While all the talk about time loops, time travel and alternatate realities makes for good fodder, what we saw tonight is pretty much explained at the end of the episode by none other than Desmond himself. What may have been one of the most complicated episodes ever actually ends with a pretty simple explanation. Just as Desmond claimed, he turned the key and his life flashed before his eyes. Of course, he was referring to his past life. However, because what he was experiencing were memories of the past, some of his present memories of the Island were filtering in. It is kind of like when you have a dream of something that happended to you a long time ago and you incorporate things in your present life in the dream even though those things have not happened yet according to the timeline of the dream. Then you wake up and say things like," what a weird dream. I was back in college and having a great time drinking with my old fraternity brothers but my present day wife kept calling me between keg stands wondering when I was coming home for dinner and if I would pick up the kids from school."

The bottom line is that Desmond was merely remebering past events while unconscious and incorporating present day events into those past events. The whole discussion with the old lady was just what he said it was. It was his subconscious telling him that he could not change the past no matter how much he tried. Which pretty much makes sense becuase one of the runing themes of Lost is people hiding from their pasts and trying to make amends for it. This episode confimred that you cannot do that. You are stuck with your past whether you like it or not.

That leaves the whole issue of the future visions ocurring on the Island. This is the only part that is hard to explain. The only explanation is to again go back to what Desmond said. His whole life flashed before him. Obviously those flashes were of his entire life which included both past, present and future. As a result, he can see into the future various bits and pieces of the future. The science behind that has yet to be explained. Nevertheless, his ability to see the future on the Island is unrelated to his ability to see his future during the flashback scenes because during the flashback scenes he was not seeing into the future but merely reliving the past through a memory.

If anything this episode was probably a whole to do about nothing. A great episode nontheless but I do not think it really progressed the show much. It reminded me of "Dave" back in Season Two when the writers bascially dedicated a whole episode to Hurley's imaginary firend and the theory that this was all somehow in Hurley's head only to prove that it infact was not a dream and thus debunk the whole "it is all a dream theory." that many were tossing around back then. I believe this episode may have been the writers trying to dispell time travel as a possible theory for what is going on. That is not to say the element of time may not be at play in the show but time travel does not appear to be a viabale explanation of what is happening on the Island.

I completely disagree. I think the old lady was legit, and the huge game-changing bombshell of this episode was that everyone who is on the island has been pushed by figures manipulating fate and chance in order to be on the island. It makes me view every other flashback in the show differently.

Every decision every character makes that propels them to their eventual fate on the island is significant, in my eyes. Jack and his wife, Locke and Helen, probably Locke and his eventual paralysis, Sayid and Nadia, Kate and her running... The list goes on. I would imagine you would find instances of the numbers in some critical moments of these characters.

I actually thought it was an Island induced flashback.The Island's way to tell him that this was the path he needed to take, no matter what sacrifices he had to make (leaving Penny); sort of assuring Desmond that his punching numbers in the computer had a real purpose. It still doesn't explain why he was naked (not that I'm complaining about THAT :biggrin: ). Maybe it was a Terminator reference?? :undecide: BTW I believe the old lady represents the Island.

i agree w/ everything you said, however i'm not sure if his whole life flashed before him (including his future). i think he just gets flashes of what's about to happen (not remembering what has already happened). the reason is because he saw charlie get electrocuted by the lightning, and then he saw him drowning in the ocean. if he could remember what happened persay, he could only remember charlie dying once. since he is continuing to save charlie, he must be getting visions of what's about to happen, and not what already happened.

STH :hug: Stuz!!

Yeah, the eppy might not SEEM to mean much. But it brings in the whole concept of whether fate and destiny can be altered or not--which has been an underlying theme of LOST. Desmond's "dream" simply embodied the arguments, pro and con.

You will notice that no definitive answer was reached. . .because really, no such answer CAN be reached. If "fate" changes, did someone REALLY change it? Or was the change "fated" in the first place? Talk about an endless "loop"! THAT argument is IT! :D

For the moment, Desmond is fatalistic (he has "lost his faith," like Locke did late last season, but has refound it). But this, too, is subject to change (I think!).

Nah, the flash ended when he got wacked so he didn't see his whole life.

