Let’s jump right into it in the Sideways timeline. The episode opens with a tribute to Hugo Reyes for his philanthropic efforts. The presentation is made by former DHARMA Initiative scientist/orientation video star, Pierre Chang. His appearance is exhibit 47 in my argument that the island did not sink due to the detonation of the hydrogen bomb (see my earlier entries for more on this). However, one other thing struck me about this. Pierre Chang knew Hurley in 1977 on the island and gave us one of the greatest pieces of dialogue is television history:
DR. CHANG: Your friend Faraday said that you were from the future. I need to know if he was telling the truth.
HURLEY: Dude, that's ridiculous.
DR. CHANG: What year were you born? What year?
HURLEY: Uh... 1931?
DR. CHANG: You're 46?
HURLEY: Yeah. Yes, I am.
DR. CHANG: So you fought in the Korean War?
HURLEY: There's... no such thing.
DR. CHANG: Who's the President of the United States?
HURLEY: All right, dude, we're from the future.
I’ll never forget this for as long as I live, and I have a hard time believing Pierre Chang could either. If he knows Hurley was on the island, how come he never brought it up to Hurley (or for that matter Miles)? I’d like to get some kind of an explanation for that on the show.
Anyway, following the award ceremony, Hugo’s mom, gives us some of her typically hilarious dialogue:
CARMEN: Another trophy... everybody loves Hugo... you know who doesn't? Women.
HURLEY: Ma!
CARMEN: You need a woman in your life. Especially one who has not nursed you.
HURLEY: That's disgusting.
She then informs him that she has set him up on a blind date. Hurley is a little apprehensive about it, but Mrs. Reyes assures him, “You're going! She's going to love you! And if she doesn't... we will find someone who does!”
And with that.......
We are transported to Hurley on the island at the grave of Libby. What an awesome transition, as we are going to Hurley’s one true love. (Generally speaking, I try to analyze the different storylines separately, but it is very difficult in this episode....and I suspect it will be so the rest of the series.) Hurley tells Libby that, “A lot of crazy stuff's been happening...I kind of wish I could talk to you about it in person. A lot of people come to talk to me after they've...you know...gone. It would be nice if you did too.” I’ll get back to the island happenings shortly, but let me continue with the sideways.
Hurley goes to the blind date his mom sets him up on, but is stood up. Hurley buries his sadness in a bottomless bowl of tortilla chips. All is not lost though, as Libby approaches him (Note that on the island Hurley asks the dead Libby to visit him, and then the living Libby comes to see him in the sideways universe). Hurley mistakes her as his blind date, but she explains that she knows him:
LIBBY: Hugo, do you believe that two people can be connected? Like soulmates?
HURLEY: I guess...
LIBBY: You don't remember me, do you?
HURLEY: Should I?
Hurley is immediately taken with her (recall Daniel’s words to Desmond from last week: “Do you believe in love at first sight, Mr. Hume?”...more on “love” later), but then as suddenly as it began, the spell is broken. Dr. Brooks (Hurley’s main-timeline psychiatrist) shows up to escort Libby back to the crazy-mobile, as their field trip to the Mexican restaurant is over.
The waiter just told me they are out of tortilla chips.
Hurley is completely distraught and drowns his sorrows in a bucket of chicken at Mr. Clucks. Then, who should appear there, but the newly enlightened Desmond. Remember that at the end of last week’s episode, Desmond asked his driver, George Minkowski, to obtain the Oceanic 815 flight manifest. So, it appears Hugo Reyes is Desmond’s first target. Desmond invites himself to join Hurley and learns a little about Hurley’s women troubles. Des provides some words of wisdom:
DESMOND: Tell me something... did you believe her when she said she knew you?
HURLEY: Yeah. Kinda...
DESMOND: Now, I say go with your gut. You know, maybe you should...you should try to find out where she thinks she knew you from before you give up on her.
The question is (and this is more rhetorical) how does Desmond know that any way other than a near-death experience will show the Losties the main timeline? Hmmmm....
Taking Desmond’s advice, Hurley heads to the Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute. He bribes his way past Dr. Brooks to see his new infatuation. Libby explains that she feels she knows Hurley:
LIBBY: A few days ago I was watching TV and one of your commercials came on. And the minute that I saw you it was like I was hit over the head. All these memories came washing back of my life only...it was....another life.
