The chicken or the egg? Free will or determinism? Slaughterhouse Five or "Peggy Sue Got Married?" These questions are all suggested by last night’s head-scratcher, “Flashes Before Your Eyes,” which showed us what former Shakespearian actor Desmond David Hume has been experiencing since the moment he turned the fail-safe key in the hatch.
Now, most weeks I give you a recap of the flashback in the past tense, followed by the “real time” action in the present tense. That model simply doesn’t apply this week, where time as a relative concept was anything but absolute.
The episode opens with Hurley questioning Charlie about his rifling through Sawyer’s stash (and astonishing amounts of pornography), when Desmond appears and takes them to where Locke and Sayid just buried Eko. Desmond seems tuned to another channel as Locke asks Charlie and Hurley to help calm the camp in the wake of Eko’s death. Locke explains to the shocked pair that “the island killed Eko,” and elaborates on this only by saying, “you know what I mean.” To be sure, Charlie has seen Smokey, but since the lostaways are not big on sharing, I wonder how Locke knew this? Suddenly, Desmond takes off, chucks his shirt and swims out to find…Claire, floating lifelessly in the ocean. Charlie, realizing she’s out there, tries to help. Desmond revives Claire, and refuses to let Charlie help. Charlie asks how Desmond knew she was drowning, and Hurley puts the pieces together from this episode and Desmond’s prediction of Locke’s speech – “that guy? Sees the future, dude.”
Sometime later, looking at his treasured picture of himself with Penney in front of a marina, Desmond is approached by Claire, and tells her Penney’s name. Claire and thanks him for saving her, with a very leery Charlie looking on while holding Aaron. Charlie and Hurley decide to figure out what’s up with Desmond, and figure to get him drunk with a bottle from Locke’s stash. Desmond, however, turns down the booze as he’s spent too much time drunk lately… until he sees the whiskey label says “MacCutcheon” and starts to laugh, and takes a drink from the bottle.
Evening hits and, after some drinking songs, Charlie asks, “how’d you know?” Desmond says he could hear Claire calling, but Hurley points out he was a mile away. Charlie asks pointedly – “did you hear the lightning, as well?” Charlie calls Desmond a coward, which sets Desmond off – “you don’t want to know what happened when I turned that key! You don’t want to know!”
Flashback to the unstable hatch scene from last season’s finale…Desmond turns the key, sees all kinds of flashing images, then wakes up in a pool of red paint on a floor, with Penney tending to him. Desmond just fell off some stacked-up ladders and suffered a minor concussion, back on the day that Penney moved in with him. Familiar but slightly off images are all around him – he is wearing a jumpsuit identical to the one he wore for three years (minus the Swan Hatch logo). The bedstand clock displays “1:08.” He’s back in “our flat,” and can’t be happier than to be with Penney. But something’s different – Desmond seems conscious of the fact that he’s in his flashback. Later, as he’s dressing for his interview to get a job from Penelope's father to earn Mr. Widmore’s respect, Penney says it’s not “the end of the world” if he doesn’t get the job. He starts to hear beeping, just like the sound of the hatch timer – but it’s just tea heating in the microwave. Des experiences this as déjà vu, and blinks back to his current reality.
At the Widmore Enterprises reception desk, Desmond hears a delivery “for 815,” (get it? 4, 8, 15…) and Desmond starts to have visions of entering numbers in the hatch. In Charles Widmore’s office are paintings similar to the mural in the hatch, including one featuring a Buddha, a polar bear, and the backwards word, "Namaste." He admires a model boat, and Charles says he’s sponsoring a race around the world – Des flashes to Elizabeth and the death of Kelvin. Des confesses he wants, not a job, but Penney’s hand in marriage. Widmore appears to offer a drink of 60-year-old MacCutcheon. He tells Des the swallow he is about to take is worth more than Des could earn in a month…and to share it with him would be a waste, because Des will never be a great man. “What you’re not, is worthy of drinking my whiskey – how could you ever be worthy of my daughter.” Des tosses the tie in disgust outside, and sees Charlie Hieronymous Pace playing guitar for change on the street. He says he knows him but cannot place how. More flashing to the island…he remembers his “past” on the island…then realizes he remembers this day from before the island, and just as he remembers aloud that it then started to rain, down comes the shower! Notably, this seems to be the first time any of our island dwellers appears conscious of a pre-crash connection...
