“In a world of conflict and strife there’s one fact we can all agree upon: everybody loves Hugo!” That only applies in the sideways world, however. The island is a completely different (and much more explosive) story.
In the sideways world, old friend and man of many names Dr. Chang / Marvin Candle / Edgar Halliwax presents the man of the year award to Hugo Reyes. This is a bit ironic; when they met on the island last season, Chang was very annoyed by Hurley and didn’t like him at all. Hurley’s mom points out that women don’t love Hugo as they leave the banquet and then tells him he has a date the next day with Rosalita, (Bruce Springsteen reference alert!) the neighbors daughter.
On the island, Hurley goes to Libby’s grave to place a new flower and tell her that crazy stuff has been happening, and that dead people come talk to him and he wishes she would too. Ilana interrupts and tells him that they’re heading to the Black Rock for dynamite. She leaves, and Michael shows up looking for WAAAAAAAALT. Okay, I lied. He was there to tell Hurley that he’s there to stop him from getting everyone killed. He says that a lot of people are going to die and it’s going to be his fault, since people are listening to him now.
Sideways Hugo goes to Spanish Johnny’s (Bruce Springsteen reference alert!) for his lunch date, when Libby comes up to him. He’s taken aback (“I wasn’t expecting someone like you!”) when she comes up to him, but he soon finds out that she’s not Rosalita. She takes his hands and asks him if he thinks two people can be connected “like soulmates.” She then realizes that he doesn’t remember her, and he asks “should I?” when her doctor (Douglas Brooks, reprising his role in the series) comes up to take her away, but before he does she says that she meant everything she said. He follows her outside only to see her climb into the Santa Rosa Mental Health van.
TANGENT TIME! I tried to find a fitting anagram for Douglas Brooks, but the best I could do was “also bogus dork” and “a books god slur.” The first could mean he’s a fraud, or the second could refer to the book that island-Hurley will pick up later. Both are big stretches however, and I doubt either was intentional. There is a Douglas Brooks who got his Ph.D. in religion from Harvard and now teaches religion at the University of Rochester. He has written multiple books about Hinduism, and is affiliated with Anusara Yoga, which is grounded in a Tantric philosophy of intrinsic goodness that focuses on the the three A’s: attitude, alignment and action. Attitude is “the aspiration to reawaken our divine nature,” just as our characters seem to be reawakening something in themselves in the sideways world. Am I stretching it here and getting crazy? Yes. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Ilana has the dynamite and tells everyone it’s time to leave to go blow up the plane. Hurley warns that it’s unstable, but she says she’s been training her whole life for this. Seconds later, kaboom. Goodbye Ilana, you’ve been Artz’d.
Back in Fake Locke’s camp he’s making a spear of some sort and Sawyer wants to know why they’re sitting around doing nothing. FLocke says they’re not doing nothing, they’re waiting. Sayid returns and asks to speak to him in private. He takes him to Desmond, who’s been tied to a tree.
Hurley saunters over to pack some things up and picks up a Russian copy of Dostoyevsky’s existential novel Notes From the Underground. The book is about the conditions of existence of the individual and their emotions, actions and responsibilities; this applies very directly to Hurley. He then picks up a bag, looks inside and closes it. I believe this was the bag of Jacob’s ashes that Ilana had been carrying, and I have a feeling it will come in very handy very soon. He then says that Richard is right and they should get more dynamite.
Continued belowDepressed sideways Hugo walks into one of his Mr. Cluck’s restaurants and asks for a family bucket. Who does he see looking at him? Desmond, brotha! Des asks if he was on flight 815, and sits down to chat. The blind date snafu is explained and when Hurley says that the mystery girl says she knew him already, Des is very interested. He asks if Hurley believed her. “Yeah, kinda.” Des tells him to go with his gut and try to find out where she thinks she knew him from before he gives up. Order 42 is ready, so Des picks up his food and leaves.
FLocke talks to Desmond while he’s tied up, but he says he has nowhere to run so he’s cut free. He asks why Widmore brought him to the island, but he says he’ll have to ask Widmore himself, since he was kidnapped. He does tell him the story about being put in the woodshed and zapped with electromagnetism, which he knew from experience. FLocke tells Sayid to head back to camp, because he and Des have to go for a walk so he can show him something.
As the crew stomps through the jungle, Ben points out that Ilana’s purpose was to protect the candidates, and as soon as she told them who they were, she blew up. “The island was done with her. Makes me wonder what’s gonna happen when it’s done with us,” he says. As they approach the Black Rock, Hurley comes running out and screams “run…run!” Kaboom, goodbye Black Rock. Richard asks why the hell he did that. “I’m protecting us.” Hurley then explains to Miles that dead people come back to yell at him after he dies, and that Michael told him to make sure they didn’t blow up the blame.
