Desmond told Charlie that after turning the failsafe key, his life flashed before his eyes. This event is not a high-speed replay of one's entire life, but rather a montage of the things one holds most dear to them. Penny Widmore was one of the most important things in his life. There were likely many images of her for Desmond to dwell on. Some of these were happy, but Desmond probably remembers most clearly how he mucked everything up between them- his one true regret in life.
Feeling so strongly about this event, whatever happened with turning the key knocked him out for the better part of a day, allowing Desmond a lot of time to ruminate on his errors with Penny. Perhaps what we saw during this time was Desmond's attempt to reconstruct the past in his own mind. Everyone has at least one thing they wish they could change, and would if given the chance. Also, our individual perspective always skews reality in a way that no two people remember the same event in the exact same manner. In some traumatic cases, we distort our perception and recolection of reality to suit our own needs and mental well-being.
If Desmond truly thought he was going to die, it would make sense for him to harken back to when it all went wrong. Perhaps this is what brought him back to the point where he fell off the ladder, as this would provide enough lead-in time to prevent or circumvent all the events that would come to pass in the next few days.
This is plausible, as the only "flashback sound" we heard leading into all this took us back inside the hatch before he turned the key. When the key was turned, it went white, and we heard the sound of the timer resetting, accompanied by the montage of images. This could be a mental resetting of Desmond's memory during his time unconcious.
Desmond has carried his regret for ruining things with Penny so much that, at his seemingly apparent death, he attempts to reforge old memories he has of them in order to create a happy ending for himself, starting at the ladder scene. He'll have the most maneuverability from this starting point to craft what he wants his final memory to be.
In "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" Jim Carrey is having his memories of his ex-girlfriend erased. Halfway through the procedure he deicdes that he wants to hold onto at least one memory of her and begins altering his memories to some extent by trying to hide a memory of Kate Winslet in a memory that she was previously not included in. He is trying to bend his mind to suit his needs, much like Desmond could be doing with memories of Penny.
In "ESOTSM" the technology deleting Carrey's memories realizes what he's doing and institutes a kind of safe-guard to prevent Carrey from meddling with his mind. In Desmond's case, there are two distinct possibilities as to what is acting as the safe-guard. It's either his own mind refusing to mess with itself, or it's another mysterious force of the Island preventing him from doing so.
1) If it is Desmond's own mind stopping him from altering his memories it explains how the old woman knew so much about him and what his future would be. This could also explain how they could walk around in England, seemingly altering the course of his past, without drastically altering the future. It's almost universally understood that time travel is dangerous, as altering even one minute thing can drastically altering the future for the entire world (see Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder"). Desmond was simply reliving his own memories so intently that he tried to block out memories of how the real future turned out to be. Thus, his mind kept throwing little snippets of reality into his attempted memory reconstruction, making Desmond seem precognative in his past, although he was merely reliving memories. Desmond being told that pushing the button was the most important thing he'd ever do could come from watching the Orientation film too many times and his belief that not pushing it caused Flight 815 to crash.
The only thing this subtheory does not address properly is how Desmond attained genuine precognitive abilities. This makes my Island intervention sub-theory more viable:
2) Desmond was trying to mess with his memories but the Island intervened like the memory deleters in "ESOTSM". The Island seems to know the people living on it and treats and reacts to them accordingly. When Desmond tried to construct a happy final memory for himself, the Island made sure it wouldn't work. The old woman with pre-cog abilities could very well be the Island taking hold of Desmond and snapping him out of his delusion. The Island, being able to scan Des's memories tells him that pushing the button is the only great thing he'll ever do. Thus, the Island forces Desmond to accept what has happened.
Why would the Island do this? Well, the Island is not yet finished with him. Desmond was supposed to find the Island, because Kelvin was growing disillusioned with the Swan station. Locke was supposed to find the hatch and inadvertantly cause Boone's death so he would beat on the hatch lid to assure a suicidal Desmond that the world still existed out there. Locke was NOT supposed to enter the hatch thoguh (as evidenced by Walt's pre-cog warning not to open it). By knowing the world still existed, Desmond found renewed purpose and kept pushing the button.
