S3Ep17 - Catch-22 (Desmond's third flashback)

Hello my dear friends -

Q. Why does Desmond always add "brotha!" to the end of everything he says?

A. Because he used to be a monk. OBVIOUSLY, DUH?!?!?

Ummm, I have to admit that I think they were really reaching there to make Desmond's previous (and from what I could tell, VERY brief) stint in the monastery be the reason why he always says, "brotha!"

I have many weird phrases that I am somewhat known for, and there's no explanation for any of them, so I never really even questioned why Desmond kept saying "brotha" in the first place. Note to the Lost writers: It's OK if you don't explain every little thing! I mean, are we going to learn the back-story of why Kate actually has freckles at some point in time? It's too much.

But don't think that I didn't like "Catch-22," because I most definitely did. While it wasn't as information-packed as the previous week's episode, it did keep moving the overall story along on several fronts, and since Desmond is my second-favorite character on the show, I was bound to be happy about his extra screen-time. It can also be stated at this point in time (as objectively as possible) that Locke and Desmond have hands-down had the best flashbacks of all characters - three-for-three with Desmond and six-for-six with Locke. You won't find any crappy story lines about cursed tattoos with those two!

Most people I talked to thought the episode was fine, but they COMPLETELY MISSED the BIGGEST CLUE in the episode! You can see if you can be counted in with those people or not shortly, and then see if your opinion of the episode changes.

But before we get into that... how could anyone not love Jin telling the ghost story, complete with the flashlight to his face? That was, honest to God, one of my favorite scenes in the entire series thus far. Totally classic. Many people also enjoyed the "Colonel Bogey March" whistling scene as the guys trekked along the beach.

And I always like it when the title of the episode is especially clever. Not only is "Catch-22" the book that fell from the parachutist's backpack, it is also a term used for a "no-win" situation... when you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't. And that's definitely what Desmond found himself struggling with - should he let Darth Hoodie die in order to be reunited with his true love? Or could he not bring himself to be responsible for someone's death when he knew he could prevent it - even if that meant forsaking his happy reunion and possible rescue from the island?

Let's move into the analysis... and get the lame love-quadrangle update out of the way first.


TROUBLE IS A WOMAN

I am very much OVER the Sawyer-Kate-Jack-Juliet sub-plot. They all have a lot of other things to be worrying about, wouldn't you think? Juliet needs to worry about why she can only make one facial expression - and why Smokey took pictures of her. Sawyer needs to worry about all of the nicknames he needs to unleash with a vengeance after his punishment is lifted - and why he threw $8 million worth of diamonds into the ground. Jack needs to worry about why he now sucks so badly - and how Sayid is going to usurp his Lostaway Leader title. And Kate needs to worry about not being the next one to get pregnant - and why Juliet was able to karate-flip her in the game room. A Phil Collins Greatest Hits tape is going to do no one any good when The Others return!!!

While we will cover more about Penelope much later, since this section is all about love, I will include here a fan's note about the significance of Penelope asking/telling Desmond to help her take the wine to Carlisle:

"In traditional folklore, "The Lady of Carlisle" was beautiful and virtuous and would not give herself to any man unless he could prove to her that he was of "high honor" and "High degree." Two men vied for her heart, one a soldier and one a sailor. She "threw her fan into the lion's den" and said that whichever man was brave enough to return her fan would gain her heart. The soldier would not risk his life for her love, but the sailor said he would return her fan or die. He entered the lion's den, retrieved her fan, and won the lady fair!

When Penny mentioned the city of Carlisle I thought immediately of this legend - Desmond being both a soldier and a sailor. As a soldier he was running from Penny, but as a sailor he was prepared to risk his life to "prove himself worthy" of her."



'95 WAS A GOOD YEAR (BUT THEN AGAIN, NOT REALLY!)

So my original plan for this section was to list all these cool things to remember about 1995, and then mention the Monk Wine along with them, all sneaky-like. But then I actually looked up 1995 to jog my memory, and a whole bunch of pretty depressing stuff happened in that year. Even the things I could refer to from pop culture ended up having not-so-funny things happen with those same topics in later years, so... I got nothin'.

Except that it's when we know Desmond's flashback took place because it was the year on the wine label.

Other people on the boards said that it was in 1996 that he broke up with Penny (this was gathered from his previous flashback), and after that proceeded to join the Royal Army, go to jail, and then enter the sailing race. I was quite surprised that they went even further back in Desmond's life rather than showing us, say, his time in the Army and perhaps why he was kicked out (as most people figured they would do), but I'm really glad they showed us how he and Penny first met. And how he basically ran away from his previous girlfriend (actually, fiancée) right before their wedding. Speaking of that...


BITTER RUTH

When the guy busted into the monastery and clocked Desmond in the face, I thought, "Oh, I get it, he was just using the monastery as a hiding place because he had been involved in some sort of crime and people were looking for him." But, I was wrong. He had actually bailed out on his attacker's sister, Ruth, right before he was supposed to get married to her:

DESMOND: OK, yes, I was scared about the wedding, so I had a few pints too many, maybe I, I raised my eyes, and I asked am I doing the right thing, and that's the last thing I remember. And when I woke up, I was lying on my back in the street, and I dunno how I got there and, there was this man standing over me, Ruth. And he reached out his hand and he said to me, can I help you, brother. And the first thing I noticed was the rope tied round his waist, and I looked at him and I knew, I knew, I was supposed to go with him. I was supposed to go with him, I was supposed to leave everything that mattered behind, sacrifice all of it, for a greater calling.
RUTH: Well it's a good thing a bloody shepherd didn't help you up, or as I suppose you'd be off with the sheep, wouldn't you? Next time you want to break up with someone, Des, don't join a monastery. Just tell the girl you're too bloody scared.

There were five things I thought were of note in this scene:

1) Ruth is NOT cute and was not a good fit for our favorite Scotsman!
2) The ten bazillion crosses hanging all over the place - definitely playing up the religion theme again big-time with this episode (more on that later).
3) The fact that Ruth challenged Desmond to be upfront when he was going to leave his next girlfriend, rather than just running away. We know that he didn't follow that advice in his relationship with Penny when he randomly broke up with her for no good reason.
4) Ruth mentioned that if he had been found by a shepherd, he'd be off with the sheep now. Many people on the boards mentioned that he IS now with a shepherd... Jack Shephard, and has become part of the "flock" of Lostaways (hey, I just report what I read, OK?), and...
5) Desmond's explanation for how he ended up with the monks (he blacked out and awoke with a monk standing over him) was very bizarre AFTER having noticed THIS on Monk Guy's desk:

Say it with me now, "BOO-YA!!!"

WHEN IS A MONK NOT A MONK?

When he has a picture of Freaky Jewelry Store Lady on his desk!

Before I get into this, I just need to give MYSELF some major props for spotting the picture (which was shown for two milliseconds rather than the usual one millisecond to MAKE SURE people noticed it) without the aid of Tivo - shout-out to KG and EG for kickin' it old-school in their condo! Anyway, I nearly choked on my own gasp of breath after witnessing the picture flash by. And I was shocked by the number of people I talked to the next day - at least a dozen - who had not seen it.

HAVE I NOT TAUGHT YOU PEOPLE ANYTHING?!?!

Really, I give up.

Click to see the picture in the context of the scene when Desmond was leaving the monastery.

For me, this moment made the entire episode. I can only assume that the producers allowed such a horribly-pasted-together picture to be used as a prop because they wanted people to notice it and start theory-mongering. As a funny side note, there is actually a theory that the photo was purposely made to look fake because depending on what happens in Desmond's life, the people in the picture change out "Back to the Future with peeps vanishing from the family photo"-style! Do I think that could be the case? No, I do not.

Other people think that the picture was made to be so obvious because that way we would know that Desmond himself probably saw it several times, and that therefore his previous flashback ("Flashes Before Your Eyes") was just a jumble of memories from his past, and that woman from the monk's picture was inserted into his trippy experience as the Freaky Jewelry Store Woman. Do I think that could be the case? No, I do not. This one I have more to go on, because the producers confirmed in a podcast that Desmond DID experience those things and go back in time. So I can only trust that they are not trying to mess with us.

[Pause]

I can't believe I just said that.

So what DO I think is the significance of that woman being in the monk's picture? While I am not going to spend time thinking of who exactly she is in relation to the monk (sister, etc.), I think that there are a few plausible explanations for why he knows her and how, if at all, it has relevance to Desmond:

1) It has no relevance, it was just another one of those coincidences of characters being thinly linked by a common acquaintance, none of which have proven to be hugely significant in the show so far (because remember, it's usually only the viewing audience that knows about the link, not the characters themselves).

