(55/82) This was considered a odd departure because we get a flashback that happens during a flashback, but is it really? When Desmond turned the fail safe key and destroyed the hatch he was sent back 5 years earlier when he was dating Penny. He can remember some of the things that happened, a sort of deja vu, and he stumbles on Charlie as a street musician and remembers him from the island, but Charlie doesn’t know him.
On island in the present Desmond can see the future, not all of it and not at will, but he gets random bits at random times. Right now he can see how Charlie dies. He can prevent it, but the universe will course correct, and eventually it will happen.