Lost: Catch-22

One thing I love about Lost is how the episode titles make absolutely no sense until you've seen the episode. For instance, this episode title, Catch-22, is a clear reference to that foreign book that the parachutee had in her backpack with a title that translated to Catch-22. Oh, in retrospect, that was such a spoiler-ish title! Anywho, here's what happened this week on Lost.
SPOILERS ABOUND!!!

The A-Team: The love square continues to become more complicated, if only in Kate's mind. We start off with Sawyer going up to Kate, who then asks if she told Jack that they, well... Kate says that she didn't tell him, but that it turns out there were working surveillance cameras, so yeah, Jack knows. Sawyer then asks, "How about a little afternoon delight," to which Kate abruptly exits stage right. At night, Kate's eating oatmeal at the Losties Buffet Bar when Jack comes up. Kate tells him that the "oatmeal is awesome," but Jack just makes very awkward small talk with Kate. He hurries back to Juliet, where he becomes very outgoing and sociable again. He even starts laughing. Kate, hurt and jealous, runs into Sawyer's tent and they, well... But not before Sawyer points out that Kate is crying!

The next morning, Sawyer informs Jack that something happened while he was away for the first part of the season. Would that be finding the Pearl Station? Mr. Eko dying? Nikki and Paulo dying? Nope, they can play table tennis again! While playing a very competitive game, the guys talk a little bit about Juliet and Kate and Jack let's it slip that he talked to Kate last night for a little bit. Later, Sawyer comes up to Kate and asks if their makeout session was because she saw Jack and Juliet together. Kate, not all that convincingly, says that it wasn't. Sawyer sees right through it, but then adds that "all you need to do is ask."

The Flashbacks: This week focused on Desmond. When we start, I could have sworn he was in prison. It looked just like a cell. But it turned out to be a monastery, whose living quarters are probably about the same. Brother Campbell tells Desmond that his very long vow of silence has won the other brothers over and that he is now a full-fledged Monk-in-training. "Welcome, brother," Campbell says, without a Scottish accent. In fact, he says the "-er" instead of making it a "-ah," which is what Desmond does so well. Anywho, while Desmond works in the Moriah Winery, some guy named Derek comes up to Desmond, punches him and leaves. The monks look disappointed in Desmond and do not even stop to question the man who punched him. Which, I don't know what the monastery's policy is on assault and battery, but, that's kind of weird.

Derek turns out to be the brother of Ruth, a woman whom Desmond left before their wedding. After being together for six years. Ruth really does not Desmond there, but he insists on explaining why he left. He says that he started having doubts about what he was supposed to do, so he looked up to the heavens and asked, "Am I doing the right thing?" The next thing he knew, he was lying down in the street and was helped up by a monk. So right then and there, Des knew that his calling was to be a monk. Ruth snits that she's glad he wasn't helped up by a Shepard, or else he would be herding sheep right now.

Back at the monastery, Desmond drinks his sorrow away with Moriah Wine. Campbell comes in and is very disappointed. In fact, he fires Desmond! From being a monk! He is no longer Brother Desmond. Ouch! Campbell says that God has much bigger plans for him than just being a monk, but that Desmond spends too much running away to realize what he is running towards. Desmond gets up angrily and says Curse you, Dr. Phil and runs away. He later hands in his robe to an older monk, who convinces Desmond to help load a truck full of wine in order to get a ride into town. (NOTE: Apparently, in this scene, there is a photo of Mrs. Hawkings, the jewelry lady whom we last saw in Desmond's back-to-the-future episode.) While loading the truck, Des hears that this driver's father has made a sizable donation to the monastery. Now, who on Lost is rich and in the United Kingdom? That's right, the Widemores. And the driver? Penny. Desmond and Penny awkwardly-but-awesomely flirt right away. Penelope laughs that Desmond was fired from being a monk, because she didn't think that monks could be fired. Aw, it's love at first sight!

Team Desmond: Now to the juicy part of the episode. We started off by having Jin, Charlie, Hurley and Desmond walking through the jungle while Hurley and Charlie debate whether or not Flash or Superman would win a footrace. (It's pretty funny.) Charlie accidentally trips off one of Rousseaou's Random Death Traps, gets an arrow to the neck and dies. We all applaud. But then we get weird flashes and then we see that this was all just one of Desmond's visions. Desmond, after thinking about the vision for a minute, goes up to Hurley and demands to know where the wire is that connects to the underwater sonar that's been shown a few times in seasons past. When asked why he needs to know, Desmond replies, "Someones Coming." So Hurley and Des get a First Aid kit from Jack and waltz on off, convincing Jin to go "camping" with them. Desmond lies to Charlie that he won't be dying on this trip, so Charlie's all gung-ho to join them. Desmond explained that he needs everyone from his vision, to help insure that the future is exactly as he saw it to be. He's not trying to change it this time! But first, he needs to endure everyone else whistling the Colenel Bogey March. Heh.

They find the wire and Desmond decides to make camp, saying it'll be dark soon. Except, I always feel they film these scenes at about noon, so I'm like, "it looks like you have another 8 hours!" but I'm always wrong; it's dark within two minutes. Stupid television. After some funny ghost stories with Jin, Charlie talks to Desmond, who confides in him that he loves Penelope. Suddenly, there's a strange noise, one of a helicopter!! But, it stutters, spins and whirls around, all the things a helicopter should not do. Desmond looks sad, because he saw a flashing light in the vision, but there's nothing. And he heard a splash in the water! A minute later, though, there's a flashing red light in the sky. Which, oddly enough, none of the A-Team pointed out. But they were the C-plot this week, so, whatever.

In the morning, the team goes into the jungle to find whoever was in that helicopter. Charlie finds a bobble head and picks it up right away, without even thinking that it might be a Rousseau Random Death Trap. Desmond looks up and sees a backpack that includes a non-functioning satellite phone and a book called Catch-22 that includes a photo of Desmond and Penny! Oh, it's got to be Penelope on the island for sure!

While trekking along, we get to relive the whole first part of the episode again with the whole superhero footrace debate. (Click here to read more about this TV technique.) But Desmond, stricken by his conscious, saves Charlie's life, but only very, very reluctantly.

As they approach a clearing, Jin/Hurley split off to look for the survivor, while Des/Charlie go another way. Charlie is ticked off, because Desmond knew that he was going to die right from the beginning. Desmond is even more mad, because what's the bloody use? He's been cursed to die from the beginning. He's saved his life 3-4 times now. What if it's a test to see if he'll let Charlie die? Like Abraham and Issac? If so, Desmond just failed, and he's pretty upset. This also means that he changed what he saw, which is exactly what he did not want to do this time. Eventually, all 4 trekkers find the survivor, all suited up and in a helmet, being suspended in the air, thanks to a parachute caught in between the trees.

They get her down safely and Desmond is estatic to take the helmet off. He keeps saying Penny's name over and over again. He takes the helmet off and the person says "Desmond." Except, it's not Penelope, it's Marsha Thomason, previously from Las Vegas on NBC! After taking Michael, Mr. Eko and Ms. Klugh off the island, I guess Lost needed to up the diversity quota again. (Especially after killing off two Latinos a few weeks ago!)

On a bit of a sidenote... If this week's episode doesn't get Henry Ian Cusick another Emmy nod, there is no justice. Not to mention Elizabeth Mitchell's superb acting last week, this show has once again become a terrific showcase for character development and stellar acting.