S6Ep12 - Everybody Loves Hugo

Hello my dear friends -

Let's kick off with a few notes concerning my last write-up. Many of you pointed out that when Des was looking at the Arrivals board, Flight 815 actually did have a status ("Arrived") -- it was simply flashing. That's what I get for examining screencaps out of context! Others schooled me in the fact that MRIs do not involve radiation, but rather powerful magnetic fields (which obviously is what would've triggered Des's flashes). And finally, in response to me doubting that Faraday could've connected the dots between his journal scribblings and the fact that he must've detonated a bomb in another timeline, some people suggested that he could've experienced flashes that filled in some of the gaps, but he just didn't share that with Des. I agree that's a reasonable explanation and so I am now at peace with the matter. Phew.

OK, on to "Everybody Loves Hugo." I was happy with this episode because not only did I really enjoy it, but I also felt it didn't introduce a ton of new theories, which makes me feel less guilty about cutting my recap short. Because it's all about me, you know.

Here's my take on this latest hour:

- Did you guys know that in the slide montage at the beginning of the episode, the dog pictured with Hurley was Jorge Garcia's dog in real life, Nunu? He writes about and post pictures of Nunu all the time on his blog. I cheered when the little pooch got his moment in the sun.

- I did NOT see Ilana's violent end coming at all. I think I jumped two feet in the air when she blew up. I have a feeling I am in the minority on this one, though, because even my husband (read: not a crazy hardcore Lost fan) was like, "That was pretty obvious, the way she was tossing around the dynamite." I guess I just figured that since we never got the story on why she was all beat up in that Russian hospital, her time wouldn't be coming to a close in the near future. Now I'm assuming we'll never know what her deal was before Jacob came to visit her.

- That pouch Hurley nabbed from Ilana's things contains Jacob's ashes. I'm figuring that they'll come in handy in the eventual showdown with the MIB.

- Speaking of... Fake Locke is pleased that Dead-Eye Sayid brought Widmore's weapon -- Desmond -- back with him. Des does not appear to know that Fake Locke is not the Real Locke. I thought about this long and hard, and I am SURE everyone's going to jump all over me if I'm wrong, but I think that there really is no reason for Des to assume the bald dude who cut him loose from the tree is anyone but the same John Locke he knew from his previous stint on the Island. Because right before Ajira 316 left, Desmond was in Oxford, trying to track down Faraday... which led him to Theresa and eventually Widmore and then finally Eloise at the Lamp Post Station hidden underneath the church in LA. When Des showed up at that church, he barely talked to the 815ers, so it's not like they would've clued him in to Locke's death. He went into the church, heard like 5 minutes of what Eloise had to say and stormed out. A day or so later he was shot by Ben... and then Widmore abducts him and hauls him back to the Island. So I don't think he has any suspicions about Fake Locke. I mention this because I think it's important when discussing a certain theory a tad later...

- Fake Locke doled out a key piece of info in this episode: that all of the 815ers who returned on Ajira 316 have to be together again in order to leave the Island. I do think it's key they're all together, but I think he's lying about the reason. As I've said before, I don't think he has any intention of leaving on that plane with those guys. I think he has every intention of killing them all, as they're Jacob's "candidates." But the key to his plan must be that he has to do away with every last one of them in order to succeed at escaping (or whatever it is he's trying to accomplish). And that would be easiest to do if he could take them out together in one fell swoop somehow. I don't think he's "allowed" (thanks to the nebulous "rules") to kill them directly, either. So he must have found yet another loophole.

- Fake Locke viewed Des as a threat, so he took him for a nice little moonlight stroll into the depths of the jungle. On the way they saw that Freaky Kid from earlier in the season, who I'm assuming is Young Jacob, though that doesn't really make sense. I just can't think of a better theory. Who else could fluster the MIB so badly? I just can't figure out whether or not that kid is really there or if he's an apparition. I mean, both Sawyer and Des saw him, too. It makes no sense. Freaky Kid kind of looks like Peter Pan, don't you think? (That's it! I've got it! The Island is Never Never Land and the survivors are the Lost Boys! As a Disney fan I am ashamed I didn't figure this out sooner.)

- When the MIB and Des ended up at the well, I thought that the MIB was going to ask Des to go down there and turn the frozen donkey wheel again. I thought that once the MIB learned about Des's electromagnetic-resistance powers he realized that Des could help him escape from the Island, and the FDW was one way to go about it. But once again my husband saw what was coming way before I did. "He's gonna push him down that well." Then it happened like two seconds later. D'oh! And we were delivered yet another ultra-creepy face by Terry O'Quinn. How can he just turn so eeevil-looking at the drop of a hat like that? It scares me.

- Richard was TOTALLY FREAKING OUT the entire episode, which I found hilarious. It's like now that he cares about saving the Island again, he really cares. He was hell-bent on blowing up the Ajira plane, but Hurley put a stop to those plans... and destroyed the Black Rock in the process. I think that was the right call. None of us need to see anyone else go the way of Arzt.
After Hurley lied and said that Jacob told him they needed to go talk to Fake Locke, Richard called him out on it and said that he was headed to the Hydra and that he'd appreciate it if the others stayed out of his way. Ben and Miles were like "We're sticking with the ageless guy."

- So, um, the whispers were quickly explained out of the blue... by Michael, off all people. I'm totally fine with the "answer" that was given -- that the whispers belong to people who died on the Island who aren't able to "move on" -- but it totally does not address why Sawyer heard phrases from his OWN LIFE, like "It'll come back around," when he had his whisper encounter in the Season One episode "Outlaws." Or why the whispers have been heard off-Island. But I never really got too worked up about this particular mystery in the first place, so I accept the given explanation and will cross this one off of the Mystery List.

