Lost - Live Together, Die Alone *

January 20, 2018

Lost - Live Together, Die Alone *

Des realizes he's not alone on the island when hearing Locke at the hatch.

*This is for the two part season 2 finale. Not as much a review or write-up as a collection of thoughts, assemblages of pieces somewhat compartmentalized I guess, to the best of my ability.

Desmond was last seen fleeing from The Swan, as if rescued from a prison. When Sun-Hwa sees a sailboat at the end of the previous episode, Three Minutes, Jack, Sawyer, and Sayid finding Desmond in the cabin certainly wasn’t what I was expecting. My Lost fan friend, often a fellow of conversation about the show where I work, had prepared me for this two part finale, telling me I was in store for a “knowledge dump”. I told him that was the understatement of the week. Live Together, Die Alone Part 1 & 2, besides furthering the intense story arc of the Others, digs in deep regarding Desmond, giving him extraordinary exposition.

He’s getting out of military prison, has this Dickens affinity and one novel to be read before he dies, is considered a coward by the very wealthy and prominent father of the love of his life, is offered a big sum to stay away from this father’s daughter, meets Libby (in a wig, telling him her name is Elizabeth and a widower, offering to give him her deceased husband’s sailboat), and he prepares for a sailboat trip by “getting in shape”.

The sailboat is how he winds up on the island, hitting his head during a slip, brought into The Swan by Clancy Brown’s Kelvin Inman. How does Kelvin wind up on the island in The Swan? That is what Lost does well. A character from Sayid’s past in Iraq somehow makes it to The Swan working for the Dharma Initiative.

Like a lot of characters, it seems Kelvin was running away from his past, burdened by the orders he was supposed to carry out for his government. Desmond was seeking his own reclamation, hoping to recover his honor and deserve the love of his life, Penny Widmore (Sonya Walger). Told Pen was engaged by her father, Charles (Alan Dale), Desmond’s letters to her were disrupted by pops just so she would turn against him!

So this whole cache of letters meant for Pen was dumped in Desmond’s lap during a rainy release from prison. Charles wants Des gone, totally distanced from Pen but she nonetheless finds him at that stadium where he met Jack while exercising in the Jack-related episode, Man of Science, Man of Faith.

At the very end of the two part finale, the electromagnetic pulse released from The Swan by Des reaches an Arctic ship seemingly responsible for keeping an eye out for signs of specific origin. It seems, after these two “trackers”, become aware of the pulse/signal and call up Penny that they were expecting it. Perhaps Desmond’s disappearance, Pen put that Widmore money to use, hoping to eventually find him.

I personally loved how this episode allows for Locke to evolve and go through his existential crisis and loss of faith, as Desmond is a centerpiece in the recovery process. Discovering The Pearl really was a pivotal turning point in Locke’s island experience. Because of Locke’s terrible experience with his narcissistic, selfish father—where multiple times he was duped and manipulated—having a second chance on the island and learning of how folks in The Pearl were assigned by the Dharma Initiative to monitor those in The Swan and other stations as part of a project to see how they handle tasks “of importance”, I think it is completely understandable why he’d feel foolish and disenchanted. As Eko finds that imputing the numerical code into the computer of The Swan has a purpose and must continue, I think Locke’s disengagement isn’t without merit. Why wouldn’t he feel estrangement from the island after watching the Orientation video in The Pearl? Being told that the task of “pushing the button” is but a procedure created to give that person assigned it “something to do”, as if a lab experiment to be inspected, how could Locke not feel slighted? So Locke looking over at Eko when the countdown goes critical and code isn’t punched in because the computer was destroyed (by Locke to make sure it can’t be) and telling him how wrong he was, it is a moment of clarity after serious existential turmoil.

Desmond and Locke inside The Swan, having orchestrated a trick that moves Eko away from the computer so the blast doors will close, sealing him off from the Execute button and countdown; this continuing development in the finale sets in motion that incredible electromagnetic “meltdown” where a certain “release button” (a key on the neck of Inman is used to turn it) can release the pulse/charge (really the only way I can describe it). Like some shockwave released into the atmosphere, seeing The Swan suffer a “come apart” as the electromagnetic surge goes critical inside the station, this is the kind of epic development perfect for the season finale. Forks and spoons, metallic objects flying across rooms, chaos ensuing as Locke and Eko are right in the middle of it, their fates uncertain, this whole deal is quite a cliffhanger. That Eko is taken to some explosives hidden by Charlie, using them to try and get through the blast doors to punch the code, not interfering in the eventual release of the electromagnetic energy held seemingly inside The Swan; this does feel like the conclusion of one chapter in preparation for the next. The Swan served its purpose and is now no more. Locke and Eko (and Desmond) were tied to the numerical code, and The Swan, but this is a chapter meant to reach its end. Inman served his time but never quite was able to get away on the sailboat as he so desired, while Desmond also spent three years in The Swan, seemingly on the verge of taking his own life. Locke’s persistent will to get inside The Swan (feeling as if the island was purposing him to get inside it) interfered with Desmond’s plans. It was like a lifeline, I guess.

Even after leaving The Swan and just vanishing from the show during the second season, there was a sailboat this whole time and it appears Desmond was on it trying to get away from the island. My favorite line was from Desmond about being caught in some “bloody snowglobe”. It does seem as fitting a description as any regarding how getting off and away from the island would appear to be impossible. But Locke encouraging Desmond to participate in the plot to let the countdown go to zero and seal Eko away from executing the code input lifts him out (or, should I rephrase as “lifts *them both* out?) of a dreary despair. Of course, Desmond realizing he caused the Oceanic to crash on the island when failure to punch in the code in a timely manner (causing a “system failure”) while away following Inman couldn’t be a more startling revelation. Just executing an “activity printout” in The Pearl, how could Locke have ever realized that such a seemingly unimportant action (borne out of curiosity) would produce such a revealing realization? I just thought that was extraordinary. Each time someone in The Swan punched in the code and clicked Execute (or failed to do so), this was recorded, documented. The printout gives a date stamp of the very day the Oceanic crashed and Desmond finds it. And because Locke breaks the computer, Desmond must use the key and release the electromagnetic energy that goes out into the atmosphere and is picked up many miles away by tracking station scientists in the middle of a game of chess who inform Penny of the signal located on their monitoring system. This cosmic circle connects its dots, doesn’t it?