Contains spoilers for this episode and earlier episodes.
Desmond wakes to discover that Widmore has taken him back to the island. Furious at being separated from Penny and their son, he attacks Widmore, who insists that his help is necessary. Widmore's team places Desmond inside a chamber and exposes him to a powerful electromagnetic field, after an earlier activation has killed a crew member. Desmond survives and emerges unexpectedly willing to cooperate. As Zoe's group escorts him away, Sayid ambushes the guards and asks Desmond to come with him. Desmond agrees without resistance, having gone from demanding to leave the island to accepting what the people around him ask.
The flash-sideways follows Desmond as a trusted employee of Widmore in Los Angeles. Ordered to bring Charlie to a concert, he hears Charlie describe a vision of love during his near-death experience on Flight 815. Charlie drives their car into the water, and Desmond sees images of Charlie's earlier drowning and the warning on his hand. An MRI brings further visions of Penny. Eloise discourages his questions, but her musician son Daniel describes unfamiliar equations and a woman he feels he already loves. Daniel suggests their lives may have followed the wrong path; his explanation remains a theory. Desmond meets Penny, briefly loses consciousness when they touch, then arranges coffee and requests the Flight 815 passenger list.