I actually prefer if he would not steal the watch. After all, the fact that there are two doors in the afterlife implies that the creator, or god, is concerned with people making choices. If you're allowed to make that main choice of going back or just disappear altogether, it must be possible to make more choices. But just wanting to rectify mistakes with your personality, mind or even your heart doesn't seem enough, it's as if your SOUL must want to change.
The story makes no sense in the end. What if a person in Bill's life (like his brother, or his student girlfriend) at THEIR death chose the right door and just have it be over and done with for good? Then they couldn't return in Bill's next life, and his life would change whether he made different choices or not - he could never live the exact same life without these people.
I don't think it's one of his best thought out stories, but it is fun to speculate about.
What a déjà vu is? Maybe it's not even a memory - because you're never able to relate it to something from your past. I think it comes across as a memory, but probably is something different. You also have the feeling you're reliving an EXACT same moment, which is never the case with a memory - when you're reminded of something it's never coming back in a complete and full way in the present. A memory rather assembles in small bits: first you're reminded of one thing, then another, then something more - and you never remember it ALL. This excludes that a déjà vu is a memory, unless indeed you're reliving the same life over and over, which I just don't believe.
I used to have way more déjà vu's in the past, haven't had one in a long time. Do others have too that they decrease as you get older?