Flashes Before Your Eyes

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“Flashes Before Your Eyes”

Lost episode

Desmond saves Claire.

Episode no.

Season 3
Episode 8

Written by

Damon Lindelof & Drew Goddard

Directed by

Jack Bender

Guest stars

Sonya Walger
Alan Dale
Shishir Kurup
Fionnuala Flanagan
Jeremy Colvin
David Cordell
Katie Doyle
Michael Titterton
Stephen Quinn

Production no.

308

Original airdate

February 14, 2007

Episode chronology
← Previous	Next →
"Not in Portland"	"Stranger in a Strange Land"

Lost (season 3)
List of Lost episodes

"Flashes Before Your Eyes" is the eighth episode of the third season of Lost. It was aired on February 14, 2007, making it the 55th episode of the series. The episode was written by Damon Lindelof and Drew Goddard and directed by Jack Bender. The character of Desmond Hume is focused on in this episode.

1 Plot
- 1.1 Premonitions
- 1.2 Flash scenes
2 Production
3 Trivia
4 Awards
5 References

[edit] Plot

[edit] Premonitions

Charlie and Hurley ransack Sawyer's stash of hidden goods. Desmond approaches and asks them to come with him. In the jungle, they meet Locke and Sayid. Locke informs them that Eko has been killed and that they need Charlie and Hurley to remain calm as an example to the others when they break the news. Charlie wants to know how Eko died; when Locke says the island killed him, he grows angry and demands a better answer, while Desmond grows increasingly uneasy. Suddenly, Desmond sprints off; the other four follow him. He runs down to the beach, dives in, swims out and rescues Claire. Charlie wonders aloud how Desmond knew Claire was drowning; Hurley tells him that Desmond can see the future.

Claire thanks Desmond for saving her life. Charlie hatches a plan to get Desmond to explain his precognitive ability: Charlie and Hurley will get him drunk. The pair offer him some alcohol as a truce offering, but Desmond declines, saying he has spent far too much time drunk already. However, he changes his mind when he sees the brand of whiskey: a 60-year MacCutcheon. Later, after several drinks and cheerful songs, Charlie inquires about Desmond's ability, but Desmond excuses himself. Charlie calls him a coward; Desmond turns and tackles him, shouting that Charlie does not want to know what Desmond has seen.

[edit] Flash scenes

A flashback begins back in the hatch, when Locke destroyed the computer. Desmond crawls to the failsafe switch, turns the key, and suddenly finds himself sprawled on the floor of his old apartment in a puddle of red paint. Penelope appears and asks if he is all right; when he asks what just happened, she tells him that he mixed ladders, painting and alcohol. Desmond kisses Penelope. As he walks into the bedroom he sees the time on the clock radio reads 1:08... the digits of the interval in minutes at which he had to keep pressing the button. This number clearly puzzles Desmond but he is not sure what it means.

Later, Desmond is dressing for an interview with Penelope's father. The beeping of the microwave sounds exactly like the warning timer in the hatch, and Desmond appears confused again. As he arrives for the interview, he overhears a deliveryman say a package is "for 8:15" and sees a flash of the numbers in the hatch (4, 8, 15...), and this is also the Oceanic flight number of the survivors.

"Namaste" appears backwards on the painting in Mr. Widmore's office along with a polar bear, mountains and a Buddha statue. During the interview, Mr. Widmore tells Desmond he can work in Administration. Desmond demurs, saying he came to ask for Penelope's hand in marriage. Widmore tells a story about a famous Admiral MacCutcheon, and reaches for a bottle of MacCutcheon 60 whisky and two glasses, but pours one glass. He says that one swallow of it is worth more than Desmond could ever make in a month. As he savours this fine Scotch, he coldly proceeds to inform his prospective son-in-law that as he deems him unworthy of partaking of this fine whisky, he is certainly not worthy of his daughter.

Crushed and humiliated, Desmond storms outside throwing off his tie, and notices Charlie busking in the street, playing the Oasis song "Wonderwall". He confronts him, asking how they know each other; Charlie shrugs him off, laughingly telling the crowd that Desmond's behavior is "an example of why you should not do drugs". Growing increasingly erratic and frustrated, Desmond becomes certain that he has met Charlie on the island and that he has been snubbed by the performer on that street corner before. He tries to explain that immediately after storming outside (including throwing down his tie and Penny asking about his missing tie) the first time it began to rain, and it suddenly begins to rain.

Desmond, now convinced that he is living his life over for a second time, hunts down an old friend named Donovan, a physics professor. The pair discuss time travel in a pub. Desmond hears "Make Your Own Kind of Music" by Cass Elliot on the jukebox, which was playing in the hatch when Locke blew it open, and notices a football match on the television, and says he remembers this night: the team that is behind is about to score the first of two goals that will earn them the win, and Jimmy Lennon will burst in with a cricket bat and attack the bartender over a gambling debt. Donovan waits patiently; the goal does not materialize, nor does a man with a bat.

