Course correction

If you haven’t watched Sunday’s episode of Lost yet then best not to read on…

With Heroes finally debuting in the UK last week (albeit on the Sci-Fi) channel, it was apposite that Sunday’s episode ofLost managed to significantly freshen up that series’ rather, by now bedraggled story arc. Being one of the seemingly few stragglers in the UK who still maintain a relationship with the series since it moved to Sky, it felt a little like payback time.

In a nutshell Desmond, the mad Scottish bloke who’s been running around the island for the last three series, was seen in flashback in 1996 going through the usual torturous Lost “relationship”-type back story. However, what transpired was that it wasn’t actually a flashback at all, but rather Desmond (and by extension the whole cast) have been travelling back in time to re-experience key events in their lives – only now Desmond has developed an awareness of this (in fact his time on the island, ie. the fictional present for us, is being experienced “back in time” by his perception). As such it would appear that all those flashback moments are actually taking place in the characters’ present personal time lines. Or maybe. As is the way with Lost none of this was made too explicit.

But there was a really great “What the??” moment in this episode when Desmond (back in 1996 and in a terribly realised London complete with American spelling of words on bill posters) wandered into a jewellers to buy his fiance an engagement ring. Having struggled with some semblance of a notion that he’d lived these moments before, Des was confronted by a jeweller who after first offering him a ring, then proclaimed “No, you’re not supposed to take it”, and went on to reveal that Desmond’s destiny was to end up on the island. Apparently it doesn’t matter how much he tries to fight against it, time has a way of “course correcting”.

Then just to keep things ticking along nicely, the episode ended with Desmond telling Charlie (he’s the Lord Of The Rings chappy, remember?) that he has foreseen that Charlie will die. What’s more apparently Desmond’s random behaviour over the last few eps (such as erecting a seemingly meaningless pole to catch a lightning bolt) have all been attempts to try and save Charlie’s life.

Apparently, all of this stuff is an appetizer for a major plot revelation that is come later in this third series, and will (supposedly) totally change our perception of what the series is actually about. Oh and the programme makers intend to reveal some time soon just how many eps Lost will run for.