Desmond

Tonight’s Desmond-centric episode will mostly focus on Sayid and Desmond’s trip with Frank Lapidus back to the freighter – and accordingly we will see the introduction of a number of new characters. Hopefully we get much more insight into how cohesive a group the freighties are (or not) and additional information on who might be Ben’s man on the boat. I would expect to see a strange sequence related to Desmond’s flash – and we’ll probably have a difficult time determining if we are seeing past or future – should be a great episode.

Spoiler Warning

ABC’s Official Show Description

Sayid and Desmond run into turbulence on their way to the freighter, causing Desmond to suffer unusual side effects.

Episode Preview

As always here are a few sneak peeks of The Constant:
Sneak Peek 1 | Sneak Peek 2 | Sneak Peek 3

-Jeff Jensen of EW.com recently posted an interesting theory related to a special ability that Ben might possess, an interview with actor/director/Lost fan Kevin Smith and some other info related to our favorite show:

Like Desmond, Ben receives flashes of the future, too. Of course, while Old Bug Eyes has been on The Island longer, and has actively cultivated a deeper rapport with The Island (or is that just Jacob?), Big Bad Ben has banked many, many, many more flashes than the formerly Hatched-trapped Scot.

Jensen goes on to further support the theory, but I do think that it could at least provide the rationalization for why Ben continues on in his current state of existence. It would also explain why he was so adamant about the demise of the Island which the people that are coming at the conclusion of Season 3 represent.

Related to the other reference of The Island and Jacob above, I have also noted this theory found on Dark UFO, which suggests they may be one in the same. I think the prospect of Jacob being a manifestation and communicable form of the Island is more likely than he actually being a living/breathing person with supernatural abilities, specifically given Cuse’s recent comment about the depiction of Jacob in Season 4, etc.

I know there is still a lot of speculation in regards to the official air date for Season 4, and though there is still no “official” word, I am seeing reports that suggest it will remain on Wednesday night, with the time slot TBD. My understanding is that the date and time will be made official within the next few weeks, one way or the other, with the day either being Monday or Wednesday. Which would you prefer?

It has been a week now and the dust has settled (mostly) from the mind-blowing Season 3 finale. Though we are undoubtedly left with many questions to keep us occupied until next February, we were provided some closure as well. In summary:

Charlie is dead

There was a lot of commentary associated with the finale post related to how Charlie died and exactly why he did not try to escape from the control panel room as it filled with water. Ultimately Charlie believed that for the Losties to be rescued from the Island, specifically Claire and Aaron, he had to die in the way that Desmond envisioned. Bringing finality to season-long foreshadowing and in truly heroic fashion, he initiated the catalyst that will inevitably cause some of the Losties to get off the Island.

So are 12 Others, Naomi, and (possibly) Mikhail

The action and body count in this episode was unbelievable. We saw the Others’ rank and file decimated throughout the finale, Naomi literally stabbed in the back by Locke, and Mikhail detonate himself via hand grenade. However, I am not going to make the silly assumption that Mikhail is dead; after all, we have now seen him bounce back from the sensor pylons and a spear to the chest. We will probably see him wash ashore in Season 4 alive, but missing his right hand.

Though I generally agreed with it, I thought that Sawyer’s execution of Tom was the foreshadowing of an even darker descent for the character that we will see next season.

“Not Penny’s Boat”

During Charlie’s brief commune with Penny, we are told that Penny does not know of Naomi, which basically begs the question “Who is Naomi with?”. My first guess would be Dharma, or the corporate entity that financed the Dharma Initiative. She obviously has access to sophisticated technology and knows enough about Desmond’s back story to use that as the means to convince the Losties of her motives. Widmore anyone? Hopefully Desmond can get back in time to save the Losties from whomever is on their way to “rescue” them.

Future Jack is Depressing

As Jack is one of my personal favorite characters, I am hoping the flash forward we saw represents a “possible” future for Jack, and not the absolute. If it is Jack’s future, I would hope he finds a way back to the Island to right the wrong he feels needs to be addressed, and to find some greater meaning for his life. J. Wood, whose blog I have read frequently this season, discussed the flash forward in his TTLG post and it is definitely worth reading:

I’m planting a flag here — when Des saved Charlie, he changed that past and present as well as the future. Charlie couldn’t swim in the first season, and he’s all of a sudden a swimming champion who makes an impressive dive in “Greatest Hits,” a dive that Mikhail needed scuba gear for. Like Charlie’s newfound innate swimming ability, perhaps in the re-made past/present/future, Christian Shepherd didn’t die. And maybe that’s why Kate seems to be conspicuously lacking her trademark freckles.

