Return of LOST

[puuuma]

Wow. I'm having a hard time even wrapping my head around tonight's episode. Once again, random thoughts.

Who knows how many times Desmond has been in the loop. Hmmm.. almost like the numbers being broadcast in a continuous loop. What he said to Charlie was a trip, but seems too obvious now.

Maybe someone is testing Desmond with the old clock lady. J-Proof, you brought up a good point with the smoke monster. When the s.m. was in the form of Yemi, Eko was put to the test. He stood up for himself & well, we all know what happened after that. But maybe that broke the loop for Eko & he's living a different life. Maybe the old clock lady has always been testing Desmond, but doesn't pass "his" test. Therefore, he's sent back into the loop. Shit, who knows. I'm just typing random thoughts.   

Next episode can't come quick enough. Can't wait to see what's answered. What were the Others waiting to watch? Aaaaagh, damn this show.

[J-Proof]

Haha - yeah it's interesting. But what's cool is that the rest of the Losties live on linearly, and we don't even flippin' know what's up with Desmond... At least /I/ think it's cool.

What others have already suggested (spoiler):

- Desmond wants to go back in time again, now that he has experienced going back in time once. How did he do it before? Well, by turning the fail-safe key, of course! The objective of going back? To right the wrongs with Penny.

- We know there are a score of other hatches on the island. One of the hatches holds a man with a blindfold in it. Perhaps the blindfolded man has a button to push as well.....and a fail-safe keyhole.

- Desmond lives out his life on the island, to some point in time where Charlie has already died, and they have found the blindfolded man. Desmond sees the fail-safe keyhole, and uses the key to turn the mechanism.

- What Desmond expects will happen is for him to travel back to being in his flat, fallen on the floor with red paint all over him. This is when he gets to right the wrongs between him and Penny.

- BUT - what happens instead is Desmond winds up back on the island to the point where the hatch just blew up, and he is on the island naked.

- In order for this theory to work, Desmond has to have gone back in time at least twice to try and save Charlie, which is the only way he can truly mean it when he says "you can't stop it from happening." Des specifically says he's tried twice already.....

Interesting, no?....I AM SO AMPED for next week already......

[dignan]

When Desmond said what he said to Charlie, there was a collective "WOO HOOO!" from everybody watching.  Heh. 

Anyway, I don't think Desmond is actually traveling through time.  Though, I certainly don't know what to make of his precognitive abilities, it was interesting how Charlie was the only person from the island to show up in his "flashback."  I hope in a future episode, that focuses on, say, Hurley, in the background of one of the scenes, you just see a slightly out-of-focus Desmond randomly tackling Charlie.   

[JonnyFrag]

Was the scientist guy at the pub one of the ones who is in the Arctic listening station that called Penelope? Didn't have time to go back and look at the finale yet...

I really thought they were going to finally go all in on a sci-fi twist during the pub scene. Then they were able to paint themselves out of it. The way it ended was with it could have been all in his head.

Expect the part that he really can 'see the future' ....

[dignan]

Was the scientist guy at the pub one of the ones who is in the Arctic listening station that called Penelope? Didn't have time to go back and look at the finale yet...

I really thought they were going to finally go all in on a sci-fi twist during the pub scene. Then they were able to paint themselves out of it. The way it ended was with it could have been all in his head.

Expect the part that he really can 'see the future' ....

No, I'm pretty sure those guys at the Arctic station were Brazillian or something. 

[J-Proof]

The dudes at the station with Penelope are Brazilian (I have a Portuguese friend and she is able to understand everything they said).

As for the sci-fi twist: I really think the producers /did/ do a sci-fi head-over-heels move on us. I personally think it would have been cheap if he had woken up and it was all a dream.

I don't think Des is "time traveling" so much as "mind traveling"...... This show kicks "Heroes" but

[J-Proof]

PS

Was the scientist guy at the pub one of the ones who is in the Arctic listening station that called Penelope? Didn't have time to go back and look at the finale yet...

I really thought they were going to finally go all in on a sci-fi twist during the pub scene. Then they were able to paint themselves out of it. The way it ended was with it could have been all in his head.

Expect the part that he really can 'see the future' ....

I misunderstood you before: Now I get it. Yeah, maybe that physics professor from the pub was the one calling Penny! Interesting thought.

This season has me absolutely rivetted....

