Season 2, Episodes 23 and 24:
Live Together, Die Alone
In flashbacks, Desmond is dishonorably discharged from the Royal Scots Regiment. He is picked up by his ex-girlfriend Penny's father, Charles Widmore, who informs him she is getting married. Desmond meets Libby, who gives him her boat, the Elizabeth, to compete in a sailing race around the world sponsored by Widmore. Penny meets Desmond at the stadium the night he met Jack, and tries to convince him to stay. Desmond's boat crashes on the Island, and he is rescued by Kelvin Inman, who tells him the Island outside the Swan is toxic. Desmond discovers Kelvin has been secretly repairing his boat and planned to leave. They fight, and Desmond accidentally kills him. Rushing back to the Swan, he pushes the button after the time limit, which causes a "System Failure". On the night of Boone's death, Desmond plans to kill himself, but stops when he hears Locke banging on the Hatch door.
On the Island, Jack discovers a drunken Desmond on board the Elizabeth, having been unable to sail away from the Island. Eko locks Locke out of the Swan when he tries to stop him pushing the button. Locke tells Desmond about the Pearl. The two lock Eko out of the computer room, and wait to see what happens if the button isn't pushed. He and Charlie try and fail to break into the room with dynamite. Reading the Pearl Station readouts, Desmond realizes the "System Failure" was the date of the Oceanic crash, and that he crashed the plane. Locke destroys the computer, forcing Desmond to turn a failsafe key and destroy the station. The sky lights up purple, and an earthquake is felt all over the Island. Desmond, Eko and Locke's fates are not revealed, but Charlie makes it to the beach and reconciles with Claire.
Sayid proposes that he use the Elizabeth to follow Jack's group by sea and help them ambush the Others. He is joined by Jin and Sun. Jack confronts Michael, who admits to his treachery and killing Ana Lucia and Libby. Sayid finds the Others' camp, abandoned. The Others ambush Jack's group and capture them. Henry Gale, who is revealed to be their leader, gives Michael Walt and a boat, and tells him to follow a precise bearing to leave the Island. Hurley is told to return to camp and tell the rest of the survivors that Jack, Kate and Sawyer have been taken prisoner.
In a remote, snowy research station, two men detect an electromagnetic anomaly. They call Penny, and tell her that they've "found it".
Tropes in this episode include:
- Armor-Piercing Question: While Michael claims that Libby's death was an accident, he is unable to give an answer when Hurley asks if he still would have killed her if he'd had time to think about it.
- As You Know: Sayid reminds Jack of the conversation they had at the end of the previous episode, even though it was just a few hours ago.
- Ascended Meme: Sawyer tells Hurley that he thinks the Others are either aliens or leftover members of the DHARMA Initiative, both of which were actual theories held by fans at the time.
- Audience Surrogate: Desmond's flashbacks help answer a number of lingering questions about the Hatch, like what the Incident was, why so much is obviously missing from the orientation film, and the origin of the invisible map.
- Bittersweet Ending: Charlie and Claire reconcile, Walt is reunited with Michael, and Penny discovers the location of the Island, indicating that rescue may be on the way for the survivors. However, Jack, Kate, and Sawyer have been taken prisoner by the Others, and Michael is a Karma Houdini for killing Ana Lucia and Libby and escapes the Island with Walt. Meanwhile, Desmond, Eko, and Locke's fates are left unclear after the Hatch has blown up with them inside.
- Bookends: During the final scene of the episode "Make Your Own Kind of Music" played on the sitar can be heard faintly in the background. The same song played during the opening scene of the season premiere.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Eko uses Locke's "Don't tell me what I can't do" against him when he tries to convince him not to push the button.
- Brick Joke:
- Sawyer finally realizes that "caught in a net" is not an Unusual Euphemism when Kate explains how she and Jack were literally caught in a net.
- In a more literal sense, Locke meets Desmond again and asks "What did one snowman say to the other snowman?" Desmond replies with the punchline "Smells like carrots!"
- The Bus Came Back: Desmond returns after having not been seen since he fled the Island in the season premiere.
- Call-Back: Sayid gathers some leaves that burn with a dark black smoke, a reference to the signal fire they saw in "Exodus."
- Chekhov's Gun: Charlie and Eko try to use the dynamite that Hurley planned to use to blow up the food supply in the Swan to blast their way into the computer room. Subverted, since it doesn't work.
- Cliffhanger: Jack, Kate and Sawyer are captured by the Others, and the fates of Desmond, Eko and Locke are uncertain after the destruction of the Swan.
- A Day in the Limelight: Desmond gets his backstory fleshed out and becomes a major player in the survivors' story. Although he was originally intended only to appear in the first three episodes of the season, the writers decided to bring him back for the finale and beef up his role due to his unexpected popularity.
