I know its so strange, Desmond so compliant after Whitmore did that experiment on him.
And it looks like in the sideway flash HE is the one getting everyone back together, I wonder what he found out between his coffee with Penny and getting the list of names from his driver of the people on flight 815, that made him believe?
And him running over John Locke like he did makes me believe that in one of his Time travels he had already been in the situation he was tonight when John pushed him down the well......
I think that either Desmond is being compliant because he thinks he can find Penny...OR, its like Saide...Saide is just an emotional blank slate...
Could the magnetic thingy have made Desmond into something he is not?