S2Ep18 - Dave (Hurley's third flashback) - 04/05/06

Hello my dear friends,

Unlike most people on the boards, I was not a huge fan of 'Dave,'... mostly because I saw the A Beautiful Mind/The Sixth Sense-like "twist" coming from a mile away after watching the previews. Additionally, so much of what this episode was about (Is the entire show all in Hurley's head? Was Libby also in the psych ward with Hurley?) had been theorized before on the boards... I honestly felt like the writers decided to just take the ideas on the boards and make an episode out of them and then go have a beer and toast the fact that they just saved themselves a ton of effort.

However, I by no means thought it was a bad show - it just didn't really do anything for me. There were still a lot of little things I caught, though, so here we go:


R.I.P. RANCH DRESSING (yet again)

Seriously, what does this show have against Ranch? It is good on nearly EVERYTHING, and I'm a fairly picky eater! Earlier this season, Michael blew a container of Ranch up during shooting practice, and now Hurley wastes all of his for no apparent reason. I'm pissed! End of rant.

Back to the bigger issue... So after Libby convinces Hurley TO DESTROY his jungle pantry o' goodies (complete with shelves(!?!?) as my friend AW noted, see pic to the left), they find that a huge pallet of food has been dropped - a cruel test of willpower for poor Hurley. Before talking more about the food drop, I first have to say that I was tres annoyed by Libby telling Hurley to just pour Ranch dressing all over the place and scatter all sorts of other perfectly good stuff all over the ground. I mean, how selfish is that? Last I checked there was a new mom on the island as well as countless other pour souls still living off of boar, mangoes and whatever other scraps the Power Duo in the hatch decides to dole out. But noooooo, Libby felt that it was more important to get Hurley over his food addiction than to feed much-deserving plane crash survivors, so to hell with the other peeps!

Moving on... TPTB had Charlie say out loud what the overriding theory on the boards is regarding the food drop (mentioned in last week's write-up):

CHARLIE: Locke said some kind of blast doors trapped him in the hatch. Maybe it was because of this -- so no one would see who dropped it. Any of you guys see a plane last night?

And then of course I have to include Sawyer's follow-up response - not only because it includes another great nickname (especially since I had "De Plane, De Plane!" as a section title last week), but also because it mocks that fact that the Lostaways don't tell each other important information:

SAWYER: Yeah, I saw it, Tattoo. I just decided not to tell.


Back to the food drop... if it happens on some pre-determined schedule, then perhaps it is around every 60 or so days. The Lostaways have been on the island about that long at this point, and I think had it been dropped at any other point in time during their stay, they would've found it. So I think the last food supply restocking happened on Desmond's watch, and this was the next one since that point in time. But once again, I really have no clue, so if anyone has any other theories, let me know.


SPEAKING OF DESMOND...

This was the third episode in a row that repeated a previous Desmond one-liner:

"You're running like the devil is chasing you" - Locke to Ana Lucia
"Are you him?" - Helen to Locke's dad
"See you in another life!" - Dave to Hurley (although he didn't attempt to swing the signature Desmond "brotha!" at the end)

I don't know if they are doing this to just drive us all crazy (they're succeeding), or if it's leading somewhere. I certainly hope we get to welcome the Return of Desmond before the season is over.



I SEE CRAZY PEOPLE

So one long-standing question has been answered:

Q: "What put Hurley in the mental institution in the first place?"
A: "He stepped onto an already overloaded deck (the 23rd person on a deck that was only supposed to hold 8 - the numbers again, of course), and it collapsed and killed some people. He went catatonic afterward and his mother had him checked in.

Speculative questions have arisen now that we know the details of the accident:
1) Was Locke perhaps on that same deck and was paralyzed during its collapse?
2) Were one or both of the people that were killed in the accident related to anyone else on the island?

But by far, the biggest questions of the night were: Is Dave real? Is the entire show all in Hurley's head? In my mind, I think it's safe to answer an unequivocal "no" on both counts. Of course the writers wanted to make everyone doubt what is going on, and they did a good job tricking fans into second-guessing the reality of the island. And people are NOT all on the same page on this topic on the boards. The two biggest reasons why people thing Dave IS real are:

#1: How did Hurley get hit with the ball, have the slipper, get slapped, etc., if Dave isn't real?

#2: How can you explain the difference between the real-life pose and the photo Dr. Brooks took? - The producers know how people examine things... this definitely leaves a lot to be explained (although many have said that the difference in both the film quality and the angle of the real-life pose vs. that of the polaroid is enough to explain the subtle discrepancies).

