Episode Title: "Flashes Before Your Eyes"

Flashback Character: "Desmond"

Episode Number: 3.08 (Overall: #55)
Production Number: 308
Air Date: 2/14/07


Synopsis: Desmond saves Claire from drowning. The twist is that he was nowhere near the shore when he realized she was out in the water. Later, Hurley and Charlie get drunk on expensive Scotch Whiskey in an attempt to get Desmond to tell them how he knew that Claire was drowning. Charlie believes that Desmond can see the future. Desmond won't confirm it as they empty the bottle around a campfire. But he does have a flashback. Or, what we THINK is a flashback. More on that later.

What we see is that he and Penelope "Penny" Widmore were very much in love and living together in London in Desmond's modest flat, despite Penny's wealth. Desmond goes to see Penny's father at his huge office in his huge eponymously named corporation to ask for Penny's hand in marriage. It seems from the conversation that Widmore is unaware of Desmond's existence or his relationship with his daughter. He believes that Desmond is there to seek a job. When Desmond reveals his true purpose on visiting Widmore, Widmore quietly takes out a bottle of Scotch - the same brand that the boys are drinking on the island. He takes out two glasses, but pours a sips-worth into only one glass. He looks at Desmond and tells him that the sip in the glass is worth more than Desmond will make in one month. He downs the sip and tells Desmond he wouldn't waste such a good Scotch on such a sorry excuse for a person. By the way, Desmond, himself, happens to BE Scottish (NOT Scotch b/c that is a type of whiskey), so in a way, Widmore's downing the Scotch in the glass is a metaphor for his devouring of Desmond and his dreams.

Desmond dejectedly leaves the building and immediately runs into what appears to be a pre-famous Charlie, playing his guitar and singing on the street for money. Desmond, who has throughout the episode been having what he believes is "deja vu" that would appear to be Island memories, has a clear recollection of having known Charlie in the past, on the Island, in fact. Charlie knows nothing of Desmond, which would indicate that this is NOT Desmond "remembering" Charlie, but rather, Desmond seeing the future. Alternately, it could be Desmond seeing neither the future or the past, but simply a parallel time or universe, as if all of time and space were akin to a mountain range and viewable and habitable simultaneously, the way that you can look to the horizon and see every mountain in the mountain range simultaneously.

The fact that we soon meet a woman who goes by the name of Mrs. Hawking, an allusion to Stephen Hawking, the author of A Brief History of Time, tells us that there is more to this than meets the eye. Mrs. Hawking, herself, can either see the future as the past or as a part of a mountain-range-continuum. She tells Desmond that he cannot marry Penny because that is simply not "what happens". No matter what he does, it won't happen because what is pre-ordained is pre-ordained and unalterable. And what is pre-ordained (or has already happened or is happening now) is that Desmond breaks Penny's heart, goes on the around-the-world boat race to prove Widmore wrong about him, gets shipwrecked on the Island and then pushes the button in the hatch for three years. Like it or not, she tells him, he will push that button, and the pushing of that button is what will define him as a human being. In other words, there is NO free will.

Desmond attempts to disprove her by moving forward with his plans to ask Penny to marry him. Except that he can't bring himself to do it. A seemingly innocuous moment with a street photographer, in which the iconic Penny/Desmond photo is taken, leads Desmond to break things off with Penny, telling her that he is not good enough for her, that he cannot provide for her. Like Mrs. Hawking said, his destiny was to break Penny's heart.

On the Island, the boys brawl over Desmond's failure to be forthcoming with information about his ability to have seen Claire drowning without seeing her with his eyes. Desmond finally breaks. He tells Charlie that he wasn't saving Claire at all. He was saving Charlie, who Desmond "saw" jumping in after Claire and then drowning while saving her.

Like Mrs. Hawking, Desmond believes that no matter what he does, what will happen, what has happened, what is happening, is pre-ordained. Charlie will die, Desmond tells Charlie, and there is nothing Desmond can do about it.



