LOST- Episode 56: Flashes Before Your Eyes

  Previously on LOST: Desmond woke up naked in the jungle with the ability to see the future.

  Welcome back to the most comprehensive LOST recap on the web. Even better than the one at Entertainment Weekly. Though I do enjoy the puns in their titles. Writing puns for EW is my dream job! Anyway...

  As Desmond stands on the beach looking contemplative, Charlie and Hurley are busy raiding Sawyer’s tent. Desmond approaches and says that he needs them to come with him. They head into the jungle and find Locke and Sayid waiting for them. Locke explains that Mr. Eko is dead-that the island killed him. As characters with names and speaking parts, they need Charlie and Hurley to help keep the others calm when the news is broken on the beach. Desmond seems a little distracted as this conversation is going on. Suddenly, he bolts toward the beach without a word of explanation. Once there, he rips off his shirt and shoes and dives into the ocean. It appears there is someone else in the water. When Charlie realizes that Claire is missing, he heads for the water himself, but Des already has the job done and has pulled Claire to safety.  Des performs CPR as a frantic Charlie hovers over them. As Desmond carries the revived Claire to her tent, Charlie wonders how Desmond knew. Hurley matter-of-factly states that Des can see the future...dude. Cue creepy LOST title screen.

Later, as Desmond stares at his photo of himself with his long lost love, Penelope, Claire approaches to thank him for saving her. Charlie breaks up the meeting and gives Des a menacing glare. After handing the baby off to Claire, Charlie and Hurley begin to discuss the notion that Desmond can see the future. Charlie intends to find out what happened to Des after Station Three imploded and he intends to find out by getting the Scotsman drunk.

The two buddies find Desmond on the beach and Charlie apologizes for not being more grateful to Des for saving his girlfriend. Charlie proposes they have a little party, but Desmond declines. When Desmond sees that Charlie has brought McCutcheon whiskey, he begins to laugh (a little too much) and agrees to drink up.

Cut to nightfall and the trio is clearly now wasted as they sing, naturally, drinking songs. Charlie finally gets to the point and asks Desmond straight up how he knew Claire was drowning. Des tries to play it off as good hearing, but his new buddies don’t buy it. Charlie presses, but Desmond isdone with him and starts to walk away. Charlie goes after him and calls him a coward. This sets Des off so he jumps Charlie and begins to strangle him. Desmond screams that Charlie does not want to know what happened to him.

Desmond flashes back to critical mass in Dharma Station Three. He heads underground, declares his love for Penny and turns the failsafe key. Then....

He wakes up. It seems he has taken a nasty fall while painting the flat he shares with Penelope. As Penny tends to his bumped head, Des looks around and can’t believe where he is and what is going on. He kisses Penny, hugs her close and looks confused.

Later, Desmond is dressing himself up in a suit and tie as he prepares to meet Penny’s father for a job interview. As they talk, Des becomes distracted by the microwave going off-the strange thing being that it sounds exactly like the "Time to Push the Button" countdown from his hatch days. Des explains it to Penny as deja vu, but he doesn’t look like he’s convinced himself of that.

At dear old Dad’s office, the two go over Desmond’s resume, which includes set design for the Royal Shakespeare Company, no graduation from college and no military experience. Des compliments Dad on his model boat and when Dad mentions his foundation’s race around the world, Des has a quick flash before his eyes of the circumstances that led him to Crazy Island. Dad offers Des a job, but he turns it down, asking instead for Penelope’s hand. Dad breaks out the McCutcheon whiskey and lays out some insults, the most important of them being that Des is not worthy of his alcohol or his daughter.

Outside, Desmond tears off his tie in disgust but before he can maintain his rage, he is distracted by a street minstrel playing "Wonderwall" by Oasis. Des recognizes the man (it’s Charlie), but he can’t quite put his finger on it. He asks where they have met before and has a another quick flash of the hatch implosion. Des recognizes him as Charlie, which is unimpressive since Charlie has a sign: Musical Stylings of Charlie Hieronymus Pace-Donations Accepted. Des is really flipping out and scaring people as he has more and more flashes of his life on the island. He begins to piece together that everything that is happening at thatmoment has already happened before. Desmond looks up to the heavens with exasperation right after predicting the exact moment it would start to rain.