Sideways Hugo goes to Santa Rosa to see Libby, but the doctor says that’s not a good idea. One $100,000 donation for a new rec. room later, he’s allowed to meet with her. She asks if he remembers but he says he doesn’t. He asks where she knows him from. She says she saw his face on her television and it was like all the memories came rushing back, and it was “another life.” There was a plane crash, she says. They were on an island. They knew each other. They liked each other. And then, when she got to Santa Rosa it was like she was there too, and she remembers him being there too even though this was the first time he’d ever been there. He says he wishes he could remember her, but he can’t. He asks if she’s allowed to leave, and she says that she’s there voluntarily, so they make a date.
FLocke and Desmond go on their walk, and they see the kid who Flocke saw in the jungle earlier this season. It looked like he was holding a stick just like the one FLocke had been carving a spear out of earlier in the episode, but when the kid turns to walk away, it was actually just a tree.
Back near the smoking Black Rock, Hurley says that Jacob said they need to go talk to Locke. Richard says that if Jacob was really there, then Hurley should ask him what the island is, but Hurley doesn’t answer that. We find out later that Hurley was not actually seeing Jacob. I don’t understand why everyone who was sitting around (Jack, Sun, Ben, Miles and Frank) don’t say ‘whoa, wait a second Richard, you know what the island is!? TELL US!!!’ Hurley tells Richard “you can either come with me, or you can keep trying to blow stuff up.” Richard says he’s destroying the plane and can use all the help he can get. Ben and Miles join him. Jack, Sun and Frank all decide to join Hurley in his quest to go talk to Locke. Later that night as they walk through the jungle, Sun pulls out her handy dandy notepad to write “Did we make a mistake?” Frank replies “probably.” Hurley asks how he should break the ice with the smoke monster, and Jack says he thinks that monster will be doing most of the talking. Jack says that every since Juliet died, all he wanted to do was fix it, but he’s come to the realization that he can’t fix it. It’s been hard sitting back and letting people tell him what to do, but maybe he’s supposed to let go. Jack has done a complete 180 since the lighthouse. They hear the whispers. Hurley walks off and sees Michael again. We learn that Michael is stuck on the island, and the whispers are “the ones who can’t move on.” A STRAIGHT ANSWER!? MIND = BLOWN. Deep breath. Okay, I’ve composed myself, we can move on. Michael tells him where FLocke is, and then apologizes for murdering Libby.
Continued belowLibby and Hurley are at the beach, and it seems familiar to her. She says this is like the date they never got to have…and in a way, it is, since they never had their date on the island. Libby tells him she wants to be with him because she likes him, and then leans in and kisses Hurley. His memories of them together on the island come flooding back all of a sudden. “Dude, I think I’m remembering stuff.” Watching them from his car is Desmond. He sees them kiss and then drives away.
FLocke brings Desmond to a well, and says that it’s so old the people who dug it had to use only their hands. He explains that Widmore is only interested in power, not answers. FLocke asks him why he’s not afraid. “What is the point in being afraid?” he asks back. Just then, he’s thrown down into the well. FLocke returns to camp and says that they won’t need to worry about their friend Des anymore. Just then, Hurley walks into camp and says that he wants to talk, there are others with him who won’t hurt him as long as he gives his word not to hurt them. FLocke hands over his knife and gives him his word, but the smoke monster really wouldn’t need a knife to do some damage. Frank, Jack and Sun all come out. Jin is not there of course, and Sun is visibly disappointed. Kate smiles at Jack. “Hello Jack,” says FLocke, followed by an extremely creepy smile.
Back in the sideways, Desmond is parked outside the school where Dr. Linus and the substitute John Locke work. Dr. Linus knocks on his window to ask what he’s doing parked there. Desmond claims he’s just checking it out since he’s new to the area and looking for a school for his son, Charlie. However, he doesn’t have a son named Charlie in this timeline. I wonder if him using that name is somewhat like Claire calling her baby Aaron when she was in the hospital. They could just be improvising and saying the first name that came to mind…but is it some kind of island-to-sideways transference? As he talks to Dr. Linus, he watches Locke wheel himself towards his van. As soon as he gets into an open area of the parking lot, Desmond floors it and sends Locke flying. He keeps on going and speeds away. Dr. Linus yells to someone to call 911, and tells him they’ll get him to the hospital.
It was pretty neat juxtaposition to see Locke push Desmond down a well on the island, and then Desmond run Locke over in the sideways world.
We’ve seen two people remember the island because of love (Desmond touching Penny; Hurley kissing Libby) and two remember it during a near death experience (Desmond underwater; Charlie nearly choking to death) so I think he was trying to pay forward to Locke what Charlie did to him. I’m not sure why Desmond is in both categories there, though.
Beyond that, I think we might be leading up to a epic scene at the hospital. We know Sun has been shot, and Jin is going to be taking Sun there as soon as possible. Locke obviously needs an ambulance, and I bet Ben will go with him. We know Jack works at a hospital. The last time we saw Claire she was in a hospital…could it be the same one? That leaves Kate, Sayid, Sawyer and Desmond. The last time we saw Kate, Sawyer chased her down in an alley. Maybe there will be a reason for him to take her there, maybe Sayid will go back to see his brother, and maybe Desmond will go because he knows that at least Locke will be there.
That’s a lot of maybe’s, but I think that would be epic and I think there’s a chance it could happen.
