The half-conscious Desmond was dragged from the beach into the Swan, by a man in a biohazard suit who later identified himself as Kelvin Inman. Inside the Swan, Kelvin tells Desmond that the outside environment is contaminated by a mysterious sickness, to which Desmond may have been exposed. Kelvin forcibly inoculated Desmond with a vaccine labeled with the Numbers. Kelvin instructed Desmond to inject himself with it every 9 days. Desmond learned the "push the button" routine, and watched the Swan Orientation film repeatedly, which raised many questions in his head, most of which remained unanswered by Kelvin. ("Live Together, Die Alone")
After two years, Kelvin showed Desmond how to initiate the lockdown sequence, which Kelvin used to complete the invisible blast door map started by his previous Swan partner, Radzinsky. One night later, while drunk underneath the Swan's computer room, Kelvin revealed to Desmond the nature of the Incident, and the function of the fail-safe key, which he carried at all times but was never able to find the courage to use. ("Live Together, Die Alone")
Desmond had lived in the station for three years, while Kelvin continually left the Hatch in his suit, under the pretense of analyzing the outside environment. ("Live Together, Die Alone")
Kelvin never allowed Desmond to take a turn analyzing the environment. However, on the day of Flight 815's crash, Desmond noticed that Kelvin's suit was ripped, yet he continued his trips, leading Desmond to wonder if the sickness was a lie Kelvin made up to keep him in the hatch entering the numbers. Desmond had his first adventure in the jungle when he subsequently followed Kelvin. Desmond saw Kelvin taking off the biohazard suit before marching toward the cove. At the cove, Desmond found his sailboat, apparently repaired by Kelvin, with which Kelvin seemed to be plotting his escape from the Island. ("Live Together, Die Alone")
Desmond confronted Kelvin, after realizing the charade to which he was subjected, and in the struggle that followed, he accidentally slammed Kelvin's head against a rock, resulting in Kelvin's immediate death. After grabbing Kelvin's fail-safe key, Desmond ran back to the Swan, where he found the countdown timer had reached zero, and system failure messages were flowing across the computer screen. Desmond eventually managed to stop the system failure, although, unbeknown to him, his actions inadvertently released the electromagnetic charge that had built up during his absence from the Swan, which caused Oceanic Flight 815 to break up in mid-air and crash on the Island.
With Kelvin dead, Desmond was now on his own, and he spent the next 40 days in the Swan in complete solitude, carrying on the duty of pushing the button all by himself. In a moment of despair, Desmond contemplated ending his life. Sitting down with a gun in his hand, Desmond questioned whether anything in his world is real. He moved to open his Dickens' novel, when a letter fell out of it: a hidden letter from Penelope, in which she encouraged Desmond to never give up, emphasizing her love and her decision to always wait for him. In a fit of rage, Desmond started to sabotage the Swan's contents, when he suddenly heard pounding on the Hatch above. Turning on the bright light, Desmond looked up as the traumatized Locke peered down in return, causing both men to regain their hope.
At an unclear point in the timeline, supposedly sometime after Kelvin's death (although Desmond still wears the biohazard suit despite previously discovering their pointlessness), a group of survivors congregated at the rear door of the Swan. After the group received no response and left for the beach Daniel remained and continued to knock on the Swan's rear door until Desmond, dressed in a biohazard suit and wielding a rifle, angrily burst out. Desmond appeared not to recognise Daniel, and asked whether Daniel was his "replacement", much like Kelvin thought when he found Desmond. Daniel told a confused Desmond that he was "uniquely, and miraculously special", and that he was the only one who could save them. Daniel instructed Desmond to seek out his mother at Oxford in the event that the helicopter made it safely off the island. Since in linear "real time" this event happened after Desmond left the Island, he only "remembered" it years later, around 2007, while on a boat with Penny and their son.
After blowing open the Hatch and entering the Swan, Locke and Kate confronted the suspicious Desmond, who held them both at gunpoint. Led by Locke into believing that Kate was the most dangerous of the two, Desmond ordered him to lock Kate up in the pantry. However, this gave Kate a chance to escape through the ventilation system, to later intervene with Desmond's holding of Locke, and Jack who joined them, and consequently resulting in Desmond's accidental shooting of the Swan's computer. After failing to fix it, Desmond decided to flee the station, claiming that everyone will die soon, but was followed by Jack. Upon their confrontation, Desmond recalled his off-Island encounter of Jack, and asked him about Sarah, before repeating the Numbers to Jack in case the computer was ever fixed. ("Man of Science, Man of Faith") ("Adrift") ("Orientation")
Desmond apparently set off on the sailboat in an attempt to escape the Island. His attempt, however, was unsuccessful, and after two weeks the boat sailed back toward the Island. When the boat emerged to the survivors, Jack, Sayid and Sawyer swam to it, only to find Desmond inside, who by then believed the Island to be the last thing left from a long-lost world.