This is a great discussion thread... ever since the episode ended, I've been asking myself these same questions, wondering if in fact this episode is simply debunking time-theories, yet constantly returning to the opposite possibility:

1. Desmond clearly didn't "go back in time" so much as he re-lived a particular time frame and (seemingly) made the same decisions (hence, his emotional scene at the hatch-implosion site and Pen's pic: "I'll do it right this time/Let me go back..."). I do believe the old lady in the jewelry shop (from the Nicole Kidman film, THE OTHERS, no less) was his subconscious, not an actual person. I'm not sure exactly what this whole episode represents in the grand scheme of this plotline we call LOST, but certainly Desmond cannot alter his past-- though I DO admit, the question of his interfering with the bartender's head-injury from the incoming patron is truly a head-scratcher.)

2. On the subject of debunking time travel: you cannot just ignore the "easter egg" of Karl's guard reading Hawking book re: time, as well as:

the producers hinting that "Not in Portland" would produce an anagram to the TIMEline of the island, which many have interpreted as "Time Lost" (Mittelos).

This really WAS a mindf*ck episode... but I loved it! And it was centered around Desmond no less!

"...it is your...DESTINY!" :)

I don't know how much hard science can be used to explain anything on Lost; after all, Eko was beaten to death by a smoke monster.

Desmond may not have physically gone anywhere, but I wonder if his mind did the time travelling. Keeping with that idea, his flashes of the future could be mini time leaps.

All good thoughts...but we never get to SEE Desmond's "future flashes"...for instance...He predicted Locke would give a speech....but when that time came...he wasn't even within earshot of Locke...down by the shore skippin rocks in his tie-dye mu mu. So...he knows Locke's speech already?....from the last time he sat through it?

And yes...he somehow knew lightning was about to strike...thus erecting the lightning rod to deflect it...but since we never SAW Des's vision of Charlie laying dead on the sand...we have to take Des's word on it that the bolt would have killed Charlie. Nor did we see Charlie dead in the water...having drowned from trying to save Claire...Does that mean Claire would have died too?

And why not just wait for Charlie to go save Claire...and then swim out and save Charlie THEN? Why lead him & Hurley away from the beach...only to get a vision...and run after Claire...with Charlie so close behind him?

I agree with the OP that Des's little gift...and it's apparent sci-fi trappings...will probably end up having a very rational explanation when it's all said & done.

I can't even begin to tackle whether it really was time travel or not - leaning towards not - but, what about the scene in the bar with his friend where he makes a mistake regarding the soccer score. Wouldn't that scene have never happened? I mean if he specifically went to the pub to discuss time travel....basically where would this memory have come from if it didn't exist?
I guess he may have actually had some drinks with his friend for that memory to exist, but the topic of conversation was altered in his memory due to his confusion and belief of reliving it.

i'm too tired and confused, lol :dongetit: :yawn:

Don't let the whole bartender getting hit scene trip you up. Desmond did not change the past because the bartender was able to duck out of the way. It was all in his mind in the first place. What happened to Desmond was no different than if you had a dream of a past event but in the dream you changed the outcome because you took a different course of action than what actually ocurred. That is all that took place here with Desmond warning the bartender to duck. It was all in Desmond's head and was infact what allowed Desmond to wake up. It kind of reminded me of the Bob Newhart finale where in order to wake up from his dream (which the entire show was based on) he got hit in the head with a golf ball within the context of his dream. Of course, no one claimed Bob Newhart was a time traveler.

I somewhat agree with you. I think the shop lady was Desmond's subconscience. I don't think he could have made any different choices in his life this time around because he was just remembering/reliving this particular part of his life. It was his flash before his eyes and he couldn't change it. I think he already knew this and the shop lady just provided the dialogue for it.

I Still have no clue why he can see things before it happens. Unless what we are watching already happened and he's just remembering/reliving this as well. ??? Lol.

I can't even begin to tackle whether it really was time travel or not - leaning towards not - but, what about the scene in the bar with his friend where he makes a mistake regarding the soccer score. Wouldn't that scene have never happened? I mean if he specifically went to the pub to discuss time travel....basically where would this memory have come from if it didn't exist?
I guess he may have actually had some drinks with his friend for that memory to exist, but the topic of conversation was altered in his memory due to his confusion and belief of reliving it.

i'm too tired and confused, lol :dongetit: :yawn:



well I think the key point to note here is the memory of him and his friend in the bar was in fact incorrect. He thought that was the night of the big soccer game comeback and the cricket bat assault but he was wrong. In fact, in his first go round, he probably wasn't at that pub with his friend since the events that brought him here were ones based on the future. And his prediction was wrong. What he THOUGHT was about to happen in fact didn't, because on that night, during that game, he wasn't at that pub.


