Thursday, April 19. 2007
LOST: "Catch-22" [SPOILERS!]
Not quite as esoteric as "Flashes Before Your Eyes," "Catch-22" was another strange and wonderful look into the new-found time-seeing abilities of our favorite Scotsman, Desmond.
I have to say it was an interesting journey, and a grisly look at yet another of Charlie's "almost" fates. It also revisited Desmond's "theme" - if you will - of destiny vs. free will, as well as touching on his self imposed sentence of cowardice.
And a surprising event occurs which quite possibly is the most important event that's happened on the island this season....
I have to say it was an interesting journey, and a grisly look at yet another of Charlie's "almost" fates. It also revisited Desmond's "theme" - if you will - of destiny vs. free will, as well as touching on his self imposed sentence of cowardice.
And a surprising event occurs which quite possibly is the most important event that's happened on the island this season....
Mix Tapes Indeed
OK, lets get this one out of the way right quick. The Sawyer-Kate-Jack thing is apparently still in full swing, and we're led to believe that Kate still has feelings for Jack and uses Sawyer as a "feel good" to try and get over it. Natch. That's about it. Apart from the "barging into the tent scene" not much to go back and watch there.... Jack and Sawyer playing pingpong, joking about "we have to play every 108 minutes or the island explodes" etc. It is nice to see Sawyer "coming around" if you will and not being nearly the selfish meathead he had been. Mostly.
Now then! On to the good stuff.
Mt. Moriah
The flashback, at least we are led to believe this is a flashback and not another time travel adventure, is about Desmond, and the events leading up to his meeting Penelope Whidmore.
We start this story with Desmond alone and praying in a sparsely furnished, stone-walled room with a small window. Is he still in prison? What's the deal?
He's actually in a monastery! Didn't see that coming, didya? A monk comes in, and mentions the "vow of silence" and that it lasts "as long as we see fit." Apparently Desmond's period of silence is now ended. "Your path has led you here, and now you're one of us." (Subtle play on last week's episode? Maybe.) And we learn where Desmond gets his "brother" mannerism from.
Later, Desmond and the Prior (I did not catch his name! Who took these notes anyway!?) are in the wine cellar, bottling and labelling the latest batch. I think the allegory here to the hatch is kind of interesting....
The conversation turns to the label, which reads "Mt. Moriah." The Prior tells Desmond that it is the mountain where God told Abraham to take Isaac(!) to the mountain and sacrifice him as a test of Abraham's faith. Of course you'll remember that in the end, God spared Isaac just as Abraham was about to end it all.
Then a guy enters, and promptly lays one right on Desmond's nose. Ouch.
We're then brought to a house, where this same man opens the door. "Is your sister in?" Desmond asks. The sister, it seems, was nearly left at the altar (well, by a week anyway) by Desmond, and we get to learn a bit more about Desmond's cowardly past.
And more importantly we learn how he ended up at the Abbey. After he left her, he didn't remember anything until a week later, he woke up, on his back (just like after the Hatch imploded!) to the Prior, who helped him up.
At this point he "heard the calling" and realized that he was supposed to go with him, and leave everything that mattered behind him, to sacrifice all of it for a greater calling.
To which the jilted bride replies, "Good thing a shepard(!) didn't help you up, or you'd be off with the sheep right now." Ouch again. Nice touch with the "Shepard" reference as well, I think.
Return much later to Desmond, back in the wine cellar, partaking of some of the crop and singing, well something I didn't recognize. The prior finds him.
"Go ahead and give me my penance," Desmond says. "You're far beyond penance, Desmond." And he's "let go."
"But I heard the call!" "The Abbey isn't where you were meant to be. God has much bigger plans than you being a monk. You spend too much time running away to realize where you're going."
"What am I supposed to do now?" "Whatever comes next."
The final bit of this segment brings Desmond to the Prior's office, where he's turning in his robes and whatever else a monk might have I suppose.
On Guardian Angels
The "big easter egg" shows up, in the form of a photograph on the Prior's desk. In it are him, and none other than the mysterious jewelry-shop-lady from "Flashes!" Can I get a big, "Whoa! Dude!" from everyone. I'm not even going to speculate on the reasons why or what that might mean. Not yet. But, "Whoa! Dude!"
Then he mentions that he can do one last thing, and help load these crates of wine into this lady's car. This turns out to be none other than Penelope. The conversation runs from him getting fired, and that being here is just "one step along a path." "I don't believe that" she says. She offers to give him a ride out of there (I think, my notes were crap after this, I was still reeling from the picture!) to which he says, "I don't usually get in a car with strangers." "In that case, I'm Penny."
