LogFAQs > #951479672

#2. Desmond Hume


And here we have it! My second-favorite character from LOST is pretty widely regarded as a top-tier guy--and for good reason. Desmond is consistently amazing throughout the series and has given us some of the best moments the show has to offer. The discovery of The Hatch. "Not Penny's Boat." The phone call from "The Constant." Just when you start to think things are getting stale, a Desmond episode comes along to reignite the hype and that wonderful feeling that LOST can bring at its peak.

As you'll note in my write-up for Sawyer, I really enjoy the characters who have realistic reactions to the insanity of the events on The Island. It not only makes those characters more relateable on a human level, but it also grounds the show in a certain sense of realism that helps separate it from the SyFy channel schlock that it could have been. And Desmond exemplifies this perfectly in season 2. After spending years saving the world on a daily basis in The Hatch, Desmond is a broken man. The conviction he had in earnestly believing that something terrible would happen if he stopped pressing the button turns him into a lunatic, which is completely understandable. But when he starts to believe that everything about these past few years of his life was a lie, he does what any of us would probably do--drinks rum straight out of the bottle and stays hammered all day. How could you not love that?

As much as I love Desmond's little season 2 arc and how it serves as a microcosm for faith, he gets even better as the series progresses, culminating in season 4. Once he essentially is "unstuck in time," Desmond arguably becomes the most important character on the show. Time travel is a really precarious trope to introduce anywhere, especially in a series that is supposed to be somewhat grounded in reality, and the LOST writers are somehow able to make it work, all thanks to Desmond. I don't need to repeat this again, but "The Constant" is easily the best episode of the show, arguably one of the best episodes of television ever, and it is the very moment that most of us probably began to realize we care more about Desmond than any of the Flight 815 survivors, despite spending the whole series with them.

By the time LOST wrapped up, there's not a single person you want to see have a happy ending more than Desmond. In a way, his journey is the most grueling. He has been on the Island longer than most; he lives in the past, present, and future simultaneously; and all he really wants is to be left alone with his wife and son. And as much as I began to hate the series by its conclusion, I would totally watch another season where Hurley and Ben try to help Desmond get back to Penny again. And that says a hell of a lot.