LOST Season 6 Episode 12 Everybody Loves Hugo

Hugo: On the Island, Hurley continues to evolve into the leader of this group. But he’s thrown into a bit of a loop with the appearance of Michael. Hugo blows up the Black Rock to prevent the dynamite from it’s cargo hold from being used to destroy the plane. Later he makes a decision (and says he’s being told by Jacob, but not really) to lead Jack, Sun and Frank Lapidus through the jungle to FLocke’s camp. Flash-Sideways Hurley is a successful business owner (Mr Cluck’s Fried Chicken), but still has his overbearing mother. A chance meeting with Libby, whom he’s never met before in this timeline, leads Hurley and Libby to experience feelings of familiarity, those feelings from the original timeline, of course. It was a little too much to have them go on the date and smooch, but it’s understandable why this was written into the script. (I too was pissed when Michael shot Libby, ending the dream-date that Hurley was sooo looking forward to.) Hurley continues to overcome his insecurities on the Island and keeps showing leadership. One thing to remember is that Hurley is one character who's not carrying around some sort of guilt, or feeling a need to redeem himself for something. His biggest sin is lacking self-confidence, so there really won't be a redemption arc in Hurley's story, I don't think. Besides, he pretty much let everything out when he repaired the VW Dharma Bus and rolled it down the hill, very nearly crashing it with Charlie inside before getting it jump-started to the music of Three Dog Night's Shambala.

Libby: In the Flash-Sideways, Libby is still patient at the sanitarium where she and Hurley were in the original timeline. But her memories of the original timeline and her relationship with Hurley drive her to share them with Hurley. These memories begin to push Hurley towards the realization that the other timeline may exist, but he has a way to go.

Michael: Appearing to Hugo on the Island, he pushes Hurley to lead everybody to the plane to destroy it. He explains to Hugo that the voices and whispering heard on the Island are the voices of people who’ve died there. They’re trapped on the Island and the whispers are their voices. He apologizes to Hurley for killing Libby and asks Hurley to tell her he’s sorry if he ever sees her again (I guess meaning if he sees her image trapped on the Island, too.)

Desmond: On the Island, it seems apparent that Desmond knows what FLocke is up to, or is akin to the idea that FLocke is bad. Very bad. But he tells FLocke that he knows he’s “John Locke”, and FLocke uses this deception to lead Des to the well, into which he pushes him. Des falls out of sight, presumably to the bottom. In the Flash-Sideways, he spends this episode pushing each character towards remembering the other timeline. He does it in some strange ways. With Hurley, he runs into him at the Mr Cluck’s, telling Hurley he should go back to see Libby. With Locke, he runs into him....literally. Waiting for Mr Locke, the substitute teacher, to exit the school at the end of the day, Desmond guns the car and rams right into Locke, knocking him over the car and sending the wheelchair on its own. It should be noted that Desmond also persuaded Hugo to meet up with Libby. So, it would appear that when Desmond requested the flight manifest in the previous episode, it was to get the list of the people on that flight that were part of the other timeline. I’d surmise that it’s possible that the EM exposure on the Island from last episode and the MRI EM exposure in the Flash-Sideways caused Des’ consciousness to switch (like the rat experiment he did a couple of seasons ago). If it’s happened that his Island-timeline consciousness is in his Flash-Sideways body, and vice versa, then we have a Desmond in each timeline that knows what has to be done in that timeline to bring things to whatever end we’re going to see in a few weeks. This would also explain why he was so calm on the Island with FLocke.

FLocke: Tells Desmond that the well is so old that the people who dug it did it by hand. Explains that they were digging not for water, but to get to the source of the electromagnetic source. Trying to convince Desmond that Widmore only wants to use the Island for bad, but this is another FLocke lie. The big deal in the conversation with Desmond comes when FLocke realizes the Desmond is not afraid of him. Unable to figure out why, he pushes Des down the well.

Ilana: Ummm....okay, Ilana go boom. I liked Ilana and wanted to know more about her, but about all I knew watching this was that the was she was slinging the TNT sticks and water around in her knapsack, I knew it was going to be an Artz type ending. Bummer. I guess we should change her name to Ilanartz.