- While I thought the tail end of Jack's "I gotta chillax" speech seemed a little forced and solely for the benefit of "normal" viewers who hadn't figured that out for themselves already, it was still kind of cool to hear Jack admit that he's a Man of Faith all the way now. Though I had to laugh when Hurley countered, "But what if you not making the decisions gets us all killed?"... because that's kind of what I was thinking. Whether or not you like Jack's character, I challenge you to re-watch Season One and tell me with a straight-face that he didn't do a damn good job of leading the crash survivors through all of that initial craziness. It was INSANE how much he took on his shoulders in Season One... almost comical when you think about it. So we'll see how the 815ers do without him in control. Unless now that he's seen Fake Locke he won't be able to hold back any longer. Which leads us to...

- The final Island scene rocked. Once Des was pushed down the well and Hurley, Sun and Jack started headed toward the MIB's camp, I thought, "Oh crap... the MIB is getting exactly what he wants. Almost nothing is standing in his way now." He's got all of the candidates (minus Jin, whom we must assume is important or else Fake Locke wouldn't care about Widmore having him) and they came to him willingly. Widmore's weapon is out of the way. How will the MIB be stopped? Wouldn't it be hilarious if Hurley just opened up that bag of ash and threw it at him? Would he dissolve like the Wicked Witch of the West? But seriously, though, it is quite possible that the MIB might be killed by Jack's stare. That was an intense glare-a-thon goin' down in those last few moments, even though it ended with Fake Locke smirking. I loved it. (Though I did find myself a little sad that it wasn't Jack and Real Locke facing off again... or joining forces like I'd always dreamed/hoped would happen. Sigh. I haven't given up all hope on Real Locke re-emerging somehow, some way, through the MIB, though. Especially after the MIB was engaging in some very Locke-like wood-carving activities earlier in the episode.)

- As for the sideways flashes... I was never a big Libby fan, but was very touched by how they told the story of her and Alt.Hurley's budding relationship. Poignant, indeed. And I loved how Des is the new Jacob and attempted to give Hurley a push in the right direction (which worked) to help him remember the Island timeline. When Libby and Hurley had their kiss, the look on Hurley's face afterward definitely got me choked up. I'm digging how all of this is coming together.

- EXCEPT that I didn't enjoy seeing poor Locke get mowed down by Des. It was kind of funny that Ben was thinking Des was a sicko high school student stalker, though. And did you notice how Alt.Des mentioned that his son's name was Charlie (even though he has no son in the Alt timeline)? That's more proof of what I said last week, that he totally remembers everything in both timelines now. Anyway, when he ran over Locke, I was like "WHAAATTTT THE HEEELLLLLLL!?!?!" I was very upset and confused. My initial thought was that Des did this in order to get Locke and Jack reunited again (at the hospital). But now I think Des did what he did in order to inflict a traumatic/near-death experience upon Locke, as we know from Charlie's experience that such an ordeal can trigger memories of the characters' other lives. And if you watch the end of that scene closely again, you will see Locke's eyes darting around, like he's watching fast-moving scenes. So I suspect that maybe Des's plan worked. But another theory is one my husband brought up to me after I was finished with my What the Hell rant mentioned above. He said he thought Des was trying to KILL Locke because he knew he'd turn into the MIB in the other timeline. But if you really think that theory through, it doesn't make sense because: 1) there's no reason to believe Des knows the guy who looks like Locke isn't Real Locke back on the Island, as I discussed earlier, and 2) how would killing Locke in the sideways timeline help anything, even if Des was aware of the MIB's presence? Real Locke is already dead in the original timeline. Therefore, I'm sticking with the simplest explanation, which is that Des is trying to get all of the 815ers to remember their Island experiences, and he knows that either extremely bad events (getting run over by a car) or extremely happy/emotional events (being kissed by a hot chick) can bring about those memories.

- There were two "brotha!"s in this episode.

Let me end this post by saying that while I enjoyed "Everybody Loves Hugo," I gotta admit that the preview for next week's show was my favorite part of the night. Don't worry, I am not going to spill the scenes that were covered because I know some of you consider the previews to be spoilers. All I'm going to say is that I immediately recognized the cracked-out sing-songy wailing it was set to as Willy Wonka's (Gene Wilder) speech when he and the Golden Ticket winners were cruising through the Tunnel of Doom in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (though technically I believe what was used was the band Pendulum's remix of Wonka's speech in the song "Through the Loop"). Have no idea what I'm talking about? The Lost preview clip is here... and a clip of Willy Wonka scene in question is here -- the speech starts at the 1:18 mark... thanks to Franco C for the link. Anyway, I watched that preview and though, "Holy crap, that looks NUTS." If the episode ends up sucking I'm just going to watch the preview again ten times in a row and call it a night.

One last Lost-related thing for ya... check out the site lostathon.com if you've got a second. Three dudes are going to re-watch the entire series from beginning to end (they're timing it so that they'll run right up to the series finale on May 23), non-stop, in an attempt to not only break a Guinness World Record but also raise $100,000 for charity. It makes my eyes hurt just thinking about it, but more power to 'em if they can pull it off! Thanks to Anna at fourtoedfoot.com for cluing me in about this.

And lastly, I want to give a shout-out to LLL reader drallabg, who shared the tale of his harrowing heart surgery in the comments section of my last write-up. I hope you are doing well, dear sir, and that you're back to 100% in time for the finale. Namaste!

- e