2) Both Freaky Lady (I can't keep writing it all out) and Monk Guy have the ability to see the future and/or jump around in time, and they know what is supposed to happen with Desmond, so they ensure that he doesn't get married to Ruth (which is why Desmond doesn't actually remember passing out - they probably drugged him to ensure Monk Guy was standing over him when he awoke) and also ensure he meets Penny. Does that seem evil for a monk to do? Not if he knows that there are bad consequences if Desmond's life doesn't unfold as planned. Remember that Freaky Lady had told Desmond that if he didn't do his thing pushing the button on the island that "every one of us" would die. You may ask, however, "Why would they need to ensure anything with Desmond if the universe is always able to "course correct" itself?" Because maybe they learned that sometimes the universe does NOT course correct, and they only learned that when Desmond himself started being able to jump around in time after he turned the fail-safe key.

Yes, this is all very complicated, but basically the premise is that at some point in time after Desmond turned the fail-safe key, he was able to jump around and relive different parts of his life. And when he did so, he started changing things, which ended up causing a domino effect with other events changing later as well. So people like Freaky Lady and Monk Guy need to step in more and more to make sure things go the way they "should." In this theory, FL and MG (getting really lazy now) are not even affiliated with anyone from the island, they are just kind of lone rangers protecting the universe, if you will.

3) Another theory keeps much of what is discussed above the same, except that FL and MG ARE affiliated with either DHARMA or The Others or some other group related to the island. In this scenario, much of Desmond's life has been orchestrated, even his meeting of Penny, as Widmore Corporation, her father's company, was hinted at having a long-standing relationship with the monastery. Some even wondered if his "vow of silence" was actually a subtle training tactic for his excess of alone time in the hatch years later. There are too many variations on this overall theory to write them all out, but some of the most important things to think about include:
- If FL and MG are somehow affiliated with the island, is it because Widmore Corporation (as well as Mr. Widmore himself) also has something to do with the island? Did Penny's dad want Desmond to end up on the island? And if so, was that because he thought that it would be a way to keep Desmond away from his daughter for good, or was it because he actually wanted Desmond to find something out about the island (unknowingly - like he was part of an experiment)?
- If you believe the above, then is it possible that Penny was a part of the scheme but then ended up falling for Desmond? Or was everything about Penny fake from the beginning - she was just with Desmond as part of the master plan, which is why she came back to find him years later after he left prison rather than just staying out of contact.
- Was perhaps only Freaky Lady involved with the island, but she influenced Monk Guy (because of whatever relationship she has with him) to get Desmond to join the monastery and then ensure he met Penny?


I am not sure what I make of this whole mess. I would like to believe that Penny is good and has perhaps now (in present time) found out what happened to Desmond, knows that her father is involved somehow with his disappearance, and therefore was able to figure out that she needed to look for an electromagnetic anomaly to find him again. So I don't really buy the fact that absolutely EVERYTHING was a set-up, including her relationship with Desmond. However, I think there is now a high possibility that either FL or MG had been involved in Desmond's life from an early point without him even knowing it, but I am not sure if they are connected to the island necessarily.

Anyone else have any other ideas?

I'M SETTING BOOTY TRAPS.
YOU MEAN, 'BOOBY TRAPS?'
THAT'S WHAT I SAID! BOOBY TRAPS!

I want everyone to thank me right now for NOT including the nas-tay picture of Charlie with the arrow through his neck that is on all other Lost blogs. No one needs to see that again.

Including Desmond, apparently. At the ultra-last second, he decided that he couldn't go through with his plan of just letting Darth Hoodie suffer Death by Crazy French Chick's Arrow-Trap.

I do think that starting off the episode with Desmond's premonition (thereby fooling us into thinking it was actually happening) was a powerful tactic. It made me feel even sorrier for Desmond for being cursed to see the future. Who wants to see violent scenes like that all the time? Perhaps that should be the motivation for him to just let Darth Hoodie kick the bucket - no more gruesome visions!

Or maybe Desmond just needs to pay closer attention to his own visions - because many fans pointed out that, as you can see here, Charlie is still shown in the parachute flash. So if he had actually died because of the arrow, he shouldn't be in that future flash, since their rescuing of the parachutist happened after the trek through the jungle when the arrow trap was sprung. Some people took this to mean that Desmond was shown the arrow flash in order to prevent Charlie from dying, and the parachute flash proves that he was meant to still be alive later. I'm not sure about this one - quite honestly I think this could just be a film-editing goof.

Or... they are just getting frickin' lazy! Seriously, check out this comparison of screenshots from this episode and Desmond's previous flashback!

When I first saw the series of flashes, I thought to myself, "those looked like PAST scenes with Penny." Now when I look closely at the comparison in the link above, it seem certain that all they did was turn the background green to make it appear that Penny and Desmond were being reunited in the jungle or something. Stuff like that MAKES ME MAD! They better address this on the next podcast, that's all I have to say! But for now, we are left to wonder which of these scenarios is the correct one:

1) All of Desmond's flashes are from the future, and even though the producers were totally lazy in reusing a past frame of Penny and not chopping Charlie out of the parachute flash, the bottom line is that Charlie WAS meant to die and Penny WAS meant to show up on the island. Because Desmond saved Charlie, someone else showed up on the island.
2) Some of Desmond's flashes are from the future and some are from the past, but he was just so blinded by wanting to see Penny again that he wasn't paying close enough attention. So the parachutist was never supposed to be Penny in the first place, he was seeing old flashes of his time with Penny. It should also be noted that ALL of Desmond's flash sequences have a weird tint to them, so maybe this was truly supposed to be a flash from the past and people were just reading into the greenish hue in the background.
3) Desmond's flashes can be of both things that are going to happen no matter what, and things that can he can change, and if you pay enough attention, the flashes can even subtly show the outcome of how Desmond chooses to take action on his visions. This is why they showed both Charlie dying and being alive at a later point in time.

I am going to run with Option #1 above just for simplicity's sake. Yeah, right - it's still not simple! Because if we assume that all of Desmond's visions were from the future and chalk those two points covered above up to just being mistakes, then I still do not understand WHY Desmond thought that letting Charlie die versus saving him was going to have an effect on WHO the parachutist was? That just makes no sense to me. Surely Desmond didn't think that whether Charlie lived or died at that one moment could that have CHANGED who was under the helmet? I mean, the person was already on the island by that point in time. So did the bodies suddenly switch out or something? I didn't really get what the connection between the two events was, other than that, at a very high level, Desmond seemed concerned that he wasn't able to bring himself to let the visions happen as he had seen them. He seemed to be thinking at the end of the episode that it was a "test from above" that he was failing because he kept trying to save Charlie. When I would actually look at that the opposite way - wouldn't he fail if he let Charlie die when he could have done something about it? I think Desmond is drawing faulty conclusions.

BIBLE SCHOOL


One of the biggest debates on the boards this time around was regarding the parallel that many people drew between the Bible story Monk Guy discussed with Desmond about Abraham being tested and Desmond himself being tested by his visions:

[He looks at the “Moriah Vineyards” label]
DESMOND: Moriah. I find the name the brothers have chosen for the wine made here interesting.
MONK: And why is that brother?
DESMOND: Well Moriah's the mountain where Abraham was asked to kill Isaac. It's not exactly the most festive locale, is it.
MONK: And yet God spared Isaac.
DESMOND: Well one might argue then, God may not have asked Abraham to sacrifice his son in the first place.
MONK: Well then it wouldn't have been much of a test, would it brother? Perhaps you underestimate the value of sacrifice.

... and nine years later on the island...

DESMOND: Because if I'd told you the truth you wouldn't have come.
CHARLIE: Oh and you needed me to come. Cause I was part of your vision. You thought that the only way you could get your girl back was if I took an arrow in the head. You would have sacrificed me!
DESMOND: If the flashes don't happen exactly how I saw them, the picture changes. I was supposed to let you die, Charlie.
CHARLIE: What's that supposed to mean?
DESMOND: It means it's bloody pointless. I keep saving your life, and what good has it done? It's just gonna keep happening again and again, maybe that's the point, eh? Maybe it's a test.
CHARLIE: Test?
DESMOND: Like God, testing Abraham, except I failed, because I changed what I saw.

The scenes above have caused a lot of people to jump to the following conclusion:
Desmond is Abraham and Charlie is Isaac. Therefore, Desmond is supposed to "sacrifice" Charlie in order to fulfill his visions, but Charlie WILL END UP BEING SAVED by either divine intervention or some other means. The key is that Desmond absolutely cannot intervene, but he keeps doing so.

