[LST] Flashes Before Your Eyes

TV Programme: Lost
Season: 3
Episode: 8
Date I watched this episode: 31/08/2009
Time since I last watched this programme: 16 days.
Centric for: Desmond

This really was a uniquely constructed episode in the history of Lost. Usually the flashback tells a story which is interwoven with the "present" story. However, here the flashback takes up most of the episode and is continuous. Furthermore, it re-tells a story which (more or less) actually happened before the crash, while the flashback itself is set after the crash. Confusing, but satisfyingly so.

The episode had a cleverly thought-out beginning, marking a seamless transition between the previous on-Island episode ("The Cost Of Living"; that seems a long time ago now) and the content of this one. This is done through Locke reporting Eko's death, Claire's swimming troubles, the MacCutcheon whiskey and so on. Actually quite clever when you think about it, and only covers about 10 minutes of the episode.

The déjà vu in this episode and how it managed to carry the main themes, was a brilliant (though slightly unlikely) plot device. It basically allowed the emotions to become so much more real as parts of the episode were connected, and the atmosphere in these moments was absolutely beautiful.

Well Desmond basically had to carry the episode all on his own, and he did a great job of it to be honest. I love Desmond as a character and he does have different sides to him. There were three main supporting characters here though. First, the romance with Penny, while it lasted, was heartwarming and gave us the audience a glimpse into the life these two used to lead. Penny says to Desmond that he is a "good man", which is a strange recurring theme in Lost which may or may not mean anything.

Secondly we had Charles Widmore, whose dislike of Desmond was previously shown in last season's finale "Live Together, Die Alone". Despite this, the events of this episode were set before "Live Together, Die Alone", and the writers really made you think that Charles was going to warm to Desmond at this point in time. In particular it was the music here which lulled you into a false sense of security. However, Charles Widmore showed he was the height of cool by rejecting Desmond in the worst possible way.

The third person was that mysterious lady from the jewellry shop. I'm not sure who she was but she knew a lot more than she was supposed to. How does a jewellry shop owner know about The Island, the button and all that stuff? And she could somehow see the future too; she knew things about "time travel" (for want of a better phrase) that even Desmond didn't even know. Her chats about the course-correcting Universe went over Desmond's head at first, but then when he had lost everything, it finally hit home to him.

It's pretty saddening that no one whatsoever believed Desmond with his time-travel stories (apart from the aforementioned unnamed jewellry lady). Not even his best friend believed him. Incidentally, the night he was out with his friend couldn't possibly have been the night Desmond "remembered" as it didn't occur in the previous version of events. It made a lot more sense that it was the night he broke up with Penny. And to make matters worse, Charlie won't have any memory of his chat with Desmond, as that conversation didn't occur in the previous version of events.

Just a few moments on the beach with the other survivors gave a bit of an opportunity to do something with the new characters Nikki and Paulo, but it still seems like the writers just want to ignore them. It does seem a bit ridiculous that we are now 8 episodes into the season and we have hardly seen anything of these two credited regulars.

A pretty major cliffhanger at the end of this episode: Charlie is now doomed. And if he does actually die; they don't find some way around it; then he will be the first really big, major character to die on here. I mean, sure Boone, Shannon, Ana-Lucia, Libby and Eko died, but they weren't quite as major characters as Charlie. If this goes down, it would be heartbreaking.

Not just that but Kate & Sawyer are on their way back and should arrive soon, plus Locke is planning his little attack on The Others' camp. We've got a lot still to look forward to.