Fail-safe

The Fail Safe

The Fail Safe Key

The fail safe is a mechanism in a crawlspace accessible through a trap door on the floor of the Swan. Kelvin drunkenly showed it to Desmond, telling him that it was a backup procedure that could be used in lieu of entering the Numbers and pushing the button, slurring that using the fail safe would "make it all go away".

Desmond came into possession of the key that triggers the fail safe by ripping it off Kelvin's neck after accidentally killing him on the day of the system failure and the Flight 815 crash (22 Sept 2004). The key appears to show The Swan's logo on it.

Desmond kept the key to the fail safe inside his copy of Our Mutual Friend, and eventually operates the fail safe after Locke destroys the computer (leading to a system failure when the numbers couldn't be entered) and electromagnetism begins to destroy the interior of the Hatch.

Activating the fail safe caused The Discharge.

Theories

• The Island is an anomalous energy field on the earth (as alluded to by Rose's healer). The Swan Station is a large capacitor storing the island's energy for experimental uses. In activating the fail safe they would be releasing all of the collected energy at once (like a camera flash does with a capacitor)...where as the numbers entered every 108 minutes would discharge small amounts of stored energy, so as not to "overload."
• The fail safe might be similar in concept to the escape hatch, in that both are meant to be used as last-ditch measures in case something in their respective stations (swan, staff) goes wrong.
• The fail safe does not cause The Discharge, but actually terminates it, much like a machine shop has an emergency panic switch.
• The entire conversation between Kelvin and Desmond is almost entirely euphemisms.

  Desmond: What is this?
   Kelvin: This is the only other way out, pardner.
  Desmond: What are you talking about?
   Kelvin: Fail safe! Turn this key and this all goes away. *poof!*
  Desmond: What's behind that wall, Kelvin? Huh? What was the incident?
   Kelvin: Electromagnetism - geologically unique. The incident?
           (scoffs) There was a leak. So now the charge builds up, and every time we push the button,
           it discharges it... before it gets too big.
  Desmond: Why make us do it - push the button? If we-If we could just...
   Kelvin: (laughing) Here's the real question, Desmondo... do you have the courage to take your finger out of the dam
           and blow the whole thing up instead?

• Notes for the above conversation:
  • Perhaps the only other way out refers to "out of the experiment" or "off the island"
  • Not necessarily the station, but perhaps the reason the scientists are on the island goes away.
  • Is the machine's function to generate the electromagnetism, or is it simply sitting on a unique location? Is it controlling it, or utilizing it like a power generator?
  • "A leak" could indicate an information leak rather than something of a more toxic nature. Someone in the world discovered the Hanso Foundation scientists working on this island. Once someone started investigating, the source of the problem was traced back to the electromagnetic charges, and thus put in policy a mandatory task to prevent it from happening again. Consider three levels: Green, Yellow, and Red. When Green, everything is how the scientists like it. Yellow, they run the risk of being detected and push the button. When it's Red, well, you have The Discharge. Therefore, in optimum conditions, the Hanso scientists might have discovered that this geographically unique electromagnetic field hides their work on the island. If they don't press the button, the field grows too big and becomes a notable curiousity they cannot hide.
  • The finger/dam comment... If you walk away, do you burn your bridges behind you? So why does Kelvin do it? (Did he ever really have a choice?) Why is a government spy for 10 years relegated to being a button pusher, and just how badly did he mess up to get that job?

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