Uncharted Island

I’d forgotten about it, but flugelbinder on MyMedia didn’t. In one of his flashes, Desmond told Charlie that he saw Claire getting onto a helicopter. That was the whole reason Charlie signed on for the whole suicide mission where he swam down to the Looking Glass station. He was willing to die if it meant Claire got off the island.

What happened?

1. The writers forgot about that when they decided that Claire would walk off with Christian, and they hoped that we would forget about it, too.

2. Desmond lied.
3. Something didn’t happen exactly the way Desmond saw it, so the outcome changed.
4. Claire will get onto a helicopter at some point in the future.

I would like to throw away the first option right off. They have fact checkers for this sort of thing.

As for the last, that would be pretty tricky. Desmond’s vision was of Claire and Aaron getting onto a helicopter. Aaron’s already off the island, and I think that Desmond would’ve mention if Aaron was a five-year-old if it were to happen at some later point when Kate brings Aaron back to the island.

I waver between the middle options, leaning more toward something being different. It is possible for him to have lied about it; he very nearly let Charlie take one of Danielle’s traps to the throat because he thought he’d get to see Penny. But I don’t think he could do it twice.

I think that Desmond changed the outcome when he dove in after Charlie. I don’t think he saw that part. And that’s why Claire didn’t get on the helicopter.

There is some excellent time travel confirmation, Desmond clarification, and more going on in this EW article with Doc Jensen and Damon Lindelof.

Personally, I can’t wait for the upcoming episode that revisits Desmond’s flashbacks with the course-correction that follows his time travel adventures.

Quote of the century:

Lightning flashed. Frank pulled up and out of trouble. So what was that weird weather all about? Well, I don’t think it was a passing storm. In, fact, I really don’t think you can call it weather. As I explained last week, I think the Island is located inside the mouth of a wormhole, a possibly volatile anomaly in the time-space fabric. The chopper was passing over the rough-and-tumble boundary that exists between the anomaly and the outside world.

Although I think those words are from Doc Jensen, unconfirmed by Lindelof.

Oh, and Star Wars. The fourth page compares LOST to The Empire Strikes Back.

Look at that. Actual confirmation that Desmond is time traveling, due to the lack of “swoosh” sound. Desmond is at Camp Millar.

And there’s my confirmation that, and I quote, “time works differently on the island,” per Daniel’s rocket. The time was indeed synchronized when it started out. Anyone who had offered up the suggestion that the people on the freighter were messing with Daniel by changing the clock can happily say that they were wrong.

Interesting - Desmond’s Royal Scottish Army scenes were filmed at Hawaii National Guard’s Diamond Head Garrison.

Oh, and to respond to other fan comments, the army guy from the phone booth did indeed knock the coins out of Desmond’s hand on purpose. But it wasn’t to make him aware of the passage of time; I don’t think he was “in” on it. It was because he was angry about having to do calisthenics double time and do extra running that morning. I do agree that some sort of conspiracy is involved in Desmond’s story, but not in this instance.

The Kerr metric equation is on Daniel’s Oxford chalkboard, and apparently implies the possibility of time travel.

Tovard Hanso is distant relative of both Magnus Hanso, Captain of the Black Rock, and Alvar Hanso, founder of the Hanso Foundation.

Oh crap, don’t tell me this really is time travel. What’s up with Desmond seemingly flashing literally from past to present?

“Your perception of how long your friends have been gone isn’t necessarily how long they’ve actually been gone.” BOOYAH! *does a little time theory victory dance*

And look at that. It’s the freighter!

Is Desmond jumping through time as a side effect of a moment off course from Daniel Faraday’s heading because of the electrical storm?

“This is not happening.” That’s not the first time we’ve heard this.

DUDE! Is that Hurley’s buddy from the psych hospital? What was his name - Lenny? Leonard? The one who kept repeating the numbers? His face was only shown for a second, so it wasn’t enough of a look to know for sure.

Look’s like Frank is in trouble for bringing Sayid and Desmond back.

Don’t go trying to call Baghdad. Ha!

Yes, Desmond has been exposed to high levels of radiation or electromagnetism. Hatch explosion, much?

I think Desmond’s going to kill himself if this doesn’t stop happening to him. It’s too bizarre. Poor Desmond is back in 1996. Can Dan fix him? In… the past?

This is where hundreds of time travel theorists are starting to do a happy dance of their own. Although it’s not Desmond’s body traveling through time, it’s his consciousness. He is physically in both 1996 and… whatever year it is on the freighter, but his mind is slipping in and out on its own little travel through time.