Desmond was then approached by Sayid, who asked for his help in his plan of sailing to the Others' camp, but he refused. Desmond was sought out later by Locke, who brought him the Orientation video from the Pearl, debunking his whole conception of the Swan's function. Desmond then agreed to join Locke on his mission, to let the Swan's countdown end once and for all, without interference, and see what would happen. In their attempt, they locked Eko out of the computer room, using Desmond's experience in triggering the lockdown. However, in their ensuing conversation, Desmond learned from Locke the truth about the pounding he heard earlier on the Hatch door, and about the Pearl's log printout as well. ("Live Together, Die Alone")
After reading the log, Desmond then connected the date of the plane crash to the earlier system failure he witnessed, leading him to conclude that he may have unintentionally caused the crash. Desmond then decided that the button must be pushed, but Locke, however, intervened and destroyed the computer. With no other resolution, Desmond felt compelled to use the fail-safe key, and thus descended to the Swan's passageways to turn on the switch. With the words "I love you Penny," Desmond turned the key (after making the sign of the cross), causing the discharge, and the unavoidable implosion of the Swan.
After turning the failsafe key in present Island time, Desmond's consciousness re-entered his 1996's self. He arrived at the time after felling of the ladder, while painting his flat. When Penelope tried to heal him, he thought that everything about the future had been a dream.
Later that day, while preparing to go to the Widmore's Industries, he noticed his clock marked "1:08", and these numbers were familiar to him. Penelope said that if he didn't get the job, that wouldn't be the end of the world. That phrase disturbed Desmond, and when hearing a beep that was like the one in the Swan, he was even more distrubed. However, it turned out to be the microwave, and Penelope asked what happened to him. He said that he just had a déjà vu.
Before the meeting with Charles Widmore, he heard that a delivery man had a package for eight-fifteen. He noticed the numbers, and a flash of future events came momentarly to his mind.
After talking with Widmore, he offered him a job in the administrative department, but Desmond revealed that the real reason he came was to ask not for a job, but for Widmore's permission to marry his daughter, Penelope. Widmore expressed his unfavorable opinion of Desmond, impressing upon him his valuation of Desmond as worth less than his MacCutcheon whisky. Desmond left, crestfallen and angered, but when he saw a singing Charlie Pace performing on a London street corner just outside, he recognized him, and he said that all those events had happened before. Charlie didn't believe him, and when it started to rain, everybody in the street left thinking he was crazy.
Desmond went to see Donovan. He was skeptical of Desmond's theory that he could be time-traveling, and asked him to predict what would happen next. Desmond foretold the outcome of a televised soccer game, only to be proven wrong. Later that night, he arrived in his flat and Penelope said he loved him. She said that they would celebrate next day their love.
A later day, he went to the jewelry shop to buy a ring. This time, however, he wanted to buy it, but Ms. Hawking, the jewelry store clerk, revealed that Desmond was not supposed to buy the ring, that he was supposed to have second thoughts and abandon Penny. She further claimed to know that Desmond's future would involve going to the Island and pushing the button in the Swan. She imparted some of her understanding about how the universe "course-corrects" to prevent people from straying too far from their fate. Desmond stayed in shock, and she asked him to go with her. During her discussion with Desmond, she predicted the imminent death of a nearby man. Hawking claimed to be unable to ultimately prevent the death of the man, explaining that "the universe has a way of course correcting," meaning that if she saved him from that death, he would simply die another way soon after. Desmond kept the ring anyway, determined not to succumb to fate.
He later met Penelope near the River Thames and they had their picture taken in front of a marina backdrop. Upset with the thought that he couldn't even afford the £5 photograph; he came to believe that Charles Widmore was right: he wasn't good enough for Penelope. He told Penelope this, and she stormed off with mixed emotions of anger and sadness. In the end, Desmond made the decision predicted by Mrs. Hawking, and threw the ring into the Thames.
Drowning his sorrows at a pub that night, Desmond realized that he was a day off in his prediction of the outcome of the soccer match. He heard the song, "Make Your Own Kind Of Music", and then he watched the same goal in the television, as in the original events. Knowing that he could change his fate, he prepared to leave the bar. However, Jimmy Lennon stormed into the bar, carrying a cricket bat and looking for the bartender. Desmond, knowing that he bartender would be hit, tried to prevent the altercation from happening the way he remembered it, but was hit with the cricket bat, sending his consciousness back into the future.