You may be thinking, "Hmmm, I can see that, but didn't e write a few months back that she thought that the show would be taking a pretty depressing stance on existence if Charlie actually dies, therefore proving that "you cannot change your fate and everything is pre-determined?"" Yes, I did write that, and I still believe that. Although I wouldn't be sad if Darth Hoodie was sent to the Big Hatch in the Sky, I do think it would be a somber turn for the show if he was to actually die because he was "supposed to." Soon, word would spread across the Lostaways that Desmond had foreseen Charlie's death and wasn't able to stop it, and Desmond would become even more of an outcast than he already is, and everyone else would probably lose any motivation they have left since their fate is apparently already sealed.

There is proof, however, that they could be leading the viewing audience toward another Charlie Dies!-fake-out. And the third time will most surely be the charm (the first was when he was hung from the tree by Ethan, the second was the arrow vision (we didn't actually SEE the other visions, so they weren't fake-outs for the audience)).

Shout-out to my brother for unearthing this crazy clue (among many others in this write-up)...

Back in Hurley's last flashback, Charlie was wearing a "Bob Dylan's Highway 61" t-shirt. You may be like me and think, "I don't know what that is - I don't like people who mumble and don't comb their hair!" But then you would not know that the Mumblemeister's song in question has these suspiciously-relevant lyrics:

Oh God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son"
Abe says, "Man, you must be puttin' me on"
God say, "No." Abe say, "What ?"
God say, "You can do what you want Abe, but
The next time you see me comin' you better run"
Well Abe says, "Where do you want this killin' done ?"
God says. "Out on Highway 61."

It is moments like this that the writers and producers redeem themselves for all of the other little mistakes they make on the show. Because if they really did have Charlie wearing that t-shirt back in that episode so that some nerdalicious geek would realize the connection to the Bible story discussed on the show months later, then that is pretty damn brilliant. Just like when Charlie was singing "And maybeeee, you're gonna be the one that saves me...." from Wonderwall when he met Desmond in "Flashes Before Your Eyes." I love that stuff.

Lastly, one other smaller point that I don't want to lose sight of is that in the Bible, the son of Isaac is Jacob. And we all know that The Others love them some Jacob!


IT'S DEFINITELY NOT A BIRD *OR* A PLANE

For people majorly into comic books, the "Superman vs. The Flash" debate between Charlie and Hurley spawned an onslaught of theories about the "deeper meaning" of why these fictional heroes were included in the dialogue. I didn't even realize that The Flash was played by four different characters within comic-land, so I am not going to do justice to any of the theories. Just know that most of them have to do with time travel and parallel universes. If you MUST know more, then you can get your Flash fix here.



ALOHA!!

So Charlie doesn't kick the bucket just yet, and they continue on in the jungle to rescue the mystery person trapped up in the tree. On the way, they find a Hula girl doll on the jungle floor, and various other items in a backpack. People were FREAKING OUT on the boards that we had seen this doll before, and then a race ensued to see who would be the first one to find the screenshot from a previous episode. Except that no one did. Some people were positive that a similar doll had been in Hurley's Hummer, or in Kate's truck... but no proof was found.

If YOU have actual proof of this doll appearing before in the series, then leave a comment with the link to the screenshot and you will be a hero to thousands.

For now, we can only concern ourselves with the things that appear to be more immediately relevant: the picture copy, the book, and the phone (click here to see a collage of all backpack items).

- The picture copy: There has been a raging debate on the boards about whether there were two copies of the Desmond/Penny picture, or only one. The producers settle that debate below in the Podcast Debrief section. To me, the obvious meaning of the picture is that whoever this chick is, she was most likely sent by Penny, especially since she said "Desmond..." at the end and he didn't seem to recognize her.

- The book: The book is in Portuguese, yet another clue that the parachutist was most likely sent by Penny, as the dudes in the tent at the end of Season 2 who called her to report the electromagnetic anomaly also spoke Portuguese. Why they appeared to be in the Arctic remains a mystery.

- The phone: Two things about the phone: It appears to be a phone that is more modern than they would have back in 2004. Also, before it went dead, it was getting "three bars" for its signal. The overwhelming consensus is: "Sayid can fix it!"

THE ISLAND NO LIKEY AIRCRAFT

One thing I am consistently amazed by when reading the message boards is how much "stuff" all these random people know. There's always some doctor who is chiming in or some psychologist or, in this case, someone who knows a lot about helicopters. Apparently helicopters do not have the ability to fly very far. And people typically do not parachute out of them, either. This has lead people to wonder if there is some sort of base nearby that the helicopter came from, and if the woman actually knew she was going to have to launch herself out.

I personally wondered, "What made the helicopter crash?" There was definitely a grinding metal sound, so I thought either the engine died or... the helicopter ran into an invisible force field! But then I wouldn't be able to explain how the woman got through the force field. Unless it was just some sort of field that messed with machinery... or maybe the magnetic forces on the island were wreaking havoc on its navigation system. Who knows.

All I do know is that there is a lot of debate on the boards about who the girl is. I already stated my opinion above - I think she was sent by Penny. Others think she is somehow connected to Ben because they claim she was in a picture in his office. Since I cannot find a clear shot of it, I can't include it here. I saw a marked-up screenshot, and I do not think it is the same woman in the slightest.



PRE-D.O.C. THEORY ROUND-UP

If you don't know what D.O.C. stands for yet (the title of the next episode), it is covered in the Podcast Debrief below. I will give you a hint - it ain't about eyewear!

It seems from the previews that the next episode is going to center around Sun after she learns what happens to pregnant women on the island. Many people anticipate that we may get an answer to the "who is Sun's baby daddy" ongoing debate. So in preparation for that possibility, here is a recap of the most prominent theories:

1) Sun was having an affair with Baldy (real name: Jae) before leaving for Australia, and therefore the baby is his, especially because Jin was infertile.
2) Even though Jin was not able to father children (which he doesn't even know, he thinks Sun was sterile) in the real world, the island performed yet another miracle and the baby is actually Jin's.
3) Shout-out to K.O. for the theory that The Others impregnated Sun via injection, as we know Juliet has done before with the male mouse and with her sister. While we have not seen any evidence that this was done, there are a lot of other things that have been revealed via flashbacks that we didn't know beforehand, either. So it is a possibility.
4) It is "The Island's" baby. No one physically impregnated Sun, she just "became" pregnant.
5) It is someone else's baby that we don't even know of yet. Because we all know that Sun is a play-ah (from the Himalayaaaaas!).

Regarding the problem of pregnant women dying on the island, my dear friend B.K. offers this very plausible theory: "In the psuedo-science of LOST, perhaps there is a correlation between the pregnancy problems and the cancer cures. The island soups up the immune responses for anyone living on the island, getting rid of any cancer in the bodies of people on the island. Didn't Juliet mention that the mothers' bodies were rejecting the fetuses because their bodies were attacking the fetuses as if they were something foreign? Well, perhaps that same biological response working in both cases."

I think this is a very possible explanation. Benry could actually know about this phenomenon (and didn't necessarily share it with Juliet), which is why he was ultra-surprised to find out that HE had a tumor (which still would be inexplicable).

OFFICIAL PODCAST DEBRIEF

As in previous posts, this section was written in transcript format, covering the official podcast done with the producers where they make random comments and answer fans' questions. It does contain what could be considered minor spoilers about whether we will or will not get answers to certain questions, and it even actually answers a few questions. But skip it if you don't even want to know what will eventually be covered in the series. Rest assured that I left out anything that *I* wish I hadn't heard.

Q. Did someone push Jae (Baldy) out of the window?
A. I can see how someone would have thought that, but he did have the pearl necklace. From the script, it was clear that he committed suicide. But the way they edited it, I can see why people wondered. I think the character who played Baldy wished there was more to it, but there's not. He is dead and he jumped himself, no one pushed him.


Q. Did Desmond change things by letting Charlie live?
A. He did probably change things, so there may be new iterations of how Charlie is supposed to die now. The real question is, "Are they just postponing the inevitable? Is there some way for Charlie to lift the premonition that he's going to die? What if Desmond were to die and the flashes stopped - would Charlie then still have to die?"


There were TWO copies of the pictures at the end of Flashes Before Your Eyes - Desmond had one, Penny had one. In the book was a copy of Penny's picture.

You will find out who the parachutist is very soon.

The cable is the same one that Sayid found way back in "Solitary" in Season One, and that Hurley found again later when he was going back to find Rousseau to get the battery. We are surprised that no one is asking the question, "What is this wire?!?!"

