Changes: Desmond Hume

Revision as of 16:17, 21 December 2006

Desmond David Hume was the lone resident of the Swan at the time of the Flight 815 crash. He was discovered by John Locke a month later, when Locke, Jack, Kate, and Hurley blew open the Hatch. Since then he has tried to leave the Island, with no success.

Before the boat crash

Desmond Hume served with the Royal Scots (the Royal Regiment). During the time he served, Desmond managed to reach the rank of a Lance-Corporal, before getting discharged, and serving time in the Southway Garrison military prison, for failing to "follow orders". His exact offense, however, is still unknown.

At his release, Desmond gained back his belongings, among which his copy of Charles Dickens' Our Mutual Friend. As revealed by Desmond, he chose this book, after reading every other book by Dickens, to be the last thing he reads before he dies. Thus, he did not check it while in prison, to "avoid temptation". Outside the Garrison, Desmond was met by Charles Widmore, a business tycoon, and the father of Desmond's love object, Penelope, who strongly disapproved her union with the humble Desmond.

Desmond Libby — Desmond, talking to Libby over coffee, where she offers him the Sailboat

In his limo, Widmore revealed to Desmond the great measures he went to separate them, as he handed him a box containing every letter he had sent to Penelope from prison, which were intercepted by Widmore. He then handed Desmond another box, full of money, by which he attempted to bribe him into keeping away from her. Widmore was assured of Desmond's acceptance, as he perceived him for a coward. Desmond, however, declined, and entered himself in a world sailing race, which is sponsored by Widmore, to challenge him.

The race was set to start in America, where Desmond arrived short of money and a sailing boat. In a twist of fate, he met Libby in a cafe, where she insisted on buying him coffee. In their ensuing conversation, Desmond confided in her his shortcomings at joining the race. Libby then surprisingly revealed her ownership of a boat, named Elizabeth, which belonged to her late husband. To honor the memory of her husband, Libby insisted on offering Desmond the boat, which he eventually accepted with the promise of winning the race "in the name of love".

Desmond Penelope — Desmond wiping Penelope's tears, in their last conversation

Later, before training at a Los Angeles stadium, Desmond was approached by Penelope. In their conversation, the longing Penny revealed that she was able to locate him by employing her great wealth, and asked him if he had read his beloved book yet. To evade her questions of why she did not receive any letters from him, Desmond confronted Penny of his knowledge that she is getting married. With a hint of promise, he added that he will be back in a year, after wining her father's race. Penny, however, questioned his motives of what she felt as an attempt to run away, but Desmond insisted that he is running to get back his honor.

Not long after, Desmond met Jack Shephard, who was training at the same stadium. When Jack attempted to catch up with him, he soon tripped over his ankle, at which Desmond hurried to help him. During their short conversation, Desmond talked to Jack about his race, and confronted him with an introspective realization that he is running because of a woman. Jack, amazed, talked to him about his patient, Sarah, whom he he had no hope in fixing. Desmond, however, pointed to Jack the possibility of miracles, before ending their talk by saying: "See you in another life brother".

Later, whilst sailing on the race across the Pacific, the boat was hit by a strong storm, during which Desmond wrapped his book in plastic, before getting knocked unconscious and falling off the deck. Soon, he was washed up at the Island's shore.

On the Island

Before the plane crash

Desmond Lockdown — Desmond, initiating the "Lockdown" sequence

Desmond awoke later on the beach, to see a man in a biohazard suit running towards him. Blacking out once more, Desmond finally regained his senses inside the Swan station. The man who found him identified himself as Kelvin, telling him that the outside environment is contaminated, and thus he might have been exposed to the sickness during the time he was unconscious at the beach. Kelvin then gave Desmond a vaccine labeled CR 4-81516-23 42, and told him to inject himself with it every 9 days. During his time in the Swan, Desmond learned the "pushing the button" routine, and watched the Swan Orientation Film repeatedly, raising many questions in his head, including the truth about the Incident, that mostly remained unanswered by Kelvin. Desmond also learned how to initiate the "Lockdown" sequence, which Kelvin used to complete the invisible blast door map started by Kelvin's previous Swan partner, Radzinsky. One night later, while drunk in the Swan's passageways, Kelvin revealed to Desmond the reality of the Incident, and the function of the fail-safe key, which he carried at all times but was never able to find the courage for using it.

