If you were asked to perform a mundane task on a routine basis in order to "save the world," with no further instruction or explanation - without knowing the real reason why - would you do it?
That's the question that the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 are presented with when they break their way into "The Hatch" at the beginning of Season 2 of "LOST." This blog will recap pretty much everything we learned from the past 23 episodes of the show, including a breakdown of how certain individuals reacted when faced with important decisions regarding the fate of humanity.
In the Season 2 premiere, John Locke, Kate Austen and Jack Shephard finally make their way down the concrete shaft leading to the Dharma Initiative station known as "The Swan" and encounter a mysterious man who has been living in a bunker for more than three years. This man's name is Desmond, and he, too, landed on the Island by chance. Or was it by fate? Was it his destiny?
The Man Who Lived in the Hatch
We don't know an incredible amount about
Desmond Hume as Season 2 comes to an end, but here's what we
do know: Before he arrived on the Island, we understand that Desmond was a huge fan of Charles Dickens (having read all of his works, except for a book called
Our Mutual Friend) and that he was in prison for some time. Upon completing his sentence, he was picked up outside the prison by a man named Charles Widmore, the father of Desmond's ex-girlfriend. Widmore intercepted all of the letters (a whole box of 'em) that Desmond had written to Penny Widmore, who Charles explains is now engaged to another man and, he says, has all but moved on from her relationship with Desmond.
Stricken with sadness over the news, Desmond vows to win a sailing race around the world, organized by Mr. Widmore, as a show of love for Penny. As part of his training regimen, Desmond runs stairs at a nearby stadium. He runs into Jack Shephard, who is also running there to work off the grief of a failed surgery. (This scene is shown in the Season 2 premiere, "
Man of Science, Man of Faith.")
In a flashback during the season finale, Desmond is shown sailing in the Widmore race. A turbulent storm hits and Desmond is knocked unconscious. He winds up on a beach and is rescued by a man in a hazmat suit, then taken into a bunker that we later learn is The Swan station. The man who rescued Desmond is named
Kelvin Inman, who we previously saw in one of
Sayid's flashbacks, although his connection to Sayid is never specifically referenced. As Desmond awakens, he sees Kelvin pressing a series of buttons into an old computer. Desmond asks what he is doing, and Kelvin responds that he is "just saving the world."
Kelvin teaches Desmond the process: every 108 minutes, someone must enter the Numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42 into the computer, followed by the "Execute" key. This process is commonly referred to as "
pushing the button." A timer goes off with 4:00 remaining in the countdown, and the code must be entered within those four minutes. Attempting to push the button before the timer starts will not do anything, and failure to push the button in time would apparently result in catastrophic, worldwide consequences.
Desmond and Kelvin begin taking turns pushing the button for years. Kelvin, being the "senior companion," so to speak, retains the right to do things other than pushing the button; for instance, he occasionally leaves the Hatch for reasons that he does not discuss with Desmond. One day, after begging Kelvin to let him leave the station for once, Desmond notices a rip in Kelvin's hazmat suit. If the outside air truly were toxic, this would potentially be fatal, yet Kelvin goes outside anyway. Desmond follows him, only to discover that Kelvin has been repairing Desmond's sailboat and intends to leave the Island in a couple weeks. Infuriated, Desmond starts a scuffle with his partner and accidentally kills him.
Desmond runs back to the Hatch in a panic, realizing that he left the computer unattended. He returns too late to enter the code in time. His failure to push the button taps into the Island's electromagnetic properties - metallic objects begin flying all across the room. Something really jacked up is going down. Desmond frantically struggles to enter the proper Numbers on the keyboard, amidst a voice repeating "SYSTEM FAILURE" over and over. He finally finishes the routine and the timer resets to 108:00.
Desmond continued to push the button alone for around 40 days longer. The task drives him to the brink of insanity and he contemplates committing suicide, but his thoughts are interrupted by a banging, pounding noise, accompanied by the desperate cries of John Locke.
Smells Like Carrots
When John Locke encountered a crisis of faith in Season 1 ("
Deus Ex Machina"), he returned to his beloved, mysterious, yet-unopened Hatch door and pounded on it, cried in agony and screamed at the Island, demanding answers - demanding a sign. At that moment, a light beamed up, out of the Hatch window. This moment refreshes Locke's belief in the concept of destiny and more deeply establishes his reputation as a "Man of Faith." He believes that "hope" was inside the Hatch.
Locke and the Survivors blew open the Hatch door at the end of the Season 1 finale. To begin Season 2, Lock and Kate lower themselves down into the abyss, but are quickly captured and held at gunpoint by the Hatch's long-standing resident, Desmond. Desmond soon realizes that the Survivors are not there to join or replace him ("What did one snowman say to another?"). Jack eventually makes his way down and recognizes Desmond from the stadium. Desmond teaches Locke and Jack how to enter the code and subsequently high-tails it out of there.
Locke takes it upon himself to be in charge of pushing the button. Jack doesn't understand the point and constantly tells Locke that entering the Numbers is pointless. Nevertheless, Locke is the Number One Believer in saving the world for the majority of the season. Locke's faith is largely based on a Dharma Initiative
orientation video found in The Swan, which refers to the mission of pushing the button as something of the utmost importance. Locke watches the video multiple times, much to the annoyance of this Hatch-mates. I relate to this on a personal level.
