Episode Report Card Daniel: C | 646 USERS: B- YOU GRADE IT It's Time To Switch To Whisky, We've Been Drinking Beer All Night
By Daniel | Season 3 | Episode 8 | Aired on 2007.02.14
We're back from commercial, and Desmond hasn't given back the ring. His open mouth is probably gathering a lot of flies, though. An annoyed Fionnula withdraws her hand. "Oh, you're going to be difficult about this, I can see." Desmond asks who she is. Instead of answering, Fionnula says, "Do you like chestnuts?" and walks away, leaving a befuddled Desmond in her wake.
Cut to the two of them outside, with Fionnula buying chestnuts from a dude on the street. How do you like them chestnuts, Desmond? But really: chestnut vendors? Seems kind of quaint. I'm half-expecting Dick Van Dyke to go clicking his heels down the road in a chimney sweep's outfit.
The crazy lady has her chestnuts now, so she'll be considerably friendlier. She points out a guy climbing up from the Underground, noting that he's wearing red shoes. Desmond looks, and sure enough, the guy has capped off his business suit with red Chuck Taylor ripoffs. Not that Desmond has any idea why he should care. "Just thought it was a bold fashion choice worth noting," sniffs Fionnula, like Desmond's the one acting strangely. They sit down on a park bench.
Desmond thinks he's got this figured out though: this isn't really happening, and Fionnula is just Desmond's subconscious, a theory that makes Fionnula smile. "You're here to talk me out of marrying Penny. Well, it won't bloody work," he snaps. She says it will. He goes on about how there isn't an island, no button: "It's madness. I love her. She loves me. I'm going to spend the rest of my life with her." Again, Fionnula quietly disagrees.
Suddenly, there's a loud crash behind them, and they turn around to look: some scaffolding has collapsed and apparently buried someone underneath the rubble of construction work. On the plus side, the red shoes sticking out from underneath the rocks makes victim identification a breeze. A horrified Desmond looks at Fionnula, who looks not in the least surprised. "You knew that was going to happen, didn't you?" he says. She nods. "Then why didn't you stop it? Why didn't you do anything?" Fionnula says it wouldn't matter: "Had I warned him about the scaffolding, tomorrow he'd be hit by a taxi. If I warned him about the taxi, he'd fall in the shower and break his neck." In other words, can't be arsed, eh? Fionnula says the universe has a way of "course-correcting," and that the man was supposed to die. "That was his path! Just as it's your path, to go to the island. You don't do it because you choose to, Desmond. You do it because you're supposed to."