Friday, February 29, 2008

Desmond Finds His Constant

Flashforward or flashback? Flashback or flashforward? This, dear readers, has become my new favorite Thursday night ritual. I play from the moment Lost starts until the answer is revealed. Now, last night's episode was a much more challenging round of my new favorite game show. Originally, I thought it was a flashback. I was sure the producers had slipped another one in to throw us all off since they knew we'd be expecting a flashforward. And then, since it was Desmond, we'd all obsess and argue over whether he counted as one of the Oceanic 6 (of course, he wouldn't -- he wasn't on the plane, which leads me back to Aaron. I'm still not sure whether he counts or not. See? See the obsessing?). So, I went with flashback because I figured I was seeing the producers' hand, and it was full of trick cards. And, I was right -- sorta. Sure, it was a flashback, but not in the way that we're used to seeing them. This was one of those episodes that proves that Lost is creatively leaps and bounds above any other show on television. Time travel of the mind??!! How freakin' brilliant was this idea??!! I wanted to give the episode (written by executive producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindeloff) a) an Emmy, b) a standing ovation and c) my first-born. It was that good.

The idea of time travel had been floating around on this show for a few seasons. There was the whole Wrinkle in Time hysteria a couple of seasons ago that had Internet message boards buzzing about the idea, but this episode definitely linked the island to the intriguing idea. But, it seems to only affect certain people -- those who come in contact with a large amount of radiation or electromagnetism. Desmond failed to punch the numbers into the computer, which set off a huge electronic magnet and caused the crash of flight 815. Hmm... We now know what "Not Penny's boat" means. It didn't make sense prior to this outing because the people on the boat knew her, but that's because she kept calling the boat looking for Desmond because he told her he would need her phone number in 8 years. This, of course, led to an emotional phone conversation between these two. Time travel, an emotional reunion, and few more pieces of the puzzle -- what more can you ask for from an episode of Lost?

Screencaps courtesy Lost-Media.com

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This was a fascinating episode! I didn't even care that we learned very little. Everything about time travel engrosses me (Journeyman, The Time Traveler's Wife). Kudos to the writers! It was almost an ep that can stand alone. It was that good!

Natasha said...

I absolutely loved this episode! I love time-travel stories. And the Penny-Desmond love story is amazing, Cynthia Walger and Henry Ian Cusick had me crying in that last phone call. They were wonderful!
The season of Lost, so far, is brilliant, with this episode being my favourite one.

TVFan said...

Totally agree that this season has been brilliant. It's nice because this show went out last season on such a high note -- good to see it continue.