Think it might have been Ben’s man on the boat?
THAT EPISODE WAS AWESOME! We finally have enough pieces to get a vaugue idea of what the puzzle looks like.
Daniel said that Desmond wasn’t physically traveling thru time, rather his consciousness was going back in time. That begs the question of what happened to Desmond’s consciousness that was already in his body, the one that was on it’s “first pass” thru time. I’m wondering if Desmond simply couldn’t remember those times, because his consciousness had been supressed by his future self. That would explain why he didn’t remember meeting Daniel before. Daniel definitely remembered Desmond, since he made a note that he could use Desmond as his constant if need be. The numbers are a “djinn particle” which doesn’t have any origin. Desmond gave the numbers to Daniel, and years later Daniel gives the numbers to Desmond to take back to himself and complete the loop. It’s much like how time travel worked in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban. The past never actually gets changed.
And the scene where Penny picked up the phone was genuinely heartwarming. I’m so glad that it didn’t end with Desmond dying, and taking everything he knows to his grave with him.
As for Penny, as I’ve said before, her dad must have worked with Dharma in the past. My theory is that she somehow learned that Desmond was on the “Dharma Island,” and was trying to find out its location. Dad told the Boaties not to answer her calls, so she set up that listening post in Antarctica (or wherever it was), and even went so far as to try to contact the Others to ask about Desmond. That was the call that Charlie answered.
Here’s a thought about the missing corpses of Christian Sheppard and Yemi: maybe it’s possible to send someone’s consciousness into the future, as well as the past. In Christian’s and Yemi’s cases, they were sent to a time after their death, but they were still able to re-enter their bodies and walk around!
Good thoughts Diceman.
Perhaps one is able to not only send your conscience into the past and future in your own body, but maybe some other vessel as well (Black Smoke?).
Perhaps when people die on the island, their consciousness gets trapped into the islands electro-sphere (or whatever-the-fuck-it-is). So, while Charlie’s body is rotting at the bottom of the sea floor, his soul* escaped his body like it should after death, but then couldn’t proceed to wherever it is that souls proceed to. Now it’s part of the island, and can manifest itself somehow. But Charlie is still Charlie, just… disembodied.
I need to think about this a bit more, but maybe this kind of explains some of these bits:
• Walt and his powers / apparitions
• The jungle whispers
• Miles seeing dead people.
• Hugo and his “delusions”.
• Jacob
•How Ben managed to get Locke’s dad on the island. To paraphrase… [Ben said: "Imagine a box, John, and whatever you desire, that box will produce]… [Locke’s dad said something like: “The last thing I remember was lying on a road.”]
Still not sure what ANY of this has to do with bay-bays.
*And by “soul”, I mean consciousness, or mind, or the state of being.
Why? Why is the Desmond/Penny story “the best”? It’s a straightforward, mundane uninteresting love story. The Jen/Sun relationship is far more interesting, poignant and moving. Objective fact.
I should probably delete this post.
-FrL-
Tonight’s episode was frequently cheap and corny and cliched, so many predictable parts.
And yet, it was fantastic all the same. The best episode I’ve seen all season, and really just one of the bests all around.
So the show has gone from freaky cool to logically impossible.
I’m grouchy today.
-FrL-
Why do you say “logically impossible”?
I generally only enjoy time travel stories that use the “one consistent timeline, but all the causal loops one wants” approach, and was previously put off by the handling of Desmond’s time travel in this series, but tonight’s episode, with its “You can’t change the future”, moved things more towards a direction which appeals to me.
Also, rampant unmotivated speculation which occurred to me a week ago but which others probably came up with earlier, and which now begs to be posted: Adam and Eve are Jack and Kate (or perhaps Desmond and Penny?), having returned to the island, grown old, and died, far in the future
I see, on checking Lostpedia, that this is indeed a discussed theory.
Henry Ian Cusick is one hell of an actor.
Great episode this time. It was kinda nice to spend some time away from the island for a change.
I had the impression he did change the future, but maybe I was wrong.
I thought it was being implied that the “Desmond Hume is my constant” was not in the journal before.
Also it seems like Desmond had no memory of Faraday when Faraday first appeared on the Island, but he should have known exactly who he was. He didn’t–because the future(/present) hadn’t yet been changed into the one in which he had met Faraday before.
But I’m kind of grouchy today so I may just be interpreting things uncharitably.
Also, who knows, maybe you can change the future. 
-FrL-
Probably because there’s something cruel and tragic about the Desmond/Penny story, while Jin/Sun’s relationship is fraught with deceit, crime and shame. They’re just not as sympathetic. There’s something warmer about D/P’s story, even if it is a little trite. Add into the mix this crazy science fiction, mind-traveling stuff, and we’ve got ourselves an interesting tryst!
Is that Faraday? He’s the Ben of season 4-- fracking awesome.
Wow, this was one fantastic episode. It’s going to take me some time to digest it, but it made so much sense, seeming to explain so much without actually explaining it. Poor Eloise. Can’t wait for next week!
Oh shit. I think I may be a bad person.
-FrL-
It would’ve been perfect if you’d quoted one of the parts of my post which ended up changing on edit. Ah well.
Yeah, I guess people have the impression that “Desmond Hume is my constant” was not in the journal before, but I’m not convinced. The memory thing is perhaps problematic, but I can imagine Desmond having lost the memories in some convenient fashion, particularly given all the brain damage time travelling apparently causes. More troubling is the previous handling of Desmond’s time-travelling, which I don’t think coheres directly with “You can’t change anything”, but rather with “You can try to change things, and make a little progress, but then the universe course-corrects”, which is far uglier. After all, he’s seen Charlie’s death so many times and prevented it so many times. Well, I’ll see how things go from here on out; perhaps I can still salvage a single-consistent-timeline approach with enough fankwanking.
Hey, you asked! 
Besides, Desmond’s just damned cool. Although, Sun is hotter than Penny… by just a little bit.
Two days ago in the ‘Eggtown’ thread I said*:
Am I psychic or what?
Hey, wait. Maybe it was a ‘flash-forward’! If I keep watching the show will I see myself on the Island? Whoa…I’m freaking me out!
*Actually, I was talking about Flash-Forward-Future-Jack telling Kate about needing to go ‘back’, etc., but I’m taking credit anyway. So there!
So, they just left poor Naomi’s body sitting in the helicopter?
Don’t forget though that Faraday said that “you can’t change the future” line in 1986. Maybe he knows better in 2004.
I think he said that there was a time where if he’d asked, she’d have married him. I don’t recall him implying it would be with his blessings.
Does anyone still think all these plot lines were thought out, even if only in rough draft, when the series started instead of being made up as we go along?
When Desmond came to, Daniel said he had been gone for about 75 minutes, and that the process appeared to be accelerating.