However, I think those two points pale in comparison to the hard fact that if the show WAS all in Hurley's head, then they just explained the whole thing and need to start wrapping up production right quick. And since 1) they have planned the series to span 5-7 seasons and 2) the writers have SAID it is "not a dream, because WE would be disappointed if we were fans and that was the explanation," ... I'm pretty sure we haven't been watching the manifestations of Hurley's comatose mind this entire time.

But boy, did the writers include a ton of shout-outs to the boards and the fan base at large... having Dave bring up well-known questions such as:
1) Why do the numbers keep appearing everywhere?
2) Why isn't Hurley losing any weight?
3) Would Libby really be interested in Hurley?

On that last topic - so Hurley finally gets some lovin'. But then the "big reveal" at the end made sure we weren't too excited for Hurley for very long. More on that shortly.

Two other things to note from the Hurley scenes:
1) How awesome was it that Jin just stood there laughing when Hurley was pounding the crap out of Sawyer? That was one of my favorite parts.

2) Much-debated on the boards: What does Dave say when the Polaroid is snapped? Hurley clearly says "Cheese," the transcripts (which, remember, are just some random guy transcribing what he hears) say that Dave said "Awesome," but when I rewound it several times, I couldn't make it out, though it did sound oddly like "Hansoooooooooo." Though of course I already had that in my head from the boards. We'll probably never know.




EKO... IS... STILL... BUILDING... WHAT, EXACTLY?

Your guess is as good as mine.





TO BE HENRY, OR NOT TO BE HENRY

LOCKE: What's your name -- your real name?
GALE: Why don't you just keep calling me Henry? I've gotten used to it.

OK, then, I will keep calling him Henry.

So when we first see Henry in this episode, he's in a crucifixion-like pose, being interrogated once again by Sayid. This scene was the best part of the episode for me, and it was filled with the most clues, so here is the transcript [after Sayid reads from the RealHenry's dollar bill, which proves that he was not dead upon impact, as Henry previously said]:

GALE [panicky]: It wasn't me. I didn't kill him. You don't understand.
SAYID: How did you know his wife's name? Did you interrogate him?
GALE: Please, just listen. I'm just a --
SAYID: How many of you are there?
GALE: If I told you about them -- you have no idea what he'll do.
SAYID: He?
ANA: You mean their leader -- the guy with the beard.
GALE: Him? He's no one. Nothing.
SAYID: Where are your people?
GALE: I can't...
SAYID: How many of you are there?!
GALE: You don't understand.
SAYID [pulling a gun]: Understand this --
ANA: Hey.
SAYID: You have 3 seconds to answer my question. How many of you are there? 1 --
GALE: He'll kill me!
SAYID: I'll kill you. [he pushes the slide back on the gun] 2...
ANA: Sayid!
GALE: You can't do this! I am not a bad person!


Here are the three important things from that scene:

1) The mention of He/Him again.
In 'Maternity Leave,' we heard Zeke and Ethan worrying about what "He" would do after finding out that Ethan brought Claire to the Medical Hatch without first making the list. Now Henry is talking about the same person/being - so scared that he was not even going to give up any information when Sayid started to pull the trigger.
Theories remain:
a) Henry is Him, the leader of the Others, and is just a damn good liar and actor with a lot of confidence that he won't end up getting killed by the Lostaways
b) Alvar Hanso (financier of the Dharma Initiative) or Gerald DeGroot (U of M hippie scientist guy from the video) is Him
c) Cerberus/Smoke Monster is Him
d) Someone we haven't seen yet is Him

Right now, I'm leaning toward A. Especially after the previews (more on that below). But when he said above, "If I tell you about 'them'"... that casts a little doubt on choice A to me. He's not necessarily speaking as if he's "one of them." But then again, he's a smart, tricky little bastard, now, isn't he?

2) Henry stated that Zeke was "no one, nothing." Which leads me to think:
a) Either there's a little Jack/Locke-ish competition going on between Henry and Zeke, or
b) Zeke literally is just the resident Island Hillbilly, who has a penchant for making threatening speeches but is otherwise harmless and useless, or
c) Zeke is on par with Henry in the pecking order of The Others and Henry was insulted that the Lostaways could mistake Zeke for Him., whoever He is

I also wonder, was Desmond an Other? I really don't think so, but since he did ask Locke, "Are you him?" when Locke first entered the Hatch, I have to consider this a possibility. I still think he was hoping Locke was his replacement for button duty.

