Large and in Charge

LOST. Season Six. Episode Twelve: Everybody Loves Hugo

After the best Hurley-centric episode in LOST’s six-year run, I think there’s only one thing we can say.

Dude.

I loved it. It was all the joy and pain of a Hurley episode, set amidst the most profound depths of the Island enigma. We got straightforward answers (the whispers), escalating conflict (Jack and Locke’s impending monumental meeting) and Hurley, breaking on through to the other side. Plus, Desmond ran over Locke with his car. Loved it. Let’s chat.

On the Wings of Love

Alternate Hurley’s got it all. The adoration of his community, freedom from his curses and all the fried chicken he can eat. But even with Pierre Chang – LOST’s venerable narrator – extolling his virtues to a charity ball, Mrs. Reyes wanted more for her son: a girlfriend. The donor of museum wings and consumer of chicken wings was without a wind beneath his own.

Elimidate
But his first blind date is a no-show, opening the door for his grand awakening. He didn’t need a girl. He needed the girl. Libby, who drops the bombshell on him that he (more innocently) dropped on her in season two: “I know you from somewhere.” But, this time, it’s Hurley who’s in the dark.

Though not completely. While he wants to believe his new friend is a nut-job, he can’t quite commit to it. Even after he sees his old friend Dr. Brooks shuttle her into the Santa Rosa short bus, he still holds out hope. And when he visits Dr. Brooks and learns she is indeed certifiably insane, he drops $100K to find out for himself. Why? Because somewhere in the depths of his oversized, fast-beating heart, lies a soft-spot that transcends alternate realities; an empathy for people who believe in themselves, even when they’re told they’re crazy.

And given the chance to explain, Libby does. Her alternate life – plane crash, Island, their relationship and all – and the idea she can’t escape, that she knows him from somewhere. Crazy as it sounds, he can’t dismiss it, and he asks for a date.

Welcome to the Club
I thought it fitting that Libby served as the link Desmond needed. Just as she bailed him out with a sailboat in their first interaction, this time, she left the door of “what if” cracked open. And Desmond, the great awakener of souls, was there to pull it open a little further with some encouraging words at the chicken shack. Libby gives an inch, Desmond takes a mile.

And Hurley takes a chance. On their date, they kiss, and flashes of a fleeting love from a “bizarro, alternate universe” awaken Hurley. The same hope for love that served as an epiphany for Desmond, Charlie and Faraday illuminates Hurley. “I don’t think you’re crazy,” he reassures her, granting her the very same reassurance he so desperately sought himself in his Island life.

What is it about love that opens the gateway into alternate self recognition? We’ve seen four characters experience the epiphany that a different version of themselves exists, and each has come to that realization only after experiencing “real, consciousness-altering love.” Part of me wonders if it harkens back the “constant” concept. Remember, Desmond was only able to ground his time-traveling conscious mind by anchoring it to Penny in two separate time periods. Perhaps that constancy is what alternate souls also require for recognition, realization and reconciliation. It is, after all, the most powerful of all emotions – or so my lame girlfriend tells me! (Kidding, darling). But it actually makes sense, on a not-totally-sappy level. Love is a unique emotion, one of the few that can alter actual behavior. We’ve all had a friend who has been changed by a new love interest. That’s what’s happening to these four gents, but on a much deeper, existential level.

I'll Go Where Hugo

That beach team, Jacob Bless Them, is the most lost of all parties. Between Richard’s crisis of faith, Ilana’s desperation, Jack’s forced apathy, Hurley’s wanderlust and Ben’s dark cynicism, they’re running around like chickens with their necks snapped off by John Locke. Somebody needed to step up, and last night, Hurley wobbled up from his sitting position and took charge.

Boom Goes the Dynamite
Dude. You got some Ilana on you. The more things change, the more they stay the same. And any remaining hope that Richard and Ilana had a clue as to what to do got literally blown to pieces last night. Pieces of Ilana. Her carcass. She died. And rather unceremoniously, I might add.

