What job do you have? I want one.

GREAT episode. I was so glad that the writers didn't shy away from the moving ending. It could have come off as melodramatic, but it was perfect:

Sayid: "I'm sorry I couldn't give you more time..."

Desmond "It was enough."

WOW.

What job do you have to post at work?

One that has awesome benefits (at times).

I did enjoy hearing the lone survivor of the Black Rock was a Hanso. That made me chuckle.

I think Des was out for 45 minutes, and Faraday said he would have taught the mouse how to run the maze an hour after he zapped her. So she still dies before Faraday would have taught her if Desmond's presence hadn't changed things. And after zapping her, Faraday still wouldn't have taught her the maze because she would have already known after being zapped.

I guess what I'm getting at is the potential for branching timelines/dimensions that may explain some of the other weirdness that happens on this show. But then again it may just be one of those things we are supposed to convientently ignore when time travel is involved.

I'm rewatching it now. Maybe a minute after Eloise runs the maze, Des flashes forward back to the boat where he and Sayid get locked in Sick Bay with Minkowski. He tells Des about Penny calling him. Then Des wakes up "75 minutes" later. Here Eloise is dead.

So, in that 75 minutes Daniel was alone with Eloise and could have taught her, but the timeframe is tight. Point is it doesn't mean it isn't possible, but I don't think it is introducting branching timelines. We have to take what Faraday says about not being able to "change the future" at face value (for now, at least).

Who knew that EMP blast would have triggered so many storylines out of Lost?

Oh, that's where that weasel is from. I hated his character in Saving Private Ryan. I guess he is a good actor!

And I'm not sure if you're kidding about it being the weakest episode or not, but I thought it was really good and the scene between Desmond & Penny had me crying this morning.

Chris

Okay, I apologize if this has already been covered in this thread and I missed it, but...

So Desmond's time lapse in this episode all goes back when he destroyed the hatch at the end of season 2, correct? Because Faraday even asked about exposure to magnetic forces or something. So does that mean the other patient had also been exposed to a similar electromagnetic event?

Bingo. They stated that a few times. They also shit on Heroes recently for using time travel because of the possible paradoxes it would result in.

It just leads me to believe they are covering everything up to keep people watching the show, and things like the smoke monster are probably advanced nano technology like everyone assumed from day one.

Hmm.. interesting idea -- but does that explain how Penny is expecting to answer the phone on 12/24/04 ? Or -- i guess it's possible that it's NOT really 12/24/04 when Penny answers (she never acknowledged what day/time it was)

That's weird. They landed on the freighter mid-day, right? They last ported in Fiji. They're likely West of the IDL, so Penny back in the UK would be roughly 12 hours behind Des - likely after midnight. She sure was dressed up to be up so late on the 23rd

Unbelievably awesome episode! I love Desmond-centric episodes. Easily my favorite character/storyline in the show.

Props to Davies and Cusick. Great acting. I think that's something that gets lost in discussion- how great a job these folks do with their roles.

Last minute present wrapping of course.

The ending was fantastic. Great buildup to a very emotional conclusion. That's the best ending since the season 3 finale.

I'm positive that Penny's Dad is involved with the group on the boat (Dharma?) somehow after the comment about not taking Penny's calls. It also makes sense that Michael will be the guy on the boat helping them along the way. Ben's cryptic directions (compass heading 3-2-5) at the end of S2 probably sent poor Michael right into their clutches.

I thought the big guy with the tanktop on the ship was also in the bootcamp scenes... talking to Desmond outside in the rain. I'm probably mistaken though... anyone else notice?

My understanding of the situation would be that anyone Desmond knew in or prior to 1996, he would have known as he flashed forward to 2004. Certainly if he was living in bootcamp at the time and instantly flashed forward he would have recognized someone like that.

Don't make this more complicated that it has to be

It's still close enough to Christmas for her to have a tree in the background.

ok so could Jacob be someone who went through the same situation as Desmond? Desmon got stuck in a time in the past, but is it possible to get stuck in a time in the future? maybe Jacob got stuck in a time in the future when he was already dead???
I still want to know why the glimpse we saw of jacob a couple of weeks ago ended up being Jack's father and why the picturte frames from the ghostbusting house had all changed.

Still not sure which version of Desmond had a hairpiece and which one didnt. Pretty good job by the 'makeup' department ....

I'm going back to this quote since it seems to have spawned the whole discussion of what day Penny receives the call from Desmond.

What makes you think the calendar is counting "island time" from crash? It only shows October-December of 2004. Each elapsed day is marked with an X, some black, some blue, some yellow, and some red. We have no other context for this calendar or what it indicates other than it is in the communications room. It could be marking various forms of inbound/outbound/monitored communication to/from/by the freighter. Maybe some are from the island, maybe some are from Penny's attempts to contact, whatever.

I didn't see anything that led me to believe this calendar represented Oceanic 815 Survivors perception of time.

That said, I think it's simply a calendar that means that it is Christmas Eve both on the freighter and back in the UK.

I mean, we know that on the island it's at least a day later than where the helicopter is. So either it's 12/24 on the island and it is (way?) before that in the real world or it's 12/24 in the real world and at least 12/25 on the island.

Makes you wonder how they did such a crappy job in the past with Jack's fake beard.

You have answered your own question with the quoted portion above. For you to think that it's the same day on and off the island, you must have missed a lot this season, since they have shown without question that is not true.

Sure, it could be any of the other things you mentioned, but the only thing with a shred of evidence to support anything either of us have mentioned is what I said (that it's tracking Island time).

Let's keep it simple:

1) Plane crashed in late Sept. 2004 and the calender shows Oct. - Dec.

2) Island time is not the same as real time (payload, chopper arrival time)

3) Tracking what day it is on the island would be extremely important to the crew, if not essential.

4) That's the color pen they had sitting around at the time (this actually makes some sense because there are runs of a certain color)

5) The fact that the calender was kept in a room only accessed by Minkowski can not be discounted. Why not keep it in a general area, and not a restricted access one, if it wasn't something more special?

Plus she waited about 20 rings before picking up...you'd think she'd be waiting by the phone for that call on that day!

Hair club for Survivors.