Desmond goes shopping for an engagement ring for Penelope. The shopkeeper, Ms. Hawking (played by Fionnuala Flanagan), shows him a modestly-priced ring. When he says he will take it, she demands the ring back, telling him that he cannot marry Penelope, he is supposed to have second thoughts, sail around the world, end up on the island, push the button in the hatch, and turn the failsafe key; or else everybody will die. She goes outside with Desmond, where she points out a man in red shoes. Desmond tells her that he believes she is his subconscious. Minutes later, a scaffolding collapses and the man in red shoes is killed. Desmond asks her why she did not warn him; she tells him the universe has a way of "course correcting"; if she had prevented this accident, he would simply have died in some other way. Desmond, unconvinced, leaves to propose to Penelope. On the way he passes a military recruitment station, which again makes him pause, confused. But he does not go in, and continues on to his meeting with Penelope.

The couple are going to lunch and stop to get their picture taken. After Penny pays five pounds for the photo, Desmond suddenly changes his mind about their relationship; not only can he not support his girlfriend, he does not even have enough money for the photograph. He tells her she deserves better; Penelope angrily tells him not to hide behind excuses and to simply admit that he is a coward. He says they are not supposed to be together. Penelope walks away, hurt, and Desmond throws the ring into the river.

Desmond returns to the pub. He notices a bottle of MacCutcheon 60 on the shelf, but asks for a pint of their cheapest to celebrate the biggest mistake of his life, which he says he is pretty sure he has made twice now. "Make Your Own Kind of Music", the same song that Desmond plays as he starts his day in the teaser of "Man of Science, Man of Faith", starts playing again in the background. He suddenly notices the football match on the television; a team has just scored a goal. Desmond realizes he had remembered the past, he was just a day off, and says aloud that there is still time to fix the problem. Suddenly Jimmy Lennon enters waving a bat and demanding his money. Desmond warns the barman to duck just in time, causing Lennon to overswing and hit Desmond with the bat.

Desmond awakens back on the island, naked. He runs through the jungle and finds items from the hatch, as well as his photograph from the "flashback" of himself with Penelope, and begs for one more chance to fix his error. In quick snippets, his actions between the destruction of the hatch and his fight with Charlie are shown. Hurley pulls him off Charlie; Desmond falls to his hands and knees, sobbing. Charlie then helps Desmond to his tent and demands the truth, one last time.

Desmond relents and tells Charlie that he saw his own life flash before his eyes before found himself back in the jungle. But he is still seeing the flashes. It wasn't Claire he was trying to save, it was Charlie. First, he saw Charlie electrocuted by a lightning bolt; then he saw Charlie drown while trying to save Claire. Desmond tells Charlie that he has prevented his death twice now, but that the Universe has a way of correcting its course.

He ominously warns that no matter how hard he tries, Charlie's death is imminent.

[edit] Production

This episode is the first to deal with the concept of time travel, the next being "The Constant" in the fourth season. Unlike other flashback sequences to this point, this is positioned as actual time travel for Desmond. However in this episode ground rules are established to prevent paradoxes in the story line as a result of time travel. Had these rules not been established, the writers feared that viewers would lose interest because the stakes of the characters would be lessened.^[1]

[edit] Trivia

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Charlie is shown busking on a London street singing "Wonderwall" by Oasis, specifically the line "You're going to be the one who saves me" as Desmond approaches. Desmond spends most of Season 3 "saving" Charlie with his premonitions. Charlie singing Wonderwall is also a reference to both him and his band DriveShaft being modeled after the Gallagher Brothers and Oasis.

The supposed recruiting poster for the Royal Scots in the Armed Forces Careers office that Desmond looks at uses the American spelling of "HONOR" rather than the British spelling "HONOUR", and features a photograph of a soldier wearing an American TC-2000 helmet, rather than a British Mk. 6, and holding an M4 carbine, a rifle not used by regular British forces.

There is another of Lost's many Wizard of Oz references in this episode - the "Man in Red Shoes" is crushed beneath a pile of bricks, and the only part of his body which is visible are his red-shod feet protruding comically from beneath the wreckage, in almost the exact same manner as the Wicked Witch of the East and her Ruby Slippers.

[edit] Awards

Henry Ian Cusick and Dominic Monaghan submitted this episode for consideration on their own behalves in the category of "Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series" respectively at the 2007 Emmy Awards.^[2]

[edit] References

^ Jensen, Jeff "Doc", (February 20, 2007) "Lost: Mind-Blowing Scoop From Its Producers", Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved on March 1, 2008.
^ 2007 Emmys CONFIRMED Episode Submissions. The Envelope Forum, Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on 2007-06-18.

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