And then Desmond gets a look on his face that is quite interesting indeed. Whether that was meant as a clue that he's "seeing" something or "pseudo-remembering" or what, I don't know. Could just be me reading too much into it, but it seemed a little too thoughtful and outright concerned to be coincidence.
I should also note that the final scenes here were interspersed with quick edits from the final scenes from the other story....
Time's Arrow, and Other Pleasant Thoughts
...which involved Desmond's visions.
We start the episode with Desmond seeing more of his "flashes." This time of himself, Charlie, Hurley, and Jin marching through the jungle in the rain on some mission. Charlie and Hurley are having a comic-book-fanboy argument about Superman vs. The Flash, when Charlie steps on a tripwire, and promptly gets an arrow straight through the windpipe, and dies. Yikes!
Then there are more flashes of Hurley digging the cable out of the beach, and of a flashing red light in the sky.
He snaps out of it, on the beach with a fishing pole. He frantically starts looking around for Charlie, and once he spots him seems to calm down some.
Desmond finds Hurley, and questions him about the wire. "This is some more future crap, isn't it?" Hurley replies. "You've been seeing more flashes. What's this about?"
"Someone's coming," is the answer.
108 Pieces
He and Hurley manage to get a first aid kit from Jack with a bogus twisted ankle story, presumably for the someone who's coming. I can't imagine there's anything in there that'd help Charlie out, like an arrow-sized bandaid or something.
Then Desmond starts explaining his visions to Hurley. They are like a jigsaw puzzle, he says, and sometimes the pieces don't fit. Sometimes he can change the pieces so they do fit, and then the picture on the box changes. Sometimes in ways you don't want. In this case, however it's changing so he wants it to happen even more.
In a humorous bit, Hurley and Des go after Jin, and get him to go along (because he was in the vision, he has to be there.) The explanation is they're going on a "camping trip." Jin seems to catch on, laughing about "camping," but agrees anyway. Like they haven't been roughing it enough already, eh?
Then Desmond has to convince Charlie. He basically lies to Charlie and claims this has nothing to do with the visions, and of course he comes along, on the condition he brings his guitar. (Maybe he can club a boar with it or something?)
And so they go marching off, whistling the tune from "Bridge on the River Kwai," when they find the cable, and decide to camp there. "When does he get here? (speaking of the mysterious arrival)" "Soon."
Korean Ghost Stories
Another bit of comedy relief ensues, with Jin telling ghost stories in Korean with the obligatory flashlight-lit face. (Anyone care to translate?)
Desmond however is having none of this, and is off "in the corner" with his photograph of him and Penny. Charlie comes to him, and after a bit of conversation, asks "how did you manage to leave her behind?"
"Because I'm a coward. I tried to run away and she tracked me down." He brings up the "enough money and determination" bit from the season 2 finale, and says "It's nice to think she never gave up, that she's still trying to find me."
And then we hear it. A helicopter off in the distance. They all hear it and start scanning the sky. Then the sound changes, not for the better, and disappears altogether. Followed by the sound and image of a splashdown in the distance. Desmond is panicking at this point, thinking that something has gone seriously wrong with his vision.
The Jin spots the flashing red light over the island, and Desmond's spirit picks back up.
"Pilot!" Jin cries. Of course you can't eject from a helicopter! Duh! So they surmise they've jumped, and want to rush off in search of the pilot.
They want to go rushing off, because that's the way its supposed to happen. Charlie catches on, and refuses to go. Of course this isn't how its supposed to happen, so Desmond relents and agrees that they all go at first light.
Ardil-22
They hike through the jungle, coming closer to Desmond's vision. With Charlie and Desmond arguing about why Desmond should be trusted.
They find a hula doll in the brush. (Now, someone help me out. Where have we seen this before? I got some deja vu there.) And Desmond spots a pack stuck in the tree. He climbs up Hurley's shoulders (Ouch! Dude!) to retrieve it, and empties the contents on the ground. There's some manuals of some kind, and a copy of "Catch-22" apparently in Portuguese. Some binoculars, and a satellite phone! Doh! Dead batteries! That figures.
Desmond opens the book, and discovers... (wait for it) ...a copy of the same photo of himself and Penny that he's carrying. Can I get another "Whoa! Dude!" please?
