Desmond messed it all up…
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By ProfOzone
- Desmond messed it all up…
- Created: May 6, 2007
- Last updated: Aug 13, 2008
- After episode: 3.15: Left Behind
- Status: Current
- Flag this theory:
The ruined plane pointed John right to the Pearl Station.
— ProfOzone
OK… here’s how it was supposed to happen.
When he failed to break open the Swan Station hatch, John asked for a sign and he got it. He faithfully followed his vision to the place it showed him… the suspended Beechcraft. Boone was with him.
Boone climbed up into the plane and it fell, mortally wounding him.
John took Boone back to the caves and ditched him there. He whined for a while back at the hatch before heading back to the plane, certain that he had yet to discover why he’d been sent there.
The ruined plane pointed John right to the Pearl Station. John had told Charlie that the island would give him what he wanted if Charlie gave the island something first. In Boone’s death, the island had exacted its price from John for all the things it had done for him.
Inside the Pearl, John saw the orientation tape and got a glimpse of the man who lived in the Swan Station. He figured out what “the hatch” was about and knew what he needed to do.
He needed to get the fellow in the Swan Station to stop pressing the button.
John eventually got into the Swan and met Kelvin. John talked him into letting the button go. Kelvin panicked and activated the failsafe while John cleared the station before it imploded. John concluded that destroying the Swan Station was what the island had intended him to do.
Later on, at the Flame Station (which John would still find with the help of Eko’s staff, because Eko was still going to be killed by the smoke monster eventually), John would learn why he’d been led to destroy the Swan Station: Doing so knocked out communications between the island and the outside world, a most desirable outcome for John.
But what actually happened?
Desmond arrived on the island, creating a distraction for Kelvin in the form of Desmond’s boat. Eventually, Desmond killed Kelvin in an altercation over the boat. So Desmond took up pressing the button in Kelvin’s place. When John was whining at the hatch, Desmond was contemplating suicide and, therefore, heard John even though he’d apparently not been disturbed by all kinds of bigger noises John had made on the hatch previous to that point. Desmond, I suppose you could say, was more attentive than normal at that moment because he was desperate for a sign. In response to John’s whining, Desmond turned on a light, receiving his sign and reigniting John’s infatuation with the hatch and messing up the entire order of things, such that Ben had to come and fix it personally, manipulating John into giving up on the button.
What’s it all mean?
Desmond is definitely not “supposed” to be there. And I imagine that he is a factor that Ben will really need to deal with very soon (as many others on this site have already pointed out). But an important question is then raised…
The jewelry store lady steered Desmond toward the island. SHE wanted him to be there. Does that mean that the jewelry store lady and Ben not on the same side?
And what does this say about Desmond being responsible for crashing the plane in the first place?
Key characters
| Short Name | Full Name | Episodes | Theories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boone | Boone Carlyle | 1.13 | 164 |
| Desmond | Desmond David Hume | 2.23, 3.17, 4.5 | 853 |
| John | John Locke | 3.3, 2.17, 1.4, 1.19, 3.13, 3.19, 4.11, & 3” href=”/episodes/theres-no-place-home-parts-2-3/”>4.13 | 1231 |
Key episodes
| # | Title | Aired | Central character | Theories |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.20 | Do No Harm | 4-6-2005 | Jack | 70 |
| 1.19 | Deus Ex Machina | 3-30-2005 | John | 100 |
Key locations
| Theme | Relevant Episodes | Theories |
|---|---|---|
| The Pearl station | 2.21, 3.5, 3.14 | 230 |
| The Swan station | 2.20, 2.23, 2.14, 2.17, 2.1, 2.2, 1.11, 3.3, 3.8 | 461 |
ok, first off love the post. We are on similar wave lengths with the themes of destiny and what is supposed to happen, but something get it the way. It will be interesting to see what the out come will be between Ben and Desmond, if they do meet. But you’d think that Ben would know about him. A couple of scenarios about Bens knowledge of desmond that have struck me.
He knew Desmond was in the swan from Dharma’s documents or just from the pearl through the televisions and hasn’t told anyone about it because he has a hidden agender
He didn’t realise the Swan was there because it was a need to know basis within the dharma and was probably kept a big secret. (I read that somewhere, maybe on lostpedia about the electromagentic station being secret)
Was it destiny that Ben isn’t meant to know who Desmond is? Maybe they only discovered the swan right after Desmond left and our losties went in.
