Is the real purpose of Desmond staying in the hatch, pushing the button... to keep Desmond in the hatch, pushing the button?
The final episode of season 3, "Through the Looking Glass," startled some of us because it contained flash-forwards, not flashbacks. (We still need to find out if more time passed between Locke's visit to Jack and his suicide, or if a continuity error accounts for Jack's longer beard.) That episode was not the first episode that didn't have any flashbacks, however. But to get into this, first we have to ask the questions:
Why did the button have to be manually pushed? Why wasn't the system automated?
On another TV show recently, completely unrelated, there was a company that would send out emails to family members when the Rapture happened. There were 3 people who ran this company. Two of them had to log in daily ("push the button") or else the system would activate. The theory being, if/when the Rapture happens, these 3 guys will be gone, and therefore none of them will be able to log in. Ergo, time to send out the post-Rapture emails. "Pushing a button" was done merely to prove that a person was still there.
There are a lot of reasons why designing a system to push the button might have been necessary, rather than designing a system that just did this automatically (with human observation). But it is possible that the reason was that if anything happened to the Island, or the hatch, or something, then the button wouldn't get pushed and the this would alert others (like Penny's guys in the snow). It's bizarre that the system would be designed to (unnecessarily) require human input in order to prevent catastrophe.
When the hatch does implode, the sky turns purple and Penny's men detect the anomaly, allowing her to eventually find the Island... well, not the Island itself, which has been moved, but the 06 + Desmond. How did Widmore's boat find the Island? Must have been the hatch implosion, too.
The hatch implosion caused another interesting effect that has more meaning since season 4. In early season 3, "Flashes Before your Eyes," Desmond seems to be having flashbacks. But these are not flashbacks. His consciousness is jumping around, similarly to how it jumped in "The Constant." This is perhaps the first LOST episode with no actual flashbacks, because it's made perfectly clear that Desmond is experiencing his past AGAIN, and when he tries to change things, he is unable to. He's even scolded by the seemingly all-knowing Ms. Hawking when he tries. And this all "takes place" in the gap between the hatch implosion and his emergence, naked, in the jungle.
These are not flashbacks... they are events from Desmond's past being replayed in the present. These are not the actual events that happened several years prior to Desmond's implosion in the hatch. In those events, he didn't take the ring. The bartender did get hit (not Desmond). The ring was never thrown into the Thames. This is a new play-through of events, demonstrating course correction. The end results are the same, the "macro" events, even if the "micro" events are changed.
From the Lostpedia transcript:
MS. HAWKING: I have just the thing. [she shows him a ring] This won't blind any queens, to be sure, but still has the sparkle of life.
DESMOND: I'll take it.
MS. HAWKING: [surprised] I'm sorry?
DESMOND: It's perfect. I'll take it.
MS. HAWKING: No you won't. Give me the ring. Give it here.
DESMOND: I don't understand.
MS. HAWKING: This is wrong. You don't buy the ring. You have second thoughts; you walk right out that door. So, come on, let's have it.
LATER:
DESMOND: No, there is no Island. There is no button. It's madness. I love her. She loves me. I'm going to spend the rest of my life with her.
MS. HAWKING: No, Desmond, you're not.
[Suddenly, there is a loud crash behind the bench Ms. Hawking and Desmond have been sitting on. Some scaffolding has fallen and killed the man with red shoes.]
DESMOND: Oh, my God. You knew that was going to happen, didn't you? [she nods] Then why didn't you stop it? Why didn't you do anything?
MS. HAWKING: Because it wouldn't matter. Had I warned him about the scaffolding tomorrow he'd be hit by a taxi. If I warned him about the taxi, he'd fall in the shower and break his neck. The universe, unfortunately, has a way of course correcting. That man was supposed to die. That was his path just as it's your path to go to the Island. You don't do it because you choose to, Desmond. You do it because you're supposed to.
AND:
DESMOND: [excited] I had the wrong night. I was right. I was off by a night. I heard the song and then -- I remember this. I'm not crazy. I can still change things. I can still change it.
HE FLASHES TO THE ISLAND:
DESMOND: [upset, crying] Please, let me go back. Let me go back one more time. I'll do it right. I'll do it right this time. I'm sorry, Penny. I'll change it. I'll change it.
Above, Ms. Hawking specifically says that Desmond does not have a choice. Is she right? With all of these characters who know more than they say (Hawking, Ben, Widmore) nothing can be taken at face value. They could be telling the truth, they could be lying, or they could be dead WRONG and not know it. But Hawking's claim is certainly backed up by a LOT of evidence, by all the events that "follow."
Upon awakening on the Island, Desmond Because this effect continues, it is possible that Desmond is replaying the events of season 3 and 4 for (at least) the second time, when the other characters may be experiencing these events for the first time. This may be WHY Desmond is special, or it may be that Desmond is special (rules don't apply to him) in some other way, and so this isn't really what it seems.
