Reconsidering the Events of Season 3 by DaKlenke

Here is a relatively long theory that is refreshingly not revolved around the events of Season 5. Before I begin I do want to apologize if this has been said before; credit where credit is due and all that. Alright here goes.
So this evening I decided to rewatch some Lost and while deciding on which episode to watch, I stumbled first upon the Season finale of season 2 followed by Flashes Before Your Eyes.

Now for those of you who may not remember, the Season 2 finale was defined by argulably 3 major events; Walt and Michael escaping the Island, the love triangle being taken captive by the Others, and most importantly to this theory, the events leading up to and through Desmond turning the fail safe key.

Locke's disagreement with his own fate leads him to convince Desmond to join him in taking control of the computer room from Mr. Eko and to let the button timer run out, which invariably they do. Locke smashes the computer, preventing Desmond(who has just discovered that his failure to push the button previously caused flight 815 to crash) from entering the numbers. With no other options, Desmond descends into the crawl space beneath the Swan and turns the fail safe key. I believe, as most do, that the ensuing white flash was of great importance to the central Lost timeline.

In Flashes Before Your Eyes, we learn what happened to Desmond after he turned the fail-safe key. As far as we are lead to believe at the time the episode aired, Desmond conciousness time traveled into his past and relived a portion of his history. Now that we have experienced the events of Season 5, I would like to put forth a different take on what may have happened.
I believe that Desmond did not in fact time travel into his past, but rather, he flashed into an alternate reality. Now to back up this claim, I would like to jump a little bit ahead in my narrative.

After Desmond, special Desmond, resumes his past life he begins to experience memories of his time on the island, effectively what he believes to be his own future. Distraught by this revelation, brought upon by his encounter with a younger Charlie playing his guitar on the street, Desmond rushes to meet up with a friend of his who happens to be a physicist.

Desmond and the physicist go to the pub where Desmond proceeds to explain his situation to the physicist. To prove that he is not crazy, Desmond tells his physicist friend that the soccer game on television is about to end in a surprising upset and that moments afterward, some bookie is going to walk through the door and assault the bartender with a croquet mallet. Now the important distinction that I would like to make is that these events DO NOT happen.

I will return to the significance of that distinction shortly. So continuing my theory, the next day Desmond goes to the ring shop where he intends to buy the ring with which he will ask Penny to marry him. There he meets Eloise Hawking, who proceeds to try and convince Desmond that by buying this ring, he is making a change to his own destiny and that this change would ultimately lead to epic disaster.
With this encounter still fresh in mind, Desmond and Penny are later seen walking on a coast where they encounter a man taking photos. This man takes the very photo that in Desmond's future is oh so very important to him. When Desmond realizes this, he decides to call off his relationship and breaks up with Penny. Then he throws the wedding ring into the lake.

Now the very next scene, we see Desmond return to the pub where lo and behold, the events he had previously predicted to his physicist friend unfold, ending with the man who was meant to crack the bartender in the face with the croquet mallet hitting Desmond instead.
Now here is the crux of my theory. I believe it to be a little strange that the same two soccer teams would be having nearly identical games in such a short span of time. What I believe happened is that when Desmond met Ms. Hawking, she was there with the intention of course correcting Desmond's destiny to ensure that he makes all the same decisions that eventually lead him to the Island and ultimately to turning the fail-safe key. I believe that she succeeded in this course correction, preventing Desmond from continuing into this alternate reality in which he would have gone on to marry Penny. Without Ms. Hawkings intervention, Desmond would have bought the ring.

Now here is the kicker. I believe that the moment Desmond throws the wedding ring into the lake, making a free will decision to leave Penny and embrace the future he remembers having, he flashes back into the reality in which he goes on to the Island and the hatch.

As I said earlier, the next scene immediately following the scene in which Desmond tosses the ring is the pub scene that plays out the way Island Desmond remembered it. I believe that this scene and the pub scene involving the physicist were not two different days, but rather the same date in two different realities. Thus the identical soccer games with different endings, the same songs playing on the juke box in both scenes, etc.

It adds a little more credence to the title of the episode when you consider that its possible there were literally flashes between realities right before our eyes without any of us realizing it.

Anyways, the point of my theory is this. I believe that when Locke made the decision to NOT press the button in the hatch he was being manipulated by the man in black into making this decision. If not for Desmond, Locke would have caused the release of all the eletromagnetic energy within the Swan that would have had disastrous results. Why the man in black would want this to happen, I don't know, and can only speculate on. Maybe the release of that energy would have destroyed the whole island, or had some even greater destructive repercussions.
Either way, Desmond turning the fail-safe key was what prevented the MIB from achieving his goals. I believe that the fail-safe key itself actually sent Desmond back into his own past. Because he retained his memories of his future on the Island, Desmond began making choices different from those he had originally made, almost including marrying Penny, which would have changed the future.

When Ms. Hawking intervened, she convinced Desmond to forsake his life in this alternate reality in which he marries Penny and to return to his own reality, our Lost reality, in which he goes to the Island and presses the button. The moment Desmond makes the choice, of his own free will, to throw away the wedding ring, the alternate reality realigns with the primary reality, and Desmond relives the moment in the pub in the primary reality, which of course plays out the way he remembered it.

As far as when the guy bops Desmond on the head and he is jettisoned back into the future, I assume that this was fates way of deciding that since Desmond made the same choice he had made previously in regards to penny, that now the rest of his life would play out the way it already had. Thus the jump back into Island Desmond's present.

So thats my theory. I hope you folks enjoyed, and please comment and criticize as you see fit.