Desmond and his Time Travel issues
Ok so here is what I gathered. This is long.
Bear with me, as this is going into some details about how looping timelines work.
A looping timeline, at some point in the timeline’s history, doesn’t loop. A good example of this is the simple story of a time traveler who builds a time machine, travels back in time and tells himself how to build the time machine. This is now a looping timeline, where the “reality” of the time traveler building the time machine without the help of his future self no longer exists. Instead the timeline now flips back onto itself and it stuck in a perpetual “loop”, creating the paradox “who originally built the time machine to go back in time and tell the time traveler how to build it?”.
The answer is, there isn’t a “person who originally built the time machine”, because that timeline no longer exists since the time traveler looped the invention of the machine onto itself. This example is referenced in theoretical physics books all over the place as a prime example of how a paradox creates a looping timeline.
Make sense?
Ok, so the story we have seen with Desmond and Daniel plays into this heavily. If we take the idea of how timeline loops work, this means that we are experiencing a timeline as its being looped onto itself as we watch Daniel and Desmond interact. We have clearly been shown that Desmond has no knowledge of himself being in distress on the boat of the freighters on the eve of December 24th, as he doesn’t seem to expect what is about to happen. This means the timelines have not been altered yet. Daniel also doesn’t seem to think Desmond is of any importance before this time because, as stated before, the timelines have not been altered.
The moment that Desmond tells past Daniel the answer to his euqation we now have a looping timeline. Presumably, the normal timeline would be that Daniel solved the equation himself. Now he solves it with the help of his future self, therefore erasing the “person who originally solved the equation”, much like the time traveler and his time machine.
This would also mean that “current” Desmond, the one who returned at the very end of the episode with Penny’s number (as demonstrated by his past self existing on it’s own in the past) would now have knowledge of being trapped on a frieghter on December 24th and needing to call Penny for 8 years. This doesn’t mean “past” Desmond knows anything about the boat race, wrecking on the island, etc, because all he experienced was being trapped on a freighter on Dec 24th and needing to know Penny’s phone number. So when “current” Desmond returns with Penny’s phone number, he is reciting it after 8 years of remembering it. THEN he tells Penny he has been on trapped on and island (which she knows about) because he is “current” Desmond who knows about all the other details leading up to being trapped on the freighter.
Now, when Daniel opens his book, it says that “Desmond is his Constant”. If we are using looping timelines as a basis for timeline explanation, this means it wasn’t in the book when Desmond left - only when Desmond contacted Daniel in the past, which then resulted in Daniel writing that down in his book and it now “existing” after Desmond looped the timelines. Daniel needed Desmond in the past and present to solve his equation, so therefore Desmond is his Constant in the past and present.
These are my thoughts anyway. Any other time enthusiasts here who know what I am getting at? I know another answer is multiple parallel timelines, and this simply an offshoot timeline, but this still contains a looping timeline from Daniel’s equation not having a real “originator”, because that person doesn’t exist on the new offshoot timeline.
Aren’t you glad I put this under a cut?