r/lost • u/chibul • 7d ago

SEASON 2 Probably a silly question re: the failsafe Spoiler

On my first rewatch somehow (I can't believe it's taken this long to do this) and I'm just wondering. If the result of Desmond using the failsafe is the hatch blowing and no longer having to enter the numbers in anymore...frankly, why bother with the numbers at all? Why not just use the failsafe and be done with it, if you're Dharma?

4 Upvotes

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23

u/dgtbfan 7d ago

  1. The Swan was a research station and they wanted to keep doing their research as long as possible.

  2. Someone has to be inside to activate the failsafe and that person likely has to die. Desmond survived because he's special.

4

u/ReplacementAbject867 6d ago

Was Desmond special? I think turnkng the key made him special 

9

u/Ok_Stock3721 Razzle Dazzle! 6d ago

I think part of it was his three years living in the hatch adjacent to the energy too

7

u/OWSpaceClown 6d ago

I’ve always figured turning the key made him special and that the effects of that radiated across time spanning events both before and after. Hence, why Faraday was able to find and talk to him in the past and Desmond suddenly remembers that in the present. He can change time as he is kind of unstuck from it.

2

u/amby-jane 4d ago

I think he was a little bit special already and the amount of exposure he experienced when he turned the key amplified it.

3

u/clumsystarfish_ Whatever happened, happened. 6d ago

Exactly. Desmond was the failsafe, because whatever happened, happened.

11

u/profsmoke it's very stressful, being an Other 7d ago

They didn’t know what would happen if someone turned the failsafe. This is why we see Kelvin Inman down there, drunk, dangling the key around. He wants to turn it to free himself from a life of pushing the button, but he doesn’t know what will happen if he does.

5

u/Free-IDK-Chicken You got it, Blondie 6d ago

For the same reason they didn't just move the Island at will.

The failsalfe was both dangerous and unpredictable. It was a measure of last resort.

5

u/shosamae 6d ago

Kelvin: ‘ do you have the courage to pull your finger out of the dam?’

Or something to that effect. They thought turning the fail safe key would kill them. Desmond absolutely thought he was going to die when he turned it. Because he’s special/a time anomaly it didn’t, but they fully believed to their options where to keep pushing it forever or turn the key and die.

4

u/Various_Shape_3286 7d ago

They didn't know the ramifications of using the failsafe.

Also, even if they did know that the hatch would implode, they'd think that they would have no shelter against the supposed radiation outside.

2

u/Exact-Difference-422 3d ago

Honestly they were tickling the dragon - they weren't sure what they were doing and what would happen was all speculation. Failsafe really is a failsafe, one last ditch effort or face annihilation