Over the next two years, Desmond lived in the station, whilst Kelvin continually left in the suit, under the pretense of analyzing the outside environment. However, on September 22nd 2004, Desmond noticed that Kelvin's suit was ripped, yet he continued his trips, which raised Desmond's suspicions. After following him outside, Desmond saw Kelvin taking off the suit in the jungle, at which point he started to realize the charade. As he followed him to the cove, Desmond found his sailboat, apparently repaired by Kelvin, aiming to escape the Island.

File:2X24-DesmondKelvin.jpg

Desmond confronting Kelvin at the cove

Desmond, who was enraged by this revelation, confronted Kelvin, and in the struggle that follows he accidentally slammed Kelvin's head against the rocks, resulting in his immediate death. After grabbing Kelvin's fail-safe key, Desmond ran back to the Swan, where he found the countdown has reached zero, and a flow of system failure messages appearing on the computer's screen. Although eventually Desmond managed to push the button after to stop the failure, unbeknownst to him, his actions inadvertently caused the close by Oceanic Flight 815 to break in the air and crash on the Island, due the released electromagnetic charge that built up in his absence, as later revealed in "A Tale of Two Cities".

The distraught Desmond then contemplated ending his life, as he felt trapped in the station, unable to leave, and unable to use the key alternative. Sitting down with a gun and a bottle of whiskey, Desmond questioned whether anything in his world is real. He moved to open his Dickens' novel, when he noticed a letter fall out of it. The hidden letter was from Penelope, in which she wrote for Desmond to never give up, saying that she will always wait for him, and that she loves him. In a fit of rage, Desmond, started to smash to Swan's library of records, crying out the everything is lost, when he suddenly heard pounding on the Hatch above. Turning on the bright light in "Live Together, Die Alone, Part 1", he looked up as the traumatized Locke peered down ("Deus Ex Machina") in return, causing both men to regain their hope.

Season 2

Desmond Sailboat — Desmond, found by Jack, Sayid and Sawyer in the Sailboat

Moments after Kate started abseiling down to the station, she was pulled in by Desmond. Locke dropped after into the Hatch and cautiously looking around as he entered the Swan , before he found Kate on the floor. A suspicious Desmond then appeared, pointing his gun towards Locke, and asked him, "Are you him?". After getting tricked by Locke into believing that Kate is the most dangerous of the two, Desmond allowed him to lock up Kate in the food locker, where she escaped through the ventilation system. When Jack came down to rescue Kate, he only found Locke held by Desmond at gun point. Jack soon recognized Desmond, recalling their encounter at the stadium, although Desmond seemed to vaguely realize it. In a moment of surprise, the escaped Kate attacked Desmond from behind, causing him to accidentally shoot the Swan's computer. After failing to fix it, the panicking Desmond fled the station, claiming that everyone will die soon. After following him into the jungle, Jack confronted Desmond, who starting to remember their earlier encounter. Desmond then asked Jack about Sarah, before telling him of code in case they ever fix the computer.

Although the exact preceding events are unknown, it is assumed that Desmond ran straight to the sailboat, setting off to get as far away as possible from the Island. Desmond's attempts, however, were unsuccessful, and after two weeks, the boat sailed back towards the Island. When the boat emerged to the survivors, Jack, Sayid and Sawyer swam to it, only to find Desmond inside. Believing the Island to be the last thing left from a long lost world, the distraught Desmond sat at the camp fire, drinking and acting nonchalant.

2X24-DesmondLocke — Desmond listening to Locke about the Pearl

He was soon approached by Sayid, who asked for his help in sailing around the Island to the Others' camp, to help Jack, but Desmond refused. Not long after, Desmond was sought out by Locke, who brought him the Orientation video from the Pearl, which debunked his whole conception of the Swan's function. Desmond then agreed to join Locke on his mission, to let watch the Swan's countdown end once and for all, without interference, and see what would happen. In their attempt, they locked Eko out the computer room, using Desmond's experience in triggering the lockdown. However, in their conversation, Locke revealed to the amazed Desmond the truth behind the pounding he heard on the Hatch door earlier, and talked to him about the logs he found at the Pearl.

After skimping through the logs, Desmond connected the date of the plane crash to the earlier system failure he witnessed, after killing Kelvin, which lead him to reach a conclusion that he had unintentionally caused the crash. Desmond then decided that the button must be pushed, but Locke, however, intervened and destroyed the computer. Finding no other resolution to save the man who saved before, Desmond felt compelled to use the fail-safe key. Thus, during the events of the second system failure, Desmond grabbed the Key from his book,and descended to the Swan's passageways until he reached the switch. With the words "I love you Penny," Desmond turned the key, causing the discharge, and the unavoidable implosion of the Swan.

