"Catch 22"

In this episode, we find out why Desmond says “Brutha” all the time and what his visions actually look like. I did not like this episode the first time I saw it. I decided to watch it numerous times to see whether I missed something. But no, I just did not like it all. However, unlike some other LOST fans, I understand that not every episode will be a great episode, and not every episode will be an episode that I will enjoy. Unlike some LOST fans, I watch LOST and go for the ride even if the episode does not whet my appetite. I equate LOST to a thick novel: Some chapters are boring and some are exciting. Having said that, Let me discuss “Catch 22,” the Desmondcentric episode.

So far, I found that Desmondcentric episodes somewhat bizarre. Maybe I am not a very versed in Sci-Fi. I found “Flashes before Your Eyes” hard to follow and hard to understand. But as I said earlier, I am not very knowledgeable about Sci-Fi. Moreover, I will also admit that I have never read Catch 22. OK, don’t shoot me, I am not native to the United States and, by the time I started school in the United States, Catch 22 was not required reading in my school’s curriculum. But I know what the phrase catch 22 means. And Desmond was caught in a catch 22 situation. If he were to let Charlie die, Penelope would come to find him. If he were not let Charlie die, Penelope would come down to save them. Or was she?

The episode started with Charlie, Desmond, Jin, and Hurley are trekking through the jungle arguing whether Flash or Superman is the faster DC-comic character. Suddenly, we witness Charlie’s death. His throat is pierced with an arrow. Holy cow, what a way to start! Of course, it was just a glimpse of Desmond’s future visions.

As the episode progresses, we get similar glimpses of Desmond’s visions. Hurley finds the cable that goes out to the ocean, Charlie gets killed. Desmond’s job is to gather the people in his vision to go and fulfill the future. The silliest line I found was Hurley trying to convince Jin to come with them, “We’re going camping.” Camping? Come on, everyday they are camping. They live on an island with make-shift tents. But Hurley is funny, and Jin falls for it.

We get a glimpse of Jin telling ghost stories in Korean and Hurley and Charlie laughing their heads off. I’m sure that they didn’t understand Korean, but the friendship is definitely cemented.

On the beach, Sawyer enters Kate’s tent while she is dressing, and we get a glimpse of Kate’s underwear. Why has LOST lowered its standard to become a cheap-sex soap opera? Concentrate on the mystery and the characters. There is no need for the sex. No new viewers will be picked up with the gratuitous sex. Let’s face it, LOST needs to be watched from the beginning, so no new viewers will stay and watch the drama.

Sawyer found out that Jack was aware that he and Kate paired up at the Hydra. Hence, he requested some “afternoon delight” from Kate, which she refused. Later on in the evening, Kate flirted with Jack and got nowhere. It seems he is more interested in Juliet. This made Kate jealous and went to Sawyer and had angry sex. At this point, I am so sick and tired of Kate and her hormones. Hopefully, she’ll get pregnant and will be one of the five casualties we have been told will occur before the end of this season. I would rather have her die than Ben anytime.

The next day, Sawyer found out that he was being used by Kate. He confronted her, but still kept his tent door open for her to visit. So, Sawyer is not only horny, but he does like Kate. I wish that he’d wised up and drop her, once and for all.

During Desmond’s flashback we found out that he was previously engaged to marry a woman he dated for six years. Rather than telling her that he didn’t want to go through with the marriage, he gets drunk, and when he is sober joins a monastery to become a monk. Apparently, Desmond has commitment issues.

His ex-fiancée’s brother finds him in the monastery and gives him a bloody nose for having left his sister the way Desmond did. Desmond confronts his ex-fiancée and after he leaves her he feels guilty enough to start consuming the wine the monks make. He is found out savoring the wine and is fired from the monastery. Just as he is to leave the monastery, he meets Penny whose father is an avid consumer of the monks’ wine. So now we learned how he met his superrich girlfriend.

There is an interesting photo on the desk of the head monk. It is the monk and the clock-shop lady from “Flashes before Your Eyes.” It was this lady who predicted that Desmond’s life is pointless and he cannot escape his destiny. So is the monk a seer as well? I hope that we will find out the relationship that the monk and this lady have and what their motives towards shaping Desmond’s future is about.

At the camper’s beach, they witness a helicopter approaching and crashing. A blinking light of a parachutist is seen descending the sky. In the morning, they find the parachutist backpack. Inside there’s a Portuguese version of Catch-22 and a Xerox copy of Desmond’s picture with Penny. Desmond is sure that Penny is there to save him.

As they go on looking for the parachutist, the actual vision Desmond had earlier is now a reality. Charlie is about to die. As I said earlier, the whole purpose of the episode was to show that Desmond was caught in a bind. If he were to help Charlie, he might lose out on Penny. On the Other hand, could he let Charlie die? While in training as a monk, Desmond was dealing with similar dilemma while discussing Abraham’s sacrificing his son Isaac. Abraham was going to go through with it, but God intervened. My question is as follows: Who is not to say that God did not intervene in Charlie’s sacrifice? Desmond was going to let Charlie die, but then he pushed Charlie away from the path of the arrow. Hence, Desmond felt that the sequence of events was changed. In fact, we were shown that the parachutist was not Penny, but someone else. But who is to tell that she was not the one supposed to come and not Penny. After all, even before Charlie was supposed to die, the parachutist backpack had a Portuguese version of Catch 22.

Next episode is “D.O.C.” a Jin- and Suncentric episode.