But we can assume that his first time around he WAS at the pub on that 2nd night. The night with the comeback, when the same song was playing and the assault occurred.

The neat part is here, we see the first occurence of Desmond making an effort to change significant events in the past. The bartender ducked and that was because of Desmond's knowledge of the event. Right around this time he had resolved that he can in fact go back to Penny, marry her and be happy, regardless of the universe's counter correction. But before he could act on that realization, he woke up back on the island leaving him (and us) to not be sure.

I think that when Desmond said that his "life flashed before his life" his life actually flashed before his eyes. He saw everything that had happened up until his point on the island, but his life isnt over yet, so he saw the rest of his life flash as well. So now, he has bits and pieces of the future still left in his subconscience mind.

Obviously I don't have an exact answer, but people seem to be isolating Desmond remembering his past from what he can now do on the island. If, after turning the key Desmond just had a dream/flashback where he was lucid and felt he could interact with event he had just lived, then he wouldn't have been able to predict Locke's speech, the lightning bolt and Claire in the water.

But his precognitive abilities shouldn't be brushed aside because they are in fact unexplainable. And if they have nothing to do with what we saw in his life in this episode, then we are really back at square one on this and tonight's ep was nothing more than a flashback ep where he was lucidly dreaming and had nothing to do with his abilities. Hard to say for sure. A case could be made both ways.


But I have one question...If Desmond was in fact just dreaming, how come the current picture with Penny is different than the picture they've shown in the past? And I'm not talking about tiny differences but in fact the original picture shown in season 2 eps had the Sydney Opera house in the background, indicating the picture was taken in Australia or against an Australian backdrop...This picture was just of a normal marina...That's not a minor detail that the writers would just forget.

All good theories. I don't think it's a coincidence that he was focusing on Penny right before he turned the key and then WHAM, he's on the floor with Penny nursing him. The old lady seems to be a manifestation of the Island itself, basically telling Desmond everything happens for a reason. Maybe it's a trick so it makes sure Charlie dies? The writers seem to want to address the paradox of time travel. If i were to travel back in time and kill my Grandfather, then what happens to me, how did I even get here? Thus, alot of physicists say that there must be some kind of universal law that prohibits such absurdities to take place, because then everything would go haywire. So when he gets clunked in the head (which wasn't supposed to happen) he has to return to the island. So maybe he was re-living a moment of his life, or it's just a flash like he says and the island stuff is leaking into it.

But I have one question...If Desmond was in fact just dreaming, how come the current picture with Penny is different than the picture they've shown in the past? And I'm not talking about tiny differences but in fact the original picture shown in season 2 eps had the Sydney Opera house in the background, indicating the picture was taken in Australia or against an Australian backdrop...This picture was just of a normal marina...That's not a minor detail that the writers would just forget.
Actually, this is being discussed in another thread here, with links to every iteration of the picture that has appeared on the show (the one before Penny was cast, the one with Penny inserted, the one on Penny's nightstand, and then the images from tonight.) It appears the opera house was a very powerfully suggested image, but may in fact never have been there.

eta: here's a link to the post which links all the images:
http://www.thefuselage.com/Threaded/showpost.php?p=1377080&postcount=9

upon further review from another thread it appears that there was never an Opera house in any of the Desmond/Penny pictures shown throughout the series. Weird that so many people thought the same thing I did though. The rest of the changes are minor that most likely have no bearing on anything.

So I suppose then there is nothing saying Desmond's flashback tonight wasn't just a lucid dream of events in the past. But again, one can only make that argument if they believe whatever is going on with the island now is separate from his flashback/dream.


I don't understand the suggestion that when he turned the key he had a life flashback of things that included his future. Woudn't that be as likely (or unlikely) a theory as flat out time travel at this point in the show?

I have always been found of the time shift theory. So glad it was addressed tonight.
I have one small piece of the puzzle, end of season two, Penny is looking for an anomoly. Why not a sailboat? Could Desmond really have told his friend about the island, key, saving the world etc and once gone that friend told Penny? She has lots of money, time, power to then go searching for this island. Can't find it...the only way is to look for this pulse that Desmond has predicted is going to happen?

i haven't seen this mentioned but if it has forgive me. Is it possible that Desmond could see the "future" when he met Jack running at the stadium? Didn't Desmond say, "See ya in another life brotha!" Then ran off. And if i remember correctly, Jack turns araound and he's gone.

