Welcome back to the Dharma Blog for another exciting episode! This week, we’ve got “Everybody Loves Hugo.” Remember when the writers pulled a fast one on us earlier this season with “What Kate Does,” paying homage to the season 1 episode “What Kate Did”? Well, consider yourself winked at again, as this week’s episode harkens back to seasons past again. Don’t remember it? Season 2: “Everybody Hates Hugo.”
Unless you’re Charlie, you probably haven’t watched that season 2 episode in awhile. And that’s okay. And that’s healthy. Ahem. But as a quick refresher: Hurley was in charge of all of the food that had been found inside of the Swan, and instead of making decisions about who got what, he kept it a secret. And people got mad. Oh, and flashback Hurley won the lottery. And the end on-island was a big feast where they ate all the food…and after all was said and done, everybody DID love Hurley. Ah, wonderful.
So what does it mean for tonight?
So far this season, we’ve had a pretty good vibe from alt-Hurley. Life seems good. See: drives a hummer (epitome of cool, right Charlie?). See also: he told alt-Locke he’d give him a job. But, in keeping with the tradition of most of the alt-timelines we have seen, ‘perfect’ may not be everything it seems. What is wrong? Well, in keeping with the ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE theory from last week’s episode, I’m guessing LOVE is missing.Yes, I know. Maybe a stretch. Sure, Hurley didn’t have a “Penny.” Rather, he had a Libby…a pretty creepy, pretty bizarre lady who gave Hurley quite a bit of confidence. That is, until Michael shot her. And she died. And Hurley was really sad.
So, maybe in a weird way, “Everybody Loves Hugo” is not entirely true…because no one is really in LOVE with him. Make sense?
A stretch, sure. But it’s what I’ve got.
Time for The Disclaimer! Again!
As we race towards the series finale, we are getting a lot of answers, in rapid fire, about some very crucial characters. In light of this reality, The Dharma Blog would like to issue a simple disclaimer about the next section. The following information you are about to read is Maggie’s somewhat-insightful-and-never-completely-accurate, opinion about the Guest Stars on tonight’s episode and what might be on the horizon for these fine folks. Maggie consults a number of websites, including the press releases issued by ABC Medianet, to uncover this information and speculate, but she never consults any spoiler sites. So, if you are a Lost purist and want to know watch tonight’s episode without the knowledge of the Guest Stars or what might happen, you should stop reading now. However, if you do want to know (even if it is just to tease Maggie tomorrow about how horribly wrong her predictions were), by all means: continue reading.Tonight’s Guest Stars are…
Henry Ian Cusick as Desmond, Harold Perrineau as Michael, Cynthia Watros as Libby, Francois Chau as Pierre Chang, Lillian Hurst as Carmen Reyes, Bruce Davison as Dr. Douglas Brooks, Kenton Duty as teenage boy, Samm Levine as clerk, Jesse Smith as waiter and Archie Ahuna as Tito.Hey-o…more dead people.
Yikes! Charlie and Daniel returned from the dead last week to guide Desmond toward the realization that things in alt-world were not as they seemed. And this week, it looks like Michael and Libby are up for some from-the-grave guiding. Then again, Island Hurley talks to dead people. So, maybe he is just going to talk to their spirits on-island? I suppose there is an equal chance of appearance by Michael and Libby in either place.It is interesting to note that Michael and Libby both played serious roles in Hurley’s pre-seaosn-6 life (in the same way that Charlie and Daniel Faraday-Widmore had significant impacts on Des’s life). If Michael hadn’t killed Libby, who knows where the Hurley-Libby love affair would have gone? So, no matter when or where these walking-dead appear, it will be significant to Hurley because of the past.
Pierre Chang is an interesting throw-in to this cast list. Ironic alt-timeline appearance? Probably. But come to think of it, we have no idea what happened to Pierre after the Jughead explosion. Was the Purge the end of the road for him? Or did he somehow escape the island? And with five episodes left, does any of this really matter? I’m leaning towards no, but I have a soft spot in my heart for Pierre Chang/Marvin Candle because he has been this funny, ambiguous Dharma guy in the videos for so long. Is it too much to ask for a nice house in the alt-suburbs for this guy? Probably…
TV Guide Says…
Hurley agonizes over what the group should do next, and Locke is curious about the new arrival to his camp.Hurley is definitely in an interesting situation right now on-island. He is the only person able to communicate with Jacob. Yet, this position of power goes against his natural instinct…which is, how to say it, not leader-y. Sure, he is growing into it a bit (see: great scene with Richard and dead-Isabella), but he’s not completely comfortable with it. So, it would make sense that he would have some agony about directions he continues to receive from Jacob. Does he pay attention to it? Does he ignore it? Does he tell anyone?
I bet Hurley is going to continue to do what Jacob is asking, coming to terms with the fact that he might not be popular for doing it (see: Jack will be upset). When we were last with Team Jacob et. al., they were off to Hydra to apparently destroy the Ajira plane so MIB could not leave. Does Jacob tell him to stop the mission because someone is going to die? Does Jacob agree with the decision to destroy 316? Because there will definitely be tension (five episodes left = Jacob disagrees with the plan), I bet Jacob says "stop to save lives that will be lost in the mission." (Outrigger scene resolution from last season? Anyone? Anyone??) So Hurley will be agonizing about completing the mission or saving the lives. Poor Hurley: leadership is tough.
And what about Flocke’s newest team member? That’d be Desmond, brutha’!! And that’s going to be exciting. Desmond went very easily with Sayid at the end of the episode last week…curiously easy, one might say. Perhaps Flocke is wondering how the mission to retrieve Desmond went so well. Perhaps he is trying to figure out whose side Des is really on, and what his mission really is…
It will be SO interesting to see how Desmond interacts with the survivor folk trudging along with MIB. Will he remember them? Will he interact with them? Will he fill them in on the plan?
Ooooh, it could be good.
Parting Thoughts
Hurley’s flashback in season 2 was the last of the regular cast member flashbacks to be shown. And I think there will be some parallels tonight in that this might be the last character-centric alternate episode (wow, did I just say that? Confusing myself.). After tonight, we might be headed towards all-character-centric episodes to finish this story and this series. So will tonight be the final character-centric episode of Lost…(gulp)…ever?
Maybe.
How sad is that? Man, my heart hurts.
And…go!
It’s not over yet! Stop crying, Charlie! And comment away!!Namaste,
Maggie
4 Snarky Comments:
Something you may have missed, or at least didn't mention. You have Kenton Duty listed as a guest star. . .He is the mysterious kid that Flocke and Sawyer saw in the woods. I think that is significant.
We know that Pierre Chaing works in the museum with Charlotte. Meaning, he got off the island? Maybe this is a widmore owned museum and he's doing dharma-y things?
What if, (and I'm not saying that this is what's going on, but just something that came to me after a friend and I were talking about Charlie Pace and his demeanor) it's not Jacob that's talking to Hurley, but MIB ... and what if, although Hurley thinks he is doing the right thing and is on the side of good, what if he's not?! Of course that would mean that Widmore is also on that same side, trying to prevent MIB from leaving the island. Again, I'm not saying that it's so, just something that made me stop and think. I really HOPE that it is NOT the case, because I really do love Hurley.
Yes! It is the same "teenage boy." The bloody blonde one that only Locke/MIB saw.
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