Desmond killed Charlie from LT (unedited from 6/1/07)

It has seemed clear to me and to many others that one lesson Desmond is “supposed to learn” is that his flashes don’t show the future as it must be, but only as it might be. That perhaps the woman who spoke to him in the jewelry store overstated the case for “course correction”.

Some evidence of this is found in examining the woman’s claim logically. Presumably, the reason one “must” die when “his time comes” is because, in some sense, he’s finished serving his purpose in the cosmos and/or his death in a particular manner in a particular place at a particular time IS his purpose in the cosmos. But if the universe actually does “course correct”, then there is the possibility that, when a person is saved, the “corrected cosmos” will no longer require this person’s immediate death and/or will have a renewed purpose for the once-doomed individual. (In fact, this always seemed to be the case for Charlie… each time he survived there was some new life-threatening mission for him to take on, a new purpose.) If the woman in the jewelry store was correct, her reasoning can be used to justify not saving a life OR to justify continuing to save it until it is no longer “required” to be lost. (Of course, this logic also does suggest that the person who no longer has to die is merely replaced by someone else who must suffer an untimely death, but I digress…)

More evidence is seen in Desmond’s flashes of the parachutist. Recall that Desmond had a flash of Charlie dying, but in that very same “flash session” he saw Charlie helping cut the parachutist down (which, naturally, he couldn’t have done dead). Desmond saw two possible futures, not just one. And if you watch that episode, you may notice a moment where Desmond is starting to realize that his flashes might not be what he thought they were.

More evidence still can be found in analyzing the evolution of Desmond’s character. He thinks himself a coward and he struggles with the notion that he’s fated to be this way. He wants to change it. He wants to earn his honor. (His honor was what he told Penny he was “running to” in the boat race. His use of this phrase makes reference to advice given to him by his monk mentor, apparently a friend of the jewelry store lady.) But everything he tries seems, in his mind, to take him right back to where he started. Being with Penny is the prize that will prove to him that he was able to overcome his fate, and this is why she’s so important. But the jewelry store lady seemed to be quite clear in suggesting that nothing can change one’s destiny.

And yet at one point he believed that John saved him so that he could save John, and he summoned the courage to activate the failsafe, certain it would kill him if he did. And at another point he saved Charlie even though he was certain it would cause him never to see Penny again.

So, I conclude that, as a character, Desmond is supposed to learn how to let go of these notions of fate and inevitability and, rather, learn to live in the moment, making choices with confidence and courage and the certain knowledge that those choices make a difference.

So what happened with his last flashes in regard to Charlie? Here’s what I propose if we are to suppose that they advanced the evolution of Desmond’s character.

What Desmond really learned from the flashes was that contact would be made with Penny. He also learned that Charlie was the only person who would be able to make that happen (as we saw was true with the “musical solution” to turning off the jamming device). Desmond knew the station wasn’t flooded. And yet he did see a flash of Charlie dead, floating in the water. But I think he might also have seen a flash of Charlie on the beach while terrible things were going on there. Death. Destruction. Things that had never happened before, and nor did they seem about to happen, so that they could only represent events taking place after the Looking Glass mission was over (perhaps indicating a future where Charlie didn’t go to the Looking Glass OR one where he survived the mission). One thing that Desmond definitely didn’t see, however, was anyone being rescued.

At first he told Charlie he didn’t have any flashes, but this wasn’t just a casual lie. He didn’t know what to make of them yet. Like his previous flashes, they were contradictory.

But eventually he decided that he’d just have to make up his own mind in terms of what the flashes meant. He concluded that contacting Penny would have to equal rescue. But, also, he decided that the timeline where Charlie survived was one where Penny wasn’t contacted, and as a result terrible things would befall the crash survivors. In some ways, this was just like with his previous flashes, but with those flashes he’d feared that disturbing the timeline would only sacrifice Penny. Desmond decided that, this time, disturbing the timeline would put everyone in jeopardy. (Thus, Desmond’s evolution in understanding the flashes and in coping with them takes a step forward.)

So he made up the story about Claire and Aaron being rescued, because he knew it would ensure that Charlie would accept the mission. On the road that proves that one is courageous, Desmond had passed the test in being able to sacrifice himself (the failsafe). He had passed the test in being able to sacrifice what he wanted more than anything in the world (saving Charlie when they were out to find the parachutist). Now he would have to pass the test of sacrificing someone else’s life for the greater good (just as the jewelry store lady allowed the man in the red shoes to die for the greater purpose of the cosmos). The choice WAS his, because the flashes clearly showed that Charlie could die or not, and since only Desmond realized this, only he could decide which would happen. The key was for him to do what classic oracles do… tell the proper person just the thing he needs to hear, whether or not it’s perfectly true.

Desmond knew, then, that he would find refuge in the Looking Glass when he dove into the water to escape Mikhail’s sniping. And Charlie might have thought to escape the room he was in and seal the door shut from the outside if he hadn’t become convinced that dying was the only way to save Claire and Aaron. What convinced him? Well, with the revelation from Penny, suddenly it was uncertain if Naomi’s folks were actually there to rescue anyone. But he believed that Desmond DID see Claire and Aaron rescued. And he believed Desmond DID see him die. And Desmond HAD told him that if anything was changed in the flashes, then some of them might not happen. So at that moment sacrificing himself seemed to Charlie like the only guarantee of Claire and Aaron being rescued.

And when Charlie told Desmond that the rescue boat wasn’t Penny’s, Desmond realized his terrible error. Charlie didn’t have to die. The terrible things Desmond foresaw coming to the beach were still coming… and it was because of what he and Charlie accomplished in the Looking Glass.

As often happens in the show, when someone finally steps up to his or her power to make choices there is a test. John’s reward, for example, for totally throwing himself into the “Man of Faith” camp has only been test after test after test, some of which he has failed spectacularly. And now, Desmond finally tries to take command of his “flashes” rather than being a slave to them. In a sense he accepts his mantle as an “oracle” and fills in the blanks himself, determined to use his gift for the benefit of everyone on the beach. He calls upon the courage and spirit of sacrifice he’s already developed, sending Charlie to the slaughter not to satisfy his own selfish wants, but for the greater good of the community. And in return he’s going to learn he overreached his confidence and lead Charlie to a pointless death (practically a suicide) while at the same time dooming all of his new friends. The point in all of this for the development of Desmond’s character is… will he allow all of this to cause him to take an enormous step backward? Or will he find some way to learn from his error, regroup, and actually grow from the experience (in a similar manner that we might supposed John responded to his being wrong about the Swan Station)?

Of course… I could be totally wrong about all of this. But it seems to me that this way of looking at things plugs a few bothersome holes in the last two episodes of season 3.