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, talking to Libby over coffee, where she offers him the Sailboat
In his limo, Widmore revealed the great measures he went to separate them, by intercepting every letter Desmond had sent to Penelope from prison. He handed Desmond a box, including the letters, and revealed that Penny is getting married, before handing him 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 sailing race around the world, which is sponsored by Charles, 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, to which Libby 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 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 he did not write to her, Desmond confronted Penny of his knowledge that she is getting married, adding that he will be back in a year, after wining her father's race. When Penny questioned his motives of what she felt as an attempt to run away, 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 Jack 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 awoke later on the beach, to see a man in a biohazard suit runs 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 hence 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 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.
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, and questioning whether anything in his world is real. Sitting down with a gun and a bottle of whiskey, 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
Moments after Kate was pulled into the station as she was abseiling down the hatch. Locke dropped into the Hatch and looked around, to find Kate on the floor. A suspicious Desmond then appeared, pointing his gun towards Locke, and asking 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 Desmond recognized each other, recalling their encounter at the stadium, although Desmond seems 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, the panicking Desmond fled the station, claiming that everyone will die soon. Following him into the jungle, Jack confronted Desmond again. Starting to remember their earlier encounter, Desmond 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 from the Island as possible. However, his attempts 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. Soon after joining their camp, he was asked by Sayid to help him in sailing around the Island to the Others' camp, but he refused. Soon, however, Desmond was soon sought out by Locke, and together they decided to let watch the Swan's countdown end once and for all, without interference, to see what would happen. In their attempt, they locked Eko out the computer room, using Desmond's experience in triggering the "Lockdown". However, when Locke reveals to Desmond the Pearl logs found, Desmond connects the date of the plane crash, and his earlier incident after killing Kelvin, leading to realize that he had unintentionally caused the crash. When Desmond the decides that the button must be pushed, Locke intervenes and destroys the computer. After the second system failure started, the station soon began to be rip apart, before Desmond grabbed the fail-safe key he hid in the his book, and went down to the switch. With the words "I love you Penny," he turned the key, causing the discharge.
Season 3
Naked Desmond talking to Hurley in the jungle.
After the Swan station implodes, Desmond woke up in the jungle wearing no clothes, with almost no recollection of what happened after he turned the key. He was found by Hurley, who let him borrow a tie-dyed t-shirt, and the two returned to camp. On the way, as Hurley worried about his captured friends, Desmond commented about "John's 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 in shock and disbelief as Desmond thoughtfully looked out at sea. Also, Charlie says to Hurley, "Not a bad speech."
In "Every Man for Himself", Desmond attempted to persuade Claire to move down the beach, so that he could fix her roof. After he fails to do this, he borrowed a golf club from Paulo, that he used to construct a lightning rod; shortly after, a storm appeared out of nowhere on a sunny day and a bolt of lightning struck the recently built lightning rod. An important note is that Desmond told Hurley to wait just a minute as he stared at the lightning rod just as it was struck. Charlie (in a manner similar to Hurley's confusion at the end of "Further Instructions") stared at Desmond, apparently confused by Desmond's prognostication.
Desmond was also among the team that revisited the Pearl ("The Cost of Living") and was present at the burial of Eko out in the jungle near the Pearl in "I Do". When Locke announced, "We're gonna bury him here," Desmond looked surprised and asked, "Are we?"
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?
See also
- Our Mutual Friend - Desmond carries this book with him. This contains the fail-safe key and Penelope's letter.
- Desmond's photo
- Desmond's letters
- The discharge - Desmond triggered this after using the fail-safe key.
- List of regularly spoken phrases
- The listening station - Presumably created by Penny to locate Desmond.
- Log printout - Desmond read this and discovered details about the system failure.
- Record player - Desmond played "Make Your Own Kind of Music" on this.
- Sailboat ("Elizabeth")
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