LOST has a lot of opportunities for mind-blowing revelations, rather than simple misdirection. At least they will be flashing back to Libby this episode, but I doubt they will reveal why she was in the psych ward with Hurley.
Re-examining the whole flashback aspect of LOST with respect to time travel comes back to whether the flashbacks are more than narrative devices. Assuming the flashbacks are similar to Desmond’s time travel, there would have to be some kind of stabilizing factor to not make the passengers disoriented like Desmond became when he left the island. Another possibility is that the flashbacks are really some kind of island examining device, where the island, or some Hanso tech, looks back into the lives of people who come on the island for emotionally intense moments. It’s probably just a narrative device though.
Of course, the other thing that happened the episode that Michael sailed away is the discovery of the four-toed foot statue. That has even less of a chance of being explained though.
In fact, I think there is a good chance that Michael won’t even remember being on the island, suffering from a milder form of accidental time-travel that Desmond went through.
Who sunk the durn plane? Widmore, or Ben?