Later, Desmond finds his friend Oliver and asks him about time travel. They head to a pub where Oliver dismisses Des as a crackpot. Des thinks he has gone back in time to live his life over again which only produces laughter from his friend. Just then, the song on the jukebox triggers Desmond’s memory of a great football comeback that’s about to happen, followed by a man barging through the door and hitting the debt-owing bartender with a cricket bat. Unfortunately for Desmond’s credibility, none of these things come to pass. Oliver tells him that there is no such thing as time travel, but since true love is just as unlikely, he should marry Penny even without her father’s approval.

After a talk with Penny upon his return home, Desmond decides that Oliver was right. The next day he enters a jewelry store with the intention of getting the best engagement ring he can find in his meager price range. But this jewelry store turns out to be Bizarro Jewelry Store. Perhaps the Jewelry Store of the Damned. The old saleswoman refuses to sell him the ring she shows him and starts spouting off about how Desmond is supposed to break Penny’s heart, enter the sailing race, crash on Crazy Island and end up pushing a button for three years before eventually turning the failsafe key. The saleswoman declares that if Desmond doesn’t do all that, then they will all die.

A stunned Desmond refuses to hand back the ring, so the old woman takes him outside for some chestnuts. She oddly points out a man walking down the street in red shoes, then takes Desmond to sit down on a bench. Desmond starts to think that none of this is really happening, that the woman is his subconscious and that there is no island. Just then, there is a construction accident and Des is horrified to see that the man in red shoes has been killed. The old woman admits that she knew it was going to happen but there was nothing she could do. Telling him would have only led him to die a different way. Kind of like Final Destination. The universe has a way of "course correcting." That man was supposed to die just as Desmond is supposed to go to the island and push the button. Desmond remains unconvinced and only asks the woman how much the ring costs.

Later, Desmond meets Penny and they stop to have their photo taken. It turns out to be the inspirational photo that Des will keep with him on the island. Seeing it seems to stir something in Desmond’s mind and suddenly he is breaking up with Penny right on the spot. He tells her they were not meantto be together. After breaking her heart, Desmond seems resolved to his destiny and chucks the ring as far as he can throw it.

Later at the pub, Desmond decides to drown his sorrows over a mistake he has made twice now. He eyes the McCutcheon but settles for the cheapest pint they’ve got. Maybe I’M the crazy one because I think the bartender might be a white-haired, British John Locke. Anyway, something amazing happens. The soccer team begins their unlikely comeback. Desmond realizes he just had the wrong night and he is really not crazy. The man Des predicted would come in arrives right on schedule. Des tries to break up the fight but takes a cricket bat to the face for his trouble. Then...

He wakes up. He is lying in the jungle and he is completely naked. He runs over to see the big hole in the ground where Station Three used to be and mutters an "Oh no." In the grass, Desmond finds his beloved photo and asks the universe if he can go back one more time and do things right. Then his life begins to flash forward to all the precognitions he has had on the island since the implosion. Finally he stops in the present, where he is choking the life out of Charlie. Hurley breaks things up as Desmond begins to cry that no matter what you do, you can’t change it. Hurley gives Charlie the cuckoo sign and they help the drunken Scotsman back to his tent.

After apologies all around, Charlie sits down to have a blunt talk with Des. He really wants to know what has been going on. Desmond explains that when he turned the key, his life flashed before his eyes. Then he was back on the island but the flashes didn’t stop. The kicker is that he wasn’t saving Claire this morning. He was saving Charlie. Charlie was supposed to drown saving Claire. Charlie was supposed to be electrocuted before Des redirected the lightning to the homemade rod. But he can’t go on forever. No matter what he does, Charlie is eventually going to die. Like soon.

Next time on LOST: Kate questions someone, presumably Carl, about what happened to the people who were taken by the Others. Speaking of them, Cindy and company show up to say hi to the still caged Jack.