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Desmond & Ben

• So far, despite being in the show since the start of season 2, Desmond has yet to meet with Ben. The writers have purposely contrived situations to make sure that Desmond is out of the picture when Ben is with the Losties. When the Losties captured Ben and held him prisoner in the Swan, Desmond had already fled off in his boat. When Desmond returned to the island, Ben had rejoined the Others. At the end of season 3 when Ben was with the Losties again Desmond was sent off with Charlie to explore the Looking Glass. In The Beginning of the End, Desmond and Ben are both there when Jack and Locke split the group up. However, they never talk to one another in the brief time they're together.
• Desmond and Ben are connected through a flashback which establishes them working together previously.
  • Ben was the reason Desmond was discharged from the army for disobeying orders.
• When the Freighties arrive on the island they show a photo of Ben and say that their mission is to find Benjamin Linus. They also had a photo of Desmond (Naomi had this on her when she parachuted onto the island). Since Penny had nothing to do with sending the Frieghties to the island, it is reasonable to suggest that Desmond was also part of their mission.
  • If Desmond is connected to Ben off the island then there could be logic to this.
• In the future, Desmond will try to stop Ben from killing Penny.
  • Desmond will have to fight Sayid to save Penny's life, as Sayid will become an assassin for Ben.
    • Due to Sayid's love for Nadia which is similar to Desmond and Penny's story, it seems unlikely Sayid would kill Penny.
  • Since Penny is Desmond's constant, perhaps if Penny is killed, Desmond will die.
    • Perhaps Desmond will be Penny's constant, and to kill Penny, Ben will kill Desmond

"Time travel"

• Desmond's time-traveling is a regular event. At some point, he tells Penelope to look for magnetic anomalies on September 22, 2004 and on the date of the Hatch implosion. This is how she knows to look for him, as evidenced in the "Live Together, Die Alone".
• Desmond's scientist friend Donovan eventually tells Penny of Desmond's story; she accepts it and establishes the search team to wait for the discharge.
  • But then the outside world would have known about The Island and the people on it, which is illogical according to several people keeping it later as a secret (Michael and Walt after leaving the Island (?), Jack's story on Kate's trial).
• Desmond has yet to push the button that Mrs. Hawking predicted; he has only fulfilled one of her prophecies: turning the fail safe key. Therefore, the button in the Swan is not the button Desmond is supposed to push to do a "great" thing.
• Desmond's button for his "great thing" was the switch in the looking glass. Instead Charlie managed to do it and ruined the future for the island.
• Desmond's flashes are not of the future. See Time on The Island (Theory).
• Desmond's flashes and flashback are the results of experiments relating to The Grandfather Paradox
• Desmond might have been fitted with some sort of device provided by those in charge of the goings on in the Island that allows them to implant thoughts in his mind, which could reflect actions which they have programmed (or will program) to happen. This would support the theory that island is controlled environment with all the happenings regulated by superior powers. It could be part of a psychological experiment.
• Desmond has gained a 4th-dimensional presence -- now his periodic prescience spans his entire life, as he basically exists in the present in all possible moments on the timeline. We only saw part of what he now remembers experiencing in the past -- knowledge of the future. Other aspects of Desmond's timeline may now be different.
• The Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Physics should be consulted by Desmondian Theorists, whether or not the writers are in fact utilizing quantum theory. If Werner Heisenberg and Neils Bohr were correct, it is legitimately plausible that Charlie Pace and Desmond Hume are both temporally immortal.
• Desmond has become "unstuck in time" like Billy Pilgrim.
• Desmond isn't traveling through time. If time is cyclical, then whatever happened at the Swan could be allowing Desmond to remember things he has already experienced. Ms. Hawking may know so much because she has been doing the same thing longer than Desmond. Also, Desmond has yet to have a premonition about something that he wasn't involved with.
  • He wasn't present at the time of Locke's speech.
  • Ms. Hawking said that if Desmond does not go to the island and push the button until he finally turns the failsafe key the everyone of US is dead. She is aware of the business man in red shoes dying just like he sees Charlie's death. Who does the US she emphasize refer to? The multiple people unstuck from time?
  • He wouldn't have been involved in the lightning situation or Claire's drowning without the premonitions.
• Desmond can no longer see into the future. (evidence: he said to Sayid that he was 'perfect') ""
• Desmond's time-travel in Flashes killed Charlie. Because he went back in time and told Charlie about the future, including specifics about the island, he created a paradox as Charlie should know something he doesn't know. To balance the itself and resolve the paradox, the universe had to kill Charlie.
  • If the universe mechanics had to kill Charlie due to his knowledge of the island in the past, then it must kill Daniel Faraday too since Daniel knows a little bit about the island in 1996 when the meeting is appointed between Desmond & Daniel.