Season 3

3X03-DesmondNaked — Naked Desmond talking to Hurley in the jungle

After the Swan station imploded, Desmond woke up in the jungle, wearing no clothes. He was later found by Hurley, who let him borrow his tie-dyed t-shirt, and the two returned to camp. On their way, Hurley talked to Desmond about the discharge events, which Desmond missed. When Hurley expressed his worries about his captured friends, Desmond attempted to calm him, and commented about Locke's intentions to go after them, as he mentioned in his "speech". At the time, Hurley did not know what he meant, but when they arrived back at camp, John issued a few rousing words about saving the missing Jack, Kate and Sawyer. Hurley looked over to Desmond, in shock and disbelief, while Desmond stood by the sea, looking ahead and throwing rocks.

A while later, Desmond approached Claire, and attempted to persuade her to move down the beach, so that he could fix her roof, but Charlie intervened. After failing to convince them, Desmond then borrowed a golf club from Paulo, which he used in constructing a lightning rod that he placed very close to Claire's tent. Shortly after, a storm appeared out of nowhere, on a sunny day, and a bolt of lightning struck the recently built lightning rod, on its way to the tent. Notably, moments before the lightning bolt struck, Desmond passed an offer from Hurley for food, asking him to wait for a minute. The event also resulted in a mild water drop over Clair's tent, leaving Charlie in a shock, as he stared to Desmond in a similar manner to Hurley's after receiving Desmond's first premonition. ("Further Instructions")

Afterwards, Desmond and Locke were joined by Sayid, in a meeting to discuss a rescue plan for Jack and his group. Desmond explained to Sayid that the stations equipment can be used as well in communication, and thus they required Sayid's technological skills in helping them search for a station where Jack could be possibly captured. They three head to the Pearl, joined by Paulo and Nikki, where Desmond helped Sayid in patching the monitors with available feeds from other stations. A mysterious eyepatched man suddenly appeared to them on one of the monitors, before he smashed his station's camera. Moments after, they heard Monster's familiar sound, and as Desmond hurried above with the rest, he witnessed the dying Eko's last moments. He was then left with Paulo and Nikki at Eko's body, as Sayid accompanied Locke on his way back to camp, presumably to get shovels for the burial.

Connection to David Hume

Like Desmond, David Hume was Scottish.
Desmond's character seems to present an interesting antithesis to his historical namesake, who was a philosopher of skepticism and, to a (perhaps) slightly lesser degree, naturalism, and also a suspected atheist.
One of Hume's main philosophies was that a person's perception comes from ideas and impressions. This could be understood by considering that things may not be what they seem, and that what one believes to be reality might actually be a figment of one's imagination. This coincides with the enigmatic nature of the Island.
From the Wikipedia page on David Hume: "From 1763 to 1765, Hume was Secretary to Lord Hertford in Paris, where he was admired by Voltaire and lionized by the ladies in society. He made friends with and, later, fell out with "Rousseau"."

Trivia

A lyric in Monty Python's "Philosopher Song": "David Hume / could out consume / Schopenhauer and Hegel"

Unanswered questions

What did he do to get dishonorably discharged from the military?
How did he escape if the Swan imploded?
Why was he naked?
How did he know what Locke was going to say?
How did he know that a lightning rod needed to be built?
What exactly was his relationship with Libby?
What did he see when he turned the key?
Can he see into the future?

@@ Line 63: / Line 63: @@
 * Desmond's character seems to present an interesting antithesis to his historical namesake, who was a philosopher of [[wikipedia:skepticism|skepticism]] and, to a (perhaps) slightly lesser degree, [[wikipedia:naturalism|naturalism]], and also a suspected [[wikipedia:atheist|atheist]].
 * One of Hume's main philosophies was that a person's perception comes from [[wikipedia:David_Hume#Ideas_and_impressions|ideas and impressions]]. This could be understood by considering that things may not be what they seem, and that what one believes to be reality might actually be a figment of one's imagination. This coincides with the enigmatic nature of the Island.
-* From the Wikipedia page on [[wikipedia:David Hume|David Hume]]: "From 1763 to 1765, Hume was Secretary to Lord Hertford in Paris, where he was admired by Voltaire and lionized by the ladies in society. He made friends with and, later, fell out with '''[[Rousseau]]'''."
+* From the Wikipedia page on [[wikipedia:David Hume|David Hume]]: "From 1763 to 1765, Hume was Secretary to Lord Hertford in Paris, where he was admired by Voltaire and lionized by the ladies in society. He made friends with and, later, fell out with "[[wikipedia:Rousseau|Rousseau]]"."
 ==Trivia==