HURLEY: What kind of memories?
LIBBY: There was a plane crash and I was on an island...
HURLEY: And I was there?
LIBBY: I think so. We...knew each other....liked each other. And then when I got here it was almost like I was here before and for some reason I have a memory of you being here too.
Hugo says that he has never been to a mental institution before. This was actually a really clever way to tie-in the opened ended issue from Season 2 of Libby being in the institution. While it doesn’t explain why she is in there (personally, I don’t think that is necessary....we know from the Season 2 finale “Live Together, Die Alone” that her husband passed away....she obviously is there because of the trauma from that personal tragedy), it does provide some importance to her institutionalization in the plot. In any case, we learn that Libby is at Santa Rosa on a voluntary basis. This leads Hurley to ask Libby out on a date.
The date turns out to be a picnic on the beach. This is perfect, as that was plan for Hurley and Libby’s first date on the island, before Michael shot her.
LIBBY: It’s just being here with you feels so familiar. It’s like a date we’ve never had.
Nice. After Hurley tries to understand why Libby would like him, she kisses him and BOOM, memories of the main timeline universe come flooding into Hurley’s brain. Hurley now has seen what both Desmond and Charlie have already seen.....a glimpse of another world (all of these memories are about Libby....not Arzt blowing up....not driving the DHARMA van over The Others....not the island disappearing (bloop)....just Libby....remember this). Watching from his car is Desmond, who knows now that he has shown at least one of the passengers what they needed to see.
Tastes like chicken.
Let’s jump back to the main timeline and Hurley at Libby’s grave. While talking to Libby’s resting place, Michael appears. He gives Hurley an important message:
MICHAEL: What matters is you going across that island to blow up that plane. People are gonna die. A lot of people, and it's gonna be your fault.
HURLEY: What?
MICHAEL: Because people are listening to you now, Hurley.
It’s true. Hurley has always been somewhat of a joke to the rest of the Losties. Sure, they will give him a job like divvying-up the food, but when it comes to guns and dynamite and being a hero, Hurley is not their go-to guy (despite having proven himself on a number of occasions). But everyone is brought to the island for a reason....and now is Hurley’s moment. Michael is right, people are listening to him now....he is a leader. Hurley is a comic book fan, so let’s see if he has learned a lesson from Spider-Man, that “"with great power comes great responsibility".
Following Michael’s urging, Hurley questions the rest of the group’s plan to blow up the Ajira plane. Ilana will have none of it, as her instructions from Jacob were to listen to Richard. But she should have listened to Hurley, because when she puts down her bag o’ dynamite a little harder than generally recommended, she is blasted to smithereens....Arzt-style.
In the aftermath of Ilana’s demise, Hurley grabs a pouch from Ilana’s tent, which must be the one that contains Jacob’s ashes. He again tries to get the team to abandon the plan, but Richard is hell bent on continuing and insists that they get more dynamite from the Black Rock. Hurley finally appears convinced and agrees with Richard’s plan. Hurley manages to get ahead of the rest of the group (how this can happen, I have no idea....perhaps a bigger mystery than how the island disappeared) and blows up the Black Rock before they can get anymore dynamite.
Richard is apoplectic with this turn of events (“What the hell were you thinking!”). Richard believes they need to continue with the plan, but Hurley has other ideas.
HURLEY: We have to go talk to Locke.
BEN: Are you trying to get us killed?
HURLEY: It’s not my idea....it’s his. (points to an empty space) Jacob says we have to talk to Locke.
Richard isn’t buying this and calls Hurley’s bluff.
RICHARD: Ask him what the island is.
HURLEY: What?
RICHARD: A while back Jacob told me what the island was. If he is really standing here right next to me, just ask him.
I wonder if this is a reference to the bottle/cork analogy from “Ab Aeterno” or if Richard ever received a more direct answer.
Ask him what shade of eyeliner I use. Jacob gave it to me last Administrative Professionals Day.
Hurley, responds to Richard with more bravado then we have ever seen him display before:
HURLEY: I don’t have to prove anything to you, Richard. You can either come with me or you can keep trying to blow stuff up. Your call dude.
