The Perfect Love by madnorthnorthwest

Tuesday's Lost heavily promoted the idea of „perfect love.“ It was fittingly called Happily Ever After. However, there were not many happy couples living happily ever after. Charlie was missing Claire, Desmond was missing Penny, Daniel was missing Charlotte. In fact, the only ones who were together were Charles Widmore and Eloise Hawking. Intriguingly, both of them tried very hard to convince Des that he was happy and wasn't missing a thing. Most importantly, they obviously did not want him to get to know Penny.

I have noticed that Lost is actually crowded with couples, characters that belong together. I'd even say that everyone has his or her perfect other: Jin & Sun, Charlie & Claire, Desmond & Penny, Bernard & Rose, Sawyer & Juliet, Jack & Kate, Sayid & Nadia, Daniel & Charlotte, Hurley & Libby, Widmore & Hawking etc. This is my guess at who belongs together and some are missing (like Locke, Michael, Boone...) because I'm not sure about their perfect other. But I'm sure there is someone for pretty much each character.

That said, not all of them have had their happily ever after experience in the same timeline or reality. Many, however, have had their happily ever after experience in at least one of the many timelines and realities we have seen. For instance, Juliet & Sawyer in the 1970s timeline, Desmond & Penny when their son was born, Widmore & Hawking in the LAX timeline, Bernard & Rose in the „original“ crash on the island timeline. And remember how reluctant Rose & Bernard were to leave the island.
I assume that the dead couple Jack once found in the cave once had their happily ever after experience. We just don't know who it was and in which timeline they lived happily ever after. But I'm sure we'll figure that out soon. Maybe we'll also figure out others perfect timelines. Could it be, then, that there's a perfect reality/timeline for each couple?

It seems they can't live happily ever after all of them at once. So some must sacrifice their perfect love. Willingly or not, Widmore seems to have been making that sacrifice and he seems not to want to sacrifice it any longer. But apparently, if he gets his happily ever after, Desmond won't get his (along with many others like Charlie, Daniel and Jack). Is that why he tells Des that he must make a sacrifice?
Well, Des suddenly seems to be ok with that after having had those magnetic field experiences. Maybe that's because he has found a way to get all of the Losties live their perfect lives at once. After all, he has managed to meet Penny in a reality in which he's not „supposed to“ know her.