I didn't even realize the show was on last week and had to catch it the next day on the website.

It's on!!!!

Man they must have had some awesome makeup cargo wash up on shore.

Thoughts on the episode:

Trippy, this is the shit I always enjoyed from the first season -- getting more stuff to speculate about, it's great fun.

Nice touch with the integration of the flashback.

this is amind fuck...hooray!

-p

So Desmond has become Charlie's guardian angel of sorts? Trippy, definitely.

I was gonna say the same thing, A really good episode.

i'm a little confused....how was desmond putting up the lightning rod saving charlies life?

Loved it! Reminded me of both Daybreak and Heroes (Hiro, obviously).

So has Desmond done this time and time again, or is this the first time he's relived all of this?

I think what we saw tonight was a collage sort of depicting various times in Desmonds life played over and over again trying to get to the end result (marrying Penny and being with her). During one of those repeated but varied times in his life he decided that, being with Penny, wasn't what was supposed to be. However, flash to the island, the place his fate would not let him avoid, he now longs for Penny as she does he. Another play on the fate dynamic of the show. No matter how much we want things to be different fate will always decide in the end what will happen. The question about Charlie is will it happen sooner than later because it will happen to us all at some point so that is no mystery in itself.

Because Charlie was supposed to be struck by lightning, but instead it hit the rod.

wow . just wow.

but if Desmond was reliving his life and remembered Charlie, then why didn't Charlie remember meeting Desmond that day. Wouldn't Charlie have remembered some crazy gu running off at the mouth about knowing him and then knowing it was going to rain? Doesn't seem like something a person would easily forget.

I'm gonna have to let this stew overnight. I'm blown away by where this has turned, but wonder how they will pursue this in the coming weeks.

Charlie did drugs, who knows what Charlie does or doesn't remember from 3 years ago...

So because Desmond was the one to take a bat to the head, does that mean that he changed the past while still ending up at the same present? Perhaps he didn't get to the island via the race. Maybe in that new skewed timeline, which the fade to white didn't allow us to see, there is some new chunk of story that lead Desmond to the island. If that is the case, maybe he and Jack never met on the steps in this new reality. Or perhaps Penny isn't looking for Desmond anymore . . .

i guess they really tricked us with those teasers from last week about storming the others to get Jack

Your guess is as good as mine as to what is really going on. I just hope that end in the end of it all that the overall story makes sense. I am enjoying it for the ride but would also like to know the real truth so that my mid doesn't stay in a daze thinking about what it all means. I know it is a show but at least it is thought provoking.

anyone notice that when Charlie was singing Wonderwall he sang this particular line to Desmond?

Today is gonna be the day that they're gonna throw it back to you/By now you should have somehow realised what you've got to do/ Because maybe,You're gonna be the one that saves me?

At the beginning of the episode, wasn't Charlie & Hurley with Desmond in the jungle, far away from Claire when she was swimming/drowing? If Desmond couldn't hear her scream, how the hell would Charlie be expected to hear her and then go into the water?? Discontinuity??!!

Maybe the reason for the ending to last season (the guys looking for the island/Desmond for Penny) is that Desmond told Penny about the island when he went back in time, so she knew he'd be on some "hidden" island with a huge magnetic field?

the symbols from the hatch time counter were in the painting above desmonds bed. and i think the red shoes had the dharma logo on them.

ok episode. was hoping for a teeny lil answer to somethin but just more questions which i don't mind.

Absolutely, by leaps and bounds, the best episode of the entire series.

I think he did travel back in time and all those things happened including meeting Charlie (which he should now have in his memory since it's now in his past too). He tried to do things differently but fate intervened (throwing away the ring, getting photographed) and he was gonna find Penny to alter his relationship but got knocked on the head (more fate) and travelled back into the future, ending up on the island again. He was in the middle of the jungle and completely naked (other time-travel stories have done this like Terminator). On his face showed complete disappointment and anguish for being there instead of back with Penny. He can try and save as many people as he wants whose fate he's seen but it won't matter. Fate never changes.

actually it reminded me of The Time Machine movie, the one with Guy Pearce, same concept with fate

Anyone notice the painting on Mr. Widmere's wall? A nice collage of fun LOST things:

1) Namaste spelled backwards
2) A Polar Bear
3) The mountain ranges
4) The Black Rock

Anyone else notice anything else in the painting?

Only here he can save them, but constantly has to save him. In The Time Machine, the chick died at the same time ever time, just in a different place in a different way.