Did you notice Hurley pick up that little bag from Ilana’s stash? I think that was the bag of ashes Ilana collected from Jacob’s fiery grave. It seemed like that find empowered Hurley, imbuing him with a new brand of confidence. And it showed. The comic book clown did what nerds can only dream of – he dove into the narrative head-first and did what he wanted to do. Enough following, enough reading, enough waiting. Hurley will take it form here.

To establish ownership and dominance, dogs pee on things. LOST characters, on the other hand, blow shit up. Locke with his submarine, Jack with his tents, and now Hurley, with the Black Rock. With the group’s attention firmly fixed on him, Hurley then initiates his power play: a fake communion with Jacob complete with new instructions. Even when Richard calls his bluff, Hurley stands his ground. And the schism is thus formed. Ben follows Richard, presumably out of habit. Jack and Sun follow fellow candidate Hurley. And Lapidus and Miles split up, in order to maintain the necessary “one snarky guy” quota required in all LOST sub-groupings.

Cease to Begin
Quick side note: did you catch that implication again? The one so eloquently worded by Widmore a few weeks back and reiterated by Richard tonight? When Richard and Widmore warn about the MIB’s escape, they talk about the world being “over,” or “ceasing to exist.” Not, “everyone dies” or “we’re all in trouble” – but cease to exist. I think this semantic subtlety is important. One way or another, MIB’s escape wipes out the existence and memories of a given timeline, a given reality. Perhaps MIB’s escape erases the storyline we’ve seen for the past five years, and that’s what some are trying to prevent. Some, but not Desmond. Maybe he’s trying to circumvent that erasure by uploading everyone’s minds into their more-perfect-world: alternate reality world. Hey, it’s midnight!

Can We Fix It? Ahh, Who Cares
Post-schism, I loved the chat between Jack and the Fat Man. Jack’s “fix-it” fever seems to be breaking. “All I’ve wanted was to fix it. But I can’t. I can’t ever fix it….I think maybe that’s the point. Maybe I’m supposed to let go.” Finally, Jack is learning to sit back and accept his fate. The physician is healing himself of his worst addiction. And even when Hurley doubted his own intuition and gave Jack a chance to take the lead, Jack bit his tongue. He didn’t bite like he did with Ben’s offer to “fix” the situation by reuniting the Oceanic Six. He shut his trap, sat back and trusted Hurley. Perhaps this is the revelation, the acceptance, that Jacob has been waiting for Jack to realize. Maybe new humble Jack is ready to do what Jacob needs. About damn time.

One, Mike
Hurley’s right to hate Michael Dawson for killing his woman. But last night, Michael attempted to atone. Visiting in ghost form, Michael attempted to guide Hurley in his new quest for leadership. And I think he served as an important “anchor” or “touchstone” for Hurley. Just as Libby burst into Hurley’s alternate life, she was also carefully woven into his Island story, thanks to Michael’s continued ghostly presence. If my earlier “constant” theory is to be believed, Michael helped Hurley establish Libby as a necessary facet of his Island life, a touchstone he needed in order to “break through” in his alternate life.

And Michael also did us the favor of confirming the nature of the “whispers,” one of LOST’s oldest mysteries. They belong to people who are trapped on the Island, who “can’t move on” because of the horrible things they’ve done. For Michael, that crime was murdering Libby and Ana Lucia.

But back up. Didn’t Christian Shephard appear to Michael just before the Kahana exploded and tell him he “could go now”? (Yes, he did.) Why would Christian tell Michael he was absolved, or freed to move on, if the Island was just going to ensnare him for eternity? Also, what a cruel punishment to relegate Michael to merely whispering “Waaaaalt,” thus denying the other whisper-prisoners an eternity of hearing that young man’s named yelled gratingly at the top of his lungs. For shame.

