Lost/The Tempest

The Tempest

The Tempest, is one of the stations built by the DHARMA Initiative. This station was revealed in "The Other Woman."

Purpose

The Tempest was supposedly constructed by the DHARMA Initiative as a power station to provide electrical power for the other DHARMA stations scattered throughout the island. However, the station was capable of manufacturing chemical weapons, contained canisters of toxic gas and was capable of deploying this gas across the entire island. It is not currently known if the Tempest is in fact a power station or solely a poison gas production and storage facility, but comments made by executive producer Damon Lindelof in the March 10, 2008 Official Lost Podcast suggest its primary function was the production of chemical weapons. The station was manned by the Others after they used the station in their purge of the DHARMA Initiative. One such Other who worked at the station was Goodwin.

The Station

The exterior of the Tempest.

The Tempest is located roughly a day's walk from the Oceanic survivor's camp and a little less than a kilometer away from the barracks. As with other DHARMA stations, the Tempest is located underground as it was built into the side of a mountain. The only visible entrance is located near the peak and offers a view of the ocean in the distance. It was at one time protected by a keypad control panel, much like those on the pylons which protect the barracks, but the panel was disabled when Juliet Burke came to the station in "The Other Woman". A sliding door protects the entrance to the station and can be manually opened via a pulley system.

A corridor leads from the entrance of the station to the second floor of the main room. The room contains numerous pieces of equipment, several large tanks and canisters, and a computer control terminal. A monitor in the Tempest listed several chemical compounds including O-ethyl-S-[2(diisopropylamino)ethyl] methylphosphonothiolate, which is VX nerve agent. This chemical weapon was used in the past by the Others when it was released across the island, purging it of the DHARMA Initiative.

Daniel Faraday and Charlotte Lewis traveled to the Tempest without telling the Oceanic survivors. Benjamin Linus had a message relayed to Juliet telling her the two were going to release the gas in the Tempest to kill everyone on the island. Juliet confronted the two inside the station and learned from Faraday that they were trying to render the gas inert. With a containment failure in progress and time running out, Juliet allowed Faraday to continue his work and the gas was neutralized before containment was breached.

The interior of the Tempest.

Trivia

The exterior of the Tempest is actually Cooper Battery, a World War II-era coastal defense gun battery located on Kualoa Ranch on O'ahu. The interior of the battery has been turned into a museum featuring many of the movies filmed on the ranch property.