LOST: They Hear Dead People

  The conventional Lost wisdom states that Desmond & Penny = best TV romance ever. Therefore, last week's episode, showing the two lovers finding each other again in a totally new universe should have trumped all others, right?

 No, not when we had the chance to see Hugo and Libby finally go on their first date. Desmond might turn out to be the show's hero, but Hurley is Lost's soul, the character who's least corrupted and most affected by the island, and to see him take center stage the way he did tonight was beautiful.

 Don't get me wrong, I was very happy with "Happily Ever After."  But I loved "Everybody Loves Hugo," even if its final 10 minutes elicited a "Huh?" from me like nothing else this season.

 It was an episode punctuated with all sorts of explosions and collisions: the dynamite blowing up (RIP, Illana); Hurley detonating the rest of it (RIP, Black Rock/Lost's use of really old dynamite to create tension); Locke* throwing Desmond down the well in the island, and Desmond running down Locke in sideways Los Angeles.

 *I'm getting sick of using MIB, Unlocke, etc., and "Smokey" is a fire preventing bear. So for the rest of the series, until this character gets an official name, he's Locke. That's how the other characters refer to him, and he's played by the actor who played John Locke for most of 5 seasons. If Titus Willever shows up again, or we see any other versions of the Black Smoke in human form, I'll call him the Man in Black. Otherwise, he's Locke.

 But what made this episode work so well were the smaller, quieter moments, the whispers, if you want to be cute. (And apparently I do.)

 So yeah, the whispers, one of Lost's oldest mysteries, solved like it was pretty much an afterthought tonight.

 They're the voices of people who've done wrong while on the island...people like Michael, who appears to Hurley in the first scene tonight to give him a mission: don't let Richard blow up the plane.

 When we see Michael again, it made for one of the most affecting moments of the entire season, as Hurley realizes what Michael is, and despite their history, asks "Is there anything I can do to help?"

 For me, it was up there with Ben's "He's the only one who'll have me" from a few weeks ago.

  The sideways world was even more affecting. We start with Pierre Chang, narrating a short bio of Hugo Reyes, lottery winner, entrepreneur and philanthropist. He's being honored as Man of the Year, and gets a nifty dinosaur shaped award. "Everybody loves Hugo," his mother says, "except women."

 And so Hugo's set up on a blind date with "Rosalita," and he's miserable before she even arrives. For someone with such great fortune, he seems pretty dejected. Then he meets Libby. She's not his date; she just saw him across the restaurant and had to talk to him. She knows him...from somewhere.

 Like Desmond with Charlie last week, Hurley is meeting someone whose sanity is in question, but who has some sort of secret knowledge. The first two times he and Libby meet, he doesn't flash the way Desmond did with Penny. But then they finally get their date...a picnic, again. 

 And it almost seems like it might be a disaster. Just like island Hurley in season two, Hugo finds it as hard to believe that someone like Libby would be interested in him.

 Then they kiss, and Hurley realize Libby's story about another world, an island and a plane crash was correct. Away from the beach, we see Desmond watching them. He raises his sunglasses in a "my work here is done" gesture and drives off...

 ...into the "huh" portion of the episode, where I'm left asking things like:

•  Why did Locke toss Desmond down the well? To kill him, sure, but why not just stab him, or Black Smoke him, or have Sayid do it? What does it mean that he threw electro-magnetic-explosion-surviving Desmond into a pit that once made compass needles go in circles? Was it a more brutal form of the test Widmore gave him last week? Either way, as we enter the show's final stretch, Des is not only back on the island, he's stuck underground again. 
• When the Jacob-ite survivors arrived at Locke's camp, why did Locke make it a point to greet Jack specifically? It was a meaningful moment. Does it foreshadow a showdown in Lost's final hours?
• And lastly, why did Desmond mow down sideways Locke with his car? Revenge for the well-toss? (Not too likely.) Killing Locke here will kill Locke on the island or bring the real Locke back? (More likely.) Maybe because the real Locke is dead on the island, it will take more than just a conversation to jolt sideways Locke into seeing the other side. Or maybe sideways Locke really isn't Locke, anymore than the guy on the island is really Locke.

 So yeah, sort of a confusing ending to an otherwise great episode. Four more left before the finale. And Dancing With the Stars will go on...and on...and on...Anyway, here's some other thoughts/questions:

•   Jack actually made me laugh, a first on this show. After Illana explodes, Richard says they need to go to the Black Rock and get more dynamite, otherwise "she'll have died for nothing." Jack: "Maybe she died to show us to stay away from dynamite."
• It was a pretty shocking death -- mainly because I didn't expect Lost to go back to Artz well a second time -- but man, the show really didn't give Illana a lot to do. It's like Ben said: She came in, she served her purpose, she was dead.
• Note that Desmond was number 42 at Mr. Cluck's.
• What are we to make of the way Jungle Boy smiled when Locke told Desmond "ignore him," even though it's clear Locke can't?
• Notice the Seinfeld reference tonight? Hugo and his mom have another charity thing scheduled the week after he gets his award, this time with the "Human Fund," which is the name of the fake charity George creates to get out of giving gifts to co-workers.
• What's with ABC and their previews? Tonight they used that "Is it raining is it snowing" song from Willy Wonka.
• Next week: No clue. It's called "The Last Recruit," but that's all I know about it (and yeah, the title alone suggests a bunch). After that, ABC is apparently taking a week off so as not to lose a week during sweeps in May. 

Tom Coombe

Comments

[Mike]

The episodes this season have been so strong, I'm getting really sad that the show is about to end. Great insights, as usual, Tom.

[Chris Casey]

I'm going to miss this show Tom, But throwing Desmond down the well brings me back once again to that great literary work, "Paradise Lost."
Ever think of Desmond as the bridge between two worlds? or even as a fulcrum, keeping them in balance?

[Tom]

I'm going to miss it too, guys. It really sort of irks me to hear the "Dancing With the Stars" host point out that this is the "final season" of Lost every week, while his show will get a Richard Alpertish lifespan.

I realize that Lost is a finite story that needs to end, but still...

Desmond is certainly the bridge between the worlds. And it occurs to me now that Locke may not have wanted to kill him, maybe to hide him. I'm reminded of the Biblical story of Joseph (think "coat of many colors," not "Mary's husband"), who was also tossed into a pit by his brothers until they could dispose of him. Not sure if that's a proper connection to make...