Let's dissect that scene a bit more.

Penny says she's been looking for "three years". Now what would make her do that? She wouldn't have heard from Desmond in five years, and she just decides to start looking?

More likely, she COMPLETELY BELIEVED that he would call in 2004. But when he didn't, THEN she started looking. So to her, it's xmas time 2007, where as it's 2004 to Desmond.

What are some thoughts on this?

I didn't at all say they were the same. In fact I even said at the bottom of my post that we know there's at least a day difference. What I did say is that it is the same on the freighter as the UK - hence the importance of when Desmond called Penny. He promised it would be 12/24/04. That's what the calendar is showing. The time that the rest of the world knows it is.
1) Fact. Also a fact that it is (or near) 12/24/04 since Penny expected the call and there was a christmas tree and presents in the background.

2) Agreed. But by how much is it different? I'm just saying the calendar isn't known to be tracking "island time" when it seems more likely that it is tracking "real time".

3) Since we don't know what they're doing yet, or how different the timelines are, we don't know if that's true or not.

4) Look at the picture again. There's plenty of one-offs in there.

Maybe because Faraday is attracted to Desmond but not vice-versa. :D

Actually, Desmond is now an important figure in Faraday's life because he helped him figure out time travel.

Hmmm, good point. Maybe he was announced missing after the sailing race started, and she heard about that and THEN started looking? Otherwise, like you said, she'd have no reason to be looking for him prior to 12/24/2004.

Agree!

I am no "Dr. Lost" but I'll give this a shot - Des's psychic ability came from the hatch being destroyed. His time travel in this episode came from traveling from the island to the freighter and from being exposed to whatever they have to travel through. It doesn't "get" everyone as Sayid and the others (not THE Others, but the others in the helicoptor with him) were unaffected (or were they?, que trombone glissando....) Anyway, the other patient (the radio controller from the ship) stated that he and others from the ship wanted to see the island and took the ships lifeboat (IIRC) to the island and got caught up in the same thing Desmond did leaving the Island.

On another note, when they showed the other guy in with Des, I thought it was Locke! Now that would have shanken things up a bit, eh? Or Aye?

Good point, maybe it isn't 2004 in the real world, and just a major coincidence that Penny's apartment is all decorated for the holidays. Maybe she went batshit loopy and stuck her apartment in time waiting for that call.

Or we can "keep it simple" and go with what we've been shown and not start thinking that Jack and Frank talking about the Rod Sox are about different years.

Okay, I'm going to try and sum up the salient points of this episode. Mostly for myself. :)

Faraday's journal reading, "If anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume will be my constant." - To me, this indicates that Faraday, sometime after meeting Desmond, uses the time travel device on himself, and he's documenting to his future self what to do.

Desmond and Penny - I find the whole constant thing a little hokey, but okay, I'll accept it for now. However, Penny did have contact with Desmond after that parting exchange in 1996. There was no mention of this. We would then have to assume they are on a different timeline now and in this one, Penny doesn't have any contact with Desmond until 8 years later (2004).

Mr. Whidmore - Penny's father is obviously in the know about the island. I expect that he'll be playing a VERY big role in the future. As others have mentioned, he may have sent the freighter and those 'rescuers'.

Timelines - The freighter's timeline appears to be approximately in sync with the survivors' timeline. They're at least within the same year. It's Xmas Eve 2004 on the freighter. It's several months since the Sept 22, 2004 crash for the survivors. So, it would appear that traveling to and from the island is where the time anomalies occur. Perhaps it has something to do with entering and exiting the island's electromagnetic field.

There also appears to be some rule that the time traveling occurs only with people who have had large exposure to electromagnetic fields (and/or radiation?). That explains Desmond, who was right next to the core of the electromagnetic field of the island when it went supernova. It also explains Faraday who said that he used that device like 20 times a day. What about the communications officer? Perhaps the radio devices that he operated put out a large enough electromagnetic field?

Putting it all together, it would seem to indicate that the island has an electromagnetic field that has a naturally occurring wavelength of 2.342 (no unit was referenced) oscillating at a frequency of 11 Hz. It also seems that the field needs to be maintained by that computer in the hatch. (BTW, who's resetting it now?). That also kind of explains how Desmond could see the future and how Charlie was going to die. Faraday claims that the future cannot be changed. But apparently, the when and how of future events CAN be changed, if not the outcome itself.

For those of you who saw the Dharma scientist clip, it appears two versions of the same being can intersect in time. I'm guessing this can only happen within the island's "sphere" (or whatever forces envelope the island).

Now here's (IMHO) what I think is a very interesting question: Given that Desmond apparently went back in time, and his 1996 consciousness replaced his 2004 consciousness, is the reverse possible? Can a 1996 consciousness go FORWARD to 2004 and the 2004 consciousness replaces the 1996 consciousness in the 1996 body? In fact, this is precisely what happens with Eloise. The possibility that this raises is that the island is actually in 1996 time. But the consciousness of the all the survivors is the 2004. This would explain all the past medical problems disappearing - they haven't happened yet. We don't really have a frame of reference on the island to say that the island is in 2004. We just know that the survivors believe it's 2004. Just like Desmond, who is now outside the island's sphere, believes it's 1996.

