Desmond pushes Claire towards Ilana, who has been looking for Claire

In the flash sideways, Claire arrives at an office building where she as an appointment with the Western Pacific Adoption Agency. Desmond walks to the counter and approaches her. Claire seems suspicious of him, but she tells him that she ended up at the hospital, but he was right about her being pregnant with a boy.

Desmond follows her up the escalator, asking her about her going to the adoption agency alone without any legal representation. They reach the elevator and are both going to the fifteenth floor (we see one of the numbers again). He pushes her about the lawyer until she agrees to go with him to visit his friend, who is a lawyer.

They walk into the office with the names Sweetzer and Verdansky on the door. The receptionist tells him to have a seat, but Ilana quickly emerges from an office and gives Desmond a hug. Ilana's last name is Verdansky and she speaks with an American accent in this timeline.

When Desmond introduces Claire, Ilana knows who she is and says that she's been looking for her. Claire looks shocked and concerned, but agrees to go talk with Ilana.

So once again, we see Desmond pushing Oceanic 815 passengers towards people that bring them closer to the original timeline. We'll see where Claire's meeting with Ilana leads in a later post.

Desmond crosses paths with Hurley & Claire, Minkowski is his driver

At LAX, we see Desmond in a daze, staring at his reflection in the Oceanic flight status board. Hurley walks by him and says that the bags for 815 are at carousel 4 (one of the numbers).

At baggage claim, Desmond helps Claire with her bad since she is struggling to retrieve it. He asks her if she's having a boy or girl, and she reveals to him that she doesn't know. He offers Claire a ride but she tells him that someone is picking her up (as we know, that didn't happen). As she's walking away, Desmond tells her confidently that she's having a boy. He seems to remember this from the original timeline.

As Desmond walks further, he approaches none other than George Minkowski, who introduces himself as his driver. Desmond reveals that he wants to go straight to the office and that he was in Sydney closing a deal for the boss (Charles Widmore). Minkowski tells Desmond that if he needs anything while he's there, just let him know (it's a bit like Matthew Abbadon's offer to Locke in the season 5 episode "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham"). Then Minkowski awkwardly offers to get Desmond a prostitute, which he quickly turns down.

Sun & Jin not married in sideways, customs confiscates Jin's money

At LAX, Jin is released from customs, but they confiscate the $25,000 until Jin fills out the necessary paperwork. As he and Sun leave customs, Jin tells her that he missed a meeting at the restaurant and reveals that he doesn't know what the money is for. Much like the original timeline, Jin says he just does what her father tells her to do.

Once they reach the hotel, Sun gives the clerk a printout with her reservation, which is on the 8th floor (one of the numbers). Jin objects, saying there should be two rooms because he and Sun are not married. The clerk pulls up a room for Kwon which is room 842 (8 and 42 are two of the numbers).

So this is possibly the most shocking flash-sideways difference thus far. Jin and Sun are not married, but are traveling together to Los Angeles. Quite intriguing. More to come.

Sawyer is a cop in flash-sideways, Miles is his partner + the numbers

So we enter the flash sideways scene which appears to be Sawyer doing the pigeon drop con which we've saw him do a few times in season 1 and 2. The time on the clock that Ava points out is 8:42, which are two of the numbers.

The tables on Sawyer when Ava pulls a gun. Sawyer tells her that he's a cop and that all he has to do is say the magic word and police will storm the room.

She doesn't buy it, so he says "LaFleur" and cops break down the door and arrest Ava. Miles is one of the detectives and comes in a tosses Sawyer his badge.

That's a nice flip for the flash-sideways timeline and it's good to see Miles and Sawyer's 1970s on island relationship continue off of the island.

Names on lighthouse dial + mirrors show Jack's childhood home + Jack trashes it

Hurley and Jack make it to the top of the lighthouse to find a giant dial operated by gears and a pulley to change the degrees. There are four mirrors attached to reflect the light of a fire bowl in the center. Next to each degree, there is a name. The numbers seem to match the numbers Sawyer saw on the cave's walls.

Hurley starts to change it to 108 degrees as Jacob told him to, but Jack watches the mirrors and sees glimpses of the place where Sun and Jin were married and the church where Sawyer's parents funeral was held. Both places were where Jacob met them. Jack then notices his own name and takes over, turning it to 23, Shephard. In the mirrors, he sees his childhood home (the one we saw in the flash sideways earlier in the episode). Jack deduces that Jacob had been watching them and then he snaps at Hurley, demanding to know why Jacob was watching him. Jack grabs a telescope from a stand in the corner and proceeds to smash all of the mirrors.