A Storm Named Henry Gale
When the Survivors encounter a man in the middle of the jungle who claims to be named "Henry Gale," their skepticism and absolutely justified paranoia causes them to hold the scrawny little punk in The Swan's armory room. Locke, who spends the majority of his time in the Hatch computer room occasionally has discussions with their prisoner, who Danielle Rousseau warned was a pathological liar. "Henry" has a knack for getting under the Survivors' skin, and he frequently says things to Locke that slowly drive a wedge between John and Jack. Similarly, "Henry" disses Locke's faith in the button-pushing process by saying that the procedure is a farce. "Henry" continues to plant these seeds of doubt and play mind games with Locke until his eventual escape from The Swan in "
Two for the Road."
"Man of Faith" Crisis
Mid-way through the season, Locke and
Mr. Eko discover another Dharma station, known as "The Pearl." The Pearl is a surveillance station where Dharma workers would observe the actions of other workers across the Island. Another orientation video informs the viewer that the workers at other stations, including The Swan, believe that they are part of a project of "great importance," but, in reality, this is all a sort of social experiment.
Locke, who previously believed that pushing the button was his destiny on the Island, becomes incredibly upset. He refuses to watch the video again with Eko and suddenly believes that the Hatch computers is utterly pointless. He refuses to push the button again and, in fact, is willing to take matters into his own hands to ensure that
nobody presses that blasted button again. Eko, on the other hand, has a feeling that they
should continue pushing the button.
Eko returns to the Hatch and continues the job and Locke goes back to the beach and cries like a baby. However, when
Charlie tells Locke that Desmond has returned to the Survivors' camp, Locke decides to take Desmond back to The Swan for answers. Upon returning to the Hatch, Locke seals the blast doors with Eko on the outside of the computer room. Locke destroys the computer, to Desmond's sheer terror, and proclaims that they are finally going to find out what happens when the button isn't pressed in time.
Similar to what we saw in Desmond's flashback, the electromagnetism goes haywire and crap gets strewn to and fro. Desmond discovers a report that indicates that the last time a system failure occurred in the Hatch coincided with the date of the Oceanic plane crash. Desmond begs Locke to come to his senses, even practically taking the blame for the incident that brought the Survivors to the Island. Desmond explains that the Island is the site of an electromagnetic anomaly and that, every 108 minutes, pushing the button releases any excess energy. Failure to push the button truly would be catastrophic. Desmond then scrambles into a hidden passage to turn a failsafe key as a last resort to save the world.
As Locke realizes that his actions may, indeed cause another catastrophe, we see (for the second time so far in the series) genuine fear on his face. Eko re-enters the computer room and Locke admits, "I was wrong." Desmond turns the key, causing brilliant light and loud noises to emanate from the Island. The disturbance is witnessed by all known people on the Island and, as we will come to find out for the rest of the series, this event results in long-term, far-reaching consequences, not only for those on the Island, but for those off of it, as well.
Season 2 ends with two men in an arctic base came being alerted of an electromagnetic anomaly. They make a phone call to their boss, reporting what they have discovered. Their boss is Penny Widmore.
Analysis:
The Hatch is probably my favorite location on the Island. I'm not entirely sure why this is, but maybe it's because Desmond is my favorite character or perhaps it's because of my fascination with "pushing the button." It's just such a fascinating concept.
Before starting this blog, I posted a quick poll to Facebook, asking the same question that began this blog. It's only been an hour, which is not a ton of time for responses, but here are the results, as presently constituted:
Would we be willing to do something on faith alone? I suppose that the religious ones among us have some experience with such matters, and I think that - for the purposes of this particular blog - from a non-church standpoint, it's a fascinating conundrum. Let's quickly analyze the actions of some of the characters in Season 2 to summarize how they reacted:
- Desmond: Pushes the button out of a sense of duty. Bails on the button after being betrayed by his closest ally. Returns to the Hatch in order to save humanity.
- Locke: Pushes the button out of a sense of destiny. Bails on the button after viewing a video containing information that he did not know was absolute truth. Returns to the Hatch to intentionally sabotage the process. Feels a great sense of remorse when he realizes that he was wrong.
- "Henry Gale": Pushes the button once while Locke is trapped under the blast doors. Other than that, basically talks crap on it the entire time.
- Eko: Pushes the button first out of curiosity, then out of a sense of faith that what he is doing is right; this good feeling was the result of apparent prayer and meditation. Remains with the button out of moral obligation until he is forcibly removed, but is faithful until the end.
- Jack: Pushes the button out of reluctance and annoyance. Does not believe in what he is doing and yet occasionally does it anyway to appease others.
- Other Survivors: Push the button occasionally due to a variety of factors, including for companionship, out of boredom, as a demonstration of faith/trust, for a sense of belonging and (sometimes) simply just to have something to do.
One final note that I found interesting:
- Desmond's actions MAY HAVE crashed the plane, bringing John Locke to the Island.
- John Locke MAY HAVE saved Desmond’s life by banging on the Hatch door.
- And Desmond MAY HAVE saved Locke’s life again by turning the failsafe key.
Kind of interesting to look at it that way. I am, and always will be, #TeamDestiny.
As the series progresses through the remaining four seasons, we, the viewers, will learn more about the Dharma Initiative and its mission. While the Hatch has now been blown to smithereens, much of the mystery surrounding the now-extinct organization that previously ran the Island has yet to be uncovered. Time will tell what other adventures await. For now, I guess
I'll see you in another life, brother.
And, as always, until next time,
Namaste... and good luck.
To read the rest of my "LOST" blogs, click
here.
