Live-blogging of our favorite show about our favorite island of mystery* will commence shortly.

* and our favorite demigods of mystery and our favorite alternate realities of mystery and our favorite unstuck-in-time drugged packages of mystery and our favorite . . . (ab aeterno ad infinitum)

***** Major Spoilers Below the Fold *****

Someone wakes up. It's Des. He's being bothered by Zoe, the geophysicist (who is, also, evidently, a medical doctor of some sort. Or able to give an IV at least. People on this show are so flexible). He is wondering where he is, and where Penny is.

Widmore walks in and lets him know he's not going to see Pennyand that he was shot by Benjamin Linus. Widmore tells him that Penny and Charlie are "perfectly safe". and explains that he's brought Desmond back to the island. Des is about to go nuts, because his face is twitching. And so he decks Widmore with his IV stand.

Frankly, Mr. Widmore, as soon as I saw that twitch I would have backed up about ten paces.

Desmond screams in frustration as Widmore commands his group of goons to get some test ready. Jin is confused, as he and Zoe walk outside of some large warehouse structure, and then into it. It's full of more Widmore's goons. Evidently this is a large generating station. They try to start it up, but there's a faulty contact. And a white rabbit named "Angstrom". Cool.

A goon walks out to a large coil to check for a fault or something. While he does that, another not-too-bright goon turns on the power, frying goon number 1. Even with everyone yelling at him "NO! Don't turn it on!!"

Eerie music, eerie logo, commercial . . .

And, no, I'm not going to buy an iPad, no matter how many times you show me how cool it is, Apple.

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

They wheel the dead goon out. He is seriously fried. Desmond starts to struggle, because they strap him into the seat between the two large coils where said goon met his demise. Widmore assures him that he will be fine. He also tells him he's going to be asked to make a sacrifice.

"What the [expletive deleted] do you know about sacrifice?"

Widmore explains that his son died on this island (Faraday?) and if Desmond doesn't help him his wife and son will be gone forever. Desmond completely destroys the flimsy wooden chair he's strapped to after Widmore leaves. But he can't get out.

Widmore commands them to turn the fryer-coils on, as Jin protests. They turn them on and, as Desmond kicks against the door, Widmore kicks the device into overdrive and Desmond is now . . .

floating in the clouds. . .

Oh wait, not really. It just looked that way. He's in an airport (LAX), as Hurley walks by and tells him their bags are on carousel four. Back in the alternate reality, I suppose. Des helps Claire get her bags. "Boy or guhl?" Personal, aren't we? Claire doesn't know what it is.

He asks Claire if she needs a ride, but she's good, and probably kind of creeped out at the Scot hitting on the pregnant woman. "A boy," he tells her. "It's a boy" and he walks off to meet "George", who is holding the Hume sign. I recognize George as the guy on Widmore's boat who got unstuck in time and died.

Desmond wants to be taken to "the office". He's a big shot now, evidently. George also surreptitiously asks him if he's looking for "some company", i.e., a girl, because he's not wearing a wedding band. Desmond declines.

He arrives at the office and smiles at Charles Widmore, like he's an old friend. They embrace and Des seems really happy to see him.

***** Commercial *****
Desmond admires a model sailing ship as Widmore complains to someone on the phone. Widmore mentions that his son is a musician. Des is aware of that. Widmore is stressed out because the bass player of the band he had hired to play an event with his son, DriveShaft, has overdosed and got himself arrested. He needs Des to fix things.

Widmore tells Des how blessed Des is, because he's not married or otherwise attached. Widmore also gives Des a glass of his 60 year old scotch.

Desmond bails out Charlie, but Charlie's having none of this and just walks right out into traffic like he doesn't care if he lives or dies. Des chases him into a bar, where Charlie begins working on getting sloshed. Charlie begins taunting Des as Widmore's chief lackey. He calls him "perky".

Charlie lets Des know that he (Des) is not happy, and asks him if he's ever been in spectacular, consciousness altering love. Charlie says he's seen it, on the flight back from Sydney. He refers to Kate, in handcuffs (and for a moment I'm scared to death that Evangeline Lily/Kate is his example of spectacular, consciousness altering love - but thankfully no). He mentions that Kate's cop knew Charlie was "holding", and tells how he tried to get rid of this stash of heroin in the bathroom, and when they hit turbulence, he choked on the bag. As he was going into the abyss, he saw a woman who must have been Claire. They were together.

"Just as I'm about to be engulfed by it, I open my eyes and this sodding idiot [Jack - hah] asks me if I'm OK."

Charlie has seen something real. He's seen the truth. Desmond tells him he has a choice, keep drinking and ruin his musical career. Or go with him and luxuriate in a five star hotel.

"It doesn't really seem like a choice."

"There's always a choice brothah."

They drive along, as "You all everybody" plays on the radio. It's a horrific song. "The beginning of everything great," says Charlie, ruefully.

Charlie continues to harangue Desmond about how Desmond's not really happy. Charlie offers to show him so and grabs the wheel, going right over the seawall and sinking them into the marina.

Underwater, Desmond works to let Charlie out, but can't release him. He surfaces for air, then swims down to try again. He can't get the door open, as Charlie calmly presses his palm against the window. Desmond gets an amazing flashback of "Not Penny's Boat". Desmond pulls Charlie to the surface, although he's not breathing. I wonder if he's dead.

Awesome scene . . .

