Discuss this episode here!

I liked the sappy ending.

I dont know if I am going to like this time travel/altered conscience bit tho.  A bit too sci-fi for me.

I liked the tie in to the ARG with Widmore getting the Black ROck journal at the auction.

I think "the numbers" were in the settings that Farraday gave Desmond to give himself in the past.

I thought it was cool as hell! I mean, yeah, it's kinda confusing but then again, it is LOST. :-D I guess with Des being Dan's constant, he figured out a way to time travel as well.  But I think Dan might be using Des as a contant in the year 2004 while Dan is actually comming from a later year like 2010 or something. Just a thought. At least now we know why Dan had a caregiver in TBOTE.

The sappy ending got me too. However I thought it was weird that George Minwhateverthehellhislastnameis told Des that Penny was trying to get through on the phone. Then the fact that he's having the same thing happen to him. Weird.

Desmond was fine before he left the island. Then when they hit that storm it's like Des reverted back to his 1996 self. I wonder if he's cahnging the course of things by following Dan's instructions to find him in 1996. I mean Miss Hawkins said that the universe has a way of course correcting itselfs. And didn't Dan say that the future couldn't be changed?

I have got to watch this again. But all in all, I loved it!!!!  

--Last edited by DivineSyn on 2008-02-28 23:42:19 --

What ah-may-zing episode.

I was never a fan of the time discrepancy theories, but I happened to LOVE this.

Best episode in a LONG time. If not ever.

Totally agree.  This epi rawked.  Des epis are the BEST.  I loved when Daniel said something about Des and Eloise being unstuck in time - yay Vonnegut!  I love this season.  Get us those 5 more epis ASAP!!!  

HELP ME, MY HEAD IS SPINNING AND I CAN'T STOP IT!!!!!!

wow what an epi, TPTB must have heard us bitching about last weeks lame epi and shoved this one in our face with a "well then, take this"

Great eppy, loved every second.

One thing I have trouble with.. The island's perception of elapsed time. Help please?

I *guess* both island and freighter exist in the same time frame... but passing thru the clouds screws time up with whoever's/whatever's going thru them?

What an amazing episode! I liked the sappy ending as well. So it seems when Des does "flash back" into the past, he can change things, otherwise Penny never would have known he was gonna call her on Christmas Eve '04.
As far as the boat and the island go, they seem to be on the same time table, but I am sure that there is something odd happening since Sayid said something like "why did we leave at dusk but get here in the middle of day". And it seemed like what, a day and a half, to the Losties on the island, but it wasn't that long for the folks on the chopper.
I am still trying to absorb everything and I think it's gonna take another viewing of the episode for me to catch everything LOL
I did like Minkowski, though. Now we know why they didn't want Daniel to talk to him on the phone...he was crazy! lol
We still don't know who Ben's man on the boat is, but we know he is helping Sayid and Des...which makes me more confident that it's Michael. Ben hasn't been in the habit of helping the Losties, so why would his man...UNLESS it's someone who knows them?  Just my whacky theory

interesting Rara, this whole epi really spins my head and I have no idea what to make of this time issue, so I'm going to sit back and enjoy the ride. I'm going fishing

I thought this episode may have finally explained why Des was dishonorably dicsharged from the military...,he went AWOL looking for Faraday and Penny.

But that only happened cuz he just went back in time.  That doesnt explain what happened originally.

Oh yeah, we also now know its Xmas Eve on the island.  So what is that in days? 93?

I thought that when I saw it the first time, too, TI, but on the rewatch I heard him say to Penny on the phone, "I have two days' leave starting tomorrow, so I'll come by and see you".  So there may be another reason for his incarceration/discharge.  But it may still have to do with time-jumping

One thing i find interesting is that Desmond's Island-present mind wasn't the one doing the time traveling, his consciousness got knocked off-line and was replaced by his 1996 self. It was this older Desmond consciousness that toggled between present and past throughout the episode. Once Desmond '96 completed the errand of getting Penny's phone number so he could call her on Christmas Eve 2004, Desmond's present-day mind came back online, but rebooted with the new memories created by his time-travel adventure.

Notice: Unlike Desmond's time-travel story, Minkowski's present day consciousness was making the trip.

In an interview with Lindelof, he says this difference was designed to make a very important point: As Faraday explains in the episode, the effect is random. Sometimes a person can be displaced by minutes, other times, years. And the direction of the effect is equally unpredictable. Our way of demonstrating this was to give Minkowski a wildly different experience than Desmond was having. Lindelof says none of this is arbitrary; exposure to electromagnetism or radiation plays a role. But he adds: Looking for specific rules for how all this works will lead you down the path of insanity.

To be clear, Desmond's past was different before ''The Constant.'' Before his time-travel adventure, Desmond never met Faraday at Oxford, never got Penelope's digits. As a consequence of changing the past, Desmond's personal history has been ''course corrected'' by The Powers That Be, beginning from the moment he walked away from Penny's apartment.  But here's a Big Question: since scoring Penelope's phone number, has Course-Corrected Desmond lived his life knowing that on Christmas Eve 2004, he MUST be on a freighter in the South Pacific in order to make a call to Penelope if he wants any chance of having a future with her? Lindelof says this is indeed a matter we should be mulling. Perhaps in the future, Lost will give us an episode that replays Desmond's backstory (getting the boat from Libby; killing Kelvin; meeting the castaways) from the point of view of this knowingness.  

--Last edited by TheIsland on 2008-03-08 08:10:27 --

I've been trying for the last twenty minutes to word my question right and I can't friggin' do it!!! Hell, I give up. I guess it just wasn't that important.