Why did the Others leave Desmond in the Hatch?

[RoJoHen]

When we first meet Desmond, he has been stuck at the Hatch pushing a button for the last couple years. He had a partner, but he died.

Now, I'm assuming that the Others knew Desmond was there. So why did they leave him there? Why weren't they pushing the button themselves? Why didn't they kidnap him and convert him like they did with Cindy and the kids from Flight 815?

Did they just not care?

 

[Checkmate]

The entire premise of the show, including who and what the Others were, was completely different in the first two seasons. Dharma wasn't just a hippie commune of scientists studying magnetism; they were a secret organization participating in occult studies and experiments. The Others were a mysterious force tied directly to the island who were completely antagonistic and vulnerable to technology, not just normal people, doctors and scientists who were brought there on a whim. etc.

My point is that you really can't look back at the concepts that were being presented early on and try to rationalize too much with what the writer's decided to go with in the last few seasons. The majority of it just doesn't make sense. Desmond's existence is a prime example of that. Hell, the timer having heiroglyphics on it, alone, makes absolutely no sense especially now that we actually know what was going on.

Personally I'm still upset with what Dharma turned into. It was much cooler when they were into the occult and performing macabre, paranormal experiments. The greasy-haired 70's hippie type thing was a major downturn for the series for me. Same thing with the neutering of the Others. They were mother-fucking super-ninjas of the jungle. But now even Kate can outskill them in the jungle.

 

[RoJoHen]

As much as I know that things change during the course of writing a show, there is no reason why we can't try and reconcile some of the inconsistencies ourselves. The big selling point for this show is the mystery of it all, and mysteries demand to be solved. Whether the writers knew what they were doing or not is irrelevant. Things still happened in the first 2 seasons, and it's fun to try and make sense of them.

 

[Starbreaker]

It was just easier for Desmond to stay there and push the button than for them to have to send an Other over there to do it, I guess.

 

[joVuNik]

To reconcile it with what we know up to now, it could be something as simple as Jacob telling the Others to leave him alone, to leave him be.

Maybe because he was special? Maybe because he was a candidate? Desmond's story has yet to be told in this final season, so we could still learn more in regards to your query...

 

[Mallet]

Yah, we could learn more, but it really still makes no sense.

The Other's knew he was there. We have to assume they knew how important pressing the button was, yet they still left it up to one guy who could have missed pushing it (which he almost did) or who could have died, committed suicide, been knocked unconscious or hurt and not been able to push the button. And with only 108 minutes there was an amazing chance that not Other could have reached there in time to enter the numbers.

So either the Other's didn't care if the numbers were entered because it was all fake/a test and nothing major would happen if there wern't pressed. or... They were stupid.

 

[RoJoHen]

Or maybe someone was ALWAYS watching him. Maybe they were experimenting with him for some reason.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

The entire premise of the show, including who and what the Others were, was completely different in the first two seasons. Dharma wasn't just a hippie commune of scientists studying magnetism; they were a secret organization participating in occult studies and experiments. The Others were a mysterious force tied directly to the island who were completely antagonistic and vulnerable to technology, not just normal people, doctors and scientists who were brought there on a whim. etc.

My point is that you really can't look back at the concepts that were being presented early on and try to rationalize too much with what the writer's decided to go with in the last few seasons. The majority of it just doesn't make sense. Desmond's existence is a prime example of that. Hell, the timer having heiroglyphics on it, alone, makes absolutely no sense especially now that we actually know what was going on.

Personally I'm still upset with what Dharma turned into. It was much cooler when they were into the occult and performing macabre, paranormal experiments. The greasy-haired 70's hippie type thing was a major downturn for the series for me. Same thing with the neutering of the Others. They were mother-fucking super-ninjas of the jungle. But now even Kate can outskill them in the jungle.

Are there any websites or interviews that elaborate on these original plans? I'd never heard this before.

 

[Mallet]

Or maybe someone was ALWAYS watching him. Maybe they were experimenting with him for some reason.

Even if they were, they still wouldn't have time to get to the hatch and enter the numbers if he decided not to push them at the last moment, or if he tripped and knocked himself unconscious 1min before the time ran out.

In fact we know that they wern't watching/able to step in and stop it, because of the one time he did not reach the computer until it was almost too late (when he crashed flight 815). If they had been standing by, ready to step in and enter the numbers in an emergency they would have done it that time.

So, if they were watching him, they wern't concerned about what would happen if the numbers wern't entered.

 

[RoJoHen]

Perhaps. It's certainly possible they don't know what the numbers actually meant. But what about the guy who was there with Desmond in the beginning? I was always under the impression that he was an Other...or am I mistaken?

 

[The Evil Dead]

I suppose if Jacob was guiding the lives of the "Candidates" toward the island, dating back as far as 1976 when a young James Ford's family is killed, he'd instruct Richard and the Others to leave Desmond alone knowing that Desmond Hume would eventually cause the crash of Oceanic 815? This theory depends on how much of future events Jacob is aware of.

 

[Starbreaker]

Perhaps. It's certainly possible they don't know what the numbers actually meant. But what about the guy who was there with Desmond in the beginning? I was always under the impression that he was an Other...or am I mistaken?