The Discharge and possible transformation

• The discharge has turned Desmond into a long awaited savior, who is the individual the Others are referring to as "Him".
  • Ben may have been going to the Swan to get him, rather than Locke, like he claims.
    • From "Exposé" we should know why Ben went to the Swan.
  • Was not simply transported from the Hatch after the discharge, but actually reborn for the purpose of doing or revealing something important. New Biblical citations on Eko's stick allude to baptism and rebirth.
  • Such a rebirth echoes Tolkien's Lord of the Rings where Gandalf is reborn as Gandalf the White. He subsequently has greater power and now knows his purpose is to fulfill his destiny of ridding the world of Sauron (The dark lord)
  • Desmond has done the "great thing." David Hume's quote/philosophy is, roughly, "the future is under no obligation to mimic the past." This idea contradicts the Numbers and the Dharma Initiative's belief that the end of the world is pre-determined by the state of the world/humanity. So, by turning the key, Desmond rejects the Numbers and the belief that they determine the end of the world. This rejects the Dharma Initiative (along with its ties to Penny's father) and frees the future from the past. He is aptly named. This is also very Christ-like (freeing people from their pasts), and Desmond has been made to look very like western depictions of Jesus.
• The Island does not want Ben in charge; it communicated with Desmond via Mrs. Hawking to show him the future and thus allowing him to keep Charlie alive so that he can foil Ben's plans of blocking communications off of the island and remove him from authority.
• Desmond's ability to predict the future is actually him somehow channeling predictions from The Island or the magnetic force itself. This is demonstrated through the similarities between the hieroglyphs witnessed by Locke, which were displayed on the Countdown Timer during the system failure, and Desmond's prediction. One interpretation of the hieroglyphs Locke saw in the hatch is "She/Rises to the sky/in Flames//He/Dies." The first part, "She/Rises to the sky/in Flames/" is the female part of the sentence (it's on a red background) and the second part "He/Dies" is male and is on black. This sounds similar to Desmond's prediction about Claire and Aaron getting into a helicopter and Charlie dying in The Looking Glass.
• Desmond's abilities will develop and evolve as the series continues leading to the point of which he can travel through space and time at will. Because of this he will appear in other character's flashbacks and flashforwards with the knowledge he has in the present and try to stop them from coming to the island. The sound you hear between flashbacks and present event is the sound of Desmond breaking through time.
• Or perhaps the opposite; his ability to travel though time will be revealed as the reasons for the characters presence on the flight and the mysterious connection they seem to hold. He may discover that all the survivors are required to be on the Island for the purpose of saving the world and will appear in previously seen flashbacks manipulating events to ensure they all get on the plane. (I.E. he travels to the bar where Ana Lucia shoots her assailant and buys him drinks to ensure he doesn't leave until she shows up)
  • If either of these theories are correct in some way, Desmond's abilities may be similar to those of Richard Alpert. Perhaps Desmond will act as a successor to Richard in the same way Locke was a successor to Ben.

