LOST Revisited: 6-12 “Everybody Loves Hugo”
We open with a tribute to one Hugo Reyes, narrated by Dr. Marvin Candle. I am always happy to see that guy! Note that he’s another guy who was on the Island when Jughead would have gone off, and was in fact about three feet away at the time. Also, he doesn’t seem to have a prosthetic arm in Timeline X. The footage of Philanthropist Hurley cracks me up, with shots of the box company and an “Experimental Farm”. He donated a big chunk of money to the museum’s paleontology wing, because dinosaurs are awesome. Hurley knows this.
Afterwards, Hurley confirms with his mother that they have “the Human Fund” tomorrow. That’s a reference to the Seinfeld episode where George pretends to donate money in people’s names to a fake charity, rather than buy Christmas presents. I don’t think you can understand how happy that line made me. Anyway, Ma set him up on a blind date with a woman named Rosalita. She’s really funny in this scene. This episode is in position to be a hilarious romp, right?
And then we’re on the Island, with Hurley visiting Libby’s grave. She’s never appeared to him as a ghost, and he misses her. Poor Hurley. Ilana interrupts him – she’s headed to the Black Rock to get some dynamite to blow up Flight 316. Hurley hates it whenever the dynamite comes up – poor Arzt scarred him for life. As she leaves, we hear the old familiar whispers, and then Michael appears. Because that’s who Hurley wants to see… Michael wants to stop him from blowing up the plane, and says that people will die and it’ll be Hurely’s fault.
Hurley X waits at the restaurant for his date. (The restaurant, by the way, is “Spanish Johnny’s”. I feel like that means something filthy if you look it up on Urban Dictionary.) And then somebody comes to his table – Libby! She is definitely not Rosalita, but she approached Hurley because she recognized him. She talks about soulmates, and is upset that Hurley doesn’t remember her. And then she’s interrupted by Dr. Brooks, Hurley’s doctor at Santa Rosa. At least in our reality. Libby’s on a day trip with a group from the Mental Health Institute, and Dr. Brooks apologizes before loading her back on the bus.
You know, in our timeline, Libby was already out of the institute by this time. Once again, we have a different history here. And she’s seeing the cracks in Timeline X, like Charlie, Desmond, and Daniel. This time, it’s brought about both by seeing somebody close to her and being a little crazy.
Back at the Lostaway camp, they’re getting ready to move out. Richard wants to get to Hydra by nightfall, and Ilana’s got four sticks of dynamite, which should be enough to blow up 316. Hurley tries to talk them out of the plan, and then Ilana blows up. Yes, that happened. And here’s the thing – we know that dynamite is unstable. As soon as somebody holds it, there’s a chance they’re going to explode. But Arzt had been around for all of two episodes. Ilana has been around since last season and has a key role in the mythology – I never would have imagined they’d casually blow her up like that. I’m stunned.
If you listened closely after the explosion, you probably heard the anguished cries of spunkybuddy Larry Young.
By the way, the actress who plays Ilana gave an interview recently where she revealed her character’s last name. I’m not going to spoil it, just in case there’s some follow-up, but it sure looks like either she or the producers were spreading disinformation to mess with us. They’re evil geniuses. Also, Ilana was part of one of my favorite scenes in the entire series. She’ll be missed.
Meanwhile, Look-a-Locke is carving a big stick, one that’ll tell him what it’s supposed to be. (I only find that worth noting because it seems to be sort of a meta-commentary on storytelling – get started and it’ll tell you what it’s supposed to be.) I like that Sawyer is really pushy with him, as if maybe he can bully the murderous smoke. Look-a-Locke reminds Kate that she and the rest of the Oceanic Six were only able to come back, because they all did it together, and they have to leave the same way. Rules, I tell you! Zombie Sayid returns, and asks for a moment with the Lockelganger. And then Sayid leads him to Desmond, who he has tied to a tree. Awesomely, Desmond doesn’t seem all that upset about it. He’s cool with everything these days.
