Desmond’s role in Season Five is
significantly smaller than any other regular on the show: Henry Ian Cusick
appears only in seven episodes, by far the fewest of the cast members. Yes, I
know one character does appear in fewer episodes, but that character not only
has more screen time but is more directly involved in the events that take
place. By contrast Jughead is the only episode in Season Five where Desmond is
at the center of the action; in the remaining six episodes he has only a few
scenes and very little dialogue in the remainder. By contrast Nestor Carbonell
and Jeff Fahey, who are not regulars, appear in more episodes and far more
critical to the action.
But despite that it’s hard to watch
Season Five and not feel Desmond’s significance to the story, even though he is
the only character who does not appear on the island once during the action.
There are many critical reasons for that, but there’s an argument that the key
reason comes in the cold open.
We see Desmond running frantically
in a foreign locale (it appears to be the Philippines) frantically screaming
for a doctor. He then rushes back to the boat where Penny is howling in pain. At
this point we only expect the worst from these things – so when we see that
Penny is about to give birth, it gives us pause. And then the delivery…goes
perfectly. Penny holds her son and she and Desmond embrace.
We’ve seen births on Lost before,
but they’ve always been counterbalanced by action on the island that outweighs
the joy of it. When Aaron was born, Boone was dying. When Ji Yeon was born in a
flashforward, we followed that with Sun and Ji Yeon visiting Jin’s gravestone. In
flashbacks Ben and Locke’s births ended with the death of Ben’s mother and
Emily Locke immediately rejecting her son. And we know all too well what
happens to pregnant women on the island. So when the next flashforward shows
Desmond happily talking to his two year old son about a wonderful island (and
his name is Charlie!) once again we see how apart from everyone else Desmond
is. Unlike the Oceanic 6, Desmond is happier now that he left the island. (I
love how we’re led to think he’s talking to Charlie about it when he starts
cheering Great Britain.) And like them – and Ben, whose leading the charge –
the idea of going back is repulsive. The moment Penny even hints at the idea,
he scoffs: “Why would I want to go there?”
Now we know when we hear this line
it’s a certainty that is going to happen, but I have to tell you that when I
was watching it at home I was imploring the writers not to give in to
foreshadowing. (I came away from Season Five actually thinking they were going
to go against that very idea and they kept that illusion alive almost until the
end of the series.) That said I knew Desmond could not be let go of entirely
because of the message Dan had sent him that season. In retrospect, it’s clear
there are other reasons Desmond needed to be at least tangential to the action
if not directly involved.
The obvious reason is that its
clear time travel is going to be critical to Season Five and Desmond is the
only character whose actually done that before this season. There is also his
connection to Dan and its becoming increasingly clear he is important to Season
Five because of how well he understands physics. Dan is clearly taking a
greater leadership role, and this episode is as much about him as Desmond.
Furthermore in 2007 Desmond,
trying to pick up Faraday’s mother’s backtrail has discovered the link between
him and Charles Widmore. We don’t need to be reminded of Desmond’s relationship
with Widmore before, and now he’s the man’s son-in-law. And in the previous
episode we saw the return of Ms. Hawking, who was helping Ben figure out how to
return the island. We don’t yet know the exact connection between her and the
island, but the only other character who we know has a link to her is Desmond.
The scenes in England are quite
fascinating as we see yet again how relentless Desmond can be. Told that Oxford
has no record of Dan Faraday, he goes to the physics department and finds the
remains of Daniel’s lab. A sanitation worker tells him the dirty details about
what Dan was up to, but also fills in a blank about a previous relationship.
Then Desmond finds Teresa Spencer,
and its clear that she is a victim of the same time sickness that plagued
Minkowski before he died, though in her case she’s still alive. It’s clear that
we are made aware of existence to know that Dan abandoned her, showing yet
another parallel between the two men: they both abandoned women they loved.
Then Desmond learns that Widmore was funding Faraday’s research.
The next flashforward is far and
away the high point of Cusick for Season Five. All but one of the episodes that
were Desmond-centric have involved interactions between Widmore and him and in
all of those interactions Desmond has been pleading for Widmore’s approval and
Widmore is scornful of him. Not this time.
Desmond crashes into his office
and Widmore is taken aback. He tells his nemesis that he has no intention of
answering his questions and that he’s going to do something for him. He clearly
takes Widmore by surprise when he reveals not only his connection to the boat
but the funding of the research. Widmore’s questions about Penny are as close
to compassionate about him as we’ve seen to this point but Desmond has no
intention of giving an inch. Widmore gives in and for the first time tries to
do something respectful and tell him how much danger he and Penny are in right
now. Desmond’s response is full of the contempt he’s held for the man for a
decade. Had this been their final interaction I would have been fine if the
writers had left it that way.
The action on the island is set
during the same time jump that was going on in the previous episode. Typically Lost
gets rid of the last background characters in an unsentimental fashion:
they are killed by a set of mines that were waiting for them by the Others. At
this point in the action the only ones left on the island are the regulars
here, possibly Bernard and Rose (it doesn’t seem like the show would kill them
off as ignominiously as they would Frogurt) and whatever’s happened to Claire.
(Hmm. Daniel Dae Kim is listed as a regular but we haven’t seen him in the
action yet.)
The episode makes it clear that we
are in 1954 and that the Others have just slaughtered everybody because they
believe they were members of the U.S. Army. In keeping with American history,
‘Jughead’ reminds us that during the 1950s the military engaged in the testing
of hydrogen bombs in the Pacific. Somehow the military found the island and The
Others killed them. And just to prove how peaceful and life-affirming they are,
some of them are wearing the uniforms of the soldiers they killed and carrying
their weapons.
