Plot
While in the middle of a conversation with several other castaways, Desmond, without warning, sprints toward and dives into the ocean. No one on the beach understands what Desmond is doing, until he returns with a nearly drowned Claire. Charlie and Hurley conclude that Desmond must be able to see into the future, and they hatch a plan to get Desmond to get drunk and confess. After several drinks, Charlie asks Desmond about his future-seeing abilities. Instead of answering, Desmond gets up to leave, but after Charlie calls him a "coward", a drunken Desmond tackles and chokes Charlie, shouting that Charlie does not know what Desmond has been through.
Desmond flashbacks: the hatch is shown imploding again, and then Desmond (who was inside) suddenly wakes up in a London apartment with his girlfriend Penelope Widmore (Sonya Walger). Desmond is clearly puzzled, but is relieved to finally be with Penny again. Desmond later goes to Penny's billionaire father, Charles Widmore (Alan Dale) and asks for his permission to marry his daughter. Widmore rejects Desmond, who is crushed and humiliated. Walking out of the building, Desmond sees Charlie singing and playing his guitar for money on the sidewalk. Desmond asks him if he remembers him but Charlie does not. Frustrated, Desmond rants about his time on the island and predicts it will rain, which it suddenly does. At a pub, Desmond meets with his friend, a physicist, and after retelling the events on the island asks him if time travel is possible. Desmond tries to predict more events but they do not happen and his friend assures him time travel is impossible. While shopping for a ring for Penny, Desmond runs into the shopkeeper, Eloise Hawking (Fionnula Flanagan). Hawking takes Desmond on a walk where they see a man crushed to death by falling scaffolding. She explains that although she knew the man would die, she did not help because the universe has a way of "course correcting", and he would die anyway. Desmond and Penny go on a walk together and take a picture, where he breaks up with her after realizing that he does not have enough money to support her. He returns to the pub, where one of his predictions before about the bartender being attacked finally comes true (proving that he really knew about the future, but that his timing was off), but he ends up being accidentally hit himself and is knocked out. Desmond wakes up back on the Island, completely naked, as seen in "Further Instructions".
The flashback ends, and Desmond is pulled off Charlie by Hurley. They help Desmond to his tent. Charlie tries to get an answer from him one last time. Desmond reveals that both times he rescued Claire, he was really saving Charlie; Charlie would have been electrocuted, and Charlie would have drowned attempting to save Claire from the ocean. Desmond tells Charlie that although he has prevented his death twice, Charlie is destined to die.
Read more about this topic: Flashes Before Your Eyes
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