Desmond was supposed to keep pushing that button, but he didn't. Locke blew open the hatch, Desmond fled, and Locke took over the button as a matter of faith. The Island expected him to keep pushing it. For one reason or another, the Island wanted that button pushed. Perhaps it keeps it hidden and does not wish to be found. That's something to be revealed later in the series.
Locke was growing disillusioned with the hatch and Ben (as Henry Gale) saying it did nothing. The Island then summoned Eko to find the ?, where he was challenged to accept faith in the button over seemingly empirical evidence stating the button was phony. Eko took over and the Island expected him to keep pushing it. Unfortunately, Locke halted all ability to push the button and Desmond was forced to use the failsafe key, knowing what little he did about the button's effects.
Desmond, Locke and Eko were the three most important button pushers as of late. The button was not pushed, the Swan went BOOM, and the Island got angry. The Island used the smoke monster to kill Eko as punishment for his failings, leaving Locke and Desmond yet to be punished.
Desmond was trying to reconfigure his memories, thinking he was about to die, but the Island was not done with him, which is why it interrupted Des's mind-bending. The Island acted through Des's memory of the ring seller to inform him that trying to change what he thought was the past wouldn't work because the universe will course-correct. The Island can also course-correct.
As we have seen, the Island is capable of bestowing gifts upon some of our Losties- Locke's legs, Rose's tumor, and potentially Jin's ability to father children. I believe the Island is also capable of dishing out curses and has given Desmond pre-cognative abilities as punishment. He can see the bad things coming but now knows the Island intends to course-correct to thwart his efforts to save the day. He can also see good things as well, but seeing the bad things could be enough to drive him mad as punishment for failing at the button.
Desmond may be able to see bad things coming, and he may decide to try and stick it to the Island and prevent them, but I think this will cause the Island to escalate it's attempts, bad news for the beach dwellers, and will eventually wear Desmond out. Desmond will try to prove he is capable of being a great man, but the Island will try just as hard to thwart him. Classic Man vs. Nature (or Man vs. freaky paranormal Island in this case) scenario.
Des didn't time travel except in his own mind and when the Island was done with him, he woke up, with his new found ability. The unconcious part is crucial, because looking back, you can see that both Locke and Rose were unconscious after the crash, and woke up with their "gifts" of healing. As Jin is still up in the air, it seems like perhaps the Island needs you to be knocked out before tampering with you.
Theory by g-man
Feeling so strongly about this event, whatever happened with turning the key knocked him out for the better part of a day, allowing Desmond a lot of time to ruminate on his errors with Penny. Perhaps what we saw during this time was Desmond's attempt to reconstruct the past in his own mind. Everyone has at least one thing they wish they could change, and would if given the chance. Also, our individual perspective always skews reality in a way that no two people remember the same event in the exact same manner. In some traumatic cases, we distort our perception and recolection of reality to suit our own needs and mental well-being.
If Desmond truly thought he was going to die, it would make sense for him to harken back to when it all went wrong. Perhaps this is what brought him back to the point where he fell off the ladder, as this would provide enough lead-in time to prevent or circumvent all the events that would come to pass in the next few days.
This is plausible, as the only "flashback sound" we heard leading into all this took us back inside the hatch before he turned the key. When the key was turned, it went white, and we heard the sound of the timer resetting, accompanied by the montage of images. This could be a mental resetting of Desmond's memory during his time unconcious.
Desmond has carried his regret for ruining things with Penny so much that, at his seemingly apparent death, he attempts to reforge old memories he has of them in order to create a happy ending for himself, starting at the ladder scene. He'll have the most maneuverability from this starting point to craft what he wants his final memory to be.
In "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" Jim Carrey is having his memories of his ex-girlfriend erased. Halfway through the procedure he deicdes that he wants to hold onto at least one memory of her and begins altering his memories to some extent by trying to hide a memory of Kate Winslet in a memory that she was previously not included in. He is trying to bend his mind to suit his needs, much like Desmond could be doing with memories of Penny.
In "ESOTSM" the technology deleting Carrey's memories realizes what he's doing and institutes a kind of safe-guard to prevent Carrey from meddling with his mind. In Desmond's case, there are two distinct possibilities as to what is acting as the safe-guard. It's either his own mind refusing to mess with itself, or it's another mysterious force of the Island preventing him from doing so.
