For whatever reason, Desmond has always been the harbinger of big paradigm shifts in the show.  First, it was the introduction of the Hatch.  Then, it was the acknowledgment that something more-than-natural was happening with the Island.  Then it was having one’s consciousness travel through time.  Now, Desmond takes what might be the show’s final step in shattering the remaining paradigm: the alternate universe that came into existence at the beginning of Season Six.

After being gone almost all season, Desmond finally wakes up on the Island.  Upon realizing where he is, the first thing he tries to do is beat Widmore to death with whatever happens to be handy (in this case, his own IV stand).  Desmond is soon restrained after that brief bout of epic fan-service, and then Zoe, the lovechild of Liz Lemon and President Roslin, is ordered by Widmore to power up the latest of the show’s freaky experiments, because apparently, Desmond is either a badass or a freak who can survive massive electromagnetic events.  Oh, and somewhere in there, a redshirt gets horribly killed due to professional negligence.   Team morale among Widmore’s crew can’t possibly be very high about now.

Desmond is zapped with the big ol’ DHARMA-magnet, as is his lot in life, and his brain gets sent across the dimensional barrier to his new life as Widmore’s right-hand man and BFF.  This show pulls a lot of freaky shit, but few things freaked me out more than seeing Widmore and Desmond laugh and smile and hug each other.  Damn, that flash-sideways world really is topsy-turvy!  Hell, Desmond even finally gets to try some of the 60-year MacCutcheon, which officially means I will be forever jealous of him.

The main narrative is actually remarkably straightforward, though still very Lost-ish.  The entire episode, barring the bookends, takes place in a single, contiguous story within the new universe, not unlike Richard’s episode-spanning flashback in “Ab Aeterno” a couple weeks back.  That’s not to say that the story itself doesn’t dig pretty deep into the very fundamental core of the show’s mythology, though, because by the end, something major has definitely happened (even if the viewers aren’t 100% sure what that is, yet).

Charles Widmore and Eloise Hawking are still together, and their marriage seems at least somewhat stable.  One wonders whether they met on the Island in this timeline, or whether they were ever there at all.  Their son, Daniel, has fulfilled his dream of becoming a musician instead of going down the path of a psychicist—but that’s okay, because in a pinch, it seems that his brain in the original universe can still contact him and convey what he knows.

The real trick to contacting the other universe, though, seems to be the near-death experience: both a suicidal Charlie and a drowning Desmond see visions of their other lives—as they relate to Claire and Penny, respectively—when death is on the line.  The electromagnetic goodness of an MRI seems to give Desmond an even fuller, clearer vision, though, and one that drives him understandably loopy as it forces him to confront the happiness he fought so hard to win in the original timeline, compared to his soulless, workaday complacency working for Widmore.

There’s still some ambiguity to what actually triggers the flashes to the original timeline.  Daniel apparently has one just from seeing Charlotte from a distance, but Sawyer and Kate don’t seem affected when they run into each other multiple times, and Jin and Sun seem no worse for the wear (well, on that front; last we see them, they’re both pretty screwed, actually).

It’s upon meeting the flash-sideways version of Penelope in the flesh that things really finally gel together.  Both she and Desmond seem to recognize each other in that weird, indefinable way, and upon touching her, Desmond blacks out and his brain goes back to the Island.  At that point, he cheerfully agrees (or seems to agree) to help Widmore, and Zoe calls bullshit.   Then Sayid shows up, performs some neck-snapping awesomeness, and tells Desmond to follow him, instead—to which also Desmond cheerfully seems to agree.  By this point, Desmond seems to “know” something, and appears keen on acting on it.

Back in the flash-sideways universe, Desmond comes to, sets up a hot, late-night date with Penny, and then asks Minkowski (the best driver in the world) for the Oceanic 815 manifest, because he needs to “show them something.”  Ominous!  He’s like a serial killer, and we, the viewers, already have preemptive Stockholm Syndrome.

The very integrity of the new universe is called into question.  Daniel (still adorable and very much not dead) somehow recognizes that reality, as he knows it, exists mostly just as a side-effect of his having done something else—naming, setting off a nuke (which was really all Juliet, but hey, he gets credit for the idea).  Charlie also makes a statement to the effect of none of “this” mattering, as if he somehow knows that whatever was really supposed to be going on was already doing so someplace else.

Eloise, who already seemed to be acting like a temporal policewoman, appears to have been upgraded to transdimensional policewoman, which is kind of badass and really kind of scary.  If she’s not a member of the Others in the new universe, what is she?   How does she know all this stuff?  Does she exist outside the normal flow of events?

In the end, it’s made pretty clear that the flash-sideways universe has something major going on with itself, and the years-long epic of the original timeline is coming to a head, as well.  Now we just need Lapidus and Miles to get their rocket launchers and their escape helicopter, and I think we’ll be all set.