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Friday, 20 April 2007 |
 So who is faster, Superman or the Flash? This is an argument that every comic book fan, many children, and even some adults have had at one point in their lives. Catch-22, the seventeenth episode of season three began with Hurley and Charlie having this exact argument as the two walked through the jungle with Jin and Desmond. Moments later Charlie’s fate was sealed after stepping on a trip-wire, most likely set by Danielle, and receiving an arrow directly into his throat. He fell quickly to the ground, gurgling and gagging the whole way while Desmond, Hurley, and Jin watched helplessly. And then the dramatic pause. The very long dramatic pause and suddenly we are back at the beach, and as many of us most likely expected, Desmond indeed had another premonition.
As Lost broke to its first commercial I couldn’t help but ponder the hidden significance of this episode’s title. A Catch-22, being caught between a rock and a hard place, a dilemma, in a pickle, a no-win situation, regardless what you call it, are the writers trying to tell us something? Is writing and producing this show become a Catch-22 where they’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t? As fans, are we becoming too demanding, always wanting more information and fewer new questions? I don’t think so. And although this episode was a good (not great) quality episode, it certainly lacked the punch of the last few we’ve seen. On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d probably have to give this episode a 6…possibly a 7.
First, let’s discuss some frustrations and complaints that I have about Catch-22. Desmond appears to see into the future again, only this time the pieces include seeing Hurley picking up the cable on the beach, and a blinking red beacon in the sky. Desmond is convinced that the person attached to this beacon will be his beloved Penny. And so he goes to collect Jin, Charlie, and Hurley, all of whom he saw in his premonition, and sets out to make sure that everything happens just as he foresaw. His greatest fear, it seems, is his assumption that should he alter a single thing, the outcome would also be altered. When I sit back and think of this chain of events, I can’t help but wonder what in the world would have made Desmond, Hurley, Jin, and Charlie head towards the cable, and then into jungle, in the first place, had Desmond never had his premonition. We can argue this all day, but just as someone said in the forums today, the simple fact that Desmond saw the future and knew what was going to happen, would have already altered the outcome. These represent just a couple of examples why I wish they had never ventured down the time travel and seeing the future path. It creates too many paradoxes and too much confusion in a show that is already confusing enough.
Once I got past my issues with the first part of the episode, I actually enjoyed the rest of Catch-22. Although there were no big reveals in the episode, and it was over-hyped (as usual), I thoroughly enjoyed the Jack vs. Sawyer ping pong scene, Jin’s telling of a ghost story, in Korean, and still scaring the crap out of Hurley, and seeing Sawyer’s face when he walked in on Kate getting dressed in her tent. In fact, that may have been the best scene in the entire episode!
Furthermore, I rather enjoyed the prevailing theme of this episode. To me, Catch-22 seemed to be about sacrifice and destiny. Through the flashbacks, it is my interpretation that Desmond has gone through his life running away from his destiny. He left Ruth at the alter and joined a monistary. He later ran from his relationship with Penny by fleeing to the Scottish Royal Army, a move he spent the rest of his life regretting. Then, after the hatch imploded Desmond was given a second chance. Regardless of whether he went back in time, crossed to an alternate reality, or it all simply occurred in his mind, the point is that he was given an opportunity to do things differently. But even then, in the end, he was still scared. Only this time he wasn’t scared of marrying Penny. This time he was convinced that he didn’t have a choice. Ms. Hawking made it very clear to Desmond that if he didn’t follow the right path, the universe had a way of self-correcting.
So now, the new Desmond finally seems to be walking toward his destiny instead of walking away from it. In Catch-22, during Desmond’s flashback, there was a great scene where the monk and Desmond had a discussion about Abraham, and how God demanded the ultimate sacrifice from him by asking him to give up his beloved son, Isaac. The point is that Abraham was willing to give up something so dear to him for God. The episode seemed to be trying to compare Charlie’s death as the sacrifice that Desmond believed he had to give up in order to achieve his destiny and to be reunited with Penny. I have read several comments in the forums today that mention this very thing, however I personally disagree with this assessment. I do feel that Desmond believed that Charlie was what he was sacrificing, however Charlie obviously wasn’t a valid sacrifice because his fate was already sealed. Would God have accepted Isaac as a sacrifice from Abraham if Isaac had a terminal illness and wasn’t expected to live more than a few more days? If that would have been the case, then Isaac would have never been an acceptable sacrifice to God. Likewise, since Charlie’s fate is supposedly already decided, and since Desmond really has no true emotional connection to Charlie, Desmond must continue to search for a suitable sacrifice to prove his faith in the universe. And based on what we’ve seen from Desmond so far, I only know of one thing that would be considered such a worthy sacrifice. His love for Penny and his hopes at being reunited with her have driven his every action recently. Perhaps Desmond is on a build up to discover what he must sacrifice in order to prove faith in his ultimate destiny.
In closing I’d like to reaffirm that I did enjoy Catch-22 and would consider it a good, solid mid-season episode before the final buildup to the finale. We were given some great scenes that reminded us why we all still love this show, even when we aren’t given the answers we so desperately crave. The flashback was very relevant to themes of the episode and helped to fill in some missing pieces to Desmond’s past, and to perfectly set up his role in the coming episodes. Oh, and one final thought…dude, Flash would SOOO kick Superman’s butt in a foot-race.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 14 August 2007 )
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