1) If it is Desmond's own mind stopping him from altering his memories it explains how the old woman knew so much about him and what his future would be. This could also explain how they could walk around in England, seemingly altering the course of his past, without drastically altering the future. It's almost universally understood that time travel is dangerous, as altering even one minute thing can drastically altering the future for the entire world (see Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder"). Desmond was simply reliving his own memories so intently that he tried to block out memories of how the real future turned out to be. Thus, his mind kept throwing little snippets of reality into his attempted memory reconstruction, making Desmond seem precognative in his past, although he was merely reliving memories. Desmond being told that pushing the button was the most important thing he'd ever do could come from watching the Orientation film too many times and his belief that not pushing it caused Flight 815 to crash.
The only thing this subtheory does not address properly is how Desmond attained genuine precognitive abilities. This makes my Island intervention sub-theory more viable:
2) Desmond was trying to mess with his memories but the Island intervened like the memory deleters in "ESOTSM". The Island seems to know the people living on it and treats and reacts to them accordingly. When Desmond tried to construct a happy final memory for himself, the Island made sure it wouldn't work. The old woman with pre-cog abilities could very well be the Island taking hold of Desmond and snapping him out of his delusion. The Island, being able to scan Des's memories tells him that pushing the button is the only great thing he'll ever do. Thus, the Island forces Desmond to accept what has happened.
Why would the Island do this? Well, the Island is not yet finished with him. Desmond was supposed to find the Island, because Kelvin was growing disillusioned with the Swan station. Locke was supposed to find the hatch and inadvertantly cause Boone's death so he would beat on the hatch lid to assure a suicidal Desmond that the world still existed out there. Locke was NOT supposed to enter the hatch thoguh (as evidenced by Walt's pre-cog warning not to open it). By knowing the world still existed, Desmond found renewed purpose and kept pushing the button.
Desmond was supposed to keep pushing that button, but he didn't. Locke blew open the hatch, Desmond fled, and Locke took over the button as a matter of faith. The Island expected him to keep pushing it. For one reason or another, the Island wanted that button pushed. Perhaps it keeps it hidden and does not wish to be found. That's something to be revealed later in the series.
Locke was growing disillusioned with the hatch and Ben (as Henry Gale) saying it did nothing. The Island then summoned Eko to find the ?, where he was challenged to accept faith in the button over seemingly empirical evidence stating the button was phony. Eko took over and the Island expected him to keep pushing it. Unfortunately, Locke halted all ability to push the button and Desmond was forced to use the failsafe key, knowing what little he did about the button's effects.
Desmond, Locke and Eko were the three most important button pushers as of late. The button was not pushed, the Swan went BOOM, and the Island got angry. The Island used the smoke monster to kill Eko as punishment for his failings, leaving Locke and Desmond yet to be punished.
Desmond was trying to reconfigure his memories, thinking he was about to die, but the Island was not done with him, which is why it interrupted Des's mind-bending. The Island acted through Des's memory of the ring seller to inform him that trying to change what he thought was the past wouldn't work because the universe will course-correct. The Island can also course-correct.
As we have seen, the Island is capable of bestowing gifts upon some of our Losties- Locke's legs, Rose's tumor, and potentially Jin's ability to father children. I believe the Island is also capable of dishing out curses and has given Desmond pre-cognative abilities as punishment. He can see the bad things coming but now knows the Island intends to course-correct to thwart his efforts to save the day. He can also see good things as well, but seeing the bad things could be enough to drive him mad as punishment for failing at the button.
Desmond may be able to see bad things coming, and he may decide to try and stick it to the Island and prevent them, but I think this will cause the Island to escalate it's attempts, bad news for the beach dwellers, and will eventually wear Desmond out. Desmond will try to prove he is capable of being a great man, but the Island will try just as hard to thwart him. Classic Man vs. Nature (or Man vs. freaky paranormal Island in this case) scenario.
Des didn't time travel except in his own mind and when the Island was done with him, he woke up, with his new found ability. The unconcious part is crucial, because looking back, you can see that both Locke and Rose were unconscious after the crash, and woke up with their "gifts" of healing. As Jin is still up in the air, it seems like perhaps the Island needs you to be knocked out before tampering with you.
Theory by g-man