Please take a look at post #201. I'm curious how you think that might throw a wrinkle into this.

I did and that's what my response in #207 is about.

It is possible that they're disparate by a year or more, yes, I agree, but I just find that to be too obscure at this point.

I mean you have a calendar that says somewhere it is 12/24/04.

Desmond uses that info to tell Penny in 1996 that that's when he'll call her.

He calls her and she answers with a christmas tree in the background.

I'm not trying to over-simplify it, but I'm not trying to make it more complicated that it appears to be (at least to me).

Regarding Penny looking for 3 years.

That's how long ago Desmond disappeared on his sailing trip - in 2001. The same time that he met Jack in that stadium.

In 1996 he never said they wouldn't meet/talk. He just said that he wouldn't call until 12/24/04. ;)

Faraday teaches the maze to Eloise in an hour. This is roughly while Desmond is knocked out.

Desmond and Locke are the best actors on the show. hence Locke's emmy. this ranks in my top 5 with the season 3 finale, Locke's episode of how he got paralyzed, desmonds's other time travel episode in season 3 and sawyers' episode in season 3 where he finds out and kills Locke's father aka the real sawyer. I think the episodes that put jack and kate on the backburner turn out to be the best because they are the weakest links in terms of acting.

I get those points, but question is whether or not the two elements (the hatch explosion exposure and whatever caused Desmond's time travel thing) are connected in some way. Meaning, is Desmond the only one of the three who reacted that way while going through the island's magic 'force field' (or whatever it is) *because* of the previous hatch experience? Because I swear in addition to asking about radiation or something, that Faraday also asked Desmond if he was exposed to a strong magnetic force (or something along those lines). So my theory is that a previous exposure to a strong electromagnetic force combined with whatever inconsistencies caused by the force between the island and the 'real world' combined to cause the weird time travel effect in Desmond. But if that were the case, the other patient in there would have had to have been exposed to a similar electromagnetic force at some point before traveling to the island.

I think the reason Farraday choose Desmond as his constant is because when you send yourself "consciousness" into the future, you need a constant that you know will still around in the future time that you are going to. Farrady happened to know for a fact that his future self would be meeting Desmond and the approximate time of this meeting.

My real beef with the show is the lack of consistency towards what the island represents. Now if the purpose of the writers is to distract us, hoping that we forget about details in prior episodes, then I dont have a problem with that...keeps it interesting and brings great episodes like the one last night. But the writers and producers have consistently stated that the ending will be realistic and supported by science. Now with the time continuum issue, reality is out the window and what we are left with is true science fiction. I guess the writers were just playing hide the ball by lying about the real premise of the show and that its based on reality. We now know this is not a show based on reality...it's science fiction based on worm hole theories and time continuum's. I like that idea and it would explain the smoke monsters, Jacob and other oddities in the show.

I honestly think the writers changed their mind on the direction of the show several times and ran out of ideas. This was NOT the direction they were taking when they wrote the first season, guaranteed. After fans started figuring out theories like purgatory, etc, they thought the writing might be too simple so they turned it into a science fiction drama. Lost is no more realistic than Battelstar Galactica but it's fun.

I still say that last nights episode will go down as the episode for which the show "jumped the shark" and I thought this show would be one of a handful of shows that never jumped the shark(Six Feet Under, Deadwood, The Wire, etc)

I don't think they changed their minds at all. I think if they presented the show as science fiction from the beginning they would have put themselves into a niche demographic and wouldn't be nearly as popular in a mainstream sense as it is now.

I think that's correct. Because we know of a few people who in just the last few days have gone to or from the freighter or island, and Desmond seems to be the only one with trouble (and Minkowski of course).

I think its more plausible to believe that she would look for him when he was missing from the yacht race as opposed to the fact that he didn't call her as he promised 8 years in the previously.

As to how she knows about the island... at this point it is very probably that Desmond (or someonel else) might "leap" into another time period and inform Penny her about the island at some future point in the show.

I re-read the Live Together and Die Alone script and I was wrong about that one. She meets him in the stadium a year from the race and tells her he wants to win it for her.

At least then we can date the race to 2001.

Two questions:

- Is Penny married right now, or has she always worn a ring?

- Does anybody outside of Kate, Jack, Hugo, Sawyer, and maybe Sayid know what Michael did?

I always thought they meant in theory only. Meaning nothing supernatural like afterlife, ghosts, etc. but things that could in theory be real science

Just to add to the comments easily one of the best of the series. I've always loved Desmond episodes ever since his introduction in season 2 so I was pumped about this episode and was not let down. The Desmond/Penny scene at the end was indeed very touching.

So in looking at the screencaps from this episode, it seems that Penny answers the phone to talk to Desmond on Christmas Eve at 6:30. Seeing how she's dressed up and the tree is lit, I'm going to guess that means 6:30 p.m.

Oh... and... best episode of the season!

I call your bullshit. Matthew Fox was phenomenal in the Season 3 Finale.

Great episode.