Everybody Loves Hugo

“Don’t you want somebody to love? Oh, don’t you need somebody to love?”
– Jefferson Airplane

The end is near. You can always tell with Lost. It happens when you reach a point in the season where the drama starts kicking into high gear, every episode kicks your ass, and the scope of the entire season starts to come into focus. Except this year it’s not just the scope of the season but of the whole series. I expect nothing but awesomeness from here on out.

“Awesome” is probably the best way to describe “Everybody Loves Hugo”, not just because of the stomach-turning confrontations, heartwarming interactions, face-cringing expressions, the jaw-dropping cliffhanger, or the soul-satisfying answers to mysteries long-pondered. It’s also the word the title character would use. As usual, there’s a lot to get to. Let’s get started.

On the Island, we join Hurley as he’s kneeling next to Libby’s grave, similar to the start of another episode that I can’t remember off the top of my head. No matter. Hurley tells Libby that things are really getting crazy and that he wishes she were there to help him through it. He wonders why she hasn’t come to see him like so many other dead people have. No sooner had he said it and out pops Ghost Michael. He comes with a warning – unless you want to get everyone killed, you won’t let Ilana carry out her plan to blow up the plane.

Hurley returns to the beach camp and finds Ilana and Richard gearing up for their mission to Hydra Island. Ilana shows Hurley her sack full of extra-frothy dynamite sticks. Remember the dynamite they used to booby-trap the camp for the Others? Clean as a whistle. The stuff that exploded poor Dr. Arzt? Just oozing with nitroglycerin. Well, that nicely foreshadowed what happened next. After a little speech about how she’s been training her whole life to protect them, Hurley, Jack and the rest watch as Ilana casually drops her bag of dynamite and blows to smithereens. Nice knowing ya, hon.

Undeterred, Richard rallies the group to press on with Operation: Blow Up Ajira 316. Hurley reluctantly agrees to go along, convinces Jack, and the group heads out to the Black Rock. On the way, Ben, always the chatty-Cathy, says to Jack, “Kinda makes you think doesn’t it?” Maybe a little off-guard, Jack responds, “What’s that?” “Ilana. There she was - handpicked by Jacob, trained to come and protect you candidates, no sooner does she tell you who you are, then she blows up. The Island was done with her. Makes me wonder what's gonna happen when it's done with us,” Ben answers.

Two things here. One, stuff like this always cracks me up. Here’s Ben, who had Jack locked up, who launched assault after assault against Jack and his people, who has messed with Jack’s head every chance he could get, and he has no problem trying to have a nice little chat as if none of that ever happened. No hard feelings, right Ben? Second thing, I wonder why they chose to have Ben ask that question. He was clearly jealous of Jack and the rest the way he said “you candidates”. Also, hasn’t Ben felt like the Island cast him aside long ago? Or is this further evidence that darkens the line between Jacob and the Island a little bit more? Sure, Ben has given up on Jacob’s purpose for him, but maybe the Island still has use for him. Something to ponder.

The group arrives at the Black Rock only to see it explode right in front of them in a spectacular ball of fire. Somehow Hurley snuck ahead and triggered the dynamite, eviscerating a major Island landmark and sending Richard with one flick of a match. The rest of the group takes it a little better, but Miles presses Hurley on why he would do such a thing. He confesses that Michael told him to, and he’s just one of the dead people who comes back and yells at him. Miles, knowing a little something about dead people, asks “And you just listen to whatever they say?” “Dead people are more reliable than alive people,” he responds.

Does Hurley really believe that? He’s always been a super-trusting person, almost to a fault. But I actually don’t think that’s the important question. We should be asking why Hurley made this decision at all. Hurley has always been the guy who “you can just hop in [his] cab and tell him what he’s supposed to do”. He knows this. He hates being the one making the decisions, being the one with all the responsibility. Remember how he poorly he handled the duty of rationing out the hatch food? The stakes are a million times higher now. That’s why he’s scared. But he accepts the responsibility because he trusts his gut that it’s the right thing to do. Hurley’s learning to have faith in himself.

