Flashback: After turning the key and imploding the hatch, Desmond wakes up in his old apartment, having just fallen from a ladder. Penelope has just moved in, and Desmond is preparing to meet her father, Mr. Widmore. Their meeting does not go well, as Whitmore tells Desmond that he will never be good enough for Penny. As he storms from the meeting, Desmond sees a street musician playing for tips – Charlie. Desmond recognizes him, and remembers more of the island. He asks a physicist friend of his if time travel is possible, and the friend disbelieves Desmond’s story.
Desmond tries to convince himself that he’s not crazy, and that he can still get his life going the way that he wants. He goes to buy an engagement ring – but at the last moment the shop clerk refuses to sell it to him. She tells Desmond that being with Penny is not his path, that he is destined to go to the island, push the button, and turn the key – that it is the one great thing that he will do, and the universe has ways of correcting its course. Desmond tries, and meets with Penny. But before he proposes, they get their picture taken together. Desmond recognizes it as the picture that he carries with him on the island. Shaken up, he breaks up with Penny and returns to the pub. A soccer result confirms for him that his visions/memories are real, which gives him a renewed determination to try and change things. But before he can, a cricket bat to the head knocks him unconscious again – and he wakes up shortly after the implosion.
The Island: Desmond brings Charlie and Hurley to meet Sayid and Locke, who tells them of Eko’s death. Desmond suddenly runs back to the beach and dives into the water to pull Claire out of the ocean. Hurley tells Charlie that he believes Desmond can see the future, so they decide to get Desmond drunk. Charlie provokes a fight, and Desmond eventually reveals that when he turned the key, his life flashed before his eyes – and he’s still getting flashes. Those flashes tell him that someone on the island is going to die. And as much as Desmond might try to stop it, the universe has a way of correcting course.
written by Damon Lindelof & Drew Goddard
directed by Jack Bender
music by Michael GiacchinoGuest Cast: Sonya Walger (Penny Widmore), Alan Dale (Charles Widmore), Shishir Kurup (Donovan), Fionnula Flanagan (Ms. Hawking), Katie Doyle (Receptionist), Jeremy Colvin (delivery man), Michael Titterton (Bartender), David Cordell (Jimmy Lennon)
LogBook entry by Dave Thomer