Lost - Season 2 Episode 4
Episode 4 - Everybody Hates Hugo
A week late, but still a decent episode. Read on…
Please note that spoilers are contained within. Also, things may not be in the exact order they happened as I am writing this from memory and it has been two weeks. The review for last night’s episode is forthcoming as well.
Starting with this Episode I am going to split up the review into two threads “The Flashback” and “Stuff on the Island” to make it easier for me to remember what to talk about.
The Flashback - Hurley
This week our flashbacks focuses on Hurley and his experience shortly after winning the lottery, but before he actually cashes in his winning ticket. We pick up with the scene from last season as Hurley realizes he has the winning ticket and passes out. His mom takes him to task for being fat and lazy, and resting his hopes on a lottery ticket and then mocks him by saying that Jesus is on the line wanting to know what kind of new car he wants. Heh, Hurley certainly has a big surprise for her.
We follow Hurley to his job at the Chicken Hatch, where his boss pulls him aside and tells him that he has footage of Hurley stealing from work and is charging him for an 8 piece meal. Hurley claims to have only eaten two pieces, but when his boss asks him if they should watch the rest of the tape Hurley declines. The boss continues being a dick, so Hurley, with 150 million dollars in his pocket, decides to quit. Unfortunately his friend also decides to follow suit and quits along side with him (sans the millions of dollars in cushion money).
Having the day off, Hurley and his companion go to the local record store/comic shop to peruse the music and hit on the clerks. After seeing Driveshaft’s album on the rack, Hurley and friend (sorry for calling him friend over and over again, but I forget his name and am too lazy to look it up) mockingly sing “You all everybody” before referring to the band as “Suckshaft”. Poor Charlie; and he wasn’t even there. Next fatty, fatty two by four and friend go over to the clerk where Hurley asks her out on a date to which she replies yes thinking that this will be good for extra credit in her marine biology course at the local university. OK most of that was a lie and also hurtful to the fictional character of Hurley.
Next on the fun day off, Hurley and his friend go on a gnome thieving spree and go to their old boss’s house spelling out “Cluck You” on his front lawn with the illegally acquired gnomes. After a good laugh, Hurley asks his friend if he will always be his friend no matter what. His friend thinks he is getting stomach stapling and is OK with it but Hurley forces the issue until he gets an answer.
The two stop for gas, as outside the station a camera crew is waiting looking for who won the lottery as this is where the winning ticket was purchased. Hurley wants to leave but his friend wants to see what all of the hubbub is about. This leads to a very well done scene integrating the past and present at the same time as Hurley sees history repeating itself as everyone looks to him for handouts and no matter what he does he turns out to be the bad guy. It’s hard to explain here, so just watch the episode for yourself on this one.
Island Life
In the present we start off with a Hurley hallucination as he imagines himself gorging on all the food in the hatch before Jin starts talking to him in English telling him everything is going to change with Hurley’s boss from the Chicken Shack dressed in a giant chicken suit standing next to him. Also, sharp eyed viewers will have noticed Walt on the Milk Carton and dubbed as “MISSING”).
Hurley snaps out of it as we learn that jobs are being handed out to people in regards to the hatch and Hurley has been given the job of dealing out the food. Smart thinking there, let’s give the fat guy total control of the food. That’s like putting Charlie in charge of the heroin supply. Idiots. Hurley takes a trip to the beach and after brushing off Charlie’s questions about the hatch, he runs into Rose who he confides his secrets in, and informs her of a laundry service within the hatch. Arzt was right, Hurley can’t keep a secret very well.
Meanwhile, Jack and Sayid are working on breaking into a part of the hatch that has been cemented in, which causes Sayid to proclaim he has not seen anything like this since Chernobyl. Ok, so something hasn’t been done like this since a Nuclear disaster and he’s trying to get in? Let’s use some common sense here people. After they give up for now, Jack decides to stalk Kate in the shower and instead of giving her some privacy, decides to creepily stare at her until she is able to get rid of him. Geez Jack, there’s a computer now. Surely you can find some porn, or at least make virtual boobies using ( . Y . ) on the keyboard.
Back to the other side of the island where Jin, Michael, and Sawyer are still captive in a big hole, that is until one by one they are pulled out with Sawyer being saved for last causing him to get all annoyed to the point of calling Ana Lucia a “bitch” (which in my opinion isn’t that undeserved.) They straighten things out and Ana Lucia and Mister Echo lead the trio off into the jungle and presumably to their shelter.
Back to the regular lostaways, as word gets out about the food, causing Hurley to be put under pressure for not sharing. So much pressure that the big guy decides the answer to his problems is to get the leftover dynamite and blow all the food up. Yeah, real good thinking there. However, this does lead into the cool scene I talked about before with past and present spliced together quite nicely, and Hurley eventually decides against blowing up the food supply with some help from Rose.
Back to the tailaways, the Magnificent Three are told that there were 23 survivors from the tail section just as they reach their destination: another hatch. Cool. After a secret knock reminiscent of fourth grade forts, Ana Lucia and company are let inside to reveal only a handul of people left, looking dirty, frightened and sickly. Damn, that’s creep stuff. On the back wall, another Dharma logo is spotted, this one appearing to have a cross in the middle, although no other info is given. Michael, Jin and Sawyer sit against a wall and wait to see what’s next when an older man approaches them asking if its true that they were from Flight 815, then asking if there is a woman Rose who survived the crash. Sawyer says he knows Rose and inquires why, when the older man informs him that he is Rose’s husband Bernard, calling back to a storyline thread from the third episode of first season. Really good stuff here.
To close off the episode, we get a montage of Hurley doing what he has decided is fair with the food, as he plays Island Santa Claus and hands it out piece by piece to everyone of the survivors, as they laugh and generally have a good time to some sappy music. Of course, knowing Lost, this is the calm before a storm and some shit is definitely about to hit the fan sooner rather than later for them and I can’t wait to see what it is.
All in all, another good episode, with a decent flashback and some good island stories intertwined. I’d like to know what’s going on with the tailaways and why they are so frightened (my guess is that the Others have been picking them off one by one) and we still have many other mysteries left unresolved that are sure to be picked up on come November sweeps. Next episode deals with Sun and Jin, and until then… get lost.
**** out of *****