Desmond Hume

Template:Infobox Lost Character-1 Desmond David Hume is a recurring fictional character on the ABC television series Lost played by Henry Ian Cusick. Desmond is a man who was living in the DHARMA Initiative research station -- the Swan -- under the mysterious hatch.

Biography

Prior to the Island

Desmond had previously served in the Royal Scots Regiment of the British Army, dishonorably discharged for refusing to follow orders. He served a prison sentence which kept him away from his love, Penelope "Penny" Widmore, daughter of wealthy industrialist Charles Widmore, who did not approve of Desmond. Among the few possessions Desmond had returned to him upon his release was the book Our Mutual Friend, by Charles Dickens. When asked by the guard releasing him why he didn't take the book with him to prison, he replied that he intends it to be the last thing he ever reads. After his release, Charles approaches him and reveals he intercepted and hid every letter Desmond wrote to Penny from prison. Thinking that he had forgotten her, Penny got engaged to another man. Charles bribes/threatens Desmond to stay away from his daughter.

Desmond travels to America to compete in a race around the world, hoping to win it to regain his honor and anger Charles, who is hosting the event. Desmond needed a boat for the race, which he got from Libby, whom he met in a coffee shop soon after arriving in America. She acquired it when her husband David died and believes that Desmond was meant to have it.

Before training one night by running the steps in a stadium, Desmond is approached by Penny, who has tracked him down. She asks why he never wrote, but instead of explaining himself, Desmond tells her to wait one year for him (when the race will be over). When running the steps, Desmond meets Jack, who was also running. The two had a brief but meaningful conversation, in which Desmond explains about his training for the race.

During the race, Desmond's boat Elizabeth is caught in a fierce storm. He is knocked unconscious.

On the Island

Desmond washes ashore on the island, his boat in pieces. A man named Kelvin Inman (played by Clancy Brown) emerged from the jungle in a HAZMAT suit and took him back to the hatch. He asks if Desmond is "him" and is upset when he realizes that he is not. Desmond watches as Kelvin inputs the numbers into a computer. When Desmond asked, "What was all that about?" Kelvin responded, "Just saving the world." He tells Desmond to inoculate himself with an unknown vaccine every nine days, since he was out in the "quarantined" island for so long, and may be infected.

Kelvin trains Desmond about the operations of the hatch, including the button (which he explains safely discharges an unusually strong magnetic fluctuation situated beneath them) and ways to trigger a lockdown. Desmond also witnesses Kelvin painting the blacklight picture on the bulkhead doors, which was started by Kelvin's old partner, Razinsky (who shot himself). Two years pass, and Desmond desperately wants to go above ground, but Kelvin never allows it, although he himself leaves for hours each day in his HAZMAT suit.

Desmond catches Kelvin drunk one night in a secret crawlspace below the floor, dangling a key above a fail-safe mechanism. Kelvin explains that if the fail-safe mechanism is activated, the hatch will be destroyed, destroying the electromagnetic fluctuation beneath them.

When Kelvin leaves one day, Desmond notices that Kelvin's HAZMAT suit has a tear on its leg. He follows Kelvin above ground, where he discovers that the air is fine to breathe and that Kelvin removes the suit once he leaves the hatch. Desmond follows him to a cove, where he sees his sailboat in perfect shape. It turns out that Kelvin was leaving the hatch to fix the boat a little each day, planning to escape the island and leave Desmond behind. He offers Desmond to escape with him, but Desmond is worried about the button. After Kelvin expresses his doubts about the validity of the button, Desmond becomes enraged that he has lost two years of his life possibly over nothing and attacks Kelvin. They struggle, and Kelvin's head is accidentally smashed on a rock. He dies. Desmond races back to the hatch, where the timer has long since reached zero and the computer is registering a system failure. A massive magnetic field builds up, attracting all metal objects to the sealed door inside the hatch. Desmond manages to stop the chaotic system failure, which turns off the magnetic field.

After some time, Desmond has lost hope and is contemplating suicide. He finds a note that Penny has hidden in his book telling him not to despair. He then hears someone shouting from the top of the hatch. Unbeknownst to Desmond, it is Locke asking the hatch for help after Boone's death. When Desmond turns on a light to see who it is, Locke, thinking his prayers have been answered, quiets down. Desmond, similarly, considers the voice to be a sign that he is no longer alone, and he does not kill himself.

When the survivors enter the hatch, they accidentally break the computer after a brief firefight with a panicked Desmond. Convinced that the world is going to end, Desmond frantically flees the hatch. Jack catches up with him; Desmond tells him the code, and to enter it every 108 minutes. He begins to recognize Jack from their encounter at the stadium, and he asks him about the patient he had mentioned operating on. He is referring to Sarah, whom Jack has since married and divorced, and this reminder brings Jack to tears. Desmond then exits with his backpack, filled with items such as unknown vaccines and a stuffed bunny, saying, "See you in another life, yeah?" just like he did before at their first encounter at the stadium. Although not shown, Desmond ran to the Elizabeth and sailed away.

Desmond returns in his boat in Live Together, Die Alone, unable to find land for some reason, and calling the island and its waters "a bloody snowglobe." Locke tells him of the orientation film he saw in the Pearl hatch, and Desmond becomes convinced that the button is pointless. Together they trigger another lockdown, trapping Eko outside the computer room, and wait for the countdown to hit zero, sure that nothing will happen. Eko uses dynamite from the Black Rock to attempt to get back into the computer room but fails.

As the countdown reaches zero, Desmond realizes that the date of the prior "system failure" was the same day as the plane crash, September 22, 2004. Desmond believes that his failure to push the button that day resulted in a magnetic field that pulled down Oceanic Flight 815. He is insistent that the button must be pressed, but Locke angrily reacts by destroying the computer. Desmond retrieves the key to the fail-safe mechanism, wanting to save Locke because Locke saved him the night he shouted at the hatch door. He says, "See you in another life, brother," to Locke and uses the key to "blow the dam." As he does so, a giant white light envelopes the island. The fate of Desmond (as well as Locke and Eko) is uncertain.

Philosophy

Like several of the other characters (Locke, Rousseau), Desmond David Hume shares the name of a famous philosopher, in his case David Hume, a Scottish 18th century philosopher. This is not arbitrary; Desmond's vacillating feelings about pushing the button illustrates several issues the philosopher Hume is famous for, namely his opinion one cannot form beliefs about the future or causation between events. According to Hume, one cannot conclude anything about the future, because all one has is the past, which does not necessarily resemble the future. Further, one cannot conclude any one event causes another event, since the fact that they have always happened together when observed previously does not mean it will happen that way in the future and perhaps they two events do not necessarily happen together; it is just by random chance that one only instances that they do. These ideas figure greatly in Desmond's doubts about the button: does pushing the button cause the prevention of catastrophe simply since catastrophe has not happened in the past? If if does, then will pushing the button continue to work? Despite these doubts, Desmond still pushes the button when the castaways find him, illustrating Hume other opinion about beliefs about the future and causation: that though they are not logical we should still believe them.

David Hume also happened to be fond of the works of one John Locke.

Mythology

Desmond's girlfriend shares her name with Penelope, a character from Greek mythology. In The Odyssey, Penelope is the faithful wife of Odysseus, waiting ten years for his return from the Trojan War (twenty years if one includes the duration of the war itself). Desmond's story parallels that of Odysseus; he has been marooned on the island for so far three years, unable to return to his beloved.

Episode appearances

• "Man of Science, Man of Faith"
• "Adrift"
• "Orientation"
• "Live Together, Die Alone: Part 1"
• "Live Together, Die Alone: Part 2"