Desmond runs to see a physicist friend, Donovan, to ask what he knows about time travel. Over a couple of Guinesses, Desmond relays his story, and asks if it’s possible to go back in time and live his life over again. Donovan’s response – this is just Desmond’s response to being berated for not being great. Desmond hears a song on the jukebox and remembers the come-from-behind win in the soccer game on TV – but it doesn’t happen. He remembers somebody coming through the door and attacking the bartender – but it doesn’t happen. Donovan grounds Desmond and tells him to go marry Penney.
Back at the flat, Penney says it’s time to celebrate – the occasion is because she loves him, because he’s a good man. In her experience, they’re pretty hard to come by. Desmond goes ring shopping in an antique shop. He says he’s not a man of means, and the shopkeeper (identified on ABC.com as “Ms. Hawking”) shows him a ring in a teardrop shape. He says he’ll take it, but she says, “no you won’t. This is wrong – you don’t buy the ring, you have second thoughts and walk out the door.” She knows his name…and tells Desmond he will break Penney’s heart, find himself entering a race to win back her heart, he’ll push the button on an island for three years and turn a failsafe key, because if he doesn’t, every one of us is dead. “So give me that sodding ring!” Notably, this is the first time somebody in an off-island flashback (other than Ethan and Alpert last week) indicate any knowledge that there is a crazy Dharma island out there. And does anyone else make anything of the fact that actress that plays Ms. Hawking appeared in the Nicole Kidman film, "The Others?"
Ms. Hawking takes Desmond for chestnuts. She points out a man in red shoes coming from the tube, and calls it a bold fashion choice worth noting. Desmond assumes this is all an effect of his concussion, his subconscious talking him out of marrying Penney. He no longer believes in the island, and says he’ll spend the rest of his life with her. Ms. Hawking says he will not…and a scaffolding collapses on the man with red shoes. She says didn’t stop it because it wouldn’t matter. Had she warned him, he’d be hit by a taxi the next day. “The universe has a way of course correcting” – that man was supposed to die. It was his path, just as it’s Desmond’s path to go to the island. He does not choose to, he’s supposed to. “You may not like your path, Desmond, but pushing that button is the only really great thing you will ever do.” He asks again how much for the ring, and she just walks away, leaving the ring in his hand.
Desmond walks on in the rain, and is taken aback by an army recruiting poster (a future we know is in store for him). He meets Penney by the Thames, and a photographer gets them to take the picture in front of a fake backdrop we’ve all seen so many times. Desmond looks at the print, and instantly recognizes how long he’s cherished the photo. He remembers now that there is no marina, and heeding Ms. Hawking’s words, he knows his next few years are predetermined, so he breaks off his relationship with Penney. She demands that he admit that he’s doing this because he’s a coward. He apologizes that they’re not supposed to be together. He chucks the ring he was going to give her into the river.
Desmond returns to the pub, sees a bottle of MacCuthcheon, but orders a bottle of the cheapest, since he’s made the biggest mistake of his life, and that he’s sure he’s made it before. Turning around, he hears the same song on the jukebox, then the soccer comeback happens…and in walks Jimmy Lennon, who takes a swing at the bartender, but he hits Desmond instead, who tried to intervene (since he knew what was going to happen)…and Desmond awakens nude in the jungle, as we saw him at the beginning of the season. He finds artifacts from the hatch, and the imploded hatch itself. And there, next to a warped record, he finds that picture of him with Penney in front of the marina backdrop. He pleads, to no one in particular, to let him go back one more time, and he promises to do it right, to change it.
