Episode Title: "Catch-22"

Flashback: Desomond

Synopsis:

OMG Moments:

• Charlie getting shot in the neck with an arrow in the first five minutes of the episode.
• "Is that a helicopter?" Who's our new LOST cast member?
• The parachutist, Naomi, saying Desmond's name when she came to.

New Clues:

Questions:

• Catch-22 is the name of a book written by Joseph Heller. Will it play any significance in this episode?
• "Catch-22" is a situation with no good outcome; you are "damned if you do, and damned if you don't." In this episode, Desmond knows that someone is coming to the island, and his heart tells him that it is Penny, which he thinks will only happen if he allows Charlie to die. However, if he saves Charlie, then he thinks he will change the outcome. As we saw at the end, he was not able to allow Charlie to die, and it turned out that it was not Penny in the flight suit, but some other woman. Poor Desmond! What a terrible choice to make! Yet also very brave, which belies the comment he made in the episode that he is a coward. One can hope that he will somehow be rewarded for selflessly saving a man (who seems destined to die in some horrible fashion anyway) at the expense of his own personal happiness.
  

• One of the outcomes Desmond saw was Charlie alive to help open the parachute, so how does he know that whether or not Penny will come depending on if Desmond saves Charlie or lets him die?
  
• That is a great point. Desmond also saw a glimpse of Penny in the jungle. Perhaps he was given a glimpse of each possible outcome, depending on the decision he ultimately made regarding saving Charlie. He clearly told Charlie that he needed to recreate his vision exactly, or she won't come, and he was so sure that it was Penny. As it turned out that it was not her in the flight suit, he will surely blame himself. I don't know how Desmond knows that Penny's arrival is conditional, but he seemed to believe that by his insistence on keeping everything the same.
  

• Does Kate really love Sawyer?
• Yes, she does. When she's with Jack she feels like she's not good enough, Sawyer is the only one who understands her.
  

• Desmond has a flash showing Charlie die, then he also sees Charlie, Hurley and Jin. Desmond is worried about not changing anything, but yet he saw two different paths. Why does he see Charlie die and live?
  

• Why did Naomi say Desmond's name? Does she know him? Did Penny send her to find him or rescue him?
• See end of "Live Together, Die Alone".
• How did she have a copy of Des and Penny's picture? If I can remember correctly the scene in "Flashes Before Your Eyes," Desmond and Penny got only one copy for both of them, so how did Naomi get another copy? A production error? A continuity error?

Trivia:

Theories: