Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: B+ | 746 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
By Cindy McLennan | Season 5 | Episode 3 | Aired on 2009.01.28
On their boat, Desmond tries to make small talk with Penny about whether their son finally ate breakfast, but her every word is barbed. "He gave me a bit of a fight, but he listens in the end. Unlike his father." The kid's two, so I can't really excuse her temper as being induced by post-partum hormonal flux. It's just... post-matrimonium. You know what I'm saying. She's totally forgotten what a special, unique snowflake our Des is. It's all right, though. She'll come around. She wants to know why Desmond just remembered two days ago that -- while they were still on the island three years prior -- Daniel told him to find his mother at Oxford. Des explains that he doesn't understand how any of this works any better than she does. He just knows that it happened -- that Daniel told Des he was the only one who could save them, and that he had to go to Oxford to find Daniel's mum. Des says he knows how insane this sounds, but I don't think Penny does, because seriously, can you imagine your spouse or S.O. telling you this, without you whisking him or her away to the nearest mental health practitioner, and possibly begging the doctor for an involuntary psychiatric hold? Penny's sitting at the head of their bed. Desmond walks to her and moves in close. "I'll be back by dark and then I'm done. Forever. I promise." When Penny just looks at him, he gives her a sweet kiss and heads towards their bedroom door. After a beat, Penny asks him to promise her that he'll never go back to "that island" again. Desmond scoffs, "Come oan, get aff! Ye aff yer heid?" or possibly, "Pfffft. Why in God's name would I want to go back there?" He means it when he says it, and walks out with one last look at his love, but he never does make that promise in any vernacular.