Flash back (forward?) to the campfire on beach, and Charlie’s questions. Desmond tells Charlie that no matter what he does – he can’t change it. “When I turned that key, my life flashed before my eyes, and then I was back in the jungle, still on this bloody island, but those flashes, Charlie, those flashes? They didn’t stop.” Desmond reveals the two times he apparently saved Claire (and appeared to emasculate Charlie in the process), he wasn’t saving Claire – he was saving Charlie. In his flashes, Charlie was electrocuted by the lightning bolt, and then Charlie dove in after Claire to save her, but he drowned. Desmond knows, he keeps trying, “but no matter what I try to do, you’re going to die, Charlie.”
Analysis
As I hinted above, there were several pivotal moments here. First of all, for the second straight week we have a very subtle reference to Stephen Hawking, the preeminent physicist of our time, and the notion of time being less than absolute. We also have hope, through Desmond, of the characters' realizing that the connections between their pre-island lives and their present are meaningful, and that some events in the outside world are related to those on this island. There were still more hints of the connections between Widmore and Dharma. And most importantly, there is the favorite conundrum of time-travel/ sci-fi: free will or determinism? As ew.com points out today (referring to the Wikipedia entry on Desmond’s namesake, philosopher David Hume), “it all makes sense. Kinda. Basically, Hume's theory of compatibilism posits that free will and determinism both exist, and that what we do with our lives is essentially the result of these two concepts butting against each other. In other words, things are going all Sophie's World on us: Desmond Hume is living one of David Hume's theories.” I recall (from my own Wikipedia searching this summer) that David Hume was also quite against the notion of causation – i.e., that causal relationships are an illusion of the mind formed of sequential but not necessarily linked perceptions. Tying this to Desmond David Hume, I wonder, sure, Desmond’s failure to push the button was followed by the crash of flight 815, and may even be related to it, but given the determinism expressed by Ms. Hawking, would the plane have found a way to crash on the island, even if Desmond had not been wrestling with Kelvin?
Next week – the promos tell us – the answers to three of Lost’s biggest mysteries will be revealed.
Now, most weeks I give you a recap of the flashback in the past tense, followed by the “real time” action in the present tense. That model simply doesn’t apply this week, where time as a relative concept was anything but absolute.
The episode opens with Hurley questioning Charlie about his rifling through Sawyer’s stash (and astonishing amounts of pornography), when Desmond appears and takes them to where Locke and Sayid just buried Eko. Desmond seems tuned to another channel as Locke asks Charlie and Hurley to help calm the camp in the wake of Eko’s death. Locke explains to the shocked pair that “the island killed Eko,” and elaborates on this only by saying, “you know what I mean.” To be sure, Charlie has seen Smokey, but since the lostaways are not big on sharing, I wonder how Locke knew this? Suddenly, Desmond takes off, chucks his shirt and swims out to find…Claire, floating lifelessly in the ocean. Charlie, realizing she’s out there, tries to help. Desmond revives Claire, and refuses to let Charlie help. Charlie asks how Desmond knew she was drowning, and Hurley puts the pieces together from this episode and Desmond’s prediction of Locke’s speech – “that guy? Sees the future, dude.”
Sometime later, looking at his treasured picture of himself with Penney in front of a marina, Desmond is approached by Claire, and tells her Penney’s name. Claire and thanks him for saving her, with a very leery Charlie looking on while holding Aaron. Charlie and Hurley decide to figure out what’s up with Desmond, and figure to get him drunk with a bottle from Locke’s stash. Desmond, however, turns down the booze as he’s spent too much time drunk lately… until he sees the whiskey label says “MacCutcheon” and starts to laugh, and takes a drink from the bottle.
Evening hits and, after some drinking songs, Charlie asks, “how’d you know?” Desmond says he could hear Claire calling, but Hurley points out he was a mile away. Charlie asks pointedly – “did you hear the lightning, as well?” Charlie calls Desmond a coward, which sets Desmond off – “you don’t want to know what happened when I turned that key! You don’t want to know!”
