give Penny the ring. She was all knowing and rudely insistent with him then, too.

That Eloise would like to keep her son alive and undo her having murdered him is key. I suspect she'll do anything to undo THAT.

Desmond is key, was key, always will be key. Penny is the constant. She was and always will be.

I like Alvin's theory about the characters having and not having, getting something and sacrificing something.

I like that Daniel and Penny know one another in their sideways lives.

I like the picture in Widmore's office, a large painting of a scale with a black stone and a white stone. Back in the day, it was the large painting in Widmore's office in Desmond's first flashback that tipped me to his involvement with the Island. That was the first clue for me about him, other than the fact that he was in the script to begin with. The other, first large painting was of a polar bear on a tropical island with NAMASTE written backwards across the top. With the new sideways flash painting of the scale and the black and white stones, it seems Widmore is aware of the Island scales and all that they portend.

More later....