Nothing to do with the scottish accent, I'm sure

Dave

I love that Scottish accent!

Desmond is my favorite character. I'm sure everyone's noticed how he seems to be the most insane person on the island. This is what based my theory on the show. It's all in Hurley's head. They're all in the insane asylum, except Desmond. Desmond either works there or is visiting so he appears insane to all the insane people when he is actually the most sane person there.

*SPOILER AT END*

Now back on topic, Desmond never really had a flashback in the episode. His life flashed before his eyes and he applyed island life into it. The hatch messed with his brain giving him the ability to see into the future. This completely goes against how my dad said he went back in time, because if he went back in time when he stopped the hatch how would he know about what has hasn't happened to him yet? I can't believe Charlie's going to die either.

Desmond never really had a flashback in the episode. His life flashed before his eyes and he applyed island life into it.

This is a valid and perhaps important point. Unlike with the other characters on the island, where we learn about their pasts via flashback, this was different. Desmond actually THOUGHT he was IN THE PAST (only it was different). Desmond's "flashback" wasn't JUST a storytelling device to add dimension to the character, it was PART of the story.

Of course, the writers may have just been bored and got a little more creative in putting a flashback on the screen.

That's the problem with LOST. You never know what is actually important and what is JUST filler to take up space until they get to something important, if they do, supposing there is anything important.

Desmond is my favorite character. I'm sure everyone's noticed how he seems to be the most insane person on the island. This is what based my theory on the show. It's all in Hurley's head. They're all in the insane asylum, except Desmond. Desmond either works there or is visiting so he appears insane to all the insane people when he is actually the most sane person there.

*SPOILER AT END*

Now back on topic, Desmond never really had a flashback in the episode. His life flashed before his eyes and he applyed island life into it. The hatch messed with his brain giving him the ability to see into the future. This completely goes against how my dad said he went back in time, because if he went back in time when he stopped the hatch how would he know about what has hasn't happened to him yet? I can't believe Charlie's going to die either.

"It's all in Hurley's head" is as good an explanation as any and the numbers seem more personal to his story. I like Desmond and don't mind the time spent on his story, and he seems to around when something big happens on the island. While I recognize the importance of his backstory, it does not yet make sense. If it is time travel (traveling back in time and then returning) then how does he know future events before they happen? And what does that have to do with whatever the heck is going on on the island? As you pointed out, and as Desmond says near the end of the episode, his life flashed before his eyes and we saw the parts relevant to our story. But the future seeing thing... did someone here say that he sees 108 minutes into the future? That's been in my head for a while but I don't know where I got it and I don't think the show has mentioned it. It fits into your idea that the hatch explosion messed with Desmond's mind. Charlie could die, since quite a few characters have been killed off (and there are non-story reasons to get rid of a character), but I also think it won't happen if only because it is being set up as if he will.

Billy Pilgrim (AKA Desmond Hume) has come unstuck in time.

So it goes.

Billy Pilgrim (AKA Desmond Hume) has come unstuck in time.

So it goes.

You beat me to it. A timeline involves the past, present and future. Whether you are in the past, present or future, you have "revisited" (or travelled to) the timeline, according to Kurt.

You, sir, have said the same thing more succinctly. I tip my hat to you.

AC

P.S. For those who haven't read Slaughterhouse Five, here's a synopsis that parallels the musings on this thread in regards to "time travel."

"A disoriented and ill-trained American soldier named Billy Pilgrim is captured by German soldiers and is forced to live in a makeshift prison, the deep cellars of a disused slaughterhouse in the city of Dresden, Germany. Billy has become "unstuck in time" for unexplained reasons (though it's hinted towards the end that his surviving a plane crash left him with mild brain damage) so he randomly and repeatedly visits different parts of his life, including his death. He meets, and is later kidnapped by, aliens from the planet Tralfamadore, who exhibit him in a Tralfamadorian zoo with Montana Wildhack, a pornographic movie star. The Tralfamadorians, who physically resemble toilet plungers, see in four dimensions, the fourth dimension being time. Tralfamadorians have seen every instant of their lives already; they cannot choose to change anything about their fate, but can choose to focus on any moment in their lives that they wish.

Throughout the novel, Billy hops back and forth in time, reliving various occasions in his life; this gives him a constant sense of stage fright, as he never knows what part of his life is coming up next. He spends time on Tralfamadore; in Dresden; numbly wading through deep snow in WWII Germany before his capture; living married in America after the war; up to the moment of his murder on Earth many years later. By the time of his murder, Billy has adopted Tralfamadorian fatalism, which has given him great personal peace; he has spread this philosophy to millions of humans and has become a popular public figure on Earth.

Billy's fatalism appears to be grounded in reality (at least in the reality which Billy perceives); after noting that Billy had a copy of the Serenity Prayer in his office, the narrator says, "Among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present, and the future." One of his Tralfamadorian captors, who seems sympathetic to humans, says that out of 31 inhabited planets it has visited, 'only on Earth is there any talk of free will.'"

How does the mysterious woman who is selling Desmond the engagement ring fit in to the "unstuck in time" theory, the one who tells Desmond all about his future?

How does the mysterious woman who is selling Desmond the engagement ring fit in to the "unstuck in time" theory, the one who tells Desmond all about his future?

Exactly why it couldn't be time travel. That's what made me know for sure it wasn't time travel. But my dad still thought it was and said the women travelled back in time as well. It just doesn't fit.
Oh! and the 108, it's the numbers added up. That's where all the 108 comes from.

Oh! and the 108, it's the numbers added up. That's where all the 108 comes from.

Yes, figured that out quite a while ago, but the relationship between the series of numbers and the sum of the series is unclear.

Concerning the 2/14 episode:

Did it look different to anyone else? Somehow, the "look" of the episode seemed brighter. Charlie definitely looked blonder and cleaner. Even Hurley seemed to look a little brighter.

Did they change film stock?

Was this episode done by a different production designer?

Are they subtly trying to show a change in the season maybe?

I can't quite put my finger on it, and I don't know enough about film to make a good guess, but something about the 2/14 episode looked different than previous episodes.