We meet Richard, who not
surprisingly looks exactly the same as he did in the present. Well, it’s not
surprising to the viewer or Juliet, but it comes as something of a shock to
Locke and Sawyer when they see that. Juliet, unfortunately, seems to have resumed
her policy of telling her friends as little as possible about what she knows. When
she recognizes Cunningham and Jones as Others, she decides to talk in Latin
rather than explain why and when Locke asks how old Richard is she just says:
“Old.” Its times like this I get why some viewers never warmed to Juliet; she
always seems to have one foot in both camps.
It doesn’t help that Locke, having
stepped out of the jungle to save Sawyer and Juliet in the last episode, now
seems less interested in helping them save their friends. He freezes when one
of the Others escapes because ‘he’s one of my people’. When they find the camp,
he is more interesting in having a conversation with Richard then helping
Daniel. And he seems to spend too much time reaching out to Richard then
helping the people in danger. I’ll grant you he may be thinking on how to stop
the flashes and that he knows that Richard is the only person who might be able
to help him.
Richard is just as unhelpful as
before though it is worth noting that there are subtleties in 1954 Richard then
the one we see in the present. Richard seemed to be Ben’s inferior for much of
Season 3 but after The Brig, it was clear he had a larger purpose. He clearly
has a larger connection to the island but it’s also clear that he’s not at the
food chain. The conversation he has with Daniel says that the order to kill the
soldiers came from higher up (presumably Jacob, though he never mentions him
during the episode) but he also seems to have the authority to act as leader. Ellie
and Widmore, however reluctantly, both listen to him and the remaining Others
follow suit. He also confirms what we’ve seen in Ben and Locke’s flashbacks:
that he has a role in determining who the leaders of the Others will be and
that apparently allows him to leave the island and seek them out.
But that doesn’t mean he has all
the answers: when Locke gives him the compass and tells him about their
conversation, Richard is clearly puzzled about the time jumps and he clearly
can’t believe that he would tell anybody – even himself – to give Locke the
answers. When the island does jump Richard has no awareness of it happening
and, just as the two previous times, he is gone when the jump finishes. The
survivors seem to be skipping through time, but the natives - who one would think had a deeper connection
to the island – aren’t coming with them.
There are also other revelations,
one of which is that we finally get confirmation of Widmore’s connection to the
island. It now makes sense why, in the final flashforward of ‘The Shape of
Things to Come’ as why he says to Ben: “The island is mine. It was once and it
will be again.” We will never know how exactly he ended up being chosen but
it’s clear he ended up on the island long before Ben was even born. And it’s
now clear he was far more jittery as a teenager but just as arrogant and
ruthless: he shows no hesitation at snapping the neck of a man he feels whose
betrayed him, and he seems utterly willing to kill Locke until Richard pulls
the gun off him. He also has the arrogance of youth; he’s sure there’s no way
Locke could track him. There’s also the presence of a girl about the same age,
only referred to as Ellie. Like Widmore, she has a similar vein of contempt and
arrogance towards the outsiders and is clearly just as willing to kill. It’s
also clear that, however she’s connected to the island, she has no conception
of how important it is: when Dan tells her he’s from the future, she doesn’t
believe him (and the look on her face when Sawyer confirms it is priceless).
This episode is as much about Dan
as it is Desmond: he is the cause of everything Desmond is doing off the island
and the only authority that people take seriously on it. At this point even
Miles seems willing to defer to him, which shows how afraid he’s starting to
become about what’s happening. Dan clearly seems to have an idea about when
they are, and now has enough common sense to play along with the fiction that
they are part of the team to disarm it. He also shows a certain amount of
confidence with Ellie even at gunpoint, and it clearly unsettles her as he does
it. Ellie seems to have Dan’s number when it comes to his lies, but his
coolness unsettles her in a way that nothing else does. For reasons that will
become painfully obvious, this will make an impression.
We also get the answer of how
Richard has been following Locke his whole life. Locke told him to in 1954. But
it throws into question everything we believe about John being chosen. Does his
destiny only exist because he created it? Or is just as likely the island seems
to be skipping throughout time to arrange for him to create it for himself? The
skips the island is making don’t seem to be by chance which again makes us
wonder: whose hands are on the Frozen Donkey Wheel?
Fitting with an episode about time
travel, this episode ends with cliffhangers in the past, present and future. In
the past Dan tells Ellie that they have to bury the Jughead bomb and if they
do, everything will be fine because in fifty years the island is still there.
But we also know you don’t introduce something as significant as a hydrogen
bomb on a show if it isn’t going to go off at some point. The question is
‘when?” and at this point, we don’t just mean in terms of the series run.
After the flash, we get a very
clear sense just how dangerous these jumps can be. There have been hints in the
first three episodes that these jumps can be dangerous and Charlotte has been
having symptoms throughout. Now (and critically after Dan declared his love for
her) Charlotte’s nose begins spurting and she collapses unconscious in his
arms. We’ve been wondering what ‘very bad things happened’ after the Oceanic 6
left and now its clear what one of them is. (Along with you know, all of the
socks being killed, but we never cared about them and I’m assuming Locke left
to try and save the people who could be saved.)
And then Desmond comes back to the
boat, clearly wanting to put everything he’s learned behind him. Even without
Widmore’s warning he doesn’t want to get involved in the craziness he spent the
better part of three and a half years trying to escape. He just wants to live
with his wife and son. But Desmond has always been about honor as much as love
and that is one of the reasons that Penny loves him. So they make their way to
Los Angeles – not knowing that waiting
for them is a man who swore to Widmore that he would kill his daughter.
And unlike almost everything else
he says, Ben Linus absolutely was telling the truth.