If the hatch, like the Orchid, affects time, then did Desmond become unstuck in time, albeit in a different way than the non-06'ers? The hatch implosion apparently made the Island visible again, so it could have broken the protection theorized about in a VERY old theory that the Island was being kept in a 108-minute loop, back in 1988 or 1992 or 1997, to keep it from being found. (This theory was supported by evidence in the first two seasons, such as the tides coming in and out too quickly--commented on by Sayid--as well as the predictable moments of rain, and the Dharma food being parachuted in... why in the world would Dharma supplies be parachuted onto the Island in 2004?)
So my theory (or guess) as to why Desmond is "special" in Faraday's terms is that he's been through this before. He can't change anything, not anything major, but he's not stuck in the first-time-around of events. Everyone else (perhaps everyone, perhaps not) is on their first go-round. Or, at the very least, they don't have access to the cross-over moments like Desmond does in "The Constant" and "Flashes Before your Eyes." Is this why he can bend the rules a little bit more than others, because he has a memory of how things happened, and can compare that to any minor fluctuations introduced (such as Faraday knocking on the door).
If this is true, if Desmond is going "through" this for more than the first time (and if there are even "times") and then it could makes him a tremendous asset (to some) as well as a tremendous liability (to others).
Which brings me back to that button, and why it had to be manually pressed. Perhaps it was designed that way to keep Desmond down there. "The only great thing you'll ever do is to push that button." Lie? Hawking is pushing HIS button (so to speak) to convince him he has to lock himself inside a hatch (with the man who taught Sayid to torture!) to save the world. So why did he have to press that button? To save the world from the Island, to protect the Island from the world... or to protect someone, or something, from Desmond? When John and Eko start pressing it, are they are fooling the world into thinking Desmond is still there? Is the hatch implosion a signal that Desmond is no longer contained? The Island puts John through a lot in season 1 to keep him away from the hatch, and away from eventually releasing Desmond into the wild; the Island does not want Locke to go into that hatch (there are other, detailed theories on this). Is there some reason the Others don't seem to! know or care about the button in the hatch? Can they not go in?
These are some of the many questions we want answered, but for me they all lead to this closed loop, with the button as a device "just" to keep Desmond in the hatch:
Is the real purpose of Desmond pushing the button... to keep Desmond in the hatch, to save the world from Desmond?Theory by Kirbyjon
The final episode of season 3, "Through the Looking Glass," startled some of us because it contained flash-forwards, not flashbacks. (We still need to find out if more time passed between Locke's visit to Jack and his suicide, or if a continuity error accounts for Jack's longer beard.) That episode was not the first episode that didn't have any flashbacks, however. But to get into this, first we have to ask the questions:
Why did the button have to be manually pushed? Why wasn't the system automated?
On another TV show recently, completely unrelated, there was a company that would send out emails to family members when the Rapture happened. There were 3 people who ran this company. Two of them had to log in daily ("push the button") or else the system would activate. The theory being, if/when the Rapture happens, these 3 guys will be gone, and therefore none of them will be able to log in. Ergo, time to send out the post-Rapture emails. "Pushing a button" was done merely to prove that a person was still there.
There are a lot of reasons why designing a system to push the button might have been necessary, rather than designing a system that just did this automatically (with human observation). But it is possible that the reason was that if anything happened to the Island, or the hatch, or something, then the button wouldn't get pushed and the this would alert others (like Penny's guys in the snow). It's bizarre that the system would be designed to (unnecessarily) require human input in order to prevent catastrophe.
When the hatch does implode, the sky turns purple and Penny's men detect the anomaly, allowing her to eventually find the Island... well, not the Island itself, which has been moved, but the 06 + Desmond. How did Widmore's boat find the Island? Must have been the hatch implosion, too.
The hatch implosion caused another interesting effect that has more meaning since season 4. In early season 3, "Flashes Before your Eyes," Desmond seems to be having flashbacks. But these are not flashbacks. His consciousness is jumping around, similarly to how it jumped in "The Constant." This is perhaps the first LOST episode with no actual flashbacks, because it's made perfectly clear that Desmond is experiencing his past AGAIN, and when he tries to change things, he is unable to. He's even scolded by the seemingly all-knowing Ms. Hawking when he tries. And this all "takes place" in the gap between the hatch implosion and his emergence, naked, in the jungle.
These are not flashbacks... they are events from Desmond's past being replayed in the present. These are not the actual events that happened several years prior to Desmond's implosion in the hatch. In those events, he didn't take the ring. The bartender did get hit (not Desmond). The ring was never thrown into the Thames. This is a new play-through of events, demonstrating course correction. The end results are the same, the "macro" events, even if the "micro" events are changed.