It's certainly ironic that Desmond's catchphrase has always been "seeya in another life!" and now we're faced with the possibility that he just effectively changed some (albeit minor) events of his past. But I am with those who think that this was more of an interactive flashback. In fact, things like the microwave and package four eight-fifteen (haha, so clever) kind of prove to me that he's just in some kind of wonderland.

This, like Locke's dream of Boone wheeling him through the airport, is similar - in fact, THAT's the dream I would most compare Desmond's experience to. But as for the lady of the ringshop, it's my strong belief that she's a witty really testy representation of the Island. Just like Boone in Locke's dream - rather rude, really, but pointed. Just like Yemi in Eko's final episode, you know? Rather um, cruel. The smoke monster has a temper, and when Eko tried to better himself and decided he didn't have to apologise, he died. In here, the old lady is trying to tell Desmond he can't change the future - it/she's trying to trip him out. We don't have any proof that that scaffolding collapsed in the real past! Therefore this is even closer to a false dream.

Basically I think the island's just trying to interfere with Desmond's new power, really. Telling him what everyone else told him - his future is useless, there's no point in trying anything witty because he can't save the world and is a loser. But he did save the world. The only way this dream/flashback is uniquely different if the lady IS the island talking is that she brought up the universe and its way of course-correcting. I'm kind of glad we have yet to see Desmond's actual flashes of the future, kind of, because I think my other thoughts and ideas can still come true... i'm hoping, anyway.

I..I just don't know about this. I think Desmond was simplifying things for Charlie. Clearly a bit more happened than his life flashing before his eyes. I'm really going to have to think about this episode some more and what the implications are. It does seemingly throw the flashbacks into a new light

I have always been found of the time shift theory. So glad it was addressed tonight.
I have one small piece of the puzzle, end of season two, Penny is looking for an anomoly. Why not a sailboat? Could Desmond really have told his friend about the island, key, saving the world etc and once gone that friend told Penny? She has lots of money, time, power to then go searching for this island. Can't find it...the only way is to look for this pulse that Desmond has predicted is going to happen?

Well...It's possible Donovan didn't quite connect-the-dots until AFTER Desmond disappeared during the sailboat race...When Des didn't ever show up at the finish line...and nobody heard from him...Donovan probably got to thinking...."Wait a minute...he was right about the soccer match afterall....now he turns up missing during this sailboat race...Perhaps he was telling the truth about the mysterious 3 year stint he made on Button Pushin Island?"....THEN he went to tell Penny where she might be able to find him...and how.

That's why she's not looking for his sailboat...but rather...the island...and the EMP. And since her Dad sponsored the race, she probably has access to the route most of the ships would be taking...so she hires a team of Portugese Arctic Igloo Dudes (P.A.I.D) to scan the possible route Des took looking for anamolies.

It's the most logical way to explain how and when Penny knew when and where-ish to look for Des's "signal". And...as she said herself..."If you have enough money....you can find anyone".

It's certainly ironic that Desmond's catchphrase has always been "seeya in another life!" and now we're faced with the possibility that he just effectively changed some (albeit minor) events of his past. But I am with those who think that this was more of an interactive flashback. In fact, things like the microwave and package four eight-fifteen (haha, so clever) kind of prove to me that he's just in some kind of wonderland.

This, like Locke's dream of Boone wheeling him through the airport, is similar - in fact, THAT's the dream I would most compare Desmond's experience to. But as for the lady of the ringshop, it's my strong belief that she's a witty really testy representation of the Island. Just like Boone in Locke's dream - rather rude, really, but pointed. Just like Yemi in Eko's final episode, you know? Rather um, cruel. The smoke monster has a temper, and when Eko tried to better himself and decided he didn't have to apologise, he died. In here, the old lady is trying to tell Desmond he can't change the future - it/she's trying to trip him out. We don't have any proof that that scaffolding collapsed in the real past! Therefore this is even closer to a false dream.

Basically I think the island's just trying to interfere with Desmond's new power, really. Telling him what everyone else told him - his future is useless, there's no point in trying anything witty because he can't save the world and is a loser. But he did save the world. The only way this dream/flashback is uniquely different if the lady IS the island talking is that she brought up the universe and its way of course-correcting. I'm kind of glad we have yet to see Desmond's actual flashes of the future, kind of, because I think my other thoughts and ideas can still come true... i'm hoping, anyway.