"Premonitions" & possible psychic abilities

• Desmond lied about his premonition of Aaron and Claire leaving the island together by helicopter if Charlie died; instead, if Charlie died, Desmond saw himself on the helicopter (along with Sayid) and also in the Season 4 finale got off the island himself. This is further proven by his cowardice ways, referred to many times throughtout the show.
• Somehow connected to Sarah Shephard's miraculous recovery. Seemed very confident that she would recover when he spoke with Jack on the bleachers.
  • What was he going to say - 'I'm sure she is going to die'? It's just what people say to eachother, there is no reason to believe there was a premonition involved
  • Perhaps this is also related to the time travel aspect of the show. The Desmond that Jack was speaking to on the bleachers could possibly have been from the future, and knew Sarah was going to be okay because of this.
  • He didn't know what happened to her in the end - he asked Jack how it went when they met on the Island.
  • Desmond met Jack in the hatch before his mind went back to the past. After the exchange, his "present self" at the time of the encounter may have had recollection of the event.
• The psychic ability has nothing to do with the discharge, or was perhaps only amplified by it; rather, Desmond has always had this ability, as Charlie believes that some have "the gift" ("Raised by Another"). After all, Desmond did successfully predict Sarah's recovery ("Man of Science, Man of Faith"), and the prison officer who administered his dishonorable discharge reminded him that having a last book to read before you die is good, "if you know when you're going to die". ("Live Together, Die Alone") Though he did not seem to know how the rest of the world might be affected by not pushing the button, perhaps it simply "doesn't work like that," but rather comes in flashes (as the title of his upcoming episode would suggest).
• Desmond will predict his own death, as suggested by the officer who discharges him in "Live Together, Die Alone", who says, "As long as you know when you're going to die.", and begin to read his book, Our Mutual Friend.
  • Desmond may also have cheated death, by finding his constant and getting stuck back in time. Perhaps the universe will now begin trying to kill Desmond.
• Walt's powers may be, in essence, a "younger version" of the same abilities that Desmond has.
  • Another possibility is that Walt's abilities pertain to the concept of "space" (being in multiple places at once, manipulating physical elements such as backgammon dice and weather) and Desmond's pertain to "time" (crossing from present to past, seeing future events and thus having the capacity to alter the "direction" in which time flows).
    • Could this be what 'Only Fools are enslaved by Time and Space' is referring to in the reversed audio heard in Room 23?
• Most if not all of Desmond's flashes have been focused around Charlie dying. With Charlie's death Desmond will lose his ability to see the future.
• Desmond is being fed his premonitions somehow from Jacob in order to manipulate him. His premonitions in the second half of season three all relate to things that are triggered by him knowing they'll happen (his premonition about finding Penny led him to gather the others for the expedition, his premonition about Charlie's death led his volunteering for the diving mission), so the premonitions themselves must be a way of getting Desmond to action them.
• Desmond is somehow the only person Jacob is able to communicate with other than Ben (due to his being in the Hatch detonation?) and he is trying to use him to achieve some goal - part of that has been to get Charlie into the Looking Glass.
• Desmond's flashback in 'Flashes Before Your Eyes' is as normal a flashback as any other. Except (as an elaboration on the Dr. Manhattan theory below) he isn't remembering his time on the island and everything preceding it, but is actually just having a flashback of a time in his life when his clairvoyant powers first started to manifest, and is interpreting his visions (recognizing Charlie from 815, the incident in the pub) as memories and not premonitions.
• When the hatch exploded, as well as being in the hatch for so long, would have caused him to be exposed to electromagnetic radiation, which would give him visions.