We promise you that you will find out where that wire leads this season.

D.O.C. stands for Date of Conception. Sun is going to just open up an envelope and it will tell her who the father is [e: they are joking about that part].


Q. Was Ben conceived in a test-tube or does he have human parents? Was he conceived on one of the islands? Who was the father of the baby of the woman who died on the table in "One of Us" - was it Ben?
A. Ben was not conceived in a test-tube, he has human parents. He says he was born on the island, but he has never mentioned his own conception. Not sure if we can believe him about being born on the island. Ben was not the father of that woman's baby.


Q. Did baby Aaron say "Claire" in the last episode?
A. No.


Q. Since it would be odd to travel by a submarine all the way from Miami to the South Pacific, is it reasonable to believe that a flight was taken to some intermittent stop where they then got on the submarine?
A. That would be a reasonable theory.


Q. Is Jacob like "The Cobra" on Exposé? Is Jacob going to end up being someone we've seen before that we're shocked to find out is actually Jacob just like Hurley was shocked to find out that Mr. LaShade and the Cobra were one in the same?
A. It would be awesome if Jacob turned out to be Billy Dee Williams, but that is not true. But it will be a shock. [e: see how they did NOT really answer that question?]


Q. I am so sick of people saying that Jack's father, Christian Shephard, is not really dead. Please confirm that he is dead.
A. He is dead.


Q. Why is the art so similar between that in Desmond's apartment, that in Widmore's office and that created by Claire's boyfriend, Thomas?
A. Well... busted! This is because our producing director (Jack Bender) is an artist. And he decides to add his touch to the show. That is his artwork in both episodes, and that's why it looks so similar. Nothing more. The hatch mural, the artwork in Widmore's office, it was all him.


Q. Are we ever going to see a Rousseau flashback? If so, please include Montand and his missing arm.
A. We want to do one, we just haven't gotten there yet. But if we do, it will definitely not be complete unless we see Montand. rent "Wages of Fear," which was the inspiration for Montand.



BEST LINES OF THE EPISODE


DESMOND: Hey. Where's the wire?
HURLEY: D'you eat those mushrooms Jack warned us about?



[Jack grabs the kit and gives it to Desmond]
DESMOND: Thanks.
[Jack notices Hurley staring out into space]
JACK: Something wrong Hurley?
HURLEY: Nah, uh uh, just, keeping Desmond here company. Cause... we're... friends.


SAWYER: You know, did you tell the Doc? About you and me.
KATE: No. But he knows. He saw us on one of those surveillance monitors.
SAWYER: Thought you said the camera was broken?
KATE: Well they had another camera.
SAWYER: [Mumbles] Perverts.
KATE: Anyway, he knows.
SAWYER: Well now that, that's out the way, maybe a little afternoon delight.



JIN: Camping?
HURLEY: Yeah, you know, like sleeping under the stars, fire on the beach. Marshmallows.
JIN: [Nodding] Camping.
[He stands thinking]
JIN: Yes.
HURLEY: [To Desmond] Everybody likes marshmallows.



RUTH: Desmond. You can never begin to explain what you did. You left one week before the wedding, everything was planned bought and paid for. You just disappeared completely.
DESMOND: I had a calling.
RUTH: We dated for six years, and the closest you ever came to a religious experience was Celtic winning the cup.



[At the beach, Juliet is working on her tent with Jack]
JACK: You a doctor or a carpenter?
JULIET: What, your dad never taught you to use a hammer?
JACK: No, my dad taught me how to drink.
JULIET: Oh, at least it's something.
SAWYER: Hope I'm not interrupting. You two arguing over who's your favorite Other?


JIN: Walkie-talkie!
HURLEY: [Taking it] No dude. That's a satellite phone.
[He turns it on, but it quickly turns itself off]
HURLEY: Crap, it's dead.
CHARLIE: Shocker.



KATE: What's this?
SAWYER: Your mix tape.
[Kate laughs]
SAWYER: Well, you gonna take it or ain't ya?
[Kate does so]
KATE: The best of Phil Collins, huh.
SAWYER: Don't get picky. And if Bernard asks, I don't know a thing about it.


JIN: Who's Penny?
HURLEY: She's this chick Desmond used to date. And now he thinks she fell from the sky. So we're gonna go save her life, and she's gonna get us rescued. Dude, even if I spoke Korean it wouldn't make any sense.





WISE WORDS FROM THE BOARDS

- Is it just me, or is Desmond channeling Barry Gibb from the Bee Gees?
- Those character moments, like the whistling of the "Colonel Bogey March," or Jin's ghost story, were why I fell in love with this show in the first place. Great, great stuff!
- And holy crap on the opening! And the tent sex! So that's why they moved the show to 9:00...
- Monks crating wine. Awesome!
- I was not expecting Sanjaya to show up though, that was cool.
- Nice to know Bernard is still alive.
- After Catch 22 I began to think that perhaps Desmond's visions were being sent to him by some outside source. I started thinking about this because of the paradox presented by Des' flash. He never would have trekked into the jungle if he hadn't seen the vision in the first place. The vision did not in fact predict the future, but rather created it. This is known as a predestination paradox.
- One other thing we learned in Catch 22 is that Desmond's life has been directed and adjusted according to some third-party's idea of what Desmond's life should be like. The fact that brother Campbell was in on it shows that this conspiracy goes really deep.

UPCOMING EPISODES

4/25 - D.O.C. - Preview 1, Preview 2 and Preview 3! Each has a slightly different part at the end.
5/2 - The Brig
5/9 - The Man Behind the Curtain
5/16 - Greatest Hits (previously called 'The Truth About Lying')
5/23 - Through the Looking Glass - TWO-HOUR SEASON FINALE and special episode afterward

We've arrived at the Final Four! Can you hear my brain melting down from there?

Forewarning: I am going to be traveling until Monday, so there is a good chance I may not get the "D.O.C." post up the night of May 1st. I will leave a short message on the site if this is going to be the case.

Until then, enjoy the next episode,
- e

S3Ep8 - Flashes Before Your Eyes (Desmond's second "flashback")

Hello my dear friends -

Several of you have written me with various expressions of awe and wonder regarding "Flashes Before Your Eyes." I will second those who loved the episode - anything trippy like that I am going to enjoy. Plus, I love me some Desmond, so I was bound to like whatever was on the screen that revolved around him.

But I must forewarn you before you start reading this write-up... if you think that I can possibly explain with any level of certainty WHAT THE HELL happened in this episode, you might as well stop reading now. I am just as confused as everyone else. While I am always stressed out when creating these write-ups because of the time pressure, I have never been outright INTIMIDATED to write one like I am now. As I'm sure you can imagine, there are literally thousands of different takes on this episode, and because I, unlike Desmond, AM enslaved by time and space, I need to just stop reading different fan theories or I'm never going to get this thing posted. That being said, I have scoured the boards and pulled together the main theories, and doing that did help me to at least understand what MIGHT have been going on. I'm left with the belief that we need at least one more Desmond flashback to be clear as to what actually transpired. If you have another idea as to what happened or have heard of another credible theory that I missed, by all means, please leave a comment at the end of the post.


THAT. JUST. HAPPENED!

Hands down, the biggest debate raging on the boards is whether or not Desmond's "flashback" was real or a dream. I hesitated putting this topic upfront in the write-up because it is so massive, but basically everything else in the episode hinges off of your interpretation of what Desmond's "flashback" actually was (and from here on out I'm still going to call it a flashback even though it might not have been, and I'm dropping the quotation marks!).

Here is something to consider as we dissect the episode: Entertainment Weekly asked Damon Lindelof, one of the executive producers, to give them a ten-word hint about Desmond's episode (before it aired), and his answer was: "Riddle me this — When is a flashback not a flashback?"

Hmmmm, very enlightening... NOT (yes, I liked Wayne's World, deal with it)! All we clearly know from that lame hint is that this was not a "normal" flashback - meaning that it not was purely a memory of something that had happened in the character's past as it actually happened.

Another hint from the producers was in the recent cover story in EW that I linked to in the last write-up: ...they would be employing a flashback technique "in a way we never have before and never will again."

On to the arguments of what exactly it was that we watched for the majority of the episode...


DREAM ONNNNN, DREAM ONNNNN!

The people taking the "dream" stance believe that everything that happened in the flashback was just bits of Desmond's memories all jumbled together. They essentially disconnect the flashback from Desmond's new ability to see flashes of the future. In their argument, the flashback was just a dream, the future visions are the result of him turning the key and getting zapped, and that's that.

