'''Season 3, Episode 8:'''
!Flashes Before Your Eyes
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lostflashesbeforeyoureyes.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"You don't want to know what happened to me when I turned that key."'']]

->Written by Damon Lindelof and Drew Goddard.
->Directed by Creator/JackBender.

->''"When I saw the lightning hit the roof you were electrocuted. And when you heard Claire was in the water you -- you drowned trying to save her. I dove in myself so you never went in. I've tried, brother. I've tried twice to save you, but the universe has a way of course correcting and -- and I can't stop it forever. I'm sorry. I'm sorry because no matter what I try to do you're going to die, Charlie."''
-->-- '''Desmond Hume'''

Hurley and Charlie are informed of Eko's death. Suddenly, Desmond runs from the jungle to the beach, and saves Claire from drowning. Hurley tells Charlie of his belief that Desmond can see the future, and they get him drunk on Sawyer's scotch to ask him about it. When Charlie calls Desmond a coward, he angrily tells him he doesn't want to know what happened when he turned the failsafe key.

After turning the key, Desmond wakes up in his apartment, with Penny, in 1996. He goes to see her father, and asks his permission to marry Penny, which Widmore very coldly refuses. Outside, Desmond sees Charlie, remembers the Island, and starts to think he's travelled back in time. However, his friend is skeptical when he incorrectly predicts the outcome of a football game, and that the bartender will be attacked by a man with a cricket bat. He goes to buy a ring to propose to Penny, but the jeweller, Ms. Hawking, tells him that his destiny is to break Penny's heart and end up on the Island. She also points out a man who dies a minute later, and says the universe will always course correct to get what it wants. Desmond ultimately breaks up with Penny when he can't afford to buy her a photo. While at the bar, he realizes that his predicitions were of the wrong night, and is about to try to change things, when he is accidentally knocked out by the man with the cricket bat. He wakes up back on the Island, next to the remains of the Swan.

Charlie and Desmond make up, and Desmond tells him that he wasn't trying to save Claire, he was trying to save Charlie. He's been seeing flashes of the future since turning the key. He used a lightning rod to prevent Charlie from being electrocuted, and he saved Claire so Charlie wouldn't drown trying to save her. However, no matter what Desmond does, Charlie is going to die.
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!Tropes in this episode include:
* BaitTheDog: Charles Widmore tells Desmond how impressed he is that he asked his permission to marry Penny, and looks as if he's about to pour him a glass of his finest whiskey, before pouring himself a glass and telling Desmond that he is unworthy to even drink his whiskey, and therefore could never be worthy of his daughter.
* BawdySong: After Desmong agrees to drink with Charlie and Hurley a smash cut to later that night sees them loudly, and badly, singing a song about a fishmonger's daughter.
-->'''Hurley:''' Hey, why are all your songs about drinking and fighting and girls with one leg?\\
'''Charlie:''' Well, girls with one leg (''Desmond joins in'') and a heart of gold!
* BlatantLies: Desmond tries to explain how he knew to save Claire by saying that he heard here, but Charlie and Hurley, who were with him, were both far inland and heard nothing. It also doesn't explain how he knew about the lightning bolt.
* CallBack: "Make Your Own Kind of Music" by [[Music/TheMamasAndThePapas Mama Cass]], which played in Desmond's first scene back in Season 2, is played twice at his local pub.
* CallForward: Desmond sees a recruitment poster for the Royal Scots Regiment, foreshadowing his military service which will end in his incarceration for failing to follow orders.
* CuckooFingerTwirl: Hurley does this when Desmond starts muttering about how you can't change the past.
* EarlyBirdCameo: During the soccer match, there is a sign for something called ''Exposé''.
* INeverToldYouMyName: When Ms. Hawking tries to talk Desmond out of marrying Penny, she mentions his name when he didn't give it to him.
* InspirationNod: Charlie is playing "Wonderwall" when Desmond sees him busking, referencing the fact that Charlie's band, Drive Shaft, are an {{Expy}} of Music/{{Oasis}}.
* MandatoryLine: Both Locke and Sayid only appear in the teaser, telling Charlie and Hurley what happened to Eko.
* MentalTimeTravel: Desmond's consciousness is sent back in time to 1996 after he turns the failsafe key to destroy the Swan.
* PornStash: While digging through Sawyer's stash, Hurley and Charlie discover that he's accumulated a "shocking amount of pornography" from the Flight 815 luggage.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Widmore solidifies himself as an unrepentant {{Jerkass}} with the way he coldly rebuffs Desmond when he asks his permission to marry Penny and tells him he will never be a great man.
-->'''Widmore:''' ''(Taking a drink of whiskey)'' This swallow is worth more than you could make in a month. To share it with you would be a waste, and a disgrace to the great man who made it -- because you, Hume, will never be a great man.
-->'''Desmond:''' Mr. Widmore, I know I'm not...
-->'''Widmore:''' What you're not, is worthy of drinking my whiskey. How could you ever be worthy of my daughter?
* TimePolice: Ms. Hawking acts as a "temporal policeman" ensuring that Desmond follows the path fate has set for him when he travels to the past.
* WhamLine:
-->'''Desmond:''' I wasn't saving Claire, Charlie. I was saving ''you''.
* YouCantFightFate: As Ms. Hawking demonstrates by predicting the death of the man with red shoes, the universe will always course correct to get what it wants.
-->'''Desmond:''' Oh, my God. You knew that was going to happen, didn't you? Then why didn't you stop it? Why didn't you do anything?
-->'''Ms. Hawking:''' Because it wouldn't matter. Had I warned him about the scaffolding tomorrow he'd be hit by a taxi. If I warned him about the taxi, he'd fall in the shower and break his neck. The universe, unfortunately, has a way of course correcting. That man was supposed to die. That was his path just as it's your path to go to the Island. You don't do it because you choose to, Desmond. You do it because you're supposed to.
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