The season 2 outing “Everybody Hates Hugo” is one of Lost’s most heartwarming installments. In case you’ve forgotten, that episode gave us the story of Hurley dealing with his lottery winnings pre-Island. On the Island, the castaways dealt with the issue of rationing food (remember when that was the least of their problems?), culminating in a vintage Giacchino-scored montage with Hurley diligently passing out the feast to the emboldened band of surivors.
“Everybody Loves Hugo” was…different.
Crossing over with Hugo Reyes
The series has clearly embraced the thematic shift that “Happily Ever After” presented us with, in that we are likely past the tentpole of cute and satisfying standalone Sideways stories. Those elements were still in play last night, but I suspect that a large portion of the remainder of the season will be dedicated to seeing our heroes veering closer and closer to snapping to their senses about their mystical double lives.
Appropriately, Hurley’s moment of truth came via an encounter with his erstwhile Island paramour, Libby. We already knew from the premiere that alt-Hurley was a successful and enterprising businessman, a far cry from his raincloud-laden existence we came to know over the first five seasons of the show.
Setting the stage was a lovely dedication ceremony, keynoted by one Pierre Chang. After a harsh scolding from his increasingly impatient madre, Hurley set out to find romance on his blind date. I find it interesting that he caught a bit of bad luck in being stood up by Rosalita, I considered it to be a pretty clever hint that he would soon gain memory of his former life. Anyway, batsh*t crazy Libby had already had her glimpse, and implored Hugo to do the same. The framing of this conflict was a pretty clever nod by the showrunners to the long-debated relevance of Libby to the original storyline. Legions of fans have screamed across the vast expanse of the internet for a reason as to why Libby was in the nuthouse with Hurley in the first place. (FYI, it’s pretty clear that she just went crazy after her husband died and went off the deep end for a while).
Enter Desmond, who was the highlight of the hour in my opinion, unspeakably cool in his new role as something of a temporal/crossover policeman. I think it’s a bold choice to have Des enlighten the castaways to what’s going on in individually specific ways, as opposed to Desmond just showing up and shouting in their faces about destiny and past lives and “alternate bizzaro universes” as Hurley coined them (It figures that Hurley, always the voice of the audience, would be the first to actually call out the flashsideways for what they really are).
So, Hurley and Libby finally got their precious beach date, a sincere and cathartic scene that carried the added punch of the definitive Hurley crossover. I was talking with some friends in the wake of “Happily Ever After” about the nature of these existential awakenings. Namely, that the characters seemed to finally “feel it” when confronted with certain states of extreme emotion. Namely, near-death experiences (Charlie, Des) or true love (Hurley, Faraday). Which sheds a little bit of light on the downright unhinged left turn the episode took at the tail end of the hour.
Following the Leader(s)
A full-on power struggle was on in the Island timeline, as Jack’s beach cronies were undecided on which course of action to take. Ilana finally bit the dust, and while it was undoubtedly surprising, it left me a little nonplussed as to what we were supposed to glean from her existence and that of the other Ajira Jacob bodyguards. She was just starting to be kind of cool, too. That’s a real shame.
Anyway, Hurley temporarily switched sides, duping Richard and the others out the the Black Rock, only to destroy the rest of the dynamite, thwarting any additional bloodshed, per his discussion with the newly-ghostified Michael. This didn’t sit well with Richard, who splintered off on his mission of destruction with Ben and Miles. I can’t say that further splintering the show’s factions is a really sound creative choice at this point in the show’s development. But it did set up the fantastic exchange between Hurley and Jack, wherein everyone who has (inexplicably) built up an excess of vitriol for the good doctor was put squarely in their place. Hurley was freelancing a bit on his mission to reason with NotLocke, and Jack seemed perfectly content to follow Rose’s prophetic advice from “LA X” and “Let go”. At the same time, Hurley squarely put the burden of leadership back on Jack as the series rounds into the home stretch, surmising that Jack’s hands-off attitude may not be so bad now, but he’s going to have to sack up and DO something in order to bring this thing to a logical conclusion.
Better off Des
Desmond was just as we left him last week. Mostly all smiles, calm as a Hindu cow, even in the midst of capture. When Dark Sayid enlightened Locke to his newest acquisition, Locke seemed to be immediately on the defensive, probing Des for information and condemning Widmore’s efforts to “save” the Island were nothing more than a power grab. The Lockeness Monster clearly wanted neutralize Des, and did so by tossing the solemn Scot stratight down the Dharma well. His soliloquy about the nature of the well was a pitch-perfect piece example of the science/faith conundrums the show has grappled with since day one. That said, if you think Des is gone, I’ve got some dynamite from the Black Rock I’d like you to carry.
As I said before, the turnabout Desmond pulled in the sideways world, mowing down substitute Locke with his car could have meant two things, by my count.
- Desmond knows Island Locke to be an enemy, and believed that incapacitating him in one world will do him harm in the other
- It is just a very extreme method of “awakening” Locke. It has to be so extreme because Locke is arguably the happiest of all the castaways with his sideways existence, and would likely be the hardest to enlighten.
Parting thoughts:
- Regarding another freaky ass kid running through the jungle with no apparent rhyme or reason: The last time we saw one of those, it was a dirty-blonde scamp haunting NotLocke and Sawyer en route to the cave. This time, a dark-haired scamp with a Cheshire grin interrupted Des and NotLocke en route to the well. Does anyone else think this might actually be the younger versions of the castways who have become (be it through death, transmigration, etc) peacekeepers/timeline preservers in this cosmic game? Just a thought.
- Whether it was Desmond’s intention to awaken Locke or not, that seems to be exactly what happened after Locke was struck by two tons of rapidly-moving steel, judging by his frantic, scatterbrained expression that concluded the episode.
- The reunion of Jack and NotLocke, complete with Locke’s trademark “Hello, Jack”: Ballin’
- Did you all stick around for the next week’s promo? Just when you thought this couldn’t get any more perversely unhinged, they throw in Gene Wilder’s manic Willy Wonka diatribe. Feast your eyes:
Namaste