“I need my journal or I won’t believe him.” Does Dan’s journal travel through time? Oh, okay, good. He just has to repeat information that he couldn’t possibly know unless he had traveled back through time. And he knows about Heloise.

Hippy Professor Dan of Oxford thinks his colleagues are messing with him because they think he’s crazy. Until Desmond mentioned Heloise. “This is where I do the things Oxford frowns upon.” Heloise is a lab rat. And she ran the maze she hadn’t been taught to run yet. Sweet. And it was her consciousness traveling forward through time! I think I should pat myself on the back for that one.

The guy in the bed is George Minkowski, the freighter’s Communications Officer. Not Hurley’s crazy pal. Penny’s been calling him on the boat, and he was told never to answer it. That would almost explain why Charlie ended up speaking with her in the Looking Glass station… except for one thing. That means that the Looking Glass’s incoming frequency was set to the same frequency as the freighter. Why would that be? Is the freighter Ben’s? Is he playing both sides? It wouldn’t be a surprise. Why is Minkowski traveling through time, though? Has he already been to the island?

Poor Desmond, catatonic in the middle of a sentence. Five minutes in the future… 35 or 75 minutes in 1996? Desmond needs a constant. Faraday’s constant. I don’t know what that is in the scientific world, but I know it’s something.

Crap, Minkowski’s going to die before he can help Desmond, isn’t he? The nosebleed can’t be a good sign.

The Black Rock in the painting! It was headed for Siam! The First Mate’s journal was found in Madagascar. Lot 2342. Is that Penny’s father Charles Widmore bidding on it? Yes, it is. He just won it auction for either the journal or the painting… I lost track.

They have civilized urinals in the auction house.

“It’s not me who hates you,” Mr. Widmore said. Oh really? And is that really Penny’s address he gave him?

Oh, okay, Minkowski did try to get to the island. Because he was bored. That explains it.

“I need a minute,” Sayid says. Just a minute to fix that mess?

And… Minkowski bit the big one.

Penny’s house number is 423.

It’s Christmas Eve 2004 on the island. I stand by the fact that it’s not necessarily the same date on the freighter. But if the freighter folks knew that they might find the Flight 815 castaways, and they know who Ben is, they might be able to count the way time passes on the island.

Although it is Christmas Eve at Penny’s house. And Penny has my phone.

Aww. Happiness for Desmond and Penny!

“If anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume will be MY constant.”

Awesome.

So now that Charlie is dead, will Desmond still have flashes of the future? Or was the only purpose of his flashes to see Charlie die? Because every one of his flashes that we know of ended with Charlie’s death.

So this is going to be a trippy episode.  Is this going to be an episode with no flashbacks? Only Desmond’s, for lack of a better word, flash forwards? Nothing like totally messing with my sense of time.

Ah, there we are. Desmond in the brig. Er… Desmond in a monastery?  There’s our weekly fake-out. He was a monk? Pardon me while I scratch my head and say WHAT?

“You want me to make you a mixtape?” Now there’s a great island pick-up line.  Smooth one, Sawyer. Real smooth.

Desmond wants to make sure his flashes come true, so he can see Penny again. Does that mean he wants to knowingly lead Charlie to his death?  It would appear so, since he just lied to Charlie when he asked point blank about him dying. Arrow to the throat.  I’m going to take a leap here and say that Desmond’s flashes might be chronologically challenged, he didn’t see what he think he saw with Penny.

Moriah Vineyards.  I wonder what Brutha Desmond did to deserve a walk-by punch in the nose.

Kate jumped Sawyer. Go Kate! That explains the “S” in the episode’s “TV-14 SV” rating.

Jin telling a Korean ghost story holding the flashlight under his chin.  Hilarious. Did Hurley actually understand him?  He had that funky dream sequence in the Swan pantry where he thought Jin was speaking English, but Jin told him he was speaking Korean.

Ruth. There’s another Biblical name.  Desmond’s former fiancee. Ouch.  At least we know where he got his cowardice complex from.  His first jilted lady love.

Was there actually a person in that helicopter?  Maybe it was an unmanned craft delivering a care package for Desmond.  Unless, of course, we find a parachuter to go with the book, the bobble-hip hula doll, and the photograph.

A Phil Collins tape. Swiped from Bernard. Can we please stop the alternate-timeline theory about Nikki and Paulo replacing Rose and Bernard?  The actors just aren’t in Hawaii right now or something for the filming.