Kelvin Inman states that he was recruited by the Dharma Initiative... possibly defunct by this point... so I'm guessing it could have been a ruse by the Others... but sometime after the Gulf War. Inman had been there with Radzinsky... who must have been there for decades.

 

[Checkmate]

There's no way it was defunct. Up until recently, regular shipments of food and supplies, complete with the Dharma logo, were being shipped in.

Also, any answer that involves Jacob on this matter is the equivalent of saying a wizard did it.

 

[Mr Light]

The Others kept Desmond under constant surveillance with the Pearl, as we saw. Whether they believed in the button or not is up to debate since Ben constantly tried to get Locke to stop pushing it. I choose to believe they knew the truth about the button and were ready to storm the Swan the moment Des killed himself. Otherwise, he never left the station so they could never get the jump on him. Trying to cut into the Swan with him there and ready to defend it would have been suicide. That was the whole point of it, after all.

 

[Checkmate]

Funny, I seem to recall people getting in without Desmond commiting suicide.

 

[Delta1]

Let's turn the question around. Why would the Others have taken Desmond out of the hatch? They don't go around kidnapping everyone. They only kidnap children, pregnant women, and "good people." Everyone else is consigned to slowly go mad in their own corners of the island. Desmond, confined to the hatch, wasn't causing them any problems. Nor was a serial failure like Desmond a particularly inviting recruit. There was no reason to pull him out.

Dharma believed that a release of energy from the Swan site could destroy the world. The Others knew that, no matter what happened at the Swan, the island would not be destroyed by it. (Never mind that the island apparently was destroyed by the Swan site in one timeline, that was before the button.) They'd encountered Oceanic and Kahana survivors in the 50s and 70s, so they knew nothing catastrophic could happen until after Daniel Faraday arrived in 2004. They also knew where the Ajira flight would land, implying they knew the island would still be around in 2007. From the Others' point of view, the Swan site posed no danger to the island. There was no reason to take control of it.

 

[Checkmate]

No, the Others didn't know that. Not the ones we've been shown (greasy evilesque normal people from the real world), as opposed to the ones in the early seasons who were mystical superninjas and prophets. And as shown by a similar situation -- a nuke detonated at the heart of the weirdness -- the island could have sunk just as easily.

By the logic you're trying to argue, they shouldn't have to worry about doing anything since they already know that everything will work out just fine. So nothing need be done.

 

[Delta1]

"No, the Others didn't know that. Not the ones we've been shown (greasy evilesque normal people from the real world), as opposed to the ones in the early seasons who were mystical superninjas and prophets. And as shown by a similar situation -- a nuke detonated at the heart of the weirdness -- the island could have sunk just as easily."

I'm not saying all the Others had knowledge of the future. It would be sufficient for Richard to know a bit of the future; he could then influence Widmore and Ben by speaking ex Iacobo. And the island didn't sink when it got nuked, it's still there, crawling with Others and Losties and polar bears. There's no point in discussing what happened in an alternate timeline; the Others have no knowledge of that timeline and it has no bearing on their decision-making. Even I wouldn't argue that the Others know about the alternate timeline.

"By the logic you're trying to argue, they shouldn't have to worry about doing anything since they already know that everything will work out just fine. So nothing need be done."

No, they knew the Island would be just fine. Not "everything," just the Island and enough of a community to appoint John Locke leader. Other than that sure knowledge, everything was up in the air. They still had their self-interested motives--reproduction, Ben's cancer, Juliet's revolution, the affairs, book club selections, Jacob's demands, the feud with Widmore, etc. None of that was affected by what they knew of the future. All they knew was that that the Swan site would not destroy the world before late 2004, maybe 2007, and that John Locke would be their leader.

Edit: Musn't forget Ellie. She read Daniel's notebook in 77, or at least part of it. She knew the island would remain intact and accessible until 2004, when the Kahana expedition took place. She may even have known about the Ajira crash in 2007.

 

[Mallet]

Also the Other's didn't keep Desmond "under constant supervision" from the Pearl station. The Pearl Station was at least a two days walk away from the Other's barracks and as we saw when Ben & Juliet went there, no one else was watching the Swan station. The pearl was barley ever used.

And even if they were watching Desmond constantly, it wouldn't matter. If he suddenly died 1min before the numbers had to be entered the Other's would never be able to get into the Swan and enter the numbers in less then one min.

So they either had to have no idea about the computer and the numbers (possibly, but I doubt it since Ben used to deliver supplies to the Swan station when he worked for Dharma and he knew all the secrets of the Orchid Station so I doubt he didn't know about the Swan). So that means he had to know, but not care. meaning whatever would happen if the numbers wern't entered it wouldn't destroy the world or the Island. In fact remember at the end of season 2 when the hatch went boom? The Other's didn't seem to be to worried or upset about the sky turning purple, and the shaking, etc... After it happened they just shrugged and went back to kidnapping Jack, Kate and Sawyer.

Sure there was some strange energy under the Swan station, but it sure doesn't seem like it was powerful enough to destroy the world.

 

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

I wonder if The Others just flat out didn't know the story behind The Swan, or maybe they knew and figured they'd let Desmond take care of it.