i'm hearing a lot of theories that naomi is still alive cause she was able to have a flashback, but i don't recall ever hearing that a character has to be alive in order for us to see what's happened to them in the past. i always thought of flashbacks as an incident in the character's past that they are reminded of, but only for a brief second, and we the audience are given the rest of the story of their flashback.

i'm hearing a lot of theories that naomi is still alive cause she was able to have a flashback, but i don't recall ever hearing that a character has to be alive in order for us to see what's happened to them in the past. i always thought of flashbacks as an incident in the character's past that they are reminded of, but only for a brief second, and we the audience are given the rest of the story of their flashback.

Maybe it was Abaddon's flashback. Maybe Abaddon is Ben's man on the boat.

i guess what i'm saying it, who's to say that someone has to actively be having a flashback while we're watching it? i always felt that we were just watching something that happened to them in the past because it's important to the story, and not cause they're thinking of it at that moment.

As far as I know its never been said outright by TPTB that a character has to be alive to have a flashback, but that is the general assumption. Up until this point it has never happened before and as you said:
always thought of flashbacks as an incident in the character's past that they are reminded of, but only for a brief second, and we the audience are given the rest of the story of their flashback.
Its hard to be reminded of something once your dead. :)
Not saying its impossible for a dead character to have a flashback, but it is a departure from the way things have worked in the past.

The show did flash backs of all the new people on the island. Naomi encluded, so we can see what part they play in being there. Even though Naomi is dead we still need to know why she was there.
I'm guess the guy in the tie will have one soon. Unless I managed to miss it.

I copied this quote from the following thread:
http://thefuselage.com/Threaded/showthread.php?t=87942 (http://thefuselage.com/Threaded/showthread.php?t=87942)

The post is by Pinjo...
"This is interesting. In the Expose' commentary, they state that it is one of the rules of the show that they are not allowed to flashback off of a dead character... "

I copied this quote from the following thread:
http://thefuselage.com/Threaded/showthread.php?t=87942 (http://thefuselage.com/Threaded/showthread.php?t=87942)

The post is by Pinjo...
"This is interesting. In the Expose' commentary, they state that it is one of the rules of the show that they are not allowed to flashback off of a dead character... "

can anyone else confirm they say that verbatim on the commentary?

I dont think flashbacks are happening in real time, hence the term flashback :)

Aside from that, think about it. We needed to know that Naomi and Matthew had that conversation. We could not have known before Naomi was killed just because it makes for more drama in the story. Maybe for once it wasnt a flashback at all, just part of the story they needed to tell us. We also are assuming its Naomi's fb, but it could very well have been Matthews

can anyone else confirm they say that verbatim on the commentary?

I remember this too, though I can't say I remember that this is exactly what they said. I wondered the same thing when we saw Naomi's "flashback." Something's not right about that...

I dont think flashbacks are happening in real time, hence the term flashback :)

Aside from that, think about it. We needed to know that Naomi and Matthew had that conversation. We could not have known before Naomi was killed just because it makes for more drama in the story. Maybe for once it wasnt a flashback at all, just part of the story they needed to tell us. We also are assuming its Naomi's fb, but it could very well have been Matthews

what i meant by "real time" was, the character was thinking of the entire flashback while whatever was going on on the island ("present day"). which, i don't think is the case with these flashbacks. they're just flashbacks to the story, and not an actual thought that is going through someone's head at the moment.

Gotcha! I did look for the quote in SamG's thread and couldnt find it, at least easily. It must have been in the podcast following that episode

I agree with duckab234. I think they were just showing us how the team was put together. I don't think it was somebody having a flashback.

I've never been under the impression that the flashbacks were actually happening in the respective characters' minds at the very moment we're seeing them, but rather that they were asides of a sort.

Sometimes the flashbacks are thoughts going through the character's mind at the time, and sometimes they aren't. Usually this is obvious when it happens, because the character will start staring off into space as if thinking about it.
But I don't think in the case of the Freighters that they were "genuine" flashbacks so much as backstory for the team.

Maybe Naomi's FB of her meeting with Abbadon was the last thing Naomi had been thinking of as she died?

A sort of posthumous flashback.