Richard: Splits from the team after Ilana’s death. Leads Miles and Ben toward the plane with the intent of destroying it to prevent FLocke from escaping the Island. With the destruction of the Black Rock, they have no dynamite to destroy the plane.

Jack: On the Island, Jack admits that it’s hard for him to have other people tell him what to do. He tells Hurley that ever since Juliet was killed, he’s had to step back. He tells Hurley that he trusts him to do the right thing.

Funny

--After blowing up the Black Rock, Miles says “A little warning would’ve been nice, Hurley.” Hurley: “I did say to run”.

--Hurley to Jack: “How do you break the ice with the Smoke-Monster?”

Interesting

--The Hugo Reyes Paleontology Wing at the Golden State Natural History Museum in the Flash Sideways. Pierre Chang is the emcee of the event. And it’s interesting to note also that Charlotte was a paleontologist (who works at the museum...we think).

--In the nuthouse in the Flash-Sideways, the doctor (the same one Hurley had when he was there) also has the island picture hanging on his wall. And in the rec room, there was Leonard, but he was not chanting the numbers over and over and over. Connect Four was still Leonard’s game of choice, though.

--Per the Michael-image Hurley talked to, the voices on the Island are those who are died there and ‘can’t move on’. Why are they trapped there? This does point to the whole “the Island is purgatory” idea that a lot of people have been throwing around since season 1. But the producers had pish-poshed that idea. Pretty cool nonetheless, but it has a couple of oversights, I think: Why did Kate see the black horse on the Island if it didn’t die there? Why did Hurley see his psych-ward buddy Dave on the Island if Dave didn’t die there (of course, Dave may just be Hurley’s own made-up buddy, so that would explain it)? Why did the man that Sawyer killed in Australia (Charles Duckett), mistaking him for “The Sawyer” who scammed his parents leading to their deaths, have his voice heard during one of the whisper-segments last season if he didn’t die on the Island either? And how would Richard’s wife have appeared to Hurley if she also didn’t die on the Island? I also remember that the whispers often times precipitate a visit from ole SMonster himself.

--Hurley really seems like the one, main character on this show who isn’t suffering from some kind of guilt, or seeking redemption for anything. We know he suffered from guilt associated with the collapse of the outside deck that killed some party-goers (he blamed his weight for collapsing the deck, though that was not the cause) and sent him to the mental hospital originally.

--In the Flash-Sideways, Mr Locke lay battered on the ground after being hit intentionally by Desmond, joining a long list of Lost characters, including himself, who’ve been mowed over by a car.

--Jack’s reaction to seeing FLocke...Locke. Remember, the last time Jack saw him he was in the casket before the return flight to the Island, and he had just put his father’s shoes on Locke’s feet.

Questions

--What was in the bag that Hurley found in the beach shelter? Black and white stones, perhpas?

--FLocke must know about Desmond’s interaction with the electromagnetic anomaly, right? So why would he have pushed him down the well, assuming the well leads to one of these anomalies? It seems that he would be putting him closer to causing a...reaction.

--Again with the kid in the woods...who is he and why does FLocke not want to acknowledge him?

--Was Hurley’s idea to talk to FLocke really a good one?

--What is the Island? Richard wanted Hurley to ask Jacob what the Island is, claiming that Jacob once told him.

--Any chance that Hurley will use the knife that FLocke gave to him to kill FLocke?

We continue to see the wall that is separating the two timelines breaking down as more and more memories continue to cross-over from one side to the other via the different main characters.

What a crazy preview for the next episode, eh? The Gene Wilder Willy Wonka dialogue was a bit creepy. I can’t wait!

Tune in next Tuesday night for that episode, which is the 13th one of the season and is titled The Last Recruit.

Here’s how the episodes stack up for the rest of the season:

Ep 14 The Candidate

Ep 15 Across The Sea

Ep 16 What They Died For

Ep 17 The End (pt 1) will be shown as part of two-hour series finale

Ep 18 The End (pt 2) will be shown as part of two-hour series finale

Jorge Garcia plays the part of Hugo 'Hurley' Reyes. He keeps a blog called Dispatches from the Island. Check it out by clicking here for Dispatches from the Island.

Until next week, I have to go because my Family Size bucket of Mr Cluck’s Chicken has finally arrived.