From the Lostpedia transcript:
MS. HAWKING: I have just the thing. [she shows him a ring] This won't blind any queens, to be sure, but still has the sparkle of life.
DESMOND: I'll take it.
MS. HAWKING: [surprised] I'm sorry?
DESMOND: It's perfect. I'll take it.
MS. HAWKING: No you won't. Give me the ring. Give it here.
DESMOND: I don't understand.
MS. HAWKING: This is wrong. You don't buy the ring. You have second thoughts; you walk right out that door. So, come on, let's have it.
LATER:
DESMOND: No, there is no Island. There is no button. It's madness. I love her. She loves me. I'm going to spend the rest of my life with her.
MS. HAWKING: No, Desmond, you're not.
[Suddenly, there is a loud crash behind the bench Ms. Hawking and Desmond have been sitting on. Some scaffolding has fallen and killed the man with red shoes.]
DESMOND: Oh, my God. You knew that was going to happen, didn't you? [she nods] Then why didn't you stop it? Why didn't you do anything?
MS. HAWKING: Because it wouldn't matter. Had I warned him about the scaffolding tomorrow he'd be hit by a taxi. If I warned him about the taxi, he'd fall in the shower and break his neck. The universe, unfortunately, has a way of course correcting. That man was supposed to die. That was his path just as it's your path to go to the Island. You don't do it because you choose to, Desmond. You do it because you're supposed to.
AND:
DESMOND: [excited] I had the wrong night. I was right. I was off by a night. I heard the song and then -- I remember this. I'm not crazy. I can still change things. I can still change it.
HE FLASHES TO THE ISLAND:
DESMOND: [upset, crying] Please, let me go back. Let me go back one more time. I'll do it right. I'll do it right this time. I'm sorry, Penny. I'll change it. I'll change it.
Above, Ms. Hawking specifically says that Desmond does not have a choice. Is she right? With all of these characters who know more than they say (Hawking, Ben, Widmore) nothing can be taken at face value. They could be telling the truth, they could be lying, or they could be dead WRONG and not know it. But Hawking's claim is certainly backed up by a LOT of evidence, by all the events that "follow."
Upon awakening on the Island, Desmond Because this effect continues, it is possible that Desmond is replaying the events of season 3 and 4 for (at least) the second time, when the other characters may be experiencing these events for the first time. This may be WHY Desmond is special, or it may be that Desmond is special (rules don't apply to him) in some other way, and so this isn't really what it seems.
If the hatch, like the Orchid, affects time, then did Desmond become unstuck in time, albeit in a different way than the non-06'ers? The hatch implosion apparently made the Island visible again, so it could have broken the protection theorized about in a VERY old theory that the Island was being kept in a 108-minute loop, back in 1988 or 1992 or 1997, to keep it from being found. (This theory was supported by evidence in the first two seasons, such as the tides coming in and out too quickly--commented on by Sayid--as well as the predictable moments of rain, and the Dharma food being parachuted in... why in the world would Dharma supplies be parachuted onto the Island in 2004?)
So my theory (or guess) as to why Desmond is "special" in Faraday's terms is that he's been through this before. He can't change anything, not anything major, but he's not stuck in the first-time-around of events. Everyone else (perhaps everyone, perhaps not) is on their first go-round. Or, at the very least, they don't have access to the cross-over moments like Desmond does in "The Constant" and "Flashes Before your Eyes." Is this why he can bend the rules a little bit more than others, because he has a memory of how things happened, and can compare that to any minor fluctuations introduced (such as Faraday knocking on the door).
If this is true, if Desmond is going "through" this for more than the first time (and if there are even "times") and then it could makes him a tremendous asset (to some) as well as a tremendous liability (to others).
Which brings me back to that button, and why it had to be manually pressed. Perhaps it was designed that way to keep Desmond down there. "The only great thing you'll ever do is to push that button." Lie? Hawking is pushing HIS button (so to speak) to convince him he has to lock himself inside a hatch (with the man who taught Sayid to torture!) to save the world. So why did he have to press that button? To save the world from the Island, to protect the Island from the world... or to protect someone, or something, from Desmond? When John and Eko start pressing it, are they are fooling the world into thinking Desmond is still there? Is the hatch implosion a signal that Desmond is no longer contained? The Island puts John through a lot in season 1 to keep him away from the hatch, and away from eventually releasing Desmond into the wild; the Island does not want Locke to go into that hatch (there are other, detailed theories on this). Is there some reason the Others don't seem to! know or care about the button in the hatch? Can they not go in?
These are some of the many questions we want answered, but for me they all lead to this closed loop, with the button as a device "just" to keep Desmond in the hatch:
Is the real purpose of Desmond pushing the button... to keep Desmond in the hatch, to save the world from Desmond?Theory by Kirbyjon
