Lost
Character Profile
Ben Linus
Flash Forwards

These flash forwards are presented in the order that they were viewed on the show. In parenthesis are numbers corresponding to the order that they flash forwards would appear chronologically for Ben’s life off the island.

Episode 4.03: The Economist
(6) Sayid is in a room while Ben looks at his wound. Ben tells Sayid that he was stupid to care for Elsa. “These people don’t deserve your sympathies. Need I remind you what they did the last time you thought with your heart instead of your gun?” Sayid says that Ben used it to recruit him into killing. Ben says, “You want to protect your friends or not, Sayid? I have another name for you.” Read more

Lost
Character Profile
Jack Shephard
Flash Forwards

These flash forwards are presented in the order that they were viewed on the show. In parenthesis are numbers corresponding to the order that they flash forwards would appear chronologically for Jack’s life off the island.

Episode 3.22: Through the Looking Glass
(11) Jack drives down the road, listening to loud music. He pulls to the side of the road. He walks into a funeral home and asks if the funeral is over. There was no funeral, just a viewing. Nobody came. Jack takes a pill from a bottle and walks out.

(12) Jack unlocks a medical cabinet and takes some Oxycodone. As he goes to leave he knocks some files over. Dr. Hamill enters and says she’s been trying to get in touch with him. She says they need to talk about the woman that he saved on the bridge. Jack says that she knows nothing about him. “Do you have any idea what I’ve been through?” She asks how much he’s had to drink today. Jack says that if he’s drunker than his father, she can fire him. Read more

Lost
Character Profile
Sayid Jarrah
Flash Forwards

These flash forwards are presented in the order that they were viewed on the show. In parenthesis are numbers corresponding to the order that they flash forwards would appear chronologically for Sayid’s life off the island.

Episode 4.03: The Economist
(5) Sayid is playing golf when a man drives over in a golf cart. They chat and wager on the next shot. Sayid mentions that he has a large settlement from a plane crash. The man begins to look worried. Sayid shoots him, a Mr. Avaleen. He then grabs his bags and leaves.

(6) Later, Sayid is in a café in Germany. A woman sits down next to him. Her name is Elsa. They begin chatting. Sayid says he is a head hunger, a corporate recruiter. Elsa talks about her boss, an economist. They agree to meet for dinner later. Sayid calls someone and says he made contact.
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Lost
Character Profile
Aaron Littleton
Flash Forwards

These flash forwards are presented in the order that they were viewed on the show. In parenthesis are numbers corresponding to the order that they flash forwards would appear chronologically for Aaron’s life off the island.

Episode 4.04: Eggtown:
(3) After Kate signs off on the ten year probation she says “I have a child, I’m not going anywhere,” Kate says. Kate goes home to her “son”, Aaron.

Episode 4.10: Something Nice Back Home
(4) Aaron is living with Jack and Kate. Jack reads Aaron a book.

Episode 4.12: There’s No Place Like Home
(1) Ms. Decker, a representative for Oceanic Airways, comes into the cargo area where the Oceanic Six sit. Aaron is being held by Kate. Read more

Lost
Character Profile
Kate Austen
Flash Forwards

These flash forwards are presented in the order that they were viewed on the show. In parenthesis are numbers corresponding to the order that they flash forwards would appear chronologically for Kate’s life off the island.

Episode 4.04: Eggtown:
(4) Kate is in trial – charged with fraud, arson, assault on a federal officer, assault with a deadly weapon, grand larson, grand theft auto, and murder in the first degree. She pleads not guilty. Jack testifies for Kate. Diane eventually decides not to testify against Kate and Kate is offered 10 years probation as long as she doesn’t leave the state. Kate says she’ll sign it. She just wants it to be over. “I have a child, I’m not going anywhere,” Kate says. Kate goes home to her “son”, Aaron.

Episode 4.10: Something Nice Back Home
(5) Kate is living with Jack and Aaron. Jack proposes to her and she says yes. At one point Jack catches her on the phone with someone. She says it is a friend but he later confronts her and she says she was out doing something for Sawyer. She and Jack fight and he leaves.
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Lost
Character Profile
Hugo “Hurley” Reyes
Flash Forwards

These flash forwards are presented in the order that they were viewed on the show. In parenthesis are numbers corresponding to the order that they flash forwards would appear chronologically for Hurley’s life off the island.

Episode 4.01: The Beginning of the End
(5) Hurley drives a Camaro through a pile of fruit. Police are chasing him. He runs through a pile of fruit. The police tell him to get out. He is taken to an interrogation room. They watch a tape of a convenience store where Hurley was earlier. Hurley sees something off camera, gets scared, and runs out.

Alone in the room Hurley looks to the window. It is now a tank and the ocean is on the other side. Charlie swims over. The window breaks, spilling water into the room. Hurley runs to the door and bangs on it, asking for help. When he turns around, nothing is in the room. The police officer returns and threatens to toss him in the “nut house”. Hurley hugs him and says “Thank you!”
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The Tail Section reader Dan Berry created a Lost flash-forward highlight reel in what is (most likely) chronological order. In 8:32 of course!!

Matthew Fox was featured on EW.com and he talks about the Lost Flash Forwards. He liked how it was executed and was great for the show.

So what are the reason for the Lost flash forwards? Nothing more than an addition to the Lost brand of storytelling! The Lost producers added them in because they feared a backlash and boredom from just the ordinary flashbacks. Of course, only time will tell if they are indeed true flash forwards of life off the island!

At the San Diego Comicon, Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof revealed that they had anticipated the flashback device eventually running out of juice at some point, and out of the adversity of that came yet another innovation to add to Lost’s eclectic brand of storytelling. A chunk of the story would take place in the future, but be told through ‘flash forwards’ rather than in the linear narrative of the show.

If you are confused, don’t worry. You are not alone. At first this seems like an amazingly simple concept, the flash forwards will be a story-within-a-story, of sorts, told in fragments which will, if we are lucky, make sense by the time Lost does end, wherever that may be. Another grand, sprawling puzzle, but at the same time a concept that brings clarity to Cuse’s often used analogy of Lost as a mosaic being assembled a tile at a time.

Where it gets tricky, of course, is when we consider the Desmond factor. Desmond’s character shows us that flashbacks need not necessarily take place within the same time line as that of the folks on the island. Considering this, can we expect the events of the flash forwards to be tied to the time line of Lost’s linear elements, meaning the on-island story that we have been following from the beginning?

Either way, the flash forward device used in this context – to contain a future time subplot – certainly has the capacity to bring a freshness to Lost equal to the reveal of the device in the Lost season 3 finale.

Source: BuddyTV.