Here is the supporting evidence from the dream-teamers:

- Since Lost has never had a flashback that was just a dream before, this fits with the producers statement above.

- Desmond specifically alludes to it being a dream (Ms. Hawking = thrift shop woman):
DESMOND: This isn't really happening, is it?
MS. HAWKING: Sorry?
DESMOND: I've had a concussion. You're my subconscious.
MS. HAWKING [amused]: Am I?

- This flashback incorporates tons of "memories" from the island: the polar bear in Widmore's painting (and the buddha and the Namaste from the DHARMA video (written backwards at the top of the painting)), the 1:08 on the digital clock, the sound of the countdown beep eminating from the microwave, the "delivery for 815," "Make Your Own Kind of Music" being played at the pub, and even Charlie!

- If Charlie really had had that encounter with Desmond in the past, he would've recognized him the first time he saw Desmond on the island.

- Ms. Hawking stated: "You may not like your path, Desmond, but pushing that button is the only truly great thing that you will ever do." Therefore this MUST just be a dream because we all know that Desmond rocks, right?

- At the end of the episode, when telling Charlie what happened to him after he turned the key, Desmond did not say "I went back in time," he said: "When I turned that key my life flashed before my eyes. And then I was back in the jungle and still on this bloody island. But those flashes, Charlie -- those flashes -- they didn't stop." The dream-teamers interpret that to mean that Desmond knows he didn't really time travel, he just had a wacky dream that mixed his past and his present together, and now he's seeing flashes from the future.


WE'RE OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD...


More evidence that it was all a dream... As has been mentioned in the past, there have been several nods to The Wizard of Oz throughout the series. This episode gave us one of the most obvious - the guy in the red shoes getting killed by the collapsing building. If you remember Dorothy's experience in Oz, it was compiled of people she already knew from her life - the farm hands were the Cowardly Lion, The Scarecrow and the Tin Man, the Witch was the mean Mrs. Gulch, and so on. So the dream-teamers interpreted Desmond's "flashback" to be just a jumbled memory of his past mixed with his current situation on the island. The fact that he can now see clips of the future was something that resulted from his turning of the key, but the "flashback" was neither an actual memory nor the result of time travel, it was a trippy dream mixing in memories of the island, similar to Dorothy's.




REALITY BITES

The people who believe Desmond's flashback was real are split into at least three different sub-factions: 1) those who think Desmond actually did time travel, 2) those who think that Desmond did not necessarily time travel, but that he has REALIZED after turning the key that he is living a span of his life over and over again (or in other words, he is in a time loop), and 3) those who think that there are multiple parallel universes and by turning the key, Desmond had or still has the power to go in and out of them.



SORRY Y'ALL, DES AIN'T NO MARTY MCFLY

I hate to do this, but I'm just going to shut down the "time travel" faction here and now. The reason being is that time travel in its purest sense is when someone goes back (or forward) in time and then there may actually be physically two of them - like when the young Marty McFly (aka Calvin Klein) saw his older self and vice versa in the Back to the Future movies. Or like in The Time Traveler's Wife . Or like in lots of other books and movies about time travel. There were clearly NOT two Desmonds. So he did not time travel in the strictest sense of the term. Plus, he didn't have a time machine like a DeLorean or a phone booth a la Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, so isn't it OBVIOUS that there was no time travel??!?! Yes, I realize that I'm acting like I'm an expert on this. Why I'm acting like I know what I'm talking about here shall remain one of e's many mysteries...

Also, on a much more somber level, the producers said in an interview during Season One that there wasn't going to be any time travel. Granted, they also said that there wouldn't be anything on the show that couldn't be scientifically explained (hellloooo, Smokey tossing Eko all around and killing him...??), so who knows how much we can trust that past statement.


"THOSE WHO CANNOT REMEMBER THE PAST ARE CONDEMNED TO REPEAT IT"

On to the time-loopers... As you know, I have been a proponent of the Time Loop Theory for quite a while, having stated as recently as the last write-up that I thought the skeletons found in the caves in Season One are actually Jack's and Kate's. For many, this episode seemed to narrow the time loop evidence down to only Desmond. I still think that a time loop could be affecting everyone - but I think that Desmond may be the only one that REALIZES it at this point.

The evidence the time-loopers draw from is fairly simple... Desmond is not time traveling because there is only one of him, but when he turned the key and saw not only flashes of his past but also of the future, he realized that he was living part of his life (if not all of it) over and over again. The easiest explanation is that Desmond has only gone through ONE brief time loop, and it happened when he turned the key. It can be illustrated as follows - credit to Sledgeweb for the helpful drawing:

What the drawing above shows is that Desmond's loop was only that short matter of days in which he had the chance to propose to Penelope. If the key-turning was what enabled him to go into the loop, then he most likely has only gone through the loop once. While he was disappointed to be back on the island after he woke up from that hatch implosion, it wasn't like he was completely exasperated (as he most likely would be if he had gone through the loop 100 times already). Also, in the flashback, it seemed like he was just realizing what was going on. Whereas, if he had gone through the loop several times, like Bill Murray did in Groundhog Day, it would be old hat.

Finally, when he wakes up from the hatch implosion, he says:
"Please, let me go back. Let me go back one more time. I'll do it right. I'll do it right this time. I'm sorry, Penny. I'll change it. I'll change it."

If he had gone through several time loops, he would KNOW he was going to go back again. In his pleading speech above, he says "let me go back one more time," which to me seems like something he would only say after it just dawned on him what had happened (that he just went backwards in time, that he COULD have changed things... which is what he was just realizing when he got hit in the bar and switched back to the present).

Additionally, consider the double-meaning of what Ms. Hawking says when Desmond enters the jewelry store:

MS. HAWKING: Never done this before have you?
[Camera reveals Desmond in a second hand shop.]
DESMOND: Is it that obvious?
MS. HAWKING: I can always tell the first-timers.

So what does this all mean for his future flashes? This is why some people think that he must have gone through several loops because he has supposedly "seen" Charlie die two times. Which is a good point! However, for the future flashes, I'm not sure if Desmond has to have actually experienced the events, or if he is just "seeing what could happen." His exact words were: "When I saw the lightning hit the roof, you were electrocuted. And when you heard Claire was in the water you -- you drowned trying to save her." It's fairly vague... so I'm not sure if he was his present self and simply saw two different flashes of the future where Charlie died, or if he actually lived through those two scenarios and is now "remembering them from the future." I hope at this point all of you are pausing and realizing how hard it is for me to attempt to explain all of these crazy-ass theories and scenarios?!!?

ONLY EXTREME NERDS NEED APPLY: THE MPU THEORY

This is where we separate the proverbial men from the boys. The Multiple Parallel Universe Theory - or, The MPU Theory from now on. I think this theory can be best illustrated by one of my top five favorite movies, Sliding Doors. You most likely didn't see it, even though it is Gwyneth Paltrow's finest work, in my humble opinion. The premise of the movie is this... in one scenario, Gwyneth misses the subway train she was trying to catch. In another, she manages to squeeze into the train car. Two parallel lives of hers unfold, showing how differently her life turned out in each because of that one small difference. It can also be called the "What If?" theory. What if you went to another college? What if you took that other job offer? What if you didn't marry who you married? What if you never frickin' started watching Lost? THEN YOU WOULDN'T HAVE A HEADACHE RIGHT NOW, that's for damn sure!

The interesting thing in Sliding Doors (spoiler ahead, so skip this paragraph if you want to rent it - highly recommended...) is that even though Gwyneth's lives took drastically different paths, some major things ended up the same, and the overall point of the movie was definitely one of "whatever is meant to be, will be." This is right up there with the "destiny/fate" argument made by Locke throughout the series. Shout-out to CM for seeing this with me in the theater way back in the day!

I highly suggest you read The MPU Theory in its entirety so you can see exactly how it relates to Lost. As well as to just be amazed by the author's attention to detail and thoroughness. I actually do not agree with some of the finer points of the theory, but overall, I do think it could be very possible that what is going on in the show is that there are several parallel universes and that the island exists in a "nexus" of sorts - where some of the timelines may intersect when the key is turned. Desmond jumped out of his current "life timeline" and into another one, and in that one, he did keep the ring despite Ms. Hawking's warning (at least for a little bit). We don't know what happened after he got hit in the bar, but The MPU Theory would have you believe that he eventually woke up in the bar and then perhaps went and asked Penny to forgive him, and now that Desmond is living happily ever after. A very similar, prominent theory is the Black Hole Theory, which you can read here (scroll down a little bit until you see the "Do Black Holes Explain it All?" heading). And yet another similar theory is that the island is on a ley line. Take your pick!

