I’m sitting in front of my PC for almost an hour, wondering what to write about this week’s episode of Lost, “Catch 22”, and I’m completely blank. For some reason, it just didn’t register with me. Things happened, we learned new information but still, I can’t find what to write about it.
So what happened? It was a Desmond episode. His previous episode was really good, but this one flopped, which is a shame because on paper, it should have been a good one. We learned more about Desmond’s history, or Brother Desmond, as he should be called. The flashback started when he was accepted as a monk and ended when he left the monastery. What brought him there? Fear of commitment. Instead of getting married he ditched a girl and ran away to the monastery. What took him away from there? The girl’s brother, with one punch. But that punch changed his life, as on the day he left Desmond met a girl named Penelope, and the rest is history. Or future, whatever time frame Desmond’s stories take place in.
Back on the island, Des had another premonition. He saw himself, Charlie, Jin and Hurley hiking in the woods, looking for someone who fell from a chopper, and just as they find that person, Charlie stumbles onto a booby-trap and dies. When Des asks Charlie to join the hike, Charlie smells something fishy but joins anyway. During the night they see someone jump from a chopper or a plane. Des believes this is Penny, thanks to some flashes in his premonition. It seems like Des is willing to let Charlie dies, as long as it means he’s reunited with Penny, but at the very last second he saves Charlie, at the expense of finding the jumper. Charlie realizes Des knew he was going to die and brought him along anyway, so naturally he’s pissed, but they continue to look for the jumper. They finally find her, thinking shes dead, but realizing she’s not. However, it’s nor Penny. It’s a woman we’ve never seen before, that carries a picture of Des and Penny. Who is she? How did she find the island? We’ll find out, hopefully, next week.
Elsewhere on the island, the Jack/Kate/Sawyer triangle is getting more and more complicated. Jack prefers to spend time with Juliet, which sends Kate running into Sawyer’s bed. Of course he takes anything he can get (after asking for it earlier) but once he realizes he’s just second choice for her, his attitude seems to change. His ping-pong game with Jack later is more like a pissing contest between the two, and Sawyer made sure to point out this is the first thing he’s better than Jack in.
Like I said earlier, this episode must have looked really good on paper. There’s a flashback that actually contributes to the character (Brother Desmond), an interesting story with the hike and the premonition, the intrigue of whether Desmond will sacrifice Charlie or Penny (When we thought it was Penny), some sexual tension and the big finale with the new person on the island. But somehow it just wasn’t good. Nothing seemed to click and watching this episode actually felt like a task. I realize that not all episodes can be winners, but after a lackluster start this season, Lost managed to become a hot show once again that drew me in deep into the stories. That’s why I’m more disappointed with a bad episode of Lost than I am with a bad episode of ER, for example. But since Lost has really been on a hot streak lately, I also know that they can bounce back with some great episodes in the final stretch of the season.