Um just one more thing. You said the plane pointed John to the Pearl station. How did Desmond stop John from finding it? If Desmonds was in the Swan? Or back to the Vending Machine theory, since Desmond showed up, every piece of candy has been pushed out the wrong way, so everyones destinies, and paths have been mis-shaped, so Desmond doesn’t have to be actually physically changing Johns path, but just his presents has disturbed everything?
No, he meant Kelvin he was just giving us a scenario of what was supposed to have happened, that is if Desmond had not messed things up. I too thought he was mistaking Desmond for Kelvin at first. Also great post, as usual. Something I hadnt really given much thought about til now.
Right, Nina, I did mean Kelvin.
108: Desmond prevented John from finding the Pearl because he turned on the light while John was pounding on the hatch and asking what he was supposed to do. John took the light as a sign that he was supposed to get into the Swan Station. Had Kelvin been in the Swan rather than Desmond, the light might not have come on, and John might have remembered that he had not yet deciphered the vision of the crashing Beechcraft… he had not yet found at the plane what he was intended to find. As to what Ben knew or did not know about Desmond ahead of time, I tend to think that if Ben knew about the Pearl then he knew about the Swan, but I can’t think of why he’d have been inclined to check on Kelvin every so often, so I imagine Desmond could have been on the island for some time before Ben realized Kelvin had been “replaced”.
kat: precisely. To be honest, I’ve always doubted that Desmond outright caused the plane crash. It did need to appear to Desmond as if he crashed the plane, though, because ultimately that’s the notion that inspired him to activate the failsafe, which was “supposed” to happen. So the fact that the time of his “crisis” corresponded to the crash of the plane did serve a critical purpose, though not the one Desmond thinks. As to your thoughts on the jewelry store lady, I think you’re absolutely correct.
What all of this suggests to me is that jewelry store lady and Ben are not on the same side. This further suggests that ever since Ben saw the plane, he’s been trying to figure out what “they” are up to. The island seems to be on Ben’s side, or at least Ben thinks it is. In Ben’s mind, the island allowed him to get a tumor, which helped him figure out what he needed to do with the crash survivors, most notably Jack. It does seem as though the island wanted John to find the Pearl Station, as I think that was the true meaning behind John’s vision of the crashing Beechcraft. So perhaps Ben and John are both protecting the island and its secrets against someone else… someone that the jewelry store lady works for… someone who wanted Desmond to be on the island, and perhaps wanted flight 815 to crash. Whoever these people are, Ben’s goal seems to be to turn their own schemes against them.
I totally agree with you that Desmond has messed up the flow of things and believe, as you do, that he will become a target for Ben. Also, Desmond was not responsible for bringing down the plane. If there was a conspiracy by “the powers that be”, off of the island, to cover up the crash and make it appear that there were no survivors, it wouldn’t matter if he pushed the button or not. As Kelvin was one of the last of the Dharma folks manning the hatches, I doubt if “the others” really knew of its existence.
Prof, the technique you used to explain your point - posing what most likely would have happened with no interference from Des - was very effective for me at understanding the essence of your post.
One point seems to contradict for me though: “Later on, at the Flame Station…John would learn why he’d been led to destroy the Swan Station: Doing so knocked out communications between the island and the outside world, a most desirable outcome for John.”
I thought that destroying the Swan actually exposed the island (the EMP blast was seen by the Portugese guys) therefore creating an undesireable outcome for John - and Ben. Can you help me reconcile this? I hope you go back and revisit your old posts and see this. Is there a way to be notified if someone has added a comment to one of your posts? With someone like you who has so many, I don’t see how you keep up…
I don’t keep up. But I knew you were reading these posts so I checked. :-)
The most obvious result of the Swan being destroyed was communications being knocked out. This is the result that Ben’s people noticed and the one I believe John eventually noticed. Ben might not have realized that the destruction of the Swan would expose the island, although he certainly knew it would isolate the island (knocking out communications AND damaging the homing beacon). If he did know the island would also be exposed, then I would assume that he also desired that outcome for reasons I state elsewhere. In other words, for Ben it could be that the destruction of the Swan resulted in two desired outcomes: the perceived cutting off of island communications AND an invitation to hostile visitors that appears to have been initiated by someone other than him.