Desmond woke up, lying completely naked in the middle of the jungle with blood stains on his chest and body. As his memory returned, he realized that the Island and the events that had happened there were indeed real, and he began to cry and beg for another chance to change events in the past, to no avail. He recollected himself and began to run around looking for help, and, unbeknown to him, ran past Locke, who was also waking up after the Swan implosion. He eventually found Hurley, who was on his way back to the beach after his encounter with the Others at the Pala Ferry. Hurley told Desmond how Jack, Kate, and Sawyer were still with the Others.
On their way back, Desmond revealed his first premonition, while attempting to comfort Hurley over his worries about his captured group. To calm him, Desmond commented on Locke's intentions to go after them, and referred to Locke's yet-to-happen "speech." At their arrival, Desmond parted from the survivors, and stood by the sea, while the previously confused Hurley listened to Locke's rousing words about saving the missing Jack and the Others captured, leaving Hurley in shock as he looked back at Desmond.
Later, Desmond approached Claire, in an attempt to persuade her to move down the beach, to allow him to fix her roof, but Charlie intervened. At his failure to convince them, Desmond borrowed a golf club from Paulo, which he used in constructing a lightning rod that he placed very close to the tent. Shortly after, the camp was caught up in a sudden storm, when a bolt of lightning struck the recently built lightning rod, on its way to the tent, leaving Charlie in shock, similar to that previously experienced by Hurley.
Desmond and Locke were later joined by Sayid, in a meeting to discuss a rescue plan for Jack and his group. Desmond explained to Sayid that the stations equipment could be used as well in communication, and thus they required Sayid's technological skills in helping them search for a station where Jack could be possibly be held captive. The three head to the Pearl, joined by Paulo and Nikki, where Desmond helped Sayid in patching the monitors with available feeds from other stations, leading to the temporal appearance of the mysterious one-eyed man on one of the screens. Moments after, Desmond heard the Monster's familiar sound, and hurried above with the rest, to witness the last moments of the dying Eko, where he was then left with Paulo and Nikki while Sayid accompanied Locke back to camp to get shovels for the burial.
When Charlie and Hurley met up with them, Desmond suddenly rushed to the beach and dragged a drowning Claire ashore and resuscitated her. Charlie became suspicious and Hurley aided him in getting Desmond drunk on MacCutcheon whisky, so that he would divulge his secret. Charlie and Desmond got into a fight after Desmond was called a coward by Charlie. He jumped and strangled Charlie, claiming that Charlie would not want to know what happened to him when he turned the failsafe key.
After the fight was stopped by Hurley, Desmond apologized, and was carried by Charlie back to his tent. Then, Desmond revealed that when he turned the failsafe key, his life flashed before his eyes, but after, the flashes didn't stop. He has been getting precognitive visions, but they were to save Charlie, not Claire, and he is afraid that there are only so many times he can cheat fate before it catches up with Charlie, and causes his death.
Later, he prevented Charlie and Claire from catching migrating seagulls, foreseeing that Charlie would die attempting to do so. He then caught one himself before being confronted by Claire and eventually telling her his secret.
Desmond later witnessed Nikki and Sawyer arguing, and told Hurley about it later while he was investigating Nikki and Paulo's apparent deaths. He appeared at Nikki and Paulo's funeral.
Desmond hunted with Sawyer and successfully killed a boar to the delight of the rest of the survivors.
Around Day 86, Desmond had another series of flashes which showed another instance of Charlie's death and something coming to the Island. Believing that Penny had found the Island and was on her way, Desmond gathered up all the people he would need for his mission that were present in his vision: Charlie, Hurley and Jin. Desmond explained to Hurley that he saw what he referred to as "puzzle pieces" to a puzzle that had no picture on the front of the box. Upon Hurley's further inquisition, he said that he couldn't divulge many details about what he saw, for fear of "changing the picture on the puzzle box." What he was specifically avoiding mentioning was that his vision showed Charlie being killed by one of Rousseau's arrow traps.
With the assistance of Hurley's memory of the location of the cable and Jin's chance discovery of it in the sand (as per the puzzle piece), the crew followed into the jungle for a "camping trip." Watching a helicopter crash in the beach, Desmond then pointed the group's attention to the sky further into the jungle to see a flashing red beacon. Following his instinct and his half-assembled puzzle, Desmond led the group onward in the direction of the parachutist. On the way they found pieces of debris from the helicopter including a Portuguese language copy of Catch-22 with a picture of him and Penny in it. Despite his conviction that everything had to happen exactly as in his vision he nonetheless saved Charlie once again. When they find the pilot of the helicopter it turns out not to be Penny but Naomi.