Here's a list of the names I could decipher on the wheel (be sure to click "Read more" below to view the full list along with tons of screens.

14 - Pryce (Ryan?)
15 - Ford (James "Sawyer")
16 - Jarrah (Sayid)
17 - Barnes
18 - Kueffner
19 - Nguyen

Jack searches for David, goes to his ex-wife's home

Jack comes home from his mother's house to find David missing. He let's time pass from day to night and then calls David again and apologizes if he didn't anything to upset David and says he's going to David's mother's home.

Once he arrives, he knocks and then pulls a key from underneath a small statue of a rabbit (it's not a white rabbit, but rabbits keep showing up in the show). Also, the house number is "233" and 23 is one of the numbers. Once he enters, the shots are very precise to keep any family photos in the dark and out of focus so we can't potentially see who David's mother could be.

Jack goes up to David's room which is full of musical instruments (including a keyboard, guitar and trumpet), music posters, sheet music, CDs and other stuff. Jack stops and looks at the sheet music for Chopin's "Fantasie Impromptu" which is sitting on the desk. There is also pictures of Jack and David together from a photo booth, again we see David is a Dodgers fan because he's wearing a baseball cap.

Jack listens to the answering machine messages in David's room. The first reveals his location. He is at an audition at the Williams Conservatory. The second message is one from Jack while he was in Australia. He only reveals that "something happened" and he wanted to hear David's voice.

So who do you think David's mother is? It seems that this is a mystery that's going to pay off sometime soon, because it has to.

Locke's knives are returned, he tells Helen the truth

Back in the new timeline, Locke wakes up at 6:15 and as we all know by now, 15 is one of the numbers. The sound of the clock is also the same as the alarm in the Swan station. After getting dressed, he looks at Jack's card and calls his office, but changes his mind before proceeding further.

Helen questions what Locke is doing when an Oceanic courier rings the doorbell to deliver Locke's lost case of knives. Locke tells her that he got fired because he lied to Randy about going to a conference. We learn that Locke also lied to Boone on the plane as he was denied the chance to go on the walkabout, just like in the original timeline.

Helen and Locke then share an emotional moment where Locke admits he has come to terms with his limitations and Helen says that he doesn't ever have to change in order to make her happy.

Kate escapes from Edward Mars at LAX, Sawyer lends a hand

At LAX, Marshall Edward Mars brings Kate through customs and we see one of the numbers, 4, at the checkpoint labeled 4F. She then convinces him to let her use the restroom and while she's inside, is up to her old tricks again. She uses the pen she swiped from Jack on the flight to try and pick the lock on the handcuffs.

She drops the pen's spring though, which Edward finds, causing her to panic and kick the stall door down.She slams his head against the counter and he ends up bleeding from practically the same spot the case hit him on the original Oceanic 815 flight.

She makes a break for it ending up on an elevator with Sawyer who notices the handcuffs, but helps her evade two TSA officials who join them on the elevator.

Another interesting thing to note is that Kate leaves the Halliburton case she wanted so badly in season 1 in the restroom next to the Marshall's body. You'd think if it was still important to her in this timeline, she would have grabbed it.

Hurley sees the Swan Station constuction site, the numbers hammered into the hatch door

In the van on the way to the Swan Station construction site, Hurley starts to poke around the father and son idea with Pierre Chang and Miles. Hurley asks Pierre what he does at the Orchid and Pierre tells him that it's classified. Hurley asks if he can't even tell his wife and a moment later asks about his kids. Pierre tells Hurley that he has a 3-month old son named Miles. Hurley says "Small world. That's your name too, right Miles?" Hurley then asks Pierre if he likes jazz and Miles Davis and Pierre says that his wife does but he like country. Miles gives Pierre a "Oh, come on" look when he says he likes country. Hurley asks if Pierre and Miles are tight since Miles has been there for three years. Miles says that Pierre and he don't travel in the same circles. Pierre says he wasn't aware there were circles and Hurley suggests that they all get together and have a beer some time.