***** Commercial *****

A doctor checks Desmond out. When he mentions needing to find the man he was brought here with she asks him if he's seen any hallucinations, his cat scan is inconclusive, and he's going to get an MRI.

He's about to go into the MRI machine, and is being questioned by the orderly. They give him a panic button to press if he needs to. Thirty minutes. The dramatic music mounts, and in he goes.

I paused it to look at the numbers on the MRI machine, which are briefly featured. They mean nothing that I can tell: E1, A37.215 C .45.

"OK, here we go." says the orderly.

Desmond again sees the flashbacks. Penny. Charlie. Des and Penny kissing. Baby Charlie. Then they disappear, and Desmond begins frantically pressing the panic button.

"I need to find the man I came in with!"

He demands to a nurse to know where Charlie Pace was. She refuses, so he hits up Jack.

"I wonder if you can help me brothah"

And just then, there he is (Charlie) running down the hallway in his hospital gown. Through the double doors and down some stairs. Out into the hall now.

Desmond finally finds him and asks him why he wanted to kill him. Des demands to see his hands.

"Who's Penny?"

"You felt it, didn't you?" Charlie grins. "All that matters is that we felt it."

When Desmond protests, Charlie tells him "If I were you, I'd stop worrying about me, and start looking for Penny."

***** Commercial *****

Widmore demands to know why Desmond let Charlie go. Widmore seems really miffed, and is not satisfied at Desmond's effort, even though Des almost died in the process.

"It's just an [expletive deleted] concert."

"Why don't you tell Mrs. Widmore that it's just an [expletive deleted] concert!"

George, who appears to be Desmond's Virgil in this alternate-reality twilight-zone hades) drops Desmond off at the Widmore mansion, and wishes Desmond "good luck"

Desmond walks up to Mrs. Widmore. She's a piece of work (and the same Ellie we've come to know and loathe) and a terror to the servants.

Desmond tries to explain that the band DriveShaft won't be able to perform alongside her son. Contrary to Widmore's prediction, she's cool with it. "Don't worry about it. I'm sure my son will understand."

OK, that was easy.

"What happened, happened." she remarks.

Desmond walks by some of the Widmore men and hears Penny's name being read. He wants to look at the invitee list but Ellie won't let him. "I want you to stop."

"Stop what?"

"Someone has clearly affected the way you see things. This is a serious problem. It is, in fact, a violation. Whatever it is you think you're looking for, you need to stop looking for it!"

She tells him that he shouldn't be looking for anything. He's got a perfect life. Plus he has what he's always wanted: Widmore's approval.

Do you suppose this perfect life has been engineered by Widmore in this alternate reality? Just wondering.

Goerge lets him back in the car as Desmond calls for some alcohol and tells him to "just drive."

Daniel Widmore comes to the window and tells Desmond that they need to talk.

He's Faraday, by the way.

***** Commercial *****

Faraday/Widmore and Desmond talk.

"Do you believe in love at first sight, Mr. Hume?"

Daniel explains how she saw this girl working here a few weeks ago. He speaks rapturously of her. Charlotte, I wonder? I was too busy live-blogging to catch much from the description. If it's her, I'd tell him to stay away, because the tramp only knew Sawyer for about ten minutes before boinking him. Daniel explains that that same night after he saw the woman, he woke up and wrote out this amazing quantum mechanics formula, which is strange, since he's just a musician and not a physicist.

The equation has to do with releasing a huge amount of energy, like setting off a nuclear bomb.

"What if all of this wasn't supposed to be our life? What if we had some other life, but for some reason we changed things. I don't want to set off a nuclear bomb, Mr. Hume . . . I think I already did."

Oooo-kaaayyy.

"Why did you ask my mother about a woman named Penny? It happened to you too, didn't it? You felt it."

"I don't know what I felt."

"Yes, you do. You felt love."

"That's impossible, because I don't know anything about this woman. I don't know if she even exists?"

"She's my half-sister, and I can tell you when and where you can find her." Boom.

Desmond walks into a football stadium, the same one Jack was working out at in the Man Of Science/Man of Faith episode. Penny is running the stairs. It's dark and she's all alone, so I wonder why she isn't a bit weirded out by the intense Scotsman who walks right up to her.

"Hello, I'm Desmond."

She smiles confusedly. "Uh. hi."

Island reality: Desmond wakes up in the electric coil room. He's been out just a few seconds.

Widmore apologizes, but Desomond's talent is vital to the mission. Widmore begins to explain but Desmond tells him it's OK, he understands. He's ready to help Widmore.

"When do we start."

Dramatic music!

As they walk back, Zoe tries to figure out what's changed for Desmond. She figures his brain is just fried. He's certainly acting that way.

Just then Sayid walks up and kills everyone but Zoe (and Desmond) by snapping some necks. He lets Zoe run off and takes a remarkably compliant and non-freaked-out Desmond with him.

Flash - now we're back at the stadium and Penny helps a just-fainted Desmond back up.

He asks her out for a coffee. Again, strange, intense, fainting Scotsman and she seems ok with this. She'll meet him in an hour. She laughs as she walks off.

Desmond gets back into his limo. Georgs asks if he found what he was looking for. Desmond tells him yes, and tells him to head for the coffee shop.

He also asks George to get him the manifest from flight 815.

"Sure I can. Can I ask you what you want it for?"

SpaceyDes: "I just need to show them something."

Previews. Hurley takes some leadership. And talks to more dead people.

BAD WOBOT!!!