Impressive. Even more so, Hurley is acting like a candidate; laying it out there and giving a choice. This makes me question if maybe there is a new candidate at the top of the leaderboard to replace Jacob.
Richard has had enough of Hurley’s nonsense and decides to continue with his plan, by attempting to get some weapons from the barracks. Ben and Miles decide to go with Richard (in my opinion, Miles just signed his death warrant....he has played his part in the series and we are going to see more of these secondary characters go the way of Ilana), while Jack, Hurley, Sun, and Frank (I’m guessing Frank is being kept alive because he is can pilot the Ajira plane) head out to talk with Flocke. You can tell from the look on Hurley’s face that he is thinking, “oh crap....what did I just do?” now that he is the leader of his small group.
Later Hurley admits to Jack that he didn’t really talk to Jacob, but Jack already knew this. The old Jack (man of science) would have just taken over the situation at this point. The new Jack (man of faith) is following Hurley, despite what his brain is telling him:
JACK: Ever since Juliet died....ever since I got her killed, all I wanted was to fix it. But I can’t...I can’t ever fix it. You have no idea how hard it is for me to sit back and listen to other people tell me what I should do. But, I think that maybe that’s the point. Maybe....maybe I’m supposed to let go.
HURLEY: Unless you letting go gets us killed. Going to see Locke was my idea, not Jacob’s.
JACK: Hurley, you asked me to trust you. This is me trusting you.
This is a huge breakthrough for Jack as a person. One of the messages his father, Christian, once told him was, “Let it go, Jack.” It has taken a long time, and much has transpired, but it seems like this message is finally getting through to Jack.
Jack and Hurley’s discussion is interrupted by the island whispers. Hurley tells everyone to chill out, because he thinks he knows what they are. He goes into the jungle and calls for Michael:
HURLEY: You’re stuck on the island, aren’t you?
MICHAEL: Because of what I did.
HURLEY: And...there are others out here, like you, aren’t there? That’s what the whispers are?
MICHAEL: Yeah. We’re the ones who can’t move on.
Now, up to this point, I think the show has done an excellent job explaining long standing mysteries (the numbers, Richard’s aging, how the Black Rock came to the island), but I have to say that this was about as poorly handled as anything the show has ever done (Nikki and Paulo included). What the whispers are is not my issue, but rather how it was explained in 15 seconds, like it was some “oh...by the way” thing. The whispers were a HUGE part of the early seasons mythology and they deserve better than what we got this week.
Oh....and the island is a spaceship, the smoke monster is made of nano-bots, and Jacob is Aaron’s father.
With that rant over, let me actually spend a minute talking about the implications of what we learned about the whispers. It certainly seems like the island represents some staging ground for the afterlife....like a Purgatory or Limbo, where you await your final fate (i.e. Heaven or Hell). The Limbo possibility is quite strong here as Michael uses the words “can’t move on”. Catholic theology teaches that those who died before Christ remained in Limbo until he opened the gates of Heaven upon resurrection. I can see a similar scenario in LOST, where a savior must be the one to free the lost souls on the island. I’ve speculated before that the island represents a gateway to the underworld. This concept works well with the idea of Limbo. The gateway (or cork....as Jacob used the bottle analogy) remains closed....what it takes to open it remains to be seen.
Also, it has been a popular recent assumption, that when we hear the whispers and then see a dead person, that we are in fact seeing the Smoke Monster taking on another form. Now, I think we must challenge this notion. Assuming Michael is telling the truth, many other island manifestations, like Christian Shephard, are NOT really Smokey. That is really a HUGE piece of information. Christian has appeared at some very pivotal moments for the Losties. It’s possible now that he represents neither Jacob nor the Man-in-Black, but rather the island itself. I have to believe that in the next few weeks we will find out more about Christian’s role in all of this. And I am starting to think that it may be something entirely different than we all expect.
Moving on (pun intended), ghost-Michael points the way to Flocke’s camp. Hurley brings his group there, but only has them reveal themselves once he has Flocke’s assurances that they will be OK. When he agrees, Jack, Sun, and Frank emerge from the jungle. Note the look on Sun’s face, as she continues to be unable to locate Jin (who is now with Widmore). Flocke is the only one to speak, when he says, “Hello Jack”. Jack goes slackjawed, as the last he saw of John Locke, he was in a coffin. A very cool moment. Jack and Locke have always been the chief rivals on the island.....now Jack (potentially the new Jacob), stands face to face with a real enemy, in the visage of John Locke.
