Let me start off by saying that if Team Darlton does NOT end Lost with Desmond and Penny together, I will riot. I will grab a folding chair and smash it through something and encourage everyone around me to do the same.

Just sayin’.

I’ve said that from the start of this season, particularly after seeing Des on the plane next to Jack and no Penny in sight and Penny being on Flash Forward and all. But last night gave me hope that Lindelof & Cuse may have recognized that they could wrap up the show in almost any way they want, but DON’T FRAK WITH DESMOND AND PENNY.

So what more could a girl have possibly wanted than last night’s episode? I didn’t think it would be possible for this show to get better, but it did. As the Bad Robot sig came on the screen, I put my hand to my chest and said, simply, “That was SO good.”

And because this episode was about Desmond, everything began bleeding together and I don’t even have to separate the off-island and on-island action.

An interesting thing I noticed last night, though, was that although I knew – just knew – that Desmond’s boss would be Widmore, Widmore’s wife would be Eloise and their son would be Faraday, it didn’t spoil a thing for me. One of the things I’ve always loved about Lost is that I’ve been almost incapable of guessing who someone was before they showed the person. They’re just that good.

But given that it was Desmond, it made perfect sense that he’d be working for Widmore. And Eloise and Daniel were, after all, his actual wife and son, so those were not much of a stretch.

So what did we learn last night? So very much.

This off-island action is, indeed, the result of Juliet setting off the bomb. It did indeed work. In a way. The action split off from the original timeline. It exists not in place of the original timeline, but alongside it. If that were not the case, the two timelines could not bleed together as they have for Charlie, Desmond and Daniel.

And, of course, the key to the bleed-through is love. Pure, deep, beautiful. Love that transcends the bounds of time, space and parallel dimensions. Charlie will always love Claire. Desmond will always love Penny. Daniel will always love Charlotte. Perhaps Jin and Sun will see the bleed-through when Sun’s life is on the line – she was shot, remember? And who will spark the bleed-through for Kate? Sawyer or Jack?

The problem is, Charlie and Daniel are dead in the original timeline. So they’re not there to feel the bleed-through from the other side. Desmond is the only one of the three who’s still alive.

So riddle me this: How does Eloise know what’s up? And does Widmore? Being that he’s from the island (please let us get a Widmore-centric episode??????), it’s quite possible. Probable, in fact. But we only know that Eloise knows for sure. Perhaps he sent Desmond to tell her the news about Charlie specifically because he wanted Eloise to determine if he were “ready” yet to merge the two timelines?

Aha! Is that what he needs to be ready to do? To merge? Eloise said he wasn’t “ready” yet – ready for what? He’s ready back in our original timeline. I think he is so accepting of what he has to do and the potential sacrifice he needs to make because he knows that no matter what, no matter how time and reality separates them, he and Penny WILL make their way back to one another.

Penny, remember, is Desmond’s constant (another one of the best episodes ever of this show). And Desmond is Daniel’s constant, which is why Daniel sought him out. Daniel doesn’t know that Des is his constant (though that’s what I thought he was going to show Desmond in his journal), but on some level, he must.

I have to say, the episode didn’t answer any questions at all about what the island is or who Jacob and the MiB are, but it doesn’t matter. It addressed so many other things on so many levels.

The reason all our Losties are encountering one another in the alternate timeline is because, just as they were in the original, they were meant to come together. They were meant to save the world. And each other.

I still can’t help but wonder, as I always do, where fate ends and free will begins. Desmond tells Charlie, “You always have a choice.” But their actions last night seem to belie that.

Are we all thrust along a path in our lives that may meander and take different routes but still arrive at the same destination?

Remember, no matter what Charlie did in the original timeline, he was destined to die. And he did. But he did it saving others. He did it out of love.

In our alternate timeline, Charlie isn’t in danger of being killed; he just continually takes risks that would result in his being killed, in hopes of a glimpse of this other reality where the love of his life is his. He did it for love.