Lost: Flashes Before Your Eyes

What makes an episode of Lost great, or for the growing population of indifferent viewers out there, still worth programming into your TiVo? Does it answer questions you've had since the previous season? Introduce new mysteries? Feature supernatural or sci-fi events? Reveal more about a character's past or their connections to other inhabitants of the island? Does it turn your expectations of the series upside down? Does it actually advance the plot?

Whatever your answer, last week's Desmond episode had something for even the most jaded viewer.

Full disclosure: I'm a sucker for episodes that play with the flashback formula. "...In Translation", the first (and only) Jin episode, deconstructed our previous wife's-eye-view of his relationship. "Exodus," the first season finale, broke the mold by showing how everyone interacted when they boarded Oceanic Flight 815. "The Other 48 Days" depicted what happened to the survivors of the tail section of the plane. "Maternity Leave" filled in a gap of missing time, showing us what happened to Claire when she was kidnapped by The Others. Similar episodes followed, detailing Michael's time spent with The Others and Desmond's history in the hatch.

But the latest twist on the flashback formula was really clever. "Flashes Before Your Eyes" was two flashbacks at the same time.

There have been hints from the producers that on the island, time may not be what it seems. This caused some speculation that perhaps the plane had crashed in a year other than when the show premiered, or that the island existed outside of time and space and if the castaways ever escape they will return to the real world at the same time they left it. (Last season's finale negated both of these hypotheses, and Lost tie-ins like Bad Twin indicate that time has indeed passed in the real world since the plane disappeared.)

Clues as to what was actually going on started to appear early this season, with Desmond referring to future events in past tense, a cameo appearance by A Brief History of Time, and hidden in the brainwashing video from the Juliet flashback, "Not in Portland." When the audio is played backward, the filmstrip in Room 23 repeats "Only fools are enslaved to time and space."

Make sure to check that out the link. It's pretty creepy.

It's debateable whether or not Desmond actually went anywhere or was just hallucinating. As the folks at LOSTcasts point out, Wizard of Oz references abound in this episode, and the grey-haired oracle who tells Desmond that he can't change the past or the future could very well be an incarnation of the Smoke Monster. But I think that's missing the point. Desmond's body didn't go anywhere. His mind did.

I don't know much about physics, but there are several religions that teach that time is not a straight line, but occurs all at once. Turning the key exposed Desmond to his entire life. He isn't seeing the future. He's remembering it.

What's so intriguing about this is that the only other entity we know of that's been able to see the past is the Smoke Monster (thanks again to LOSTcasts for bringing this to my attention), and that changing the future is the mission statement of the Hanso Foundation. The latter topic has been referenced in the show, but if you're really stumped as to why I think this show is still on track, I suggest you look up The Valenzetti Equation.

Also, the twist at the end guarantees that the next Charlie episode will actually be interesting.