They carry on in their quest, and it starts to rain. Desmond realizes they're getting closer to where his "flash" occurs. "You think its her, don't you." "I hoped it, now I know it." It would seem that Desmond thinks this new arrival is Penelope, in the flesh.
Just as predicted, Hurley and Charlie start the superhero argument, and the concern on Des's face grows. The wire is tripped, and in a moment of sheer bullet-time, Desmond yells, "Duck!" (Just like the bartender? Hm!) and jumps on Charlie, sparing him the grisly death in the vision.
Still hiking on, they come to a point where they have to split up, and Desmond and Charlie go on separately. "You knew," Charlie says angrily. "If I told you you wouldn't have come." "You needed me to come, you'd have sacrificed me." Des mentions something about the picture changing, referring to the jigsaw puzzle conversation earlier. "It's bloody pointless. I keep saving your life, but what good is it. Maybe its a test, like God and Abraham."
Jin and Hurley shout for them to come. They've found the pilot, in full altitude gear(?) hanging the chute wires in a tree, apparently dead.
They quickly act to cut her down, still thinking its Penny. (This is where the aforementioned quick edits start.) She starts to move, she's still alive! Desmond quickly and carefully removes the helmet.
And it's not Penelope. "Desmond!" she manages to stammer out....
*BONK!*
Conclusions
God, where to start?! The bits about the jigsaw puzzle and the picture changing with the pieces... Did things happen like they were supposed to? Did things change when Desmond yet again saved Charlie?
The whole bit about sacrificing Charlie as a test, and the play back to the Abbey and the tale of Abraham and Isaac... typically great LOST storytelling. And the further exploration of Desmond's cowardly nature, and how he's overcoming that. Brilliant.
Not so sure about the whole "triangle" thing back at camp. Seemed out of place and didn't tie into the overall theme of things, which was unusual. Good thing it was just touched on or it might've made less sense.
The Big Q&A
Answers
Technorati Tags: LOST, Catch-22, episodes, spoilers, recap, review, charlie, desmond, penelope, hurley, jin, sawyer, jack, kate, helicopter, pilot
OK, lets get this one out of the way right quick. The Sawyer-Kate-Jack thing is apparently still in full swing, and we're led to believe that Kate still has feelings for Jack and uses Sawyer as a "feel good" to try and get over it. Natch. That's about it. Apart from the "barging into the tent scene" not much to go back and watch there.... Jack and Sawyer playing pingpong, joking about "we have to play every 108 minutes or the island explodes" etc. It is nice to see Sawyer "coming around" if you will and not being nearly the selfish meathead he had been. Mostly.
Now then! On to the good stuff.
Mt. Moriah
The flashback, at least we are led to believe this is a flashback and not another time travel adventure, is about Desmond, and the events leading up to his meeting Penelope Whidmore.
We start this story with Desmond alone and praying in a sparsely furnished, stone-walled room with a small window. Is he still in prison? What's the deal?
He's actually in a monastery! Didn't see that coming, didya? A monk comes in, and mentions the "vow of silence" and that it lasts "as long as we see fit." Apparently Desmond's period of silence is now ended. "Your path has led you here, and now you're one of us." (Subtle play on last week's episode? Maybe.) And we learn where Desmond gets his "brother" mannerism from.
Later, Desmond and the Prior (I did not catch his name! Who took these notes anyway!?) are in the wine cellar, bottling and labelling the latest batch. I think the allegory here to the hatch is kind of interesting....
The conversation turns to the label, which reads "Mt. Moriah." The Prior tells Desmond that it is the mountain where God told Abraham to take Isaac(!) to the mountain and sacrifice him as a test of Abraham's faith. Of course you'll remember that in the end, God spared Isaac just as Abraham was about to end it all.
Then a guy enters, and promptly lays one right on Desmond's nose. Ouch.
We're then brought to a house, where this same man opens the door. "Is your sister in?" Desmond asks. The sister, it seems, was nearly left at the altar (well, by a week anyway) by Desmond, and we get to learn a bit more about Desmond's cowardly past.
And more importantly we learn how he ended up at the Abbey. After he left her, he didn't remember anything until a week later, he woke up, on his back (just like after the Hatch imploded!) to the Prior, who helped him up.
At this point he "heard the calling" and realized that he was supposed to go with him, and leave everything that mattered behind him, to sacrifice all of it for a greater calling.
To which the jilted bride replies, "Good thing a shepard(!) didn't help you up, or you'd be off with the sheep right now." Ouch again. Nice touch with the "Shepard" reference as well, I think.
