Lost without Desmond Hume |

Last night, as I jogged alongside Michelle on the treadmill at our local gym, I spied an episode of Lost on the tv screen in front of me. Tonight’s episode happened to be a Desmond episode. Great! As usual, I did not know what was going on in the episode because I made the conscious decision to hold off watching the rest of the last season after being left utterly confused by its premiere episode.

So, for many weeks, I avoided Lost recaps on various blogs/websites. I turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to all things Lost. I avoided looking at twitter posts after each Lost episode aired. I did not want to hear anything about the show. I wanted to purchase the boxed set of Season 6 and watch the entire season in one go – no commercial breaks, no ‘what could it mean’ discussions after the appearance of the Bad Robot, none of it.

On all occasions, I would quickly change the channel when Lost came on; but, fortunately, I was not true to form last night. How could I take my eyes off the screen? It’s a Desmond episode. Desmond is arguably one of the best characters on the series in addition to having the best story arc of any Lost character. I had to watch the episode. Confusion be damned. After the final credits flashed and the opening of V began, I thought the following to myself:

“Man, I am really going to miss Desmond Hume.”

At the moment between treadmill and sweat, I realized that I had gradually developed a man-crush on the character of Desmond Hume over the seasons. How did this happen?

Let me be clear in saying that I have a man-crush and not a crush on Desmond Hume. A man-crush is defined as the following in the urban dictionary (could not find it in my trusted Oxford Dictionary):

When a straight man has a “crush” on another man, not sexual but kind of idolizing him.

This perfectly defines the feeling that I have for Desmond Hume. When my little brother was nine, he had a poster of Dylan Mckay (Berverly Hills 90210 version 1.0) hanging on his bedroom wall. My brother idolized Dylan McKay/Luke Perry who was at the height of his popularity during the show’s heyday. I, being the older brother, had the duty and the right to tease him to no end in sight. In my then pubescent-mind, I could not rationalize this idolization and fascination with Dylan McKay. Dylan Mckay? Come on, man! Why not have posters of Cindy Crawford and Janet Jackson like I did? In retrospect, I finally understand the feeling that my brother had, and I apologize to him for my goading even though I would never put a poster of a guy wearing acid-washed jeans and a matching jean shirt on my sacred bedroom wall space. Sorry.

Now, back to Desmond Hume. I could not put my finger on it. Was it his Scottish accent? Was it his perpetual looks of confusion and bewilderment throughout the seasons (see bottom of post)? Was it the fact that life always seemed to give him a raw deal due to no fault of his own? Was it the fact that he is one of the shows most sympathetic and likable characters? Was it ‘the constant’ love he shared for Penny despite all the gaps of time and of distance? Or, was it simply ‘The Constant’ episode? Man, that episode. If you do not remember that episode, Desmond reconnects with Penny on the phone after they both searched for one another all of those years. Be sure to watch the following scene by clicking here (youtube won’t allow me to embed the video) and come back.

Now, after watching this scene, you cannot tell me that it did not affect you in some way (Lost fan or not). You cannot tell me that the scene did not play on your heart strings. You cannot tell me that this scene did not well up some type of emotion. If you say the scene didn’t affect you, you are simply lying to yourself. Lies. Mentiras!

When I first watched this scene, this African man from Texas began to tear up. Mind you, I reserve those kind of tears for pivotal moments in television and film history like The ‘fall’ of Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings or the death of Optimus Prime in Transformers (the 80′s not the Michael Bay variety).

Desmond, you had me at hello.

So, I guess I am off to Hulu to catch up on all the episodes that I missed. My sabbatical from Lost has finally ended. Thank you, Desmond. See you in another episode, brother.