Season 3, Episode 8: "Flashes Before Your Eyes"

Okay, this is going to be short this week....only because this has got to be, by far, the most difficult episode to understand!!!

At first I was a little confused about Desmond's past - that maybe he had actually traveled through time. Maybe he was caught in some kind of space/time continuum and he really was living his life over and over - that he had several lives (hence the "see you in another life" comment that he always makes.) or that the island was some kind of time-trap. But then I realized that just could not be true. We know (according to the producers, anyway) that everything that happens on Lost are in fact scientifically possible, so Desmond can not realistically be traveling through time.

Here is what I think happened. When Desmond went to turn the key during the hatch implosion, he truly did see his life "flash before his eyes" - during these flashes, he saw visions of his life that made him feel like it was deja vu - these "flashes" seemed so real to him that he felt like he was living pieces of his life over again. (Everyone does that - thinking back about times in their life and how they would do it differently if they could live it over again, I think it just seemed so real to him that he really feels like he HAS lived his life over and over again - only to find out that you can't change the things that are supposed to happen.) In the back of his mind, he has always been so distraught over making the wrong choices (most notably, leaving Penny) that he has subconsciously dreamed up the idea of what would happen if he had the chance to do it all over again, and choose a different path for his life. Almost like he has played out in his mind different scenarios if he had stayed with Penny. Remember the woman from the jewelry store? He even said to her at one point, "You're not real - you are just my subconscious." I think that Desmond struggled deeply with the idea that Penny's father did not think he was good enough for his daughter. Once again, two recurring themes come up - the idea of being "a good man" and also the "father issues." I think that in real life, Desmond truly did break up with Penny because her father made him really believe that he was not good for her. He wanted what was best for her, and in his mind he did not think he was good enough. And after he left her, went on the sail around the world, and ended up on the island - he cannot stop thinking that he should have stayed with her. I think that, all that time he has spent on the island, he has played it out over and over in his head on how he could have done things differently in order to change his fate, his destiny. But it is more a question of, can a person truly change their own fate? In this "vision" when his life flashed before his eyes, I think he finally realized that you cannot change your fate. He probably struggled for those three years on the island about WHY he was there, what was his purpose, why was he brought to the island. Then when it was up to him to turn the fail-safe key and "save the world," so to speak, he knew that was his chance to do his part, to be the "good man" that he so longed to be. He realized that this was why he was meant to end up on the island. And that was also when he realized that you can't change fate. This is similar to Locke - when he found the hatch - he felt that was his destiny to find the hatch, to be on the island - he felt that the island brought him there and it was his job to push the button. When he questioned that, and decided not to push the button anymore, he realized he was wrong, and that's when Desmond jumped in to save everyone.

I'm still completely baffled at the idea that Desmond can see the future (knowing that Claire was drowning, knowing about Locke's speech, etc.) - I don't know how that can be possible. But something since the hatch implosion has made him have this sixth sense. I'm not sure how that happened. I don't think that it is necessarily that he can "see" the future, I think it probably has something to do with the implosion of the hatch causing him to have heightened senses, maybe?? I don't know, I'm still very confused by that. But his explanation to Charlie at the end, it seems that Desmond is really trying to "interfere" with fate, and trying to save Charlie - yet another example of him trying to be "a good man." As we have seen, ALL of the survivors seem to struggle with who is "GOOD" on the island, and this is just him trying to be good. However, he realizes, finally, that he cannot interfere with fate. If Charlie is meant to die, there is nothing he can do to stop that from happening. Is Charlie truly meant to die, however? Or is that just another figment of Desmond's imagination coming from the visions in his mind, his subconscious? Personally I don't think that what Desmond said, about Charlie drowning trying to save Claire, so Desmond is "reliving" that day so that he can save him - I don't think that is true. I think that is just another "side effect" of the hatch implosion that left Desmond's subconscious mind a little off. I think that he has thoughts about what could have happened - and he thinks they are real. But I don't think Charlie is meant to die. We have already seen him have several brushes with death and he has lived (remember when Ethan hung him, yet Jack was able to save him). I think that Desmond is off rocker a bit, and these "flashes" in his head are causing him to believe that he has lived out these "visions" in the past.

VERY interesting episode, but we need to see a lot more to fully understand what the heck is going on!!!