Naomi was injured in the crash, and Charlie, Hurley, and Desmond argued a bit on how to treat her. A call was answered after Hurley accidentally fires a flare gun, which ended up summoning Mikhail. Desmond agreed to let him go if he helped save her life. With treatment, they removed a stick from her lung, and Mikhail said it would heal in a day, or a day and a half. Desmond allowed him to leave, despite Charlie's protests, but not until after they recovered the satellite phone Mikhail attempted to steal.
Believing that Jack was working with the Others, Desmond persuaded Jin, Hurley and Charlie to keep Naomi's presence in the camp a secret but it soon came out, first to Kate, then finally to Jack.
While Jack was revealing his plan to blow up the Others' raiding party, Desmond has yet another 'flash.' In it, he saw Charlie inside a facility of some kind containing a yellow blinking light and a switch, followed by Charlie flipping the switch, turning the light off, and then drowning. This action, according to the flash, resulted in Claire and Aaron boarding a rescue helicopter. At first, Desmond hesitated to tell Charlie this, but later laid it out for him, explaining that Charlie must die if the group hopes to be rescued. After it became clear that the switch from Desmond's premonition was inside the Looking Glass Station, Charlie volunteered to swim to the station by following the underwater cable, and Desmond volunteered to accompany him. Once he and Charlie had gone out onto the water in the outrigger to the point directly above the Looking Glass, Desmond volunteered to take Charlie's place. Charlie at first seemed to assent, but then knocked Desmond unconscious with an oar and tucked his final message to Claire inside Desmond's shirt before diving into the water.
When Desmond woke up, he was immediately met with gunfire from Mikhail, who had arrived to stop Charlie. Desmond was forced to dive down, and arrived at the underwater station to help Charlie. After hiding, Desmond harpooned Mikhail as he attempted to kill Bonnie and Greta. As he and Charlie prepared to leave, Charlie communicated with Penny via a video feed. As Charlie shouted for Penny's missing love, Desmond saw that Mikhail has vanished. Desmond ran to the communication room, noticing Penny on the monitor. Charlie, acting selflessly, had no choice but to lock him out, after seeing Mikhail through the underwater window about to blow it open with a grenade. Desmond stared through the window on the locked door, trying his best to open the door, as the grenade exploded and the room filled with water. Charlie, in his dying moments, wrote a message on his hand in permanent marker for Desmond. Desmond read "NOT PENNY'S BOAT" and understood the message. He continued to watch helplessly as Charlie drowned.
After Charlie's final warning, Desmond hurried back to the beach camp. He returned with the outrigger and rushed in to warn the survivors of Charlie's message. When it was determined that warning Jack over the radio was too risky, he joined Sayid, Bernard, Jin, Hurley, Sawyer, and Juliet on a mission to intercept the survivors on their way back from the radio tower.
After the groups reunited, Desmond was about to go tell Claire of Charlie's death; however, before he could, Hurley stopped Desmond and did it himself. Despite his extreme concern over what Charlie told him, when the survivors split into two groups, he appeared to stay with Jack's group, which continued to try to make contact with the "rescuers," rather than take shelter in the Barracks with Locke's group. He followed the main group of survivors to the beach while Kate and Jack pursued the downed parachutist.
Sayid later uncovered the picture of Desmond and Penelope from Naomi. He suggested that they bring Desmond to the helicopter in order to shed light on the situation. Juliet went to retrieve him and join Jack, Kate, Sayid, and Juliet at the helicopter; however, Desmond was as clueless as everyone else. While Sayid, Kate, and Miles went in search of Charlotte, Desmond questioned Frank about Naomi's picture of Penny. Frank denied knowing anything about Penny and explained that he was not a higher-up in the operation. When Sayid returned with Charlotte, Desmond left the island in the helicopter with Frank, Sayid, and Naomi's corpse. Later, when Jack tried to contact the freighter about the helicopter. A woman named Regina informed Jack that the helicopter never returned. Desmond's fate, along with Frank and Sayid, was unclear at this point in time .
While flying to the freighter, Desmond admired his picture of him and Penny. When flying towards the thunderstorm, Desmond experienced a "time shift," causing him to jump between 1996 and 2004; in Desmond's mind, the events of 1996 were real, and the events of 2004 were a hallucination. Desmond returned from the second shift, confused and wanting to get out of the helicopter. Sayid restrained him, and after they landed on the freighter, the confused Desmond panicked, stating that he did not recognize Sayid nor anyone else. Keamy and Omar took Desmond to the sickbay so the doctor could look at him.