Flashback to the unstable hatch scene from last season’s finale…Desmond turns the key, sees all kinds of flashing images, then wakes up in a pool of red paint on a floor, with Penney tending to him. Desmond just fell off some stacked-up ladders and suffered a minor concussion, back on the day that Penney moved in with him. Familiar but slightly off images are all around him – he is wearing a jumpsuit identical to the one he wore for three years (minus the Swan Hatch logo). The bedstand clock displays “1:08.” He’s back in “our flat,” and can’t be happier than to be with Penney. But something’s different – Desmond seems conscious of the fact that he’s in his flashback. Later, as he’s dressing for his interview to get a job from Penelope's father to earn Mr. Widmore’s respect, Penney says it’s not “the end of the world” if he doesn’t get the job. He starts to hear beeping, just like the sound of the hatch timer – but it’s just tea heating in the microwave. Des experiences this as déjà vu, and blinks back to his current reality.
At the Widmore Enterprises reception desk, Desmond hears a delivery “for 815,” (get it? 4, 8, 15…) and Desmond starts to have visions of entering numbers in the hatch. In Charles Widmore’s office are paintings similar to the mural in the hatch, including one featuring a Buddha, a polar bear, and the backwards word, "Namaste." He admires a model boat, and Charles says he’s sponsoring a race around the world – Des flashes to Elizabeth and the death of Kelvin. Des confesses he wants, not a job, but Penney’s hand in marriage. Widmore appears to offer a drink of 60-year-old MacCutcheon. He tells Des the swallow he is about to take is worth more than Des could earn in a month…and to share it with him would be a waste, because Des will never be a great man. “What you’re not, is worthy of drinking my whiskey – how could you ever be worthy of my daughter.” Des tosses the tie in disgust outside, and sees Charlie Hieronymous Pace playing guitar for change on the street. He says he knows him but cannot place how. More flashing to the island…he remembers his “past” on the island…then realizes he remembers this day from before the island, and just as he remembers aloud that it then started to rain, down comes the shower! Notably, this seems to be the first time any of our island dwellers appears conscious of a pre-crash connection...
Desmond runs to see a physicist friend, Donovan, to ask what he knows about time travel. Over a couple of Guinesses, Desmond relays his story, and asks if it’s possible to go back in time and live his life over again. Donovan’s response – this is just Desmond’s response to being berated for not being great. Desmond hears a song on the jukebox and remembers the come-from-behind win in the soccer game on TV – but it doesn’t happen. He remembers somebody coming through the door and attacking the bartender – but it doesn’t happen. Donovan grounds Desmond and tells him to go marry Penney.
Back at the flat, Penney says it’s time to celebrate – the occasion is because she loves him, because he’s a good man. In her experience, they’re pretty hard to come by. Desmond goes ring shopping in an antique shop. He says he’s not a man of means, and the shopkeeper (identified on ABC.com as “Ms. Hawking”) shows him a ring in a teardrop shape. He says he’ll take it, but she says, “no you won’t. This is wrong – you don’t buy the ring, you have second thoughts and walk out the door.” She knows his name…and tells Desmond he will break Penney’s heart, find himself entering a race to win back her heart, he’ll push the button on an island for three years and turn a failsafe key, because if he doesn’t, every one of us is dead. “So give me that sodding ring!” Notably, this is the first time somebody in an off-island flashback (other than Ethan and Alpert last week) indicate any knowledge that there is a crazy Dharma island out there. And does anyone else make anything of the fact that actress that plays Ms. Hawking appeared in the Nicole Kidman film, "The Others?"
Ms. Hawking takes Desmond for chestnuts. She points out a man in red shoes coming from the tube, and calls it a bold fashion choice worth noting. Desmond assumes this is all an effect of his concussion, his subconscious talking him out of marrying Penney. He no longer believes in the island, and says he’ll spend the rest of his life with her. Ms. Hawking says he will not…and a scaffolding collapses on the man with red shoes. She says didn’t stop it because it wouldn’t matter. Had she warned him, he’d be hit by a taxi the next day. “The universe has a way of course correcting” – that man was supposed to die. It was his path, just as it’s Desmond’s path to go to the island. He does not choose to, he’s supposed to. “You may not like your path, Desmond, but pushing that button is the only really great thing you will ever do.” He asks again how much for the ring, and she just walks away, leaving the ring in his hand.
