[US/IRL] 3X08 - "Flashes Before Your Eyes" [** SPOILERS WITHIN **]

MarkR

Vert weird. Very cool. Very lost! Pft. Swimming in your clothes. Oh yeah, were they drinking mud with cream on it in the pub?

Haven't a Clue

7

..and their pints were on napkins.

Yep, that's Briterica for you...

oxygen_old

1

Cmon ,time travel? . Theres a lot I can take about lost, and from the previous episode I was accepting maybe the island was a medical research facility. Fine. But time travel?? please. Star Trek, or Heroes I will except time travel in but its got to be a new low for Lost. The writers of this show have not got the foggiest where they are going or what they are doing. They just show you cool ppl and keep adding new unanswerable riddles.

Hey why should Des mentioning time travel in a flash back turn into time travel being part of the show? It's not.

I didn't like the whole " Final Destination" sub plot.
Though I love Fionnula Flanagan.

Nalz

7

event wrote:

so was it a flashback or just a dream?

or did he go back in time or.........can someone answer this?!

GinjaNinja

Time Travel. Hmm.

Remeber the song Hurley heard on the radio on the beach. might start to tie all together now.

fitz

Tbh, I think the time travel is a red herring.
I think that whole segment was in Desmonds head, based on his existing memories. Perhaps whatever happened that has given him the ability to see the future needed a way of explaining this new ability to him. Perhaps it's his own brain rationalising his newfound abilities.

Meh.
Lost needs to get back on track. All this stuff is interesting, but it's just adding to the smoke and mirrors.
I want some tightly scripted answers, or at least some tangible development towards answers.
The writers need to start watching Battlestar Gallactica and taking some notes.

abelard

6

I know this will probably sound silly but.....

The "island" seems to be treated as an almost sentient being, particularly by Locke. And when Desmond turned the key, something obviously happened (we all saw the sky and such), but it must have been something to do with "the island" releasing energy or something like that.

So maybe "the island", if we treat it as a sentient being, gave Desmond the power to see into the future. And "the island", again as a sentient being, showed Desmond some of his life again with his new powers included, simply to teach him the course correction lesson, that he could not change the future. So this would mean it was all in his head, and I guess the old jewellery shop lady would be the manifestation of "the island" in his head.

Of course, there may still be quite a sizeable period of time between him turning the key and when we saw him wake up, so any number of things could have happened in the meantime.

MikeHoncho

Great episode. I really enjoy anything involving Desmond. Not sure if he really travelled through time or not and I suppose this might be explained in later flashbacks as we still dont know why he was kicked out of the army (could this have been something to do with future seeing powers?). I much prefer this type of episode that reminds us there is something going on beyond the normal. Scientists on an island studying animals and fertility is boring. Its nice to be reminded of the sci fi element of the show.

Also I think the best episodes are the really character driven ones like this. If nothing else you would have to agree that Lost is a show that has some of the best charecters on TV at the moment.

oxygen wrote:

Cmon ,time travel? . Theres a lot I can take about lost, and from the previous episode I was accepting maybe the island was a medical research facility. Fine. But time travel?? please. Star Trek, or Heroes I will except time travel in but its got to be a new low for Lost. The writers of this show have not got the foggiest where they are going or what they are doing. They just show you cool ppl and keep adding new unanswerable riddles.

Lost is and always has been a science fiction show. If you could accept the fact that there was a monster in the Jungle in Season 1 or accept the fact that Walt had psychic abilitys why would you now have a problem with time travel?

MarkR

Was just thinking, what if he isn't reacting to the possible future by trying to change it, but somehow causing it.

Supposedly you can't see the future because it hasn't happened. So if that's the case he couldn't know about the lightening in advance. But maybe his will is somehow causing these things to happen. Gets a bit harder to explain for Clairs fully clothed swimming expedition but I'm just throwing it out there..

QuadLeo

7

Really enjoyed this episode. Was getting bored with jack/kate/sawyer story.

Agamemnon

7

I enjoyed this a lot, even if Desmond's flashback told us shag-all about him that we don't know already. We did find out that he raised his brothers but I hope we never see them in a flashback. I also think we'll be seeing more of his physicist friend.

Jewellery Shop Lady was very well done but I'll bet we never find out who she really was. I liked all the little touches that reminded Des of the island, such as the microwave and the Mama Cass song.

The Lost creators' effort at portraying England was clichéd to the point of hilarity. This is why I'm glad there's no Irish characters in Lost: their flashbacks would involve them digging spuds, saying rosaries and living in a bog.

Great to see plenty of Desmond, one of the best characters on the show. I was sick of seeing Jack, Sawyer, Kate & the Others. It's been so long since we saw any of the other survivors that I'd almost forgot about Eko dying.

oxygen_old

1

Best hope was that all that stuff Desmond saw was in his head and that he can’t see into the future at all.

