Dezzed and Confused
Desmond's episodes in Season 3 leave me with a similarly confused look on my face and Catch 22 is no exception. Desmond sees a long drawn out flash of Charlie getting killed by an arrow, then shorter flashes of Hurley and the cable, a beacon, LOSTies including Charlie holding a parachute, someone in a flight suit, the picture of Des and Penny, and Penny herself (for about 1 frame). Now what gives?
Desmond tries to explain it to Hurley as pieces of a jigsaw puzzle with no box. But he's also afraid that changing one of the pictures on the pieces (i.e. saving Charlie) changes the rest of the pieces. But his flashes themselves are contradictory. First Charlie is dead, then he's alive all in the same series of flashes.
Desmond also struggles over the course of the episode with how much he should reveal to Hurley, Charlie and Jin to prevent them from changing things, but it seems to me that once Desmond starts taking positive steps toward enacting the things in his flashes he's already messing things up. Would it not be the case that things have to flow naturally for the puzzle pieces not to change? In fact was it getting the first aid kit from Jack that changed the pieces? Or was it the fact that Desmond was lying repeatedly that constituted some failure in his test and resulted in Naomi, not Penny, arriving on the Island?
I personally don't believe that Penny was ever going to land on the Island no matter what Desmond did or didn't do, but that his last "flash" of talking to Penny was no more than wishful thinking, not a true flash. It should be noted that they find the book with Desmond and Penny's photo before Desmond chooses to save Charlie and that the book is a Brazilian copy of Catch-22. Didn't Desmond wonder why Penny would have a book written in Brazilian Portugese? It also didn't seem to have an "If found, contact Penny" note in the front either.
A big theme in the episode was being tested and being willing to make sacrifices. I'm unsure whether or not Desmond passed the test by letting Charlie live or not. I think he feels he failed it, but I'm not so sure. Seems like sacrificing his own happiness for Charlie is passing rather than failing the test. Was this a case of the universe lying to Desmond in his flashes so that it could be done with course correcting on Charlie and relying incorrectly on Desmond's selfish desires to outweigh the cost of sacrifice?
Thursday, January 24, 2008
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4 comments:
I love Charlie's moment of realization in this episode that Desmond was actually considering letting him die. What a scary thing to realize that this person who can foresee your death may or may not stop it when the moment comes, depending on what he may get out of it.
I also like that Charlie starts to figure out Desmond's line of thinking as the clues pile up, and finally deduces that Des believes that Pemmy has come to the island.
I agree that Desmond thinks that he has failed - by not allowing the universe to take the course it wants to (i.e. killing Charlie), he believes that he has ruined his chances of being rescued by Penny.
However, a couple of episodes on, I think his attitude has changed. When Naomi is telling Sayid that she was sent there by Penny to find Desmond, Des looks like he can barely restrain his urge to hug everyone and dance around a little. I think by this point her has realized that it was never going to be Penny herself who came to the island, and that he did the right thing by saving Charlie.
I also think that the fact that Charlie shows up in his first vision, catching Naomi with the parachute, proves that this was the right course of action all along.
I'm also starting to wonder if these are truly flashes of the future or whether the island might be playing tricks on Des.
Desmond episodes always confuse me.
I am starting to wonder that too lost2010. If they are flashes of the future Desmond needs to learn how to interpret them correctly. He sees a flash of Charlie dying then later a flash of Charlie helping out with Naomi. It just seems odd. The flashes contradict each other.
Yes, the island plays tricks on Desmond, he plays tricks back...! Reminds me of a PeeWee Herman movie. :o) Who the heck knows, and I hope that we find out this season! I'm wondering why every time Dez tried to save Charlie, that he didn't have an echo-y memory in his head of Mrs.H saying that, "You can't change the course of the universe, me boy!". Not exactly in those words, but, you know.
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