[Conor]

I enjoyed the episode, and found what they were doing with Desmond intriguing.  What made my expectations take a major dive, though was when they introduced the wedding ring sales lady, who basically explained to him that a guiding principle of the way things work on the island is....The plot of the Final Destination movies.  The "Universe having a plan" thing and being unable to escape death sounded absurd the first time that Final Destination used it to kill off teenagers, and really sounded out of place in the Lost universe.  Hopefully they just forget about that aspect, like so many other forgotten things throughout the course of the show.

[J-Proof]

I enjoyed the episode, and found what they were doing with Desmond intriguing.  What made my expectations take a major dive, though was when they introduced the wedding ring sales lady, who basically explained to him that a guiding principle of the way things work on the island is....The plot of the Final Destination movies.  The "Universe having a plan" thing and being unable to escape death sounded absurd the first time that Final Destination used it to kill off teenagers, and really sounded out of place in the Lost universe.  Hopefully they just forget about that aspect, like so many other forgotten things throughout the course of the show.

Yeah I was uncomfortable about the "universal end" thing - however, Desmond realized that there's hope for change when he saw that the television game prediction was on the wrong night (right before getting the cricket bat to the head). The idea of everything being unchnaging is like the test that Desmond personally needs to go through, and I think come the end of the series, the overall theme that one can choose his own destiny is what Desmond will discover.

[J-Proof]

ps - why does charlie's life matter so much to him? There's tons of other people that will likely need saving as well

[MrTorso]

I need to rewatch the episode myself. I did like the fact that Charlie was singing an Oasis song and the lyrics he is singing:

Because maybe
You're gonna be the one who saves me ?
And after all
You're my wonderwall


Nice touch given the ending of the episode.

[TedNelson]

Big-time fan here, and I thought I'd throw my dart at the board. Even though I'm sure Dennis Kucinich has a better chance at becoming our next president than any of this being plausible.

I'm really hoping the writers aren't going w/ a time traveling theme regarding Des. I've never been a fan of it in general. However, I'm along for the entire ride, and it has been a blast.

My take on Desmond David Hume is that he developed some intense precognitive ability via means of the turning the fail safe key. I don't believe there was time traveling happening whatsoever in the episode. The episode's title "Flashes Before Your Eyes" is in regards to the events that unfolded in his subconscious as he turned the key. He was fusing island elements into the lineage of his entire life.

I believe that Ms. Hawking wasn't anything more than a figment of his subconscious...keeping him away from what he deemed as morally desirable, a life w/ Penny.

Which leads to the reference of David Hume...I cannot see how this isn't a conincidence...taken from Wikipedia on his interpretation on Free Will vs. Determinism...

"Hume's view is that human behavior, like everything else, is caused, and therefore holding people responsible for their actions should focus on rewarding them or punishing them in such a way that they will try to do what is morally desirable and will try to avoid doing what is morally reprehensible."

Desmond was punished for performing the morally reprehensible (betrayal of self), has acknowledged, and will reward himself by an attempt to right it. (All within the lenses of David Hume)

And to toss in Hume's "Bundle Theory of the Self"...

"When we start introspecting, "we are never intimately conscious of anything but a particular perception; man is a bundle or collection of different perceptions which succeed one another with an inconceivable rapidity and are in perpetual flux and movement".

It is plain, that in the course of our thinking, and in the constant revolution of our ideas, our imagination runs easily from one idea to any other that resembles it, and that this quality alone is to the fancy a sufficient bond and association."

Which again, leads back to the title of the episode.

My small take on the episode in general.

[Edward J Grug III]

ps - why does charlie's life matter so much to him? There's tons of other people that will likely need saving as well

I think it's not Charlie so much as him wanting to change SOMETHING. He wants to prove to himself that he can change the course of things.

At least that's my take.

I too can't wait for Charlie to die, I really can't stand him, given some of his past stupid moves.

Hey, so, regarding the episode the week before... Why DO the Others want a fertility expert on the island so bad?

[J-Proof]

Hey, so, regarding the episode the week before... Why DO the Others want a fertility expert on the island so bad?

Well - since you live in Aussie-Land, you should just fly out from Sydney on an Oceanic plane and crash on the island so you can ask them yourself =)

[Nick]

         Hello everybody, new to the boards here, but I have been a longtime MST3K fan and happen to be a Lost fanatic. 
     Remember that brainwashing room that Kate and Sawyer busted through in the last episode? Well the Radio Station I listen to
     played the loud music playing in the background backwards and I could hear a voice saying "Only fools are slaves to Space and Time."
     It sounded very twisted and insane, but after watching the Desmond episode it makes more sense. I believe the Others are trying to
     fight against the Universe while the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 were brought there to stop them. Maybe thats all wrong, but its my two cents.