Maybe he just tapped into the Islands consciousness.

Say if the Island can control natural phenomena that occurs on the island. That would explain how Desmond foresaw the lightning (the Island caused the lightning) and Clare downing (the island controlled the riptide that carried her out, even she didn’t understand how she nearly drowned on that day, and not any of the other days)

Even on a show like lost, with its Polar bears/hatches/visions, time travel, or even precog visions would be a stretch.

fitz

abelard wrote:

I know this will probably sound silly but.....

The "island" seems to be treated as an almost sentient being, particularly by Locke. And when Desmond turned the key, something obviously happened (we all saw the sky and such), but it must have been something to do with "the island" releasing energy or something like that.

So maybe "the island", if we treat it as a sentient being, gave Desmond the power to see into the future. And "the island", again as a sentient being, showed Desmond some of his life again with his new powers included, simply to teach him the course correction lesson, that he could not change the future. So this would mean it was all in his head, and I guess the old jewellery shop lady would be the manifestation of "the island" in his head.

Of course, there may still be quite a sizeable period of time between him turning the key and when we saw him wake up, so any number of things could have happened in the meantime.

That's essentially what I was getting at...
I think the flashback was merely using his memory as a method of communication. Who was communicating with him is another matter...

event

if he has been able to see into the future since then, surely he could have seen flashbacks of the island before he got there?
would he not know that there was no contamination on the island?

L31mr0d

4

ugh... why did they have to introduce time travel and precog. I'm slightly irritated with it in Heroes, but I put up with it as they make it out to be not an exact science. IMO once time travel was introduced into Star Trek it ruined it (god help Abrams if he makes the next Star Trek movie based on time travel, i'll put a bounty on his head)

The whole reason why time travel in shows sux is because they never get it right... they fob off discrepatancies as "ooh, yeah they are in a new dimension now, thats why paradoxes don't happen" can't stand it.

and all this malarky about "the universe needs to right itself", WTF is that? So the island is sentient and now the universe is. Are we supposed to believe that the universe has a bounty on Charlies head and needs to have him killed off?

This episode is almost the last nail in the casket for me, with shows like Dexter raising the bar, Lost is quickly becoming a second rate show, and introducing a precog to stop the universe in its bloodlust for charlie really takes the biscuit. Why can't they just run the season normally... show us a few questions at the beginning of the season then develop them throughout (what the hell happened to guy with the patch on the camera?) they are introducing so many new threads to the storyline that it is getting ridiculous to try and remember whats actually going on without taking notes, and frankly I don't care anymore, they've diluted the main storyline so much that I can't say there is 1 character in it that if they died would take something from the show.

Gavin W

8

event wrote:

if he has been able to see into the future since then, surely he could have seen flashbacks of the island before he got there?
would he not know that there was no contamination on the island?

Ever seen Quantum Leap? I think what's supposed to have happened with Desmond (if he did genuinely time travel and not just imagine it all) is a Sam Beckett style "leap" into his earlier self. He went back and relived those couple of days, while retaining his knowledge and memories of his time on the island, but when he got the whack of the cricket bat his consciousness "leaped" back to the present. Meanwhile his earlier self carries on living his life, with no knowledge or memories of the future.

Gavin W

8

Haven't a Clue wrote:

..and their pints were on napkins.

Yep, that's Briterica for you...

And did I hear the name of that football team right? 'Greybridge'?!? Sounds like an American attempt to invent a British-sounding team. Spelt "Graybridge" presumably. Or did I mishear the name of a (genuine) foreign team?

Still they managed to get through the entire episode without a single British character saying "bloody", "bugger", or "bo**ocks"! A first for American TV! Though they did include a "sodding" and a "wankered" to make up for it.

The guy in the suit and red shoes who got killed - it reminded me of how Jack's dad was dressed when Jack saw him mysteriously appear on the island back in the very first episode. I recall him being in a suit and trainers, but were the trainers red or white?

Re: Claire's fully-clothed swim. Did anyone else get the feeling she was trying to commit suicide? Not only was she fully-clothed and offered no real explanation of what happened, but her later thanks to Desmond sounded hollow and false, and she seemed particularly stressed when Charlie reminded her the baby needed feeding. Perhaps the pressure is getting to her and she wanted to end it all? If so, it's a bit random and completely out of the blue, but it's just the impression I got from those scenes.

trishw78

8

as someone else in the thread has already stated... WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?

I'm lost... There better be a damned good explenation at the end of all this

darrenh

9

why do people come on here and give out about lost saying they will never watch it again and the following week are back saying the same thing again. its kind of annoying. i know people are entitled to there opinion but if you really have no interest in lost anymore why come on here and give out about it.

ps. remember when desmond first met jack in the stadium he asked "do i know you brother".

Killaqueen!!!