Sorry that this is kind of a hodge-podge, but below is additional evidence to support either the Time Loop Theory, The MPU Theory, or both:

- Time Loop: Some of Desmond's responses to Jack when they first met in the stadium now eerily make more sense:
JACK: What do you know about sprains, anyway?
DESMOND: I was almost a doctor once.



DESMOND: You must have done something worthy of this self-flagellation.
JACK: I told her -- I made her a promise I couldn't keep -- I told her I'd fix her and I couldn't. I failed.
DESMOND: Right. Just one thing -- what if you did fix her?
JACK: I didn't.
DESMOND: But what if you did?
JACK: You don't know what you're talking about, man.
DESMOND: I don't? Why not?

- Time loop: The brooch the jewelry store woman was wearing was the Ouroboros - a snake devouring itself. Some interpret this symbol to mean "the vicious cycle." I like to associate it with another one of my favorite movies, The Neverending Story. Awwwww, yeah - Atreyu, Bastian and Falkor - rock on wit' yo' bad selves! To me, this is a hint that things are happening in a loop.

- Time Loop: Consider the deeper meaning of Penny's words to Desmond near the end of the episode:
DESMOND: It's all happening too soon -- you moving in. You're painting rooms; you're changing things. I don't even like red. Why would you leave your flat, your expensive flat...

PENELOPE [slapping Desmond's face]: Don't do that. Don't you pretend you don't care. And don't you dare rewrite history.

- MPU: This one is going to be hard to explain because it is so strange. But I tested it out a few times (with four other witnesses)... and... a few full minutes after Desmond wakes up in his apartment with the paint splashed all over him, you can faintly but clearly hear Charlie yell "Get him off of me!" Now, what does that prove? It could be an audio-editing mistake (highly unlikely with this show which is KNOWN for embedding backwards and hidden audio clips). But some people think that it is proof that Desmond fell into a parallel universe where time is moving at a different pace. So, stay with me here... Desmond turned the key and was transported back to his apartment, about 7 years prior. However, back on the island, a few days had passed, and Charlie is now tussling with Desmond in the sand and screams out the cry for help. Since present-day Desmond is now jumping between universes at different points in time, he hears Charlie faintly and then is pulled fully into the past (which is why he doesn't hear anything like that again during the flashback). I know I didn't explain that one that well, but Charlie's voice is definitely there. If you still have the episode, it is a little bit past when Penny gets on the floor with Desmond, chiding him about needing to be more careful (it is not immediately after Desmond wakes up, that's why it's weird).

- MPU: Desmond has said "See you in another life, brotha!" twice now. Once to Locke before he went to turn the key, and once to Jack in the stadium. Some fans think that he literally meant "ANOTHER life" - as in, another parallel life.

- Both: When we first see Ms. Hawking in the second-hand shop, many fans noticed that she is surrounded by tons of different clocks, and they are all pointing to different times.

- Both: When Desmond first sees his professor friend, the professor is talking a student and he says: "Your thesis is a bit neat. The wild card part which is unpredictability -- run the same test 10 times -- you'll 10 different outcomes. It's what makes life so wonderfully..." then he gets cut off. But they didn't just randomly have him say that for nothing!

- Both: Desmond's flashback took place at least 6 or 7 years BEFORE the plane crashed on the island. He still has to join the Royal Scots (the office he passed in the episode), go to jail, train for the race, go on the race, and then spend three years pushing the button before the Lostaways find him. That is why Charlie wouldn't have necessarily remembered Desmond from their brief encounter (debunking the Dream theory). As a side note, I would guess that this would then have to be BEFORE DriveShaft became famous. Which is why I got a kick out of Charlie's "And this is why we don't do drugs!" line when he thought Desmond was insane.

- Both: Desmond uses the exact same wording as Ms. Hawking did when talking to Charlie:

MS. HAWKING: Because it wouldn't matter. Had I warned him about the scaffolding tomorrow he'd be hit by a taxi. If I warned him about the taxi, he'd fall in the shower and break his neck. The universe, unfortunately, has a way of course correcting. That man was supposed to die. That was his path just as it's your path to go to the island. You don't do it because you choose to, Desmond. You do it because you're supposed to.

Back on the island, Desmond says to Charlie: "I've tried, brother. I've tried twice to save you, but the universe has a way of course correcting and -- and I can't stop it forever. I'm sorry. I'm sorry because no matter what I try to do you're going to die, Charlie."

- Both: Here is what the producers stated about this episode: "It'll either blow people's minds or chase them away for good." Now, let's be realistic - If Desmond's flashback was all a dream, it might make a lot of people mad, but that certainly wasn't going to blow anyone's mind. However, a time loop or an MPU would have the power to do either. I think the producers wanted people to know that the show is now going in a fundamentally different direction, and they just threw the stake down with this episode.

OK, now that I have covered the main theories about what Desmond's flashback actually was, we can move into some of the smaller questions raised and observations made during this episode.


SHE WAS ACTUALLY AN OTHER!

The jewelry store woman... she was freaky, no? This is not the first time that actress has played a creepy role - she was the maid in The Others. Her name on Lost is "Ms. Hawking," which many people think is a shout-out to Stephen Hawking (whose book was showcased briefly on the show last week when Aldo was reading "A Brief History of Time").

The people who believe Desmond's flashback was a dream deem Ms. Hawking to be inconsequential, because to them, none of it was real in the first place. But for those who think that Desmond's flashback actually happened, it is actually harder to explain who she is (not to mention her behavior) than it is to explain the MPU Theory! Everyone else in Desmond's flashback acted "normal," however, Ms. Hawking actually acknowledged what was happening to Desmond - that he was living part of his life over again. She knew what was SUPPOSED to happen, and was very upset when he tried to change things. And by the way, if you assume that what Desmond experienced actually happened, then she must be a real person and not some figment of his imagination (as in, "his subconscious") because she actually bought chestnuts from the vendor. Thanks to JB for pointing that out... I had been convinced she was like Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense until I saw another character besides Desmond interact with her. There are many theories on who she is, but I must admit that none of them are really moving me. The two main guesses as to who she is are:

- She may just simply be someone who has also experienced what Desmond is now experiencing (time-jumping), so she is confused and worried that things are not going according to the usual plan... Remember her "I can always spot a first-timer" line. She may have no other significance in the show than that. When she says "And if you don't do those things... every single one of US is dead," she may literally mean everyone in the world, because she believes that keeping the electromagnetic force contained on the island is actually "saving the world." She may also mean that all fellow time-jumpers will die, because they will somehow be caught in between universes.


- She may be an Other or someone working for DHARMA who has a vested interest in ensuring that Desmond ends up on the island pressing the button. I think this is the most likely scenario, because how else would she know so much about Desmond's life? If she was just a fellow time-jumper, she wouldn't know all of the details about his relationship with Penny, the boat race, or the island. In this scenario, when she states that "every single one of US will die," she may mean everyone, but she may also mean just the people on the island, or just a certain sub-set of people. The way she emphasized "US" seemed too blatant to me. She could've just said "Everyone in the world will die!" which would've been more dramatic, but she specifically chose to say "every single one of US will die," so I think there's something to that.

One last point I wanted to bring up before moving on from Freaky Lady is that I was confused by why she was so upset that Desmond was doing something different this time around. It kind of goes against her whole "the universe will eventually course correct" speech, now doesn't it? If she really believed that all outcomes are pre-determined, why did she make such a fuss when Desmond kept the ring? She should've been confident that he would end up screwing it up somehow (which he did, but that's beside the point). It makes me think that she was just bluffing, and that she knows that free will does exist and that people can change their paths if they know they're being given the chance to do so. She did the whole "guy with red shoes dying" bit just for dramatic effect, to really scare the crap out of Desmond. But in the end, it was like she was trying too hard to prove a point that technically she shouldn't have to prove.

Which leads us to the second-most hotly debated topic on the boards...


IS THE HOBBIT REALLY HEADED FOR THE GREAT BIG SHIRE IN THE SKY?

I have to admit that I thought I was awesome about mid-way through the episode. After the guy with the red shoes was squashed and Ms. Hawking gave her "course correct" speech, I paused the Tivo and said arrogantly to my friends, "So do you get what this means?!?!?"

Silence.

"Do you get what this means IN THIS SHOW?!?!?!"

More silence.

"It means that Claire is totally going to die - Desmond keeps trying to save her!"

Ooohs and aaaahhhhs. Oh e, you are so smart. I was thinking to myself, 'it's like I write this show sometimes.' Well, color me fooled at the end when Des did the ol' switcheroo and told Charlie that it had been him he'd been trying to save all along. How great was that?

