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Lost Episode 3.17: "Catch-22"

Lost Episode 3.17: "Catch-22"
Original Airdate: April 18th, 2007

Is it possible to become LESS interested in a character as you learn MORE about him?

I suppose it is, in fact, possible, since that’s exactly what’s happening to me and Desmond, the wacky future-seeing castaway on Lost who stars in his second set of flashbacks for the season in "Catch-22."

Me and Dez...we were once fast buds. Back in episode nine of this third season, "Flashes Before Your Eyes," I was positively gaga for the crazy Scotsman. He had a sad backstory, a shocking paranormal ability, and interesting dynamics with the folks on the island--in short, the perfect recipie for a third-season character introduced to spice up the show’s action.

This week, though, Desmond becomes a bit of a drag. In "Catch-22," we learn more details about his past, chiefly the fact that he went into the monastery just before meeting the girl of his dreams, Penny. While he’s at this monastery, nothing much happens. He drinks some expensive wine; he gets punched in the nose by the brother of a woman he left at the altar. He banters with the surly head of the order.

What it amounts to is a reinforcement of the creepy point already made in a far more entertaining way several weeks ago, when Desmond’s backstory revealed the strange woman he met in the antique shop--that he has his own path, and he must follow it. There was definitely a tingle of spooky recognition when I noticed that the head of the monastery had a picture on his desk that included the strange woman from the antique shop. That’s a bit of a mind-blower.

But it’s sure not enough to support an entire episode’s worth of backstory. Which is interesting, since rumors online at one point indicated that Lost would finally be attempting its first backstory-free episode. The rumors were later disproven, but still, it might be something for the show’s writers to consider.

If we are reaching the point where revealing more about the characters’ pasts is making them LESS interesting, then why bother showing the flashbacks? Wouldn’t it make more sense to alter the show’s dynamic so that the flashbacks no longer form the spine of the show? Certainly, I’d wager that many viewers would appreciate the shift from constantly delving into the past, especially if it meant spending more time in the present, exploring the show’s endless layers of unsolved mysteries.

Instead, we have Desmond, slowly breaking my heart out of boredom. Less boring by far is the current love quadrangle on the island, with Kate sorta still liking Jack, but feeling jealous about Jack hanging with Juliet, so, like, she TOTALLY hooks up with, like, Sawyer? Out of jealousy? And while? She has sex? With Sawyer? She’s, like, TOTALLY CRYING.

Call me a teenybopper brat if you must, but I’m somewhat interested in all these soapy hook-ups. I would far prefer some kind of legitimate attempt to bring Sawyer and Kate together--they’re an interesting couple, with sparks aplenty, and Kate doesn’t really need to be hung up on Jack at this point, does she? That’s SO season one.

There is, of course, also a vision for Desmond, in the here and now, that predicts Charley shot in the throat by an arrow as he’s traipsing all over the island. Desmond has seen Penny again in his mind, and believes that somehow she will find herself on the island. We, the viewers, know this is not such an impossibility since we saw her at the end of last season getting a phone call from a strange arctic station.

But it’s not Penny; it’s some other woman who knows Desmond. Who that woman is and how she fits into everything will either be explained, or it won’t. I’m just bummed that they didn’t follow through on the far more gutsy move to actually KILL Charlie in the first ten minutes of the episode, before the first commercial, instead of having that scene be another lame Lost fake-out where we think Charley’s dead, but he’s not.

At any rate, this week’s ep didn’t really curl my toes, but I’m still jazzed knowing that in "a week," according to Ben, the Others will return. What that means in "show time," of course, is anybody’s guess, but I’m betting it definitely means "before the end of the season, probably just in time for May sweeps." Until that big moment, which I hope will kick much ass, I prefer to think of the past as mere prologue.

iTunes Links:

Lost Series
Lost Season 3
"Catch-22"


Vern Seward is a writer who currently lives in Orlando, FL. He’s been a Mac fan since Atari Computers folded, but has worked with computers of nearly every type for 20 years.

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