Return much later to Desmond, back in the wine cellar, partaking of some of the crop and singing, well something I didn't recognize. The prior finds him.
"Go ahead and give me my penance," Desmond says. "You're far beyond penance, Desmond." And he's "let go."
"But I heard the call!" "The Abbey isn't where you were meant to be. God has much bigger plans than you being a monk. You spend too much time running away to realize where you're going."
"What am I supposed to do now?" "Whatever comes next."
The final bit of this segment brings Desmond to the Prior's office, where he's turning in his robes and whatever else a monk might have I suppose.
On Guardian Angels
The "big easter egg" shows up, in the form of a photograph on the Prior's desk. In it are him, and none other than the mysterious jewelry-shop-lady from "Flashes!" Can I get a big, "Whoa! Dude!" from everyone. I'm not even going to speculate on the reasons why or what that might mean. Not yet. But, "Whoa! Dude!"
Then he mentions that he can do one last thing, and help load these crates of wine into this lady's car. This turns out to be none other than Penelope. The conversation runs from him getting fired, and that being here is just "one step along a path." "I don't believe that" she says. She offers to give him a ride out of there (I think, my notes were crap after this, I was still reeling from the picture!) to which he says, "I don't usually get in a car with strangers." "In that case, I'm Penny."
And then Desmond gets a look on his face that is quite interesting indeed. Whether that was meant as a clue that he's "seeing" something or "pseudo-remembering" or what, I don't know. Could just be me reading too much into it, but it seemed a little too thoughtful and outright concerned to be coincidence.
I should also note that the final scenes here were interspersed with quick edits from the final scenes from the other story....
Time's Arrow, and Other Pleasant Thoughts
...which involved Desmond's visions.
We start the episode with Desmond seeing more of his "flashes." This time of himself, Charlie, Hurley, and Jin marching through the jungle in the rain on some mission. Charlie and Hurley are having a comic-book-fanboy argument about Superman vs. The Flash, when Charlie steps on a tripwire, and promptly gets an arrow straight through the windpipe, and dies. Yikes!
Then there are more flashes of Hurley digging the cable out of the beach, and of a flashing red light in the sky.
He snaps out of it, on the beach with a fishing pole. He frantically starts looking around for Charlie, and once he spots him seems to calm down some.
Desmond finds Hurley, and questions him about the wire. "This is some more future crap, isn't it?" Hurley replies. "You've been seeing more flashes. What's this about?"
"Someone's coming," is the answer.
108 Pieces
He and Hurley manage to get a first aid kit from Jack with a bogus twisted ankle story, presumably for the someone who's coming. I can't imagine there's anything in there that'd help Charlie out, like an arrow-sized bandaid or something.
Then Desmond starts explaining his visions to Hurley. They are like a jigsaw puzzle, he says, and sometimes the pieces don't fit. Sometimes he can change the pieces so they do fit, and then the picture on the box changes. Sometimes in ways you don't want. In this case, however it's changing so he wants it to happen even more.
In a humorous bit, Hurley and Des go after Jin, and get him to go along (because he was in the vision, he has to be there.) The explanation is they're going on a "camping trip." Jin seems to catch on, laughing about "camping," but agrees anyway. Like they haven't been roughing it enough already, eh?
Then Desmond has to convince Charlie. He basically lies to Charlie and claims this has nothing to do with the visions, and of course he comes along, on the condition he brings his guitar. (Maybe he can club a boar with it or something?)
And so they go marching off, whistling the tune from "Bridge on the River Kwai," when they find the cable, and decide to camp there. "When does he get here? (speaking of the mysterious arrival)" "Soon."
Korean Ghost Stories
Another bit of comedy relief ensues, with Jin telling ghost stories in Korean with the obligatory flashlight-lit face. (Anyone care to translate?)
Desmond however is having none of this, and is off "in the corner" with his photograph of him and Penny. Charlie comes to him, and after a bit of conversation, asks "how did you manage to leave her behind?"
"Because I'm a coward. I tried to run away and she tracked me down." He brings up the "enough money and determination" bit from the season 2 finale, and says "It's nice to think she never gave up, that she's still trying to find me."
And then we hear it. A helicopter off in the distance. They all hear it and start scanning the sky. Then the sound changes, not for the better, and disappears altogether. Followed by the sound and image of a splashdown in the distance. Desmond is panicking at this point, thinking that something has gone seriously wrong with his vision.
