Lost, Ep. 17: Catch 22
A brief glimpse at my evening:
8-9: put my toddler to bed (usually my husband does it on Wednesday nights so I can watch the Canadian feed of Lost, but he was out)
9: came downstairs, flipped on the PVR, hit Play, and it jumped 15 minutes into the episode, then came a warning: Some of the program may be missing due to signal loss… and then it jumped all the way to the end.
9:05-9:45: Sat on the phone with a Bell ExpressVu technician, who first suggested I climb onto my roof and check the cables, then suggested he could send out a technician for the low price of $75 to jiggle a couple of cables, then said maybe I should just jiggle a cable from the back of the receiver. Yay. Spent the time from 9:45 to 10 praying that the ABC feed would work.
10: Began watching Lost with the rest of you. :)
11: Started blogging and couldn’t load a photo. Technology is not cooperating with me today.

Tonight’s episode was Desmond-centric, set before the Penelope years, in 1995 (as we see from the date of the wine Des is bottling). We discover that he’s actually a practicing monk (a monk?!), that he left a woman at the altar a year earlier, and that his use of the word “Brothuh” stems from referring to his fellow brothers in the monastery that way.

Kate continues to use Sawyer kind of the way Buffy used Spike. It was sad and unfair then, and it’s sad and unfair now. It’s interesting seeing Kate’s face as she watches Jack and Juliet together – haven’t we seen that same look on Jack’s face when he sees her joking around with Sawyer, and on Sawyer’s when she’s joking around with Jack?

This episode had some great dialogue between the characters, and it was nice to FINALLY have everyone back on the beach. It contained the classic “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” conundrum (i.e. the catch-22) and thankfully Desmond finds it in himself to save a human life over finding his true love.
At the end of the episode, the pilot of the helicopter wasn’t Pen after all, which is almost as devastating for the viewer as it is for Desmond. The flashback didn’t add too much to his character, and just seemed to serve the present story, but the search for Pen was intriguing, full of great dialogue. This episode was co-written by a newcomer, Brian Vaughan. (Up til now, he’s been a story editor on the show.) It might take the prize for generating the least number of questions this season.

Highlights:

• Hurley and Charlie arguing about who would win in a battle of Superman against the Flash.
• Hurley: Keepin’ Desmond company…’cause…we’re friends.
• Kate showing Sawyer where her eyes are.
• Sawyer referring to the Others as perverts.
• Sawyer asking if Kate needs him to make a mix tape. HAHAHAHAHA
• Hurley: Everybody likes marshmallows.
• The guys whistling as they walk along the beach.
• Jin doing Korean ghost stories while Charlie plays weird music. Hilarious! (the scared look on Hurley’s face was even better…)
• Sawyer asking Juliet and Jack if they’re arguing over who their favourite Other is
• Hurley telling Desmond that he’s going to have a coronary, and Desmond saying, “Actually, you’re not.”
• “The Best of Phil Collins”

Did You Notice?

• Desmond was a failed monk, Eko was a fake priest, Charlie was a flawed altar boy, Jack thinks he’s God but can’t get his way… what’s next? Sawyer was the prison chaplain?
• Hurley believes The Flash could best Superman; the comic that Walt was reading was a Spanish version of The Flash and Green Lantern
• Hurley really seems to be picking up on Korean
• The copy of Catch-22 was called Ardil-22, which is the same title in Portuguese (remember, the guys at the end of season 2 were speaking Portuguese)
• The scene of the outside of Desmond’s church appears to be the same church that Charlie was confessing in at the beginning of “The Moth”
• Now we know from 1994-1995 Des was in a monastery. Then he spent 3 years with Penelope, which would take us to 1998. He joined the army, didn’t last long, then went to prison, and was on the island in 2001.

Interesting Facts:
Some biblical scholars believe that Moriah is the name of the mountain where Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac. Others believe it means land of the Amorites, a group of Semitic people. There has been some speculation that it is the mountain where Jesus was crucified. Also, at first, I thought Ruth was pronouncing Celtic incorrectly, and that a Scottish person would say Keltic. But turns out, the K sound, while now considered the more correct pronunciation, is only used for the general word “Celtic.” When referring to the basketball or football teams, “Seltic” is the only proper pronunciation.

Nitpicks:
Charlie’s walking through the jungle in a rainstorm with a guitar on his back? Way to protect the instrument, Charlie.

Any Questions?

• The big “Catch-22” of this episode is that Desmond needs to find Pen, but to do so Charlie would die, which is what happens in his vision. What I don’t get is, in his vision Charlie is standing below the body of the pilot, holding the parachute. So doesn’t it stand to reason that Charlie MUST SURVIVE in order to be one of the ones to catch the pilot? Am I missing something?
• Monks can get fired? I had no idea.
• Who’s the woman at the end? (Anyone else think at first that it was the little kid Mohinder kept seeing flashes of on Heroes?)

Next week: Jin and Sun in D.O.C.