We don't see the connection between this episode and the scene where he is dishonorably discharged, but this must be why, right? After he leaves Penny's place he must defect from the army, continue to act "crazy." Right?

I thought the same thing.. maybe not even defect - but with the constantly zoning in and out (which I think probably continued) I think he must have not been the best soldier in the world, or perhaps blacked out and didn't return on time or something and ended up in the the military prison - while there, probably no one would notice the coming and going - and then when he finally heads out on the race around the world - he ends up on the island.

I had thought he goes AWOL, never comes back from leave because of the jumps and gets caught. But at the end he seems to be okay once he got his constant.

I have a feeling that the dishonorable discharge aspect is that they don't believe him. They think he's pretending to be crazy so they'll medically discharge. But since they don't believe him, they dishonorably discharge him.

I was thinking that he gets discharged because of his behavior that day andthat he went awol to see Daniel and then Penny - but then remember he sees Penny when he is getting out of jail and he stil hasn't read the book. Somebody please explain?

So, if Desmond had 2 days leave, and went to see Penny, and maybe in all his jumping around, ended up going AWOL, would that end him up in Military Prison and earn him a dishonorable discharge? I don't know enough military procedure to know if that's the case, or should we expect another FB to explain how he ended up in prison?

The discharge would have to be irrelevant to this incident. I mean, he appears to have left boot camp on leave...even being late from something like that, I don't see putting him in military prison over. I think that is related to something else.

Seems a bit extreme to end up in military prison, IMO. DH is asleep otherwise I'd ask him (he's in the military LOL). That is usually the type of offense that would get you 'grounded' to base or something, or docked pay, etc....not prison...unless you were gone for a really long time and completely defected? It's also really hard to get a dishonorable discharge. There is another type they tend to use with another name, that is not honorable...maybe a general discharge?

court marshal?

Maybe that drill sergent just really disliked Des and sent him there.

I have a feeling Des and Widmore will have another confrontation that will see Desmond getting jailed.

Also, Penny wrote to him many times during his stay in prison (although Daddy Widmore confiscated the letters). But when Desmond and Penny part ways here, she still hates him.


Seems Desmond's got at least one more flashback in him.

Yeah, Pen told him that he went away with the weight of the world on his shoulders and she said something like 'only you can fix it'. Kelvin said he left because he couldn't follow order, which could be connected to what we saw last night. But to put you in prison and then honorable discharge you, there has to be more to it than just a few 'off' days.

Lostpedia says that when Desmond goes to prison, his rank is Lieutenant-Corporal in the Royal Scots Army.

In what we saw last night, Desmond was a Private. From what I've been able to Google, L-C is one rank up from Private - - so I don't think Des gets booted here, he has to stay in the military long enough to get at least one promotion prior to hitting the brig.