Miscellaneous

• Charles Widmore called him a "coward." Perhaps he was imprisoned for desertion from the army (e.g. fleeing a combat situation) or treason.
  • Perhaps the time-juxtaposition in The Constant and Desmond fleeing to Oxford was the reason for his discharge from the army – in a strange-loop kind of way.
    • No, Desmond says on the phone to Penny that he has two days' leave available.
• Desmond was court-marshaled from the army for refusing to kill someone in a combat situation. When he flashes back to try and change that outcome the person he refuses to kill turns out to be someone from the island (perhaps Sayid).
  • Or perhaps Ben.
  • Except that his timeline doesn't allow for him to have been serving with the Scots Guard when they were on active duty. At best, he might have been on Manoeuvres in Germany.
  • Doubtful. The timelien doesnt make sense (though that can be explained away with time travel), but even if it did make sense the Scot Guard never sent troops to the middle east during the Gulf War and therefore Desmond would not have had the oppritunity to fight Syid, or any otehr lostie.

• Desmond the only one in Widmore's race. Widmore gave directions to Desmond, based on the Black Rock Diary, of where he thought the Island might be, knowing that he would contact Penny at all costs on the phone number he had already given to Desmond through allowing him to contact Penny (by giving him the address). He either didn't know when this would be and was banking on Penny's actions, or he knew that when Desmond had seen Penny(1996) he had told her he would call on the stated date and time and on that number. The freighter was already in place waiting for the call and ready to jump the island

• His mentioning to Jack that he was "almost" a doctor isn't a reference to being a medical student but to being a combat medic.
• Desmond's character is influenced by and perhaps similar to the protagonist in Doctor Who; the long running British science fiction series about a wandering time traveller. Doctor Who can regenerate, in effect be reborn when he is near death, very similar to the possible "rebirth" Desmond experienced during the Hatch explosion. Further, the Doctor travels in a vehicle much larger on the inside than it appears from the outside, rather like the Hatch, which when discovered was simply a door but leads to a large interior. Desmond's attire when he meets Ms. Hawking and walks with her specifically the long coat and scarf is very similar to the outfit worn by the most famous Doctor Who, Tom Baker.
• Took a stuffed rabbit from the bed when packing to leave the Swan. There was something inside the rabbit to help him.
• Penelope waiting for Desmond to come home can be considered a reference to the Odyssey where Desmond is Odysseus trying to find his way home. It is also of note that in The Odyssey, Penelope has 108 suitors.

• The "big thing" that Desmond had to do was wait to turn the failsafe key until the losties were on the beach on that side of the island. That way, all of them would be exposed to electro-magnetic radiation, and be exposed in a similar way to Desmond so that they all had to stay on the island, which is their fate.
• Desmond seems to have been on the Island about as long as Juliet has (since 2001). If the Island can only be approached at certain times (say, a barrier being lifted), then perhaps Juliet's arrival on the Island is what caused Desmond to be captured there, too.
• the question that desmond asks locke "what did one snowman say to the other snowman" could be the question that is told to ask daniel farriday when he arrives on the island. knowing that he sees farriday in later life he uses this question as daniel farridays constant.
• His father is dead or abandoned Desmond and his brothers.

Connections to Watchmen

• Desmond's visions may parallel Watchmen's Dr. Manhattan. After Manhattan's accident, he acquired powers, but did not know their extent initially, gaining more power (while also becoming less human) through time. Desmond may have received a similar power of clairvoyance, meaning he's aware of all points in his life. Instead of existing in the "present" he's aware of the future and the past simultaneously. His brain probably can't process these new power(s) correctly, so his "visions" of the future come in the flashes. In contrast he perceives memories as normal memories because if his preconceived notion of the past. Unlike, Dr. Manhattan, he does not believe the future is unchangeable, so he tries to save Charlie. An underlying plot of the flash-forwards will be Desmond and others trying to alter the future.
  • Desmond also reappeared naked, much like Dr. Manhattan.

Connections to The Dark Tower

• Desmond may have been on a journey similar to that of Roland Deschain in The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. The events in The Dark Tower occur on a loop. Desmond is on a lengthy quest, the beginning and end of which are unknown. His "flashes" are simply his remembering that he has, in fact, done all of this before. The fail safe somehow interrupted this iteration of his quest, fast-forwarding and forcing him to start again. Normally, he forgets the events of his quest, but the fail-safe has interrupted this.