Mythology

By Martin Felipe

April 15, 2009

Somebody give the man a kleenex!

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We've reached a point in the evolution of television where the medium has seen the arrival of the purest form of artistry in its history. I'm talking about the mythology show, the current boom in serialized storytelling. Not shows like ER, which just have an ongoing narrative, but rather a kind of televised novel, broken up over however many episodes. The term mythology refers to the often sci-fi based worlds and sets of rules under which the shows operate. I'm addicted to these shows and have many thoughts about them to share with the world through our current real world mythology called the internet. I loves me some Lost, so that might dominate my output, but I'm not limiting myself. I'll analyze pretty much any of the shows that strike my fancy at the moment.

Okay, so Lost hit an all time high this week. We learn a bit more about the monster, and we find out that Ben has a soft spot for protecting children. Hey, that's great stuff, I'd never have thought Ben actually cares about Alex as anything more than a mere pawn in the spider web of manipulation that is his existence. It's just that, as good as those things are, for my money, the defining moment of the episode is Desmond springing up from the impact of a bullet to his grocery bag shaped Kevlar vest and pummeling the ever loving snot out of Ben to protect his wife and child.

Michael Emerson's a great actor, as is Terry O'Quinn, and we got tons of Ben/Locke verbal jousting tonight, but Desmond remains one of Lost's most fascinating and popular characters. Perhaps it's his passion, perhaps it's his earnestness, possibly even the accent, but this affable Scotsman seems to have all of Lostdom rooting for him. I remember the maligned second season. Desmond pops in out of nowhere for the first three episodes, and the guy gets more forum discussion throughout the year than folks like Michael or Jin. Then, he returns for the finale, seems to sacrifice himself in the hatch, and the Lost community wrings their hands all summer, praying for his safe return. A Desmond episode seems to always land with glowing acclaim. His relationship with Penny resonates stronger than any of the other couplings on the show, to the point where speculation that Ben might actually have carried out his threat to kill Penny left many fans threatening to abandon the show if it came to pass.




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So, I wonder, what is Desmond's role in the Lost scheme of things? In the midst of all the single- timeline-whatever-happens-happens hubbub of the fifth season, Desmond has been proclaimed as somehow special. And there's been much speculation as to what this means. I'm going to reject the possibility that he can alter the events of the past right off the bat. Special though he may be, a time paradox is a time paradox, and Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have gone out of their way to explain that this is not how time travel works in their story.




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But wait, not so fast. If time cannot be altered, what's the point of "Flashes Before Your Eyes," the legendary season three episode wherein Desmond seems to travel back in time and relive his relationship with Penny? In the episode, he meets Eloise Hawking who presents the concept of course correction. If something is destined to happen, and you prevent the occurrence, the universe will find an alternate means to cause said occurrence to happen.

So then Desmond develops a precognitive awareness of Charlie's death. And he prevents it. Multiple times. But the universe will have none of that. Charlie is supposed to die and if Desmond stops one attempt to kill him, the universe will find another way, and so on, until Charlie becomes worm food.

Which is exactly what happens, Desmond manages to keep Charlie breathing for an extra few days until destiny steps in and makes the one-hit wonder rocker its bitch. Thing is, Charlie affects things during those extra days. In fact, had Charlie died by lightening bolt as it appeared fate wanted, then he would never have been able to shut off the transmission blocking thingie and the freighter would never have found the island. Had the freighter never found the island, then Ben would never have had to turn the wheel and started the time skipping. Had there been no time skipping, none of the gang would have ended up in 1977. But they had to end up there, because it already happened. So Charlie was never meant to be electrocuted, or we would have had a major paradox.

So there seems to be a contradiction here. If Desmond was delaying the inevitable, and Charlie's eventual death was a course correction, then what would have sent everyone to the '70s? Perhaps Charlie was always meant to flip the switch, and some other force was trying to take him out of the picture early to throw everything off. In this possibility, Desmond himself becomes the course corrector, preventing Charlie's premature demise until he does his final sacrifice.

If this is the case, then perhaps Desmond is somehow hardwired into the universe's grand design, there to make sure all the pieces fall into place. He certainly seems to cause a lot of important events, such as Oceanic 815's crash, what seems to be becoming one of the more significant events in the islands history.

There's so much more to dig into Desmond's grand purpose, I may just have to do a second analysis. I didn't even touch on how he seems to have already changed the past, how he has a memory that comes and goes, and that whole "constant" business. I'm glad we had that great Ben episode this week. Reminded me that we have a charismatic character named Desmond who still has business with the island.


     


 
 

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