Sorry, I digressed. But what’s with Christian, Michael and the Whisperers? Perhaps Christian is one of them – their leader, perhaps – and he manipulated Michael into death in order to recruit him to his team. Why though? What purpose do these people serve? Quick theory: they’re held in Island purgatory, made to guide the Island’s inhabitants down a righteous path, and if they succeed, they’re free. Christian Shephard. I know we’re not done with him. I hope that whatever they use to explain him also explains this new legion of whisper spirits. The more I think about them, the more intrigued I become.

Package Transfer

Flocke began the night by giving his own version of Jack’s Season One sermon on the beach. Only this time, it’s Leave Together, Die Alone. He explains that they must leave in the same way they entered – together. The other candidates are needed in order to complete his escape. But that’ll have to wait for another day, because Flocke has bigger fish to fry, brother.

Special Delivery
Sayid shows his package to Locke. Wait, let me rephrase that. Sayid brings “the package” (Desmond) to Locke. And like a checkers player that just got kinged, Flocke licks his chops at the possibilities of his new weapon. But Desmond, still aloof, proves enigmatic and unafraid. So Flocke continues the great trend of Season Six. “Let me show you something,” he says to the man who has a whole flight manifest of people he, himself, needs to show something in an alternate universe. (I just reread that sentence. The hell?).

If anything upset me about last night, it was the realization that we haven’t had enough Desmond-Locke scenes. Man, they’re great together.

That Kid is On The Escalator Again!
And by escalator, I mean Island.

En route to the well, we see another vision of (presumably) the same kid that showed himself to Sawyer and Flocke earlier in the season. But holy crap, this kid ages faster than Walt! Waaaaalt!

I like this kid. I like his knowing smile, the way he just seems to take pleasure in throwing Flocke off his game. When Desmond asked who the kid was, Flocke bristled and insisted they moved on. The kid smiled widely, as if everything is going according to plan. As if he took joy in inciting anger within Flocke.


And who likes making Flocke angry? Jacob. I want to believe that kid is an apparition of younger Jacob. I also want to believe he’s the aging apparition of some higher entity – a boss or a referee in Jacob and MIB’s cosmic chess match. And I go back and forth on these things. But hear this – had the boy’s only appearance been the one earlier this season, I could’ve written him off. But last night marked his second appearance, and I therefore deem him “probably important,” which is one of the highest honors I can bestow on a character.

Well Shit
Flocke’s speech to Desmond at the well is an instant classic.

I loved Desmond's pacifist aloofness throughout the episode, and he brought it to a boil at the well. Flocke tried to scare him by showing how deep the well was, and Desmond didn’t flinch. He tried to impress him wiht the history of the well, and Desmond laughed him off. He tried to badmouth Widmore and pit Desmond against him, to no avail. He even tried to freak him out by hinting at a Swan-like electromagnetic anomaly beneath the well, but quickly saw that nothing was getting through. “Why aren’t you afraid?” Flocke finally asks Desmond. He needed to know, because fear is the easiest emotion for Flocke to exploit. The MIB probably knows how special Desmond is, and knows that if he can get him on his side, he’s got the upper hand. But Desmond isn’t flinching. He’s not giving him anything to exploit. At every turn, Desmond shuts the door. And Flocke wants to know why, and how, Desmond can do that. “Why aren’t you afraid (damn it!)?”

“What’s the point in being afraid?” asks Desmond. Flustered Flocke flings Desmond down the well and walks off. (“That’s the point, you arrogant, time-traveling bastard!”).

So why wasn’t Desmond afraid? I think it’s because he just doesn’t care. Let me put it this way. If you knew that there was a version of you, somewhere, that was being put through torturous paces, caught in the middle of an age-old pissing match between entities you didn’t comprehend, and you knew that every attempt at betterment you made was futile, would you care if he was thrown down a well? I wouldn’t. Not if I was simultaneously, consciously aware of an alternate existence where I was rich, powerful, well-liked and had just met the girl of my dreams. I think that’s the explanation of Desmond’s uncaring attitude. He’s willing to sacrifice his Island self, because he’s making his alternate self into the Desmond Hume he wants to be. One flaw in this logic: baby Charlie. He doesn’t exist in the alternate timeline; so Desmond would then be betting that he could “recreate” (giggity) his son with Penny in his new, alternate life.