Richard ain’t too happy about all this all this. His patience has run out. He’s going to the barracks to get whatever grenades and explosives he can find. Hurley has a different idea: he wants to go talk to Locke. He says Jacob’s standing right behind Richard and that’s what he told him to do. Richard calls his bluff, announces that he’s leaving right now and anyone who wants to help him destroy the plane should go with him. Ben and Miles decide to join. They take off into the jungle, leaving Frank, Sun Jack and Hurley behind. All original (or supposed to be original) 815ers. Interesting.

As the gang treks across the Island to meet up with Locke (why do they have to call it that?), Sun and Frank express their doubts about the decision they just made. But Jack does not. When Hurley confesses to him that he didn’t really see Jacob back there, that it was his decision to go meet up with the Monster, Jack admits that he knew that all along. Then he tells Hurley this – “Ever since Juliet died - ever since I got her killed - all I've wanted was to fix it. But I can't. I can't ever fix it. You've 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 maybe that's the point...maybe I'm supposed to let go.”

I’ve gotta admit, the room got a little dusty for me during this scene. The Island’s been waiting to hear Jack say those words for years now. As he did earlier this season, he admits that it was his fault that Juliet died and he knows that there’s nothing he can do about it, but unlike before, those aren’t just words. Deep down, Jack has accepted that there’s nothing he can do about Juliet’s death, and probably the same about losing Kate, pushing his father away, and not listening to Locke too. I would venture a guess that before the season’s out, we will see Jack confront each of these people directly. More on that last one in a bit.

Seconds later, the group finds themselves in the middle of a storm of Whispers. “Wait. It's cool, I think I know what these things are,” Hurley tells them. He walks a little deeper into the jungle to once again find himself once again face-to-face with Michael. Hurley tells him that he knows that’s he’s stuck on the Island, and it’s because of what he did to Libby and Ana Lucia. The Whispers are those lost souls like Michael who are reaching out to the living from the other side. (Guess I was wrong when I called that one “answered” in the mid-season wish list. Whoops.) When Hurley asks if there’s anything he can do to help him, Michael responds, “Don’t get yourself killed”. You know who else wants to see Hurley alive? The MIB. If Hurley gets himself killed, then the MIB can’t use him to get off the Island, and from Michael’s little comment their, I’d say the MIB’s planning on taking all those whispering dead people with him.

Across the Island, we pick up where we left off last week with Desmond, Sayid and the rest of team MIB. Sayid alerts the Incarnation of Evil that he has Desmond tied to a tree a short distance from camp. The MIB heads over to ask Des a few questions, but Des is having none of it. He’s as calmly defiant as he was when Sayid had a gun pointed at his face last week. The MIB, unsettled by Desmond’s demeanor, dismisses Sayid so he can get some one-on-one time with Des. The two go for a walk.

The rest of the scenes between the MIB and Des had a ring of Ben leading Locke through the jungle in “The Man Behind the Curtain”. We have one character (the main bad guy on the show) leading another (the good guy) through the jungle to an unknown destination with the good guy about to meet an unfortunate end. On the way, they encounter something the audience believes to be Jacob (invisible guy/blonde-haired boy) and by then end, the bad guy’s telling a story about Island history that ends with the good guy facing certain death. But like when Locke was left in the Dharma grave with a bullet in his gut, I don’t think Desmond’s dead. You don’t just throw a beloved character down a well, cut away quickly to another scene and have that be our last image of the guy. Oh no, there’s more story for Des yet.

The MIB makes it back to camp just in time for Hurley to emerge from the jungle. Sheepishly, he asks for the Monster’s word that he won’t hurt any of his friends. The MIB obliges and hands over his knife to Hurley. Yeah, like a knife is the biggest of their concerns when dealing with something that can turn into a huge pillar of smoke at any moment. Hurley calls to his friends that the coast is clear, leading to one of my favorite moments of the episode: Jack walks out of the jungle. He locks eyes with the MIB – John Locke – and gives an absolutely classic look, the perfect mix of anger, fear, and “shit, I’m about to throw up”.

