Episode Report Card Daniel: B+ | 1 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT If you don't know Des by now, you will never, never, never know him.
By Daniel | Season 2 | Episode 23 | Aired on May 23, 2006
We flash back to a despondent Desmond in the hatch, sitting at the table, with a gun, and a bottle of booze, which he's in the process of polishing off. He's also got Our Mutual Friend. Ready to read, ready to die. He opens it, and an envelope falls out, simply labeled :"Desmond." He opens it and unfolds the letter, which is one of those special talking letters that record the writer's voice so you can hear it as you read it. The letter's from Penelope, which she says she's writing as Desmond's leaving for prison, and she's hiding it in the one place he'll turn to in a "moment of great desperation." In prison? I don't imagine it would have been so easy for Desmond to read while bent over, so whatever, Penelope. She says she knows he's going away "with the weight of what happened" on his shoulders, and he's the only one who can take it off. "Please don't give up, Des. Because all we really need to survive is one person who truly loves us. And you have her. I will wait for you. Despite the many suitors who keep coming around. Always. I love you. Pen."
Desmond starts crying, like a little baby. He folds up the letter, and sobs. He grabs the bottle and throws it. "It's all gone!" he screams. Then he goes over to the bookshelf, yelling and screaming and pulling the books off. And then the records. Not the records! He stops for a moment, to cry some more, and hears banging coming from somewhere above him, as well as Locke's muffled voice (not that he knows who Locke is yet). He runs down to the bottom of the shaft, and sees movement through the tiny window up top, and we hear Locke yelling, "I've done everything you wanted me to do? Why did you do this? Why?" So it's the night Boone died. And Desmond turns the light on, which we watch Locke's reaction to again. Well, at least it wasn't Desmond taking a dump. And I do think it's kind of cool that that night provided as important a sign to Desmond as it did for Locke. And Desmond starts to laugh.
Back to the present: Desmond opens the Dickens book, which is where he's hidden the failsafe key. He runs back into the computer room, where the timer is at 29 seconds. He shoves aside a cabinet, much to Locke's surprise when he sees Desmond open the grate underneath it. "Three days before you came down here, before we met, I heard a banging on the hatch door, shouting. But it was you, John, wasn't it? You said there isn't any purpose. There's no such thing as fate. But you saved my life, brother, so that I could save yours." Locke's sticking to his "none of this is real" story, and tells Desmond things are going to be okay. There's five seconds left. Desmond says he's gotta hustle, and Locke likewise needs to get as far away as possible. Locke wants to know where he's going. "I'm going to blow the dam, John," says Desmond, as the timer hits zero and starts flipping to the hieroglyphs. "I'm sorry for whatever happened that made you stop believing. But it's all real. And now I've got to go and make it all go away." Locke tells him to wait, but Desmond gives him his catchphrase: "I'll see you in another life, brother," and disappears down the tunnel.