7

Great episode! I think series 3 episodes are getting better as they go along. I loved the way the mystery of the island was brought back into this, seeing as the Others have completely gone down the scientific experiments road.

It was obvious that this week they were going to get away from the Jack/Kate/Sawyer/Others situation and focus on something back at the beach, which is good but I wouldn't go as far to say I am sick of that storyline. I am surprised so many people have said that. It's always good to have action on the island (well, the second island) - especially if it's to do with the Others.

The Desmond story is very interesting. I've liked him ever since season 2. The jewler was played brilliantly! No doubt we'll never hear from her again. We probably won't get another episode like this (focussing on Desmond/Penny) for a long time either which is a shame.

Not a lot I can say that hasn't already been said. I suppose the main question is, which of these scenarios is it

1) Did he literally time travel? I doubt this is the case. How did he get back to the island if he literally went back in time and relived some of his life?

2) Was it just a vision/dream? This isn't to say that in 'spirit' he didn't relive these memories. (That sounds really stupid). I suppose I'm saying something like this:

abelard wrote:

The "island" seems to be treated as an almost sentient being, particularly by Locke. And when Desmond turned the key, something obviously happened (we all saw the sky and such), but it must have been something to do with "the island" releasing energy or something like that.

So maybe "the island", if we treat it as a sentient being, gave Desmond the power to see into the future. And "the island", again as a sentient being, showed Desmond some of his life again with his new powers included, simply to teach him the course correction lesson, that he could not change the future. So this would mean it was all in his head, and I guess the old jewellery shop lady would be the manifestation of "the island" in his head.

Of course, there may still be quite a sizeable period of time between him turning the key and when we saw him wake up, so any number of things could have happened in the meantime.

....OR

3) We're totally off and there's some other explanation.

4) No explanation at all. Just something the writers threw in?

And then there's the ending. So it seems Charlie will be killed. I liked him but can't say I'm upset. His character was annoying me. He's too obsessed with Claire and the baby, and the only other story he has is the 'I used to be a bloody rock God and I'm a drug addict'. Still, it will be interesting to see how he dies (if he dies).

But what has this got to do with Desmond? So the universe has it in for Charlie....it's all bvery confusing. But if this is a pivotal episode to the whole show, than no doubt it can all be explained by an alternate universe theory.

I hope we get another episode on Desmonds experience to clue us in.

Jello

7

Woo new Lucozade ads on RTE! Thank god those two annoying feckers are gone! I know some people were even watching on Sky to avoid them.

I thought it was again a very good episode, 8/10, despite the lack of answers. Brilliant ending!

Scorponok

I was hoping this was to be a return to form of the old Desmond in season 2, but it's just more crazyness, one of the weakest episodes. The flashbacks were annoying even repeating what we've just seen. There's no explanations for anything, it's just so bloody frustrating!

kevmy

8

Very good episode. I've given it a 9 which is the highest I've given an episode this season.
I think it was probably not time travel more of a jump back to those few days in his head aided by the island. He only relived those few days in his head and thats why he doesn't remember the rest of his life (boat race, island etc.)
I think the Charlie storyline will end in Charlie sacrificing himself in some class of an heoric act. This is Lost back doing what Lost does best. Liked the easter eggs in the office of Penny's father. This ep also reconfirms IMO that it is the island that is special and not the experiments that are being performed on it that make it wierd.

Haven't a Clue

7

Wait. I seem to have missed something here.

What the hell're ye on about easter eggs for?

Anima

Its just a term for hidden bits of information/a connection or a reference.

Basq

7

Haven't a Clue wrote:

What the hell're ye on about easter eggs for?

I LOL'd!

Haven't a Clue

7

Anima wrote:

Its just a term for hidden bits of information/a connection or a reference.

Argh, ffs. When was the decision to rename clues as easter eggs made?

:mad:

Charlie

7

Remember the scene where Dessie was with the jeweller and they noticed the man wearing the unusually red sneakers and Desmond made some remark along the lines that it meant something important but the Jeweller offered the simple explanation that it can just as easily be an unusual fashion choice. Did anyone think that this may have been the writer's way of trying to tell us that not every small detail has a hidden meaning and that sometimes fans look too much into certain things.

Also, in relation to all the easter eggs, is it possible that Desmond's sub-concious placed them there to try and nudge Desmond into remembering about the Island, e.g. whilst Penny's father always had an expensive bottle of whiskey Desmond's sub-concious used the specific expensive bottle that was present on the island. I only say this as, if it were true then it would mean that Desmond's experience was one of more a experience through his mind rather than out and out time travel, sort of like the ambiguous experience Jodie Foster had at the end of Contact.

Haven't a Clue

7

On your first point, no. The bloke with the red shoes got killed under the scaffolding afterwards. It indicated that the auld one knew it was going to happen that she pointed out mr red shoes...