Desmond saved Charlie in the end.  I didn’t think he could really let him die.  But every week has to have its Charlie near-death moment, I guess.

That’s not Penny hanging in the jungle.  It can’t be.

But it is a woman.  Have we seen her before?  The promo called her a survivor, so wiill she be telling us anything next week?  Hmm.

Desmond had to break off his engagement to enter the monastery in order to meet Penny… but was Penny also just a step along the path?  Was he meant to enter the boat race to gain a sense of honor to make him worthy of her so that he would end up on the island and save the world?  Too many questions.

Apparently not everyone was as convinced as I was that Desmond did not travel back in time in the ”Flashes Before Your Eyes” episode.

Some people have gone to great lengths discussing the physics and metaphysics of time travel, the paradox of time travel, the possibility of alternate or parallel universes, and other such things. 

I’m quite partial to anything mentioning the similiarities between Desmond’s encounter with the knowing jewelry store lady and Neo’s encounter with the Oracle in The Matrix Reloaded.  Both pairs were sitting on a bench having their metaphysical discussions.  The Oracle offered Neo candy.  Desmond was offered roasted nuts.  I don’t buy into the theory that the LOST island is a false reality like the matrix; I just like that I wasn’t the only person who immediately thought of the Oracle when I watched the scene.

The theory that interested me the most, since I don’t buy into this whole time travel thing, is that the old woman was Smokey.  We already know that Smokey pulled Mr. Eko into a vision where he thought he was talking to Yemi, but it was not Yemi, and it told him so.  If Desmond was having some sort of coma dream, which I still believe, then Smokey could’ve insinuated itself as the old woman.  Why?  I didn’t come up with this part myself.  Maybe Smokey wants Charlie dead, as it wanted Mr. Eko dead, and it tried to convince Desmond about the universe’s tendency to “course correct” so that he would stop trying to save Charlie.  I think this is plausible.  Given the island mythology as we’ve seen it, it seems more plausible to me than any of the time travel theories.  This is more about psychology and parapsychology.

Of course, I don’t think Desmond is the type of person who will be able to just sit back and stop trying to save Charlie just because the universe (in this case, the island, or Smokey) will find a way to try again.  If he sees a future where Charlie is going to die, he will continue to try and save him.

I know this debate is going to be going on for some time.  (Pun not initially intended.)  The writers like to mess with us by adding in Stephen Hawking’s books and anagrams (Mittelos = lost time) to imply that something is going on.  I think time travel is a red herring.  Time will tell if I’m right.

So the big question left after watching “Flashes Before Your Eyes” is whether the flashback we saw after Desmond turned the fail-safe key was a coma dream or a true memory showing he already had precognitive abilities before he ended up on the island.  By the end of the episode, I don’t think there was much chance left for it to be a true memory, but stranger things have happened.

I’m going with the coma dream theory. I think it was the writers’ way of messing with us about all the time travel theories, and trying to not-so-subtly tell us it’s ridiculous. They’ve told us in interviews that time travel was not involved.  Now they brought it up in the script.  But in true LOST fashion, they didn’t tell us flat out that it wasn’t really time travel; they left us to decide it for ourselves.  I haven’t yet ventured into the fan forums to see what sort of debates are going on about what we really saw.

Desmond’s flashback was an interesting look at what life he led before going into the military.  We hadn’t seen that before.  I’m going to take a leap and say that the events that unfolded were mostly true memories, aside from the island “premonitions” and the old woman in the jewelry shop.  I love the fact that he was a set designer for the Royal Shakespeare Company.  Of course, that wasn’t good enough for Penny’s father, Charles Widmore.  So that is why Desmond joins the military, to earn the honor he thinks he doesn’t have, only to commit some kind of crime that will land him in the brig and force him to seek honor elsewhere, in Widmore’s around the world sailing race.  It’s possible that Desmond had met Charlie singing on a street corner in the true past, but he wouldn’t have had that conversation about the island, the hatch, and pushing the button.  Or else Charlie would’ve remembered it. (Did you catch that Charlie’s middle name is Hieronymous?)

I was unsurprised that Desmond was trying to save Charlie instead of Claire.  I blame someone on LOST-TV for posting their theory that Claire was a red herring.  I’m truly hoping that person was really making a guess, and not one of those evil people who slips spoilers into non-spoiler forums by making their own “theories.”  I do wonder how Charlie will actually die.  Or if maybe Desmond can change the future he sees and save him after all.  I don’t think he’ll stop trying to save him, at any rate, because that’s not the kind of person he is.

