Lost: Good Mystery: Desmond Hume

Lost: Good Mystery: Desmond Hume

For all the negative talk about Lost, people love Desmond. From his very first scene in the hatch, he was a fascinating enigma. This guy had been underground this entire time?! What was his purpose in all of this?! Desmond as a character was one of the biggest mysteries and it was clear he was an important piece of the puzzle. On top of that, he was a cool Scottish guy calling everyone “brotha.” Who doesn’t love that? The mystery of Desmond was heightened when he turned the fail-safe key. That moment should have been Desmond’s heroic and sacrificial death. Instead, he lived. Desmond had a unique ability to withstand electromagnetism. He was special. Throughout the series, Desmond’s abilities continued to be touched on. We started to see that Desmond might not be bound by the same rules of time as everyone else. He began experiencing things like seeing the future and having his consciousness travel to the past. Desmond himself was one of the show’s best mysteries.

The other side to Desmond that is extremely important was his complete love and devotion to Penelope Widmore. She was his fuel, his goal, his reason for living. In the episode “The Constant”, we see their relationship both metaphorically and literally save his life. Lost needed Penny to complete Desmond. She showed the audience that Desmond was just a guy madly in love who wanted to go home. He was constantly fighting the fact that he was special, because he didn’t care. He wasn’t there for the island shenanigans, he lived for Penny. This is why we barely saw Desmond in Seasons 5 and 6. He left the island and never looked back.

Despite his disdain for the island, Desmond didn’t get to stay away forever. Charles Widmore dragged him back to fulfill both his destiny and the audience’s expectations. We were immediately reminded of Desmond’s threshold for electromagnetism and ability to transcend time. His consciousness traveled again, but this time to the Flash Sideways universe. It was the first time someone in the real world became aware of the alternate world. As Desmond pieced it together, he became instrumental in “waking up” characters, connecting these people together. In the main timeline, we also saw the purpose of his resistance to electromagnetism when he uncorked the island, allowing Jack and Kate to finally kill the Man in Black. It all made sense in the end. The electromagnetism, the fluid consciousness, it all led to Desmond’s destiny. He even got to live through it and go home to Penny. In my opinion, Desmond is the most satisfying and perfectly concluded mystery on Lost.

More on Lost: Good or Bad?
Lost: Good or Bad?
Good Character Development: Benjamin Linus
Bad Character Development: Charlie Pace
Bad Mystery: Walt Lloyd