We’ll see what becomes of Desmond in that well, but I don’t think it’s going anywhere good. The good news is, I don’t think it matters. Because in the world that matters to Desmond, revenge is already his.

We Have Company
I loved Hurley leading his group to “talk” with Flocke. I love it and believe in it more than Hurley does, actually. And I thought the convergence of these two camps was, in a way, a metaphor for the way our two realities are beginning to converge. Finally, the show that can’t keep all its characters in the same time/place/space/universe is putting all the cards (characters) on the table (campsite).

At the end of the scene, Locke muttered, “Hello, Jack,” with the same inflection and casualness he did in Season One. But this time around, the meeting’s going to be a lot uglier. Jack and Locke, reunited, for one last battle between faith and science. That’ll be a good one.

Faith in Fast Cars

Then Desmond hit Locke with his car.

So that happened. Desmond, violating Megan’s law to the disgust of Dr. Linus, watches John Locke wheel his way around the grounds of the middle school. He guns it and plows into poor, helpless alternate Locke. And we left “Everybody Loves Hugo” with almost the identical shot that opened John Locke’s first episode, Walkabout, in which it was revealed he was paralyzed.

A glorious ending to a glorious scene, but why did that just happen?

My answer to that assumes that Desmond is consciously experiencing both realities, at the same time. Get that? He’s aware of what’s happening to him on the Island, and just as aware of his conversation with Hurley at Mr. Clucks.

Desmond told the MIB last night that he believed him to be John Locke. “Of course I know you who you are.” I don’t think that was a bluff. I don’t think Desmond knew who he was dealing with. But after Flocke’s desperate attempts at fear-mongering and his violent Scot-Toss, Desmond knew he was not a good guy. So what the Island Desmond learned, the Alternate Desmond also learned. And Alternate Desmond knew he had to even the score by taking out Alternate Locke. So he hit him with his car.

But he didn’t kill him. Probably. At the very least, he didn’t seem to care if Locke was killed or maimed. He just wanted to hurt him. And that’s where this gets tricky. If Desmond had killed Locke, I would’ve assumed that he did it in order to prevent MIB from “escaping” into Alternate Locke’s body or using it for some sinister purpose. But he didn’t kill him, he just messed him up real bad. Why?

Well here’s a stab at it. Most people in the Alternate World have it better than their Island counterpart. Yeah, they’ve got some shortcomings, but mostly they’re better off. So most of our characters would gladly ditch their Island selves in favor of their Alternate selves, right? Right.

But some of the Island souls are “claimed.” Locke, Sayid, Claire. If I’m Desmond, I don’t want these claimed souls making their way into my Alternate Universe Utopia. So perhaps Desmond – in addition to awakening good souls like Hurley – is on a mission to maim and disparage the vessels of those whose souls have been claimed on the Island. Desmond learned that Locke was evil on the Island, so he went after him, aiming to create an undesirable vessel into which Island Locke could escape. By that logic, he’d need to also “mess with” Alternate Sayid and Alternate Claire (d’oh! If only he’d known that when he saw her in the airport).

Yeah, it’s a long-shot, I realize it. But I’ve been up for 20 straight hours and flew halfway across the country today, so you’ll read it and like it. And if you think you can do better, I’d like to hear you try.

No, seriously. I wasn’t being a sarcastic jerk. Click on “comments” and let’s discuss what Desmond’s rundown of Locke meant to his overall mission, and any other thoughts you had on the episode.


In the meantime, I’m gonna hit the hay.

Namaste.
Charlie