The Constant, Part 2: Desmond and LOST

I mentioned at the end of the last post that "The Constant" put to rest any lingering questions about the dominance of Penny/Desmond among LOST romances. But this leads to the question of Desmond's role in the grand scheme of things. Is he more important than any old Lostie?

I wouldn't want to suggest that characters like Jack, Kate, Sayid, Locke, Hurley and, yes, Aaron are not fundamentally important to the story. One thing we've been beaten over the head with is the idea of connections: Connections between characters, between characters and the island, and between past and present. Also, the idea of destiny has definitely had a presence ("We're (not) supposed to do this!") I think the characters mentioned above, as well as others possibly, are integral to LOST, but I think the possibility of a special role for Desmond needs to be explored.

First off, the aforementioned love story between Penny and Desmond. I don't think LOST is the type of show that would have a romantic angle just for the sake of having it; I think the relationship between Penny and Desmond, as well as the JKS love triangle, are important elements of the overall story. As I said, the phone call scene at the end of "The Constant" left no doubt as to the importance of Pen-Des love, not only the way it was shot, edited, and scored, but because it enabled Des to escape the fate of Minkowski. I think a reunion between the two of them will be of great importance, not only to each other, but to the... well, whatever it is that needs to happen for our Losties to find their redemption.

Thinking of Penny leads to thinking about daddy Widmore. We've all long assumed that Charles Widmore had more of a role to play than thwarting his daughter's love life, and we got definite confirmation of that this week. But the exchange between Des and Charles seemed decidedly different than the one in "Flashes Before Your Eyes". In that episode, Charles was incredibly insulting to Desmond. ("One drop of my precious MacCutcheon's Scotch is worth more than your whole, miserable life." I'm paraphrasing, but...)

But it seemed to me that Charles was much warmer to Des in "The Constant". Not only was he willing to talk to Des (although he did make him watch him pee), but he gave him Penny's address. One could conclude that he assumed Des would be humiliated, and acted with no benevolence in the matter, but it still strikes me as odd how willing he was to give that information to Desmond.

Then there was the water. Who leaves the water running after washing, and walks out of the room? Again, one could guess that he simply wanted to degrade Desmond, treating him like a bathroom attendant, but that seems unlikely, since this is LOST. The fact is, Des had another "unstuck" moment directly after this. Did the running water precipitate his mental travel to 2004? And if it did, was Charles Widmore aware that would be the result?

What I'm getting at is, we know Charles is involved with/has interests in the island. How much else does he know? Does he know Desmond's role in pushing the button in the Swan and whatever else his destiny holds? And does he have any interest in "nudging" Desmond in the right direction?

It could be argued that his treatment of Des in FBYE was intended not to keep Des away from Penny, but to keep him away from her now, so that he would feel compelled to enter Charles' boat race, and wind up on the island. His different treatment in "The Constant" could have been motivated by a knowledge of what was happening to Desmond and the belief that he needed to talk to Penny at this particular time.

In other words, is Widmore like Mrs Hawking, helping Desmond stay on his fated path? Mrs Hawking tells Des that the most important thing he will ever do is push that button, which furthers the case for Desmond being of central importance. Who else has had this kind of cosmic influence on their life prior to the island? (I guess "prior" needs to be qualified; it's not clear whether these interractions only happened in the "flashes", or what... more time travel headaches.)

The only problem with this, for me, is that I have been operating under the assumption that Ben really is a "good guy", like he says, and that the freighter really does represent a threat. If Charles is acting in Desmond's interest, if he is involved with, or at least would agree with Mrs Hawking, than can he really be the bad guy? I guess it wouldn't be LOST if it were easy to figure out.

But on to my final point, which is that Desmond-centric episodes have always been very revealing. In "Live Together, Die Alone" we learn a lot about the hatch, in Catch-22 we learn about the Bali "freckage", and of course, FYBE and "The Constant". Full of WTFs, all.

All in all, I'd say the evidence is compelling that Desmond is going to be enormously important in resolving the central conflict of LOST (whatever that may be).