I am not kidding when I said that this was the second-hottest topic on the boards. I pasted in some of the comments in the last section of this write-up so you could get a flavor for the sentiment out there. There are definitely some Hobbit-haters, that much I'll say. Then there are the romantic people who think that Charlie can't die because of his blooming relationship with Claire and his buddy-ness with Hurley.

I do not think Charlie is going to die, but it's not because I am a delusional LOTR fan, or kidding myself about his role on the island or in the show. I think he won't die because if he dies now, that that will be the equivalent of the producers saying "That's it, we are showing you our cards - there IS NO FREE WILL FOR OUR CHARACTERS. EVERYTHING IS PRE-DETERMINED." I think this episode was meant to fool us, just as Ms. Hawking was trying to fool Desmond, into believing that fate cannot be altered. This has always been one of the main themes of the show - you've got your Jack and the Free-Willers, and you've got your Locke and the Destiny & Faters. If Charlie does die, it will not be until the series finale. But seriously, who would write a show where the main message is, "You are not in control of anything in your life"? I have to believe that they want to show to go out on a more positive note than that. So I think something will happen to prove that Desmond is not doomed to a life of misery, and therefore I definitely do not think that Charlie will die.


I BET YOU MISSED *ALL* OF THIS...

As usual, there were a ton of little things in the show that were cool simply because they were clever, or because they were possible hints. As they don't fit into any neat category, I will just start listing them all out:

- The book from Sawyer's stash:

I personally think that Laughter in the Dark is just a red herring, and doesn't really mean anything for the show. Except that perhaps the producers are Police fans and are excited about the reunion tour?

As one fan so astutely put it, these lyrics sum up the book (this happens to be my favorite Police song, too - bonus!):
It's no use
He sees her
He starts to shake, he starts to cough
Just like the old man in that
Famous book by Nabokov

Now at least I know what book Sting was talking about! How useful.


- Charlie's middle name

Here is what is written about Hieronymus Bosch, who seems to be the only famous Hieronymus: (latinized; also Jeroen Bosch or his real name Jeroen van Aken) (c. 1450 – August, 1516) A prolific Dutch painter of the 15th and 16th centuries. Many of his works depict sin and human moral failings. Bosch used images of demons, half-human animals and machines to evoke fear and confusion to portray the evil of man. The works contain complex, highly original, imaginative, and dense use of symbolic figures and iconography, some of which was obscure even in his own time. He is said to have been an inspiration for the surrealist movement in the 20th century.

A similar sounding term is "Heuronymous machines," which appear in an Indian text called Jantar Mantar. It alludes to these machines as self-hypnotic devices that can raise the mental powers of a human being by many orders of magnitude.

Alas, some people on the boards looked at Charlie's middle name a completely different way (and probably the way it was MEANT to be interpreted!):
"Can't help but notice the word heroin in Hieronymus, maybe a scramble for "Heroin's Yum?"



- Special Tunes

I *loved* these catches!

1) The song playing on the radio when Desmond is dressing is "Building a Mystery" by Sarah McLachlan. Tell me about it, sista! I have not confirmed this, but one person on the boards said the part of the song that's playing is: "Oh you're a beautiful... a beautiful f-cked up man." True dat! Also, note that this song came out in 1997, which meshes with my theory that this flashback was 7 years before the plan crash.

2) The song Charlie is singing on the sidewalk is "Wonderwall" by Oasis. Many people have always joked that DriveShaft was modeled after Oasis (two screwed up British brothers, etc.). However, the hilarious part, in light of Desmond's speech to Charlie at the end of the episode, is that Charlie was singing the part of the song that goes, "And maybeeeee, you're gonna be the one that saves meeeee......" I LOVE IT! As a side note, this Oasis album was released in 1995, and since it wasn't on the radio but rather performed as a cover, that also fits with the timeline mentioned above.

3) The song in the bar, "Make Your Own Kind of Music," was of course the Hatch Theme in the opener to Season Two. There is a lot of contention that this song was chosen to illustrate that people do have control over their destiny and can choose to do whatever they want to do.


- Drink up, boys!

OF COURSE the whiskey that Charlie, Hurley and Desmond so enjoyed had to be symbolic for something... It was "MacCutcheon's" whiskey, and in real life, MacCutcheon was an amateur chess player that beat the current world champion in 1885 by... using a new opening move. I think that ties into the theme of the episode quite nicely! How do they FIND this stuff?


- More connections

Remember way back when, to Claire's first freakadelic flashback? When we met her mean boyfriend who ended up leaving her after she became pregnant? Remember his paintings? How did one end up in Widmore's office?



Since, once again, this flashback most likely happened seven years before the plane crash, and Claire's flashback was just months before the crash, the only explanations are:

1) It was a production error
2) Claire's boyfriend was making knock-off paintings
3) Widmore ended up selling or giving away the painting, or perhaps he died and it was an inheritance? The last we saw of Widmore was before Desmond went on the sailing race, which was about 4 years before the crash, so who knows, he could have died and was possibly related to Claire or her boyfriend, so they collected the painting afterward.

- Blink and you'll miss it...

Big props to the viewers who caught the ever-so-suspicious array of logos surrounding the soccer field during the televised match Desmond and his friend were watching at the pub. Even HD viewers could barely make them all out, but my boy humpy was able to grab a pretty clean shot. Just trust me that the following logos are or were somewhere around the soccer field: Mr. Cluck's Chicken Shack (where Hurley worked), The Hanso Foundation, Bubbies (diapers that DriveShaft made the commercial for), Kronos (don't know what this is, but Chronos is the God of Time), Oceanic Airlines, and of course, Apollo Candy Bars. I've gotten past the point of caring whether this sort of "easter egg" even means anything, I'm just content with thinking that it is cool and that the creators are clever.

- I am... from... The Future!

Another great catch by the HD peeps:Desmond's paint can seemed to be "Future" brand paint? I have never seen that at Home Depot, what gives?



- Enough with the paintings

Above I covered the fact that the painting in Widmore's office was the same one as in Claire's boyfriend's studio. Other people pointed out that the painting in Desmond's apartment also bore a striking resemblance in style to the polar bear painting in Widmore's office. The apartment painting seemed to have hatch-counter-like hieroglyphics in it, too. People assumed that perhaps as they were so similar, that they were both painted by Penny (which could be an explanation as to why they were at both Desmond's place and her dad's). But we do not have confirmation that they are by the same artist, it just seems like stylistically they are extremely similar. And to throw more confusion into the mix, they also look similar to the infamous hatch mural. I figured it out! There's just one dude that they hired to create all paintings that appear on the show!



WHAT'S IN A NAME?


When Desmond David Hume was first introduced on the show, I mentioned that his namesake, the philosopher David Hume, was known for his musings on how free will and fate are entirely intertwined, and how you can't have one without the other. Just wanted to remind you all of that!


SOME FINAL THOUGHTS

In continuing with one of the major themes of the series, Fate vs. Free Will, I now think that the writers are setting Desmond up on the "Fate" side of things. However, he is still very different from Locke in that Desmond is resigned to the fact that he just can't do anything about anything. Whereas Locke is interested in understanding what the universe has in store for him, and then pursuing that with gusto, no matter if it is even something as simple as, say, pushing a button. Now that Locke's brief lack of faith resulted in the disaster that was the hatch imploding, you can bet that he is going to come back full-force on the Fate Train. However, Desmond just seems hopeless about his lot in life. They may be doing this to give credence to the notion that Desmond is supposedly "a coward." The interesting thing is that Desmond is still obviously trying to be proven wrong about how "you can't change it"... because why else would he still be trying to save Charlie?

This leads to something else I've mentioned during Season 2... there is a theory out there that this whole series is actually about Desmond. Kind of like how you learn that the Star Wars series was actually all about Anakin Skywalker much later, when you had originally thought it was about Luke. Follow me? Some people compare the plight of Desmond to that of Odysseus in Homer's The Odyssey... going through trials and tribulations (many taking place on a boat, and on islands, and with monsters...) all just to get back to his love... Penelope. Some have gone even further to speculate that the skeletons in the cave are NOT those of Jack and Kate, but of Desmond and Penelope - who finally are together forever. Morbid? Yes. But very much still possible. Let's not forget that we know from the Season Two finale that she IS trying to find him.