- Driven to Suicide: Kelvin tells Desmond that this happened to his previous partner, Radzinsky, after going insane from being stuck in the Swan pushing the button for years. Desmond very nearly goes the same way, but is stopped by hearing Locke banging on the Hatch door after Boone's death.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Desmond is found on the boat completely skunk drunk, and he spends much of the next day drinking right from the bottle.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing:
- Sayid finds the Others' camp that Michael described, completely abandoned, and discovers that the DHARMA Station he saw there is just a fake door. In the next scene, Jack realizes Michael has been leading them to a completely different place when he sees Sayid's signal fire, but it's too late as the group are ambushed and defeated by the Others.
- Jack's group discover that the pneumatic tubes carrying the notebooks written by the workers in the Pearl Station lead to a field in the middle of nowhere, although they don't understand the significance of this. In the next scene, Desmond comes to the conclusion that they were the true subjects of the "psychological experiment", and the button is real after all.
- Foreshadowing:
- When Sayid asks for the boat to get to the other side of the island, Desmond asks if he wants to see the "hostiles." This is an early indication of the DHARMA Initiative's contentious relations with the Others.
- Penny tells Desmond that with enough money and determination, you can find anyone. The end of the episode reveals that she has found him on the Island.
- Given Name Reveal: Ms. Klugh reveals that Mr. Friendly's name is Tom, which he lampshades by sarcastically thanking her and revealing that her name is Bea. Despite this, fans continued to refer to him as "Mr. Friendly" until the showrunners eventually
declared that his full name is Tom Friendly.Bea: She says she's knows your beard's fake, Tom.Tom:[...] thanks for telling them my name, Bea. - Heroic Sacrifice: Desmond turns the key to blow up the Swan and save everyone from the deadly release of the energy inside when the button isn't pushed. Although he's in a state of Uncertain Doom afterwards, it's clear that he believes this will kill him.
- I Never Got Any Letters: After Desmond is released from prison Charles Widmores reveals that he intercepted all the letters Desmond tried to send to Penny so she'd think he didn't care and move on with her life.
- Just Following Orders: Kelvin mocks Desmond for getting kicked out of the British Army for failing to follow orders, before admitting why he was kicked out of the US Army.Desmond: Why'd you leave your army, Kelvin, huh?Kelvin: (beat) Because men followed my orders.
- Missed Him by That Much: Desmond and Libby never have a chance to reunite and discuss their previous meeting as she dies just before he arrives at the survivors' camp. He even arrives during her funeral.
- Morning Sickness: Sun pukes off the side of the boat while sailing around the island, and she tells Jin it isn't seasickness.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Locke gives a terrified "I was wrong" when the system failure begins to destroy the Hatch.
- Once More, with Clarity: It's revealed that the light in the Hatch in "Deus Ex Machina" was turned on by Desmond, who had been planning to commit suicide but was given renewed hope by hearing Locke banging on the door and realizing there were other people on the Island.
- One Degree of Separation:
- Desmond has a chance encounter with Libby at a coffee shop, and she gives him her dead husband's sailboat, which is how he ends up on the Island in the first place. For added irony, he ends up sailing the boat into sight of the survivors during her funeral.
- Desmond's former partner in pushing the button, Kelvin, turns out to be the same U.S. soldier who made Sayid torture his commanding officer.
- Retcon: The format on the Pearl computer printout is different than it was in "?".
- The Reveal:
- Henry is not just the ordinary Mook for the Others that he appeared to be; he's their leader.
- Desmond's failure to push the button was the cause of the crash.
- Hurley was never meant to be a prisoner for the Others; he was brought along because he'll take the longest to get back to the rest of the camp with the message of their capture.
- Sequel Hook: The final scene reveals that Penny has found the Island, setting the stage for a major storyline of the next two seasons.
- Steel Eardrums: Averted by Charlie whose hearing is affected by being near the Hatch when it implodes. When he arrives back at the camp he struggles to hear Bernard asking him what happened.
- Trash the Set: The intense electromagnetic force tears the living area of the Hatch apart before Desmond finally destroys the bunker.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Sayid sees Desmond's return as fortuitous, as he can use the boat to reach the Others' camp more quickly. After that, he would meet with Jack's group and attack the camp together. Unfortunately, Sayid finds the camp to be abandoned, and Michael leads the group several miles away from the beach where they would rendezvous, leading them right into the Others' trap.
- Wham Episode: The button is revealed to have been real after all, and the failure to push it is the reason Flight 815 crashed on the island. When Locke smashes the computer, Desmond activates the fail safe to destroy the hatch, which seems to release a massive amount of energy that Penny is able to locate. In addition, Jack, Kate, and Sawyer are now prisoners of the Others.
- Wham Shot: After Desmond's flashback to the system failure, he finds a section of the printout that repeats "system failure" on the day that Flight 815 crashed.Desmond: I think I crashed your plane.