Hurley goes through Ilana’s stuff, including a book that appears to be in Russian and is also covered with sand, so there’s no chance that I’m going to figure out what that is. Hurley finds a sack, which I believe is the sack where she was holding Jacob’s ashes. It looks like he pockets that. Meanwhile, Richard and Jack argue about their next move. Richard wants to get more dynamite, Jack thinks there’s a pretty good sign they should stay away from dynamite. Now, these are two guys who recently failed to kill themselves with TNT, so you wouldn’t think they’d have anything to worry about. Of course, Ilana was touched by Jacob and you saw what happened there. Probably better to stay away, I would think. Hurley convinces Jack that they should follow Richard.
In Timeline X, a depressed Hurley picks up a bucket of chicken from Mr. Cluck’s. The cashier is Samm Levine, who you know from either Freaks and Geeks or Inglourious Basterds. Or both, I guess. Neat little cameo there. As Hurley drowns his sorrows in poultry, Desmond finds him. He recognizes Hurley from the plane (he directed Desmond to the luggage carousel), and talks Hurley into telling his story. He’s quite interested that somebody Hurley had never met still recognized him from a shared history that never happened. Desmond encourages him to follow his gut and find out why she thinks she knows him. Yep, he’s trying to rip a hole in Timeline X. Also, his order number is 42, which you should really be expecting by now.
Back on the Island, Look-a-Locke apologizes to Desmond for the tie-up games. Desmond acknowledges that he’s got no place to run to, which is as good a reason as any to cut him loose. Now, I’m fairly sure that Desmond knows Locke is dead. He brought Jack to White Oracle last season, and she talked about Locke at the time. Of course, that’s still a long way from assuming that he’s talking to a smoke monster in human form. For all we know, he thinks that the Island resurrected John Locke. Lockelganger has questions about Widmore, and is interested in the electromagnetism. (“How can you be sure what it was that he blasted you with?” “Experience.” Ha!)
As the Lostaways head to the Black Rock, Benry reminds everybody that Ilana’s purpose turned out to be to tell them about the candidates, and then the Island was finished with her. That is pretty brutal, really. When they arrive at the Black Rock, well, Hurley got their ahead of them and set off all the dynamite. For Richard, their only chance to beat Smokey is gone, but Hurley says he did it to protect them. Hurley’s blowing up water vehicles… who does he think he is? Locke?
I love the dialogue between Miles and Hurley. Two guys who talk to dead people, just hashing it out. “That happen a lot? Dead people yelling at you?” “It happens enough.”
Hurley goes to Santa Rosa to talk to Libby, but Dr. Brooks doesn’t think it’s a good idea. According to Dr. Brooks, “she has issues with reality”. There is a lot of that going around these days. Hurley finally puts up a big donation to the Institute to get some face time with Libby.
In the rec room, I’m pleased to see that the inmates still enjoy a good game of Connect Four. I was kind of hoping we’d see Hurley’s imaginary friend Dave, since I still believe that he was a ghost, and not actually imaginary. Also, I think he’s one and the same as Libby’s ex-husband Dave, so actually having him appear there would have been really confusing, so it’s probably for the best that he sat this one out.
Hurley and Libby talk, and I am reminded of how much I like these two together. She actually seems to have a pretty clear picture of our timeline – she remembers the plane crash and the Island, and has some of the specifics down. Hurley, asks her out, which is an awesome thing to do at the mental home, but since she’s there voluntarily, she can actually go. I just know they’re setting me up to break my heart all over again.
Look-a-Locke leads Desmond through the jungle, and they talk about how the Island’s got it in for Desmond. It’s such a weird conversation, like Desmond can’t help himself from indicating that he knows something’s up. The ghost boy appears again, and Desmond can see him. But at this point, Smokey’s just bored with him. “Just ignore him”. Hee. We’ve reached the point when strange judging ghost boys are no longer interesting to Look-a-Locke.
The Lostaways ponder their next move, and Hurley announces that Jacob wants them to go talk to Locke. This is great, because Richard knows full well that Hurley can see ghosts, he just doesn’t believe that Hurley is seeing this particular ghost right now. Richard tests him, telling Hurley to ask him what the Island is. (It’s the cork!) Hurley shows real resolve here, considering that just last season he collapsed under Dr. Marvin Candle’s questions, including stumpers like “Who is the President?”
