This may be nitpicking (although I don't think so), but there's all this talk of Desmond being different, being able to change things, but technically isn't Daniel the one who altered the past in a significant way in this episode? Shouldn't course correction have prevented him from giving that crucial information to Desmond?

Or is it the future he has altered?

Daniel is the one who changes things, but it's only through Desmond, who is the special one. Yes, I believe you can change the future, not the past. Daniel is trying his best to keep our Losties away from any interaction with people in the past. If Sawyer tries to change something, he could die before he tries so it doesn't happen because it can't happen. Something like that anyway :)

I've seen a lot of posts talking about Desmond being "special" and "able to change things." To me, these are just vague terms like "course correction" that are just thrown around when convenient. Why is Desmond "special" and why can he change things in the past when the other time travelers can't? And if he can change things, why does saying he is "special" make all the problems of changing things go away?

Well, while we're asking questions...

At the end of "The Constant" Daniel thumbs through his book to find the red notation concerning Desmond being his constant.

Now, Sawyer mentions the name Desmond, Daniel takes notice, gets his book, and thumbs through it to find the notation that Desmond is his constant. Didn't he just do that? Is he still having memory issues as with the playing cards? And if so, how come he remembers all this other stuff?

Well, while we're asking questions...

At the end of "The Constant" Daniel thumbs through his book to find the red notation concerning Desmond being his constant.

Now, Sawyer mentions the name Desmond, Daniel takes notice, gets his book, and thumbs through it to find the notation that Desmond is his constant. Didn't he just do that? Is he still having memory issues as with the playing cards? And if so, how come he remembers all this other stuff?

You got me LostEd. I think Faraday and Desmond have memory issues wherever it is convenient.

About the journal, whatever is written in there should have always been written in there. Therefore, Daniel would have always had access to the information about Demsond being his constant. There is no reason for him not remember Desmond, especially if it was always written in the notebook. I don't know if anyone has been on long sea voyages, but there isn't anything to do but read and stare out at the ocean. If Faraday hadn't memorized the journal by the time they got to the Island, he should have at least been familiar with Desmond and what his relationship to him was. Not only that, but how could he have forgotten the man who made his time travel experiment work?

I think Desmond became "special" after he was exposed to the magnetic forces during the implosion of the Hatch that sent him "back" in time initially. No one else was effected the same way.

Sawyer was told that banging on the Hatch door was fruitless because that's not when he meets Desmond. Daniel looks at his notes - - realizes the possibility that maybe he meets Desmond at that place in time instead (When Daniel first arrived on the island and is introduced to Desmond, they ask if they have already met...) As Daniel is banging on the Hatch door, he's muttering to himself, "let this work" as Desmond does indeed open the door. This has all played out before, nothing in the natural time line has been altered.

The problem is Desmond should have returned to the Hatch pondering what he had just experienced...not wake up years later with the memory "implanted". You could argue that Desmond had completely forgotten about that meeting until just the day he woke up in bed with Penny. It's a stretch, but it's plasuable.

I don't believe the episode "The Constant" follows any kind of logical sense, so I think we just need to suspend our disbelief on Desmond's attributes.

Technically, all that seems to matter in Lost-style time travel is that personalities or "souls" don't interact. The castaways are free to kill animals and plants at will.

One thing I truly can't understand is why desmond received these memories at that exact moment in the bed with penny.. Why did he not get the memories the day before, or the day before that again.. It makes absolutely no sense at all!
Only explanation is that they are living in separate paralell timelines.. or seperate paralell strings
I mean.. Faraday on the island.. ..Desmond in the future...


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*BRAIN EXPLODES*

I've seen a lot of posts talking about Desmond being "special" and "able to change things." To me, these are just vague terms like "course correction" that are just thrown around when convenient. Why is Desmond "special" and why can he change things in the past when the other time travelers can't? And if he can change things, why does saying he is "special" make all the problems of changing things go away?
We don't know why he's special, but he is, he is "Uniquely and miraculously special" as Faraday put it. Frankly I think it has to do with the failsafe, but we just don't know but to dismiss it is also not wise, to say it's convenient is taking away from the writers, they obviously know why Desmond is special and what his mission will be, but we'll just have to wait and see.

Technically Daniel didn't change anything that meeting they had outside the swan happened, has happened before and will happen again, don't you just love time travel:biggrin:

One thing I truly can't understand is why desmond received these memories at that exact moment in the bed with penny.. Why did he not get the memories the day before, or the day before that again.. It makes absolutely no sense at all!
Only explanation is that they are living in separate paralell timelines.. or seperate paralell strings
I mean.. Faraday on the island.. ..Desmond in the future...
*BRAIN EXPLODES*

In another thread I posted this...If Daniel were in LA and phoned Desmond at Noon LA time, and Desmond is in Atlanta, EST, then Desmond doesn't receive the call until 3pm. No chance to have a prior memory as the call, even though made at Noon, is not received until 3pm.

So daniel knocks on the station door at Noon Island time, Desmond receives the call at 3pm Real world time.

Daniel went back for his notebook before returning to the hatch. I just took it as he read a notation in the notebook that he already had the discussion with Desmond and so it was meant to happen.

I mentioned this in another tread:

"Maybe the castaways DOES NOT travel through time.
But the island's inhabitants does!
Ethan, the nigerian plane, the others and Swan-Desmond.. they all travel from the past to the present.
Or perhaps the island's former state travel from the past to the cast-aways present.

It's like having a backup on your PC hard drive from a former date.
When you load the backup from 23.01.2006, the PC (the island) moves back to the former state it was in. but you the user (the cast-aways) can observe the past while still in the present, and have then NOT traveled back in time.

That will explain why Desmond receives the memories parallel to when Faraday gives him the message; They both live in the same timeline!"