Sawyer. My personal favorite.  Honestly, how many [heterosexual] women don’t love the bad boys? He’s got that slow, sexy drawl.  He always has a snappy comeback, or at least a funny nickname for people.  He’s done some really despicable things, but he has the capacity for good. He loves his daughter.  He loves Kate.  He wears dorky glasses because he loves reading. 

Desmond. He was a bit of a mystery for an entire season, until we got the biggest flashback ever.  He has a real hang-up about honor, which is what drove him to compete in the boat race around the world that ended with his shipwreck on the island instead of staying home to fight for Penny.  He’s got a gorgeous accent, brutha.  He has a stuffed bunny.  (Aww!)  He was courageous enough to risk his own life to save Locke and the others by turning the fail-safe key.  And like Wesley and Buttercup in The Princess Bride, what Desmond and Penny have is true love; the Dread Pirate Roberts couldn’t keep Wesley away forever, and this island can’t keep Desmond away forever.  I hope.

Jack. Doctors are often sought-after in the dating pool, although only Kate seemed to be remotely interested in him on the island.  A natural leader, he’s strong in body, mind, and spirit.  And check out those tattoos, if you’re into that.  He’s very adept, whether at sharpshooting or performing miraculous surgery on otherwise inoperable injuries.  I’d definitely want him nearby if I were stranded on an island; you never know when you may need some stitches or a makeshift blood transfusion or something.  If you can get past his cocky attitude, he’s generally a pretty good guy.

Sayid.  Ignoring the fact that he’s tortured a number of people, Sayid is one of the good guys, too.  And quite attractive.  Even the shallow blonde Shannon fell for him on the island, though had she reported him as a potential terrorist in Sydney.  (If she only knew!)  Sayid seems to be thinking more clearly than anyone else on the island, including the beach’s generally accepted leader Jack.  He was the one who figured out that Michael was acting shady, and it wasn’t his fault that Michael’s betrayal succeeded anyway.

Jin. Ignoring the fact that he was one of the heavies for Mr. Paik of Paik Heavy Industry, well, you also have to ignore his nature of needing to control his wife.  He does love Sun very much, and all of the terrible things he’s done have been for her.  Who cares if he’s the son of a village fisherman?  If he could get over that nasty temper of his, he’d be quite a catch.

As several of our commenters pointed out, Henry Ian Cusick did indeed get an Emmy nod for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his portrayal of Desmond David Hume, the first Hatch Monkey we met. And his Emmy-worthy acting is one of the reasons why we love Desmond.

There is some debate in the more superficial looks category as to whether or not clean-cut Desmond is preferable to scruffy, drunk, dirty Desmond. Both versions of Desmond have their own charm. Whether he’s fresh out of the brig or two weeks out in his boat with a bottle of DHARMA booze, he looks good in my book.

So why is Desmond so great?

Mystery. When we first met Desmond, we didn’t get to see his face. I know I thought we were watching a flashback until we saw all the way up the hatch to where Jack and Locke were peering in. He was a big unknown for a while, running off after the computer got shot at the beginning of season two. We didn’t really get to know him. What kind of person would push a button for so long without more of an explanation than that orientation film? The mystery was what made him so intriguing for quite some time.

Honor. We don’t know how he ended up in military prison except that he didn’t follow orders. In his mind, he had to make up for his dishonorable behavior by doing an honorable task - the Widmore boat race around the world. The fact that he has a sense of honor at all makes him more honorable than most of our Lostaways in my mind.

That Accent. The guys think it’s cool. The gals find it dreamy. “Just saving the world. His words, not mine.” Brutha.

The Stuffed Bunny. We don’t know anything about it, but he grabbed the stuffed bunny when he vacated the hatch… must have sentimental value. Aww.

True Love. Not since The Princess Bride have I felt so sappy for an on-screen couple as I feel for Desmond and Penny. Buttercup thought she lost Wesley to the Dread Pirate Roberts; Penny thought she lost Desmond to a shipwreck. Although Penny, unlike Buttercup, doesn’t seem to have given up on her man. Desmond still has Penny’s picture after all this time. And reading her letter was heart-wrenching enough to drive him to suicide. Luckily he didn’t follow through.

Courage When It Counts. Though he ran away from the hatch once when he thought all was lost, Desmond stuck around when the metal started to fly. He thought he was signing his own death sentence to save Locke (and the world!) when he went to turn that fail-safe key. Did anyone catch his life-flashing-before-his-eyes sequence? He made the noble, courageous choice at last… Let’s hope he survived it!