The show did flash backs of all the new people on the island. Naomi encluded, so we can see what part they play in being there. Even though Naomi is dead we still need to know why she was there.
I'm guess the guy in the tie will have one soon. Unless I managed to miss it.

the guy in the tie is Dan,,,and he is the one who was crying while watching the discovery of 815----that was his flashback

The flashbacks don't appear to be presented as actual "flashbacks" by the character at the moment...if so, then these survivors are REALLY screwed up. Regardless whether they are INTENDED to be flashbacks, they do come at inopportune times for the character, but perfect timing for us, the viewers. And they completely DO NOT jive with the Flash Forwards; yes, the flash forwards appear to pertain to alive-people at present, but the need for them to be "alive" to have a flashback, wouldn't be necessary for something that hasn't happened to them yet! (unless we go into time loops and different rates on/off island...in which case when they do get off, maybe they go BACK to where they left off [ala Narnia], so their post-island life is happening concurrently with their Island life, but the memories are still transferring back to them!).

Edit: I just realized--if they were already dead on the island, they wouldn't have an off-island flash forward available anyway....oops. But still--they wouldn't have a flash forward to something they haven't already experienced, so it's not necessarily the character that's experiencing the FF, but the audience...which makes it perfectly acceptable for the Audience to have an exclusive flash back. Plus, if Jack suddenly had a flash forward to being off the island and wanting to come back, wouldn't you think he'd have freaked out?

I highly doubt Ben was remembering his own birth for his flashback episode, so I have no issue with the writers being a bit flexible with the flashback formula in regards to Naomi.

I've never been under the impression that the flashbacks were actually happening in the respective characters' minds at the very moment we're seeing them, but rather that they were asides of a sort.


I agree, and technically you could say the flashback with Naomi was an indirect flashback of the four characters from the helicopter and she just happened to be there.

If I remember correctly dead characters have appeared in flashbacks: Boone, Anna Lucia.
We've also been told the at some point Libby will be back in a flashback. She's definitely dead.

I copied this quote from the following thread:
http://thefuselage.com/Threaded/showthread.php?t=87942 (http://thefuselage.com/Threaded/showthread.php?t=87942)

The post is by Pinjo...
"This is interesting. In the Expose' commentary, they state that it is one of the rules of the show that they are not allowed to flashback off of a dead character... "Exactly That's why it had to be his back story and not hers. You simply cannot *recall* your past once you are dead ;) and Naomi is definitely dead. Her body was brought back to the helicopter.

i'm hearing a lot of theories that naomi is still alive cause she was able to have a flashback, but i don't recall ever hearing that a character has to be alive in order for us to see what's happened to them in the past. i always thought of flashbacks as an incident in the character's past that they are reminded of, but only for a brief second, and we the audience are given the rest of the story of their flashback.
People are assuming its Naomi's FB when it could just as easily be Abbadon's since we see him with Hurley. There is also precedent for having dead characters come back in FBs (Jack's father shows up multiple times).

You simply cannot *recall* your past once you are dead ;) and Naomi is definitely dead.
Says who? Had a death experience have you? lol

the flashbacks have benn one of those things that a lot of people see as another of lost's mysteries that will be explained later(ive heard things like the smoke monstor cuases them, they are some kind of survielance monitor being watched by whomever brought these people to the island, etc), but usually its assumed the character has to be alive. i like the theory that it is Abbadon's FB, but that also strays from the norm of the character has to be on the island to have one. so my theory is that Abbadon is on the island somewhere.

Hmmm, that's a really good question. I think this particular FB was there just to teach us a little more about the new people and a little more about Naomi and Abbadon. I think it was just placed in there as a flashback for convienence if that makes any sense. I think Naomi having a flashback while she's dead doesnt make any sense and Abbadon having a flashback would be weird since he's not involved in the island story right now. I honestly just think it was there to explain some stuff.

IMO, I feel the reason why Naomi had a flashback is because she isnt dead..... to get to the island you have to travel back in time, thus creating 2 of you, present you, and past you (which gets to the island), when she died on the island there is still one of her off the island (present Naomi), Miles knows this for some reason which is why he told Daniel "What's the point? That's not Naomi, it's just meat.". The islands cloaking device (hidden in time) was probably set up by Ben's revolution in an attempt to hide from DHARMA, which is why he said to Locke (way back in season #2 when he was going by the name of Henry Gale) "God doesn't know, he can't see the island.". A few people have been talking of clones, but clones wouldnt have the same memories as the orignal subjects. I'm not sure how Charlies remark about being dead fits in, however.

Says who? Had a death experience have you? lol
Actually, I have. But I was referencing that comment to the show. ;)

For some reason, I thought TPTB said the rule for flashbacks was that it was from the perspective of the person having it... which means that the person who is having the flashback has to be in the scene. I looked at this epi more like the 48 Days epi - the purpose seemed to be to give us some background on these new characters so we can continue the story next week.

Weird. Flashbacks are often used on other TV programs to give you background info to the character's development. So the flashbacks are not in real time or anytime, its just something to add flavor to the character.