The other key storyline this week involved Flocke and Desmond. Sayid captured Desmond off Hydra island and tied him to a tree, so he could not escape before Flocke saw him. When Flocke arrives, Desmond seems very much at peace and he engages Desmond in a very interesting conversation:
FLOCKE: Why did Charles Widmore bring you back to the island?
DESMOND: Considering I was kidnapped, you'd have to ask him.
SAYID: They had him under armed guard.
DESMOND: He threw me into a wood shack and blasted me with a massive amount of electromagnetism.
FLOCKE: If you don't mind my asking, Desmond...how could you be sure it was electromagnetism that he blasted you with?
DESMOND: Experience.
Flocke seems quite unsettled by this answer. Perhaps he is starting to piece together Widmore’s plan.
FLOCKE: Do you know who I am?
DESMOND: Of course.....You're John Locke.
Desmond is the first character in a long time to mistake (and I don’t believe for a second it was a mistake) Flocke for Locke. This also seems to be an answer Flocke was neither expecting, nor wanted.
I really liked this scene. It didn’t provide any answers, but added a new dimension to Desmond. It seems that Desmond has taken on a very Zen-like demeanor, suggesting that he is carrying with him knowledge of his life in the sideways timeline. This can’t be good for MIB.
Flocke frees Desmond and tells him he would like to show him something and they head out on a walk through the jungle. There, the great dialogue continues between Des and Flocke:
FLOCKE: Remind me Desmond, how long were you down in that hatch?
DESMOND: Three years.
FLOCKE: And here you are, back for more. If I didn’t know better, I’d say this island has it in for you.
DESMOND: Do you know better?
FLOCKE: Excuse me?
DESMOND: There’s nothing special about me, brotha. This island has it in for all of us.
FLOCKE: Yes it does.
Desmond clearly has the upper hand and I have to believe that MIB is completely perplexed and views Desmond as a serious threat.
Then, Flocke’s eye catches the mysterious teenage boy we saw earlier this season. Only this time he has dark hair instead blond. One of the theories that was floated when the blond version of this boy appeared was that this was a young version of Jacob. If that is true, then is the dark-haired version MIB? If this is true, then perhaps one of the popular internet theories is also true.....that Jacob and MIB are two halves of the same entity. This boy could be a representation of both the light part (blond) and dark part (dark-haired) of this being. Could it be that Jacob/MIB is a Smeagol/Gollum schizophrenic character? There is not enough evidence yet to make any definitive conclusions regarding the boy, but it is clearly something very important. Flocke dismisses it though, and tells Des to “just ignore him”.
Damn teenagers....always loitering.
Flocke and Desmond arrive at an ancient well (I suspect this well is the third “pocket of energy” that was on Zoe’s map in the episode, “The Package”). After Flocke gives some background on the well, and warning Des about Charles Widmore (“Charles Widmore is not interested in answers, he is only interested in power”), he asks Desmond an important question:
FLOCKE: Why aren’t you afraid?
DESMOND: Excuse me?
FLOCKE: You are out here, in the middle of the jungle...with me, not a person on Earth knows you are here. Why aren’t you afraid?
DESMOND: What is the point in being afraid?
And I believe this answer made Flocke more afraid than he has ever been before and he tosses Desmond down the well.
We had Lassie put to sleep last year.....there hasn’t been a well rescue since.
We next see Desmond in the sideways timeline sitting in his car outside of the school John Locke is teaching at, watching him wheel-across the parking lot. Dr. Linus knocks on his window and inquires as to what Desmond is doing there (he appears to be suspicious that Des is some sort of pedophile).
DESMOND: I just moved to the neighborhood and I am looking for a school for my son.
BEN: What’s your son’s name?
DESMOND: Charlie.
Notice how quickly Desmond references “Charlie”. This implies that sideways Desmond has awareness of his main-timeline self, including his son. I suggested last week that Desmond’s mind may be in both timelines simultaneously. The events of this week increase the support for this theory.