I'm leaning towards ineteractive flashback myself and i definitely think that lady was the Island. But if Desmond did in fact interact in his old life and actually changed things, then Charlie would remember him all of a sudden right? Or would it just spin off in some other alternate dimension. I don't know.

What I got from this episode was that Desmond has always been regretful of his past. Time was moving at its regular pace on the island and Desmond did not travel anywhere temporally. His flashback was just a dream. It all happened before but because this is a dream, he has the knowledge of the present and found it confusing to relive the past again. He had the ability to control what he said and what he did like how we are also able to do the same in lucid dreams. The smack to the face from the paddle woke him up.

However, I think that either Desmond's subconscious or the island had the intention of telling the primary-thinking-Desmond in his dream to let go of his past. (It is similar to Locke's idea that the island has an intention of showing people something significant about themselves.) And that's that... but similar to Locke's experience with the monster/island, Desmond has also gained an ability. Locke could walk again and Desmond can now see the near future.

I think it's as simple as that, for now at least. This does not mean that I disregard the element of time travel or repeating time, I just think that that stuff doesn't apply to this episode.
100%
And to add, bigmountainlife (http://www.thefuselage.com/Threaded/member.php?u=56361) pointed out in another thread how the red shoes, guy getting killed by a building, was all an allusion to Wizard of Oz, where the whole movie was just a dream.

"Actually traveled back to the past" is the most ambiguous term to try to argue because time trvale is such a theoretical science. If one has a prolonged sequence wherein one experiences the past and has a chance to interact with it, who can say whether it's real or not? The whole point of his journey was that he can't change the past anyway, no matter what he did differently.

It cannot be simply a flashback when he turned the key, obviously, but it can't all be in his mind either, because it resulted in a real consequence for Desmond-- his new ability.

But I agree that this could have been his version of an "island vision" like Locke's, only much more detailed. He was given the chance to relive things, to do something right, and he still messed it up and started a sequence of events that would still lead to the island

it ws just like a lucid dream. this is a dream where you realize that you are in a dream then you are able to just do whatever you want.

well I think the key point to note here is the memory of him and his friend in the bar was in fact incorrect. He thought that was the night of the big soccer game comeback and the cricket bat assault but he was wrong. In fact, in his first go round, he probably wasn't at that pub with his friend since the events that brought him here were ones based on the future. And his prediction was wrong. What he THOUGHT was about to happen in fact didn't, because on that night, during that game, he wasn't at that pub.


But we can assume that his first time around he WAS at the pub on that 2nd night. The night with the comeback, when the same song was playing and the assault occurred.


right, this is what i was trying to allude to in my post....
so then, doesn't that lean toward the time travel theory?
if he wasn't in the pub that first night - on his 1st time around -
where did that memory come from?
How could his life be flashing before his eyes, and him see something that never happened?

i guess the logical answer is that he WAS there his 1st time around, and due to his memories from the island, he's altering the perception of what actually occurred.
Originally, him and Donovan (i think that was his name?) just sat back, enjoyed some brews, and talked love, life and football.

The old ladies name, by the way, is Ms. Hawking. :)

I like Paradox Lost's take on it... The island is foisting this knowledge onto Desmond. I don't think he traveled back, as the OP said. I think its all about the island. I think we forget how in S2 we were told of a struggle between the OTHERS and the ISLAND. That plot line has yet to come back around. IN the end somehow, someway, it's all about the ISLAND trying to save itself.

I have always been found of the time shift theory. So glad it was addressed tonight.
I have one small piece of the puzzle, end of season two, Penny is looking for an anomoly. Why not a sailboat? Could Desmond really have told his friend about the island, key, saving the world etc and once gone that friend told Penny? She has lots of money, time, power to then go searching for this island. Can't find it...the only way is to look for this pulse that Desmond has predicted is going to happen?

OOOOh that's freaky! My hair is standing up!:o

...The bottom line is that Desmond was merely remebering past events while unconscious and incorporating present day events into those past events. The whole discussion with the old lady was just what he said it was. It was his subconscious telling him that he could not change the past no matter how much he tried...

