All the valid and deliberately-schemed intricacies of Lost aside, I really need to know what the writers were thinking when they plugged the backstory to the Desmond/Penny photo in an episode last season.

According to Dessie’s flashback/time travel, he and Penny got photographed by a street vendor in the streets of London about four seconds before breaking up and parting for the next several years.  That means that there was one Polaroid-style photo, which Desmond then folded in half and pocketed (even though Penny paid).  He held onto this photo through a few years in the military, prison, on a sailboat, locked underground on a magic island, and lazing days away on the beach, where he often unfolds and stares at it.

There was never an opportunity (or a motivation) to take it into a Kinkos with Penny and make her a copy.

But, somehow, not only did Penny have a copy on her nightstand (Season 2 finale), but Naomi had a printout when she parachuted in, expecting to find only crash survivors. 

It just defies logic.