The flash forward itself implies an even greater question for next season, and that is, did the Season 3 finale represent a change in the narrative angle for the entire series? Was the flash forward a one-time episodic plot device, or is this what we can expect moving forward?

Is Ben a bad guy, or a morally-challenged good guy?

Seeing Jack in his current state of depression made me think that Ben is really the only one who has this whole thing figured out, and is ultimately doing whatever is necessary to protect the location of the Island from the people looking to exploit it. There was obviously some merit to his comments about the company that Naomi was keeping, and his dialogue related to Jack’s need to get back to civilization, though stinging, was the truth. Nevertheless, it was somewhat cathartic to see Jack pummel Ben. For those that haven’t seen it yet, there are some pretty good transcriptions of Ben’s diary out there.

Who was in the casket?

There has been a lot of speculation about this; it could be Locke, Sawyer, or Ben, or anyone else under the guise of a different name. In my opinion, it is probably either Ben or someone we have yet to meet on the series. Jack commented that the person was neither friend nor relative, and the reaction evoked from Kate would indicate it was somebody that there was a general level of contempt for.

Season 4 cannot get here quick enough, and I am excited to learn more about everything referenced above, as well as where Locke has migrated off to, where exactly is this temple that Ben has sent the remaining Others to, and did we really see Walt, or was that a reincarnation of Smokey? Could Walt have some tie to Jacob?

We will continue to try and keep things interesting on this blog, following any information released about the series, the actors, and making some changes along the way to prepare for a better Season 4 Lost Blog experience. We are working on initiating a theory-focused contest and will have more information on that in the coming weeks.

Until then, stay Lost.

Here’s some news surrounding the world of Lost this week.

Lost Ratings Climb

As Season 3 is approaching the finale, viewers and ratings are climbing. The traffic on this site soared Thursday morning causing an outage. We are actively working on preventing that again.

At 10 p.m., CBS’ “CSI: NY” led in households with a 7.7/13, but a new “Lost,” 7.2/12, had about 450,000 more total viewers. “Medium” posted a 4.8/8 for NBC

Even the 9pm repeat took 4th place (via Zap2it)

Reuters is reporting the DVR recordings of Lost are adding 2.5 million viewers.

Actor News

In other ratings jumps, Evangeline Lilly saw a jump in FHM from last year’s #73 spot to #35.

It has been confirmed Matthew Fox will play Racer X in the Wachowski brother’s adaptation of Speed Racer. There’s been lots of chatter around the web about this, including this site. He joins Kick Gurry, Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, Susan Sarandon and John Goodman in the cast.

Finally, a small interview with Henry Ian Cusick regarding his alter ego Desmond, and his life prior to joining Lost.

It’s the best day of the week again and personally I couldn’t be happier - tonight’s new Lost episode “Catch 22″ focuses on Desmond and one of his “flashes” from the future.

The last Desmond-centric episode “Flashes before your eyes” really played with the concept of non-linear time and free will versus determinism so it will be interesting to see if this episode reveals more about Desmond’s strange ability, or “lame super-power” as Hurley would put it.

Someone else with extraordinary abilities is the new manipulator in the beach camp. With Juliet around, things are bound to get interesting…

This is the official description of “Catch 22″:

Warning, spoilers!

“Catch-22″ - Desmond coaxes Charlie, Hurley and Jin on a trek across the jungle after experiencing one of his future-prophesizing “flashes” — but is he purposely placing Charlie’s life in harm’s way? Meanwhile, Kate turns to an unwitting Sawyer after seeing Jack alone with Juliet, on “Lost,” WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network.

In the latest official Lost podcast, Lost executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse discussed last week’s mysterious episode “Flashes Before Your Eyes“.

This is a rough transcript of what they had to say about Desmond’s strange flashback where he appeared to re-live his past:

Carlton: I suppose people would wanna know… what does this mean?
Damon: Did it really happen?
Carlton: Yeah, did it really happen?
Damon: Yeah, I think it really happened.
Carlton: I think it did too.
Damon: One of the things we try very rarely on the show is to play something as having been imagined or dreamed. You know I would say in the global sense of things, Desmond back in 1996 actually had that experience. i would venture to guess that in future flashbacks of Desmond’s they would be treated as traditional flashbacks where he doesnt really have any awareness of his destiny but in this particular instance we went outside the box a little.

Carlton: Right, I mean it’s entirely possible that he can have a traditional flashback as well.
Damon: Absolutely, what’s interesting is that there are certain things that happened the way they used to happen that he changed as a result of being in the past, that might sort of resonate over time, like getting hit in the face instead of the bartender, or the fact that the photograph of he and penny got taken the day they broke up. Maybe in another incarnation there were two photographs, that would explain how she got one.

When I saw the episode I felt it was pretty clear that Desmond was in some way re-living his past, but I know quite a few of you have been of the opinion that the flashback was a dream or a hallucination created by the smoke monster. Hopefully this should clear things up a bit!

A few other things in the episode are also cleared up in the podcast, so if you haven’t listened already, I would recommend doing so!

A new official Lost audio podcast was just released!

Henry Ian Cusick talks about the challenges of playing Desmond. And Executive Producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse answer the question, did Desmond really travel through time? They tease “Stranger In A Strange Land” (2/21/07).

Listen to the podcast on ABC.com

While watching “Flashes Before Your Eyes” last night I was once again reminded of Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof’s favorite graphic novel “Watchmen”.

You see, Desmond’s strange abilities, or his destiny if you will, seems very similar to the character Dr. Jon Osterman aka Dr.Manhattan in Watchmen. Take a look at this quote about Dr.Manhattan from Wikipedia:

After his transformation, Jon begins to experience time in a non-linear, “quantum” fashion; it is implied that Jon is aware of and experiencing all the moments of his life simultanously. Jon is not omniscient; he remains reliant on his intellect to reach conclusions, but his range of sensory data has been abruptly extended, in proportion to the lessening of his emotional capacities. This often leads him to arrive at conclusions greatly different from those available to normal humans. His already weak will (marked by his apparent submission to his father’s career plans, whatever they might be) becomes sublimated further during this time. He increasingly has difficulty acting in what those around him consider the present moment, leading to many accusations and even the public perception that he is emotionless and uninterested in human affairs (for instance, he does nothing to prevent the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, even though he is aware it is going to happen). However, during the course of Watchmen he displays powerful emotion several times. His apparent lack of sentiment is more a matter of radically altered priorities, owing to a colossal, unbridgeable gap of perception between Jon and the rest of humanity.

Quite a few similarities to what happened to Desmond in last night’s episode, huh?

Push the button, save the world!

So what really happened to Desmondo? Did he just have a flashback or a dream, did he travel in time or is he experiencing past, present and future all at once?

The way I interpreted “Flashes Before Your Eyes”, Desmond has discovered that time is a repeating cycle. This is probably the second or third time Desmond has been on the island, and every time he has to do the exact same things to save the world and make sure that everything goes on as usual until the world ends, the universe dies and everything starts over again.

When Desmond turned the failsafe key, something happened that enabled him to see glimpses of the past and the future but he clearly doesn’t remember everything from the future (or past, depending on how we look at things), that’s why he doesn’t know how Charlie is going to die yet. And if this is the second cycle, did he save Charlie from the lighting in a previous cycle but fail to save him from drowning?

Free will versus Destiny

A major theme through Lost has been free will versus predetermined destiny. Desmond’s story in “Flashes Before Your Eyes” clearly points to everything having a predetermined destiny. Desmond has to give up Penny and save the world. The thing is, Desmond is a coward, and he knows it. Previously he has done everything that was predetermined for him to do, but this time he is rebelling against his destiny and changing it by saving the bartender and saving Charlie. Desmond is growing as a character and is starting to overcome his obstacles.

When Lost moves closer to the end, I think we are going to see that everything has really been about a fight against the characters’ destiny and the predetermined the end of the world as foreseen by the Valenzetti Equation. This time, the world will be saved, and Desmond is going to play a vital part, he just has to take control of his destiny and prove that he is a great man.

Remember, only fools are enslaved by space and time!