Let’s get to the Sideways world real quick. Loved the Pierre Chang intro. That had me cracking up, especially the part about Hurley’s “lifelong love affair with chicken”. I hope I never have my relationship with food described in such a way. I also thought Carmen Reyes’ little speech to her son was funny, but also critical to the larger theme of the episode. She tells Hurley that he needs a woman in his life and the only reason he doesn’t have one already is because he’s too scared. Fear.

Fear. Often times it’s the strongest motivator in the lives of our characters. Desmond was afraid he could never live up to what he felt Penny deserved. In “Everybody Hates Hugo”, Hurley feared change and that money would isolate him from the people he cared about. We see it again here. Hurley has insecurities about being fat and it prevents him from even trying to talk to women for fear of rejection.

Because he won’t do it himself, Carmen sets up a little date for Hurley. He’s supposed to meet Rosalita at Spanish Johnny’s, a situation that doubles up on references to the Springsteen album, The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle but I’ll leave the dissection of all that to Doc Jensen. I’ll just say I was upset I didn’t pick up on all that myself. But instead of Rosalita, Hurley meets an uber-cute blonde girl named Libby. She says something about believing in soul mates and that she remembers him, but before Hurley can say much, she’s whisked away by Dr. Brooks (who looks like he’s aged about ten years since Season 1, but at least he lost all that Season 4 weight).

Confused and sad, Hurley does what he always does to cheer himself up: he dives headfirst into a family-sized bucket of chicken. He’s lost in that bucket when who comes up to him but the man with order number 42 – Desmond David Hume. Hurley tells him about the crazy girl who told him she remembered him and how she said he should remember her. Well, isn’t that convenient for Des? He tells Hurley that he should try to figure out what she knows him from before giving up on her. That’s just the push Hurley needs. Off to Santa Rosa!

After bribing Dr. Brooks, Hurley gets a little time with Libby at the table next to the Connect Four board. I was hoping for some Leonard action there, but alas, he must have found his sanity in the Sideways world. (Quick tangent: if the Island doesn’t exist in the Sideways world, how did the Numbers drive Leonard crazy? And if they didn’t drive him crazy, how did Hurley play them in the lottery and get rich? I’m not holding my breath on an answer to this one). Hurley confesses to Libby that he doesn’t remember her, but he’s impressed that she had the guts to even come up to him like that. He gets scared just saying hi to a girl. He takes those pity points straight to the bank and asks Libby out. She says yes.

Everyone’s favorite mismatched coupled finally get to have their picnic date! Awwww. And this time he didn’t forget the blankets. Some pleasant conversation, a little cheese, and the two kiss, just like they did at cliff’s edge on the other side. With that, Hurley’s Island memories come rushing back to him. Des watches from his car, smirks, and drives away. Job well done. Onto the next 815er.

With this scene, we see the convergence of fear and love, the two big themes of the episode. Hurley was terrified to go out and meet girls and it was keeping him from being truly happy. Once he overcame that fear, he re-experienced the love that he felt for Libby on the Island and with it came enlightenment. Much like Des and Charlie and Faraday, Hurley’s experience with his loved one, his “constant” if you will, helps him understand himself and his world in a more complete way. That togetherness will allow him to change it and save himself. “Live together, die alone” right? Desmond (Island and Sideways versions) felt this same thing. He was together with Penny, at least in spirit, in both worlds. Armed with the power of love (Huey Lewis and the News, thank you Doc Jensen), he had the confidence and peace of mind to stare down the most terrifying thing of all – John Locke. And he was not afraid. We will see how Jack reacts when confronted with the same man soon enough.

We know how Sideways Des reacts too – he plows into the poor wheelchair-bound bastard at full-speed and leaves him looking as if Anthony Cooper just threw him out of an eighth-floor window. Ben thought he was creeping on the kids, but instead Des was out for blood. Why would he want to take out John Locke in such a crude and painful way? Payback for throwing him down the well on the Island? Was it not really Locke in the first place, but rather the MIB? Or is he carrying on with his mission of “showing something” to all the 815ers, and smearing him all over his windshield was just a means to that end? I like option two the most in terms of shock value, but I’d say option three is the most likely. Either way, it was probably the best cliffhanger since “I’m going to kill Jacob”. I just loved it.

Here’s to an awesome stretch run of episodes. Until next week…