  The recent result of Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) in
combination with other cosmological data shows evidence of the evolving dark
energy parameterized by $w_0w_a$CDM model. We interpret this result in terms of
a quintessential scalar field and demonstrate that it can explain the DESI
result even though it becomes eventually phantom in the past. Relaxing the
assumption on the functional form of the equation-of-state parameter $w=w(a)$,
we also discuss a more realistic quintessential model. The implications of the
DESI result for Swampland conjectures, cosmic birefringence, and the fate of
the Universe are discussed as well.