3) "You can't do this! I am not a bad person!!!"
Perhaps Henry is not Him, then. Why would someone shout this in disbelief when they think they're about to get shot? If Henry was just an Others minion, he probably had been brainwashed into thinking, similar to Ethan and Goodwin, that what they were doing on the island was "the right thing to do" and that they were saving "the good people." For a "bad person" like Sayid to triumph by killing Henry would turn that world on its head, hence the reaction from Henry. I don't know what else to make of it.


HDTV TO THE RESCUE

Shout-out to my boy Humpy for bringing us yet another key clue... check out this screen capture of RealHenry's balloon from Lockdown.

Coincidence? I think not. Widmore Labs strikes again [they were also the maker of Sun's pregnancy test... for those of you who can't keep up anymore].


THEY DO TALK TO EACH OTHER!

A fairly small point... but Ana Lucia never had any encounters with Hillbilly Zeke, yet she mentioned "the guy with the beard" to Henry, insinuating that she thought Zeke was the Others' leader. Therefore, I'm assuming she only would know about him if someone else actually - gasp! - shared information with her.



BITTER, PARTY OF ONE, YOUR TABLE IS READY

Although I don't think it was meant to be funny, my friends and I couldn't help but laugh at poor Locke going nuts, stuck in the bunk bed while the gun went off in the ammo room:

[Ana pushes Sayid just as he pulls the trigger so that he misses Gale.]
ANA: What the hell's wrong with you?
LOCKE [from the bunk bed]: What's going on? I heard a gun shot.
JACK [entering the armory]: What happened?
SAYID: He's a liar!
ANA [to Jack]: It's fine, just get him out of here.
[Sayid and Jack exit the armory.]
LOCKE: Jack! Jack!
JACK [looking in at Locke] I've got it covered, John.
[Locke hits the top bunk in frustration.]


Jack also had to break the bad news to Locke that he wasn't going to be able to walk normally for weeks. And then finally, our favorite Hatch Prisoner drops the bomb on Locke that he never even entered in the numbers or pressed the button - and went as far as calling the Hatch "a joke."

The most interesting part of the episode to me was this exchange:

LOCKE: Did you get caught on purpose? You and your people have been here for God knows how long, and you got caught in a net...
GALE: God doesn't know.
LOCKE: Excuse me?
GALE: God doesn't know how long we've been here, John. He can't see this island any better than the rest of the world can. May I ask you a question? What possible reason could I have for putting myself through all this?

What exactly was THAT supposed to have meant: God can't see the island any better than anyone else can? Hmmmmm.




I SEE MORE CRAZY PEOPLE

It had been theorized early on that Libby was most likely not telling the whole truth about her background, because she told Hurley mid-season that he stepped on her foot when he boarded the plane, and that could not have been possible as he was in the middle section and she was in the back. But what about her claims that she was a psychiatrist? Not necessarily untrue... she did do a few things previously that indicate some sort of medical background... setting that one guy's leg (though he did end up dying of an infection), hypnotizing Claire, and most recently, succeeding in literally talking Hurley off of the ledge. However, we now have PROOF that all was not always well with Libby, as the episode ended with her staring blankly into space, peering out from darker hair in a corner of the same psych ward Hurley called home for a bit. Theories range from: she was in there after Hurley killed someone in her family in the deck accident, to: she was never a psychiatrist but studied them enough as a patient that she's convinced herself she was one, to: she has been stalking Hurley ever since the psych ward and actually followed him to Australia and booked the same Oceanic flight back that he did [we still have not seen her official flashback yet, so this is possible].

Regardless, the chick is hiding something.
What's up with all the women on this show looking dismayed and fretful and guilty every time the men turn away?








BEST LINES OF THE EPISODE


SAWYER: Hold on, take it easy. You guys are like locusts. How about a little order here?
CHARLIE: Shouldn't we let someone a little more trustworthy take care of this?
SAWYER: Like you, babynapper?
CHARLIE: No, like Hurley. Why not Hurley? He's done it before, he can do it again.
HURLEY: No. No way! Not me, no. Not again, no.
LIBBY: Okay, hey, hey, how about no one's in charge, okay? I'm sure everyone can manage to just take what they need.
SAWYER: Great plan, Moonbeam. And after that we can sing Kumbaya and do 'trust falls.'