Pierre then tells Miles to stop the van and he gets out and unlocks a hidden fence covered in vines and other plants to hide it. As the van enters the site, there are construction workers inside building the Swan Station. The hatch is already in place meaning the station, or at least the basics of the station must already be underground. Hurley asks what this place is and Miles tells him he doesn't know. Hurley then notices a worker carrying the hatch door. The worker calls out for Glenn, another worker with an awful wig, and asks him what the serial number for the hatch door is. Glenn starts calling out the numbers as the other worker hammers them into the hatch door. In a cutaway, we can see Radzinksy overseeing the construction of the Swan. Glenn tells the other work to "Hold on" because the last number is smudged and Hurley quietly says 42. Glenn calls out the number 42 and Miles asks Hurley "How the hell did you know that?" Hurley tells him that they're building out hatch and Miles asks "What hatch?" Hurley says "The one that crashed our plane."

So this was a cool scene. Not only was Hurley hilarious, but we get to see the infamous Swan station being built. We now know that the numbers on the hatch are a serial number. I guess it's there just in case the Dharma Initiative need to make a warranty claim.

It still seems incredibly strange that only days prior to this scene, Radzinsky is working on a model of the Swan station but it has clearly been under construction for some time. I guess it's possible thought that Radzinksy was designing the internal elements including the dome and the overall structure was already designed.

It is also incredibly strange that they would think the others/hostiles wouldn't know they're working in a restricted grid. Do the hostiles already know and will this be cause a conflict leading into the season finale?

Miles reads March 1977 Sports Illustrated, given body bag by Horace

At the Dharma security center, Miles is reading a Sports Illustrated Magazine from March 14, 1977 with Tommy Lasorda on the cover. Sawyer calls him on his walkie and asks him to erase the security tape from the sonic fence pylon camera. Miles asks which ones and Sawyer tells him to look on the monitors. The camera they are at is number 4 (one of the numbers). Sawyer tells him that if anyone asks where he is, tell them that he's out looking for Sayid. During the conversation, Miles tries to get Sawyer to tell him what's going on, but Sawyer says there's no time. Miles seems peeved that he won't tell him why he's erasing the tape. Sawyer tells Kate to go back to Juliet and see if anyone has noticed that Ben is missing.

Miles ejects the tape for camera 4 from the VRT machine. As the tape is ejecting, Horace comes in looking for Sawyer (actually LaFleur). Miles tells him he's out looking for the escaped prisoner. Horace tells Miles that he's going to bring him into the circle of trust. He hands him a rolled up body bag, though Miles doesn't know this yet. Horace tells him to drive it out to grid 334 and give it to Radzinsky who will give him something to bring back. Horace says to bring it back to him "With no questions asked." Miles says that they are not supposed to be in grid 334 because it is hostile territory. Horace says "Welcome to the circle of trust." Miles heads out on his way and we can see that he's left the security tape in the machine.

While the Sports Illustrated magazine isn't an exact gauge of when they are in 1977, it's a good indicator. Obviously there periodicals are probably a bit outdated, but it's fair to assume that it's no later than summer 1977.

Also, the VTR machine on the bottom on both sides is VTR-239 and the tape from camera 4 is numbered GND-2398923-TP4. The number 4 appears again as well as 23 three times. Numbers, numbers everywhere.

Young Miles hears and finds dead man in an apartment

The episodes opens with a microwave showing the time 3:16, the same number as the Ajira flight. Miles' mother Lara is being shown an apartment by a man named Trevor. A young Miles comes to the door and asks his mom for a quarter for the vending machine. Trevor is hesitant to rent the apartment to Lara because she has a child, but Lara tells him that Miles is very quiet. Lara gives Miles a quarter and he heads out into the courtyard.

As Miles approaches the vending machine, he slows down and sees a man lying dead on a floor. He looks towards apartment #4 (one of the numbers) and goes to the door and places his hand on it. He looks down at a rabbit statue (hello white rabbit reference) and looks under it to find a key to the door. He opens the door and looks stunned.

Miles yells for his mom and she and Trevor head towards the apartment. When they enter, Miles is standing at the far side of the room. The same body that Miles saw in his head is lying on the floor. Trevor says the man's name is Mr. Vonner. Lara asks Miles what he is doing in there. Miles says "He was all alone. He's scared. His chest hurt. He kept calling out for Kimberly." Trevor says Kimberly was Mr. Vonner's wife who died last year. He asks Miles how he knows that. Miles says "I heard him. He's still talking right now." Lara says that he's dead. Miles starts screaming he can hear him and covers his ears.

So Miles' ability has been present since an early age. Why does he have this ability though? Was it caused by the island?