Lost: Why Desmond Had Time Travel Powers

screenrant.com:

In ABC’s Lost show, Desmond Hume (Henry Ian Cusick) possessed unique time travel abilities. Despite not being one of the Flight 815 passengers, Desmond turned out to be one of the show’s most important characters. Much of his significance to Lost’s story can be attributed to his ability to travel to different time periods.

Originally, time travel was one genre that had no role to play inLost. However, that began to change when Desmond became a main character. In a season 3 episode, Lost moved in a brand-new direction by implying that Desmond remembered being on the island during his 1996 flashback story. Of course, that seemed impossible since he hadn’t arrived on the island at that point. Then in season 4, Lost took things to the next level by putting Desmond’s consciousness in the body of his 1996 self in the critically-acclaimed episode, “The Constant”. Desmond’s discovery of time travel paved the way for the main characters’ own experience with the concept in Lost season 5 when the island became displaced in time.

Related: Lost: Why Walt Was So Important (& Why The Show Dropped Him)

Desmond being such a special case among the show’s cast of characters can be attributed to the events of the season 2 finale. When Locke and Desmond stopped Charlie and Mr. Eko from pressing the button in the Dharma facility, it triggered a massive release of electromagnetic energy. Preventing its release turned out to be the purpose of the Hatch and the numbers that had to be entered into the computer. To reverse their mistake, Desmond activated a failsafe to undo the process, and seemingly sacrificed himself to save everyone else. Having been so close to the explosion that destroyed the Hatch, Desmond was exposed to a tremendous amount