...QFT

I just rewatched it (that was a good episode...) and am even more convinced that Desmond didn't actually travel back to the past for real - as in, alter past events. Even though we know he and Penny do split up, I don't believe it was originally supposed to happen immediately after the photo was taken when he called it off this time, and actually that alone would change things significantly if he didn't - because he wrote her letters while in prison and her father confiscated all of them, all of those subplots and everything. What I'm saying is I don't really see how that could still have happened in a way. I don't think that bartender is now alive and well without a lump on his head, I think it was just a matter of how to intro and outro Desmond's vision. For instance, when Desmond wakes up, he's got scrapes and scratches all over and not just the bump on his head. He's just been im-and-exploded and despite the fact that the other hatchies aren't naked (a possible nod as I saw pointed out elsewhere quite brilliantly to The Terminator which would work with the time travel theme of course) I think it's because Desmond was closest to the blast. Well, at least the failsafe...

If you take a look at the PAID (a great anagram if there EVER was one!) and their appearance in S2's finale, they receive word/signal of the electromagnetic anomaly after it has taken place. Later that day maybe? A little while after? I think Island time (if it's at all coinciding with real time) was the afternoon, and I think it was the same afternoon that Hurley came back to the beach and found Desmond on his way, I think. This means that Desmond's flashback happened not exactly instantaneously though maybe close. But really, when PAID called up Penelope and said "we think we found it," the fact that this takes place presumably AFTER Desmond has returned to the future (had he been visiting the past to begin with, which again I don't reeeaelly think he had been) means that Penelope still loving him and not only that, but the boat race and everything else (presumably letters etcetera) must have still happened. I'm not so sure it would have if what Desmond did in this episode was the actual past, and as was stated by ULTRAviolence, he could have approached Charlie about performing "Wonderwall" outside Penny's father's building years and years ago. He still can, if he wants to check and find out if it was the actual past...

But I think the references to the island, the nods, the hints (1:08 on the clock when he's dressing up, the package four eight fifteen, and the microwave beep) just go to further prove that this is the ISLAND messing with Desmond. Whereas I think it would be cool for electromagnetic activity to be at such a geological nexus to send someone like Desmond back through their own past with remaining memories of the future, I do strongly believe this is an island issue and it didn't actually really happen. But I want to wait until the next podcast to hear this for sure...

I think furthermore the answer can be found in Ms. Hawking's words and actions (thanks Slowboat!)... she knew that Desmond spends three years pushing the button on the island. Despite her insistence that it's the only great thing he'll ever do, that line made her seem to me more like the smoke monster than anything. It's possible, in my opinion, that Smokey has watched Desmond. At least, if Smokey's acting on the Island's behalf, the ISLAND is aware who and what Desmond is. It's had time to search his mind or learn about Penelope and all the conditions of his past. It brought him there in the first place. I really hope this wasn't an actual dabbling in the past, and I'm keen to see what problems the Others have with the Island itself.... what do you think?

Originally Posted by Stuz1 http://www.thefuselage.com/Threaded/images/FuselageGreen/buttons/viewpost.gif (http://www.thefuselage.com/Threaded/showthread.php?p=1377210#post1377210)
...The bottom line is that Desmond was merely remebering past events while unconscious and incorporating present day events into those past events. The whole discussion with the old lady was just what he said it was. It was his subconscious telling him that he could not change the past no matter how much he tried...


:clapping:

At first, I thought (and chose to believe because I'm a sci-fi nut) that Desmond was metaphysically transported into his past self and had to relive his entire painful life, imprisonment, shipwreck, etc. while being completely self-aware and conscious of where he was headed. Believing that it's what he had to do, "saving the world" and all is what kept him from following a different track.

But then I dismissed that idea and thought that he was given a chance to re-evaluate his life (i.e. introspection, flashback) and justify to himself that the button/failsafe was his destiny. What baffles me is that Desmond's frame of reference in the "flashback" regarding island events seems to end at the point he turned the key. So while he was self-aware in his flashback, he could remember (with cues of course) what happened on the island up to the point he engaged the failsafe. If that's the case, then how does he have precognitions of things that happen after the failsafe? I think he said his whole life flashed before his eyes and he keeps having flashes. What is actually flshing to him now, post failsafe? Are we to believe that the show is actually one big Desmond flashback now? That this experience happens to him again (later on) and he is trapped in his 'present' body with a future consciousness?

I assumed before this episode that, when Critical Purple Skyness (CPS) occured, Desmond had an outer body experience and was standing at the top of the figurative mountain of time and space, able to see all things past and future. But I think that's a bit far fetched, even for this show. So I guess I'm still not clear as to how Desmond can tell the future now? Or why he was naked and alive, for that matter. But hopefully they'll address those things soon.