Guest Starring: Sonya Walger as Penny Widmore, Alan Dale as Charles Widmore, Shishir Kurup as Donovan, Fionnula Flanagan as Ms. Hawking, Katie Doyle as receptionist, Jeremy Colvin as delivery man, Michael Titterton as bartender and David Cordell as Jimmy Lennon.

"Flashes Before Your Eyes" was written by Damon Lindelof & Drew Goddard and directed by Jack Bender.(ABC Press Release, January 29, 2007)

Flashback: Desmond


OMG Moments:
Claire was in the ocean!
The older woman who spoke with Desmond was omniscient to the story.

New Clues: Scenes in Hawaii were filmed to appear as though they took place in London and sources in Hawaii said one scene involved Charlie busking outside a building and encountering an already precognent Desmond. Flashback or dream sequence?


Theories: It seems that Lost is heading towards a "Terminator"-style time-warp resolution, where the past is contingent on the future, and the future is contingent on the past. It is beginning to seem that the Others aren't "stuck" on the island so much as they are stuck in a time warp. Perhaps the Island exists outside of the time and space that make up the rest of the charted world. Perhaps "Adam and Eve", the skeletons lying in a cave that Jack and Kate found early on, ARE Jack and Kate (or Desomon and Penelope) such that the future and the past exist at the same time on the Island. This is my theory and I'm stickin' with it. <---That would explain the 4 toed statue too!

Also the island could be in a different demention altogether. An alternate reality where people on this island are stronger, heal faster, and can conquer up people from our reality.

The Surreal of " Flashes"..Watching this episode was like reading any of the Originator of Surrealism, Andre Breton, any of his novels; a swirl of places and time , incongruent details delved into,things out of kelter,, difficult to make any sense of it ,,until,,the end, where somehow Breton always says the magic words that make everything that came before understood...Flashes seemed a tribute to that surreal style.,no?..The original Surrealists,,wanted a new way to think and perceive because they believed the way folks had been taught,, was also responsible for the horrendous first World War, which many experienced first hand. Remember, it was mankinds First such huge scale self butchery that they rebelled against. How mankind thought and perceived his world , they believed produced the possibility of such War. So they created another way to think and perceive: Surrealism . They believed the old way produced the possibility of too many Illusions to exist,, that which is Not,,and thus ways War could be foisted on Mankind... How Many Illusions Did You Catch In Flashes?..where to begin? Claire drowns but is brought back,,what is first thought t be blood becomes red paint..our black and white stones on the table..two glasses brought down only one poured into..reverse mirror images of paintings..desk lamps that move from rite side to left side from shot to shot, photo backgrounds for whatever Illusion you want.etc etc etc ..( how many of Us have believed for how long ,,Des and girlfriend picture was taken in Sydney?)..The Illusions get serious on another level. Dad equating his daughter to a bottle of booze and worst of all...Desmond accepting That Illusion..Desmond accepting That Defeat of LOVE,,that Illusion, becomes a self fullfilling damnation. Remember, in some 'pedia's,,the name "Desmond ",,refers to man of the world., mankind,US...The Surreal moment,, the rising up and creating from the Imagination came closer to 2/3's way in rather than the characteristic end.(Linear Time and Time Travel also questioned as a Illusion).Desmond, naked as the day he was born,realizing his error,, and wishing for a second chance. The Hope comes at the very end..when Des says to Mr Charlie,, Mr Failure,," I can't keep saving you"(approx)..Des knows he has to let his Self Defeatism,, his Acceptance of The Defeat Of Love,,die, in order to be united with the Eternal inside all of Us,,his Penelope,,our LOVE..



Questions:

• Claire appeared to be wearing normal clothes when Desmond rescued her, but later when she thanks him, she talks as if she had gone swimming. Who goes swimming in pants?
  • The people on the island all do not have bathing suits to swim with. I do not think Claire, after recently giving birth, would like to show her belly to the rest of the survivors.

Trivia: Many clues from the island appear in Desmond's "flashback": When Desmond looks at the clock, it is 1:08. The microwave beeping sounds exactly like the hatch beeping when the numbers are about to expire, a package is being delivered to suite 815, in Widmore's office, the word "NAMASTE" is written backwards on the painting, along with a polar bear.