The Jin spots the flashing red light over the island, and Desmond's spirit picks back up.
"Pilot!" Jin cries. Of course you can't eject from a helicopter! Duh! So they surmise they've jumped, and want to rush off in search of the pilot.
They want to go rushing off, because that's the way its supposed to happen. Charlie catches on, and refuses to go. Of course this isn't how its supposed to happen, so Desmond relents and agrees that they all go at first light.
Ardil-22
They hike through the jungle, coming closer to Desmond's vision. With Charlie and Desmond arguing about why Desmond should be trusted.
They find a hula doll in the brush. (Now, someone help me out. Where have we seen this before? I got some deja vu there.) And Desmond spots a pack stuck in the tree. He climbs up Hurley's shoulders (Ouch! Dude!) to retrieve it, and empties the contents on the ground. There's some manuals of some kind, and a copy of "Catch-22" apparently in Portuguese. Some binoculars, and a satellite phone! Doh! Dead batteries! That figures.
Desmond opens the book, and discovers... (wait for it) ...a copy of the same photo of himself and Penny that he's carrying. Can I get another "Whoa! Dude!" please?
They carry on in their quest, and it starts to rain. Desmond realizes they're getting closer to where his "flash" occurs. "You think its her, don't you." "I hoped it, now I know it." It would seem that Desmond thinks this new arrival is Penelope, in the flesh.
Just as predicted, Hurley and Charlie start the superhero argument, and the concern on Des's face grows. The wire is tripped, and in a moment of sheer bullet-time, Desmond yells, "Duck!" (Just like the bartender? Hm!) and jumps on Charlie, sparing him the grisly death in the vision.
Still hiking on, they come to a point where they have to split up, and Desmond and Charlie go on separately. "You knew," Charlie says angrily. "If I told you you wouldn't have come." "You needed me to come, you'd have sacrificed me." Des mentions something about the picture changing, referring to the jigsaw puzzle conversation earlier. "It's bloody pointless. I keep saving your life, but what good is it. Maybe its a test, like God and Abraham."
Jin and Hurley shout for them to come. They've found the pilot, in full altitude gear(?) hanging the chute wires in a tree, apparently dead.
They quickly act to cut her down, still thinking its Penny. (This is where the aforementioned quick edits start.) She starts to move, she's still alive! Desmond quickly and carefully removes the helmet.
And it's not Penelope. "Desmond!" she manages to stammer out....
*BONK!*
Conclusions
God, where to start?! The bits about the jigsaw puzzle and the picture changing with the pieces... Did things happen like they were supposed to? Did things change when Desmond yet again saved Charlie?
The whole bit about sacrificing Charlie as a test, and the play back to the Abbey and the tale of Abraham and Isaac... typically great LOST storytelling. And the further exploration of Desmond's cowardly nature, and how he's overcoming that. Brilliant.
Not so sure about the whole "triangle" thing back at camp. Seemed out of place and didn't tie into the overall theme of things, which was unusual. Good thing it was just touched on or it might've made less sense.
The Big Q&A
Answers
- Um. A little help? Really, did we learn anything of importance to the big picture? We got "introduced" to a few things, but?
- Well, OK, we learned how Des and Penny met....
- Learned that Des is more of a man of faith than we previously thought? Who knew?
- Who is this HALO parachutist Charlie's (ha!) Angel (haha!) wannabe? How, and more importantly why is she here? Why's she have "the picture" anyway?
- (Charlie's Angel... God I actually started down a thought path there involving Charlie's guardian angels and stuff, I need to step back! Man!)
- What effect is Charlie's "fate dodging" having on things? How much "course correcting" are we going to see later on?
- What is up with the picture on the Prior's desk? That was just a little too obvious to not mean something. Is the Prior another of Desmond's "guardian angels" as the jewelry-shop lady seemed to be? (Yes I know she had a name, but I forget at the moment.) The story of how he and Desmond met might suggest it.
- Portuguese? So, um. Not to bring up dead third stringers or anything, but do you suppose there's any connection to our ex-Brazilian Paulo?
Technorati Tags: LOST, Catch-22, episodes, spoilers, recap, review, charlie, desmond, penelope, hurley, jin, sawyer, jack, kate, helicopter, pilot
- Brother Campbell is the Prior's name
- Mrs. Hawkins (Hawking? I find a couple different ones out there) is the mystery woman
- The "arctic station" guys were apparently speaking Portuguese, which would connect the skydiver to them also.
- Missed the '108 bottles' ref. as well.