If you enjoyed this post, feel free to digg it.

Tonight’s new Lost episode titled “Flashes Before Your Eyes” takes us back to our Lost friends on the beach. Will Kate and Sawyer make it back to the main island? What has been going on while we’ve observed the events on “Alcatraz” island? Can Desmond predict the future?

Tonight’s Desmond-centric episode might answer a few questions related to his past and his newfound precognitive abilities.

Desmond has become one of my favorite characters and I think he plays a vital part in the larger Lost story so I’m very excited about this episode.

Spoilers

This is the official description of “Flashes Before Your Eyes”:

A suspicious and determined Hurley enlists Charlie to help him wrangle the truth out of Desmond, who has been acting strangely ever since the implosion of the hatch, on “Lost,” WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET), on ABC.

As always, feel free to discuss the episode in the comments!

During the “Evening with Lost” that took place the 13th, host Jimmy Kimmel was quite determined to get some exciting revelations from the Lost writers, but despite his little campaign, he couldn’t manage to make them reveal any big secrets.

Again - Since I was writing while I was watching the event, the quotes may not be exact but they should be pretty close to what was said.

Executive producer Carlton Cuse said that Lost would be a lot less interesting to watch if you had the mystery revealed to you and when Kimmel kept asking for revelations he laughingly replied:

“The entire show is taking place in the dog’s mind.”

Kimmel then asked if the writers had ever heard a Lost theory which was correct. Cuse answered:

“Not enough of the story has unfolded for people to get the whole thing. There is not one unifying theory.”

JJ Abrams also had a thing or two to say regarding the many mysteries:

“It is not just one thing happening on the island. It’s not Twin Peaks with everything leading to who murdered Laura Palmer. It’s the journey that matters, there are cool things to discover.”

In response to Kimmel’s requests for answers and revelations Damon Lindelof said that they answer things all the time, like what was in the hatch and what Kate did, but when they answer a question or mystery, the fans just want answers to other questions. He added that the minute that you give up what the island is the show is over.

A look at things to come

A few small revelations were made, and these are spoiler-ish, but since they come from the writers I think it’s alright. Carlton Cuse hinted at what we can expect when Lost returns next month:

We’re going to tell you how Locke got in his wheelchair and Jack’s tatoo’s will be explained.

If I remember correctly, Damon Lindelof also revealed that the Others either have or have had the ability to leave the island and he said that there is a specific reason why they didn’t bring a surgeon to the island or didn’t bring Ben to a surgeon. This, he said, will be explained within 6 or 7 episodes.

Kimmel also asked Damon about the connection between Lost and NBC’s “Heroes”. The Lost creator explained that he is friends with and used to work with “Heroes” creator Tim Kring, but that there is no official connection between the two shows. He added that it would be fun to have the Japanese time-bender Hiro pop up on the island though.

Cast Theories

When asked what the craziest Lost theory they had heard was, the cast had some amusing answers:

Michael Emerson - “Someone told me the island was the ruins of an alien zoo.”
Dominic Monaghan - “That the show was the dream of a duck.”
Jorge garcia - “The one where we were all cloned during the flight and the story was really about our clones.”

Jimmy Kimmel said that he had a theory that Desmond was the devil. Henry Ian Cusic who plays Desmond found that interesting and said that when he first played Desmond running on the stadium stairs with Jack, he thought that Desmond was an angel.

I’ve personally never thought of the possibility that Desmond could be an angel, and considering what we now know about him, he probably is not an angel, but I like the idea.

Kimmel then asked if Desmond knows more than everyone else. This was answered by Damon Lindelof who said that Desmond ended up being a massive mythological character on the show and discussed how the salvation of the losties could be in the hands of the “Romeo and Juliet” love story between Desmond and Penelope. He said that Desmond “marches to the beat of his own drummer” and that “what he knows is what he knows”, which basically meant that Desmond doesn’t know more than he is telling the other survivors.

These philosophical questions led Kimmel to ask Elizabeth Mitchell who plays Juliet if she knew if her character is good or evil. To which Elizabeth answered:

“No I don’t know. I think if you’re evil you think you’re good anyway.”

I think she was spot on with that answer as Ben has implied that the Others are “the good guys”. The big question is if we will think they are good or evil when we find out what they are really doing on the island…