Anyway, Richard once again reminds them that if Smokey leaves the Island, it’s all over. Meanwhile, Jack and Hurley don’t want to destroy the only way off the Island, so that splits them into two groups. Benry and Miles follow Richard to find some explosives at one of the Dharma stations, while Jack, Sun, and Frank follow Hurley to go find their enemy. Good call, Frank – you probably want to stick close to the Candidates right about now. Frank didn’t get where he is by being a dummy.
As Hurley’s band trudges through the jungle, he admits to Jack that he didn’t really see Jacob and has no idea what they’re supposed to do next. Jack is letting go of his control freak ways, and is putting his trust in Hurley. And that’s when we hear those jungle whispers again. Michael appears to Hurley, and explains that he can’t leave the Island because of what he’s done. The whispers are the ghosts who can’t leave! In the past, it’s occasionally been possible to decipher the whispers, and they’ve generally been warnings. I honestly didn’t think they’d get around to answering a minor point like that, so I’m pretty excited. Michael just asks Hurley to tell Libby that he’s very sorry, just in case he sees her again. You know, that was kind of a classy send-off for Michael. The character hasn’t been well-liked and the actor burned some bridges, but this was well-handled.
In Timeline X, Hurley and Libby finally get to have that picnic on the beach. And this time, he remembered the blankets! It’s a sweet scene, and then Libby kisses him. As soon as she does, he has flashes of the Island. He remembers the other world now, too. (He totally should have asked her if he could remember with tongue.) Desmond’s watching from his car, and he seems to know that he’s made some progress.
Look-a-Locke brings Desmond to a well. At first I thought it was the one that Locke climbed down to get to the wheel, but it isn’t. He explains to Desmond that this well, and others like it, is very old, dug by hand by people who were trying to find out why their compasses went crazy on this site. They were looking for answers. He says that Widmore doesn’t want answers – he only wants power. That may be largely true, but it doesn’t necessarily make him the bad guy. Lockelganger is getting more alarmed that Desmond isn’t afraid, but Desmond says there’s really no point. And then Look-a-Locke tosses him down the well. I kind of knew that would happen, but it was still jarring.
And this is something worth thinking about, and it was all my sister’s idea. In the Old Testament, which I think we know by now is the writing staff’s preferred Testament, Joseph’s brothers threw him down a well. You know who Joseph’s father was? Jacob. Let’s just park on that one for a while, because that is fantastic.
All right, we’ve got some big moments at the end. Hurley arrives at Look-a-Locke’s camp and talks the monster into giving up his weapons – they agree to a peaceful sit-down. Hurley is really impressive in this scene – he faces down the Lockelganger. I’ll be honest with you – Hurley would make a pretty good Jacob. And it just occurred to me that Sun doesn’t know that Widmore has Jin. She thinks they’re going to be reunited any moment now, and I don’t think I can watch another thwarted reunion.
Speaking of things I can’t watch, our final scene brings us to Timeline X. Desmond’s waiting outside the school in his car, watching Locke. Benry comes over to the car, and how great it is it that Benry is calling somebody out for being creepy? Desmond does his best to deflect suspicion, and at the first opportunity, he runs over Locke! Oh, that is not good. How many episodes have ended with the audience wondering if Locke was dead? Heck, most of the seasons end that way! I’m finally coming to grips with the fact that our Locke is gone, and I don’t think I can lose another.
If I can pull it together for a bit, this is a pretty clear indication that Desmond X knows what’s happening to regular Desmond. Locke pitched him down a well, so Locke is dangerous. Again, we don’t really know what Desmond thinks about Look-a-Locke, whether he believes him to be an imposter or a resurrected evil Locke. Either way, he’s got Locke figured as the bad guy, but I don’t think it’s fair to lump Locke X in there. Honestly, this was hard to watch. I think Desmond’s going to save the world, but I am not cool with this part of the plan.
All right, let me know what you think and I’ll be back in a few days with a pre-game. Meanwhile, I’ll be lighting a candle for Locke X – he may be part of a corrupted timeline, but we can’t exactly spare any Lockes. I’m sad about Ilana, worried about the Lostaways, and desperately hoping that somebody ends up with a happy ending. I don’t expect to be less of a wreck in the weeks to come.
