Watch Ep 308's Secret Clue on Video

Episode 308 - "Flashes Before Your Eyes" Secret Clue

Welcome back to the Lost Secret Clue, where we dig deeper to find the clues and secrets you might've missed to fuel your theories! This week's episode, 'Flashes Before Your Eyes', was unlike any episode we've seen before - rather than crossing back and forth between present and flashback, almost the entire episode was spent in 1996, following an important moment in Desmond's life - no, not turning the button, but what happened to him when he did - though the question remains, were we watching a regular flashback, was he actually reliving that period of his life or was this something completely different? This episode flipped our expectations of what to look for in terms of clues and subtle hints - rather than a new discovery or a shocking reveal, the clues in this episode all surrounded objects and events on the island that we've come across before, which is the biggest clue in itself.

While last week was focused on space and time, this episode built on those themes and brought in the debate between fate versus determinism. Are we really in control of our own destiny? While Desmond would like to believe he is, the events of this flashback all pointed to the negative. After turning the key, in his very own Dr Who style, Desmond awoke to find himself on the floor of his apartment with Penny arriving home. While he believes he is suffering from some sort of deja vu, Penny calms his fears and he forgets about his worries. Just like Desmond, we believe this is him experiencing these events for the first time, right until the point where the microwave begins to beep in a very familiar tone and from there, things get crazy.

Before we assemble all the clues to reveal their meaning, lets look at the list of tell-tale signs throughout the episode that this was no simple flashback to the past...

- The microwave beeps the same tone as the Swan hatch button timer
- Desmond's clock read 1:08
- The courier had a package "for eight fifteen" (4 8 15)
- Ms Hawking's shop sounded exactly like the Swan's machinery near the computer
- The photographer pulled down the same desert background as seen in a picture in the Swan
- Charles Widmore's painting featured a polar bear, an upside down Buddha, mountains and the word NAMASTE
- "Make Your Own Kind Of Music" by Mama Cass looks to be Desmond's theme song

And they were the simple ones! After reviewing all of these, it seems quite obvious that Desmond has not simply popped back into his own past - he is experiencing his own past, but the events of the last three years on the island have created a permanent footprint in his subconscious.

It seems that he truly did return to 1996, yet managed to retain his memory of events that are to transpire which forces us to ask the question - is Desmond now fulfilling his own manifest destiny? Desmond discovered he was able to change the past while he was there and is aware of his own future, a man truly unstuck from time. Ms Hawking claimed that the universe had a way of "course correcting" anything changed by those able to see events before they occur.

Is it so difficult to believe that the island might be using Desmond to see these future events on the island in order to use him to change them? Did turning the button cause the island to throw him back to the moment where the downfall of the Swan hatch actually began, to show him the importance of all the events that had led him to that very moment? Or had the island sent him back, complete with clues of how his life will be completely destroyed by dumping Penny, to try and keep from ever coming? By knowing his own destiny, did Desmond inadvertently fulfill it? And more importantly, is this the first time that this has happened?