After Ben leaves, Des starts up the car and runs over a wheelchair-bound John Locke (notice that Locke’s expression after being hit is almost identical to that when he was revived by Jacob after being thrown out of a window by Anthony Cooper). Now, on the surface, you can assume that this is just another step in Desmond trying to show the Oceanic passengers their island life. However, if as I suggest above, Desmond’s mind is experiencing both timelines, then perhaps this violent act is a response to Flocke throwing Desmond down the well in the main timeline. This would suggest that there is some connection between Sideways-Locke and Island-Flocke. Just something to think about as we head into the home stretch of the series.
Couldn’t he just have introduced me to an attractive mental patient?
So, before ending the analysis for this week, I need to address the subject of “love” relative to what we have seen over the last 2 weeks. Recall that four characters in the sideways have had visions of love from the main timeline:
Charlie – Visions of Claire after choking on bag of Heroin
Desmond – Visions of Penny and his son Charlie after a car crash
Libby – Visions of Hurley after seeing him on TV
Hurley – Visions of Libby after kissing her
I often like to compare LOST to other modern mythologies and one of my favorites is the Harry Potter novel series. In these novels there is a major emphasis on the power of love. See some of these notable excerpts:
Dumbledore from “Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone”: “If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. He didn’t realize that love as powerful as your mother’s for you leaves its own mark. Not a scar, no visible sign....to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection for ever.”
Dumbledore on “love” from “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phioenix”: “There is a room in the Department of Mysteries that is kept locked at all times. It contains a force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than the forces of nature. It is also, perhaps, the most mysterious of the many subjects for study that reside there. It is the power held within that room that you possess in such quantities and which Voldemort has not at all. That power took you to save Sirius tonight. That power also saved you from possession by Voldemort, because he could not bear to reside in as body so full of the force he detests. In the end, it mattered not that you could not close your mind. It was your heart that saved you.”
Voldemort from “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”:”....nothing I have seen in the world has supported your famous pronouncement that love is more powerful than my kind of magic, Dumbledore.”
Think about the relevance of these comments to LOST. There are two opposing sides....one is light, the other dark. For the sake of this discussion let’s assume the Man-in-Black is the dark force (there are arguments against this....but I won’t go there now). If MIB is analogous to Voldemort, perhaps it is “love” that will be his undoing. MIB relies on the dark side of love (exploiting the lost loves of Sawyer, Sayid, and Claire) to get what he wants. But maybe this is the only part of love he can understand. If this is true, maybe Jacob represents another kind of love....unconditional love. Think about who Jacob communicates through...Hurley. There is no other character on LOST who represents that same degree of unconditional love (and “Everybody Loves Hugo”). Ironic that a character with such a great capacity for love, has such little personal luck with love. In the end though, maybe his love will be the one to save them all. He will be the savior....the one to free the souls from Limbo. Just something to think about.
Here are a few misc items:
- Best line of the week goes to Carmen Reyes (I know I quoted it earlier, but it is too good not to repeat):
CARMEN: You need a woman in your life. Especially one who has not nursed you.
- Runner up goes to Desmond: “Ooh... that is a lot of chicken!”
- The title of the episode, “Everybody Loves Hugo” plays off of the Season 2 episode “Everybody Hates Hugo”, similar to the “What Kate Does”/”What Kate Did” episodes.
- While for the most part, the slideshow tribute to Hugo Reyes was relatively vanilla, there was one interesting little Easter egg thrown in there....one of the photo’s showed a Mr. Clucks outside of the Great Pyramid of Giza. This ties in with the Egyptian references on the island and also shows one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (which I discussed in my entry for “Lighthouse”).
One order of Pharaoh Nuggets, Mummy Fries and a Nile River shake. And super-size it.
- Desmond’s order number in Mr. Clucks was 42 (one of the numbers)
- Did you notice that on the chalkboard in the mental institution there is a drawing of an island?
- How cool was the preview for next week’s episode? I won’t reveal any of the show details, as I know some people consider this a spoiler, but I loved that they used a voiceover from “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” (the creepy part when they are on the boat):
There's no earthly way of knowing
Which direction we are going
Not a speck of light is showing
So the danger must be growing
Are the fires of Hell a-glowing?
Is the grisly reaper mowing?
Yes! The danger must be growing
For the rowers keep on rowing
And they're certainly not showing
Any signs that they are slowing!!!
Awesome. And with that, let’s wrap it up.
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