'Lost' - "Flashes Before Your Eyes"

Okay... Lost is back! Yeah, I know it technically came back last week from its hiatus. What I mean is that the good Lost is back after a period of waning. At least, that's how I've been feeling about most of the autumn "season" episodes.

This episode, "Flashes Before Your Eyes," was a Desmond-centric one and we've really only previously seen bits and pieces of this guy. The show utilized flashbacks, sort of. They weren't the regular flashbacks we're used to seeing which tell us about a character's history.

Tying in with the hidden message in the "Not in Portland" episode - "Only fools are enslaved by time and space" - as well as comments made by Desmond, the flashbacks were more along the line of time traveling. I don't think he's a fool.

The show opened with Desmond discovering Hurley and Charlie going through the missing Sawyer's belongings. He led them out in the woods where they met up with Locke and Sayid who were returning to camp after burying Mr. Eko. Locke claimed that he wanted Charlie and Hurley to present a calm front over the death so the others wouldn't panic. "The island killed him."

As Desmond talked to Charlie and Hurley by the beach, he all of a sudden took off for the water, pulling a drowning Claire from a certain death. Or, was it? Hurley and Charlie, determined to find out why or if Desmond could see the future, decided to get him drunk. (Okay, that was a bit weak, but we're talking Hurley and Charlie here, not Rhodes scholars.)

Desmond balked at first, but upon seeing an expensive bottle of whiskey, he imbibed with them. Charlie went from nice drunk to nasty as he pushed Desmond for answers, then called him a coward. Desmond passed out... only to awaken in the past, but with knowledge of the future. Are you following me on that? It was a present deja vu. In the transition, it all flashed before our eyes - the hatch, the countdown numbers (to save the world), and more.

His intended bride had just moved in with him and he planned to ask her father for her hand in marriage. The clock in the room read 1:08 and the very familiar beep-beep of the microwave mimicked the countdown beep-beep in the hatch. When he went to the father's office, a deliveryman had a package "for (4?) 815." Island numbers and memories were all around him, from a ship replica to a polar bear painting.

Instead of allowing him to marry his daughter Penny, the father insulted him and told him he's not worthy of drinking his expensive whiskey (the same type as on the island), could never do the race around the world and was a... coward. Desmond decided he was going to marry Penny anyway. It was off to a jewelers to buy a ring! On his way there, he came across Charlie playing music for tips in the street. His sign listed his middle name as Hieronymus, perhaps like Hieronymus Bosch? Desmond knew Charlie and called him by name, but Charlie didn't recognize him at all.

Ah, but who was behind the counter at the jewelry counter? Why, it was none other than the woman who played in the movie The Others. She started to show Desmond rings, but then refused to sell him one. She knew all about him, from his name to his special ability. She took him on a walk, pointing out a man with red Converse sneakers. After they turned away, a scaffold fell killing Mr. Red Sneaks.

Desmond questioned why she didn't save the man if she knew that would happen. She told him she didn't because it was meant to be. If she saved him from that instance of death, another would take place and it would keep happening as the death was meant to take place. She called it "course-correcting." She was insistent that Desmond not marry Penny and let the course go as it should - to the island, to push the button to save the world, etc.

Desmond left her and went to a local pub where he tried to convince a friend that he knew the future by telling the outcome of a soccer game. Alas, he was wrong. But how could that be? He was so sure of the game. Well, perhaps it was just the wrong night. And, it was. The next night, his predictions went down as they should. He wasn't so much telling the future as he was reliving his past.

He didn't marry Penny. He knew that he had to take the correct course, the course which was meant to be. She called him a coward for backing out. That's when he returned to the bar and found out he had the wrong day's game in mind. He also got conked in the head with a bat.

And we're back at the island. Charlie asked Desmond what he felt when he turned the safe-key after the code hadn't been entered and the explosion occurred. Desmond told him he saw his life flash before his eyes. When Charlie asked him about saving Claire from drowning and the earlier deflecting lightning from striking her to save her life. Desmond somberly told him, "I wasn't saving Claire. I was saving you. You drowned this morning saving Claire. You were electrocuted when lightning struck the tent. I saved you both times.

Uh-oh. The lady at the jewelry shop told him you can't course-correct. It's going to keep happening in other fashions as it's meant to be.

[Insert the Lost clunk here.]

Wow... this was the best episode in quite some time. What did you think?