Desmond vs. The Course Correctors

Desmond - "And when I woke up, I was lying on my back in the street, and I dunno how I got there and, there was this man standing over me, Ruth. And he reached out his hand and he said to me, can I help you brother. And the first thing I noticed was the rope tied round his waist, and I looked at him and I knew, I knew, I was supposed to go with him. I was supposed to go with him, I was supposed to leave everything that mattered behind, sacrifice all of it, for a greater calling."

This is how Desmond explains how he turned away from a married domestic life in pursuit of a higher purpose. He got drunk. He woke up to a monk standing over him, and suddenly his life took on a different course. There's a strong vein of an argument suggesting there are those that exist purely to ensure this doesn't happen by chance. Enter Brother Campbell.

So here's what I am proposing: that Brother Campbell, and Ms. Hawking, are both working together for the common purpose of ensuring that Desmond gets to the Island. Like guardian angels, if you like (but don't take that literally). I don't think it's an accident that, on his desk, Brother Campbell had a picture of he and Ms. Hawking together. At a stretch, I would even suggest that Charles Widmore is a 'member' of this group, too. He did send Penny to meet Desmond at the monastery, for one thing. And set-up a yacht race for another. I'm not saying these are a group as in they sit down and have meetings and discuss tactics; I am saying they are together in the sense of sharing a common goal.

My evidence? Well, the bizarre speech above serves up intrigue enough. Desmond saying he woke up in the street with no idea how he got there. . . Fair enough, anyone who has an affinity with heavy-drinking understands how that can happen! But where did this sudden, marked desire to join a monastery come from? For me, that speech alone doesn't explain it. Call it pre-marital jitters if you like, but joining a monastery to evade matrimony? That's a hell of a jitter.

Still, if getting Desmond into a monastery in pursuit of a higher purpose was the goal then it was achieved. And don't you think that forcing Desmond into a life of solitude breeds the perfect kind of person well suited to racing solo across the world? And, for that matter, pressing a button in an underground bunker every 108 minutes. . .? Is that all just coincidence? If it turns out that Charles Widmore is responsible for putting Desmond in prison, once more we have a period of enforced confinement inflicted on Desmond as a test for him to come through - which marks Charles out as ever more involved in Desmond's fate.

Of course, we should not mistake coincidence for fate.

It's just that when Ms. Hawking is factored in then it all becomes more compelling. When Desmond experiences his time-travelling event, with the apparent capacity to change his own destiny, up she pops to dictate that Desmond not veer from the destiny he already knows about. Pushing the button is the most important thing he'll ever do, she tells him, appealing to that part of him that already yearned to "sacrifice all of it, for a greater calling". So he once again turns away from Penny and accedes to 'fate'.

We should not mistake fate for coincidence.

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