Flashes Before Your Eyes (14 Feb. 2007)

After Desmond saves Claire from drowning, Charlie and Hurley suspect that he can see the future. So they try to get him drunk to get some answers out of him.

Director:

Jack Bender

Writers:

Jeffrey Lieber (creator), J.J. Abrams (creator),

Stars:

Naveen Andrews, Henry Ian Cusick, Emilie de Ravin

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Naveen Andrews	...	Sayid Jarrah
Henry Ian Cusick	...	Desmond Hume
Emilie de Ravin	...	Claire Littleton
Michael Emerson	...	Ben Linus (credit only)
Matthew Fox	...	Jack Shephard (credit only)
Jorge Garcia	...	Hugo 'Hurley' Reyes
Josh Holloway	...	James 'Sawyer' Ford (credit only)
Daniel Dae Kim	...	Jin Kwon (credit only)
Yunjin Kim	...	Sun Kwon
Evangeline Lilly	...	Kate Austen (credit only)
Elizabeth Mitchell	...	Juliet Burke (credit only)
Dominic Monaghan	...	Charlie Pace
Terry O'Quinn	...	John Locke
Kiele Sanchez	...	Nikki Fernandez (credit only)
Rodrigo Santoro	...	Paulo (credit only)

Storyline

The episode opens with reminders about Desmond's premonitions: Locke's speech, the lightning rod, etc. In the present, as Locke and Sayid inform everyone about Eko's death, Desmond takes off running. He manages to save Claire from drowning in the ocean, but his prescience has now become obvious to Charlie and Hurley. They use some whiskey from Sawyer's raided stash to try and find out what happened to Desmond and get an explanation as to how, as Hurley puts it, "that guy see the future, dude." When Desmond passes out drunk, through his eyes we then begin to (re)experience his past and event leading up to why he did not end up with Penny, though he obviously still loves her and wishes things had been different. Triggered when Desmond "pushed the button," the flashbacks are actually a form of time travel or a replaying of events in an alternate/parallel universe. Desmond struggles with his sense of déjà vu and glimpsed of memories of the future as we see him living with Penny several ...

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 February 2007 (USA)

Filming Locations:

O'ahu, Hawaii, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bad Robot, Touchstone Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

43 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Charlie's full name is Charles Hieronymus Pace.

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Goofs

There are now very few places in Britain that retain the classic red telephone boxes: most of those that remain are in rural villages. However, in the exterior scenes that are allegedly set in London, there's one on just about every street corner.

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Quotes

Desmond Hume: Hey, brotha'!

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Crazy Credits

The producers gratefully acknowledge the cooperation of the people of Hawaii and their Aloha spirit.

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Connections

References The Wizard of Oz (1939)

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Soundtracks

"Main Title"
Written by J.J. Abrams

User Reviews

If you're going to pretend you're in England... get the spelling right!

This isn't so much a review as merely a comment on this particular episode.

This episode was generally a good one and I'm hoping that it is a portent of things to come (ie that we see more of the cast other than Jack, Kate and Sawyer) and that we return to the mystery aspect of the storyline.

I'm English so it was slightly annoying to me that they made such a glaring error as to spell the word 'honour' incorrectly on the recruitment poster when Desmond walked past an armed forces recruitment office. That was the most glaring one. It was mostly obvious that they weren't really in London but I guess to anyone who hasn't lived there it wouldn't be so bad! I wonder if they've given themselves a way out of the series by implying that if Desmond ever makes the choice to marry Penny, the world will come to an end and so will the show! It looks anyway like it might be curtains for one particular character, after what was revealed by Desmond at the end.