While we're on the subject... WHY is she trying to find him? If you piece together this latest flashback with his first, you know that Desmond does join the Royal Scots, gets kicked out and thrown in jail, wrote to Penny that entire time, but she never knew it because her evil father (Widmore) intercepted the letters. He then decided to enter Widmore's sailing contest to "win back his honor," was given his sailboat by Libby, and during his training, Penny tracked him down at the stadium (right before he first met Jack). He told Penny he would be entering the race and that he would return in a year. Also, at that point, Penny was engaged to someone else. After that, somewhere between three to four years passed between the race itself and Desmond's time on the island before the Lostaways arrived. When we saw the flash of Penny being woken up by a call from the dudes in the arctic who detected the electromagnetic anomaly, we can only assume that it is the present day (at that point, late November, 2004). So why has she been tracking him this whole time?

The guess is that Desmond, during one of his time jumps, somehow got a note to her about what was going on, and gave her direction as to what she should be looking for. That is why I think there has to be at least one more Desmond flashback, to piece that part together. However, if she is Widmore's daughter, she probably already knows that her dad is evil, and could've figured things out on her own. But I prefer the "he left her a note from beyond" theory!


I ADMIT IT, I AM EASILY FOOLED

I need to send a huge shout-out to JB, my brother, and my dad for helping me think through the massive amount of information I had to process in creating this write-up. My family was all together this past weekend, and we re-watched Lost and then talked about everything that possibly could've been going on. My mind would've surely exploded had it not been for their help. I also have to admit to being freaked out by a pretty lame trick. For quite a while now, the clock on my parents' stove has been stuck at 2:17 (long story). All of the other clocks in the house are right, so it really doesn't matter. But there I sat Sunday morning, just beginning to piece together this write-up, and as I gazed out across the kitchen, my eyes fell on the stove clock. It was now 1:08. I'm sure my eyes must have widened, and I know for a fact that my blood definitely ran cold for about 2 seconds. I turned to my brother in the next room, "Did you change the clock?!?!?!" Unfortunately for him, ee is the worst liar EVER. He started laughing, "Uh... no. But I think Dad did."

Ha, ha, very funny. You had me for a few seconds. It actually bothered me that it remained on 1:08 though (and will until someone changes it again). What can I say... I think it is OBVIOUS that this show gets to me...


BEST LINES OF THE EPISODE

[Charlie and Hurley follow Desmond into the jungle to meet with Sayid and Locke.]
CHARLIE: What happened?
LOCKE: Eko is dead.
SAYID: We found his body in the jungle -- buried him yesterday.
CHARLIE: How did he die?
LOCKE: The island killed him.



[Back on the London street.]
DESMOND: You're Charlie.
CHARLIE: Yeah, name's on the sign. [referring to a homemade sign at his feet]
[We see flashes from the island: Inman in his environmental suit; Desmond holding the key; Inman dead with blood on Desmond's hand; Desmond running; the timer with hieroglyphs displayed; "system failure" displayed on the monitor; the execute button; the computer crashing to the ground.]
DESMOND [slightly crazed]: Who -- they -- they. It -- it was in the hatch. I remember seeing you. There was a -- there was a computer. There was a button. We -- we were on an island.
CHARLIE: We are on an island, mate. This is England.
DESMOND [a little more crazed]: No, it was real, man. I remember.
CHARLIE: Hey, alright. [to the crowd] This is why we don't do drugs.





HURLEY: Hey, do you know any songs about drinking and fighting and girls with one leg?
CHARLIE: Well, girls with [Desmond joins in] one leg and a heart of gold!!



[Charlie helps Desmond over to a tree near his tent.]
DESMOND: You're a good man, Charlie. Listen, I'm sorry I tried to strangle you, alright?




WISE WORDS FROM THE BOARDS


- This episode was old school Lost. Meaning, it rocked!
- But this whole situation was just pretty darn weird, even for Lost. It's like The Butterfly Effect, but with better actors.
- Holy crap, it is like Final Destination mixed with Groundhog Day mixed with the Truman Show!
- Hands down the best episode of this season. It left me with the same sort of chills that I felt during the best of the previous seasons. Loved the little touches throughout Desmond's flashback that connected him to the island, the microwave sound, the boat, the painting with the bear and man... Totally amazing episode.
- Well, that was a nice little mindf-ck of an episode. So was that in his head or did the magnetic discharge really get him unstuck in time a la Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse 5?
- I think Claire's bangs are a metaphor. Like she can't see what's in front of her. You know, 'cause of her bangs.
- Hobbit is going to die? Seriously? Without me having to offer my first born as payment?
- Now that Desmond has delivered the sweet, sweet news of Charlie's impending doom, I am more in love that Scottish loser than ever!
- Who gave Claire the bangs she was rockin'? Especially since Kate the hairstylist was on her way to back to the island.
- On the whole, what a brilliant, brilliant way to play with their form, as well as giving us a nice love story for Valentine's Day.
- ...and a mighty cheer erupted across the land, the moment Desmond uttered that final line!
- Guess Charlie was supposed to die back in Season One? And now the series is correcting itself?
- That was an especially wonderful episode, and I laughed aloud when Desmond said Charlie's gonna die based on the enormous cheer I imagined crossing the nation's living rooms.
- Hey Desmond! So does Kate end up with Sawyer or Jack? (Sorry. I couldn't resist.)
- Desmond should be cloned and distributed to women everywhere.
- And potentially dead Charlie is a gift from the gods. Just shut him up for good. His voice is the equivalent of nails on a chalkboard. I don't know if the dead Charlie news was better than the fact that Kate wasn't on this one at all.
- Do you think Charlie will die when Sawyer finds out that Charlie raided his stash?
- Benry, Fionnuala Flanagan and Clancy Brown are all going to try TOGETHER to kill me in my dreams tonight. This show has the freaking SCARIEST people on it!! I want to HIDE! So. Much. Evil.
- Sounds like reincarnation, living the life over and over until they get it right.
- If things ran concurrently, no two paths would cross. But if the the island were a place where these timelines intertwined or wrapped or touched or whatever... you'd see shadows of other lives. You might hear whispers from other timelines.
- Did Dezzy leave a McFly-to-Dr. Brown letter for Penny back in the day? Is that how she knew to look for him? If that's the case, I know how Charlie will die. LIBYANS!
- What if you'd met a different girl, or moved somewhere else, or turned left instead of right? In my original theory, somewhere out there in the spaghetti strands of time, there's a universe where "exactly" each one of those things happened. So what if the island represented a type of nexus for these timelines, drawn there and bent around the strange magnetic fields HANSO came to study?
- I really like the free will vs. fate theme, assuming that's what's going on here. Unless they end up going with fate, of course. Because fate is bullshit. At least one person upthread pondered why Des would go through the motions of fulfilling his "fate" rather than taking a shot at changing things with Penny. I think it goes to the ultimate reconciliation of fate and free will, which Desmond has realized. Of course we have free will. But ultimately, we are who we are, and the choices we make are consistent with our nature, regardless of circumstance. So in the end, "fate" is what we make it. But since "we" are always "us" the decisions we make and actions we take will always result in the "fated" outcome. We can't escape ourselves. No matter how many chances we have.
- Time is limited to the relativity of the finite. The infinite does not experience time linearly, and thus, is exposed to all time at once. The infinite has no beginning and no end, so if Desmond were able to escape the linear time-space continuum, he would experience the infinite. In that space, he would experience all time together as one, since Desmond himself would have no end and no beginning while being within the infinite. Whether or not this is what Desmond experienced is still up for debate. This notion of a finite being touching the infinite was very well expressed in "12 Monkeys", in which Bruce Willis' character starts to experience things from different times at the same point and time in space after enduring time-travel. Characters from his past and future all collide in what he perceives to be the present. The result of this (in 12 Monkeys) is insanity, as the finite brain cannot handle the multiple dimensions of time as represented by the infinite.
- New theories have emerged relatively recently that actually take what would have been considered "extraordinary" science fiction in the past and is now being taken seriously. Multiple universes for example. Also, the idea of there being three dimensions is being questioned in favored of 11 dimensions. Then, of course, Universal String Theory has been all the rage in recent years. Basically, Lost seems to be taking cutting edge scientific theories that are legitimate and putting its own spin on it - but there's enough real credence to support what TPTB have asserted if they choose to go that route.
- The LOST Companion Book is going to be 28,000 pages long. Read it all, and you will automatically earn a PH.D in philosophy. And physics.

UPCOMING EPISODES


2/21/07 - Stranger in a Strange Land - They are promising three huge answers in this episode - do you believe them? The U.S. preview, and the very different Canadian preview

2/28/07 - Tricia Tanaka is Dead

3/7/2007 - Enter 77

3/14/07 - Par Avion

There you have it, folks! Oh, my head!

- e