While at the sickbay, he met Minkowski, who was strapped to a bed. He said that "it" was happening to him as well. After injecting Minkowski with a sedative, the doctor examined Desmond. He then shifted back to 1996. When he returned, Frank and Sayid came into the sickbay with Faraday on the phone. Daniel asked Desmond where he should be. Desmond said 1996 in the UK. Daniel told him to find him in Oxford. He told him some numbers so the past Daniel could believe him and that he should say he knows about Eloise. After returning, Keamy took the phone from him and he, Frank, and Omar left the sickbay, locking Sayid and Desmond inside with Minkowski. After returning from another shift, Sayid said Desmond's name and Minkowski recognized it. He said that the freighter had been getting calls from Penny. Desmond speaks with Penny from aboard the Kahana.
Determined to call her so he could stop the time-shifting and his inevitable death, Desmond left the sick bay with the help of an unknown person and went to the communication room with Sayid and Minkowski. There, Minkowski shifted again; when he returned, he died. Desmond began to show symptoms that Minkowski had before he died. With Penny's number and the radio fixed, Sayid called and Desmond talked to Penny. She said that she had been looking for him for the past three years. They exchanged their love and vowed that they would find one another before the battery died. Desmond, having found his constant, told Sayid that he was "perfect" now.
Afterward, Desmond was confined to the sick bay with Sayid. Frank claimed that they were imprisoned there because the Captain was angry at them for "busting out" of the sick bay and communicating with Penny. Later, Ray released Desmond and Sayid from the sick bay and took them to meet Gault, the captain of the freighter. Gault showed Desmond and Sayid the black box of a plane that was apparently Oceanic Flight 815, and insinuated that Ben was responsible for staging the crash of Flight 815 deep in an ocean trench. After the meeting with Gault, Ray lead Desmond and Sayid to their new room; there, they encountered Michael, who was using the alias "Kevin Johnson". It was unclear whether Desmond recognized Michael (they'd had no scenes together, but could have met briefly before), but like Sayid, he introduced himself as though they were strangers.
Later, Desmond looked on as Sayid interrogated Michael, and he did not prevent Sayid from blowing Michael's cover in front of Captain Gault.
After Frank returned from the island with the mercenary group, Sayid was briefly interrogated by Martin Keamy, and Desmond looked on, not offering any support to Sayid, although when the captain noticed that Keamy was acting up (possible "Cabin Fever" he referred to earlier) he did not disagree that it was time to get the people on the beach rescued as soon as possible.
After Gault stalled and got the ships tender ready for the two, Desmond got a blank look in his eyes (unclear at this point in time of it was a flash or not) before he told Sayid that he refused to return to the island, and watched on yet again as Sayid took off towards the island.
Later that night, Desmond watched as Frank and Gault tried to convince Keamy not to head back to the island from a safe area on a set of stairs.He saw the helicopter take off for a third time, fleeing from his position on the stairs.
After Faraday began to ferry survivors over to the freighter, Desmond helped Sun onto the boat and asked if everything was okay. She said it was fine, and he left her and Jin alone with Michael. He ran into a control room where he told a mechanic named Hendricks that the engines should be working and reminded him to follow a bearing of 305. Suddenly, a radar in the control room was not working. Hendricks told Desmond that he would not continue any further unless the radar works. Desmond ran into the room and noticed it was filled with C4 and screamed for Michael, who was catching up with Sun and Jin.
Using his army knowledge, Desmond attempted to disarm the C4, only to find it booby trapped at every possible angle. Michael forced him to go save himself as the warning signal went on and Desmond fled the freighter on the helicopter. It was in the air that he witnessed the explosion of the Kahana, as well as the disappearance of the island. The helicopter later crashed into the Ocean and Desmond was pulled aboard a lifeboat along with the Oceanic Six and Frank. Unconscious and not breathing, Jack performed CPR on him until he awoke. Frank, Desmond and Jack on the life raft as they get rescued by Penny and her team on the Searcher.
Early on the morning of December 31, 2004, the lifeboat was discovered by the Searcher, which was commissioned by Penelope Widmore. On the deck of the ship, Desmond was finally reunited with his long lost love. One week later as the Oceanic Six were preparing to embark for Sumba, Desmond elected to stay behind with Penny on the boat. Jack warned him to not "let them find you", and told him that he'd see him in another life before departing.
From Lostpedia
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