SAWYER: Well, that's what I get for not going to the expert in the first place. What can I do you for, Deep-dish?
HURLEY: I'm kind of looking for something.
SAWYER: Forget it; I'm done trading. I got enough food now to open a chain of mini-marts. Hey, you think Sayid needs a job? [SO bad, even for Sawyer]



CHARLIE: Hey, I noticed you were building something. I thought maybe you could use this -- for whatever it is.
EKO: That's very thoughtful of you, Charlie. Why don't you help me?
CHARLIE: What are you making?
EKO: Hold that end. [referring to a log]
CHARLIE: Is it a Starbucks? [another shout-out to the boards]


KATE: Seriously though, why would Hurley of all people...?
SAWYER: I've got no idea. I didn't do nothing. He just Hulked-out on me.



HURLEY: Did either of you see a guy run through here -- in a bathrobe, with a coconut?
CHARLIE: No, I saw a polar bear on roller blades with a mango.
EKO: I did not see anything, Hurley.




UPCOMING EPISODES

04/12/06 - 'S.O.S.' - A "trade" strategy - seemingly Henry in exchange for Waaaaaaaaaaaaaalt! and/or Michael - is concocted by Jack, who appears to be in full Ballistic Mode in the previews. I actually loved the previews. If you don't remember them, here's a play by play recap:

Ominous-Sounding Deep Voice Guy (OSDVG): "Next Wednesday...."
Flash to Jack in pouring rain in the jungle, shouting out to no one: "HEY, I'M BACK!"
Flash to Kate and Jack by a fire. Kate says, "I'm sorry I kissed you."
OSDVG: "On an all-new Lost..."
Counter clicks down from 2:16 to 2:15
Flash to Jack and Kate walking in jungle, then a flash of Jack saying: "I'm going out to the line that we're not supposed to cross." (many arching eyebrows while he says that)
Flash to Jack again in the middle of the jungle in the rain: "Hey, do you HEAR ME?"
Flash to Jack talking to Henry: "We're going to force a trade, us for you." [that makes no sense, but that's what I heard]
Flash to Sawyer on the beach: "The ol' prisoner exchange..."
Flash to Locke, drawing a "?" and then scribbling it out, frustrated and hitting the desk.
Flash to Jack again in the jungle: "We've got your man!"
Flash to Henry: "They'll never give you Walt." [hey, who told him about Waaaallllllt?]
Flash to Ana Lucia standing in the doorway of the Hatch.
Flash to Kate looking concerned.
Flash to several short clips of Jack freaking out in the jungle:
"You want him back? You're going to have to come out here!!!"
"COME ON OUT!"
"I KNOW you can HEAR ME!!!!!"
Flash to Kate yelling, "Jaaaack?!?!"
Flash to Jack running
Flash to Jack going, "Wait, wait..."
Flash to a creepy baby doll being picked up from the grass in the jungle
Flash to a net/trap yanking up people (it's Jack and Kate, from what I can tell on Pause)
Flash to perhaps THE CREEPIEST Henry Gale look ever: he's slightly smiling and just being very still, staring off to the side. I literally squealed all ten times (yes, ten) I re-watched the previews - even on different days!

Dammit, why should I be the only one to suffer for this blog? Here you go: a face only an Other could love (sorry, that's horrible, but I'm tired and loopy).

And here's a hint: the flashbacks are about a Lostaway (or Lostaways), who was/were not even in the preview.


Three weeks later... the final four:

5/03/06 - "Two for the Road" - I am not happy after finding out whose flashback this is.

5/10/06 - "?"

5/17/06 - "Three Minutes"

5/24/06 - Still untitled two-hour season finale.

HERE'S HOPE FOR BETTER SCHEDULING NEXT SEASON

From Executive Producer, Damon Lindelof: "There's 36 weeks in a TV season and we have 24 episodes. But we're lobbying ABC for when the show is on, it's on, and when it's off, it's off. So, we want to air it in three acts next year. You know, blocks of seven, seven and eight. But in order to do that, we have to roll the show out in October instead of September, and hopefully that will work out."

Best site ever to find out if Lost is a repeat or not (updated each week of the season - wish I could've told you guys about this one sooner!):

http://www.islostarepeat.com/

ASHTON KUTCHER AIN'T GOT NUTHIN' ON NAVEEN ANDREWS (SAYID)

When it comes to dating older women, that is. Here's a recent interview with the man who plays our favorite torturer.

As we have three weeks until the next new episode, I will probably not post the 'S.O.S.' write-up next Monday, especially since I'm traveling this week for The Man. However, I will do my best to get something up sooner rather than later.

Until then,

- e