Desmond walks on in the rain, and is taken aback by an army recruiting poster (a future we know is in store for him). He meets Penney by the Thames, and a photographer gets them to take the picture in front of a fake backdrop we’ve all seen so many times. Desmond looks at the print, and instantly recognizes how long he’s cherished the photo. He remembers now that there is no marina, and heeding Ms. Hawking’s words, he knows his next few years are predetermined, so he breaks off his relationship with Penney. She demands that he admit that he’s doing this because he’s a coward. He apologizes that they’re not supposed to be together. He chucks the ring he was going to give her into the river.
Desmond returns to the pub, sees a bottle of MacCuthcheon, but orders a bottle of the cheapest, since he’s made the biggest mistake of his life, and that he’s sure he’s made it before. Turning around, he hears the same song on the jukebox, then the soccer comeback happens…and in walks Jimmy Lennon, who takes a swing at the bartender, but he hits Desmond instead, who tried to intervene (since he knew what was going to happen)…and Desmond awakens nude in the jungle, as we saw him at the beginning of the season. He finds artifacts from the hatch, and the imploded hatch itself. And there, next to a warped record, he finds that picture of him with Penney in front of the marina backdrop. He pleads, to no one in particular, to let him go back one more time, and he promises to do it right, to change it.
Flash back (forward?) to the campfire on beach, and Charlie’s questions. Desmond tells Charlie that no matter what he does – he can’t change it. “When I turned that key, my life flashed before my eyes, and then I was back in the jungle, still on this bloody island, but those flashes, Charlie, those flashes? They didn’t stop.” Desmond reveals the two times he apparently saved Claire (and appeared to emasculate Charlie in the process), he wasn’t saving Claire – he was saving Charlie. In his flashes, Charlie was electrocuted by the lightning bolt, and then Charlie dove in after Claire to save her, but he drowned. Desmond knows, he keeps trying, “but no matter what I try to do, you’re going to die, Charlie.”
Analysis
As I hinted above, there were several pivotal moments here. First of all, for the second straight week we have a very subtle reference to Stephen Hawking, the preeminent physicist of our time, and the notion of time being less than absolute. We also have hope, through Desmond, of the characters' realizing that the connections between their pre-island lives and their present are meaningful, and that some events in the outside world are related to those on this island. There were still more hints of the connections between Widmore and Dharma. And most importantly, there is the favorite conundrum of time-travel/ sci-fi: free will or determinism? As ew.com points out today (referring to the Wikipedia entry on Desmond’s namesake, philosopher David Hume), “it all makes sense. Kinda. Basically, Hume's theory of compatibilism posits that free will and determinism both exist, and that what we do with our lives is essentially the result of these two concepts butting against each other. In other words, things are going all Sophie's World on us: Desmond Hume is living one of David Hume's theories.” I recall (from my own Wikipedia searching this summer) that David Hume was also quite against the notion of causation – i.e., that causal relationships are an illusion of the mind formed of sequential but not necessarily linked perceptions. Tying this to Desmond David Hume, I wonder, sure, Desmond’s failure to push the button was followed by the crash of flight 815, and may even be related to it, but given the determinism expressed by Ms. Hawking, would the plane have found a way to crash on the island, even if Desmond had not been wrestling with Kelvin?
Next week – the promos tell us – the answers to three of Lost’s biggest mysteries will be revealed.
2 comments:
great episode. it was nice to get a change of pace episode after all the confusing time spent with the prisoner castaways. I always enjoy and nice reality/dream mix.
i also like the idea that desmond has certain visions bestowed upon him by the hatch blast. along the lines of the black hole theory, i'm intrigued by the idea that the blast somehow pushed him through space-time in a non-linear way, so he remembers things that haven't happened yet.
a good discussion on fate is always interesting, as charlie will inevitably refuse to believe that his fate is sealed, much like the Locke vs. Jack standoff from back in the button-pushing days. and we know how that ended.
Actually, I thought it was a dumb episode. I did not feel that it added to the story at all and just confused things further. If we have more episodes like this one, I will probably stop watching.
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